Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey, welcome to Beyond the Scenes.
Speaker 1: Now I've tried to explain what this podcast is. Do
Speaker 1: you know what this podcast is? This podcast is after
Speaker 1: you've had a great night in the club and then
Speaker 1: you go out on a sidewalk and there's a hot
Speaker 1: dog on a grill. It's not even a grill, it's
Speaker 1: someone who's created a grill type device, and its savory,
Speaker 1: and it's bacon wrapped and it's delicious. It was exactly
Speaker 1: what you needed. You only left the house to go
Speaker 1: to the club, but you left with a bacon wrapped
Speaker 1: hot dog under questionable sanitary conditions. That's what this podcast
Speaker 1: is all about. And this week I've got food on
Speaker 1: my mind because we are talking about pizza and how
Speaker 1: it relates to the criminal justice system.
Speaker 2: The clip, Oh, this is what people in Chicago called pizza.
Speaker 2: Where can I find a decent slice in the city?
Speaker 3: So this stupid bull.
Speaker 2: I couldn't find a single place that sold real pizza,
Speaker 2: just these deep dish dough dumpster This isn't pizza, this
Speaker 2: isn't even human food. After hours of only deep dish,
Speaker 2: I finally found a place that served delicious, normal pizza
Speaker 2: pie the Cook County Jail. This gourmet pizza. It's actually
Speaker 2: made by and sold to inmates as part of a
Speaker 2: training program called Recipe for Change.
Speaker 3: You know, recidivism rates like seventy percent. It's expensive to
Speaker 3: incarcerate people. It's not expensive to give him a skill.
Speaker 2: The man giving them that skill local restaurateur chef Bruno
Speaker 2: about it, who volunteers his time and expertise to teach
Speaker 2: inmates how to cook the best pizza in Chicago.
Speaker 1: We are talking about food and a twenty seventeen piece
Speaker 1: that focused on an organization called the Recipe for Change Program,
Speaker 1: and it's a program that helps people that are incarcerated
Speaker 1: in Chicago's Cook County Jail to learn how to make
Speaker 1: the best pizza in town and take those skills back
Speaker 1: out into the world to do something amazing with their lives.
Speaker 1: To help us break this down a little later, is
Speaker 1: the CEO and creator of that program, the wonderful, wonderful
Speaker 1: chef Bruno Abat. But now joining us it's Daily Show
Speaker 1: Segment director Sebastian Dinatal and Daily Show correspondent run A
Speaker 1: Chang Aye.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: Now, Sebastian, because you are Italian. Should I start with you?
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
Speaker 2: What's the workest way for me to do this? Well,
Speaker 2: usually it's just not the onscreen talent, but whatever.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, but you're not really the talent in this case.
Speaker 4: The piece is the talent.
Speaker 3: I know that was really relevant to this whole thing,
Speaker 3: But go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ronnie. As an ally to our Marinera Americans, I
Speaker 1: think it is important that we asked them first what
Speaker 1: they feel comfortable with when we're talking about pizza.
Speaker 3: Fine, sure, go ahead, yeah.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 4: And and we're recording this very close to Christopher Columbus Day,
Speaker 4: so it's very important that we as a people finally
Speaker 4: have a voice. I'm giving a voice to the voiceless, really,
Speaker 4: so thank you for having me on and understanding the
Speaker 4: play of Italians that we face every day.
Speaker 1: What is the gist of this piece running for the
Speaker 1: people who haven't seen it?
Speaker 2: Cook County Jail in Chicago had a program where they
Speaker 2: taught incarcerated people there how to make pizza while they
Speaker 2: were incarcerated, to kind of make use of at time,
Speaker 2: so they have the skill sets when they leave. That's
Speaker 2: the top level cliff notes of what we knew of
Speaker 2: the story going in coming out of it, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I learned a lot more. I'll let you
Speaker 2: get to it, but that's the kind of almost the
Speaker 2: the most basic way I could describe what's going on here.
Speaker 1: And I know in the piece, sebastians whose decision was
Speaker 1: it to have Runnie destroy all of these beautiful Deep
Speaker 1: Dish pizzas in the spirit of him going to the jail.
Speaker 4: And that was my decision and all entirely my decision.
Speaker 4: I'm a proud New Yorker and a proud lover of
Speaker 4: food and pizza and Italian. We were tasked to do
Speaker 4: a piece about Chicago, specifically because we were doing a
Speaker 4: series we were doing a week of shows in Chicago.
Speaker 4: When this piece came around, I kind of wanted to
Speaker 4: start it off as like a Ronnie foodie kind of piece,
Speaker 4: to make people think it was about like, oh, Chicago
Speaker 4: Deep Dish Daily Show is going to really rip into
Speaker 4: Chicago Deep Dish. But we and like every other New
Speaker 4: York based.
Speaker 5: Show has done that a million times.
Speaker 4: So after the first minute, we realize it's not just
Speaker 4: a piece shooting on Chicago Deep Dish pizza, which it is,
Speaker 4: but it has another layer to it, which is the
Speaker 4: rehabilitation aspect that I really wanted to explore. But yeah,
Speaker 4: we had way more takes and different shots of destroying
Speaker 4: pizzas that sadly we had to cut for time. But
Speaker 4: I was I took so much pleasure in Ronnie punting
Speaker 4: those pizzas throwing.
Speaker 5: Them in the river.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in the archives. You gotta have to check the archives.
Speaker 6: I mean.
Speaker 2: I was also mentioned this was Sebastian's actual Fusts piece
Speaker 2: out in the field. This got out of the office,
Speaker 2: managed to get on the field with us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how Sebastian, How difficult was it working with the
Speaker 1: Cook County Jail to speak with people on the inside
Speaker 1: that were going through this program, Like, what's that process?
Speaker 1: Because I've never done that on this show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess one of the advantages of it being
Speaker 4: a first piece, which I really wasn't sure what any
Speaker 4: protocols for any of it was. So I would just
Speaker 4: you know, ask a segment producer or my boss or
Speaker 4: a coordinator like, hey, have we done this before?
Speaker 5: Can we do this? Can we talk to a jail?
Speaker 4: And they were like, we can reach out And normally
Speaker 4: in the past it's been kind of tougher to get
Speaker 4: inside of jails and film there. But I think when
Speaker 4: we pitched this to the Cook County Jail and the
Speaker 4: Sheriff Tom Dart in his office, we really wanted to
Speaker 4: focus and make it a point to say, like, this
Speaker 4: is we really want to highlight this program. It's such
Speaker 4: an incredible program, and we want to feature these people
Speaker 4: that are part of the program as well as the owner.
Speaker 4: This is something we want to really highlight that we
Speaker 4: think is really good for criminal justice reform. And that
Speaker 4: was and they were like, great, Sure, as long as
Speaker 4: you don't, like, you know, make any jokes about like
Speaker 4: escaping prison or anything.
Speaker 5: That was the That was the kind of yeah, that's
Speaker 5: the only.
Speaker 4: Stipulation that they had up top was like, yeah, just
Speaker 4: keep it to the program.
Speaker 2: And imagine what we the first the very first thing
Speaker 2: we did was.
Speaker 1: Charity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I filming a schedule we escape from prison.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In October twenty seventeen, Ronnie Chang smuggled thin Crust pizza
Speaker 1: out of Cook County Jail. Oh Ronnick loved pizza, but
Speaker 1: he also hated Chicago beet dish. He had to find
Speaker 1: a way to get thin Cruss pizza to the people
Speaker 1: of Chicago. All it takes to get pizza out is cheese,
Speaker 1: dough and time. That and a big ass poster. Ronnie
Speaker 1: Chang he crawled through a river Marinetta and came out
Speaker 1: smelling like basin.
Speaker 4: But you know you got to give you yeah, and
Speaker 4: never find they afterwards where they were like, yeah, we
Speaker 4: wish you hadn't done that, But the piece is great,
Speaker 4: so thanks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but can we talk a bit about that little segment,
Speaker 2: because I mean it was too seconds in the whole
Speaker 2: field piece, but it took like hours of filming, and
Speaker 2: it was me crawling in the fall, cold in Chicago,
Speaker 2: in in tomato sauce out of a tube in the
Speaker 2: middle of a field.
Speaker 5: And that was house.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was crawling out this tube covered in tomato sauce
Speaker 2: into cold field and roll. You know, in the field.
Speaker 2: It's not like there's you know, there's not like a
Speaker 2: hot room waiting for you. You're just after you crawl
Speaker 2: out of a tube in tomato sauce when just outside
Speaker 2: you're just outside, wet in tomato sauce.
Speaker 3: For about an hour.
Speaker 2: And Maya Ericson, who works at the show now, she
Speaker 2: that was one of her first kind of pa jows
Speaker 2: a production assistant jobs and she went to go buy
Speaker 2: me some sweatpants from the.
Speaker 5: Local All Star. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: By the way, the sweatpants that she bought me was amazing,
Speaker 2: Like I still use it till today, four years later.
Speaker 2: I used it for flying. It's one of the best
Speaker 2: no brand sweatpants I've ever seen. So shout out Maya
Speaker 2: forgave me that.
Speaker 1: Former Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams, you know, she told me,
Speaker 1: Ronnie when we first started in twenty fifteen, she like
Speaker 1: pulls me to the side. There's a lot I could
Speaker 1: tell you about this job, but the only thing you
Speaker 1: need to know is that sometimes you're going to be
Speaker 1: changing clothes in strange places. You're going to have to
Speaker 1: learn how to do that. Often, if you're changing clothes
Speaker 1: in strange places, it's probably a good piece. So then
Speaker 1: with everything that's going on with this piece running and
Speaker 1: you're crawling around, which also, by the way, I didn't
Speaker 1: know that that was part of the piece, because like
Speaker 1: when we're picking all of these Chicago pieces, you know,
Speaker 1: some of us are pitching stuff and we see other
Speaker 1: Chicago stories that are on the board. There's probably like
Speaker 1: eight or nine stories that we know we're only going
Speaker 1: to get to four or five. And I saw Deep
Speaker 1: Dish and I was like, hmm, I think I want
Speaker 1: Deep Dish. Like, now, you know what, let me do
Speaker 1: the game territory things. And I'm gonna be honest, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of glad I did the gang territory thing because
Speaker 1: I remained dry.
Speaker 2: Well, hey, you know what again that Sebastian said, the
Speaker 2: context of these were Daily Show was live in Chicago,
Speaker 2: and so the mandate was we wanted to do a
Speaker 2: week of field pieces in Chicago, and so that's the
Speaker 2: context around this piece, so that that kind of motivated
Speaker 2: the research and the pitching behind this piece. But to
Speaker 2: be honest, I mean, this piece was great, even if
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I'm glad we got an excuse
Speaker 2: to find this story because of our focus on Chicago
Speaker 2: for that week. But this was a great story regardless.
Speaker 2: And I don't want to jump the gun here. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to answer your questions. Guy, I got so much
Speaker 2: to say about this field piece, but I personally learned
Speaker 2: a lot doing it, you know, beyond just the comedy elements.
Speaker 2: And also I'm not from America, so when there was
Speaker 2: this like Deep Dish Chicago rivalry. I was like, you
Speaker 2: know what, I don't even care. I'll say whatever you
Speaker 2: want me to say. It's not my fight. I was
Speaker 2: just apparently people, Hey, Deep Dish, Okay, I'll play that game.
Speaker 4: Say this about Ronnie, And I don't compliment him almost ever.
Speaker 4: But of the correspondence, all of you guys are are
Speaker 4: very down, but Ronnie is always the most down to
Speaker 4: do literally whatever I ask of him, or any of
Speaker 4: us ask of him. And you know, if I had
Speaker 4: asked you or Costa or DESI, can you get into
Speaker 4: this tube filled the marinara sauce? You would eventually do it.
Speaker 1: But why what is the joke?
Speaker 4: Ye, there'd be a discussion and I think I'd just
Speaker 4: crawl through.
Speaker 1: And then you add sauce in the computer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, in graphics.
Speaker 4: And I think what was so good about having Ronnie
Speaker 4: was he trusts all of us immensely with what our
Speaker 4: visions are.
Speaker 5: And he also just doesn't.
Speaker 4: Give a shit about like what people are like observing,
Speaker 4: because there were a lot of people giving us looks
Speaker 4: when we were like stomping on pizzas and throwing them
Speaker 4: against the walls and stuff.
Speaker 5: But he was just like so down.
Speaker 4: It just it helps so much with the process to
Speaker 4: have talent that is just on board from the get go,
Speaker 4: so you can be out in the field and you're
Speaker 4: not like you're saying Roy having these like conversations like
Speaker 4: all right, throw the pizza out, and then they're like, wait.
Speaker 5: Wait, wait, why am I throwing the what? What is
Speaker 5: the motivate? Bla blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: And Ronnie just has like a complete kind of blind trust,
Speaker 4: which is helpful to allow us to like get as
Speaker 4: many crazy kind of moments.
Speaker 1: Honey, Ronnie Chanin is the goal standard in the building
Speaker 1: for how daring are you willing to go? How much?
Speaker 1: How far are you going to go to do something?
Speaker 1: And that's always It's the thing I kind of mumble
Speaker 1: to myself sometimes and it's some of the other correspondents too,
Speaker 1: but it's, well, should I do this? Yes, you have
Speaker 1: to do this. Never forget Ronnie Chang eight half a
Speaker 1: stick of butter on live television and swallowed it.
Speaker 3: I mean, hey, I take off the you guys, that's right.
Speaker 1: You didn't get that from me.
Speaker 2: Hey man, I'm not in Chicago gang territory trying to
Speaker 2: do comedy. I'm just Roy Pizza as the city people
Speaker 2: who are used to seeing everything.
Speaker 1: Top three wildest things on the air in my opinion
Speaker 1: in the history of The Daily Show. Top three wildest
Speaker 1: things Steve Carell eating a spoonful of Crisco, Ronnie Change
Speaker 1: eating half a stick of butter, and Costa and I
Speaker 1: when we went out to do the Florida algaepiece in
Speaker 1: the swamp. Yea and Costa was standing with no mask
Speaker 1: on next to a full green algapoom for the photo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's a gorgeous photo. But bro, that is some
Speaker 1: toxic shit right there three feet from your nostrils.
Speaker 3: What are you doing well? Hey? Daily Show? Top three?
Speaker 3: We made it.
Speaker 2: Deftifying comedy acts.
Speaker 1: After the break, we're gonna talk with the founder and
Speaker 1: President of Recipe for Change, Chef Bruno, aboute about why
Speaker 1: he does what he does, and what he thinks of
Speaker 1: Sebastian Lander of the Deep Dish. Joining us now is
Speaker 1: the gentleman that is the founder and the creator and
Speaker 1: the president and the CEO and the five star General
Speaker 1: of Recipe for Change. I'm not sure if those are
Speaker 1: all his exact titles, but Chef Bruno abate did I
Speaker 1: pronounced that right, brother Abate, Yes, yes, right, perfect, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: you see that, Sebastian.
Speaker 6: Yeah, one of the few. Want to say my last name.
Speaker 6: Everybody said I bought the baby. So before we start evertaking,
Speaker 6: I have a question that I never had to RUnni
Speaker 6: for the last four years when I saw you the
Speaker 6: last time. We'll pay for the sauce of the mazzarella
Speaker 6: that you have on your tube and new pants.
Speaker 3: Oh we got donations for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, donation move from the people of Chicago who
Speaker 2: supported the piece.
Speaker 6: Okay, that's why I saw that. I said, that's not
Speaker 6: my mozzarella. That mozzarella was coming from the deep dish
Speaker 6: pizza and it looks greasy and bad. And even the
Speaker 6: marinada the collar, the collar was not really red like
Speaker 6: the Italian tomato. It was like a.
Speaker 5: Chef. We didn't want to use your glue.
Speaker 4: We would never disrespect you, would Yeah, we didn't want
Speaker 4: to use your ingredients because in filming, you know, you
Speaker 4: go through a lot of them and you destroy them,
Speaker 4: and we didn't want to Yours are so sacred.
Speaker 5: We didn't want to use yours. Those are ingredients.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're just some public school marinerative.
Speaker 3: Probably some of it was blood. It wasn't even Mariana.
Speaker 1: Yeah, only a chef would critique the food. The quality
Speaker 1: of the food used to crawl through. That is real chef,
Speaker 1: high standards. He's got high standards, man. I saw that
Speaker 1: when I was in his program. He's got very high
Speaker 1: stand uh Roy, I'll let you get into it. But yes,
Speaker 1: so let's talk a little bit about Recipe for change. Chef.
Speaker 1: What was the impetus for you starting that program? What
Speaker 1: did you see? What problem did you see in Chicago
Speaker 1: that you believe pizza could solve?
Speaker 6: Well, I you know, uh listen, I never see any
Speaker 6: problem why I'm an immigrant. I came in this country
Speaker 6: to do what all the immigrants do work. I tried
Speaker 6: to make a better future for for the family and
Speaker 6: uh and be a respectable uh cerizen. So, I don't
Speaker 6: ever know idea uh that you know this will happen
Speaker 6: to me about the jail and uh and uh so,
Speaker 6: like I say many times, and it was really a
Speaker 6: call from God and uh so it just happened one night.
Speaker 6: And hold this happened to me. And I never been
Speaker 6: in prison in jail, I don't have a history with
Speaker 6: my family have a prison on jail. So it really
Speaker 6: was truly a call. And I start right down what
Speaker 6: could I do to change the prison system in America?
Speaker 6: After I saw this documentary a treetury in the morning.
Speaker 6: There America, there's beautiful country incarcerated, you know, two thousand
Speaker 6: and seven hundred and kids, you know, under fourteen with
Speaker 6: a life in prison with no perole at the time.
Speaker 6: Think about it, there was you know, americancarcerated kids at
Speaker 6: ten years old, eleven years old, twelve years old. I
Speaker 6: don't know, if you guys have a kids and think
Speaker 6: about it, just a stop for a second. If you
Speaker 6: have a kid and think about a kid at ten
Speaker 6: eleven years old? Be life in prison? Are you say?
Speaker 6: In the America? What the fuck?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think that's universal across all languages right there.
Speaker 6: But you know, everything makes sense after a while, and I,
Speaker 6: you know, I was all this miracle happened and I
Speaker 6: was in uh in junior prison after two weeks to
Speaker 6: start teaching those kids. Try to make you know, some food,
Speaker 6: and they don't understand me when I was talking while
Speaker 6: you see, my accent is very strong, my English is
Speaker 6: not that good, and I don't understand them or why
Speaker 6: they speak really you know, the American.
Speaker 1: English plusience.
Speaker 6: But there was some connection. There was some connection when
Speaker 6: I was taking the spoon and say hey, taste, try
Speaker 6: and they were making faces. So there I start funding
Speaker 6: the connection between the food and them. And and so
Speaker 6: every time I was going there, it was it was
Speaker 6: a pot of the eyes. I discovered that, you know,
Speaker 6: they were making me bad. Every time I was going
Speaker 6: out to the teaching the class, I feel bad and bad,
Speaker 6: I feel with more energy, Oh my god. And that's
Speaker 6: what I gave me the power to continue and to
Speaker 6: think more, what can I do more? What can I
Speaker 6: do more? And that's you know. Now I am in
Speaker 6: the Cook County jail and Ronnie saw everybody saw on
Speaker 6: TV our beauty for our teaching is and what we do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what's really amazing about your program, Chef,
Speaker 1: is that you know, on the one hand, of course,
Speaker 1: it's teaching job skills that are translatable once you get
Speaker 1: to the outside, because we talk about America's prison system
Speaker 1: being a place for punishment instead of a real place
Speaker 1: for rehabilitation to learn skills. But what you also instilling
Speaker 1: is like this level of dignity, something to create, something
Speaker 1: to have a sense of pridey and something that you
Speaker 1: can pour yourself into. And I think that's what makes
Speaker 1: everything that you're doing, just top to bottom so amazing.
Speaker 6: You know a lot of people think I do this
Speaker 6: program why for the job. People don't understand the job
Speaker 6: is not the solution. The solution is to restore what's
Speaker 6: brokenside of these people, the nity, the self esteem, the
Speaker 6: old believe in themselves. So this is all the little
Speaker 6: pieces that we need to connect with them. It's not
Speaker 6: about the job. But by provide a job, I mean
Speaker 6: I used to have the restaurant in downtown and everybody
Speaker 6: was coming out and I tried myself and my own
Speaker 6: skin come to work. Soon you get out and they
Speaker 6: were coming to work, they were like, you know, a
Speaker 6: panic attack. They having panic attack, They having problem, they
Speaker 6: don't know what do and you know, soon they get
Speaker 6: some money, they go back or to do the same
Speaker 6: the same lifestyle. So the program is based on give
Speaker 6: you back to make you believe you can do it,
Speaker 6: in make you believe that you know, you are a
Speaker 6: human like anyone and we make mistakes, but you know
Speaker 6: we can forget the mistake and start a new life
Speaker 6: anytime we want. And so that's what the problem is about,
Speaker 6: you know, making them believe they can do it, and
Speaker 6: make them understand. I mean, you know, hey, if you
Speaker 6: sell drugs, how much the money you make fifteen thousand
Speaker 6: a year, twenty thousand a year. If you go to work,
Speaker 6: you're got to make more money and you're not risking
Speaker 6: to be in prison for five, six, seven years. So
Speaker 6: that's what I said to them, I say, how much
Speaker 6: the money did you make selling drugs last year? Twenty thousand?
Speaker 6: Then you're not a good business man.
Speaker 1: Some bad drugs.
Speaker 2: Respectfully, it makes sense, right, Yeah, that's what's so cool
Speaker 2: about Chef is that he's I found him equal pots, inspirational,
Speaker 2: aspirational and practical. So the way he approached the program
Speaker 2: was all of those things.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just that's all be better people. It's like,
Speaker 2: you can make more money if you're a better of us.
Speaker 1: It's like, this makes perfect sense. Goods, good will sells
Speaker 1: better than cocaine. Chef. Another question, well, let me this.
Speaker 1: Let me ask Sebastian and Running a question first, and
Speaker 1: it's going to tie to something I have for you, Chef,
Speaker 1: Sebastian Running, was there anything in the piece that did
Speaker 1: not make it in that you had to edit out
Speaker 1: like ah, because when you somebody like Chef doing all
Speaker 1: this great stuff, you also still have to balance that
Speaker 1: with jokes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were pretty lean in terms of what we
Speaker 4: shot with Chef himself, not only the conversational part of it.
Speaker 4: I mean there was oh my god, Yeah, we cut
Speaker 4: a ton of the chef roasting deep dish with Ronnie.
Speaker 4: They're like they're standing at like a table, and yet
Speaker 4: Chef was like for like a half an hour to
Speaker 4: forty five minutes, just like insult after insult on deep
Speaker 4: dish pizza. That like, it was funnier than I could
Speaker 4: have ever written, any of our writers could have written.
Speaker 5: Just slamming it.
Speaker 2: Chef, what do you think about this deep dish pizza?
Speaker 6: It's it's gotta beach. People should not eat this. It's
Speaker 6: like a brick. Look at this.
Speaker 5: Look.
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't know where do you buy this?
Speaker 1: I don't want to know, but this is shade.
Speaker 4: That was the hardest stuff to cut because he was
Speaker 4: like literally figuratively ripping into it and then literally ripping
Speaker 4: the pizza apart. And yeah, that was the best stuff.
Speaker 4: That was the hardest to cut because he like, and
Speaker 4: he threw in the trash and all that whole See,
Speaker 4: I didn't I usually am very very controlling in particular
Speaker 4: about what I want to capture on camera, but almost
Speaker 4: that entire scene where Ronnie's like, well, describe what's wrong
Speaker 4: with deep dish pizza.
Speaker 5: Bruno just went off.
Speaker 4: I didn't give him any direction and he threw it
Speaker 4: in the trash can. I didn't even know that was coming,
Speaker 4: so we had to follow that. But that whole thing
Speaker 4: was so beautiful. It was very coming from a very
Speaker 4: authentic place as well.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, you know, yeah that and he.
Speaker 2: Hates wasting food man, so for him to, yeah, for
Speaker 2: him to throw away a deep Dish, it was he
Speaker 2: doesn't even consider this human food.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I tried to keep as much of him talking about
Speaker 4: the program because that's what the piece was about, as
Speaker 4: best I could. And so, yeah, we didn't cut almost
Speaker 4: any of the program stuff, any of the stuff with
Speaker 4: the participants.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The other stuff that we just cut with mostly just
Speaker 4: joke stuff, more pizza stuff, some Ronnie interactions.
Speaker 1: So Sebastian Ronnie, what I really wish could have been
Speaker 1: in a piece, And there's only so much time. I
Speaker 1: was just always curious. When people are doing good things
Speaker 1: in the community without a doubt, there's always some asshole
Speaker 1: or some group of people who don't support it or
Speaker 1: try to find something wrong with it. Chef, what are
Speaker 1: some of the resistance that you found to your program
Speaker 1: over the years. Who are your hater? Chef? That's what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to ask you, very bluntly. Who doesn't like
Speaker 1: deep dish in the jail?
Speaker 6: Oh? My god, nobody likes the deep dish shit, right,
Speaker 6: you know, they call it the deep shit.
Speaker 3: Chef.
Speaker 2: Roy's asking you, who is opposing your program.
Speaker 1: Or are you? Are you well? Do you feel supported
Speaker 1: by your community in this program or do you have
Speaker 1: people that are giving you resistance?
Speaker 6: I think we are. You know, we we know, we
Speaker 6: know there's a sum separation and everything. A lot of
Speaker 6: people they don't care, you know, a lot of people
Speaker 6: there's a why we have the situation in America. A
Speaker 6: lot of people say, you know, these people should be
Speaker 6: in jail forever. There's a criminal you know so, and
Speaker 6: but we do. We are fortune that we have more
Speaker 6: people they think deferenter. They think that we should rehabilitated
Speaker 6: the people that should support our program, you know, and
Speaker 6: I have to say that I never personally, you know,
Speaker 6: hear anyone say to me, actually I don't like the program,
Speaker 6: or you should not do it, or something like that.
Speaker 6: You know, I was budgemental to that point. We uh.
Speaker 4: I was trying to in the beginning look for people
Speaker 4: opposed to like as the as the first time piece.
Speaker 4: For me, the the formula is always to find a
Speaker 4: really cool thing or a good thing and then find
Speaker 4: someone opposed to it make fun of that person. But
Speaker 4: for this piece, I was I couldn't find anyone other
Speaker 4: than some like really fringe like people belong in jail
Speaker 4: forever and can't be rehabilitated kind of nut jobs that
Speaker 4: I wasn't interested in interviewing.
Speaker 5: But across the.
Speaker 4: Board, and I think the Sheriff Tom Dart was a
Speaker 4: huge proponent of this, and he had a ton of
Speaker 4: Chef Bruno correct me if I'm wrong, But I feel
Speaker 4: like there were a couple of programs like yours Recipe
Speaker 4: for change, like gardening program there there was a good
Speaker 4: amount of rehabilitation programs going on that seemed to be
Speaker 4: like overwhelmingly supported by most people in the community, which
Speaker 4: is why for me it was this piece was such
Speaker 4: a slam dunk.
Speaker 5: It was like we can really highlight some good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we found a rare thing in America that I
Speaker 2: think everyone can get behind. Especially on paper, it's already
Speaker 2: a good idea, but when you go and see what
Speaker 2: they're actually doing, you gain another level of respect. Which
Speaker 2: is what happened to me of what was going on,
Speaker 2: of the mutual respect happening in the in the kitchen,
Speaker 2: what they were actually doing, the skills do a learning,
Speaker 2: you know, even the even even the financial reasons, like
Speaker 2: chef would tell me, like he just bring his own
Speaker 2: ingredients in, so he would it would have cost to
Speaker 2: stay any money, you know, in some examples. I don't
Speaker 2: put you on the spot, Chef, But what I'm saying
Speaker 2: is that it was all around like a like a
Speaker 2: good thing for everybody. Well the red things in America
Speaker 2: where it seems like everybody run from this.
Speaker 7: Everyone in the Cook County gam wants to be a
Speaker 7: part of this great program.
Speaker 3: I learned how to be a met a leader.
Speaker 6: I learned how to work with a lot of other people.
Speaker 5: I basically I've learned how to eat better.
Speaker 1: Chef, what is it about deep dish pizza that gets
Speaker 1: you so upset.
Speaker 3: Don't start.
Speaker 6: It made me upset. Why it's a good idea. It's
Speaker 6: a good idea. The pizza is a good idea. The
Speaker 6: pizza the way they want to do it. You know,
Speaker 6: in Italia we call a focasa. So it means, you know,
Speaker 6: uh uh, the two dough while you have one on
Speaker 6: the bottom, one on top, and then you kind of
Speaker 6: feeling that in the middle. The problem means, you know,
Speaker 6: when you're using you know, a pound of cheese and
Speaker 6: then a pound of saucy, and the quality is also
Speaker 6: so it's so bad. And that's what you know. When
Speaker 6: you come to Chicago, you see a lot of you know,
Speaker 6: a lot of people over wa eat why they eat
Speaker 6: that pizza? So I'm against why there is a way
Speaker 6: to make something light, call it deep dish pizza. But
Speaker 6: you can do light. You can do with the mozzarella debuffal.
Speaker 6: You can do some with the Summersano tomato. If you
Speaker 6: use all the bad ingredients and you put it like,
Speaker 6: you know, two pounds of a stuff inside, it's become
Speaker 6: like a brick. Like I say in the show, it's
Speaker 6: a breek it's not a pizza. And that's one's life.
Speaker 6: It's like you know, you're eating a break because in
Speaker 6: your stomach and bob. So that's what I don't like
Speaker 6: about it is phenomenal, you know. I wish I could
Speaker 6: make one for you right now and see a light
Speaker 6: welcome you know, if you want to, if you want
Speaker 6: to stop. It's like you know about quantity and not
Speaker 6: the quality, and that's what it makes me crazy.
Speaker 1: Chef. I appreciate your sentiment for good ingredients, but you
Speaker 1: are talking to a man that eats McDonald's, Rby's and Subway.
Speaker 1: But thank you. Nonetheless, I have a question about the
Speaker 1: evolution of your program. Now. I know that your program
Speaker 1: has evolved since you last talked with Ronnie, could you
Speaker 1: talk to us a little bit about the food truck
Speaker 1: program and what you're doing for women and also the golf.
Speaker 6: Well not only not only that, I mean, you know,
Speaker 6: the good thing is that Ronnie said before and he
Speaker 6: touch a good point is you know I don't ask
Speaker 6: no money to stay to go vernment nothing. This is
Speaker 6: all private money. I own a restaurant, I know millions
Speaker 6: of people and that's what I do every day. Please
Speaker 6: donate a dollar and that's how we we got the
Speaker 6: money and sense the show the Daily show. We have
Speaker 6: a beautiful kitchen a woman. We create a woman division,
Speaker 6: so now we allly we teach also the women and
Speaker 6: we we have like almost seven thousand square feet of kitchen.
Speaker 6: After that too, before COVID, we raise the money to
Speaker 6: buy a truck and now we have those beautiful toty
Speaker 6: feet uh truck that we bought it and uh and
Speaker 6: now we are in the process to building a kitchen inside.
Speaker 6: The goal of the truck is to this time a
Speaker 6: little difference. I want to see if I can break
Speaker 6: these rules. I'm not sure. I would be my dream
Speaker 6: to utilize the people that have minimum crime so they
Speaker 6: can go out of the gel and the money go
Speaker 6: on the truck work and when after the finish their work,
Speaker 6: they go back.
Speaker 1: To the gel work release.
Speaker 6: It's a kind of rehabilitation. You know. Now I'm really in.
Speaker 6: I'm going to work. Then I come back, you know,
Speaker 6: in the same place, but just to sleep. So from there,
Speaker 6: if we have a profit, okay, the part of the
Speaker 6: profit will go in an account for the people. For
Speaker 6: those people they work, so when they go out, they're
Speaker 6: going to have some money.
Speaker 1: It makes sense, what I say, Yes, sir.
Speaker 4: That's great and that's different than what it used to
Speaker 4: be because when we started there, that was a big
Speaker 4: conceit of the piece was that you could only sell
Speaker 4: and give the pizza to incarcerated people, right like you
Speaker 4: couldn't sell it outside of the prison or the jail.
Speaker 5: So that's that's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 6: And all the profits to consider that, you know, we
Speaker 6: have a we don't when I say profit, we don't
Speaker 6: have a billion, like you know, we have a very
Speaker 6: little a few thousand dollars. But you know, forty percent
Speaker 6: we give you back to the Cook County. It goes
Speaker 6: into programs to other to help other programs while other problems.
Speaker 6: They're in jail, they don't have money. So you know
Speaker 6: the person who comes to read the Bible all other stuff,
Speaker 6: so we we help them with their money to we
Speaker 6: founded more program in Co County jail with the money
Speaker 6: we make promm.
Speaker 1: So let me get this right, chef, you self fund
Speaker 1: the program to help people learn how to make pizza,
Speaker 1: but you're really giving them life skills. Then you set
Speaker 1: up a food truck that they can go and apply
Speaker 1: the pizza skills on. And then the money made from
Speaker 1: the food truck, you splitting with the county so that
Speaker 1: they can make other programs better. Oh my god, you
Speaker 1: might make me hate Deep Dish. I might hate Deep
Speaker 1: Dish pizza for a week on your behalf, just to
Speaker 1: honor you, chef.
Speaker 2: Not to mention making great food as well if you
Speaker 2: actually try, the food is amazing. The food is actually amazing.
Speaker 2: It adds to the culinary landscape of Chicago.
Speaker 6: The goal is to have in the end, you know,
Speaker 6: some money that I can put on the side that
Speaker 6: when you go out, you have something to start and
Speaker 6: you don't have to go back on the street and
Speaker 6: sell drugs to pay your rent or to eat. Now
Speaker 6: you're gonna have some money. We're gonna teach you, We're
Speaker 6: gonna find a job for you. We're gonna see how
Speaker 6: you cannot go back, you know, in the same system.
Speaker 1: Indeed, so last question for your chef, and we'll get
Speaker 1: you out of here. What can people that aren't as
Speaker 1: connected as you or as famous as you, or their
Speaker 1: restaurant is smaller and they're not and they don't have
Speaker 1: the same financial capabilities as you. What can people who
Speaker 1: aren't celebrity chefs do to get involved in their communities?
Speaker 1: We need more chef Brunos.
Speaker 6: Well, I know, listen, I've been I'm really I'm not.
Speaker 6: I'm not rich. I'm still uggling every day here. I
Speaker 6: work fifty hours a day.
Speaker 1: Have you thought about selling drugs?
Speaker 6: I don't have a lot of money, believe me. I
Speaker 6: just know. My goal is always got up in the money.
Speaker 6: I pray, I say, God, give me the energy to
Speaker 6: do something good every day, and that's what I want
Speaker 6: to do. And then I'm worried about my employee, my
Speaker 6: employee of a family. And so every chef can do something.
Speaker 6: Just connect with with your sister, connect with gel where
Speaker 6: you are, go offer yourself and say no what I'm
Speaker 6: coming Once a week, I'm bringing mind reading. Can I
Speaker 6: teach them people? That's what I've done. I used to
Speaker 6: do one hundred miles away every Monday to go in
Speaker 6: the prison of Saint Charles, bring my own food and
Speaker 6: stay there right now, and you know, and teach those guys. Finally,
Speaker 6: we have a problem to fund people to work. And
Speaker 6: you're gonna find a lot of good people in the system.
Speaker 6: They need a chance. So go there and teach them.
Speaker 6: You're gonna found a lot of people they want to work.
Speaker 6: So this is gonna help us also in the restaurant business.
Speaker 6: Now that we have a big problem, we can pand
Speaker 6: the dishwasher. We're gonna pound a chef. We're gonna fand
Speaker 6: anybody now even to make it the ugly dish pizza.
Speaker 6: You know. So I think that's what the chef should do,
Speaker 6: just to be involved with your community. That's how you
Speaker 6: started everything. It's like a movement. Then we can stop
Speaker 6: all the chef the chef movement in America, go and
Speaker 6: teach people in prison, in jail. It makes sense. So no,
Speaker 6: sounds great. I like the chef movement. We should we
Speaker 6: should get these worlds.
Speaker 1: Doc I just I just copied it and I already
Speaker 1: got t shirts for sale. So thanks thanks for the idea.
Speaker 1: Though it's called recipe for change program. He is Chef
Speaker 1: Bruno Abatte brother. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: We got one more break. We're gonna speak with one
Speaker 1: of your graduates. Actually, but thank you, chef for extending
Speaker 1: to us a little bit of your time. I will
Speaker 1: leave you now to the rest of your day where
Speaker 1: you can slander deep dish pizza on the internet. Thank
Speaker 1: you for going beyondest with me, Chef.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Thank you guys. Really, I really appreciate it
Speaker 6: that you know you remember us, and I hope this
Speaker 6: will be a big guy, Ronnie, I love you.
Speaker 2: I love your chef. I'll see you soon. I'm coming
Speaker 2: to Chicago. I'm doing a show that I'll come and
Speaker 2: see you. I'll come by a restaurant.
Speaker 6: Yeah, please come over. Okay, come to the rest I
Speaker 6: want to see you.
Speaker 3: Okay, we'll do.
Speaker 6: Thank you, guys, Thank you, God bless you. The Chef movement.
Speaker 1: Ronnie is still here with me, segment director Sebastian di
Speaker 1: natal is still here with me and joining us now.
Speaker 1: This brother is a graduate of the Recipe of Change program.
Speaker 1: It was also featured in the original segment with Ronnie
Speaker 1: Dione Gillespie. Welcome to Beyond the Scenes.
Speaker 7: Oh, thank you, thank you, happy.
Speaker 6: To be here.
Speaker 3: Good to hear from you.
Speaker 6: Man, Thank you. Nice you again.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm gonna be honest. You know, as one of
Speaker 1: Ronnie's many black friends, you know, anytime and gets added
Speaker 1: to the rotation, I'm like, you know, who is this running?
Speaker 1: You know what is this person all about? Got to
Speaker 1: make sure folks on the square, Din talk to us
Speaker 1: a little bit. What was your experience like dealing with
Speaker 1: the Recipe for Change program.
Speaker 7: It was a life changing experience for me. I was
Speaker 7: going through a really tough time in my life. It
Speaker 7: was a dark time, pullly because I was in custody
Speaker 7: and I was stilling with a lot of self guilt
Speaker 7: for letting like a lot of family of friends, down,
Speaker 7: the co workers, down the community. So I was like
Speaker 7: carrying that burden on my back. So when I got
Speaker 7: the opportunity to try and rescu people change, it was
Speaker 7: almost an escape from that dark place and it became
Speaker 7: something able to provide us some hope and a hopeless
Speaker 7: moment for me at that time of my life. So
Speaker 7: Skeep of Change really changed my life.
Speaker 1: Let's talk. We didn't get a chance to really get
Speaker 1: into it with Chef Bruno, but you know, there's when
Speaker 1: we talk about incarceration and the idea that it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be a relative process where when you come out
Speaker 1: a business should be ready to hire you on the
Speaker 1: assumption that you learned some skills and that you were
Speaker 1: better than when you went in. Walk me through that
Speaker 1: process of just trying to find a job once you
Speaker 1: got back out on the outside.
Speaker 7: Well, actually, for myself, I've been fortunate. I found that
Speaker 7: one almost immediately upon my release, and it's partly due
Speaker 7: to the resources that was provided to them there, Rescue
Speaker 7: for Change, because of certifications I received for a food
Speaker 7: sanitation restaurant management. So I found the company that was
Speaker 7: wanting to give.
Speaker 6: Me a chance and invest in me.
Speaker 7: It's a pretty good company, you know, especially the center
Speaker 7: of the fact that I was just released like a
Speaker 7: little over three months ago, so benefits for one k
Speaker 7: it's a union job, and this is just a stubbing stone.
Speaker 7: This is not my career. This is a stubbing stone
Speaker 7: to what's mess for me. So for myself, it's been
Speaker 7: a pretty smooth transition, but it's usually not like that
Speaker 7: for many others. So that's why programs like RESC people change.
Speaker 1: So yeah, because I'm listening to where you are right now, Dian,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like you're in transit as we speak.
Speaker 1: Are you headed to work?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Hey, I appreciate you guys for being with me. Man,
Speaker 7: this commute on public transportation is really rough. That so
Speaker 7: I apologize to you guys.
Speaker 1: Oh no, man, you and man on the go, We
Speaker 1: appreciate you making a little time for us while you
Speaker 1: sit there on the train. So let me ask you
Speaker 1: real quick. Jeff Bruno said, the job skills are important,
Speaker 1: but not as as important as being able to offer
Speaker 1: a positive space for people to work while they're locked up.
Speaker 1: Could you speak a little bit about that part of
Speaker 1: the program for you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I unequivocally agree with Chef Bruno, because, like I
Speaker 7: was saying, like, don't I think the most difficult part
Speaker 7: about me transitioning back to the workplace in society it
Speaker 7: is my ability to perform or do my job. It's
Speaker 7: been like the communication aspect, the soft skills, the things
Speaker 7: that people don't usually talk about because as you guys
Speaker 7: will may well know, like nowhere is your inn against
Speaker 7: the tested. Then at the workplace where you're trying to
Speaker 7: do stuff and your supervisor comes to be like, hey,
Speaker 7: stop right now and do this, and you just sit
Speaker 7: there like okay. So those soft skills that I learned,
Speaker 7: the recipeople change. It has really been valuable tools that
Speaker 7: I've been able to implement into the DNA of the
Speaker 7: core of being who I'm trying to become as a man,
Speaker 7: Like the compassion, the integrity, just the willingness to just
Speaker 7: do the right thing at all times and not take
Speaker 7: anything personal. I learned a lot of those things at
Speaker 7: Recipe for Change. Like I say, Chef Bruno is changing
Speaker 7: their lives along with the rest of the staff that
Speaker 7: works one of mom Chef Abril christianas his son Adriano.
Speaker 7: Like it's a wonderful, amazing program.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 7: Because of that program, I've been able to be a
Speaker 7: part of a platform such as The Daily Show like man,
Speaker 7: this is such a humbling experience for me. Man, So
Speaker 7: I'm really grateful to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: Man, So we'll get you out of here. On the
Speaker 1: last question, Dionne, do you stand with Deep Dish Pizza?
Speaker 7: I did, but I was corrected by Jef Bruno. So
Speaker 7: the thing Cruss Pizza is the best less less get more.
Speaker 7: So I'm not going to go against the break.
Speaker 4: And I will say before we let Dion go, I
Speaker 4: have to mention, Uh, dion has one I think my
Speaker 4: favorite line from the whole piece, which is where you're
Speaker 4: going with the pizza guy.
Speaker 3: This pizza is genuinely awesome.
Speaker 2: You must have people running up around the block to
Speaker 2: buy this.
Speaker 1: Actually it's only for inmates, guys.
Speaker 5: We go rescue Chicago from that boot.
Speaker 1: Deep Pizza ohka, I know the piece is great, but
Speaker 1: this is not how you deal with conflict.
Speaker 6: All right, I'll be right back.
Speaker 7: Hey, where are you going with the pisa line?
Speaker 4: We me and the editor of that piece, Mark will
Speaker 4: still yell at each other. Will if we leave or
Speaker 4: if we, like, you know, taking lunch somewhere else, We'll
Speaker 4: just yell where you going with the pizza?
Speaker 5: It's a it's a great line. So thank you Dion
Speaker 5: for incredible delivery.
Speaker 6: No problem, man, Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Well, Dion, brother, will let you get back to your commute. Man,
Speaker 1: Thank you for making a little bit of time to
Speaker 1: go beyond the scenes with this brother.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Thank you you guys. You guys, be peace
Speaker 6: and be blessed.
Speaker 1: Man. Thank you, yes, sir, great, all right, bye bye,
Speaker 1: all right man, Well, Ronnie Sebastian, we did it. We
Speaker 1: went beyond the scenes on your piece.
Speaker 5: You look.
Speaker 1: Like you're you know why, because I thought that someone
Speaker 1: would stand with me in defending Deep Dish pizza and
Speaker 1: here I stand alone.
Speaker 5: You're all alone, the man.
Speaker 2: Why do you even why are you on the side
Speaker 2: of Deep Dish?
Speaker 1: Because I'm a say with that stuff, I like pie
Speaker 1: and this is closer to Pie support the.
Speaker 2: Cubs for some reason.
Speaker 3: You're from Alabama, like.
Speaker 5: Pie the casserole.
Speaker 1: If anything, Ronnie, I will smash your face. Whatever it is,
Speaker 1: it is delicious and it's better than that. Let me
Speaker 1: stop because I don't want New York City on my ass.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for going beyond the scenes. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get both of you the fuck out of here
Speaker 1: and then slander, then cruss once you're off the air.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: Roy Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, get it, get out of here.
Speaker 1: Love you see in the building.
Speaker 3: A here, guys in the building.
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Speaker 5: This has been a Comedy Central podcast.