Speaker 1: I am all in again.
Speaker 2: Oh, let's just do.
Speaker 1: I am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast. One
Speaker 1: of them productions. iHeart Radio Media. iHeart Podcast. This is
Speaker 1: Luke's Diner with the one and only, Yes, Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Al Roker. You know him, you love him, the longest
Speaker 1: tenured host on the Today Show almost thirty years now.
Speaker 1: Right al.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I guess so, yeah, wow, weird. Yes, what
Speaker 2: a career.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about all things Diane her
Speaker 1: food after amelook proud over of Luke Stanners. You know,
Speaker 1: I understand you have a cookbook coming out. I think
Speaker 1: with your daughter.
Speaker 2: It's actually already out.
Speaker 1: It's already out. Let's talk about that little what's it called.
Speaker 2: It's called Al Roker's Recipes to Live by a national bestseller,
Speaker 2: and we are just really proud of it. I've written
Speaker 2: a couple of cookbooks back in the late nineties and
Speaker 2: it's it's a lot of work. Uh. And and my
Speaker 2: daughter Courtney, who is a professional chef and recipe developer, said,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I was I was sick a few you know,
Speaker 2: almost three years ago now two and a half years. Anyway,
Speaker 2: she said, in an effort to rally me, you know
Speaker 2: it would be great if we will a cookbook together.
Speaker 2: And I said, no, not really, it's not no, I
Speaker 2: don't I don't think so. Uh And if you've got kids,
Speaker 2: you know, they just keep coming back at you. So okay,
Speaker 2: here's you write the recipe, pies. You develpted the recipes.
Speaker 2: I think it should be some sort of a family cookbook.
Speaker 2: You know, your your grandmother. My mom never wrote down recipes.
Speaker 2: My grandmother never did, her mother never did. Courtney's mom.
Speaker 2: So I said, you know, I think it's about people's
Speaker 2: family recipes, but you're going to have to probably reverse
Speaker 2: engineer all of them and figure them out. And you know,
Speaker 2: you got like over one hundred recipes. And she did
Speaker 2: a bang up job doing finding, you know, interviewing people
Speaker 2: talking about the flavors, they remember the taste, the textures,
Speaker 2: and she did a spot on job. So I was
Speaker 2: I was really proud of her. And she did it
Speaker 2: while she was pregnant. I mean the best part that
Speaker 2: came out of this was that I've got my first grandchild,
Speaker 2: a little little girl named Sky. But you know, it was.
Speaker 2: It's it's very much like a diner in a sense,
Speaker 2: and that it's it's mostly all comfort food, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, I always love when you go
Speaker 2: to the diners, especially you know, the Greek diner and
Speaker 2: the leather menu, and it's got one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: items on it. You know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: I pretty much end up ordering the same thing as
Speaker 2: a diner, which is grilled che grilled cheese and bacon
Speaker 2: sandwich with fries, right, and on what part of the
Speaker 2: country is of vanilla egg cream? Right?
Speaker 1: So you would rate the recipes in your book as simple,
Speaker 1: fairly simple.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's only there are only four recipes that probably
Speaker 2: take more than thirty minutes, yeah, or maybe forty minutes.
Speaker 2: There's an oxtail stew which takes some time, and that
Speaker 2: was my mother's recipe, and a raised short rib that's
Speaker 2: from Danielle Blute, adapted from a Daniel Blue and those
Speaker 2: take time. But other than that, most of them are
Speaker 2: pretty quick.
Speaker 1: M what's your favorite recipe in the book. What's the
Speaker 1: one that you prepare the most.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't prepare the most, as I said, just
Speaker 2: because but my mother's oxtail stew that that reminds me
Speaker 2: of home cooking of you know, it's got a little
Speaker 2: bit you know, it's kind of a my mother was
Speaker 2: family was from Jamaica, my father's family is from the Bahamas,
Speaker 2: so it's got a little bit of a Caribbean flair.
Speaker 2: And it was oxtail stew and dumplings, you know, had
Speaker 2: cooked dough in it. It was just it was everything
Speaker 2: you wanted, you know, nothing you didn't need, you know,
Speaker 2: it was just fantastic.
Speaker 1: Where do you get an ox tail?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you go to the butcher. Yeah, it's funny,
Speaker 2: you So, oxtails. A lot of food today I have
Speaker 2: found is rooted in what you would call, depending on
Speaker 2: where you grew up, peasant cooking, whether poor people cooking.
Speaker 2: Folks didn't have a lot of money, so they had
Speaker 2: to take the cuts that most people wouldn't eat and
Speaker 2: braise them, cook them slow to tenderize them. And oxtail
Speaker 2: or beef tails have a tremendous amount of cartilage, and
Speaker 2: so when you slow cook that that renders into the meal,
Speaker 2: into the meat, into the sauce that stew, and it's
Speaker 2: just silky and rich and just really wonderful. But I
Speaker 2: always remember my mom, who's been gone now, gosh, almost
Speaker 2: twenty years. But I remember one day and I was
Speaker 2: working at the Food Network. I would do specials for
Speaker 2: the Food Network, and I remember coming home, you know,
Speaker 2: our houses and queens, and just out of the blue, Hi, Mom,
Speaker 2: you know, don't gone that Food Network. I hate those
Speaker 2: people any particular reason. I'm almost afraid to ask. And
Speaker 2: she said, well, you know, they're doing these recipes with oxtail,
Speaker 2: and you know, I used to be able to get
Speaker 2: oxtail for thirty nine cents a pound, and it's now
Speaker 2: up to two dollars a pound, and it's all because
Speaker 2: of those rich chefs cooking with oxtail cooking. I'm going
Speaker 2: to only get right on that.
Speaker 1: You've traveled so much with today show Detroit's Famous hot Dogs,
Speaker 1: California Avocado's Myrtle Beach. You know that that culinary scene.
Speaker 1: Of all the places you've explored, which towns food history
Speaker 1: fascinated you the most?
Speaker 2: You know each one. It's like almost like who's your
Speaker 2: favorite kid. You know, each one is different and special
Speaker 2: in its own way. And that's not a cop out.
Speaker 2: It's just it's like your kids each one has a
Speaker 2: specific talent that you love. There's something about each one
Speaker 2: of them that drives you nuts, you know, but you
Speaker 2: wouldn't change a thing about them. I would I would say, yeah,
Speaker 2: And and it also depends on the season, but I'd say,
Speaker 2: like summertime, I love Charleston. Yeah, Uh, it's just fantastic.
Speaker 2: You know, New Orleans seafood is unbelievable. I love Chicago,
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's a great food town. Uh. Portland, Oregon,
Speaker 2: you know, is really come on very strong, you know.
Speaker 2: So Austin, Texas, I mean, come on so so yeah,
Speaker 2: and of course you know live here in New York City.
Speaker 2: Uh right, so you know there's it's hard. I mean,
Speaker 2: you go almost anywhere in this country and you're gonna
Speaker 2: find Look, you're gonna find both ends of the spectrum.
Speaker 2: You're going to find some really crappy food that could
Speaker 2: tries to pass itself off as good. You're going to
Speaker 2: find some really simple cooking that is terrific as to
Speaker 2: what it is is. And then you're going to find
Speaker 2: some really great fine dining. Yeah. And I don't care
Speaker 2: where you are, you're going to find that.
Speaker 1: Is there a region or a particular cuisine that you're
Speaker 1: eager to dive into next pretty much covered it all.
Speaker 2: I think I've covered it all, although I will say
Speaker 2: probably yeah. If there's one cuisine I don't eat as
Speaker 2: much of as I would necessarily like to, just haven't
Speaker 2: you know done? It is Indian cuisine. You know, I
Speaker 2: mean the spices, the flavors that they get that you
Speaker 2: can get out of, you know, a fair number of
Speaker 2: vegetarian dishes is really fascinating. I think so would I
Speaker 2: would say, you know, if I had a cuisine that
Speaker 2: I'd like to try to get into a little bit more,
Speaker 2: it would be Indian cuisine.
Speaker 1: So you've hosted Roker on the Road, yes, and you
Speaker 1: wrote the cookbook with your daughter, who's a trained chef.
Speaker 1: What has she taught you in the kitchen?
Speaker 2: If there's any one thing is that? And by the way,
Speaker 2: if you've got grown kids, there's there are a few
Speaker 2: greater pleasures than realizing that your kid is actually good
Speaker 2: at what they do, they know what they're doing. It's like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, look at that. And if it's something that
Speaker 2: you don't do, it's even more pleasing. And I can cook,
Speaker 2: But I think that the one thing that I've learned
Speaker 2: from my daughter is a mizenplus is to prep everything
Speaker 2: out ahead, have measured all your ingredients out. Because I
Speaker 2: don't know about you, but I can't count the number
Speaker 2: of times I'm in the middle of a recipe and
Speaker 2: realize I don't have something, And it's usually something small,
Speaker 2: whether it's human or papprika or or baking powder or
Speaker 2: calls for baking soda, and I've got baking powder, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. That's if you've got everything laid out,
Speaker 2: measured out, you know what you've got, it's already there,
Speaker 2: and you're not fumbling around while you're in the middle
Speaker 2: of cooking.
Speaker 1: Prap is huge. Prap is everything all right? When your
Speaker 1: family gathers for the holidays, who takes the lead in
Speaker 1: the kitchen?
Speaker 2: Generally I do there you go. You know, it's yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, because it's almost tradition, you know. Growing up,
Speaker 2: my mother was in charge, and I've kind of, I
Speaker 2: guess inherited that man and I enjoy it, I really,
Speaker 2: you know, although I will say the one meal I've
Speaker 2: kind of given up is a Thanksgiving because you know,
Speaker 2: I do the Thanksgiving Day parade every year, and what
Speaker 2: I had been doing was. I would prep stuff as
Speaker 2: much as I could the night before. My wife, Deborah
Speaker 2: Roberts on ABC News, would prep like her mother, a
Speaker 2: couple of dishes from her mother, like collared greens and
Speaker 2: things like that, and and then I had a schedule
Speaker 2: for what to put in the oven and win. Then
Speaker 2: we'd get home. I'd get home, we'd have friends over,
Speaker 2: her family, we cook this, we'd have this meal. Then
Speaker 2: we had to clean up. And yeah, you're just dead,
Speaker 2: I mean literally dead time eleven years ago, you know.
Speaker 2: And there's not the name drop, but you know. I've
Speaker 2: become friends with Danielle Balute. I did a piece with
Speaker 2: him when we were both young and up and coming.
Speaker 2: I was at w NBC and he had just started
Speaker 2: at Le Cirque and I did a live shot from
Speaker 2: his apartment. Was holding his six month old baby daughter.
Speaker 2: Our girls are about a year apart. Anyway, I was
Speaker 2: at We were at his restaurant having lunch, and he
Speaker 2: asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving. I said, I'm
Speaker 2: making dinner. No, please be my guests, Please come to
Speaker 2: Danielle and I thought, And then the next day I
Speaker 2: called him. I said, okay, sure, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 2: my god, Why have I not done this before? Yeah?
Speaker 2: It just you show up, they do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,
Speaker 2: You have dinner, they even give you a little doggy
Speaker 2: bag with leftovers, and you go home and you're not
Speaker 2: exhausted and your kitchen is clean and freak fantastic.
Speaker 1: Right right, Well, you've had your own quite incredible health journey.
Speaker 1: How do you balance enjoying the foods that you love
Speaker 1: while prioritizing wellness.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think it's all about which is
Speaker 2: taking me. You know, out of seventy years on the planet,
Speaker 2: probably fifty eight of those of learning finally that it's
Speaker 2: about moderation. I mean, you know, you can have what
Speaker 2: you want, you just don't have to have as much
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: You know, my daughter lives in Paris, and my middle girl,
Speaker 2: and you know, we go over and visit. We eat
Speaker 2: really well and invariably I've almost never gained weight, if
Speaker 2: not anything. I maybe lost a pound or two, but
Speaker 2: it's because the portions are smaller. You're not snacking in between,
Speaker 2: You're walking a lot. And I think you know, there's
Speaker 2: a and this is not to knock anybody else, but
Speaker 2: I think the quality of the food is really good,
Speaker 2: you know, and I'm certainly not holding back, but you know,
Speaker 2: but I'm not going hotwile. So you know it's if
Speaker 2: you and I think that goes to in a sense
Speaker 2: you know in this country where about quantity not quality.
Speaker 2: And I get it, you know, people want to you
Speaker 2: got to stretch your your dollars. And but you know,
Speaker 2: like you go to a restaurant it's a you know,
Speaker 2: a twenty eight ounce barterhouse or tomahawk steak. Who can
Speaker 2: eat that? Yeah? In my old days, I could put
Speaker 2: a hurting on that, right, Ooh is good? I mean
Speaker 2: that's that could literally feed a family of four easily. Yeah, easily.
Speaker 2: And so I tell people I would rather have less
Speaker 2: of a really good cut of beef than a lot
Speaker 2: of a average cut of beef. You know, ebe four
Speaker 2: rounces all you need. Really. What's funny is you know
Speaker 2: half the times I leave half of what's on my plate,
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm up the generation where your mother
Speaker 2: said they're starving children in Africa who would love a
Speaker 2: meal like this, Well, why don't we box that up
Speaker 2: and ship it to them? You know? And who was
Speaker 2: not appreciated. But that said, you know, We come from
Speaker 2: a culture that's clean your plate, clean your plight, and
Speaker 2: so a lot of times I leave half what I've eaten,
Speaker 2: and of course the waiter is everything all right. And
Speaker 2: I cannot tell you the number of times I've had
Speaker 2: a chef come out and it was everything all right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: everything was fine. This is just all I can eat.
Speaker 1: Any food trends you see today that you think are overrated.
Speaker 2: I'm not crazy about the restaurants where it's like a
Speaker 2: twelve course like almost like tasting meal, because it starts
Speaker 2: getting into two hours, two and a half hours. You know,
Speaker 2: your butt's going dumb. You know, I remember what the
Speaker 2: first course was. You could stop.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about diner food. What's
Speaker 1: your go to diner? Order your pancakes, guy, bacon and eggs.
Speaker 2: I listen, when I was a kid, we thought, and
Speaker 2: we didn't know that my mother was trying to stretch
Speaker 2: a buck. But when we would have, you know, breakfast
Speaker 2: for dinner, you know, a couple of eggs and pancakes
Speaker 2: and a couple of slices of bacon, and we thought,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, this is the greatest thing. Mom's a genius,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm really more of a traditional you know,
Speaker 2: breakfast kind of almost like I hop you know, short
Speaker 2: stack two over easy eggs, a couple of slices of bacon,
Speaker 2: you know, real butter, real, real maple syrr. That's my
Speaker 2: diner go to for the morning after. And I don't
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be honest, I don't necessarily go to a
Speaker 2: diner at dinner time, but you know, lunch, late lunch
Speaker 2: said the grilled cheese, bacon, and fries. Also, I do
Speaker 2: like a good euro, uh, you know, which was part
Speaker 2: of my my my claim to fame in Seinfeld stealing
Speaker 2: in a Euro out of Jerry's hand at the Subway
Speaker 2: Union Turnpike. But uh, and I like so I like
Speaker 2: a Euro and fries. That's a that's a good alternative.
Speaker 1: Is there anything on a like, let's say, a typical
Speaker 1: diner menue that you would never order?
Speaker 2: Tongue? How do you know where? Do you know where
Speaker 2: one shots from the other begins? Yeah, I'm good tongue.
Speaker 1: You know, sweet bread, and.
Speaker 2: I stand away from the sweet bread. It's like I
Speaker 2: can't exactly remember what it is, but I know it's
Speaker 2: not sweet and I know it's not bread, right all right.
Speaker 1: So if you Al Roger wherever to find your way
Speaker 1: into Luke Steiner, what would your order? Where would you sit?
Speaker 2: I'd like it. I like the window booth. I like
Speaker 2: a window. That's that's that's nice. And uh I think
Speaker 2: I might get a I might get a good cheeseburger
Speaker 2: and fries and a vanilla shak.
Speaker 1: We do a good one there. That's a good order.
Speaker 1: All right? What's next for you? Any any upcoming projects? No?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I am very I'm very excited. I
Speaker 2: have debuting June seventh. I'm sorry, debuting July seventh on
Speaker 2: PBS Kids. I've got an animated kids show called the weather,
Speaker 2: called weather Hunters, and it's about a family. The dad
Speaker 2: is a TV weather man. His name is Al Hunter.
Speaker 2: His wife Dot is his producer. And there are three children, Corky, Lily,
Speaker 2: and Benny explore weather phenomenal and it's a fun show.
Speaker 2: I do the voice of Al Hunter. Holly Robinson Pete
Speaker 2: plays Dot, my wife. There are three terrific young actors
Speaker 2: playing my kids. Our next door neighbor ms Joyce is
Speaker 2: Shery Lee Ralph oh wow, We've got LeVar Burton plays.
Speaker 1: My grandfather studied cast.
Speaker 2: And we've got Nicole, You've got Brown. You've got Nicole Brown,
Speaker 2: who does the theme song.
Speaker 1: Oh that's fun.
Speaker 2: That sounds very excited. It starts July seventh at seven
Speaker 2: thirty am Monday through Friday. Actually it's seven days a
Speaker 2: week on PBS.
Speaker 1: Kids seven days a week. That's fantastic. But he must
Speaker 1: be busy.
Speaker 2: My first love is television, is animation. I want my
Speaker 2: I wanted to be an animator for Walt Disney. That
Speaker 2: was my Oh really kind of interesting. Got way late
Speaker 2: a bit, but you know, and part in part because
Speaker 2: I'm not really that good, but I've always got the animation.
Speaker 2: And this is this control. This combines my three passions,
Speaker 2: my family, although it's a family by proxy, my love
Speaker 2: of animation, and my love of weather. So it's it's
Speaker 2: this perfect nexus of everything I care about.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to ask you this question. What's
Speaker 1: your favorite season? You're the weather guy, what's your favorite season?
Speaker 2: You know, I think early summer, you know, it's not
Speaker 2: too hot, it's you know, my ideal weather is like
Speaker 2: eighty eighty three, eighty four, sunny, lower humidity, nice little breeze.
Speaker 2: You know, we have a house up state or awful lake,
Speaker 2: and you know, like you just either take the kayak
Speaker 2: or a pontoon boat out and sit out on the
Speaker 2: lake and just kind of bed.
Speaker 1: Nice listen.
Speaker 2: I like a brisk, cold winter day as much, and
Speaker 2: I love watching snowfall. You know, if only you know
Speaker 2: you had like the cat in the hat where you
Speaker 2: could make it all like instantly shoveled. It doesn't quite
Speaker 2: work that way.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, al, pleasure talking to you. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1: You've good luck on the new series on PBS, and
Speaker 1: the cookbook with your daughter sounds amazing. I'm gonna run
Speaker 1: out and get it all. The best to you. Uh
Speaker 1: Al Roker icon cultural hero, one of the most respected
Speaker 1: people in our business and a real honor to get
Speaker 1: a chance to talk to you. Thank you, sir for
Speaker 1: your times. Everybody tell again. Follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com.