Tony Shalhoub Ranks The Best Craft Services From Monk To Mrs. Maisel

9:00Tony Shalhoub:It's that life too, right?

9:01Jo Saltz:It is. Things catch fire or get traction really only based on the moment of time you're in. Monk was a perfect example. Monk, before it came to me, was at ABC for four years. Then an executive left ABC and walked it over to USA. They had gotten a job at USA. And it sat there for another year. And then it came to me. But for me, it was really about, I don't think it would have worked as well four years before. Right, of course. And I think if we had started it four years later, it might have missed the mark.

9:47Tony Shalhoub:Yes. Well, you think about that, too, with any show now that you watch from a long time ago, where you're like, could this work now? Could they put this out now? Exactly.

9:57Jo Saltz:It's that moment in time where there's a lane open maybe or there's some kind of unknown things that happened in the culture or in the world that just clicks with this material. And so much of it is, frankly, it's being in the right place at the right moment.

10:20Tony Shalhoub:It's just luck a lot of times. You really do bring up some interesting points, though, now, and the cultural obsession with bread. And it's funny because actually in the bits that I saw, this idea that flour and water, that's all it is, is flour and water. And it's interpreted in so many different ways. What do you say is the culture that has the best bread? Because I want to pit some people against each other right now on our social media.

10:49Jo Saltz:Well, you know, best bread, I don't like to talk in terms of the best and my favorite because they're all so different and they're all so interesting. And it also depends. It's such a subjective thing. Your palate, your mood, the time of day.

11:07Tony Shalhoub:You're a very nice person, though, I think, can tell this about you.

11:10Jo Saltz:Although I have to say I did eat some interesting things that I haven't had before. Okay. Like when we were in Brazil. And when we were in Japan, Japan has an amazing bread culture happening. You know, everyone said, why are you going to Japan? It's a rice-centered cuisine. And it's not.

11:32Tony Shalhoub:No.

11:32Jo Saltz:It's not at all.

11:33Tony Shalhoub:They're very sophisticated.

11:34Jo Saltz:They're making the best, speaking of not wanting to talk about the best, but they're making some amazing French bread. Really? Unbelievable.

11:43Tony Shalhoub:So there's better French bread.

11:45Jo Saltz:Well, because they, you know, we talk about this on the show, so I don't want to give away the store here. But there's a thing in Japan called kaizen. Kaizen means perfecting something, you know, enhancing it, developing it. Not necessarily even in the food space. Whether it has to do with architecture or art or music or writing or any. creative or non-creative pursuit, it's that attention to detail and constant, vigilant.

12:23Tony Shalhoub:Care.

12:25Jo Saltz:Yeah, care and wanting to evolve and make, evolve something and make it sort of perfect, knowing that perfection is unattainable.

12:34Tony Shalhoub:Well, I was going to say, they also love the imperfection of imperfection there. They're very good at that. And bread really is like sort of a celebration of that.

12:42Jo Saltz:Yeah, bread is that thing that you're, you know, bakers become so obsessed. In the New York episode, for example, I got to shoot with Richard Hart. Richard Hart is, he's a rock star in the bakery world. He's worked everywhere. He's been, he had a place in San Francisco. He's like a king of sourdough. Yeah, yeah. And we made sourdough in my kitchen here in New York. In our conversation, you know, he's like, he's every day, all day, is in pursuit of making the perfect loaf. And he said, and I'm never going to get there, but I'm going to keep trying. Because there's so many variables. You know, it's the precipitation in the air.

13:25Jo Saltz:It's what is, what's going on with this flower? Is it fresh flower? Is it older flower? What about the water? Is it hard? all of these different things are going to impact the final product. What about the temperature of your stove that you set it at? What's in the air? Because that's where the yeast is happening. Absolutely. So it's all of these factors. And he is just... Also, for him, it's like the look of the bread when it comes out of the oven. It could taste perfect, but if it doesn't look perfect,

14:03Tony Shalhoub:But also the worst thing that happens is you have maybe a slightly lousy loaf of bread, which is still insanely delicious. Exactly.

14:12Jo Saltz:Exactly.

14:12Tony Shalhoub:For me, it was like, how could it be more perfect? Yeah, this is the best loaf I've ever had. It looks gorgeous.

14:19Jo Saltz:It smells insanely good. And it stays, you know, the flavor just kind of hangs in your mouth in the right way. And you eat it and you feel good. And you can put whatever you want on there if you need to.

14:31Tony Shalhoub:So when you're done with that job, call me and I will take it from you. This summer, Prime Video takes you back before Legally Blonde, before law school, and into the world of Elle Woods in high school. Set in 1995, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who she is. Until her family moves from Bel Air to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, 90s nostalgia, and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one thing. Law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of Legally Blonde, watch Elle, A new original series only on Prime Video. Watch now. Okay.

15:10Tony Shalhoub:So the other thing I didn't realize is that you come from a family of 10.

15:14Jo Saltz:Yes. I'm second youngest of 10.

15:17Tony Shalhoub:And so how did that sculpt your eating habits, your snacking habits, you as a food lover in your life?

15:26Jo Saltz:There were so many of us. And I still know how my parents did it.

15:30Tony Shalhoub:I don't know how they did it either, honestly. Ten kids. I had two, and we had help.

15:39Jo Saltz:We couldn't figure it out. And they had ten. I did the math. I was talking to my sister the other day, and we did the math. So it turns out that we were talking about a certain period of time there was something going on. It's kind of a group thing that happened in my family. So we figured out that we were talking about a certain summer in 1962. I was eight years old. So here's the thing. My mother was 51 and my father was 50 and they had 10 kids. Oh, my God. I mean. I can't.

16:23Tony Shalhoub:How? I'm like, I'm going to take a nap just from that comment.

16:26Jo Saltz:How in the world?

16:28Tony Shalhoub:How in the world? But also back, like, at that time, too, like, where we just didn't have the same kinds of resources. And you're going to the supermarket.

16:37Jo Saltz:And get this. Here's the other thing. I grew up in Green Bay. But in the older part of the area, not far from downtown, really. And it's not a big town. It wasn't a big town then. And my mother didn't drive.

16:51Tony Shalhoub:Oh, my gosh.

16:52Jo Saltz:She just never. She couldn't handle. She just never, she was always kind of like afraid of it. She was very good at many, many things, but driving just was, it terrified her. So luckily we were in, you know, fairly close proximity to a grocery store, which the kids were always, we were always running. And she could walk downtown if she wanted to go to the department store, which she had to do a lot because, you know, this person was outgrowing this. Yep. I mean, think about that. I can't. Nowadays we drive our kids places. We, I'm still, I just didn't quite have the appreciation or the understanding until I became a parent.

17:35Tony Shalhoub:What was the food house like? What was the house's like?

17:38Jo Saltz:Oh, we started talking about food. Yeah.

17:39Tony Shalhoub:Like was it, was it Midwestern? Was it Lebanese?

17:42Jo Saltz:It was kind of a mix of, because, you know, we did love Lebanese food and we had it around a lot, but it wasn't, you know, we were also eating hot dogs and bratwurst and, you know, whatever, the Midwestern fair, you know, lots of good cheese, of course. And, uh, but it was a, it was a kind of a mix. But when they did make the Mediterranean food, the Lebanese food, amazingly, like the neighborhood kids were just swarmed because they never got anything. They didn't even recognize it. Right. And they loved it. Uh, especially the bread.

18:17Tony Shalhoub:I mean, I have to say, because I'm Jewish, and I, in COVID, started baking a lot of bread. And the thing that my kids really grew to love was challah, which is obviously, you know, and that's really a Friday night thing. I mean, I wouldn't say that my family is like overtly religious, but, you know, we come together on Friday night around challah. That's basically the whole tradition. And it's funny how I really never put those two things together until we sat down to talk about it, because it is really a tradition brought together around bread, which is wild. But of course, I do have to ask you, though.

18:58Tony Shalhoub:So you've been I mean, you've been acting on a variety of different shows, stage, screen, television. I'm curious. I want to know, I think my audience is interested in, very interested in the idea of craft services. And I want to know, there's this like, sort of like elusive vision of what actors get to eat on set. I want to know, through your years, Wings, Monk, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which had the best craft services? Oh boy, we had such, they were all very, very good.

19:35Jo Saltz:I would have to say Maisel.

19:37Tony Shalhoub:Really?

19:38Jo Saltz:Because, I don't know, maybe other actors on the show have spoken about this, but it wasn't just craft services. Amy Sherman Palladino and Dan Palladino, who ran the show and wrote the show, directed the show, she is a major, she's a foodie. I mean, she loves, she's a wonderful appreciation of it. she's so gracious and generous. When we had our table reads for every episode, I'm talking about the table read now. This is, I don't, you know, usually if you're on a TV show and there's a table read, you know, there's a, you know, there's a bagel, there's some coffee. Yeah. But these, we would go to the table reads and they would have a spread, an entire, and it always was reflective of what the episode was about.

20:39Tony Shalhoub:Stop it.

20:40Jo Saltz:I'm not kidding.

20:40Tony Shalhoub:They would have themed food at the table read.

20:44Jo Saltz:And not just like, I'm talking like a lot of food.

20:47Tony Shalhoub:Give me an example, something.

20:48Jo Saltz:I'll give Paris, okay, because we had two episodes that took place in Paris and we shot in Paris, but we did the table reads, of course, here in Brooklyn, and it was not just the spread, but like the decor and the centerpieces. It was, I have pictures of some of this stuff. It was so fun. Oh, my gosh. And I'm talking like the best, the best food, the best, you know. And then when we went to, like there was a Vegas episode, and so everything was decked out like a casino with a buffet. and then Miami and the Catskills. Oh, my God. And everyone had, we just couldn't believe our luck. And I'm talking like soup to nuts, even like a dessert thing with an ice cream stand.

21:39Jo Saltz:It was so fun.

21:41Tony Shalhoub:You are living the dream. That job was, next to Breaking Bread,

21:49Jo Saltz:really just a fantastic experience. It went for five seasons, but I miss it every day. I wake up and I just, I really, really want to go back.

22:01Tony Shalhoub:I also wanted to ask about you as an eater in your everyday, because you are so busy. Are you a snacker? Like, what's your go-to? What's your thing?

22:10Jo Saltz:Oh, I love, yeah, I'm a snacker for sure. Like, are you a junk food person?

22:15Tony Shalhoub:You don't strike me as a junk food.

22:16Jo Saltz:I don't, I try not to do that. But, you know, I really, especially lately, as I get older, sugary things, I pay for it the next day. Yeah, I know. Especially if I eat it later in the day.

22:30Tony Shalhoub:It's the worst.

22:31Jo Saltz:You know, we used to be able to, I used to be able to eat everything and always wake up fine.

22:36Tony Shalhoub:Drink, whatever. Yeah, please. Can't do that anymore. No, same. Also, I fall asleep.

22:41Jo Saltz:Seth Meyers, I just, I saw Seth Meyers' friend, but we saw him perform live this summer. I mean, he did a great bit about this, saying, you know, about how, you know, there was a time in our lives when, you know, we would have a hangover if we drank the night before. Now, he said, now as I get older, I have a hangover just from food. You know, like. That's not true. he says you know wakes up in the morning and goes oh man my head did we do bread last night you know and then the other guy said yeah we did two baskets oh my god which is so spot on it's so upsetting and so I really have to watch the junk food intake my junk food intake speaking of which I know I know

23:35Tony Shalhoub:the lollipops and the starburst and the moon pies moon pies which is like a little bit of a like under the radar kind of treat. Yeah.

23:44Jo Saltz:But when I snack, I like, you know, I like like apple, fresh apple with like cheese or a great slice of cheese or apple with peanut butter or like nuts, you know, like almonds or walnuts I love. And I love, you know, I try not to pound cheese, but I do love cheese.

24:05Tony Shalhoub:Cheese is now, cheese is like a hangover food for me now though. I know. Like legitimately, I'm like, I gotta be careful of this because tomorrow I'm going to be mad at myself.

24:15Jo Saltz:Yeah, we have to use restraint here.

24:17Tony Shalhoub:Yes. Especially good cheese. I mean, everybody says like good cheese, like oh, you don't, you know, doesn't have dessert, whatever. It's like, yeah, but even the good cheese because I can't stop myself with the good cheese.

24:26Jo Saltz:That's the problem. If it's really good, you cannot. Yes.

24:29Tony Shalhoub:You can't stop.

24:30Jo Saltz:I also love to snack on things like hummus and vegetables. But other kind of stuff I try to hold back.

24:43Tony Shalhoub:You have no guilty pleasure food? Oh, sure. What's your little dark secret? You're so pure. You're such a pure person. I really do feel that about you. You have such a pure energy. It's so kind and good. but you have to have a little bit of a like a little guilty something

25:02Jo Saltz:does crystal meth count?

25:05Tony Shalhoub:I wouldn't call that a snack I would call that something else

25:09Jo Saltz:laughter laughter laughter I love it I'm excited for that headline

25:19Tony Shalhoub:I can't wait

25:22Jo Saltz:I like chocolate but if it's really really good chocolate.

25:27Tony Shalhoub:No, that doesn't. I need like guilty.

25:31Jo Saltz:Like a Kit Kat or something.

25:33Tony Shalhoub:Well, like, I mean, I don't know. I mean, of course, like pure chocolate, like good cacao, dark chocolate is like, you know, good. That's nice.

25:40Jo Saltz:But again, there's a certain hour of the day for me, like with coffee, where no, it's bad. You can't have it. I'm up all night. I know. It's bad.

25:50Tony Shalhoub:Good coffee is like another good treat. You have something against sun-dried tomatoes. Oh, yeah. Can we have it out?

25:57Jo Saltz:I don't want to make a big federal case out of this. Well, I mean, we might. Someone asked me once, because I said, you know, I like food. I like, there's very little I don't eat. I consider myself an adventurous eater. If something is weird, I'll try it. You know, I like it. And, I mean, look, I'll eat sun-dried tomatoes. I'm not, you know, I'm not going to throw them off the plate. But I just don't get it. I don't get the appeal. For me, it's like gilding the lily. I love tomatoes.

26:28Tony Shalhoub:Tomatoes are great.

26:29Jo Saltz:And they're perfect. Cook them, slice them, make a sauce, do whatever. Love them. Every form, every kind. Even store-bought, I'll eat cherry tomatoes, summer gorgeous fresh tomatoes. Can't beat them. And then they...

26:49Tony Shalhoub:Suck the life out of them? Well, here you go.

26:52Jo Saltz:I mean, this is what I've talked about before. You know, they're called sun-dried. They're not sun-dried.

26:57Tony Shalhoub:No, they're definitely not. Let's start there. Right, okay.

26:58Jo Saltz:That's what we call a rotten tomato. Am I right?

27:02Tony Shalhoub:It's rotten. I don't disagree. It's upsetting me because you're kind of, because I really like sun-dried tomatoes, but I'm like, have I been living a lie this whole time? They're dehydrated. They're dehydrated. And that's the thing I'll say is that they're like, the thing I feel about sun-dried tomatoes, and I certainly don't feel like making this. I'm not secretly working for the Sun Dried Tomato Council. I would say they get you to the caramelization a little faster, right? Like in order to get to that kind of sweetness, you need to roast a tomato. You need to saute it.

27:33Jo Saltz:You know what? You're right. And they do add to certain dishes. Yes. I think I would like them more if they called them something else.

27:43Tony Shalhoub:Don't lie. Give them a different name.

27:44Jo Saltz:I'll eat them every day.

27:45Tony Shalhoub:No one's laying them out in the sun and then gathering them into a jar. Unless you want bugs and flies. I 100 % can get on board with that. Let's revisit some of your characters. If Monk joined you on Breaking Bread, what do you think he'd refuse to eat?

28:02Jo Saltz:Oh, boy. You see, well, Monk always had to separate the food on his plate because he didn't like food touching.

28:10Tony Shalhoub:That's an actual, that's a real thing.

28:12Jo Saltz:Oh, it is definitely a real thing. Yeah.

28:15Tony Shalhoub:My daughter, I feel like my daughter is kind of like that. I have a 12-year-old daughter. She's a little bit like that. I wouldn't say like manic, but like, you know. Yeah, just a little awareness of it. So Monk didn't like things touching.

28:25Jo Saltz:Right. And so that kind of, sandwiches then, that kind of limited, because that's food touching. But, and also, I guess one of the, we have this bread in Brazil, basically made of cassava flour.

28:41Tony Shalhoub:What's it called?

28:42Jo Saltz:It's called pan de queso. Oh, yes. It's a cheese bread.

28:46Tony Shalhoub:Yes, a cheese bread.

28:47Jo Saltz:But it's got cheese on the inside. It can be like a little ball or a big one.

28:50Tony Shalhoub:Yep.

28:51Jo Saltz:And so that might be a little weird because there's like two things combined. So I'm not sure that would be. No pizza. He wouldn't eat pizza. Or pizza because pizza is a mixture. Yeah. Everything sort of like has to live on its own for him.

29:06Tony Shalhoub:Your journey with bread is really something that I'm just thinking about all the different varieties that you've gotten to try. that you've just got, like Italy and pizza and France. I'm sure you got to visit all of these places.

29:20Jo Saltz:We didn't go to Italy.

29:22Tony Shalhoub:No Italy.

29:23Jo Saltz:Because that's covered by the Stanley Show.

29:26Tony Shalhoub:Oh, yeah, everybody's done it.

29:26Jo Saltz:But we did do pizza, but we did it in Jersey City. Oh. Which is kind of like Italy, really.

29:32Tony Shalhoub:It's kind of like Italy. Where in Jersey City? What was the name of the place, do you remember?

29:35Jo Saltz:Raza. I highly recommend that.

29:38Tony Shalhoub:I'm like, are we getting that for lunch today? It's not far. Jersey City's like right there. You can see it.

29:43Jo Saltz:makes sourdough pizza crust.

29:45Tony Shalhoub:A sourdough pizza crust?

29:47Jo Saltz:He's a wonderful, wonderful chef and pizza maker. This place is awesome. Oh, we did go to France. We went to Tokyo. We went to Iceland. Milk bread? We went to Iceland, Japanese milk bread and others. Interesting panko, crusted pork. Oh, my God. So good. Oh, my gosh. How are you not?

30:13Tony Shalhoub:I got one million pounds.

30:14Jo Saltz:You know what's funny? I'm glad you asked me that. I did this show for four months, and I actually lost weight. Ugh. Go figure.

30:24Tony Shalhoub:We're done. He's done. He's out. This doesn't make any sense. I don't understand. What? Is it like because of all the walking? Like, what was it? What do you think it really was?

30:36Jo Saltz:Walking. A lot of walking.

30:37Tony Shalhoub:Yes.

30:38Jo Saltz:Chewing. Chewing burns. A lot of chewing. Chewing, especially chewing bread. it burns so many calories. When you're eating constantly,

30:46Tony Shalhoub:it just falls off. This is the trick. This is the 20-inch libe. Although I will say, there probably is something to be said for eating professionally. And I would say that even running Delish, you are, it stops being, it's not that it's not special, but it's also so often that you're like, okay, I don't need a lot. You have to pace yourself. Right, I just want a little bit. we have it delish we have a two bite rule which is like you can pretty much get like when we're doing tastings or we're testing recipes it's two bites and then that's it that's all you really need to tell you what it is

31:23Jo Saltz:I'm going to incorporate that

31:25Tony Shalhoub:but I think it's amazing that you lost weight and my audience is going to be pretty upset about that horrified the all bread diet we are

31:37Jo Saltz:no one's tried that before

31:38Tony Shalhoub:Nobody has tried it. I do feel like you should do a book on that. Tony's All Bread Diet. It's like the anti-Atkins. Exactly. I do like that.

31:50Jo Saltz:Carb loading. Carb loading. I'm just going to keep saying that. I do feel like, and I lost weight.

31:55Tony Shalhoub:You should end every episode. Every episode of Breaking Bread ends with that. And I'm down 10 pounds.

32:01Jo Saltz:If we do a season two, I'm just going to disappear probably.

32:05Tony Shalhoub:You probably are. I think so too. I have loved spending this time with you. Thank you. I feel like I could talk to you all day. It's been such a joy. I'm really excited for this show. Please keep doing all the wonderful things you're doing. Please make sure that you do a season two. I wish that were up to me. I know. We'll campaign. I want to thank my guest, Tony Shalhoub, for being here. Please check out Breaking Bread, CNN, Sundays at 9pm. Please follow us at atSnacksPodcast and like and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts. We'll see you soon.

33:05Jo Saltz:at mintmobile.com slash switch.

33:08Tony Shalhoub:Upfront payment of$45 for three months, $90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.