Speaker 1: The Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good People, Good People. Welcome to the Quest Love Show.
Speaker 1: I'm Questlove your host, so for nineteen seasons strong on
Speaker 1: the Emmy nominated Top Chef and the Excellent Taste of
Speaker 1: the Nation. Our guest today has basically changed the culture
Speaker 1: and the conversation around food. She is a host, a producer,
Speaker 1: an author, an activist. She is Time one hundreds most
Speaker 1: Influential People, and she reframed the American food as an
Speaker 1: immigrant story as the creator and host of a brand
Speaker 1: new show, an excellent show called America's Culinary Cup. She
Speaker 1: raises culinary competition to new heights. I'm very jealous of
Speaker 1: that kitchen set by the way beyond the screen. She's
Speaker 1: a New York Times best selling author, cultural bridge builder,
Speaker 1: and a person who understands that food encompasses memory, migration,
Speaker 1: and politics. Welcome to the Quest Love Show. Papa locksmy
Speaker 1: my good friend. I'm acting like weird. We don't know
Speaker 1: each other. It's weird.
Speaker 3: Well, it's weird to hear you say all that stuff.
Speaker 3: But thank you, and yes we are friends. A dear
Speaker 3: old friends.
Speaker 1: Sometimes your friends also have to ring your bell to
Speaker 1: remind you that you know you're the shit, So thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. So I'm going to do a mixture of
Speaker 1: rapid fire questions because I feel like we know of
Speaker 1: you what we don't know you per se. So my
Speaker 1: first question to you is, what is the first thing
Speaker 1: that you did this morning?
Speaker 3: The first thing I did this morning was try on
Speaker 3: some leather pants because I needed them for later tonight
Speaker 3: for a party, and I haven't had time to figure.
Speaker 4: Out what I'm wearing.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I got up earlier than I wanted to,
Speaker 3: but not early enough to go to the gym before pilates.
Speaker 3: So I just decided I would have a little fitting
Speaker 3: with myself.
Speaker 2: What time do you normally wake up in the morning?
Speaker 3: About seven thirty, okay, And so this morning I woke
Speaker 3: up at I want to say, six thirty.
Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask what time do you
Speaker 1: go to sleep?
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'd like to go to sleep earlier, but often
Speaker 3: I am only going to sleep about twelve thirty or
Speaker 3: one am, and you still get up at seven seven thirty.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm probably not going to ask a lot of
Speaker 1: beauty routine questions, but I'm certain that people will kill
Speaker 1: me if I don't because I mean, you know, you're
Speaker 1: this stunning figure in the world and people I would
Speaker 1: naturally assume that you get ten to twelve hours of
Speaker 1: sleep or whatever, but you just I would like, basically
Speaker 1: just wake up like this every day.
Speaker 3: Well, I had hair and makeup today, But you know
Speaker 3: you've see me when I haven't. You've seen me in
Speaker 3: every state possible.
Speaker 1: I'll still look like, thank you.
Speaker 3: I do like more sleep, and I would like to.
Speaker 3: I can sleep late, but I can't go to sleep early.
Speaker 3: I am a night owl by nature. I always have
Speaker 3: been since I was a little kid. And I keep
Speaker 3: trying to go to sleep earlier. So I do get
Speaker 3: more sleep because I do like to have a good
Speaker 3: eight hour sleep. I just don't get it done.
Speaker 2: Gotcha? Same?
Speaker 1: Also same, What is your most treasured childhood memory? Like
Speaker 1: before ten, what's a fuzzy memory from your childhood?
Speaker 3: My most treasured memories from childhood are of skating in
Speaker 3: New York City, and I'm talking about quads, you know,
Speaker 3: not blades. And when I was little, I was a
Speaker 3: latchkey kid and my mom worked as a nurse at
Speaker 3: Sloan Kettering, and I would skate up and down East
Speaker 3: End Avenue, and I know all the avenues. For instance,
Speaker 3: Lexington Avenue is really steep, so do not skate down
Speaker 3: Lexington Avenue.
Speaker 2: You found out there are way?
Speaker 3: Yes, I did. In fact, I still have really really
Speaker 3: bad drunk girl legs because of my brothers as a child. Okay,
Speaker 3: but I loved it. I think kids who grow up
Speaker 3: in the city are really sophisticated and self reliant. And
Speaker 3: I know a lot of people are afraid to raise
Speaker 3: the family in the city, but I was raised by
Speaker 3: a single mom here. I'm raising my daughter here, and
Speaker 3: I loved having that sense of freedom and mobility at
Speaker 3: a very young age.
Speaker 2: What part of New York did you grow up in.
Speaker 3: I grew up in Queens, in Elmhurst, and then I
Speaker 3: also grew up on the Upper East Side because at
Speaker 3: that time Sloan Kettering had subsidized housing for their staff.
Speaker 3: So if you made it, you know, she was just
Speaker 3: a nurse. We lived in Queens, she made it the
Speaker 3: head nurse we moved into the city.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask a question only because you mentioned
Speaker 1: Queens and shout out to my friend Money grip Manier.
Speaker 1: I'm asking this for you. Of the five boroughs, would
Speaker 1: you say that Queen's is the better food epicenter. Will
Speaker 1: you get trouble in expressing a preference for a borough
Speaker 1: of culinary choice.
Speaker 3: No, But I also will say that this opinion is
Speaker 3: based on the fact that I know Queens much better
Speaker 3: than I know the Bronx. And by the way, I
Speaker 3: have to be honest and come clean and say, you know,
Speaker 3: my knowledge of Queens is also from way back when,
Speaker 3: so I don't know what it is now. But you know,
Speaker 3: I have a very dear friend who teaches a class
Speaker 3: at NYU, is a great writer named Sukaitu Meta, and
Speaker 3: he took me on a food tour recently of Queens
Speaker 3: and I tried literally ten different ethnicities in one afternoon,
Speaker 3: and so he would know. And I think Queens is
Speaker 3: still the most ethnically diverse. But I think, you know,
Speaker 3: anywhere you grow up in this city, I don't know
Speaker 3: what Stephn Island is like, but you know, anywhere you
Speaker 3: grow up, you're going to be bumping up next to
Speaker 3: a lot of cultures. And I think that's the beauty
Speaker 3: of living in New York.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, when I first got interested in the culinary world,
Speaker 1: of course, I went straight to you know, everyone is
Speaker 1: blinded by Miss Lindis and James Beard Debt. And then
Speaker 1: Bourdain kind of pulled me to the side and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: don't get caught up, like, you know, search for He
Speaker 1: put it in a way where I understood it, where
Speaker 1: he's like, when I go record shopping, I'm looking for
Speaker 1: the most obscure record that nobody like. Don't buy the
Speaker 1: album that everyone has, like you know, Whitney Houston's over there,
Speaker 1: but also know that over here is you know, Galt
Speaker 1: McDermott or some obscureity. So he told me to look
Speaker 1: out for that. So I've taken a few tours of
Speaker 1: Queens and I'm still discovering it. I don't know it
Speaker 1: like I normally like I should. I will say though,
Speaker 1: for the Bronx. Though the Bronx says the best food
Speaker 1: for after eleven pm, Oh yeah, they do. The best
Speaker 1: fish sandwich is the best seafood. You know the size
Speaker 1: of my arms.
Speaker 3: Jamaican food Swinny Foods.
Speaker 1: There's a twenty four hour Jamaican spot in Queen's right
Speaker 1: now that just I went there and it's it's a problem.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it's in Queen so you know, because but.
Speaker 3: I mean even in Manhattan. If you're driving around Manhattan,
Speaker 3: you ever see a black food truck called jam Rock Jerk,
Speaker 3: please stop. Really, those guys are my friends. I want
Speaker 3: to give them a little love. They're great. They're a
Speaker 3: nice young Jamaican couple who were the first ones to
Speaker 3: get a license by the city to actually have an
Speaker 3: open grill and a drum like like jerk is done.
Speaker 3: And so they drive that around and now their business.
Speaker 3: I've seen their business bloom only because of how many
Speaker 3: of their trucks I see around. So they're clearly doing well.
Speaker 1: Mister softy of I think, I think so.
Speaker 3: I haven't talked around a bit. Yeah, jam Rock Jerk.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm investigating that. Do you collect anything? What
Speaker 2: do you collect?
Speaker 3: Jewelry?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Art? I mean you know, I think jewelry as.
Speaker 2: In like well, I mean real jewelry or like crystals.
Speaker 3: Or no, not crystals. My daughter collects crystals, but no,
Speaker 3: I don't really. I mean, I collect jewelry happily, but
Speaker 3: it's not something I go out and seek. But I
Speaker 3: used to have a jewelry company years ago, like a
Speaker 3: fine jewelry company, and so I'm very interested in different
Speaker 3: movements and periods of jewelry. It's not something people know
Speaker 3: about me these days too much. But I can spot
Speaker 3: from what period a Cardia piece is based somehow it
Speaker 3: looks like is it a Shindai period? Is it another period?
Speaker 3: You know? So so I love that, But that's also
Speaker 3: a very rarefied thing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: That's not something I'm doing every day. I don't. I
Speaker 3: like to think I collect people. That's what I'm most
Speaker 3: interested in now. Every time, you know, I do a
Speaker 3: big project or something that I have a little chunk
Speaker 3: of change, I will buy myself a piece of art,
Speaker 3: right And you know, now, I don't have any wall space,
Speaker 3: and I'm not a no and I'm not an investor,
Speaker 3: so I'm not tying art to make a profit and
Speaker 3: then put it in storage. You know, That's not me.
Speaker 3: But I do like to collect people. My most coveted
Speaker 3: activity is to bring a room of six, ten, fifty
Speaker 3: sixty people together who I think are interesting and may
Speaker 3: not know each other from totally different walks of life,
Speaker 3: and put them in a room and see what happens,
Speaker 3: just to facilitate that. Mostly because I'm a really curious
Speaker 3: person and I think I've always been a lifelong learner,
Speaker 3: so I'm always trying to learn, and the best way
Speaker 3: to learn is to find the most interesting, knowledgeable people
Speaker 3: you know, and try to squeeze all the info out
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta say, I'm one of the lucky recipients
Speaker 1: of your Wili celebration invitations. And I love the idea
Speaker 1: of having a live band in the living room. And
Speaker 1: you know, well, now I considered, I mean, this is
Speaker 1: like maybe the third or fourth one I went to,
Speaker 1: so now I know these you know the deal?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so loved doing those parties.
Speaker 1: So in your formative years, who was the best cook
Speaker 1: in your family?
Speaker 3: My grandma? Okay, my grandma, And my grandma was not
Speaker 3: a cuddly person. You know, when you think of a
Speaker 3: sweet grandma baking company and stuff, right now, that's not
Speaker 3: an Indian grandma. That wasn't my Indian grandma. Let me
Speaker 3: say that she was a very practical woman. She came
Speaker 3: from a family of seventeen children. She was one of
Speaker 3: the oldest, so she had to take care of a
Speaker 3: lot of her younger siblings. Oh and there were eight
Speaker 3: or ten people living in my grandparents' house at any
Speaker 3: time in a two room flat in South India and Chennai,
Speaker 3: and she only had two burners, two stow burners, and
Speaker 3: she didn't really get a fridge until her thirties, so
Speaker 3: she didn't know what to do with it, and she
Speaker 3: just really used it for ice water because it's hot
Speaker 3: in South India, right, So she was cooking all the time,
Speaker 3: all the time, and so I learned really at her side.
Speaker 3: I also learned a lot about life that way, because,
Speaker 3: like I said, she was super procded.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm still trying to figure out the food preservation
Speaker 1: part of nofrigerator in the house.
Speaker 3: Well, everything gets eaten, there is no preservation needed. And
Speaker 3: also it's a vegetarian household, so you're not worried about
Speaker 3: meat spoiling. Okay, but it's so hot there and we
Speaker 3: certainly didn't have air conditioning. We only got air conditioning
Speaker 3: in one room when I brought my ex husband there
Speaker 3: as all, I was like, I don't think he's gonna
Speaker 3: be able to go, So I put air conditioning in
Speaker 3: one of the you know, in the back room that
Speaker 3: wasn't my grandparents room. But so, you know, things do
Speaker 3: spoil still because of the heat. But like I said,
Speaker 3: nothing lasted that long enough, gota.
Speaker 2: How do you rate your culinary skills? One to ten?
Speaker 3: I know too much. I know too much about what
Speaker 3: I don't know, so I would say a seven.
Speaker 1: Okay, So from one to ten? How would your daughter
Speaker 1: rate your culinary skills?
Speaker 3: In eight and a half.
Speaker 1: She's hot, she loves you, she's tough, but she gives
Speaker 1: you a higher rating than you would give you.
Speaker 2: High rating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because she doesn't know enough to give me a
Speaker 3: lower rating.
Speaker 2: I got that all right.
Speaker 3: She would give me a zero in singing capability though.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm gonna ask about the glitter. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask about glitter. What snack is your kryptonite? You
Speaker 1: know you're gonna pay for it in the gym if
Speaker 1: you take it, but you do it anyway. What snack
Speaker 1: is your kryptonite?
Speaker 3: A lot of snacks, spiced cashoes, masala cashoes, or chips.
Speaker 3: Potato chips. That's a tough one, especially the halapeno potato
Speaker 3: chips from Cape Cod. I can take down a whole bag,
Speaker 3: a big bag, without blinking.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize how strong the potato chip addiction was
Speaker 1: in the roots thread. Around January, we start you know,
Speaker 1: everyone starts the conversation.
Speaker 2: Of like, okay, what you're going to clean up or whatever, and.
Speaker 1: The challenge, Like for people, the challenge was no more
Speaker 1: potato chips. And I didn't realize how much I eat
Speaker 1: them until I went to the tonight show. Like it's
Speaker 1: almost like breathing because they're everywhere.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know, it's a nightmare. It's like you can't
Speaker 3: get away from it. I mean, I'm looking forward to
Speaker 3: my daughter going to college because then I can get
Speaker 3: rid of a lot of so she brings the snacks
Speaker 3: in and well, I mean, I want my daughter to
Speaker 3: be able to eat all kinds of foods. I don't
Speaker 3: want her body not to know what it's like to
Speaker 3: process a variety of things all the way on one
Speaker 3: end of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: So I want to know, what's the worst thing in
Speaker 1: your fridge right now? Lunchibles?
Speaker 3: No? Hell no, hey, don't y No. I mean the
Speaker 3: worst thing in my fridge right now is probably protein
Speaker 3: shakes because that's not real food. But it's a necessary
Speaker 3: evil for me because I just don't get enough protein,
Speaker 3: got it. But I mean I want her to enjoy
Speaker 3: and be able to process her body, able to process
Speaker 3: everything from taco bell, which she eats too often all
Speaker 3: the way to nothing but fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1: But well, she's also teenagers eventually, yeah, she's sophistication.
Speaker 2: Comes in and that stuff and she'll but.
Speaker 3: You know, we make it a point to eat fifty
Speaker 3: percent fruits and vegetables on every plate if I'm cooking
Speaker 3: or she's eating at home. Okay, you know, so I
Speaker 3: just want to make sure she gets enough nutrition and
Speaker 3: healthy food and all that. Then I just want her
Speaker 3: to be a regular teenager. But when she leaves, all
Speaker 3: that stuff is gonna go. But the other addiction I have,
Speaker 3: which is really bad is dark chocolate.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I want to get into it so bad,
Speaker 1: but to me, it's still like I'd rather have the
Speaker 1: unhealthy chocolate. But what is it about dark chocolate that
Speaker 1: the fact that we can have much more of it
Speaker 1: and not pay for it?
Speaker 3: I will? I mean, there have been weeks where four
Speaker 3: or five nights out of seven I have finished a
Speaker 3: whole Hue chocolate bar, the salty one or the crunchy
Speaker 3: mint one. Okay, and I have a little dorm fridge
Speaker 3: in my bedroom.
Speaker 2: Did you not supposed to have with this?
Speaker 3: Next? Exactly tucked into, you know, a little closet, and
Speaker 3: I went to the Tin Building and Sean George gave
Speaker 3: me a tour and there he's got this obnoxiously beautiful
Speaker 3: candy store in there, and he just loaded me up
Speaker 3: with all this chocolate because he knows. And so now
Speaker 3: I am armed to the teeth with my own vice.
Speaker 1: I have a question about food rules. Okay, so twice
Speaker 1: in my life I've been ridiculed, not even ridiculed, only twice.
Speaker 2: No messages with me.
Speaker 1: No, But I didn't know Chicago's relationship with ketchup.
Speaker 3: I what is the ketchup?
Speaker 2: Okay? So I have a theory about it.
Speaker 1: No one's verified it, but like, you get no respect
Speaker 1: in Chicago if you put ketchup on your hot dog.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I know about this. Jimmy asked me about this, and.
Speaker 1: They kick you out and they kick you out of it.
Speaker 1: I got kicked out of the establishment because I wanted
Speaker 1: to see what would happen. And I pulled out my
Speaker 1: pack and they were like you got to go, Like seriously,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I believe that. My theory is
Speaker 1: that because the Hines families in Pittsburgh, Oh, that it's
Speaker 1: some kind and there's some rival, yes between well, you know,
Speaker 1: I also know that the various businesses that Capone had
Speaker 1: somewhere food establishments that well as well. I know that
Speaker 1: there was a point in the forties I believe like
Speaker 1: some Hines products couldn't even get into certain establishments. Oh
Speaker 1: but in general, now it's just like yick the other
Speaker 1: one of one?
Speaker 3: Or do they put on their hot dog anything anything?
Speaker 1: But no ketchup is allowed on a hot dog, like
Speaker 1: just mustard relish onions. But it's absolute sin to put
Speaker 1: ketchup on a hot dog.
Speaker 3: I also think it's because there are a lot of
Speaker 3: Polish immigrants that settled in Chicago, and so sausage is
Speaker 3: really big in Chicago, so they might think of hot
Speaker 3: dogs as sort of a you know, descendant of the sausage.
Speaker 3: And no one wants to put ketchup on an actual kilbosa.
Speaker 2: Got it? Okay? I will though anyway.
Speaker 1: The other thing, of course, is with black twitter. Some
Speaker 1: people have revealed that they'll take their grits also with
Speaker 1: butter and sugar. Now here's oh the way you're you
Speaker 1: just scouted at me.
Speaker 3: It's not the butter is the sugar, Okay?
Speaker 1: So listen, have you ever had cream of wheat?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, I mean yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: Look, it's like, look, I'm not a big oatmeal fan,
Speaker 3: but people put maple syrup on that, so I guess
Speaker 3: the sugar is a version of a sweetener, like a syrup, Right,
Speaker 3: So I can get with that, But no Southern person.
Speaker 1: Look, ninety five percent of the time I will eat
Speaker 1: grits savory as they should be, but sometimes I'll have
Speaker 1: like I'm not a I'm not a still cut oatmeal fan,
Speaker 1: but if there's a grit option, I will somehow program
Speaker 1: my brain to okay this, I'll make this like cream
Speaker 1: of wheat. But my whole thing was, is there a
Speaker 1: food rule that you've abided by that you also break? Like,
Speaker 1: is there another tradition that's not supposed to happen.
Speaker 3: I'm not that steadfast with rules like that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: I don't generally have sweet breakfasts unless I'm having like
Speaker 3: a big bowl of yogurt, which is some maple syrup
Speaker 3: and cinnamon.
Speaker 2: Got it.
Speaker 3: My breakfast tend to be very minimal or.
Speaker 1: Savory, gotcha.
Speaker 3: Like even cottage cheese to me, is a savory thing.
Speaker 2: I always thought it savor.
Speaker 3: Some people put weird stuff in it, like pineapple, and
Speaker 3: I mean I put pomegranate teeses on it. I still
Speaker 3: think it's savory.
Speaker 1: I gotta try that. Yeah, I never try that. What
Speaker 1: is the most idiot proof that a person could make
Speaker 1: and never lose? Even the worst chef in the world
Speaker 1: can make this end? Absolutely?
Speaker 3: I mean I think everybody should be able to scramble
Speaker 3: some eggs and make some toast.
Speaker 2: Got it? Okay? So that's basic one on one level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I had a rule when Krishna was young
Speaker 3: that I wasn't going to be a short order cook.
Speaker 3: So whatever I made for dinner, that's what was for dinner.
Speaker 3: She didn't want to eat that, she could either have
Speaker 3: leftovers if there were any, or she could have a
Speaker 3: scrambled egg wrapped in a tortilla with some raw veggies
Speaker 3: like celery, bell, pepper's carrots, whatever, because that way, at
Speaker 3: least she would get some protein, some veggies and some starch,
Speaker 3: got it. And even she could make that as of
Speaker 3: about you know, she can cook.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So for those that are in the
Speaker 1: if you've seen in one competition show, you've seen them
Speaker 1: all back sell me on the not the difference between
Speaker 1: Top Chef and America's Culinary Cup. But what is it
Speaker 1: that we will see on this sho show that we
Speaker 1: didn't see on Top Show.
Speaker 3: Well, I want to say first, I am not comparing
Speaker 3: this show. I know everyone naturally will because I used
Speaker 3: to host that other show. I don't see my competition
Speaker 3: as my old house. I see my competition as every
Speaker 3: other food show, you know, every other competition show, from
Speaker 3: Gordon Ramsey to whoever's on the Food Network, to Netflix
Speaker 3: and stuff. So that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking more globally.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you the big difference. There's a few.
Speaker 3: One is the million dollars. Okay, that's a big difference.
Speaker 3: That's double what has been on any food show ever.
Speaker 3: I think there's one food show that's offering half a
Speaker 3: million on Netflix. I don't remember the name of the show,
Speaker 3: but this is more than any other prize in culinary
Speaker 3: competition history. So that's it. One million dollars. The other
Speaker 3: thing is we do not have a format. There's no
Speaker 3: levels that you rise to, there's no mystery box of ingredients,
Speaker 3: there's no first we're doing a little thing, then we're
Speaker 3: doing a big there's none of that. Our show is
Speaker 3: governed by ten culinary commandments that we think are essential
Speaker 3: to master in order to be a world class chef.
Speaker 3: And every week we test for one of those principles
Speaker 3: of cooking and whatever is the best way to test
Speaker 3: for that principle or culinary commandment, that's what we do.
Speaker 3: So I mean, in one show, there could be one
Speaker 3: long challenge. In another show, there could be two. In
Speaker 3: a third episode, there could be a series of small ones.
Speaker 3: So it's always different every time.
Speaker 1: So when you speak of the commandments, is this a
Speaker 1: bible that you guys have written or is this a
Speaker 1: general culinary world. These are the general principles of what
Speaker 1: we abide by for what food should be.
Speaker 3: When I was developing the show, because I am not
Speaker 3: a chef, I'm a food writer, I took a lot
Speaker 3: of counsel and guidance and actively sought out people really admire,
Speaker 3: you know, like Danielle, like Jean George, like Eric repair
Speaker 3: a lot of people you know a lot of women too,
Speaker 3: And I ask them what they think the most important
Speaker 3: qualities are. And you know, there are a couple that
Speaker 3: it's hard to test for in the confines of a
Speaker 3: game like this, for instance, leadership. You know, leadership is
Speaker 3: really hard because they're competing against each other. But there
Speaker 3: are universal things that you need to master, like mastering
Speaker 3: the art of meat, both butchering it and cooking it,
Speaker 3: and understanding what the cuts are, how to portion them
Speaker 3: so they're even sized and weight you know it's a lot.
Speaker 3: And then there's you know, mastery of vegetable cookery. Then
Speaker 3: there's innovation, science and technology. There's consistency. There's sustainability because
Speaker 3: your food costs, never mind the planet and the environment,
Speaker 3: your food cost are gravely affected by how sustainable your
Speaker 3: business is.
Speaker 1: So things like that, Like in film, I know what
Speaker 1: I want to see editing wise, but I don't have
Speaker 1: to learn how to d I'm going to be wise
Speaker 1: if I knew how to edit or do my lights
Speaker 1: or sound or do everything.
Speaker 2: But I mean, is that required?
Speaker 1: Like is Daniel whom required to know every aspect of
Speaker 1: the levels of his kitchen from prepping and like is
Speaker 1: that required to head a kitchen to know all levels
Speaker 1: of production?
Speaker 3: I don't think what I'm about to say is Germaine
Speaker 3: only to being a chef or to a professional kitchen.
Speaker 3: It is my belief that while you may not need
Speaker 3: to know every granular detail of every aspect of the job,
Speaker 3: you will be a better leader if you know what
Speaker 3: you're talking about and you can at least communicate what
Speaker 3: you want. And I think the best leaders of any
Speaker 3: shit are the ones who thoroughly can articulate their vision.
Speaker 3: People want to know how to deliver the best and
Speaker 3: if you're clear with them. You know, for instance, when
Speaker 3: I created Tastination or even America's Culinary Cup, I don't
Speaker 3: know what lens to use on that camera. Right when
Speaker 3: they're saying give me a sixty, you give me a
Speaker 3: two hundred, I don't know what that means. But my
Speaker 3: next goal before I create any other show is to
Speaker 3: go and shadow my GP somewhere, you know, just put
Speaker 3: on my sneakers baseball cap, disappear behind him and learn that,
Speaker 3: because then I can effectuate the result I want.
Speaker 2: Got it?
Speaker 3: So that will take me a long time, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, I don't understand. Like what I did
Speaker 3: with the America's Culinary Cup is that I hired the
Speaker 3: best people I could, you know, But I only hired
Speaker 3: like the head of the department got you, and then
Speaker 3: I let them hire everyone working under them because they know.
Speaker 3: But before when I hired them, I made sure they
Speaker 3: knew what I was looking for, and that was the
Speaker 3: most clear. In the culinary department, we have a great
Speaker 3: culinary producer named Mary. You know, she worked under Joel
Speaker 3: Robischon for a long time. She also went to UC Berkeley,
Speaker 3: very learned and skilled and as persnickety as I am.
Speaker 3: And she did that work. I did not do that work.
Speaker 3: But then I checked her work, and I went through
Speaker 3: that pantry like a fine toothed comb.
Speaker 2: You're a micromanagement.
Speaker 3: I like to think of myself as detail oriented. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm a classic Ago if there ever was one. Okay,
Speaker 3: but you know the same with my set designer. My
Speaker 3: set designer is a very very.
Speaker 2: I'm very impressed with that set.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: First of all, is that a real place? Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay? So where?
Speaker 3: No? No, it's not a real place. We built it
Speaker 3: in a warehouse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know.
Speaker 3: It's meant to look like a real place.
Speaker 1: I'm on year six of building my farm, and yet
Speaker 1: I was like, did you just build this within seconds?
Speaker 3: And I mean not seconds, but here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Again, and does it break down everything?
Speaker 3: It break down, it breaks down. It's now in storage
Speaker 3: and big pieces. But let me tell you, this set
Speaker 3: is the thing that I paid the most attention to.
Speaker 3: Here's why I was trying to refresh the genre. I
Speaker 3: knew I was gonna get compared to all these other
Speaker 3: shows out there, whether I had hosted them or not.
Speaker 3: And I have a lot of fully formed opinions having
Speaker 3: done this for so many years. I did not want
Speaker 3: that set to look like a TV set. I didn't
Speaker 3: want that set to look like a shiny floor game
Speaker 3: show or even any other culinary show you've seen. And
Speaker 3: most sets are either proscenium stage or rectilinear. Yes, kitchens are,
Speaker 3: but there's a lot of research that shows that people
Speaker 3: are more focused and more creative in non rectilinear spaces.
Speaker 3: And that's why they're always encouraging writers to get out
Speaker 3: in nature, because rounder, softer spaces create an environment where
Speaker 3: your brain has to just think differently for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: And so I wanted something that felt like an arena,
Speaker 3: but most importantly felt like an actual high end kitchen.
Speaker 3: So that is not my kitchen on that show is
Speaker 3: no different than the kitchen that you would see if
Speaker 3: you walked into French laundry right, or Jean George or
Speaker 3: Daniel Hum's kitchen. It's bigger, It's a lot bigger, and
Speaker 3: it's oval. There are no corners in the acc kitchen,
Speaker 3: and so that was very purposeful. Another thing that I
Speaker 3: did is I didn't want you know what it looks like.
Speaker 3: You spent a lot of time at Rock Center. So
Speaker 3: there's no neon lights, there's no you know, velvet walls
Speaker 3: and jeweled to there's nothing that There's no chochki's on
Speaker 3: the walls because I want these chefs to have a
Speaker 3: pristine and high end focused laboratory. That's why it's specifically
Speaker 3: very minimal. It almost looks Japanese in a way.
Speaker 1: But white was also a risky choice because if you're
Speaker 1: making food, then everything you said, I'm glad you said.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I asked this question because even when I
Speaker 1: was watching it, I was like, I can't pinpoint it.
Speaker 1: But there's something really engaging and hypnotic about this set
Speaker 1: that it has me watching and studying every detail of it. Well,
Speaker 1: because it's the supermarket you guys built.
Speaker 3: I didn't want there to be anything to distract our chefs.
Speaker 3: I wanted a culinary cathedral.
Speaker 1: I did you built it?
Speaker 3: And I wanted the highest end restaurant grade equipment. I
Speaker 3: mean that kitchen has more comby ovens, blast chillers, salamanders,
Speaker 3: you know, anything you could want, and it has enough
Speaker 3: for everybody. So you know, on other game shows or
Speaker 3: other food shows, you see the chefs competing to get
Speaker 3: some equipment and someone always winds up with a bum
Speaker 3: oven or whatever, and I didn't want that. So every
Speaker 3: chef has a six foot by three foot counter. Every
Speaker 3: chef has six burners and an oven and place to
Speaker 3: put all the equipment that they use the most, all
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I don't know how it is on other shows,
Speaker 1: but I was wondering, did you have it spaced out
Speaker 1: so much so that there is no possibility of a
Speaker 1: sabotage situation?
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't know how deep in.
Speaker 1: The competition level of but an amateur like me would
Speaker 1: automatically think, like put vinegar inside there, anila astrak or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is, but I don't think any First of all,
Speaker 3: we have about twenty five cameras running, so you would
Speaker 3: be a fool to do that, let alone do it
Speaker 3: on national television.
Speaker 1: Tell that to Tanya Harding.
Speaker 3: But you know what I wanted. I don't think the
Speaker 3: chefs that we have on our show would want to
Speaker 3: win because they sabotage anyone. They have too much honor
Speaker 3: and pride in their own work. So I wanted to
Speaker 3: see you say you're the best. All right, come to
Speaker 3: this arena. Let me give you every toy, every ingredient,
Speaker 3: every piece of weaponry you need to create at the
Speaker 3: highest level.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 3: And you know, if you're going to ask Venus Williams
Speaker 3: to come play at Wimbledon, are you going to give
Speaker 3: her a crappy racket. You're going to manicure that court
Speaker 3: and make sure it's great, because that's what a goat
Speaker 3: like that deserves. And I wanted to treat our chefs
Speaker 3: exactly the same.
Speaker 1: Now, you know, we're professionals, and once you get to
Speaker 1: a certain level and certain plateau, there's comfort, and then
Speaker 1: you change your lifestyle and then next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: safety is your thing. How hard was it leaving such
Speaker 1: an institution like Top Chef, in which you were nineteen
Speaker 1: seasons strong. I mean, yeah, the Susan Lucci of it all,
Speaker 1: with the Emmy nominations, But to knock that Jinga down
Speaker 1: and start all over again. Like if you can talk
Speaker 1: about the straw that broke the camels back in terms
Speaker 1: of you wanting to pivot and start all over again
Speaker 1: and rebuild.
Speaker 3: I can't talk about the straw that broke the cables back,
Speaker 3: but I.
Speaker 1: Will sort of feeling after the day after you finalized it,
Speaker 1: what did you feel the day after?
Speaker 3: It was very scary, you know, it was I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna lie, it was. It was very vulnerable making to
Speaker 3: leave a house that I helped build and a legacy
Speaker 3: that I'm very proud of. And by the way, ninety
Speaker 3: seven percent of the people on stage I really love
Speaker 3: and consider family on Top Chef, and I'm still rooting
Speaker 3: for them, you know. And I didn't knock that Jenga down.
Speaker 3: Kristin Kish, who is someone I've known for ten years,
Speaker 3: you know, took my place, and I thought that was
Speaker 3: a great way to leave. I wanted to leave for
Speaker 3: a while, and there were many reasons that had to
Speaker 3: do with my leaving, so it was not a rash decision.
Speaker 3: It was still a scary decision. And you know, one
Speaker 3: day I'll be able to talk about all the reasons.
Speaker 3: But I do think I was ready for a new
Speaker 3: intellectual challenge. You know, everything I had wanted to do
Speaker 3: or been able to do on that show. Given the
Speaker 3: confines of how it was created and formed.
Speaker 1: You never had the final word there, whereas here, I
Speaker 1: mean here you have a stronger suggestion there.
Speaker 2: Maybe.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean I was an executive producer and yes,
Speaker 3: but I mean I didn't create that show. You know,
Speaker 3: I was involved in the development, but I didn't even
Speaker 3: do it first for season. If we remember, this is Different,
Speaker 3: you know, this is really a brainchild of all of
Speaker 3: the experience that I've gained over my career, and so
Speaker 3: it's just a different animal. You know, we're not looking
Speaker 3: to throw obstacles in the chef's way. We're not looking
Speaker 3: to have them use retail ingredients that you know, people
Speaker 3: using their homes. We're not making them fight for any
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It's just like the ethos
Speaker 3: of our show, I believe Is Different is completely opposing
Speaker 3: most culinary shows. Most culinary shows are trying to trip
Speaker 3: them up. I'm not. I'm trying to support these people
Speaker 3: who I really believe are scientists and artists and journeymen.
Speaker 3: Also because we forget but cooking is manual labor. At
Speaker 3: the end of the day, it has to do with endurance,
Speaker 3: and it's a physical job, not only from your senses
Speaker 3: and your palate, but just like without ruining anything. You
Speaker 3: will see that in the second episode it is difficult
Speaker 3: physically for some of the people to do what we're
Speaker 3: asking them because of their brute strength.
Speaker 2: Gotcha. So okay.
Speaker 1: In competition shows and some reality shows, being the bad guy,
Speaker 1: the difficult person is required for success. How uncomfortable is
Speaker 1: it air quote breaking hearts or delivering bad news sending
Speaker 1: someone home? Like, how do you not get your heart involved?
Speaker 1: Because even with this show, Like I'm already interested in
Speaker 1: you know, the woman who gave up her wedding to
Speaker 1: be here, which at first, when she first said that,
Speaker 1: I was like, hmmm, that's slyly manipulative, because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be invested in the story, Like she
Speaker 1: gave a wedding day for this.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that until you saw. Yeah. Because also
Speaker 3: I approved a large pool of contestants that was about
Speaker 3: sixty or eighty people. You know, we had a casting director.
Speaker 3: You could only come by invitation to our competition. You
Speaker 3: could not apply, gotcha? By invitation only, so when they're
Speaker 3: in those golden envelopes at the beginning, they're really getting notified.
Speaker 3: But I picked a large pool. I chucked some people
Speaker 3: out that she thought might be good. I added some
Speaker 3: people that she thought may not, you know, hadn't thought
Speaker 3: of necessarily. And after I picked that pool, I stepped
Speaker 3: away my producers, my showrunner, my producing partnerses In Rovner,
Speaker 3: and my very skilled CBS executives who have also been
Speaker 3: in charge of, you know, other big shows. There was
Speaker 3: a group of people that came together and picked the
Speaker 3: final sixteen contestants. I did not know who made that
Speaker 3: cut until I got in the kitchen on the first day.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to know. I gave them very, very
Speaker 3: you know, specific parameters. I want diversity. I want as
Speaker 3: many women as there are men. I want to make
Speaker 3: sure they're coming from all parts of America. So it
Speaker 3: really is America's culinary cup, not just coastal cup. You know.
Speaker 3: But I didn't want to know.
Speaker 1: Do show those of this nature make people better cooks necessarily?
Speaker 1: Or is this more or less a test to how
Speaker 1: do you solve problems with the clock running out?
Speaker 3: It's both, Okay, it's really both because you know, you
Speaker 3: have to of course be a great cook and a
Speaker 3: great chef and think on your feet and be able
Speaker 3: to see ahead to not only what you can accomplish,
Speaker 3: but what you can accomplish within the parameters of that timeframe.
Speaker 3: But it's also a show that really really has to
Speaker 3: do with strategy. It's a lot of strategy, and in
Speaker 3: that way it is and it isn't like being a
Speaker 3: real chef, you know, because you have more time to
Speaker 3: think about things and you can hire the people you want.
Speaker 3: But in this show, other than certain times when we're
Speaker 3: asking you to work in Paris, it's just too much
Speaker 3: for one person to do. You're really on your own.
Speaker 3: Most chefs walk in they've got their whole meson plas
Speaker 3: already done for them. They've got everything chopped.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: One guy's assaucier and the other guys work in the grill,
Speaker 3: and other woman is doing the garmnge right here. You
Speaker 3: are doing everything yourself, and a lot of these chefs
Speaker 3: nowadays don't do that for themselves, you know. Like especially
Speaker 3: that came clear when we saw like the Mastering the
Speaker 3: Art of Meat, because a lot of these chefs who
Speaker 3: are younger they don't know how to break down a
Speaker 3: whole animal because they haven't had to do it. They're
Speaker 3: just getting cuts that are already parsed out.
Speaker 2: Got you got it?
Speaker 3: Er?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Isn't there a squeamish level of or do you just
Speaker 1: have to work through that as a chef?
Speaker 3: I mean there was for me just observing it because
Speaker 3: I grew up a vegetarian, But it is if you
Speaker 3: are going to serve meat, you should know where it
Speaker 3: comes from and you should be prepared to look at
Speaker 3: that with clear open eyes. You otherwise you shouldn't be
Speaker 3: serving me.
Speaker 5: You know, I got it? Okay.
Speaker 1: So when I entered the food space, like around two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine twenty ten, the one thing that I
Speaker 1: wasn't aware of when going to these various restaurants was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't see any women heading up. You know, I
Speaker 1: rarely see chefs, and you know, once I started interviewing
Speaker 1: and investigating a lot of it was like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: when you choose this world, this comes first. Like the
Speaker 1: way Daniel told me that eleven Madison is run. It's
Speaker 1: twenty four hour operation. Yeah, the last person leaves at
Speaker 1: one and they got to clean up prepare for the
Speaker 1: next day, and that doesn't allow you to be a
Speaker 1: parent or a partner that sort of thing. So has
Speaker 1: much changed have we made? Even if it's slow as
Speaker 1: molasses strides now they we're in twenty twenty six, or.
Speaker 3: Is there still There's still a lot to be done.
Speaker 3: And I believe that both women and men should be
Speaker 3: present for their children. So you know, a lot of
Speaker 3: that work, domestic work has often fallen on the shoulders
Speaker 3: of women, regardless of whatever profession we're talking about. There
Speaker 3: is no industry safe for maybe the military that is
Speaker 3: more male dominated than the restaurant industry.
Speaker 2: So weird because when we grow up, mom's supposed.
Speaker 5: To do it.
Speaker 3: Most of the food in the world is made by women.
Speaker 3: Most of the money from professionally selling food is made
Speaker 3: by men. But you know, I mean, this is a
Speaker 3: whole nother tangent. But it's not just the food industry,
Speaker 3: is just patriarchy in general. But there are also a
Speaker 3: lot of reasons that you know, you're on your feet again.
Speaker 3: It's manual labor. The hours are terrible, you're never home
Speaker 3: for lunch or dinner, right, But there are chefs who
Speaker 3: are designing schedules for their kitchen step and for themselves
Speaker 3: that are much more humane and much fairer. You know,
Speaker 3: a lot of them, Like I know at once Cosme
Speaker 3: even had an all female kitchen and they were able
Speaker 3: to do it. I know that a few years back,
Speaker 3: Danny Meyer gave maternity leave or you know, parental leave.
Speaker 3: And so there are people who are trying to better
Speaker 3: the system, and it will continue to be better and
Speaker 3: more equitable when more women land in, you know, positions
Speaker 3: of power, because not only do you not see a
Speaker 3: lot of women up there, you don't see a lot
Speaker 3: of black and brown folk up there. You don't, which
Speaker 3: is crazy because.
Speaker 1: That's what built this country.
Speaker 3: Also, yeah, you know, when you open the door to
Speaker 3: the back of the house, the kitchen, all the faces
Speaker 3: you see are black and brown faces. But then when
Speaker 3: you get to the head chef, the executive chef, all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, it's a white dude.
Speaker 2: Got you all right, We're going to do rapid fire.
Speaker 2: I let you go.
Speaker 1: Best be to New York Stretch Stretch.
Speaker 3: Where's that stretches on Park and twenty fourth. It is
Speaker 3: Wiley Dufrain's Pizzeria.
Speaker 2: Is it Molecular Pizza?
Speaker 3: Just it's just yummy. I can try it. But there's
Speaker 3: lots of good pizza. There's Una Pizza Napolitana down you know,
Speaker 3: in the Lower East Side. I happen to like a
Speaker 3: group of restaurants that are called Grupo vetso spunto at
Speaker 3: the end of it.
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 3: So they're cute. They're like brick lined. You can get
Speaker 3: beer and wine there, and that is if like a
Speaker 3: Roman Pizza and a New York Slice had a baby,
Speaker 3: and so that's pretty good too.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you sleep in silence or do you have
Speaker 1: to have music or TV or something on in the background.
Speaker 3: I sleep with a podcast.
Speaker 2: What do you listen to Hidden Brain?
Speaker 5: Ah?
Speaker 2: Okay, I listened to audio books.
Speaker 3: Yeah, same Princeville. I will listen to audio books too.
Speaker 3: There's a great book that's based on Youngian dream theory.
Speaker 3: It's not by Carl Jung, but it's by doctors who
Speaker 3: practice that called dream Wise. Was recommended to me by
Speaker 3: a friend of mine named Channy, and that I enjoyed.
Speaker 3: But what's great about Falling Asleep to Steph is that
Speaker 3: I will listen to one episode six times because I
Speaker 3: fall asleep, you know, And I mean I'm friends with Iragas,
Speaker 3: and he says he hates when people tell him that
Speaker 3: they listen to this American life well, because it's like,
Speaker 3: that's not a compliment, and I wish I totally get.
Speaker 3: But again, I'm a learner, so I love. And I'm
Speaker 3: also a very auditory person more than a visual person.
Speaker 3: I'm an auditory person, so I learn that way. And
Speaker 3: I love books on tape. I love you know, podcasts
Speaker 3: and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got you, all right? So what establishment are you?
Speaker 1: Slightly embarrassed to admit that you frequent for Valentine's Day?
Speaker 1: White Castle is very hard to get into.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 1: Oh they transform it into a missilin level like step
Speaker 1: and repeat sexy lighting. They come and serve you once
Speaker 1: a year. White Castle goes all out. You can't get
Speaker 1: like I had to go up in the Bronx to
Speaker 1: take a date there.
Speaker 2: No, it's a real thing.
Speaker 3: That's kind of sweet. I love that. That makes me
Speaker 3: like White Castle.
Speaker 1: They did it as the irony thing, but then it
Speaker 1: became popular. So what establishment are you?
Speaker 3: It sounds like you're asking me about what my guilty
Speaker 3: pleasure is. And I don't feel any guilt in taking
Speaker 3: pleasure in any area.
Speaker 2: So you're in the zero fox stage of your life
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: I am. It feels really good too.
Speaker 2: Okay, what is the greatest cereal of all time?
Speaker 3: Golden Grams?
Speaker 2: Smart damn pama I you.
Speaker 1: What's the one occurrence in your life that changed everything?
Speaker 1: What's the moment that was a paradigm shift of your life?
Speaker 3: When I gave birth to Krishna. It helped me so
Speaker 3: much as a human being and also in my career. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, because all of a sudden I was much
Speaker 3: more productive and I stop navel gazing, and you know,
Speaker 3: I was able to make decisions really quick, and I
Speaker 3: was very decisive, and everybody around me benefited SR sharp.
Speaker 2: Focus and all that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Japanese restaurants are my litmus tests for people. Everything
Speaker 1: I want to know about a person I can find
Speaker 1: out in forty five minutes of how do you use
Speaker 1: food as a means to find out who your personal
Speaker 1: circle will be? No, so, if you go to dinner
Speaker 1: and someone to ask for ketchup to put on their
Speaker 1: wagon steak, you're not being like I'm not You're not.
Speaker 3: Not at all. I mean, one of the people that
Speaker 3: I was really in love with, it didn't work out.
Speaker 3: Was a person who had the eating habits of a
Speaker 3: six year old, and it.
Speaker 1: Was oh with the no yo, that's the game, danger yo.
Speaker 3: It was very hard, it really was, and you know
Speaker 3: everybody would be like, I can't believe you're with this
Speaker 3: person and you are eating you know this four times
Speaker 3: a week. But he didn't have a very good sense
Speaker 3: of smell, and so that affects your tastes a lot.
Speaker 3: But you know, there were other redeeming qualities that made
Speaker 3: him a genius.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, what year do you have the most fondest
Speaker 1: memories of? Like what is your when you think of
Speaker 1: nineteen da da da da da or two thousand da
Speaker 1: da da da, Like what is the.
Speaker 2: I missed that time?
Speaker 3: Nineteen ninety seven that was the year. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: I started my television career in Italy co hosting a
Speaker 3: live show with no five second tape delay. And I
Speaker 3: was on that show for half a season and then
Speaker 3: an agent cast me or asked me to be part
Speaker 3: of a cast of a mini series that was shooting
Speaker 3: in Cuba, and then I went to Cuba and I
Speaker 3: spent four months in Cuba. That was my first film
Speaker 3: as an actor, and it was the best four months
Speaker 3: of my life. I loved Cuba, Dame.
Speaker 1: I love it to death. All Right, this is the
Speaker 1: last two questions I have for you. All Right, you
Speaker 1: were in Glitter.
Speaker 3: I knew I wasn't gonna We had hung out so
Speaker 3: many times. Why are you waiting for this one?
Speaker 1: I waited so long I wanted to ask you that first. No,
Speaker 1: because I have a different relationship with Glitter only because
Speaker 1: you know it came out nine to eleven. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: there was only two movies to watch, what Blue Steel,
Speaker 1: Zoolander in Glitter. So I remember one day I just
Speaker 1: hung out at the movie theater and seen both films
Speaker 1: like twice in a row because there was nothing to do.
Speaker 1: And when you started singing, that's a guts though.
Speaker 3: Like they asked me to sing badly. I tried to
Speaker 3: sing as badly as I could.
Speaker 2: Is that your real voice?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's my voice when I'm trying to sing badly.
Speaker 3: I'm not again, Can you sing sing? I used to
Speaker 3: be inquired, but I really can't sing. I got you.
Speaker 3: I can't sing because I think also I used to
Speaker 3: be able to sing, but somewhere around there the nineties,
Speaker 3: really my voice up. We don't have time in this
Speaker 3: PG show to go through why but yeah, okay, let
Speaker 3: me just say I was a model in the nineties
Speaker 3: in Milan and Paris.
Speaker 2: I I already know what you're going all right.
Speaker 1: My last question, what is the best compliment you've ever received?
Speaker 3: That I am the funniest person in the room.
Speaker 2: Actually you are.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: You're the greatest wingman I have.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that makes me happy.
Speaker 2: No, I'm that serious.
Speaker 1: Like of there's maybe three people that other people are
Speaker 1: really impressed. I know you came to my very first
Speaker 1: game night, very late, and when you walked in the
Speaker 1: amount of times my phone started buzzing, like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: you know her?
Speaker 2: Like literally, it's you.
Speaker 3: Know, will you introduced me to Taylor Swift?
Speaker 1: Yes, both of y'all came, but you were the star
Speaker 1: that night. Oh my god, she's snuck in unnoticed. You
Speaker 1: came in like and.
Speaker 3: Literally, oh that's very kind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, you're You're the best wingman I've ever had.
Speaker 1: I thank you for doing this.
Speaker 3: I love you so much.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy that you are pushing forward, getting your
Speaker 1: ideas out there, trying to change the culture, trying to
Speaker 1: change how we see food as a social adhesive. And
Speaker 1: you're doing the Lord's work. And I thank you for
Speaker 1: doing this.
Speaker 3: Thank you right back, got you.
Speaker 1: Pad Malaxmy on the Quest Left Show.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys on the next go round.
Speaker 3: Bye bye.
Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is hosted by Me Mir Quest Love Thompson.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Sean g Brian Calhoun and Me.
Speaker 4: Produced by Britney Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for iHeart
Speaker 4: by Noel Brown, Edited by Alex Knoy. iHeart Video support
Speaker 4: by Mark Canton, Logos graphics and animation by Nick Blowe.
Speaker 1: Additional support by Lance Coleman. Special thanks to Kathy Brown.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel. Please subscribe, break, review,
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Speaker 1: and make sure you follow us on socials That's at QLs.
Speaker 1: Check out hundreds and hundreds of QLs episodes, including the
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Speaker 1: Show is a production of iHeartRadio,