Event Information

Sam The Cooking Guy

Sam the Cooking Guy quit a biotech job in July of 2001 to try his hand as the host of a travel show.  But a month before a trip to shoot in Tokyo and Hong Kong, September 11th happened – and that changed everything.  He decided to stick with TV, but switched from travel to cooking and eventually landed a twice-weekly 2-minute cooking segment on a local morning news program.  The segments caught on and eventually grew into a 30-minute show - an irreverent mix of humor and easy-to-replicate recipes. Eventually, Discovery Health came along and ‘Just Cook This! with Sam the Cooking Guy’ was born…until Oprah bought the channel and sent him packing after 128 episodes (not that he’s bitter).

Still known for his ‘big in taste and small in effort’ philosophy, Sam has 14 Emmy awards, his 6^th cookbook will be published in March of 2024, is a partner in 4 restaurants in San Diego’s Little Italy and his YouTube channel, appropriately named ‘Sam the Cooking Guy’ is closing in on 3.7 million subscribers.