Sean Kanan is an author, actor, Emmy-award winning producer, and founder of Bad Boy Hot Sauce. He’s also the guest for the 100th episode of Taste Buds with Deb!
Kanan’s first role in Hollywood was as bad-boy Mike Barnes in “Karate Kid III,” a role he reprised on the fifth and sixth seasons of “Cobra Kai” on Netflix.
“Martial arts has always been an important part of my life since I was probably about 14, 15 years old,” Kanan told The Journal. “The tenets of martial arts are something that I try to embody every day: courage, honesty, humility. … I look at my life as being very holistic and everything that I do, even though it may seem like they’re very different pursuits, they’re all interconnected.”
Kanan, who has portrayed Deacon Sharpe on CBS’s “The Bold and the Beautiful” since 2000, refers to all he does with affection and gratitude.
“The first thing I do when I wake up is … thank my creator for five things,” Kanan said. “I just believe that when you’re living in gratitude, you’re living in abundance, and when you’re living in abundance, you’re not living in scarcity.”
The law of vibration says that you match what you put out into the universe, and it impacts you, whether or not you believe in it.
It doesn’t mean that you’re not working like hell to achieve more, but [when] you’re in the present, you’re appreciative for what you have [and] not thinking about the future of what you need,” he said. “When you use words like ‘I want,’ ‘I need,’ ‘I wish’ and ‘I hope,’ it really is putting you in a place of scarcity … so if you’re putting out a vibration of scarcity, you get more of it.”
His books are on brand — his latest is the series: “Way of the Cobra,” “Welcome to the Kumite” and “Way of the Cobra Couples,” co-written by his wife, Michele Vega, as is his new food venture, Bad Boy Hot Sauce. Flavors are Cobra Venom, Mango Madness and Red Pepper Punch.
“Bad boy Mike Barnes, bad boy karate, Bad Boy Hot Sauce,” he said. “It seemed like there was a good synergy there, and it’s been really fun.”
Kanan, who has always been a foodie, wanted to get into the food industry. His first book was called, “The Modern Gentleman: Cooking and Entertaining with Sean Kanan.” He shares a recipe from it, Pappardelle Gemelli, below.
“Paul Newman’s one of my favorite actors, and I am incredibly inspired by Newman’s Own, which is his brand, where he gives 100% of his proceeds away to charity,” he said. “I don’t do that yet, because I’m still building this company, but my goal is to have Bad Boy Eats, which is the parent company … eventually become an engine to provide the financial wherewithal for me to pursue a lot of philanthropic efforts.”
Kanan said he always felt that food is an amazing conduit to connection.
“You break bread with somebody and have a great meal, [then] authenticity tends to come out: walls get dropped, commonalities get brought to the forefront,” he said. “I’ve always recognized that food has that power.”
When Kanan was in college he didn’t have enough money to take dates out to fancy restaurants, so he started cooking for them.
“I still find it really therapeutic; you get the steam coming up and I put some music on,” he said. “It’s a way of … focusing on one thing, shutting out the outside world and [creating] a great meal [that I] get to share with people I care about.”
Food is also great for finding commonalities, especially living in such a fractured world.
“It is so easy to find differences, and I think the one thing we probably can all agree on is every group … has wonderful foods,” he said.
Trying different foods is a great form of cultural exchange. Even better, is also dining with someone who is from a different background.
“You see people’s eyes light up when they talk about the food from their culture,” he said.
Some of Kanan’s favorite Jewish foods include brisket, kugel and latkes. He even loves gefilte fish.
“My great-grandfather used to make his own horseradish,” Kanan said. “Unfortunately, Jewish food is not the healthiest, but it’s delicious: matzah ball soup, kreplach soup; mushroom barley is actually my favorite of the soups one would order at a Jewish deli.”
Learn more about Sean Kanan, at SeanKanan.actor and badboyeats.com. Follow @sean.kanan on Instagram and @seankanan on X.
Watch Sean Kanan’s TEDx on how to be the hero of your own story.
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Pappardelle Gemelli
Serves 4
Prep time: 30 minutes
I lb pappardelle
I cup of canned artichokes diced
2 cloves of fresh garlic peeled/chopped Fresh grated Parmesan to taste
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes Extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp Sea Salt
2 sausage links (chicken, turkey or duck)
Fill a large pot with 5 quarts of cold water. Add sea salt and then bring to a boil. Cook pasta al dente. This should take between 9-I2 minutes once the water has come to a boil. While the water is boiling, grill sausage links. This can be done in about 8-I0 minutes with an electric grill. Once sausage has been cooked, slice into 4-inch pieces and set aside. Just as the sausage is about to finish, sauté artichokes in two tablespoons of olive oil adding garlic after a minute. Sauté for another two minutes over medium heat. Add sausage and artichokes into pasta. Drizzle with olive oil then add red pepper flakes. Toss ingredients together delicately so as not to tear the pasta. Serve in individual bowls with chopped parsley to garnish and Parmesan cheese to taste.
Cheats: Rigatoni or any other big noodle works well too. You can cut down on the pepper flakes if you want it less spicy. Fresh pasta is always best, but box pasta will work too as long as you don’t overcook it.
Gluten-free: Use wide rice noodles instead of pappardelle.
Reprinted from “The Modern Gentleman: Cooking and Entertaining” with Sean Kanan.
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
