Below Deck’s Chef Marcos reveals Secret Service got involved when cooking for Bill Clinton

Below Deck’s Chef Marcos Spaziani opened up about his wildest experience cooking for a celebrity in an exclusive interview with Dexerto, saying he got totally freaked out while making food for Bill Clinton.

Below Deck fans will know Chef Marcos Spaziani from his appearance on Season 3 of the popular Bravo reality series. His friendly personality and eye-popping dishes stole the show — not to mention the fact that he worked through a grisly head injury.

Spaziani is partnering up with acclaimed chef Louis Huh to open a new restaurant in Beverly Hills, named ‘Lou’Mar.’ The restaurant combines food from Korea and Venezuela, offering a slew of delectable offerings for the culinarily curious.

We got the chance to attend a special press night before Lou’Mar officially opened to the public and spoke with the chefs about their new business, their future plans, and their wildest stories from cooking for celebrities.

Chef Marcos Spaziani spills on cooking for Bill Clinton & the Secret Service

Given that both Marcos and Louis are chefs who have worked for a wide variety of high-profile clients, we had to ask them about the most interesting experience they had cooking for an A-Lister. While Chef Louis didn’t have an incident that stuck out to him, Chef Marcos told us a story that certainly left us shocked.

“I was cooking for Bill Clinton and Tony Blair at the same time,” he began. “I was cooking, and I had the Secret Service behind me. One on each side. So I was like, ‘I know you guys are gonna get hungry.’ The guys never talked back to me. The guys are literally ignoring me.”

“Three hours later, one of them goes, ‘Hey bro, you have something to eat?’ I say ‘Ah, you’re hungry now, no?’ And then we kind of became friends.”

“I kept cooking and then they said, ‘Okay, drop the knife, step out of the table.’ I said, ‘F*ck, I’m Latino, that’s it, I’m going to jail.’ I don’t know how it works. And I dropped the knife, and I stepped out of the table, and that’s when Bill Clinton came in, shook my hand, and we took a photo. That was a cool experience, but also a really weird, crazy experience. I got f*cking scared.”

Marcos Spaziani & Louis Huh are aiming for a Michelin star

The vibe of Lou’Mar is an intimate one. The restaurant sits right above Nerano in a space that used to be a speakeasy of sorts. Boasting dark, rich decor in a small setting, Chefs Marcos and Louis are able to give customers one-on-one attention, making for an unforgettable experience… one that the chefs hope will earn them a Michelin star.

“Right now, our food is more elevated,” the chefs said. “We take care of a small place, so we can dedicate more to the food, to the flavors, to the decorations. And our goal, at one point, is to get a Michelin star. We are on the way. I won’t say that we’re going to get it soon, but I think we can have it.”

Korean food meets Venezuelan food for a dynamic duo

A Korean-Venezuelan fusion restaurant certainly sounds unusual, but to Chefs Marcos and Louis, it only made sense. After working together for so many years — having run a food truck and a previous restaurant together — the duo began to notice that the flavor profiles of their countries’ culinary offerings weren’t so different.

“Well, believe it or not, Korean [food] culture and Venezuelan [food] culture have a lot in common,” Spaziani told us. “I didn’t know it, either! Luis and I have known each other for seven years. We used to work in a lot of restaurants in Los Angeles. Then, you know after the pandemic, we lost our jobs, so we got a food truck.”

“And then from the food truck, you know, we became business owners. The good thing about our food is like, you know, every day we start cooking one dish for me, one for him. And I say, ‘This tastes like my food. This tastes like mine. So, what if we combine this and this and that?'”

“It’s difficult because for a lot of countries, a lot of [food] cultures don’t match. And this one, for some reason, it blends so well. And then we realize, let’s do it. Let’s do it, let’s change the game. The cheese, there, there, there — you know, the concept of many restaurants, and let’s do something that nobody does, and that people are probably afraid to do, and we both decided to do it. The reaction from people has been amazing.”

Although Louis and Marcos claimed they had some difficulties with their previous business partner, the duo said this was a sort of blessing in disguise that allowed them to open up Lou’Mar together. Now, the pair is looking toward the future — and we can’t wait to see how Lou’Mar evolves.