Foodgod on the advice Kris Jenner gave him for new Discovery+ series: 'Just to be myself'

Social Media Influencer Foodgod joins the Yahoo Finance Live team to talk all thinks food as his new Discovery+ series is set to drop on the platform on Sunday, November 14th.

Video transcript

JONATHAN CHEBAN: What's up, guys. My name is Foodgod. And yes, I legally changed it. What's up?

KIM KARDASHIAN: Hi.

JONATHAN CHEBAN: If you've seen me on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," you know I love getting the word out about the newest restaurant and the coolest foods. This is amazing. I have 11 million people that follow me every single day on where to go and what to eat.

- Oh, my God.

JONATHAN CHEBAN: Thank you. I go all over the world, and I literally eat out 365 days a year.

SEANA SMITH: He's eats out 365 days a year, so he certainly knows what he's talking about. He knows where to find the best food and almost probably any town across the US. Let's bring him in. We've got Foodgod himself, host of the new show "Foodgod" on Discovery, and our food and celebrity reporter, Ally Canal, joining the conversation as well. Foodgod, it's good to see you. There's so much hype around your new show. I think, your millions and millions of followers on social media just can't wait to see what you are about to show us. But tell us what we could expect here in your coming episodes?

JONATHAN CHEBAN: You know, it's all about experiences these days. So it's not just about the big food, which I used to do, but now, it's about the actual experience and the real original creativity of chefs coming up with food. So it's a combination of both, and we went to four cities for this particular series-- New York, LA, Vegas, and Miami.

And we found really cool, really original places that, people coming out of pandemic, people starting to travel, people are coming from Europe are going to be like, oh, we got to go check this place out. And that's what I always have in mind-- these kind of places and those kind of people that are ready to go eat and actually like to eat and show their food.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: My mouth is watering as we're showing that preview. And Foodgod, you have world-famous momager, Kris Jenner, serving as executive producer. She knows what she's doing, especially when it comes to television. So what kind of advice did she give you when you two were starting this series?

JONATHAN CHEBAN: You know, just to be myself because on the Kardashians, we're really ourselves. But Instagram, I have to rush. You know, I have one minute to do a video or something really fast, and I was able to breathe. And we've never done that with food before. And it's a whole new breed of reality and food, totally different from "Chefs" or "In the Kitchen," really taking people to the places with different talent. I had everybody from Criss Angel to Fat Joe, Taylor Dayne, everybody on this show. There's Morimoto on the screen. That was a really crazy cake that came on up. It's a whole thing. You guys got to see it. It's insane.

ADAM SHAPIRO: OK, everybody's got their guilty pleasure food, and one of the episodes is with Kim Kardashian. It's about cotton candy, but is that her guilty pleasure? Or is it something else?

JONATHAN CHEBAN: Well, it's not really-- I really wasn't even thinking about her. I was thinking about the kids at that point, sometimes for her. It's more fun to do stuff for the kids. So that was really what I had in mind. And none of the kids were there, and she facetimed them, and it turned into a whole disaster, which I like you guys to see on the show. But she didn't trust me on how crazy this was going to be. She just thought I was going to be a basic cotton candy machine, didn't have the kids there, and everybody was annoyed. Let's put it that way.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: I love it. I'm excited for that one. And I know this is probably going to be the most impossible question to answer, but eating at some incredible places all over the world, when you think back to all the food that you've enjoyed over the years, what's your favorite place? Favorite area? Give us the scoop.

JONATHAN CHEBAN: Well, for me, it's not always about the food, it's about the package. I think the coolest place that I've ever eaten is a place in Ibiza called Sublimotion. And it's actually 12 people go to dinner, and it's a whole virtual experience, meaning like everything is a video screen-- the walls, the table, the ceiling.

I don't know what goes on, but one minute you're like in Rome, the next minute you're on the Oriental express, the next minute you're underwater with seashells and it smells like the sea in the place. It's like insane. And to me, that was really the coolest-- called Sublimotion in a Ibiza, very expensive place.

I think it was about $3,000 a person, but it was a most amazing experience that I've ever-- I went three times because I couldn't believe what was going on. And every time, it's different. So that's probably my most over-the-top experience.

SEANA SMITH: It sounds like quite the experience. I'm trying to wrap my head around everything that you were saying, which they like try to I guess portray while you are eating there. But Foodgod, your success didn't happen overnight. It's something you've been working on for years and years. What do you attribute that success to? And I guess, if you were to give advice for some of your followers out there, who want to follow in your footsteps, what would you say?

JONATHAN CHEBAN: Basically, the success is sticking to the brand and sticking to Foodgod. Because when I started it, people are like, what's food God? And they call you Foodgod? And I just kept going with it and kept going with it. And you know, it paid off. But if I started veering off and listening to other people that have no idea what they're talking about, I would have just been doing club appearances as I was before I started Foodgod.

But now the whole brand, we're starting to roll out products and the food got truffle ketchup. And we're doing a whole line of things that I'm going to announce. But the biggest piece of advice is don't listen to anybody and stick with it. And that's what I've done. you know, I've wanted to stray, do more fashion stuff and this. And but I'm like, no, no, I'm sticking with this. And to me, that's the biggest piece of advice. Don't listen to anybody.

ADAM SHAPIRO: The full season is dropping Sunday, November 14. Got to ask you this, though, I think a lot of people watching who love food and love to eat, and know that you love to eat, want to know how do you stay thin. You're thin. You're in shape.

JONATHAN CHEBAN: I am in shape. I always say, it's like the guy that I could twist his head around in the circus, somehow they do it, a contortionist. This is just my talent. I've always been thin. And every five years, people are like, but when you get to this age, you're going to start gaining. When you get to this stage--

And it, actually, thank God, hasn't happened, and I've gotten to a good age. So I think that's just my-- I saw a guy twist his head in a circus, and I'm like, how does he do that? And this is like the same thing. This is just my thing. This is my talent, I guess. I eat all day. My whole day revolves around food.

But my biggest gratification is having people go to these places and order the food that I put. I did this ube cake from Lady M the other day, and they told me so many people ordered them, that it's so exciting because that it was like a secret item on the menu. I saw one little ad for it. I posted. I think it's up to 550,000 views on my Instagram. And now, they're getting so many orders for it. And people are like, I just ordered, too. I just ordered it. I love that. That's like my high.

ADAM SHAPIRO: There it is.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, we're showing that right now. That cake looked absolutely insane. But last question for me. Staten Island, it's been in the news a lot lately. In the series, you visit New York. Have you eaten in Staten Island? Best spots to hit up there?

JONATHAN CHEBAN: So I've eaten in Staten Island twice. Once with Renee from Mob Wives and once with Big Ang. And I can't remember either of the places because I was so excited to eat with them there, and they brought me to a place, where they told me, don't sit back to the door. I had rules. I don't know, some kind of mob rules-- don't sit here, don't sit there.

So I ended up sitting on a Big Ang's lap. So the rest in peace, Big Ang. But I know Staten Island has amazing Italian, and I have to start going back. I've been living in Florida for three years, so I have to start getting back to my New York vibe now that everything coming back in New York just feeling good.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Foodgod, well, good, you just gave us another excuse. You got to come back and visit New York and give us a heads up. We'll hopefully have you in studio. Foodgod, thanks so much for joining us. Great to see you. We're excited about the new series that's airing this weekend. And of course, our thanks to Ally Canal as well.