Chef Andre Rush
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And so instead of saying survivor's remorse is survivor's strife, you know, it's a remembrance of to remind everyone that life is short. You never know. Check on each other. Be with each other. Never take it for granted.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And that was the part I think after the fact when I'm a young kid, I'm young, you know? Yeah. I'm a driver. But all my guys, I lost some guys that I worked out in the gym. It was a D.O.D. guys, the Pentagon, the cops, the squads, all those. Those are my big brothers, you know? And it was crazy because
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
i didn't know what was going on you know back then uh ptsd um was kind of uh stigmatized yeah even though they say it wasn't it was very stigmatized you know it was one of those hey don't talk about this you know the normalcy was no not there and when some of my guys who are much older said to me, because I was there with them, they said, hey, chef, we're going to go get some help.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
They have somebody here. And they actually said, we have some people here you can talk to. They didn't say who the people were, but we have people that you can talk to if you feel in a certain way. That's to kind of dumb it down. You know what I mean? I don't want to say we have therapist here on site just because you may have trauma or this and that. It's just people to talk to.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And they said this to me and I went back to my chain and I said, hey, I think I may want to talk to someone. And they said, do you like your job? That's English to me. I understand. And for the next 20 years, there was soon as I think no, I don't think soon as that happened, it was The timer. It's a ticking timer. It's a time bomb. I was that time bomb.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I had no idea how I would internalize that, how I would deal with that, how... volatile, how dangerous. I had no idea what was happening or what could happen. You know, you think you're, especially men, and this goes out to all my men, you know, big, strong, you know, I can lift four, five, 600 pounds and do all this, run forever. And us being our mind is nothing can touch us.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Nothing can touch us. And that's a lie. We get touched even quicker than anybody else. because we try to criminalize and say that I'm invisible. And I was one of those guys that would partly like that. And to the point where I started snapping and I was a big guy and I did a lot of stuff. And it was one of my general who actually called me out because he saw it and I got really upset
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And that was the first time I had to go to therapy when I walked out his office, slammed out his office, got a call and said, you're going to therapy. And the end is right here was, you know, he works in so many ways. I was at West Point because I was coming from back from Iraq, the last trip. And I went there to see the therapist.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And it's on this West Point over to the council and going through is the top floor. And that's the only building, the only office there. So if you go there, everybody knows you're going there. And I go there, I hear, he talks to me and I just, nothing, in one ear, not the other. And I'm walking out. I'm like, I gotta get out of here.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And I'm walking to the elevator, which is down probably like 25, 30 meters, about 40 meters or so. And there's... Green hat comes out and passes each other. And I kind of glance over and kind of put my head down a little bit. Don't look at him. And he did the same. He got to the desk. I'm pushing the elevator button.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And all of a sudden he runs back down to me and he sees me and he looks at me and we just stop. And he said, brother, if you're here, I know I need to be here. And then we embraced, and it just gave me, it still gives me chill bumps because that said everything I needed to know. Yeah. That said everything I needed to know. And from there, there was no ever looking down.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
There was only determination, and let's move forward.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Keep doing something. It's right here. Keep going. Never give up. You can do anything. That's the first three words. Keep going. Never give up. You can do anything. Keep going. Never give up. You can do anything. I'll say it to myself, and I tell everybody to say it to your kids. Say it to your kids. Keep going. Never give up. You can do anything. I'm telling you, it's reinforcement.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
It's an internal thought. If you say something long enough, they will know it to be true. But if you say to somebody, you're not worth anything, you're garbage, then they think that way. My part of it was with my family, even living in the projects with not a lot of money or anything to have, we had each other. And believe me, I wore the same shoes every day, all the time.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
People laughed at the kids, laughed at me. I didn't have a normal lifestyle. Trust me, that was perfectly fine with me. My dad, my mom, everybody worked hard. Everything happens for a reason on this part. So this very day, the same part of it is... I stay the same way I was back then. This is the reason why I do everything I can do. I can have 3,000 people in a room, 3,000 want to take a picture.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
The first one I take a picture with and the last one I take a picture with, they get the exact same treatment each and every time. I want them to know they're worth it, right? I'm not going to wait and say, oh my God, this is long, whatever, so forth, so on. You think about what you're doing and what your reason why. You know, everybody needs a reason.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know, people say, oh, those are your workouts. No, pushups are not my workout. They're my cause. There's a reason. You know, I tell people when people ask about workout or when people ask about food, I say that It needs to be associated with a reason, a cause. Don't just say, I need to do it. I need to do it. Do it for something that's detrimental. Your kids.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
It's the reason why I want to breathe. The reason why I want to live. You know, you are what you eat. You know, you have to have that mindset. So it is, you know, doing this for the last X amount of years. And I did a million miles last year. I've done 150,000 miles this year. I've been home in LA 15 days out of this year so far. And I've talked to so many different people.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I've been so privileged to talk to so many kids And a lot of from HBs to hire to, you know, food banks. And I'm so surprised that because they know my platform, they all talk to me, but they ask the right questions.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
They ask the right question because they know who I am and what I stand for. They see my funny content, but they know my serious side. They know that, OK, I can relate him to the funny part. And they all said, thank you for your service, chef. Young kids, you know, thank you for your service. They associate me with that part of it first and then go into the conversation.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Instead of just, oh man, you're a great rapper, you're a great singer, you're a great this, you're a great that. Oh, I love this. You know, they connect it with something. So I tell people vicariously to connect your kids, your family, and even other people. You'll be amazed with just a simple smile or a hello or greeting could do for someone. They could be having the worst day of their lives.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So don't look at a person and just say, okay, they're just a negative person, just a nasty person. You have to try to at least try.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Great question. Had no idea it was a calling. It was not something I said, I want to be a chef when I grow up. Not whatsoever. Nothing, not even close. I was, my mom is my reason for this one. Like I told you, my dad, he believed boys go to work. Boys also don't cook. Men don't cook. That's from the South. Ladies, the girls cook. And they go to school. They do all this part of it.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
No, thank you. Thank you for that. And, you know, it's crazy because I didn't know how much I needed. You know, my my what I do and giving back is helping me even more. So when people say thank you, chef, and I say thank you, they have no idea how much and how heartfelt when I say it back to them because they're actually literally helping me.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So I used to actually sneak with my mom and cook. And it was the best feeling in the world. That's when I became a complete... I was already a mama's boy. But that time, I became a complete mama's boy. And... What I did join the military and decided to went from one direction and I wound up switching over because of my mother with the cooking part.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Now, when I did that in the military and army, it was not the same. It was hard and terrible. This was mass cooking. It wasn't a family environment. It wasn't a hospitality. It was like, I'm like, what did I get myself into? This is like, people were like, what are you doing here being in this food service? You're too big. You do this. I'm like, I like cooking. Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And again, he took care of me at a very young age. For some reason, I'm a private and this sergeant command sergeant major saw me And they had this culinary show that they were doing. And you had to trial for it. I didn't trial for it, of course, because I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. And I didn't even know what culinary was. I had no idea. And he brought me in.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
He told them, he said, I want this guy. Who is he? He was like, oh, that's special. I'm sorry, Private Rush. And he was like, I wonder, like, why? He was like, I don't know. I just want him. I just want him. It's something about him. I don't know. I just want him. I had no idea what he saw, but went there, and I'm like, wow. I just fell in love with it. I was like, this is cooking?
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You can make cakes and this? So I became a pastry chef, and then I became a chocolatier. I was on overload. Only problem was is that was back then. There wasn't any Google. There wasn't any trials. You can go tutorials, none of that stuff. The books are expensive. But we did it one time a year, every year. And I got hooked. I mean, really hooked on it. And I practiced and I spent all my money.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I failed a million times. And the one thing about culinary part is that it's not...
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
it's not um learning by seeing by by seeing is learning by doing right so you got to have hands-on where somebody's actually an instructor so looking at a book it's just like it didn't make any sense so i had to wait every year to go to a show to practice so every time i went to compete i would compete in like 20 events when a normal person would compete in three or two or one i would do 20 just so i could fail in all 20.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
just with the experience, just so I can get that time and tension so I can just feel the grind of it. And people, they, you know, they're sort of like, Chef, he said, you know, you know, you're going to you know, you're not going to do it, you know. And I had no mentors on that part to find out how to do it because I was doing things I never knew about. And long story short was
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I used to have to psych myself out, and I would tell everybody that I competed against, I'd say, you ready to lose? And they'd look at me like, kid, what are you talking about? And when I did lose, I had a loss. I would say to them, I told you you were going to lose. And they'd look at me like, he's crazy. And I'm like, what? they didn't lose, I won. I also won. I got that experience.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know, and it's funny because a lot of people started at 22. You know, I was doing it at 22 a day and then I started doing it at 222. And I started doing it at 2,222 as a logistician strategically because I wanted that number to mean something. You know, say 22 a day, like, OK, you kind of blow it off.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And from then I kind of turned into my own. And I'll be honest with you, I was in combat arms, so they didn't appreciate that part of the world. They'll take the accolades for it, but once it was back to the field, Get rid of it. Back to the field, back to the field. And someone but I was always a helper.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So I used to help people when I learned to do stuff and people found out I started doing things on my own and I taught I was self-taught in the beginning. And someone saw me and asked me if I want to come over to the trial for the culinary at the Pentagon in DC. And I'm like, for what? What is over in culinary with Pentagon? What is that about? Like, you want me to be a special agent or something?
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I'm like, no, no, we want you to come over. And I'm like, what is this? And I said, why not? And I went and I tried. Long story short was that I had four days and it was three other people competing for the same position, but they were there for 30 days. I had four, they had 30. And I did it and I worked my butt off, went back to Fort Campbell and I was like, oh, that's that. I forgot about it.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
It wasn't a big deal. How could I compete against three people that's there for 30 days? And long story short was about a month or so later, they called me back up and said, hey, you ready to come? And I remember this because my commander was really upset. He didn't want me to leave. And he said, forget about that part of the world. This is nothing. You need to be on here.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And the whole story was he gave me a reprimand. And I was like, He gave me a reprimand, and I'll be honest with you, at this point in time, I was an E4, and I was just kind of very hardcore. And I remember sitting off with him and the first sergeant, and he gave me this reprimand because he hated that I was leaving, because he wanted me to stay.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And then I said to him, when he gave it to me, I said, hey, sir, do you want me to tear this up now or later? Because once I leave the office, it's avoided. So it was just a stroke of his own ego. At first, I'm like, private rush. I'm like, OK, I'll wait till later. So I left. And the funny thing was the general, I'm sorry, the colonel that was there who gave orders to let me go, I met him.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Oh, my God. 15 years later, he was a general, three or four star, three star. And he remembered me and Bagby, General Bagby. And he was like, Chef, I'm so proud of you, so proud of you. And I said to him, why did you let me go all those years ago? He said, because I needed you to go out and do something that a lot of people can't do. And he said, I knew you would.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
But even when I started doing those high numbers, people would always say, wow, and they're like, What was the significance for it behind it? You know, you know, that's the hook, line and sinker. And then you bring some money into your world. And then you realize that you're both sharing the same world already and they didn't even know it.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And it was crazy because if you knew the whole story, just how it kind of transformed. And I was very humbled and grateful for it. And he said, you're doing us proud. And I appreciate that. And I continue to do him and and everybody else that gave me an opportunity, gave me a little sliver of opportunity to do things just like with you, sir.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know, we take a little crack and we just open it up into a mountain.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Mind blowing. I mean, humbling. I mean, it's something You know, I'll be honest with you that when I first went in there, you know, I kind of went in a mindset of failure, not meaning failure that I'm going to fail. I went in there as though somebody's not going to want me there.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
that was kind of my mindset about everything i did so i had to overly achieve and overly prove each and everything that i did because i found out through my tenure throughout my whole military career that everywhere i did go it happened a lot right for no reason being the hardest worker in the room the reason why i'm saying call me chef damon because my mentor who i love now to death never called me that he didn't want me there you know even when i went to the white house i mean when i went to the pentagon he was the one that said don't bring him here
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And it was actually a Navy person that brought me there because he said, this guy's amazing. But later on, he apologized and said, hey, I was intimidated. I didn't want you to, you know, you came in new, fresh. And I'm like, It's a story of my life. But long story short is that when you go inside a place like that, it's a different mind.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
It's a different part of it where everybody has to be on the same key, on the same music. When you work with like people that has no intentions, no egos, no attitudes, and we're all there for one coming denominator. And you have to do your best of the best all the time. That was one point where you say how the stars align. They align perfectly because everything has to be perfect. Perfect.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You don't have to have any alibis. You don't get to blame anybody but yourself. You're accountable for yourself. So for me, it was a perfect world. You know, for me, it was a perfect world saying, OK, here is what it is. But, you know, even now, I contribute that to my mindset in business and life and also in progress with my TV shows, my businesses, with speaking engagement.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And so when they started doing it, you know, I've had so many people to come and just said, you know, from, you know, from, you know, neck up, head up. How not only did it change their lives in a physical aspect, in a mental aspect, in a health aspect, a social aspect as well. Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Everything has to be aligned. I am accountable for my own actions. So going inside there, it showed me the best of the best and who, especially working for the top tier of anywhere. You know, you talk about the president of the United States of America. You know, you talk about, you know, anybody and everybody that comes through there.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
But also you got to think about the part that a lot of people don't think about is the mechanics behind it. That is the beauty of it. The mechanics, not the actual being a chef there, it's the mechanics of how it actually works. Because you'd say, well, how this happens or why this happens, I don't understand. And there's a lot of things we don't, we'll never understand.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
That's kind of like the brilliancy behind it, along with the crew, the people, the team, and just making everything happen.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Um, the, I didn't know I was going to write it. Um, I'm supposed to my cookbook, my cookbook is coming out next. This is my memoir. Uh, the memoir was actually from the publisher. I wanted to do something before I did the cookbook that I didn't want to just have a cookbook saying, Hey, I'm the greatest chef and here's all my recipes and so forth.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I wanted to have a reason behind why I do what I do. I wanted to have a community base and understanding where, okay, I'm a chef, but here's how the came a chef. And here's a reason that things I went through to become a chef. I want to tell you everything. I want to tell you everything how I fail. I want to talk about my failures a lot. And I talk about a lot of failures in there.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
But at the same time, it was it happens. Don't make an excuse to keep failing. Don't make an excuse to blame everyone besides yourself. You have to have accountability. You didn't have opportunity, so what, right? Now you do. Make it happen on that part of it.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And even when I say what called me chef, it was because it was titled that because my mentor who I said, who I love to death still with great friends, love him to death, but he didn't want me to be there because I came in for that interview. And he immediately said no. He looked at me, because I've always been a big kid. I've always been like, I'm not intimidating, like you.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You look like this guy right here. But I was always had... you know, just, I'm ready to work. What do I need to do? You know, it wasn't, oh my God, who are you? No, I'm just, that's not my nature. I didn't take pictures of everyone. I didn't go behind them. I never did all this stuff. I just did my job. I did it perfectly. I did it diligently. I did it hard, right? And better than anybody else.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
But at the same time, some people want you to give them extra attention. I'll let you know, say you should be happy that you're here. You should be a pre that you're here. I'm like, I am happy. I am appreciative. Just let me be that. Let me also work. So have one day with this call being call me chef. Dammit was he called everybody chef except for me. And one day I'm a kid.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Like I said, remember, I'm a kid. I'm young, right? He didn't call me that. And he said something else, even though I was working my butt off. And I kind of grabbed him and picked him up as they call me chef. He said, Yes, chef. And from there we were golden. That's all. There's a little recognition. But truthfully is, I joke about it, but
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I was very honored and humbled to be under there under him to even go through that situation just so I can have the knowledge base of it. It happens that way. I put a book out talking about everything from 9-11 to, you know, the Pentagon to the suicide awareness, which the book got accolades for. Number one for dealing with suicide, grief, leadership.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So I wanted all those things to kind of be encompassed in the book and kind of go on. It wasn't your traditional memoir. It was a storytelling book about how to get through life and how you deal with life and then you carry on from it. but also a tribute to the women, also my mother in this world, to remind people, everyone, that it started with the females. The women are our body and soul.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I don't care who you are or where you are, they are our strength and our power. And that's what I have on here, this big strong arm right here. That's not my arm.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
buys it that's for women because they are the strongest of us and so i i pay homage to them all the time on their part along with the kids and so the book just has a collaboration of things that i literally believe in and it puts antidotes with my cooking skill sets inside of it to lead up into the to the cookbook love it i love it i'm gonna make sure i get um
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
The cookbook, Patience is a Virtue. The cookbook is going to just kind of go, it's going to be a storytelling cookbook. I'm going to put a bunch of things in there from my times in the White House. What I've noticed with my community base, I'm getting a lot of people now, young people who are talking about diabetes. Chef, what do I do about diabetes?
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So I want to put a lot of feel good stuff as far as how you use food as it should be used in the beginning, as medication, as love, as holistic, all those parts that we got away from. Now everybody wants to go to the five star, Michelin star, creams and butters and this and this and so forth.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I'm also going to give you a bunch of remedies for quick cooking, quick tips, things I'm getting ready to do. Some stuff with Arnold Schwarzenegger for his pump club.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I'm also have a spice line is coming out that's going to be out in August, which is going to be a very special spice line that is going to give you your natural essential vitamins and superfoods throughout your day and also taste flavor. So taste is my first my first principle with that. But the cookbook I'm excited about just because I get to do an expression of myself. Not with an ego.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I did a couple of things, track star, running back. Football was my passion. You know, I want to try to be as whimsical, but I worked my butt off and had a few scholarships. But I chose the military route, even the Olympics. I had the trials for that. I actually decided to go to the military and skip it all, you know, because I wanted to do something at the time as a young kid.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I don't want to be fancy. I don't want to be every part. So I'll give a little bit to everybody. And also something that's meant to be done with your kids. I want your kids to get involved. Now when I go around, all the kids start saying they're cooking because of me. I love that part of it. And a lot of boys. A lot of little boys.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So I love when the little guys are getting inside of that and they're doing the cooking part. So the book is going to be a pretty fun book.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Lots of it. A whole boatload of it. I eat sushi all the time. I'm talking about the big one for like six people or so. I know it. I do it. I love sushi. I mean, I can consider it half-half sheet meal because of the carbs and the sushi, but I do that. If I had to have it, I'd have a whole piece of it beside it.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I knew you were going to say that. You knew that, right? I knew you were going to say that. You can't have a favorite in this game. Everything has to be perfect on that part of it. I can never have just one and say, that's my go-to dish. Everybody asks me, what's your go-to? I said, every dish is going to be. I don't care if it's a bologna sandwich.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
It's going to be the best bologna sandwich you ever had. There you go.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I got to get these arms in. They're 24 inches for a reason. You know, buys and tries. I like it. You know what they say. You spot them a mile away. They get your attention right off the top of it. I do everything, but that's bread and butter.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I got a microphone? You're on stage. You're the performer.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know what? I'm going to probably say Welcome to the Jungle. OK. I don't know. Welcome to the jungle. I don't know, it's like, it's LA.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
not just being present and so i have to thank you for that bro thank you brother i'll say the same thing to you i appreciate all you do please keep it up you're inspiring so many millions to include myself even more so just so you'll know i'll always be here for you i have a signed book coming for you by the way just so you'll know that part of it you do owe me a little bit more than 22 push-ups though just for that part of it or you owe your wife an amazing meal from me with patience right
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
With patience. But honestly, brother, I just want to say bless you. Keep doing what you're doing. It's been an honor and privilege being with you here today.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know, that wasn't important to me. My dad kind of from the South was like, you know, the men go to work, the girls go to school. So my mindset was servitude. What can I do? How can I help my family? So forth, even not myself. So I was like, I sacrificed myself, meaning that I didn't do any of that school stuff, but I did it later on in my career.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And it's crazy because every rank I ever put on, I put it on myself. Every degree, I never walked. It was just a check for me because I had so many more things to do. And even now from getting so many accolades, which I'm humbled by, they're all still in their boxes because I'm not done yet.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know, from the key to the city of Mississippi to, you know, recognitions from California for suicide awareness to this to that. It doesn't, it means everything to me, but right now, a matter of fact, I'm getting ready to get into Veterans Hall of Fame coming up. You know, that's important to me. It shows things, but at the same time, it is, I will never become complacent.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And that's what I tell people all the time. Never become complacent.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Well, it's true. My dad was that person. He was tough as nails and he taught me the value of hard work. He told me two things in my life as a young age that I didn't understand at the time. He said, always be the hardest worker in the room. And no matter where you go, someone wants you to fail. It doesn't matter who it is. They're going to want you to fail.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Because people are going to see you go through your paths. They can look at you and be intimidated. They can look at you just . It could be any monetary clothes, whatever it is, they want you to fail. It could be family members. It could be somebody. As you step up in the ladders and go through success, or your failures.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And believe me, I had many, many failures, you know, and I still go through those. And, you know, talking about the Olympics and all that, people say, what if, you know, you had taken that path? I didn't. So there's no what if. There's only right now. I go forward. I don't go backwards. Right. Those things that happened back then, I can't even imagine it because it never happened.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I think about what I'm doing, because even if I had done that, I wouldn't be here helping millions. You wouldn't be here talking to me. We wouldn't be talking together. I wouldn't get to meet my brother. So those are the things you think about when you say, what if? It's what should I be doing right now?
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Well, you know, as soon as you said that word, something popped in my head. You know, you go through trials and tribulations in your life, and the one thing, I'm a faith-based person, and I've been open about that, and I always will be. I will never not tell people, don't waver on who you are and what you believe in. That's your right, your privilege on any part.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
praise color monetary anything would you say believe always don't ever especially with the kids don't ever kids especially don't get stigmatized say you think because you believe in something um I believe in something and um and that's him above but uh it's been times in my life lots of them where I thought that um I thought, OK, this is going to settle down.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I've had some really bad things happen. I've lost a lot of people. And I think you know about my daughter and about her brother and her two brothers. And I lost my mother and my father. I lost my best friend. And it was all along the same route. And after my daughter, which was just two years ago on the anniversary, It was at the highlight of my career.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I was going to New York City with Gordon Ramsay with my TV show, everything going when I got that phone call at 4 o'clock in the morning. I was just like, I've done all this work constantly. I've given back, I've given back. I've done everything you asked me to do and so forth and so on. And it just hit me.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And I'm like, you know, cause I almost gave up when my mother went away and my father went away right back to back. And I'm just like, I can't keep doing it. But she reminded me, you know, from above that this is what I was meant to do. And then that happened. And I had to catch myself because I said, he makes no mistakes. He makes no mistakes. You know, you can get tested and whatever.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And you said, because, because I have no choice. There's no choice. I have no choice, brother. I have to do this. Everything that I do is for this, is for our cause, for the kids, for the veterans, is for all the people that I know that can take my place. The ones who can't believe, do believe, want to believe, the ones that need it as much as I need it. So because I have no choice.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
You know, we, you know, we do this all the time. We talk all the time and I talk to so many and it's not everyone I can talk to where the energy is extremely perfectly aligned and like, you know, as you say things, I'm living through you like you live through me. And when you said that, and it's crazy because my first one years ago was Sergeant Durden. He called me.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And I was helping a bunch of soldiers and I talked to him every day. And that one day I said, I'll call him back. I'm with the guys. And that day turned to night, that night turned to three in the morning. And I got a phone call and it was someone, one of my soldiers from Iraq and saying, hey, it's about so-and-so. I'm like, yeah, I'll call him back today. And he was like, he's gone.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
I'm like, what are you talking about? You know, and that same question that you asked, this is crazy because the same thing you said is back then I was like, what if, what if, why, what, what, you know, this, this kid, he's, you know, 25 years old and he has a wife and two kids and, you know, it was the smiles and I don't get it. I don't understand. What if I had picked up that phone, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And then all these years later, he became part of the story and the reason. You get it? He became part of my cause. And so instead of saying survivor's remorse is survivor's life, You know, it's a remembrance of to remind everyone that life is short. You never know. Check on each other. Be with each other. Never take it for granted. Never become complacent and grateful.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
All those things that we kind of do in the U.S. that we become so humanized to. But we have to take a moment back and step. And that's why I have so many calls and people say, Chef, you do so many different things. Why? Why? Because I have no choice. Because if it's important to someone, even if it's one person, it's important to me because there's a reason why.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
So if I'm going from suicide awareness, to mental health, to the military, to the veterans, to sexual assault, sexual trafficking, Alzheimer's, this, this, cancer society, which I'm speaking next month, Everything's a reason. Everything's a choice.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And you have to be that person that has that empathy, compassion to understand that everybody's human because you want them to treat you exactly like you want to treat them.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
Brother, I'm doing absolutely blessed. And thank you so much for that amazing introductory. I'll say the same thing right back at you. Your inspiration to me and thank things for everything that you do and being here.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
It's honestly, it's reflex. You know, it's like, you know, and I have to say, you know, the military embedded in so many different tenures in me that I never knew I had, especially leadership tenure at a very young age and which fortunately for my mom and my dad, because I got up every morning and helped and was on a farm and did this and, you know, had jobs and I didn't have a normal childhood.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
And at one point in time, I used to think, man, this sucks. I don't have a normal childhood. And now I think, man, I had the best childhood I could ever possibly have. It taught me everything there's doing. There's nobody that can outwork me, out beat me, out run me out, task me, nothing of the sort. And when that day happened, I'll be honest with you. I said, when that day happened,
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
but it's when that day happens. It happens every day in my head. As soon as you say it, it resonates right away. It's flashbacks. Those were our triggers and things that come back where people don't understand when they say, I have triggers. No, we have triggers. They're all different, but they're all meaningful for each person. But for me, when that happened, I didn't know what was happening.
Mick Unplugged
Chef Andre Rush: Cooking, Combat, and Cause- A Passion for Helping Veterans and Youth
All I know is that people need to help and we need some guidance, whatever, no matter who I am or where I am. And to put myself in a situation where I hurt myself, which I did. And then also in another situation where it was part of behind the scenes where I want to do more and do sweeps and find out how I can help.