Speaker 1: Hello, listeners of Four Courses with Jeffrey Z. Carrion. It's
Speaker 1: your host, Jeffrey. I'm here today to share a very
Speaker 1: special announcement. One thing you may know about me from
Speaker 1: social media is that I love meeting my friends from
Speaker 1: the food world at events around the country, and I've
Speaker 1: even made it an annual ritual to interview many of
Speaker 1: them at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami.
Speaker 1: So for the rest of this summer, we will be
Speaker 1: bringing you our Summer Series from the Beach. Each Friday,
Speaker 1: will be publishing short and intimate conversations that I've had
Speaker 1: with some of the top talent in the food world.
Speaker 1: And even beyond. The conversations you'll here for the next
Speaker 1: six weeks were recorded pool side at the w Hotel
Speaker 1: in South Beach as my friends and I enjoyed great
Speaker 1: cigars and magnums of rose as we discussed our past,
Speaker 1: present and future. Without further delay, please enjoy Summer Series
Speaker 1: from the Beach with my good friend David Bertka. I
Speaker 1: think now, I think the millennials are getting it. I
Speaker 1: think the millennials are understanding that the modern pot luck
Speaker 1: is because people want to do because they're always in
Speaker 1: their phones and they're not social, so they need these
Speaker 1: outlets to sort of get together and and hang out
Speaker 1: and make meals together and and feel a sense of belonging.
Speaker 1: I so agree. And pot luck is one of those
Speaker 1: things where you invite people you know, have one good dish,
Speaker 1: you bring that, you ring this, you ring that you
Speaker 1: bring this, you curate the manu, and suddenly have a
Speaker 1: great dinner and no one's like stressing out. Do you
Speaker 1: have not many invites for people from their house because
Speaker 1: you're an iron chef and acclaimed chef? No? Do people
Speaker 1: not tend to invite you because they feelings to what
Speaker 1: we do is we invite a lot more than we
Speaker 1: get into the same here. Yeah, so I'm I'm okay
Speaker 1: with that. But I think that once we have people over,
Speaker 1: what's funny is to watch their reaction of them because
Speaker 1: they think that like, we're going to have this like
Speaker 1: butler service, like that it's family. Start doing the dishes.
Speaker 1: We open three or four balls of wine, put them
Speaker 1: in the middle, drink whatever you want and by the way,
Speaker 1: you do it yourself. I'm not pointing the wine for you.
Speaker 1: And a tart that we make and CHAKUI in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: But is it a nice when people come over and
Speaker 1: you put them to work. I think people like that.
Speaker 1: People think like to be a part of the meal.
Speaker 1: In four seconds, if you if you bring him in
Speaker 1: the biggest part of your house. In four points six seconds,
Speaker 1: they come to the kitchen, they find the kitchen, and
Speaker 1: then when they get in the kitchen, they're they're not nervous,
Speaker 1: They're not okay, right, I use those pots, so I
Speaker 1: have those. It's it's this sensory memory thing that makes
Speaker 1: them feel relaxed. So I go for them, like and
Speaker 1: when you when you give them a job like peeling
Speaker 1: carrots or chopping earth. And then and then you get
Speaker 1: to the carrots at the dinner and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: Jeffrey's carrots are amazing. I feel like they're a part
Speaker 1: of it. That's nice little thing to do. So we
Speaker 1: have a long relationship of like cooking and eating together.
Speaker 1: And you live up the street. Literally, did you throw
Speaker 1: the absolute best Halloween party? I've ever been to five
Speaker 1: levels of your brownstone and it is it's uncanny of
Speaker 1: a chocolate shop, a horror shop, a pastry room, a
Speaker 1: photo booth, a secret room. You're not supposed to go in,
Speaker 1: and when you go in and I know something bad happens.
Speaker 1: You never went in it. I haven't got in yet.
Speaker 1: I'm scared. And then a feast and everybody loves it,
Speaker 1: and you have all these children come at the right time,
Speaker 1: then they go home at the right time, and then
Speaker 1: you have kind of an adult thing after. So you're
Speaker 1: really doing something. You've done all that party. Yeah. My
Speaker 1: husband is a huge Halloween fan and when we lived
Speaker 1: in l A. He was really famous for throwing putting
Speaker 1: on a haunted house for the teenagers of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Not the kids who are going trigger treating, but he
Speaker 1: would do some really scary stuff. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: how does that happen? How does one like he build
Speaker 1: a maze in his backyard? It was crazy? It was nuts.
Speaker 1: How have you maintained your performance from every mathia done?
Speaker 1: From TV to screen a Broadway to music to writing,
Speaker 1: to cooking to catering to being a chef? How do
Speaker 1: you perform at the top level? What is it that
Speaker 1: drives you and how do you maintain what you're doing
Speaker 1: and get better every year? I feel like I do
Speaker 1: a lot of things, but do a lot of things mediocre.
Speaker 1: I don't do one great thing. So start your day out.
Speaker 1: How is it that you you wake up? What is
Speaker 1: the first thing you do? Give me a routine. I
Speaker 1: do a bit of a meditation and then I wake
Speaker 1: my kids up, make them breakfast. Then my husband hates it,
Speaker 1: but I'm a short order cook, so whatever they want,
Speaker 1: you know. I started as a toast front, you know,
Speaker 1: and Worsted Eggs, and I started making one thing and
Speaker 1: that's it, and like, well, can I have an egg?
Speaker 1: And we have like pancakes, and like no, that was yesterday.
Speaker 1: And then it's like okay, and you just like succumb
Speaker 1: because they don't try to plan something. So it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of surprises every now and then. But when
Speaker 1: Neil's waking them up, it's hot cereal, cold cereal. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's it. So get them to school. I usually go
Speaker 1: out earlier, workout, yeah, early, riser because I have to
Speaker 1: um and I'm home a lot, a lot alone because
Speaker 1: my husband's away. Yeah right now, he's shooting. Actually he
Speaker 1: comes tomorrow. He's shooting in San Francisco. The Matrix four
Speaker 1: four Yeah, yeah yeah, Kiano, yeah, he all of his
Speaker 1: scenes are with Kiano. I don't know if I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to say that, but it's okay. Yeah, he's uh the
Speaker 1: mare Carrion Moss and Kanu Reeves and he him Basically,
Speaker 1: it's pretty exciting. So you're up, you're at the gym.
Speaker 1: What is your workout? Tuesday Thursdays or more cardio, Saturday's
Speaker 1: cardio and then Monday, Wednesday's Fridays or weights like body weight,
Speaker 1: so very specific five days. When you try to do
Speaker 1: when you travel, yeah, you do when you try. I
Speaker 1: feel like I try when I travel more. I'm more
Speaker 1: able to work out because usually there's a gym in
Speaker 1: the hotel. Downtime aren't around like a vacation. When I'm
Speaker 1: going for work, right, you feel that you get to
Speaker 1: sleep in by nine or ten, you're done with your
Speaker 1: prepping for the day. Yes, then you get into it
Speaker 1: and then I get into it. So it's usually, Um,
Speaker 1: I've got meetings for this one show that I'm doing
Speaker 1: that's coming up from Netflix. Can we talk about it?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Netflix is a big deal. It's a
Speaker 1: Netflix show and it's what is it kind of about?
Speaker 1: I can't really talk much. It hasnt been announced, but
Speaker 1: it's with food and drag queens, Food and Drag Queens, Yes,
Speaker 1: being the two together. So it's it's a wild it's
Speaker 1: a wild fun show, Food and Drag Queens. That's the
Speaker 1: first I wish I had thought of that. Damn well,
Speaker 1: you can come go on, you can come woke him
Speaker 1: dress Jeffrey and Jag. I don't think he'd be a
Speaker 1: very pretty woman though hadsome man. Not a pretty woman
Speaker 1: at the heels thing with in the makeup thing, but
Speaker 1: very masculine features. I do thank you, So I don't
Speaker 1: think thank you so that if you're working on that show.
Speaker 1: So working on that show, working on that. I'm prepping
Speaker 1: for the Food Network show. I'm writing a show right
Speaker 1: now that is in the beginning stages. I just took
Speaker 1: a class and improv class because it's took an improv class.
Speaker 1: Yeah with upright, So this is aid and it was fun.
Speaker 1: It was wild. So do you feel the need to
Speaker 1: sort to keep up your ship? I do. I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, since the kids are getting older, I'm getting
Speaker 1: back into acting and I've been up for a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff and turned down a lot of stuff that
Speaker 1: the Broadway stuff I'm not able to do right now.
Speaker 1: Still but it's hard because it shows a week with
Speaker 1: kids and Neil's always gone. It's like we just saw
Speaker 1: wil Uge and I was like, how do they do
Speaker 1: that right? I mean, I know it's ninety minutes two hours,
Speaker 1: but it's just physically and mental to take such good
Speaker 1: kid when you're doing the musical, when you were doing
Speaker 1: when talking about performance, when I'm doing plays. When I
Speaker 1: was doing plays, I was always my best performances were
Speaker 1: when I was hungover. So if I partied the night before,
Speaker 1: it just came out of me emotionally because I was
Speaker 1: emotionally tired. But with musicals, you've got to take care
Speaker 1: of your voice. You got to take care of your body.
Speaker 1: To stretch. You have to stretch an hour or two before.
Speaker 1: I did a show where I had a you know,
Speaker 1: seven minute dance solo in the show, and I had
Speaker 1: to get there an hour and a half just to
Speaker 1: warm up. And then it's warm up your voice and
Speaker 1: get enough sleep and eat right and eat clean. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got to be an athlete to do a Broadway musical.
Speaker 1: And you notice that everybody is probably thirty or younger.
Speaker 1: Thirty two are younger. It's just what you phase out.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was doing answer to the chorus for
Speaker 1: a really long time. And if you step like milusion
Speaker 1: know if you've seen it, If I did, I loved it.
Speaker 1: The show has been tab but the set is like
Speaker 1: the orchestra pit and the stairs, and if you make
Speaker 1: one misstep, you're running around. Oh yeah, and if you
Speaker 1: one misstep when you're you're gone. I mean. And also
Speaker 1: the show is so technical, so I can imagine if
Speaker 1: the set doesn't move and there's a big dance number,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're stuff. If it's one second moves one
Speaker 1: second when you're not expecting it to move, and you're
Speaker 1: like in the middle of a step your toast, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm shocked by how they do it, and they get
Speaker 1: up for it, and it's really spectacular. It's a true
Speaker 1: it's a really true Broadway musical. I feel like lately
Speaker 1: there's been these musicals that are just stripped down and
Speaker 1: not many people. But this is the sets, the costumes,
Speaker 1: the dancing. There's not much substance, but who cares, no,
Speaker 1: it's great. Who needs substance when you get dancing. So
Speaker 1: we're at noon, what do you eat for lunch? I
Speaker 1: usually have a big salad bar, Like in my my
Speaker 1: middle drawer, I have a bunch of different lettuces and
Speaker 1: sliced up cucumber, carrots, celery, a couple of different dressings,
Speaker 1: and I just put a big salad. Sometimes I have
Speaker 1: protein like shredded chicken or shrimp, garbonzo beans or some
Speaker 1: type of protein and plan this. I mean, you have
Speaker 1: a plan every every weekend. I put the salad bar
Speaker 1: together so it's there so I'm able to eat like
Speaker 1: a big salad for lunch. We always say that like
Speaker 1: if you're not prepared, you're gonna fail. If you don't
Speaker 1: have stuff, you should have stuff and you open the
Speaker 1: bridge that you can right here is good. Yeah, those
Speaker 1: are my favorite kind of meals is just looking at
Speaker 1: the freaking seeing what you have, pulling something out of
Speaker 1: your ass. So dinner is control. So usually around three
Speaker 1: thirty four o'clock, I'll start prepping and get things together
Speaker 1: and and I try to switch up the proteins. Where
Speaker 1: would you chicken in or pork or we do a
Speaker 1: lot of fish in our house. Um My kids eat
Speaker 1: everything like yours do. So everything. It's because at seven months,
Speaker 1: you know they were eating you know, viale parmesan your plate.
Speaker 1: It's like it's a little piece of veal. It's like fine.
Speaker 1: I have to say, I was so impressed with your girls.
Speaker 1: You invited me to this met family night. Yeah. They
Speaker 1: did their own cooking, this cooking demo, and Neil and
Speaker 1: I were just blown. Oh wait, they were incredible. They
Speaker 1: were there like and I'm standing next to them. I
Speaker 1: want to help him. I'm like, They're like, oh can
Speaker 1: you can you season this? Dad? You're like, I'm the
Speaker 1: soux chef here. It was great. I had no purpose
Speaker 1: on that stage. I felt. I felt proud and sadly,
Speaker 1: sadly lonely, like that's it. That happened real fast? Do
Speaker 1: they want to do that? Is that? Like? You know,
Speaker 1: there's twelve and they have a cookbook coming out, book
Speaker 1: coming on October. It's incredible. I saw a card there
Speaker 1: then it said there's a Carrian family cookbook. How genius?
Speaker 1: How was that with them? Was that hard putting it together?
Speaker 1: We shot at at our house in Niagara Falls in
Speaker 1: the summer. In the entire month of August. We had
Speaker 1: a studio in Buffalo, and my ex pastry chef happens
Speaker 1: to live in Buffalo. She also works cooks as well,
Speaker 1: so she did all the recipes and we had a
Speaker 1: photographer next door that did all the photos. So we
Speaker 1: did in one month. I love how soft the photos
Speaker 1: are too. They're they're very different than most of these
Speaker 1: photos you see in cookbooks right now. It's kind of
Speaker 1: food different cookook. They wanted to do, and they said
Speaker 1: they did not want to do a kid's a kiddie cookbook.
Speaker 1: They wanted an adult cookbook that was like smart and
Speaker 1: had great colors and and really popped. They didn't want
Speaker 1: to do sort of like ABC cooking, and they wanted
Speaker 1: to They want to start here. So he must be
Speaker 1: so proud. I'm very proud of them. Does George get
Speaker 1: into it? George's getting is eating. He eats everything, and
Speaker 1: he's starting to like understand. But he's five, so right,
Speaker 1: of course, that's she's still pretty young to be. He's
Speaker 1: very young. Snacks do you snack? Do I snack? Uh?
Speaker 1: Not really, I should know. Usually criticism I try to
Speaker 1: not eat. But if it is, it's you know a
Speaker 1: handful of nuts or some apple with almond butter, or
Speaker 1: some veggies, So that's that's good snacks. That was really yeah, right,
Speaker 1: Like if I don't eat or a skip lunch. I'm
Speaker 1: going for the carbs and going for How does how
Speaker 1: does Neil take his diet on the road like that?
Speaker 1: Does he have someone that just cooks for him? No? No, No,
Speaker 1: he doesn't eat. He doesn't. It's weird like he eats
Speaker 1: half portions of things all day and then by the
Speaker 1: time ten o'clock rolls around, he eats heats about seven
Speaker 1: ess peanut butter cups full esus peanut butter cups. Really, yes,
Speaker 1: at ten ten o'clock a nut because he's like hungry.
Speaker 1: I think so he's hungry or he's a tasty to it.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like Heroin for him. Peanut butter and
Speaker 1: sugar come on a chocolate. He will forget to eat ice,
Speaker 1: like he's like, oh, I had oat meal today and
Speaker 1: it's eight o'clock. I was like, what, how can you
Speaker 1: forget to eat? I forget to have second or third lunch.
Speaker 1: It's impossible for us foodieas So, where was it for
Speaker 1: you that you decided that this is really natural, this
Speaker 1: food TV, this this thing is very natural for me,
Speaker 1: and I could still have You're really in three worlds.
Speaker 1: You could have all three worlds and you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of incredible to have that as Act two and
Speaker 1: a half or three. When did that happen? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I took a break from acting because my
Speaker 1: mom had died, and then I had to get away
Speaker 1: from the rejection of acting because I was living in
Speaker 1: l a and not loving l a Um. So food
Speaker 1: always made me happy. Cooking always made me happy. So
Speaker 1: I went to culinary school and sort of things started
Speaker 1: falling in my lap um and it's been great. I've
Speaker 1: been loving balancing both the two and then realizing with infants,
Speaker 1: I can't go on the road, I can't do something
Speaker 1: on location. So it was nice to sort of stay home.
Speaker 1: I had a catering company, I had, you know, I
Speaker 1: made a cookbook, so it was nice too. When the
Speaker 1: kids were at school, I was able to do my work.
Speaker 1: So it just sort of lent itself that I was
Speaker 1: able to sort of dabble in cooking and acting every
Speaker 1: now and then. And I did a one man show
Speaker 1: it at Studio fifty four, and so it was sort
Speaker 1: of like I went in and out. It must be
Speaker 1: amazing to be a home full time and cooking for
Speaker 1: them every night. Five nights a week. That's special. I
Speaker 1: wish I could do that. I cannot do that. I
Speaker 1: can tell him to come to the restaurant, but it's
Speaker 1: not the same. But you know, I'm also putting together
Speaker 1: meals in forty five minutes. But very it's very simple,
Speaker 1: you know, It's it's simple for you. That takes time.
Speaker 1: A lot know a lot of people that if they
Speaker 1: come over for dinner, like on a week day, they're like,
Speaker 1: you just threw this together. So we we have this
Speaker 1: issue I think in our society and especially the culture
Speaker 1: that we're in now, is about we want to spend
Speaker 1: ten minutes cooking. I mean, you can't spend ten minutes cooking.
Speaker 1: You might as well just order. You'll you'll get a
Speaker 1: better meal, you get a better outpoint. And there's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with ordering. Thank God for seamless, thank God for
Speaker 1: the ability to have I'm gonna come to your house
Speaker 1: and bring great food and if you want or from
Speaker 1: a fancy restaurant, you do it. I'm amazing how that
Speaker 1: that exists. But to put food together, it takes patience,
Speaker 1: It takes time, takes effort, it takes energy, and it
Speaker 1: really takes focus. You have to spend some time to
Speaker 1: do it. It's not one to three. Those one to
Speaker 1: three cookbooks are just I can't get into my My
Speaker 1: husband bought one of those insta pots. I can't get
Speaker 1: into it. I don't understand those. I mean I I said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a meal a week. He hasn't. It's
Speaker 1: still in the box. That's what happens that we have one.
Speaker 1: We have one. I'm not going to mention the name,
Speaker 1: but it is literally you try it out simplastic, right,
Speaker 1: and I have my old Dutch oven. That's that's how
Speaker 1: you wrap, is what we use. That's how your brace thinks. Well,
Speaker 1: it's easier. I don't have to worry about it do stuff.
Speaker 1: I do suvite because I've been doing it in my
Speaker 1: kitchens my entire life. So for us, it's it's so simple.
Speaker 1: But suvite is actually another step as well, because you
Speaker 1: have to think about putting in and actually getting into it,
Speaker 1: and then you have to caramelize it after. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: just caramelize the ship out of it right away. I'd
Speaker 1: like to have a lot, Like if it's protein, if
Speaker 1: it's poultry, I'd like to have it already ready to go.
Speaker 1: In the freezer in that morning, I bring it out,
Speaker 1: have it come to room timp and then syric because
Speaker 1: that's takes ten seconds. Ten seconds, you know. So what
Speaker 1: is your go to weeknight meal when you're deep in
Speaker 1: the weeds and you're tired. Probably a roast chicken. Roast chicken. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What is your favorite dessert When you need to make
Speaker 1: a dessert on a Sunday someone's coming over, you need
Speaker 1: to whip something up in forty five minutes and make
Speaker 1: it homemade and not go out and get it in
Speaker 1: the summer, it's usually some sort of berry or peach
Speaker 1: or something like something a cop or just or in syrup,
Speaker 1: you know, like a shortcake or because you can make
Speaker 1: short I did that for you. It was super eatid
Speaker 1: and it's super easy. I did that. I was desert.
Speaker 1: I need to be tastic. I thought you bought it.
Speaker 1: I really did know, because it was like it was like,
Speaker 1: it takes time to make that, but did it? I know,
Speaker 1: it's like a biscuit. It was so fantastic. That's really
Speaker 1: the berries. It's really the berries and everything that's it.
Speaker 1: You really have great balance. But so that's dessert. So
Speaker 1: you're waking up in the morning, big breakfast on a Sunday.
Speaker 1: I keep a bunch of frozen scones in my that
Speaker 1: you made. I make them and then I freeze so
Speaker 1: smart they're they're raw and all different kinds. So I
Speaker 1: do that. I do like a bunch of like new
Speaker 1: ski thick bacon. I usually do some baby maybe some bagels,
Speaker 1: and then maybe some poached eggs if someone wants a
Speaker 1: poached egg with like grilled toast, and that's it. That's it. David,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. You just made us a day,
Speaker 1: a week, and about five years of your life.