WEBVTT - School Or No School 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.200 All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio. 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.079 My name is Bobby Flay and I'm here with my 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.160 daughter and co host. I'm Flag and I'm Always Hungry. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.079 Sophie and I gathered around my stove to cook together. Well, 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.600 you cook, I asked the questions, and eat the food. 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:20.599 If does any food left, you come to the table 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.159 together to share a meal, connect as a family, and 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.280 tell the stories that matter to us. Dad, today, we're 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.240 talking about something interesting to me because we have different experiences. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.879 Yea something that you went to cold school, and it's 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:36.960 it's school or no school, so we're both we're on 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:38.600 both sides of this one. All Right, we'll take a 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:46.000 seed classes and session. Okay, so we're gonna make something 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.839 that you basically make the first couple of weeks you're 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.920 in culinary school, which is fish. I'm popiot, which is 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:58.480 fish steamed in and parchment. Behavior you've had it, Yeah, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.639 Mom used to make it a lot growing up. Your mom. Yeah, 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.639 it's a really good dish because it's something you can 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.840 prep ahead of time and then kind of, you know, 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:08.679 put it in the oven when your guests get there, 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.679 and you can there's lots of different renditions of it. 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.039 I'm gonna do something a little bit kind of like 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:15.960 a little bit of the beaten paths, just to give 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.920 it some flavor. Okay, this is so, this is zatar. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.280 Do you know what zat is? Zatar? Smell it. It's 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.040 so good. It's a spice mixture. Um, It's a Middle 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.200 East and spice mixture. It has like some lots of 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.080 dried herbs, a reagano, margorom, things like that, but also 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.319 things like sesame seeds and sumac. You know what sumac is. 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.240 It has like a little citrusy flavor. And so I'm 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.720 gonna I'm gonna use this to to season the fish 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.080 a little bit. So what I'm gonna do is just 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.319 take a little bit of you can use vegetable oil 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:51.560 or canola oil, some of this uhitar, and I'm just 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.880 gonna mix it with some of the oil and I'm 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.320 gonna make like a very very light paste to put 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.640 on top of the fish. Now I have a filet 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.640 here of rock fish. Now I have to tell you, 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.480 like rock fish is a new thing for me. It's 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:05.800 a new thing for me. I love it. It's a 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.600 it's a West Coast fish. We didn't really get a 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.280 lot of this on the East Coast. It's a dense fish. 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.160 It has a really good, really good texture to it. 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.959 I really love it. It's flaky, it's white, it has 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.040 has density to it. So what are you mixing together there? 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:25.320 So this is just the ztar and some canola oil, okay, okay, 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.520 And I'm just gonna basically rub it on top of 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.120 the filet. You see this, so it has like the 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:34.720 sesames running through it and the sumacs. I just want to, like, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.760 I just want to enhance the fish. I wanted to 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.480 st taste like the fish itself. And then what I'm 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.160 gonna do. So I have some part with paper here, 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.160 and I'm going to I want to put the fish 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.360 on the parchment paper, on the part of paper, and 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.680 then I'm gonna take a little splash of wine and 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.200 the wine is gonna, you know, give it some acidity, 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.480 but it's also going to help steam it's you know, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.680 because when when the when the wine gets hot there, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.560 it's going steam it a little bit and then you know, 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.080 maybe like a squeeze little leven just in there, just 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.120 like that. Okay, So you can put vegetables in there 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:09.919 if you want. What I like to do is actually 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.600 steam the fish with some flavor and then maybe put 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.920 like a like a relish or a saucer or something 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.640 like that after or vineigrette after it comes out. I 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.960 like to do it with like lemon slices, capers. You can, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:29.480 you can absolutely do that. Okay, So today we're talking 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.120 about school versus no school. Now, I don't want anybody 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.160 to get the wrong idea. This is not about whether 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.720 or not people should go to school or not they 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:41.120 should go to school period. And I think when I 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.640 thought about this subject, even you were like, what are 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.320 you talking about? I mean, I get asked all the 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.680 time by young people who want to be cooks or 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.880 chefs should I go to culinary school or should I 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.560 just go to a restaurant and learn? And I have 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.160 to say, like, there's probably a significant amount of that 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.800 in your field, rightly. Should I go to broadcast journalism 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.960 school or should I just learn on the job. I 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.120 don't think it's necessarily that. I think it's should I 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.320 go to school for broadcast and digital journalism or should 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.800 I go to school for something else and specialize in 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.880 something else, whether it be politics or medicine. And then 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:22.920 trying to get a career in broadcast. Yeah, because your 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.240 career is really interesting in that way, because as a 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.359 broadcast journalist that could mean so many different things. It 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.560 doesn't mean just news, right, it can mean you know, 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:38.440 some specialty subject as you said, medical, political, public policy. 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.360 I mean you name it. There's you know, there's a 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:42.960 there's dozens and dozens of categories in that regard. So 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.760 like you could be a journalist on TV or in media, 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.520 and you can be like, you know, an ex politician 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.880 for instance, you know, a former senator or something along 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:55.919 those lines, and all of a sudden you become a 0:04:56.000 --> 0:05:00.240 journalist on a senior correspondent, a senior corresponding exactly. Or 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:01.960 you know, there are people who would say I just 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.960 want to be a news in general, and they go 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.520 to school like you did um and you majored in 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.080 broadcast journalism. A lot of people do not take their 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:12.839 major and then make a career out of it. You know, 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.840 it's it's it's it's almost uncommon right at this point. 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.839 It's you know, it's like, you know, when you're eighteen 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:21.920 years old, you think you would know what you want 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:23.760 to do, and then by the time you graduate in 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.960 your twenty two. You like, well that was fun and all, 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.039 but I'm going to do something else. So you see 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.520 you see that tons you you you you took a 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.080 straight path. Yeah, but I definitely, I definitely had other 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.400 interests and you know that was that was one of 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.200 the great things about the school that I went to. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.120 We were we were always encouraged to try out different 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.080 classes and make sure you were studying where you really 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.160 wanted to study, so that you didn't have any regrets 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.520 later on. Right, Like you could go in as a 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:53.560 freshman and um, you know, choose a major, but you 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.039 were always encouraged to take classes outside of your major, 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.600 just to make sure that you know, you didn't you 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:00.960 weren't missing out on following a fashion of yours or 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.560 just reconfirming that this isn't really what you wanted to do. Well, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.799 you've only been at a school for a couple of years, 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.159 and you know you've you've so far, I've taken this 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:15.880 path from college to your your life, um as an adult, 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.000 and you know you sort of carried on your education 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.640 sort of directly. Right. So now you're on You're on 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.560 You're on ABC and your your a journalist in Los Angeles. 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.320 So I mean, do you do you feel like you 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.360 had mentors in school and or do you have mentors 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.920 in the field that you work in? Like what do 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:36.960 you where do you what are you finding I have? 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:42.000 I have mentors that I've found while working at my job. 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.480 I had mentors that were professors that are still mentors 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.040 to me that I still text all the time, UM 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:49.680 and reach out to and call when I have a 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.800 question or a crisis. And I have mentors that I 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.280 found while I was in school interning. UM, so from 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:01.440 different you know, um wet news stations or networks that 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.680 I still talk to today. I've always sought out mentorship 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.040 because it's been very valuable to me, and there's a 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:11.400 lot of people I look up to. There's a lot 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.239 of amazing people in my industry. UM. And I always 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.040 you know, when when students ask me for advice, you know, 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.640 I always say, you know, try to find a mentor, 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.720 UM that, or someone that you look up to, because, um, 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:28.720 you know, as a student, don't be afraid to reach 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.280 out to people because I always feel like people want 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.840 to help students, and then once you graduate, people aren't 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.280 always interested, right, but people always want to help young 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.760 people that are smart and right, and and looking for 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:43.920 advice that are in school. Yeah. So, I mean some 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.560 people know this story about me because I've talked about 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.840 in the past, But I I dropped out of high school. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.760 So you and I have a very very different educational path, 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.680 which I have to say, nothing makes me prouder than 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.320 your accomplishments. You know, first of all, let's take it slow. 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.520 Graduating in high school, which I did not do. I 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.040 dropped that in tenth grade. Then you went to you know, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.760 a great college, graduated college, and you flourish there. And 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.800 I'll just say, like, you know, like I think that 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:19.480 you know, I watched you grow up there. And when 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.840 I say I watched you grow up, you flourish there, 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.080 like you you became the person that you are today 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.160 based on going to school. And you know, a lot 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.480 of it has to do with your environment, the people 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.840 that you meet there. I mean you you're a group 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.520 of friends I was. I always call them, you know, 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.040 your your your girls. I mean there were guys too, 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.440 of course, but like the girls that I think about 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.480 that are part of your crew, like that were there 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.000 for four years and still are I've been feeding them 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.240 for six years. By the way, there they are these 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:56.400 people are? They're really amazing young people. And you know, 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.080 you've been able to associate with people like that, and 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.760 it just makes it makes you more aware and a 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.240 better person and more inclusive. It's like, you know, that 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.400 kind of stuff rubs off on people. So I didn't 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.440 get a chance to do that, you know. I I 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:14.320 went from from being in school in tenth grade hating school. 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.959 I probably had some sort of learning learning disorder of 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.360 some level. I have no idea they weren't really testing 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.120 it for testing people that vigorously then. Um, I just 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.800 wasn't interested or could not really learned through a textbook. 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.600 I needed to work with my hands, and I did 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.520 not know that until I started doing it. I went 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.520 to UM, I went to work in this Russian called 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.600 Joe Allen. Joe Allen is a real person. Um he 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:44.080 just actually passed away. And Joe Allen gave me the 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.600 opportunity not only to get a paycheck. UM my paycheck 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:53.120 was I was working in like the salad station. I 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:54.800 didn't you know, didn't know how to use a knife 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.800 or anything, you know, like no nothing. I mean at first, 0:09:57.840 --> 0:09:59.400 I was a bus boy for two weeks and I 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.760 sort of found my way into the kitchen, and my 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.120 first paycheck was a hundred and ninety dollars a week, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.720 and after taxes it was a hundred forty four dollars. 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.200 I was like shocked that they took forty six times 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.000 out of my page. But he gave me a place 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.280 to to go every days instead of just hanging out 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.560 in the street corner with my friends. And uh. In 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.640 short order, I realized that I really loved going to 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.840 work and I loved working with my hands, and it 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:31.360 gave me a shot at life really. And so you know, 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:36.400 the French Culinary Institute came around. Was the first class 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.360 of the school. Okay, So I was, you know, eighteen 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.320 at the time, and Joe Allen said to me, there's 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.160 a new school opening up. I think you should go 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.520 to it. And I was like school. Like I was like, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.440 I just got I had just broken out of school, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.719 you know, and I was like, I don't want to 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.480 go to school, and he's like, I think you should 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.120 go to school so you can learn your trade. I 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.160 was like, I'm not going to be that good at 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.559 this because you either have it you don't, and he 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.560 like chuckled at me. It's like you don't even know 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:04.000 if you could be good at this because you don't 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.840 know anything, Like you need to go to school, learn 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:11.440 the basics. So long story short, I went to school. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:13.400 I was in the very first class of the French 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.560 Culinary Institute. I did not I had to go back 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.200 and get my equivalency diploma, my g e D as 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.599 they call it, because otherwise they wouldn't let me in 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:22.959 to the the school. You need to high school, de plumber 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.079 to go to school French culinary. So I went to 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.920 school just just f y I. I just told the 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.520 story on my Instagram account. When Joe passed away the 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:33.880 day I was going to school, he handed me a 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:38.040 check for my entire tuition and said, you don't owe 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.680 me anything. I want to do this and you know, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.160 I hope this really works out for you. And he 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.080 said to me, this profession will take you anywhere you 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:48.720 want to go in the world. And at the time, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:50.080 I was like, I don't even know what this guy's 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.200 talking about, right And I now, obviously I do know 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.839 what he's talking about, because that was the beginning of 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.240 giving me an opportunity to be a good cook right there, 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:01.880 and I didn't know it. I really didn't know it. 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.280 And frankly, I wasn't even a good student there. I mean, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.880 I just I was a kid. I was like I 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:12.360 was so young, Sophie. You're I was nineteen. I mean, 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:14.320 think about that. I was six years younger than you 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:18.240 are now, you know, and like I was still a 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.400 wild kid, you know. I was just like, you know, 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:22.840 I didn't have a lot of discipline at decorum. I 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.319 was just sort of you know, And but somehow I 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:27.840 I picked up a lot of what you know, I 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:50.320 still practice today, which is the basics of French technique. Okay, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.960 I'm gonna turn this this way. So so what I 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.760 do is I cover the fish like this. I could 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:57.960 leave some room and then I just kind of make 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.360 cleats in it so that it acts, ye kind of 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.200 outline the shape of the fish. Almost. Yeah, you're feeling it. 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.960 Just keep going around and making pleats. It's almost like 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.240 you're making like a like a pie crustating Yeah, yeah, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.280 you see that. Or like how you fold an omelet 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.120 exactly so this way. You know, if you have like 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.880 six guests coming over, Sophie, you do six these little 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.280 packages like this, and then you put it on top 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.800 of a sheet tray for you know, a baking cheat 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.839 or something, and you know three to do something like that, 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.040 and we're just gonna put it in the others great, 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.160 And it's a filade fish that's probably gonna take minutes, 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.240 so I'll set the timer. It feels a little foolproof. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.200 Well it is. It's not that it's foolproof. I mean 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:46.760 you can certainly undercook it and overcook it, but it definitely, um, 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:51.800 it gives you a little sense of security. Yeah, is 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.240 there really any other way to learn knife skills other 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.840 than going to culinary school? Yeah, just do it a lot. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.040 But like I feel like there's so many different small 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.440 techniques and using a set of knives, you have to 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.280 be taught. Yeah. Now that said, I mean this is 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.160 something I want to talk to you about, which is, like, 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:12.520 you know, it seems like everybody is learning how to 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.880 do everything on YouTube? Is YouTube the new university? Like 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:20.160 what's going on? I do remember watching a an old 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.120 bone of potite video and Molly Bass I don't remember 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.000 what she's making, but she I learned how to how 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:30.400 to cut a shallott. She like taught a shallotte cutting technique. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:36.520 It's called caesa okay, which is a French term. It's basically, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.520 so did she did you cut down through the shallot, 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.000 but not towards the back of it, and then and 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.720 then then then turn your knife and then make slices 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.680 the other way and horizontally. How you cut an onion? 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.080 But in shallott when when it's a shallow for some reason, 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.040 because if it's small, it's called sees the other one 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.080 it's called But yeah, that's that that I watched on 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.480 a on a YouTube video. So they you go, So 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.440 you learned you did learn how to use a knife 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.680 doing it. I learned how to how to cut a shalott. Yeah, 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.640 but I'm sure you can find whatever you want somewhere 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.040 on the internet. Yeah, that's true. But the thing about 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.680 knives is that it's really interestingly you bring that up, 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.200 because I can use a chef's knife and shop an 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.960 onion or mushrooms or whatever I'm shopping and not even 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.000 have to look down. I know, it's so freaky. Have 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:27.760 you ever seen that. Yeah, I can be talking to 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.720 you across the table and not look But it's because 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.480 of the technique. It's not because I'm some magician. I mean, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.320 it's because you know, you're taught that you hide your 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.760 your fingertips underneath your knuckles, so that so that basically 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.480 the knife is just hitting it's just hitting the side 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:47.280 of your knuckles and it's just going straight down you. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.000 You almost can't cut yourself unless you really try. But 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.240 that takes experience. That's one of those things you just 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:55.120 have to do it a lot. Are you freaking out 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.240 just like hate the idea of like I've cut it? 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:07.240 I can't. Okay, So if you were to step into 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.040 the French Culinary Institute and I want to teach maybe 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.880 a new technique that you think is fundamental, what would 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:20.640 it be? Fundamental techniques, but something that's more modern. I 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.440 mean you just mentioned that you thought that's kind of 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.920 an old school thing, maybe not necessarily necessary. What's something 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.800 that you know is maybe a little slightly slightly more modern, 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.440 I mean slightly more modern. I mean like, I mean, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.200 here's the thing. So, like, so, molecular astronomy has become 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.760 like a very important part of cuisine, although I think 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.160 it's kind of faded a little bit. I don't know 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.240 how to do any of that stuff. I just don't. 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.240 It was not it was never like I wasn't against it. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.720 I was always curious about it. I didn't always think 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:55.760 that it tasted delicious. I thought it was cool. I 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.880 never learned it, so you know, it's it. I like 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.720 to cook from scratch, and what that means is that 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.600 everything that I cook as a foundation. It starts with 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.560 onions or shallots and garlic. There's a stock, there's wine 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.920 in it. I create foundations of sauces. I always try 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.680 to bring in my French technique foundation and then make 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.760 it something new or something that I want to taste 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.600 what I think is missing in this country in terms 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.960 of knowledge. This is gonna people are gonna say, oh, yeah, 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:32.800 of course you're saying that chili peppers, because chili peppers are, yes, 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.840 clearly a huge influence and from Mexico, um from lots 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:39.960 of different places. I mean, I use chili peppers from Italy, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.200 Collabrian chili's, there's chili's from places like Peru like a hiyamadillo, 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.240 and you know, there's there's there's chili's all over the world. 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.880 But we have a lot of amazing chili's in America 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.600 as well, all along the Southwest, you know, and of 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.879 course like southern California, etcetera. Texas there's chili peppers all 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.560 over the place, and I really feel like they should 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:04.320 be part of the American pantry everybody's because they are 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.560 part of how we're eating a lot more today, which 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.399 means tons of flavor. People want a little heat, they 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.560 want that pepper background flavor. They want to bring impact 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:15.720 to their food, and to me, there's no better way 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.479 to do it than a chili pepper. Now, yeah, I mean, 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.040 I've been cooking with those things for thirty something years, 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:22.959 and so you know, people might say, yeah, of course 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.520 you're gonna say that, But I think I think there's 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.760 I think they're really important and I think very few 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:44.560 people have a lot of knowledge about them. But you 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.280 before asked me about mentorship. Who were some of your 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:49.960 early mentors, you know, Jonathan Waxman. I would say that 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.480 Jonathan was the first person to teach me about good food. 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:54.919 I was already working in the restaurant business. I was 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:56.800 I was the chef at a restaurant when I was 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.280 like twenty years old. I had no idea what I 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.720 was doing. I just got it. Was one of those things. 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:03.680 And this happens a lot in the restaurant business, where 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.040 like all of a sudden you're standing there and like 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:08.480 somebody gets fired or quits or something, and all of 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.240 a sudden, you're like you're next in line, you know, 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.199 like they're like here's here's your apron, like you know, 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.840 it's time here, like you're in charge. And so I 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:17.480 did it for like a year, but it was I 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.920 was not good. I mean, and and also like because 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.000 I was inexperience and not knowing what I was doing, 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.560 I wasn't even hiring people that were good because I was. 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.280 I was intimidated to hire people that were better than 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.040 I was. So I had to come to terms with that. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.680 And then finally I was like I just needed to 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.280 learn how to cook. This is insane. I should not 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.360 be running a kitchen. And it was a busy restaurant 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:43.040 on the Upper East Side, and so then Jonathan tells 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.600 the story about how he came in one night and 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.480 he walked into the kitchen like the owner like brought 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.359 him into the kitchen and he was like looked at me, 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.359 like he he tells the story, how I looked like 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.040 I was. I was like worn out, like sitting in 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:56.919 the in the corner of the kitchen, just like just 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.600 beat up, and I believe it, you know, right, I 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.800 was just so stressed out, and then I went to 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.639 work for him, like a few months later as a 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.800 line cook, just wanted to learn how to cook, you know, 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.879 and Jonathan's restaurants. I went to work at Bud's first. 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:15.880 Then I worked at a place called Jams that he had, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:17.680 and then a French biech show called Hulo's all in 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:19.960 New York City. This is long before you were born. 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.320 And all the people that worked in these restaurants could 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.399 really cook their asses off. And so that's how you 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.520 again association being around people who are good at what 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.280 they do. There's nothing like it. It's not just one person, 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.560 it's always the environment that you're in. So that's why, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.400 you know, you go into a situation like that. I 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.600 wasn't an experienced cook, but I knew the basics. So 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.920 if somebody said to me, I want you to make 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.800 a burr blanc, which is a it's a white wine 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:48.920 butter sauce. It's one of the it's like people don't 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.600 make them that much anymore, but it's a very classic, 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:57.000 very basic French sauce, you know, and it's basically white 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.960 wine and butter and like, so we go. I go 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.760 to Jonathan's restaurant, and he was doing stuff like blood 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:09.280 orange for blanc, right, and red pepper bur blanc and 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.880