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Let’s get cooking with Arnie Segovia (ArnieTex), father, son, traditional cook and Tío Influencer?
The full transcript of this episode of Tacos of Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Carne Asada, street style tacos, fajitas, bistec. There’s all kinds of ways to make that work. I’m going to Of course, I’ll show you a delicious salsa. Better than two that you can enjoy with your smoked carnitas.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Vamanos. Vamonos. Vamonos. Vamonos. Vamonos. Vamanos
Mando Rayo What’s up, Taco World? I’m Taco journalist Mando Rayo, and welcome to the Tacos of Texas podcast El Quatro, produced by Identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. And we’re back exploring taco culture in Texas through the eyes of the people in the Lone Star State. So grab your grilling tongs and make sure you click them twice. Click click and get ready for some more tasty taco conversations. Ay ira huele carne asada that in today’s episode we get cooking with Ani Segovia, a.k.a. Ani Texts as a father son, traditional cook, barbecue expert and the Internet’s beloved B.O. influencer. Ani brings his unique flavor to the show. Tune in for a mouthwatering experience. Welcome to Generation Taco game show, where you’re going to find out what your taco is depending on your generation. So we’ll start at the very beginning of time, the silent generation. So from 1928 to 1945, you know, you grew up in the Great Depression and World War Two. But before then, were there even like a population and civilization? Sure. But this is when we started counting it down. So our survey says, you ate a can of beans. Yes, that’s right. That’s right. I’m sorry. But, you know, there was some hard times back then. All right. Here we go. We got the boomers, baby boomers from 1946 to 1964. Hey, you’re the post-World War two generation. Your hard work ethic, and you’re having lots of babies. What’s your taco? It’s the crispy taco. That’s right. Because you wanted something that you can eat with your TV dinners. All right. Next up, we have down.
Mando Rayo And on and on and on and on and on and on.
Mando Rayo Generation X kids. That’s right. 1965 to 1980. My generation. We are the latchkey kids. We have to fend for ourselves. We practically raised ourselves. So what my taco with ourtaco picadillo taco Because you know why we have ground beef in the refrigerator. Make it, you know, put a little bit of spices and it lasts for the day. So we are going with that. Pick your taco for GenX. Next generation is millennials. That’s right. You grew up with technology, social media, first adopters through social media. You know, you’re tech savvy and but at the same time, you know, you need a lot of like, care and coddling from your moms that zoom in and helicopter you. And so what do you get? You get a bean and cheese taco because it’s nice and warm and safe and you probably don’t have to even, you know, use your TV. You just, you know, take it in and swallow it. Next up is Generation Z. You practically grew up with smartphones. You’re highly proficient in technology. And you know your big activism. You even went through the pen damage. And what did you do? What’s your taco? You actually didn’t eat your taco. You just took a picture of that. And that’s been generations as tacos. Ramos had to go down and visit El Paso at the hometown of this taco journalist in El Paso. Family and food go hand in hand, especially during holidays and special occasions. Family cooking is a cherished tradition in El Paso’s Mexican heritage. It’s all about coming together, sharing stories and enjoying delicious meals. Take Your love for Cooking Beyond the home at the Texas Culinary Institute. Join hands on classes designed for families and friends to learn new skills and make cooking fun and approachable for everyone. Experience the joy of cooking with a Texas culinary institute and make long lasting memories through our shared gummy them, which has got access to our friends and visit El Paso for sponsoring this podcast episode. Follow. Visit El Paso on Instagram and Facebook. Visit El Paso or on their website at. Visit El Paso Punto. Com. Today on our show, we welcome Ani Segovia, also known as Ani Tex. He is a barbecue enthusiast based out of the Rio Grande Valley and a member of the International Barbecue Cookers Association Hall of Fame. He has gained a massive following on social media with his videos showing barbecue tips and cookout tricks. We are lucky to have everybody’s favorite bill Ani Tex. With us today. All right. With us today in actually the virtual studio is Arnie Segovia, a.k.a. Arnie Tex El Tio. Arnie,how’s it going?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Good. Really good. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me, man. I feel very honored and humbled as well. That word, Tio. You know, it took me a little while to get used to it.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I. I always like the first three times I saw it, I was like, What’s wrong with these people? And then after a while, I’m like, I had to go look in the mirror and go, like, a minute. I guess I could be somebody’s Tio.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I suppose. And actually, I am a lot, you know, to a lot of nephews. Yeah. Yeah, the nieces.
Mando Rayo That’s awesome. I love that. Sometimes the young bucks as I travel in Texas, they call me Tio Taco.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I like that.
Mando Rayo You know, I embrace it. I haven’t. I have nieces and nephews tambien.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mando Rayo So I’m excited to have you on, you know, and kind of learn a little bit from kind of what you’ve been doing, you know, Tell me how you, how you got started in the food world. Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia You know, it’s pretty much I grew up around it, you know, I mean, my my whole main background had been barbecue competition, barbecue, to be more specific. But even before that, I always enjoyed cooking barbecue. And I used to run a car dealership from Westland Coal. We had three lots at one time, and so I had 12 sales people. And we all like to drink barbecue and go hunt and go fish
Mando Rayo That right there in that parking lot.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I mean, literally. I am not kidding, man. For like seven, eight years, almost literally. We we barbecued at work six days a week.
Mando Rayo My God.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And because if it wasn’t me with one of the other guys.
Mando Rayo Yeah, Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And then on the weekends, I’d do brisket for friends.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Or clients or whatever. Right. On weekends. So. So that’s kind of where it all started. And then one day we were in Austin on vacation. My wife and I and I saw this store called Barbecue Galore, and I was like, barbecue, okay, let’s see what’s in there. Right and there and picked up a national barbecue news magazine and went to the hotel. Was paging through that in the back. I saw they had contest and I told my wife, hey, look, there’s other crazy people like me.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia They really like barbecue. Right?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia So we wound up going to Houston.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And got to judge. And, you know, we felt like, you know, we could be as good as some of those other teams. Yeah. And so I went home and built my Smokey Lonestar pit that you see on that page. Yeah, the red, white and Blue Star. And as they say, the rest is history.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia We just competing, you know.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Not not a lot, but a little bit here and there because I had a full time job, right? Sure. But we probably were doing seven, eight Cook-Off the first year, second year, third year. We maybe did 10 or 11.
Mando Rayo Okay.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And then it just kind of gradually got bigger from there. So that’s kind of how I got started into cooking a lot more, right? Yeah. And then fast forward a few more years, you know, I mean, we had done really well in the cookout world, and then I had my own car dealership and wound up with a restaurant. Absolutely loved the restaurant business in the front with the clients, in the back with the employees in the kitchen and.
Mando Rayo You got the personality for it, man. Did you go around and shaking everybody’s hands and tell.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, man, sit down, drink coffee with them and, you know, and just, you know, you develop a friendship and a relationship with your clients when you’re in the restaurant business. I’m talking about the small restaurant businesses. Yeah. And I love to sit in the kitchen and watch the girls make the tortillas, you know, And what could do his thing? You know, people think cooking is easy in a restaurant. Actually, on the plancha.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Now, I’m here.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia To tell you did it is a very specific skill set that takes a lot of training. And I tried to do it one time when the cook didn’t show up, I wound up blocking the door.
Mando Rayo My goodness. You say, I don’t know.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia It’s a whole different skill set.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia It’s a.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Different discipline. Anybody can cook. But two big, quick, fast, good.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Right? Right. Is organized and clean. It’s a whole different deal.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia But that’s kind of how it all started. And then, you know, in ’09, remember in ’08 or ’09, the crash that kind of hit us really, really hard and we wound up selling the restaurant in July of ’09. Kind of sat around the house trying to figure out what to do next. And then I just started in [2011] I started to cook again competitively and then it just kind of took me a little while to kind of get back in the groove. I hadn’t really cooked much for six years because the restaurant and the business and it took me a little while to get back in the groove and I couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t walk or winning because we had always done really well. Sure. And so I started reading a lot of chef forums and magazines and whatever I could find.
Mando Rayo Yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And I learned a few more things. And then we found our rhythm, man. Yeah. And then in 2013, we won 50% of the cook off that we entered and reserved granted a few more. So it just like. Kind of took off from there.
Mando Rayo And what were your specialties when you’re doing the cook offs?
Mando Rayo In competition. Barbecue, mostly Texas. It’s brisket, ribs and chicken. Yeah, now they have pork butt as well, it’s mostly brisket, ribs and chicken. Once you leave the valley, you know the valley when we’re cooking here locally, there’s also pan de campo, which is, you know, a regional delicacy.
Mando Rayo If you.
Mando Rayo Want to call it that. And we would often compete in fajitas and chili and beans a lot here in South Texas. But once you leave the valley and go further north, sometimes you’ll have beans. But that’s about.
Mando Rayo It. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Sometimes steak. But, you know. But you know, fast forward a little bit more. In 2016, we started teaching classes because we had won a lot and got into the Hall of Fame in 2017. And so people wanted to know how we did it right? And so we started to do classes in-person, traveled all over Texas. We had an RV and we’d go wherever they wanted us. Yeah. And pretty much had sold out classes, you know, in Lubbock and Houston and Laredo in San Antonio and other areas. And so in 2019, Danny, actually my son was finishing up college or had just finished the year before, I think I forget. And he was like, Dad, why don’t you do an online class? He said, Well, I don’t know how. So actually video and photography is his background. He did it ever since he was in high school and all the way through college. So he helped me get that started. We launched our online barbecue classes, was very successful. And then after when Covid kicked in, we were at home, literally.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, yeah, right. And everybody was. That was my job. Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia That was my job. And so when Covid hit, we’re sitting here going like, Wow, we don’t have a job. What are we going to do? And so again, it was Danny’s idea. He’s like, Dad, you’ve already wanted to do barbecue spices. Why don’t you start making something? Right? Yeah. So we were like, yeah, that’s a good idea. So we created our well seasoning over the next few months. And, you know, we very timidly ordered a whole pallet, you know, and thought, if we can sell it in 90 days, we’ll be doing okay.
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia It sold in four days. We sold out.
Mando Rayo Out. That’s amazing.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And yeah, and it took two more months to get reloaded, but I ordered, like, five pallets. Wow. I think we’re not going to run out again.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Where’s you put it Your garage?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And actually we were in the spare bedroom was like to the roof area. Some of the living room. Yeah. Some in the dining room. And so since then, yeah, we, we actually built the climate controlled room for it now.
Mando Rayo Okay.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And so that’s where it is now, but that’s how we started. And so we really started to do the cooking videos and more about promoting our spices. It was more about that to let people know and make people aware that we had some rubs for sale. And, you know, one thing led to another. I mean, like I said, most of my background was barbecue and carne asada and, you know, just cooking over fire and stuff like that, that, that, that was even more what I used to do before it was Dutch oven and open fire before the competition smoking. Yeah. Because in competition. Smoking. Smoking. Right. Yeah. And so there’s only so many ways you can do a brisket, right. There’s only so many ways you can do ribs and chicken on a fire, right?
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia So, you know, nice guys, nothing against them, you know, their specially brisket. And so they do brisket this way, this way, this way.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stand it up like.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia One on top of the other.
Mando Rayo Yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And I’m just exaggerating, right? But I was like, you know, I don’t want to be that guy.
Mando Rayo Yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I want to.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Share stuff that’s new every week.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Something different.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia You just got. To do.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia More. Ain’t gonna, you know.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, we’re starting to do Carne Asada and tacos and breakfast videos and.
Mando Rayo Si
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Not really knowing if they were going to hit or not. But it turned out that that’s really what our followers enjoyed the most.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Our carne asada taco videos. You know, salsa videos, excuse me. They perform ten times better than our barbecue videos.
Mando Rayo Yeah. People love that Mexican food, you know?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yes. You know, people love Mexican food it’s the truth. And so we just thought, well, if that’s what folks want to look at, that’s what we’ll do, right? More of. And so we started to do more of that. And in just our channel, just like.
Mando Rayo Just blew up.
Mando Rayo Little By little kept growing, kept growing, kept growing. And at this point, I’m going to say that it just kind of like, blew up.
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah.
Mando Rayo Yeah. No, I love it.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And naturally. And, you know, it’s not easy. It does take a team.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Mando Rayo And in our case, it’s a family team. My wife is my culinary assistant.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Dishwasher helper.
That’s what I heard. I heard it’s a family affair. When you put these videos, right?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And Sophie our daughter lives in Chicago. We upload. She does all the editing, Danny puts the final touches on it, then I’ll review it and then Danny does the uploading nice. And then he’s our CTO, CFO, and he does all the background and he’s also I.T. expert.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And takes really.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Huge load off of, of us. You know, I started out with some small cameras, you know, because Danny and Sophie used to record the videos first, but then they moved out of town. Yeah, they lived in San Antonio for a year, year and a half, I think. And then they moved to Austin. So I had to learn how to use the cameras.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And small cameras. Yeah. How is that for you? And upgraded to better cameras
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah.
Mando Rayo How is that for you? I was.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, it was hard at first, man, because, you know, not knowing how to do it right. And, you know, the videos were blown out or too dark or the audio wasn’t good and the lighting.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Was.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Different, you know? But YouTube knows everything. That’s what I tell people.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I mean, I.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Look at YouTube videos.
Mando Rayo Yeah, right.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Day And I night and have figured. Yeah, I figured out how to get better with the camera and I figured out audio means a lot and lighting means a lot.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia People want to see good quality videos.
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah.
Mando Rayo When you. When you were just starting, like, were you nervous to be in front of the camera or how did that work for you?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Honestly, yes, a little bit, but not so much. It’s hard to get used to it because right now I want to look at the screen and see you, right?
Mando Rayo Yeah,
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia But The camera’s up hear
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Is that little bit higher.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia So it. Gets hard to, like, stare at the camera like if you’re talking to somebody.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Right? Yeah, that’s.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Probably the harder.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Part. I.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia When you’re starting out. Yeah. Once you get used to it, then it just becomes natural. And the more you do it, the more natural.
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia But starting out, it was a little bit. I’m going to say it wasn’t too hard for me. It wasn’t a lot of nerves so much because.
Mando Rayo I mean, you’re a natural.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I was in the car business, I was in management.
Mando Rayo Si.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, I was in management, so I was used to leading a team and I was used to speaking. I was used to having meetings.
Mando Rayo Selling cars. How about that?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Sure. Yeah, I used.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia To speak in our church, you know, and give little seminars and things like.
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah. Among your family. Are you. Are you like that? Most like outspoken one?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia No, I tell people I’m really more of a kind of a not an introvert, but a just more of a quiet person. On a one on one basis. I’m not a loud, talkative. The guy you see on camera once the cameras rolling, you know, I just kind of get into show mode and not that it’s not authentic.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Or.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Anything like that, but it’s just like it’s just a different.
Mando Rayo Yeah,.
I want to make sure that I do a good job for our followers.
Mando Rayo Right, right now. Totally. Totally. And did you ever just.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia It just Comes out because I want to make sure that they like what we put out.
Mando Rayo Yeah, completely. Completely.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And I want to make sure it’s interesting, you know?
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah. You got. Yeah, you got.
Mando Rayo To stand out. You know, you got to, you know, not only and, you know, entertain, but also educate people. Right? And that’s a big component of what I mean. Right, Right. Why do you think that What why is that important for you?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I think that people want to learn, and that was why I kind of enjoyed doing the barbecue courses, because when I was first starting to compete and trying to learn and when I was having a little struggle, when I got back in the game, I wanted to learn right and I needed to know more. Yeah. To better my game. And what I remember Mando when I would be in the forums and there was always like a huge number of people asking questions, wanting to learn. And there’s always a small group of people that want to share. They have more knowledge, they have more experience, they know what to do and how to do it. And they enjoy sharing, you know, with these, let’s call them newbies. Yeah. How to up their game, how to cook, how to do whatever. And so I always saw that that was a component of being in the food world and in the cooking world. And so I wanted to be one of those guys that helped people.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia More than anything.
Mando Rayo Yeah. And then now you’re influencing people Mira, eres el Tio influencer.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Mando Rayo I mean, everybody.
Mando Rayo Like.
Mando Rayo I almost I kind of almost don’t like that word, you know, when they use influencers and actually when we sign contracts and stuff, they use the.
Mando Rayo Word, yeah, they do all the time.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia With collab say, But I really just think of myself more as a content creator. I mean, I’m, I’m doing my best to create good content that I hope people will enjoy and that I hope it educational and a little bit entertaining, you know. Yeah. To to keep the spirits up right You know, so if that influences them to cook then okay, I’ll take it
Mando Rayo Andale Andale, Si, si.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And to learn.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah. Andwe get a Lot of messages about that.
Mando Rayo Yeah. And I know you’ve had a big impact, you know, with all your, your followers, your fans, me being one of them as well. Like, did you ever imagine being in this space and
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Never, Actually, you know, I just I always hoped that I would open a chain of food trailers. That was kind of my dream. My goal, after having been in the restaurant business, you know, it was Mexican food. And then we added barbecue to it. We figured out a couple of things and told myself if I ever did it again, it would be like on the food trailer level and it would be fast, hot and fast stuff like fajitas, burgers. Yeah. Because you know, things that you can prepare to order.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And you know, you don’t have to, like, save stuff that’s already cooked, right? That was kind of my, my vision, my dream, my goal at that, at that time. But after having done it and gotten a little older, I’m like, too much.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Work.
Mando Rayo Yeah, I know. It’s a lot of work. It really is. But so is cooking. So is cooking.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I’m still cooking and I’m enjoying it, but I’m it’s on my own hours, right? And I have to. Midnight and.
Mando Rayo Si
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia At A food park
Mando Rayo Yeah. right, right, right, right, right.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And I almost bought a food trailer last year and my wife’s like,uh-uh, we ain’t doing that. So the other half of the team isn’t going to be in the game. I mean, I’m not in the game, right? You got to have that support, right?
Mando Rayo Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And actually, I’m glad we didn’t go that direction because this grew and grew and grew to the point where we were able to hire Dan and Sophie full time. Yeah, very, very fortunate, very blessed to to have our family work with us. And for us, there’s there’s a really good. Dynamic. I mean, I come from a very loving family. My wife does, too. So we just have this really good bond in our family that works. I really honestly feel we’re very blessed and fortunate to have that.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And some weekends you made a paycheck. Sometimes you made a good. Paycheck and thought you made zero, right? But you’re like, Yeah, you know,
Mando Rayo sometimes you just eating. The leftover frijoles.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah. But we averaged it out. We did? Okay. You know, we were able to pay our bills, and we were fortunate because we didn’t have any debt. Yeah. So that’s what helped us be able to do that. But I don’t know that I’d do that again.
Mando Rayo Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia But. But it all led to where we are now, so maybe I shouldn’t say that
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Mando Rayo Well, you know, this whole. This whole idea around bringing in your kids and and doing what you love and bringing everybody along in your journey. Where do you think that comes from?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia In our culture, we grow up as families, you know, and in my family on both sides, mainly on my mom’s side, but on both sides of our families are good, tight families, all of them. A nd on my mom’s side, I want to say we had the biggest party with my tios and my grandparents. And so we would get together and have the big fires and the ladies would embotar tomates. I don’t know if your family ever did that. They would get the Coke bottles and the new caps and all cook all the tomatoes and pack em into the Coke bottles and put the lid on and, you know, throw them under the house, you know, and take them out, you know, where it was cool and then just take them out when they needed them.
Mando Rayo Yeah, Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia So we used to do that as kids, you know, help moms and dads to do that. And that’s cool. It was always a good family, fun affair. So to answer your question, yeah, that’s kind of where it come from, just being from good type families and growing up around that. I mean, we’re a very loving family. We’re the type that just like, you know, we hug each other every day, you know, kiss each other every day. We tell each other we love each other every single day, you know? Yeah. And that’s just the way my family is.
Mando Rayo That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And I think That’s where most of that comes from, number one. Number two. Danny had that experience of being in the photo video. So naturally when we started, you know, I leaned on him and then he was fortunate to work for a big agency out of San Antonio. There was a they did like a huge brand and huge deal. Yeah, they would fly him to California, to Houston, to East Coast and all that stuff. So he got a lot of experience on how to do, you know, higher level videos and editing and stuff like that. And all of that has helped us do what we do. And we’ve been fortunate now that I learned how to run all the cameras and stuff, and now we got so busy with it all. Yeah, we actually now hire on a regular basis another company that does the videos for us and often we’ll hire another friend that’s also a videographer.
Mando Rayo Okay?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And so, you know, it’s just it’s at that level now.
Mando Rayo And yeah, that’s great.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia It’s not As easy as most people think. We literally work seven days a week. So if we’re not cooking and grilling, we’re cleaning the pit or we’re trying to tweak recipes or test recipes or answer emails and questions and, you know, answer questions in the comments.
Mando Rayo Right, Right. Yeah. No, I mean, that’s that’s a big part of it, the engagement you get with your fans and followers. So what advice would you offer people wanting to get into this food scene, whether it’s backyard grilling to putting their stuff online and those kind of things?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia There are so many ways you can go, but just start out. Fortunately now from when we started 6 or 7 years ago and longer. Yeah. Now, you know, the phones are so good. That would be the starting point. And there’s also a small little gimbal camera 4k, like the GoPro, stuff like that. Yeah, those are very affordable and pretty easy to use as well. And but to start out, the phones are the easiest and there’s so much stuff out there now, including gimbals and audio equipment and stuff That’s just for phones. Just for this. So you can do a really good job with phones, number one. Number two, the most important things are lighting. We have a big stuff box up here right now. So we have, you know, even lighting and then audio. You got to have good art. You can get good quality video, which you can with a phone. You can get 4K and good lighting and good audio. You know, you’re good. Mic I have a mic on, right? Yeah. Those are the three most important things, I think more important than fancy cameras, which we have those now too. But yeah, I don’t even use them because now we’re paying somebody else. And so it’s all good, though.
Mando Rayo Yeah, right. Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia All I got to think about cooking now.
Mando Rayo I know, right? And writing. Writing too. Are you. Are you working on a cookbook?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yes. I started telling Danny and the family we need to write a cookbook. Then he’s like, Well, I. Know that you have no idea what you’re getting into, you know. It’s a lot of work.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And so I was kinda anglingg for it already, and we decided to put it on hold for at least another. Year or two or. Whatever, and we’re just so busy. Then all of a sudden we get an email from a very big publisher and they’re like, Hey, we want to help you write a cookbook more like me. Okay, man. It’s hard to say no when they’re knocking your door, right?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah. Yeah. And it was a.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Very reputable company. So we’re like, All right, man. Honestly, a lot of stuff. Mando has come around very serendipitously, and that’s the right word, and a lot of things have fallen in place for us. And that’s why I say it’s all a blessing. And that was one of the things that fell in our place. So we started working on it in January, and we’re probably about 20 to 25% in on it right now. We my style of cooking is like my mom’s or my grandma echale poquito aca, un puno
Mando Rayo Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And so but for the book, we have to actually test every single recipe and measure and or weigh every ingredient.
Mando Rayo Right, Right.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia So that when we put it in the cookbook and somebody want to replicate that recipe, it’s going to turn out good. Yeah. You know, and not just like, well, just do this and just do that. It has to be good. Yeah. And so we’re having to cook every recipe so it adds more.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Work.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia To our already pretty full workload. And we’re loving it.
Mando Rayo That’s good. That’s good. Yeah, well, I’m excited to see when it comes out. Definitely buy it. And thank you. When we started the podcast, before that, there was a book Tacos of Texas, and so it’s out. Yeah, there’s a lot
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I have it. Yeah. Before I knew who you were, I had the book, the author that I know. There were two. Yeah, yeah. I bought them a long time ago.
Mando Rayo Yeah. But it, it wasn’t like, you know, when I, when I was like trying to come up with some recipes to, with my mom and my dad. They’re the same way. They’re like no pues, you know, un poquito de eso. But I’m like, No, no, no, no, no, no. But what does that really mean?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Like they say, heche le hasta que dede a la huela
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I mean.
Mando Rayo I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, you know, one of the things that I love about your videos and just you as a person is like, you get the vibe that you’re being yourself, verdad and in a sea, I would say in a sea like on Instagram and YouTube as well of just like, you know, people. But how do you stand out? You know.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I’m going to say it’s more about being genuine and trying to share things that I know and actually even some of our. Followers will say, Hey, man, have you ever done this? Have you ever done that? Or I’ll get corrected, you know, And yeah, instances sometimes they know what they’re talking about. Sometimes they don’t. But, you know.
Mando Rayo You can tell. You can tell the difference.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia You know what I mean?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia And so to stand down, I think part of that is just having the good quality videos, the good quality audio, good lighting, like I said, where people hear you good and see what your content is good and understand what you’re saying and you explain it well. And you know, there’s always all kinds of new trends, right? And I have historically kind of tried to stay away from the trendy stuff, although we’re kind of rethinking that thing, really, because, you know, hey, man, if that’s the trend. Yeah. And it brings more attention to the channel. Yeah. Yeah. And if it helps to sell some spices, maybe we should do a little trendy stuff. Sure. But historically, I haven’t done that so much. I think those are some of the things that maybe helped set us apart a little bit.
Mando Rayo Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia But yeah, there’s a lot of really, really great content creators out there. Do a really good job, too. And I follow several of them myself just because I enjoy watching them too. Yeah. And you never stop learning as well. Sometimes you pick up here or there.
Mando Rayo Yeah, that’s that’s. That’s the beauty of that as well. Yeah, I’m part of this journey. And so if you wanted to share anything about, you know, your work and what you do, what message would you tell, you know, folks listening to the podcast?
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia You know, I mean, just if you have a knack for cooking and you’re wanting to get into this content creative space, just do it. You know that old sign that that old thing. Just do it.
Mando Rayo Yeah. Yeah, that’s.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I’m going to say the same. Just there. Just get out there and execute. You know this one guy on YouTube? You know Sean Connery. He was like, you just got to hit record, right? And that’s the bottom line, you know? Quit overthinking and quit analyzing. And so I would say if somebody wants to get into this page, just go out there and do it. If you want to be a better cook, there’s a lot of very cookbooks out there now. YouTube is really good. There’s a lot of great teachers out there that create content on YouTube, but you just got to get out there and light the fire. Yeah. And or the start in, right. And just start. So don’t be afraid to make mistakes because we all make them. I still make em.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, Yeah.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia You’re not going to get good at anything until you actually get out there and do it and you’re going to make mistakes. You know, in my opinion, it’s always fun. I enjoy it when somebody takes a food and they smile, right? Or they give you a good compliment. To me, that’s the best high that I can get.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Yeah, right.
Mando Rayo Yeah, Totally is like, look at their faces. Look at them. Eat. Yeah.
Mando Rayo And actually when it’s in a bottle.
Mando Rayo Right, I’ll see if.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia I can do that. And I keep.
Mando Rayo Forgetting to give it back.
Mando Rayo Well, Arnie, thank you so much for, you know, just sharing and being part of, you know, the podcast. I really you know, I’ve been you know, I’m a I’ve been a fan for for for a while now. And, you know, I appreciate everything you’re doing and and sharing, you know, everything from from your heart and it shows and. Yeah, yeah. Next time. Definitely. We’re down in the valley. Well, it will definitely hit you up.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Hit me up, man. Well, we’ll. We’ll go have some tacos and everyone we can cook it here in my backyard.
Mando Rayo And then it’ll be in reality.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia All right. Thank you.
Arnie “Arnie Tex” Segovia Thank you, man. Appreciate you having me. Very honored. Thank you, sir.
Mando Rayo Okay, people run. Do not walk to the Internet and you go follow Arnie Segovia, a.k.a. Arnie Tex. You’re going to learn so much. You know, I just kind of want to thank him for being on the show and learning about his journey from his early days of selling cars to owning a restaurant and now doing all his videos, you know, on the socials. And we’re all learning and having fun with him. So with that, I want to give some shout outs to some grilling and barbecue and adjacent places AJ custom cookers, some main custom smokers and cookers, Olmos barbecue out of Dallas. And Chef Enrique Lozano out of El Paso. And he’s doing these hang meats, these called colgados they are to die for. This has been the Tacos of Texas podcast developed and produced by Identity Productions. If you enjoyed today’s episode and are craving more taco content, go to our website at www dot identity that productions or follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube at Identity Productions and United Tacos of America. If you like the podcast, don’t forget to leave a five star review. Every review helps us keep the podcast going. This is your host, Mando el Taco journalist Rayo Vamos a los Tacos. On the next proximo Tacos of Texas articles. Tacos, actually. Tacos. This might be controversial, but those drowned tacos are actually tacos. Or are they? We’ll dig into this highly debated issue from Tuco Town, a.k.a. El Paso, Texas.
Mando Rayo The Tacos of Texas podcasts is presented by Identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. Our host and producer is Mandrill. Our audio is mixed by Nicolas Worden. Our story producer is me, Luisa, Vanessa and our creative producer is Dennis Burnett. Music was created byPeligrosa in Austin, Texas, and King Benny Productions. Located in the Quinto barrio of Houston.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
