The Detached podcast
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Sophia
The Detached podcast
Ep: 85 Mr.Taster - The Real Cost of Food Fame
Mr. Taster, also known as Hubert, shares his remarkable journey from a shy marketing professional to a global food sensation with over 4 million followers across multiple platforms.
• Born in Manchester but raised primarily in Iran after age 5
• Created Mr. Taster brand to prove digital marketing works, not expecting it to become his career
• Received golden visa invitation from Dubai government as a creator
• Balances being naturally shy with his exuberant on-camera personality
• Manages a team of 10 people to maintain consistent content across platforms
• Served Persian food to Sheikh Hamdan, the Crown Prince of Dubai
• Was arrested three times by Taliban while filming without permission in Afghanistan
• Lost 200,000 followers in one night after controversy around attending Iran's World Cup match
• Started his application two months ago with 100,000 AED turnover in first month
• Advises aspiring creators to be consistent and patient, as "personal branding is a long journey"
welcome back to another episode of the detached podcast. I am grace today with a social media sensation, hubert, also known as mr taster.
Speaker 2:Welcome on the show today thank you for inviting and I'm so happy to be here I'm so happy to have you on board because I think we know each other.
Speaker 1:I think it's about two years ago, I think you might have just arrived.
Speaker 2:when you first came here, yeah, it was like maybe three months, four months after I arrived, so yeah, that was when you first moved here, yeah yeah, I moved here around two years and a half ago, so not long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know what, when? Half ago, so that's not wrong. Yeah, yeah, you know what? When I first met you, I thought you'd been in dubai for so long.
Speaker 2:You seem so settled in. You know, yeah, I used to come a lot like, uh, four years ago I came for a project called emery's loves iran and so, yeah, I used to come a lot, but, like, moving to dubai is two years and a half yeah, do you know?
Speaker 1:I think it's your persona. No matter where you go, you fit in or you manage to fit in. You know you can. You can connect with anyone yeah, I try.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm really good at it. So everywhere I go, I'm I try to be happy and make connection as soon as I can. And yeah, dubai was for me, dub Dubai was one of the easiest places to connect with people and like fit in Dubai and I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Where did you learn this? Was this something that you were like when you were a child?
Speaker 2:I think it's like it should be in your blood. It's not. You're not learning it from anyone, you just it's. I. I think it's my nature really. Anywhere I go, I try to enjoy. It doesn't really matter where I am. If I go to the US, if I go to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, anywhere I go, I try to be happy. I think that's the key.
Speaker 1:Do you think that is derived, though, from the Iranian culture, because I'm half Iranian, so I understand.
Speaker 2:The hospitality is insane yeah, hospitality is insane in Iran and but I think I mean I have many Iranian friends that might not be the same as me, but I've got so many friends as well that they are so friendly and they can fit in really easily. So I think, yeah, some of friends yes, some of them might not fit as easy as I can yeah, so bring me back a little bit to your childhood and like where you grew up in.
Speaker 1:It was in Iran, right?
Speaker 2:I was born in Manchester. Oh, in Manchester. Yeah, I was born in Manchester. Oh, in Manchester, yeah, I was born in Manchester. I was living in the UK for five years. Then my dad finished his PhD yeah, he's a professor so he moved to Iran. And we had to move to Iran as well, because I didn't know the country and I was a child and I couldn't speak Farsi. So when I moved to Iran, I was crying. But when I went there and I started living there, now I'm in love with the country, with Iran. So, yeah, I think I was living in Iran for 20 years. Then I moved back again to UK to learn about marketing and getting my Google certificate from Google Ads. And, yeah, I was working with Barclays House. I was working with Credit Plus, unisys, so I worked with big brands in UK and then after five years, I said finished, let's go back to Iran. So I moved back again to Iran and then, after almost 18 years, I decided to move to Dubai.
Speaker 1:How does that impact you when you're a kid and, as you just mentioned, you were upset to go back to Iran and leave the UK? How do you think that affects you later in life?
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes you need to change your strategy. Like, if you have a goal, sometimes you need to go to another country and live in another country. And I think it was the time to move to Dubai I mean two years ago because I had a message from the government to move to Dubai and I was invited and they offered me and my wife golden visa as a creator. So I decided to move to dubai and I'm really happy. I think it was a big jump for my brand and become more international how is iran different to dubai?
Speaker 2:I think, to be honest with you, there is no difference. That's why we feel happy here, we feel really home and I think the people are so friendly. The food is crazy. Here you can find all kinds of foods, from Persian to Mediterranean. You can find the best Mexican food here. So all the foods and cultures in one place is crazy and, as I said before, you can't believe, like you can't find anywhere in the world that see how many countries, how many people from each country coming to this place and they're living in peace. Safety is crazy. The food is crazy. So I think it's the best place to live really.
Speaker 1:So when you were growing up, did you have siblings, did you have brothers and sisters?
Speaker 2:I have two brothers and most of them I mean three of us studied in computer, like my dad, and one of them is programming and he's like writing scripts and javascript and he was really good at programming. And the other one is, uh, he has started computer as well. Uh, but now the and the, my third brother. He's also blogger in mashhad in iran. Yeah, he's got almost 1.4.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do they think about you being a food blogger?
Speaker 2:Oh, good question. You know my smaller brother is I mean we have a bit of a relation together but I think before two years ago he was competing with me like he wanted to be better than Mr Taster and the other brother. I think he was okay. I mean we never talked about it, but I think they're both happy that I'm doing their food blogging did you ever have anyone that was close to you that didn't accept you to be a food blogger?
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean, when I started my dad wasn't happy. He was telling me that why you should go and pay and eat every day and just putting the photo, what's that for? So my dad wasn't happy like for first year and he was always telling me like why you are doing it. But now he's so proud.
Speaker 1:I'm really happy that my dad loving it how did you manage that situation when your father didn't want?
Speaker 2:I mean just with the hard work and prove that it's it's a good decision and it can be a big brand. So I really tried to prove to everyone not only my dad, to all my haters, to all my, to the people that they didn't believe in mesothelium. I still getting lots of comments that like why you are eating every day and look at you, you're a fatty boy, you know they. I try to ignore and just work harder to prove that they're wrong and I'm sure many of them they know that it's just about jealousy. When they see you're eating all the time, they say, oh, like one person just sent me a message two minutes ago. He sent a message you are the only person living in this world, so they don't know how I I mean how much work is behind it.
Speaker 2:Like my wife is filming. We've got two editors. It's a big team, like 10 people working um, one of them writing caption, one of them putting the post in in youtube. I'm checking all the time, even the messages I'm answering myself. Uh, I've got one person that's managing our application. One of them is programming it. One of them is making the strategies for the application. So it's a big team and they don't know how much work is behind it. They think you're just sitting and, sorry, I'm on the phone.
Speaker 1:I know we are busy, matt. You just told me that you no.
Speaker 2:I forgot to keep this in because we need to know how busy Mr Taster is yeah, I think there's lots of work and even when I moved to Dubai, it was really difficult for me and even after one year I didn't know if I can even pay my rent, because it was a big. I mean. It was a different market. I didn't know that if you want to, like, get a customer, you need to go through one agency or. It was like totally new world for me. So for the first year I really struggled and I think after one year I've become like okay, this is the market, this is how you should market. I mean, do marketing how you should get customers. And I think, and now we are like more stable, but it's still difficult market really yeah, yeah, dubai is like difficult to tap into.
Speaker 1:We don't know that how things, yeah, roll out there. You know because, especially if you've grown up in Iran, you know how to. You know how to converse with people, how to land deals or whatever. It is like what was the biggest challenge that you faced here in Dubai?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest challenge was, in the beginning, like finding customers. But after like six months and to like almost one year and I found out how I should work here and how I should, because I remember I was I couldn't sleep like the whole night and I was like how should I get the customers? So I was going to other influencers pages and I was finding the customers because I knew that these are the restaurants or the companies that they are paying. So I was going to one by one and I was sending messages and it was it worked really. Yeah, I had many customers from the company, so sorry about it, I had to, you know, but I love the honesty though.
Speaker 2:I love it. No, I'm not doing it at the moment because I think each person should focus on their customers. But for that time I really needed to find customers. So I was going to other bloggers' pages and finding their customers and I was sending direct and I was waiting for the answer. And it worked, even one.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you one story One of them. I sent him, like, can I work with you? And they said yes, and I sent the packages. A rate card Even I didn't know I should have a rate card. So I sent it to them and they said, okay, we want your biggest package.
Speaker 2:And I was so happy and I went to my wife and I said, look, we got a customer and he wants, like, the biggest package. Because because normally here if the agency is connecting you, like phoning you, they're saying we want the smallest package because they got the budget, they want to like give a small piece of the budget to to the influencer. But because I was connected with the owner of the restaurant, normally if you go to the owner of restaurant they want the biggest, biggest package and normally they're asking which package is better for us. And I remember that I went to my wife and said, oh, we've got a customer who is going to pay like 24 000 dirhams. And she said, oh, that's nice, and I sent him. I said, okay, send me your location. And this was in london. So you can't believe that I went to london to have a sandwich and I came back from Camden Market after having one sandwich. Yeah, it was amazing, it was crazy.
Speaker 1:That's so funny yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember when I was in uni I had a message that like one person having like drinking wine in France and getting $20,000 for tasting wines and getting $20,000 for tasting vines, and it was funny because all Iranians sending these messages to each other that oh, look at this guy, he's drinking and getting money. I didn't know what one day it's going to happen to me, like having a chulukah, when I got a big money for having this chulukah and introduce it to other people.
Speaker 1:So yeah, how did you choose to be a food blogger? Was it because you want to travel the world?
Speaker 2:because you want to be? No, no, no, I'll tell you. I'll tell you the story. When I um, when I was in london and there was a conference called scs search engine strategies and I had a, I had a teacher called uh le Evans and she said I mean, one day I went to her and I said, look, anything I put on Facebook, I'm getting only 10 to 15 likes. What I should do, because on that time it was Facebook and she told me that find what people like. So I went to a restaurant the same day. I had baby octopus and I put it in my Facebook 400 likes. I said that's the thing, people love, food more than marketing.
Speaker 2:So I found one of my staff and I asked him to choose a name because we wanted to start reviewing restaurants. And I went back to Tehran and I started start like reviewing restaurants. And I went back to Tehran and I started and, to be honest with you, I wanted to show that digital marketing is working. I didn't have a clue that one day it's going to be a big brand. So I started as a second job and I was 5 pm, I was finishing in my company called Caspid, which was my surname, my business partner's surname. We were doing web design and SEO and Google PPC stuff. So until 5, I was in Caspid and then after I was going and every day I was going to a restaurant, and one day in one of my conferences in Tehran because I'm organizing conferences as well I had a guest, mr Jamshidi, and he was in my conference and he listened to my story that I want to prove that Mr Taser is working and digital marketing is working in Iran, working and digital marketing is working in Iran. And he listened to me and then, after he left, he phoned me and he said I want to see you in my office. So I went there and he gave me one page in Asian news, which was the most famous economy newspaper in Iran, and I had.
Speaker 2:I had it for almost eight years and I was writing like my story. I was talking about childhood, then I was going to that food and then I was like I was critic, so sometimes I was writing bad stuff as well, and that page become really famous and I acted in one film called Pastor Yoni. Yeah, it was funny because the producer, the director and producer wrote the story of the film based on my life, based on Mr Taser and it was two restaurants. They were competing together and I acted in that film as a main actor and my wife was acting as well. And it was 2018, after World Cup. Exactly when I landed, I straight went to film, I mean to record that film and, yeah, it was a long journey because it took almost 10 years that I earned money from Mr Taser.
Speaker 2:All the time I was spending from Mr Taser, I was all the time I was spending on it that's amazing, yeah and even when I, when I invited big bloggers like Mark Reins and Food Ranger and David Hoffman and other food bloggers to show Iranian food to the world and culture, many, many of the like I had, I paid for the like hotels myself. I was uh, I didn't let any guests to pay any penny from in iran and you know, that's part of our culture and um, we even like, gave them um persian carpet and we tried to be nice, to be honest and uh, showing the food and you know, culture with mr taste the brand, and it was really successful. Still after five years, I'm seeing people in dubai mall, anywhere in dubai and they're still telling me oh, we watched your video with mark means, we watch your video with tre Rees, we watched your video with Trevor. So, yeah, I think it was good.
Speaker 1:So it seems like you really enjoy the limelight and you like being in front of the camera. What kind of child were you? Did you always want to be in the limelight?
Speaker 2:Actually I'm very shy. That's what we are. Yeah, that's. I don't know if you can, I can say that or not. I normally have beer before my podcast or even sometimes when I'm filming, I try to have beer before that, because I'm really shy in front of the camera. But when I started I become really cheeky and try to be fun.
Speaker 2:I think the difference between Mr Taster and many food bloggers not all of them is because he's fun and when I show the food, I mean I try to put my feeling and my heart in that food. Like the moms when they're cooking they're putting their heart. That's why mom's food is always different to other foods. So I normally I try to put my heart and my feeling and even sometimes when I travel to a country I feel I'm their ambassador and to show their food and culture to the world. So that's why I try to find the best foods before I go and arrange everything before I go, because, because I think it's my job to show that beauty, you know, of that food or that culture to the world.
Speaker 1:Do you think, because I gave up alcohol four years ago but I definitely use it as a layer of confidence because I was quite shy as well Do you think you'd be able to do what you can do without alcohol? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, when I said alcohol, maybe 5% or just maybe for my podcast or some of the filmings, I'll do that. But to be honest with you, I'm a very social person. But to be honest with you, I'm a very social person. So when I travel to different countries or different cities, I don't need any alcohol. It's the energy coming from the people. So when I'm between like 10 other people, I'm not shy anymore because I try to be fun the energy from the people showing the food to the board and getting the video from the process of that food. So I don't need alcohol at all. But for for one person, or two person that like it's me and you, or if I go to a restaurant that I should film only myself and my wife, to be honest, I, I need that. Yeah, because I need the energy I need to be alive, yeah.
Speaker 1:Where do you think the shyness comes from?
Speaker 2:I remember when I was a child, even when I wanted to ask my dad to get a Coca-Cola for me, I wasn't telling him, even if he was asking me. I tried to be polite and I never asked him something. So I think, um, it's just maybe the culture or because of the family I lived with. Um, I was shy, to be honest. I don't know why, but I think it's because of the family.
Speaker 1:Back at home were you not able to ask for the things that you wanted.
Speaker 2:I mean most of the time. I never ask anything from my family.
Speaker 1:Because, I think Iranians. They give and give and give.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you don't need to ask. But I don't know. It was me that I was shy and I never asked for anything. Even when I moved I mean to Dubai I had money problem. I never asked my family to help, because we try to be giver, not getting from people or from my family. I understand getting from people or from my family.
Speaker 1:I understand Sometimes you can feel a little bit embarrassed when you're in situations like that, because when you have a big heart, all you want to do is give, and I can see that from your social media presence. You're such a giver. Thank you, you're such a giver.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I was in Iran, I was trying to help other restaurants, small restaurants Even. I remember they took me to a big restaurant in Kermanshah and I saw a very small restaurant in the other side and I saw an old man sitting and I remember even I found Gillette in his fridge. I went to that restaurant instead. I said I want to film this restaurant and I remember one person filmed him, went to that restaurant instead. I said I want to film this restaurant and he's uh, I remember one person filmed him, um, and he said he changed my life. And still many restaurants like um, I don't want to name them, but one of them was uh, even if you go to their restaurant in tehran, you can see my photo is everywhere, even their logo, and, as they said, they said you changed our life and I'm so happy because we've got the power to help the businesses that they are not selling well. And one of them was with three persons working in that restaurant and now there are 74 people working there and I'm so happy about it. Even in Corona, we help many businesses as well and, yeah, I think it's a good job. It's a good gift from God that you can help people.
Speaker 2:And even two nights ago I was in Jezen-e-Burak. I saw a man, mr Eskandari, and he is disabled but very big businessman, and he saw me and I did cry a bit because loss of memory of Iran and then he told me that you're very successful because you're helping people. Because he asked me three years ago and I helped a guy, a small baby, five years old, from Iraq and I gathered $50,000 in 16 hours from social media for him and he's fine now. He was at that time five years old and now I think he's around eight, nine years and he was from Iraq. So I gathered like $50,000. I try to be helpful for everyone because I knew that I've got a page that it's a gift. It's a gift. You can't say that it's just Mr Taster. So I try to help other businesses, I try to help people. So I did my best.
Speaker 1:What are the other advantages of social media?
Speaker 2:I think because I know marketing advantages of social media. I think because I know marketing and I try to study every day and I try to be multi-channel and I think, to be honest with you, I think my face is different, like my hair. Many people are saying, well, you don't put hair here.
Speaker 2:I said well, that's my brand and I knew that even when I was in um in iran, because I was the only person with blue eyes and like curly hair. I knew that I'm different. When I moved to uk, you know, many people look the same, so I wasn't like, yeah, standing out, uh, in in uk. So that's why one of the reasons that I didn't stay in uk was this yeah, because I knew I'm not different. So, yeah, and I remember one time I had a billboard only my face on it.
Speaker 2:I saw you this you saw this, I did my research and so I did, yeah, one billboard in two places in hemat and Resalat and we just put the photo and I remember I was in my house and it was my birthday and nobody talking to me, everyone like 10 people talking about my billboard and one of them was saying I don't like his idea about, like, putting his photo on there and the other guy was saying, no, it's like. And they were talking about almost half an hour and I said, yes, job's done, because in my party they were talking about it and some of them were happy, some of them were not happy. So, um, I think it was a really good idea to do that, but did you tell?
Speaker 1:anybody that you were idea to do that, but did you tell anybody that you were going to do it, or did you just?
Speaker 2:no, I just did it and and the government didn't like it and they tried to take it out. Uh, after two, two, two weeks, because I remember, uh, they were saying only a leader and, um, only leader can have like such a photo with no writing on it. So after two weeks my friend phoned me. He said they asked me to take it down and I said, okay, can you keep it another week? And he said, okay, I'll try. And three weeks the billboard was in the city and I loved it because it was for the first time that somebody putting his photo, like he's in his house, and putting his photo on the on the wall, so I was, I was really proud of it yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:It's an amazing picture. I'm gonna I'm gonna share it on uh, this video for sure. So tell me this obviously, the hair, the glasses, did you know? Did you create this character yourself, or do you just be like? No, I want to look like this no, actually, actually.
Speaker 2:Uh, it just happened because when I started, mr taster, I knew I'm a bit different, but not much. Then I started to create some stuff. Like I had a mini miner in iran with my caricature on it and you know, it happened on the road because, like after one year I found a guy he was doing caricature and I started to create my caricature every single week and then I bought a mini miner to stand out and then I had it for almost seven years and it was a 1972 mini miner and I bought it for almost seven years and it was a 1972 Mini Miner and I bought it for 30 million tomans I can't remember how much in dollar, not much but I remember it was very difficult to derive in it. But yeah, it happened. And then I bought that and then I had Billboard, then I created my application, then I acted in a film. So it was like it was a long journey that like every week or every day something was happening and I was working on it and I think it makes a taste there.
Speaker 2:Even we've got big football players that are famous in Iran. We've got big actors that are famous in Iran as well, but in Iran we don't. I mean it's barely happening that somebody.
Speaker 1:Steps aside Fox.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean become brand as an example, like Foodblogger or something like this. So I think Mesa Taster is one of the rare personal brands of Iran that stand out internationally. Not only in Iran, yeah, or for Iranians.
Speaker 1:It seems, when you have a little bit of restriction, you like to rebel, do you think?
Speaker 2:Oh, I had so many restrictions. Like you can see, Mark Wins or Trevor they're legends in food blogging and they got 10 million I really like stuff yeah, they got.
Speaker 2:They got big numbers on on youtube and facebook. But, um, with all the respect, I started before them, but because we were in Iran, we didn't have YouTube because we were on sanctions and we had filters. But yeah, so I think we had to focus on Instagram only and we couldn't be multi-channel because TikTok was filtered. We were on sanctions again, so it was like we were in between and we had problems. So the only uh platform we could use in the beginning was facebook. And then facebook dead in iran and um, instagram replaced and then only instagram. And one of the one of the biggest mistake I made was focusing on one platform when I was in Iran. Now I have one million on Facebook and I've got 720,000 on TikTok. My YouTube become bigger 200,000. And, yeah, I'm focusing on all of them. So if you're going to start as a blogger or creator, make sure you're pushing all of them together.
Speaker 1:So, since you've so many eyeballs on so many different platforms, what's the disadvantage of this?
Speaker 2:Oh, you know it's taking time and like three in the morning last night I was putting my TikTok because I have to put my post before I go to sleep, so sometimes it's very time consuming. The video might not be ready, Then you might see that the subtitle is wrong because your stop made a mistake. So it's very difficult, but we're trying to push it. We have a strategy for four posts a day for Facebook, one on TikTok, one on Instagram. So we're trying to be active on all of the platforms, but sometimes it's very difficult to do so.
Speaker 1:Because you're stretching yourself among so much different social media platforms, do you struggle to stay present?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all, because I've got a team. My wife is putting the post for facebook, so luckily I'm not worried about facebook anymore, because we created the content and we give it to the editors. Editors editing it. He's putting like he's getting the translation from another lady and then they're sending the edited video to Pega. Pega is putting it on their Facebook, so she's putting four posts a day and for YouTube, we got two long formats a week and we got short videos every single day. So the team is doing it. So I'm focused on Instagram only.
Speaker 1:What are the things that we don't see as a viewer that goes on behind the scenes?
Speaker 2:It's just difficult, it's not easy to be consistent. Many creators are not successful because I see many people putting posts. They become active for two weeks and then they disappear for another two weeks. So I think consistency is the key and they need to make sure that they're consistent. I used to, if I had an idea, like five years ago, I had time even two months, three months to do it and nobody were doing it. But now when you have an idea like I started my AI content from last week and this week, any page I open you can see they're open. You know AI content from last week and this week. Any page I open you can see they're open. You know AI content. So you need to be quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the market's going so quick now.
Speaker 2:It's really competitive Many, many competitors coming to the market. Even with the food blogging it's not easy like before, so you need to be quick and you need to be consistent and, yeah, be smart.
Speaker 1:Is there any morning that you wake up and you think, oh, I just don't want to be mr taster today?
Speaker 2:you know um many people don't know, but I'm a good businessman as well. Uh, like my application. We are starting my application about two months ago and I'm sure for the first year we're gonna have a three million dirham turnover for the start and for the first months we had almost 100 000 dirham turnover, which was really good for the start. We haven't had any downloads yet but because the application is really good and we had a good offer, many restaurants start to register in my application. So um many people don't know that mr taster is not food blogger only and I I ran a conference with 500 people. It was about as a creation.
Speaker 1:I realized it was the one the process, rightace, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we had Moonboss and Berchette from Meta and it was crazy, and I brought Mark Wins and Food Ranger and I said thank you, we had so many good speakers Visit Dubai supported us and we had Versace Hotel as well. So it was a really good conference. And you know, I organized that conference by one person, only me, so it wasn't an easy job. But many people were amazed and they were saying we didn't expect this conference to be organized for the first time in dubai by you. So I think um many people just seeing mr t as a blogger, but mr t says, um, I mean he's working, um I mean he's, he's got a potential in um business as well.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so, just to bring you back to an episode that I did see on your Instagram, you prepared Persian food for the Crown Prince of Dubai. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a phone call from his team and they asked me to prepare Persian food for the Prince Sheikh Hamdan and it was my honor, my pleasure to. It was a honor for me to show I mean, he know already Persian foods. But they asked me proper Persian foods and I'm really happy that they trusted me and I did my best. I brought the meat Were you nervous for that oh my God, I was, because there I brought the meat.
Speaker 2:Were you nervous for that? Oh, my God, because there was lots of problems. One of them was Dubai flood and it was very difficult to get the meat here, but we did it. We had three chefs and we did a good job. We had a big lamb shoulder with baghali polo with white rice and we had shish kebab, koubideh and some other kebabs juji kebab and I'm happy that he liked it because he made the story of it.
Speaker 1:Oh wow. What was the highlight of that experience for you?
Speaker 2:You know, when I met him, he said he loves Iran and I said I love Dubai. And we did hello together with nose, because I learned it three seconds before and they told me when you do it you should do a straight like look at his eyes. And I did it and I loved it. He's amazing. I mean to be honest, I love him so much and I'm so happy that I had a chance to serve him Persian food.
Speaker 1:And I'm so happy that I had a chance to serve in Persian food Talk a bit like this is crazy, that your first time you're practicing at the Caribbean Society. This is amazing.
Speaker 2:It was a bit risky because I didn't know that how does it work, like saying hello with the nose but it worked. I'm so happy that I did it. I respect it to the culture of Emirates and I love you. You know the amount of respect you see from people in emirates like I was. I was in one billion summit and one gentleman came to me and he said can we take a photo? And I said yes, of course, and we took a photo and he said i'm'm Colonel and he was the head of police in Abu Dhabi.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And it was. I mean, I saw him with Mr Gargavi five minutes after and you know, you can see that they were bound to heiress. And for me, living here is unbelievable. I love it. I love it. You can't see that amount of respect anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible. I think the opportunities here are endless.
Speaker 2:And they push you. You know they don't like when they see that you're growing and you're thinking about your city, which is Dubai. They're helping you. You can see that and I'm happy to be here, and I think I came here really late. I should have come earlier If I had a chance to go back. I was coming to Dubai again.
Speaker 1:I watched your video when you were leaving Iran and I did see it was quite emotional for you to leave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's always emotional, but I think I've got the same feeling to Dubai. Now, if I leave Dubai, I'll probably again. I'm hoping to stay forever in Dubai.
Speaker 1:But home is home. You know, I always say, home is wherever you're happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly, I'm happy, and I'm so happy here. I mean, last night somebody asked my wife that are you happy in Dubai? And she said I wasn't in the beginning, but now I'm so happy. So when you're happy, when your family are happy, so this is, this is home.
Speaker 1:you're right so you mentioned your wife quite a lot and I know she's part of the everything that goes on behind the scenes. How do you manage to see pleasure in food when you taste food all the time?
Speaker 2:and yeah, you know, she knows that, that, um, it's our job and we are earning money out of it, so I think she's she's always supportive, she's helping with the camera, she's helping. Even when I moved here, she was the person that keep pushing me and saying don't worry, we will go forward and we pass pass the difficult moments, and she's always supportive. She's very strong. She's a strong lady Like you are.
Speaker 1:How important is it to have someone by your side?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see many, many couples that are either the lady or the man. They don't support each other and you can see that they are struggling with their job. But I mean now, I'm so happy that my wife is helping all the time.
Speaker 1:So now with food, do you feel like food? There's less pleasure in food because you get to taste so many different varieties all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because sometimes when I'm filming, when I travel, I have to film like 40 restaurants in one day 14 in one day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even Mark Means or Food Ranger especially Mark Means and Food Ranger. I can't believe how many foods they're having in one day. Mark is tiny. Yeah, he never gets fat. I don't know how he manages it, but I think, yeah, after like second restaurant, you're done, finished. So yeah, sometimes it's getting really boring to have, but I try to have a little bit of food just in front of the camera, so it's still too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So do you now just eat, just because you have to?
Speaker 2:No, when I'm eating for lunch or dinner, I'm really enjoying it. You can see that sometimes, even when I'm at home, like we have fish, especially fish I have it with my hand and my wife looking at me and saying, oh, look at him how he's eating it. So yeah, even I had a meeting in my office and somebody came to my office and the way I had the koubideh with the noon-charp, which is like oily bread, he said, oh, my god, look at him how he's eating the food and he started to eat like me. So yeah, I think I'm really enjoying the food. When I'm having for not filming when I want to enjoy food, yeah.
Speaker 1:What's food like from a knife and fork?
Speaker 2:Oh, for the knife and fork. I would say a steak. You never had it with your hands. But my favorite is especially rice when you're having it with your hand. But sometimes, when you're going to a high-class restaurant, you can't have it with your hands. Sometimes you're doing it with hand because it's getting more views there.
Speaker 1:I can imagine so with the way you eat. I'm sure there's some people that give you bad comments about this.
Speaker 2:I'm getting it every single second how do you manage that?
Speaker 2:I just ignore it. I just ignore it every single second. How do you manage that? I just ignore it. I just ignore it because many people loving it I mean 4 million people following us. It doesn't really matter, because 4 million following you it doesn't mean that all the 4 million is liking you.
Speaker 2:Or even when you go to the, when you get viral not for four million people, you you you'll be seen by 60 million people. So almost 1 million people out of 60 million might not like the way you're eating, or some of them might be vegetarian and say why are you having like the whole camel or the whole lamb? Um, so you just, even when I, when I teach people how to become a creator, the first thing I teach them saying just ignore the, because you don't know their economy, um situation and you don't know whether what happened to their family today and the guy might be angry and even sometimes I'm getting like haters and I send them them like heart and love and they say, oh, you're so polite, and then we become friends and then I can see that people liking my post more than anyone else. So it doesn't mean that we make everyone happy in the world.
Speaker 1:I think it's good to kill people with kindness. So when it comes to food blogging, what are the strategies that you should have in place to be a successful food blogger?
Speaker 2:I think there are many items um, especially, you can see in my page that I take care European ambassador in Dubai, or when I see like Sheikh Hamdan, or when I see Mark Reins or Food Ranger. So you can see in my page that it's not just about the food and being funny. You can see, in the same time that Mr Taster having a conference, mr Taster seeing this important guy with tie and being smart, and so it's kind of mixing all together. I think that's why Mr Taster is not just a food blogger. He become a global, I would say, influencer. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Have you ever taken it too far and too extreme that you've gotten yourself in trouble?
Speaker 2:Oh, I had too many troubles, like two years ago when I went to watch Iran and the football match. You know the story about what happened in Iran and many people asked me Could you? Tell the story for the listeners. Yeah, I mean people expecting me to take political action, but I didn't, because I didn't want to.
Speaker 2:To be honest, I'm not a political guy at all Same and I try to avoid because I don't know anything about politics. And even if I know, I try to keep it for myself because if I wasn't, if I was brave enough, I was going to be a president or leader. Um, but I'm a footballer, I'm not a political guy. So I think sometimes people mixing everything together and expecting a footballer to become a politician, but I wasn't. So I remember for Iran and Wales game, because I paid $13,000 for watching this game, three games of Iran and many people said we shouldn't go to watch this game. But I did because I love football.
Speaker 2:I was a football player as well, so I went to watch my I mean Iran game with US, Wales and the other game I can't remember and then people was really upset about it and I missed. I mean, I lost like 200,000 followers in one night. So it was shocking. But if it happened again like 10 times more, I would go again because I love football. I love Iran national team football as well, and I never become a politician good politician or a person that can write about politics as well and I never become a politician good politician or a person that can write about politics.
Speaker 1:So we can see from social media we see a really happy character all the time. What has been the deepest, darkest moment throughout your career?
Speaker 2:I think the darkest moment was I think it was when I left Iran, but maybe now I'm saying the brightest moment because I'm so happy here. But I love to go back and come because my family are there. I've got lots of memories. It's my home, but it's good that Dubai to Iran is only one hour, so you don't feel that you're you're. You're far from your home. So I'm so happy I've got two homes.
Speaker 1:To be honest with you, yeah, I noticed when I mentioned that video that I did watch with you. Even around you could see your eyes. You know it.
Speaker 2:It's, it's obviously had a match it was very upsetting, but in the same time, I think when you want to achieve something, you should lose something, and I think, um, I'm so happy that the achievement was really big for me, so I'm so happy that I made the decision so I did see that you traveled to Afghanistan yeah right like at what point do you sometimes sacrifice your security to go?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, you could see my face. I was scared when I went to Afghanistan and when I arrived to Kabul I feel a bit scared but what was scary about it?
Speaker 2:you know, you could see that when you're going to hotels. You could see people with guns in front of the hotel. For security and especially because I had a big camera and I didn't have permission to film, so I was arrested three times by Taliban. Yeah, I managed it and I'm so happy that I did win, and the best food I ever had was in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1:What happened when you were arrested by the Taliban.
Speaker 2:I was arrested. But I remember the police came to me and they said why are you filming, Can I see your permission? And I saw that my friend is talking to them and he said we don't have permission and we are just getting a quick video and stuff like that. So I went there and I said what happened and the guy said why you don't ask me where is your card? I said because we don't need to. We just filming a quick sandwich. And he said no, you're not allowed to. You should come to police. And I said okay, give me one minute because I want to have one bite more and then, once we finish, we go to the police. So he said why he's crazy. I'm asking him to go to the police and he's asking to go to have one bite more. So he let us to film. But that day was our last day, so we didn't risk anymore. We just packed our camera because I had 10 days filming and I didn't want to lose my data because I was filming without permission.
Speaker 2:But I had two interviews in Afghanistan in their TV and the people loved it because it was, for the first time, somebody showing their country and culture with food. So even many Afghanis I saw in Dubai or other country from Germany or even in World Cup. They were really appreciated about what I've done for their country and I'm so happy as well because they're really nice people and they have a nice culture, very kind, and I really enjoyed every single of it. I'd really like to go again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I 'd really like to go again.
Speaker 1:I would really like you to go, but I'd like you to come back and run me yeah yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I mean to be honest with you. Um, if I, I mean without permission, in many countries, you might be arrested. So it was not only Afghanistan. So maybe, um, I mean, getting permission there wasn't easy, so that's why I skipped it, um, but I'm sure, yeah, if I was in other countries I might be arrested as well, but a bit, I mean still afghanistan, I think a bit risky, just a little bit.
Speaker 1:But food wise and culture wise, they're amazing have you had any food visits to any countries? That's gone completely wrong.
Speaker 2:I think China was crazy Did you get in trouble. Not in trouble. The food we had was a bit nasty, like we had donkey penis.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, how did it?
Speaker 2:taste Delicious. It was delicious, but you know, it was just about the imagination that what you're having, it was making you a bit oh my God, and yeah, we had a turtle. Oh my god and yeah, well, like we had a turtle and I remember before I have turtle, I was dreaming about it like for two days I couldn't sleep seriously and it was the only moment I said why I'm a taste of, why I have this food, why I should have this food, um, but I, when I saw it and in front of the camera, I said look, you're a mess of taste. You should have it. And I had it and I said, oh, that's so delicious, but it was for me, it wasn't to be honest, it's disgusting, but you know, it's the culture. You can't say that like we have calabash, which is sheep's head, which many people might not like it, even in our country, but we love it. It's the same for the china as well. So they have many strange foods, but I respect would that be the craziest food that you've eaten?
Speaker 1:I think the the, yeah, the dr one was the craziest yeah so when it comes to health and nutrition, obviously, as a food blogger, you probably do eat a lot of unhealthy food, do? You ever feel like you're running the risk of your health.
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely yeah, yeah, because, um, even when you you're going to a restaurant and they keep bringing yourself, even, uh, when you're going to a house of friends, they keep bringing you stuff because you're a Mr Taster. But I think, yeah, it's risky because you keep eating all the time. And I remember when I was younger I was eating the whole food because I was new to the job. But now I try to taste. If I don't like it, I even put it in a tissue.
Speaker 1:Oh, no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not eating it, I'm just putting it in the Not worth it. No, when I don't like it, I just put it through a way.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So that's the unseen part that everyone does get to see.
Speaker 2:It's funny because sometimes we're going to a restaurant and we are filming, doesn't get to see it. It's funny because sometimes we're going to a restaurant and we're filming and my wife's saying just imagine one person taking a video that you're like putting it.
Speaker 1:The uncut bloopers that nobody gets to see, because this is the Detached Podcast. What would you detach yourself away from that's limiting you today?
Speaker 2:Sorry, I didn't get it.
Speaker 1:Because it's the Detach podcast, right? If there was something that you would like to detach yourself away from, what would it be? Is there a bad habit that you have?
Speaker 2:Bad habit.
Speaker 1:Bad behavior.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes I become nasty in front of the camera Do you. And I would say it's not my character, but you know social medias, sometimes if you want good views, you need to be crazy.
Speaker 1:so many people are saying, oh, look at this, good, like having the whole camel in one bite, and but it's, it's just in front of the camera well, when you say nasty, you know what I I think of like someone being angry when they say nasty, but you mean like, just like I would say vulgar, yeah, like, yeah, um and, um to be honest, I'm not watching my videos at all yeah yeah, I'm, I'm shy to see what I've done um, many, many times.
Speaker 2:I don't, I don't watch it. Even even my podcast, I never watch it. I don't know. I just don't like to watch myself in the videos. Or sometimes I'm, I'm watching my video, I'm saying why he's done like, why you ate it like this, or so. I try to not watch my video. That's, that's the only thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah so I would like you just to share a couple of words of wisdom for any creators out there.
Speaker 2:Just keep pushing and be consistent. And also, I'm sure you get there, but it takes time, because these days many people are expecting be become successful in one night. But social media media sometimes helping people to eat and you know I remember when I started facebook you couldn't get famous in one night. But with instagram and tiktok and other social media you can. But try to be consistent. Don't expect it to become successful over the night, because personal branding is a long journey. You can become famous in one night and you can.
Speaker 2:You can be unsuccessful in overnight as well, because you never know what's going to happen, like the thing that happened to me when I watched the football just a football game, for the football game that I love to support my national team, and I paid like $13,000 on that time. It was like half of my money and they're expecting me not to go Because somebody, like they, threw away their tickets. But it was free tickets. It wasn't paid $14,000, like half of all of my money on that time. But yeah, I think what I was saying for a while it's not because of the beer, is it laughter?
Speaker 1:oh, mr Taster, this has been an absolute pleasure. I feel like I don't drink alcohol, but I feel like I would like to break it with a beer.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you something I'm not a big drinker at all. Like maybe in one month I will. I have only one time or two times maximum yeah, but yeah, in this video they're going to think that Mr Taster drinks alcohol all the time. No, I'm not. I'm not duker at all. No.
Speaker 1:Well, I just wanna say Thank you, so Put your read, not Digitash podcast. It's been a real pleasure, thanks.