Chef Donny tells his Barstool story on One More Ep. 2

One More is Dana Beers' new sit-down show: one guest, a few beers, and a life story cut together with old footage. For Episode 2 he picked Chef Donny, and he set the bar high from the start.

Dana Beers

@danabeers

Chef Don has an absolutely wild story. Starting a business in college, living at a monastery, becoming @DonnieDoesWorld intern, getting a six month prove it contract in Chicago, etc. Just a fascinating person. Please give it a watch and a like if you enjoy t.co/kNo4zGW33p

Dana Beers

@danabeers

New episode of One More with @chefdonnyy comes out tomorrow at 530 ET/430 CT 150k views on Ep. 1. Lets get the numbies up again tomorrow t.co/G2fxADWv0e

That list does sound made up. A business in college, a stretch at a monastery, an internship, and then a 6-month prove-it contract in Chicago. Donny has been making food content at Barstool since 2018, so most Stoolies know him as the guy behind the cutting board. Very few know how he got there, and that's the point of the episode. Later that night a clip started going around that made the same case in about 30 seconds.

Viva La Stool

@VivaLaStool

Chef Donny stories are like a mad lib on acid. You never know what he’s gonna say next

Viva La Stool

@VivaLaStool

DONNY! t.co/qQhauYam3B

"Mad lib on acid" is a fair review. And the old clips are what make it work. Fans were saying the show plays like a mini documentary, not a podcast with the cameras on, and the forest clip shows what they mean. Dana doesn't just let Donny tell the story. He goes and finds the tape.

By Thursday morning the promo had moved to the real story. Dave bought Barstool back from Penn in August 2023 for $1, and for some people in the building, that change put their jobs up for review. Donny was one of them.

Dana Beers

@danabeers

When Dave bought the company back, Chef had six months to prove his worth and he went out there and crushed it FULL episode of One More: t.co/kNo4zGW33p

That's the part of the episode that lands. Everyone knows the buyback as a business headline, a $1 sale and a big write-down for Penn. Hardly anyone hears about the guy whose job hung on it and who had 6 months to show he was worth keeping. Dana's verdict is that he crushed it, and since Donny is still running the kitchen 3 years later, that seems right.

By Saturday the clips had gotten sillier, which is how you can tell a Chef Donny episode is doing well. Someone asked him a simple spelling question on camera.

Stoolies Clubhouse 🏴‍☠️

@StooliesClub

How do you spell millennium? Chef Donny:

Viva La Stool

@VivaLaStool

“You’re crushin it, you’re getting all these guests and then you just go on the Yak one day….” t.co/zCFTT4ccFB

Dana is already calling One More a possible banger series after 2 episodes, and he isn't wrong. If he can keep finding guests whose real stories are this strange, and keep digging up the old footage to show them, the show won't run short of material for a while. The full Chef Donny episode is up now.