This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player, Stitcher, or Apple Podcasts. (And please subscribe!)

If you watch any food TV shows, you’ve seen Chef Richard Blais.

He’s been a competitor or judge on Top Chef (top), Iron Chef America, Chopped, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Cutthroat Kitchen, among others. He’s also written cookbooks and has multiple restaurants across the country.

But Richard got his culinary start working at a McDonald's on Long Island, when he was a teenager.

Back then he was too shy to work the front counter, so he ended up in the kitchen.

"I wanted to hide in the back," he tells Dan in this week's episode. "And I wanted the benefit of 20-piece chicken nuggets at the end of a shift."

So how did that shy kid from Long Island turn into a Top Chef All Star? And why does Richard say he doesn't consider himself successful? We discuss.

Plus, Richard gives us an insider's look at how cooking competition shows work.

"[When you're cooking on TV] all the restaurant rules go out the window," he says.

And we revisit Dan's appearance on the competition show Guy’s Grocery Games, where Richard was a judge. Listen in to the episode for the full conversation.

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player, Stitcher, or Apple Podcasts. (And please subscribe!)

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Interstitial music in this episode from Black Label Music:

- "Sun So Sunny" by Calvin Dashielle

- "Mouse Song" by Kenneth J. Brahmstedt

- "Fresh Air" by Erick Anderson

- "Clean" by JT Bates

- "New Old" by JT Bates

Photos: Courtesy of Richard Blais