569: Cava’s Secret Sauce with Co-Founder Ted Xenohristos

25:09I think many times, for example, I opened my first restaurant. As a restaurateur, you're thinking about, like, how do I get customers? How do I, you know, price this food right? How do I pay people the right amount of money to make money? And you're thinking about always making money. And in the first restaurant, you know, you start to think about maybe food safety is not, like, at the top of your mind. But I could tell you, Cava, right now, it's a top priority. I would say that it's food safety, quality control are all, like, the top thing that we're working on as a group. Well, it all comes crashing down if you don't get this right.

25:41I mean, we've seen that before. We've seen it many times in our history. And especially as a publicly traded company, you've got to be really careful about that. I mean, can you imagine, like, we work so hard. We get to this point. I'm telling this awesome story. It's so wonderful. And all the team members that rely on this business and their families and all the things that they have as part of working at Cava, the health care they have, all those things would come crashing down if we start getting people sick. So it is a number one top priority for us. Let's talk about pricing. Because I think when you look at menus today, be it at a fine dining restaurant all the way down to fast food, the price is really affecting us.

26:21And we're seeing these numbers that we were certainly not used to even five years ago. You know, Cava falls in a really unique place because you're not fast food. You're not a seated fine dining restaurant. You're somewhere in between. But how do you think about pricing your menu items? And also, of course, the economics of it all, you know, cost of goods have skyrocketed. labor as well has increased due to, you know, state regulation and just like generally increasing need for higher minimum wages. So how does that work for you and trying to sell your customers on paying, you know,$43 a cava for a couple dishes?

27:00Yeah. Look, I think it's all about value, right? I think we source our lamb from, you know, small ranchers and we get the exact grind we want. We source our olive oil from Greece. We source our lentils from Montana. We go to these great quality driven suppliers. And so those things are not cheap. And we try to make sure that we keep costs down from the consumer side. Like I know people are willing to pay for those things, but only to a certain extent. I think for the last two years, three years that we've seen this supply chain, the craziness of that, we haven't raised prices at Kava. We've been one of the only companies to hold the line, and we've done a great job through our supply chain team, all the while investing in wages for our team members.

27:48So, look, I think you go down the line at Cava. I think some of the things that differentiate us from other brands is you go through the toppings, you have unlimited toppings, and people see the value in that, right? They say, okay, I'm going to pay$10,$11,$12 for a bowl. And my wife says it all the time. She's like, I get a bowl and I eat it for lunch and then I have the other half for dinner. A lot of people do that. Yeah, I think we're giving a good amount of food that is people see the value prop in it. They understand it. They see the quality of the food. The price tag isn't, you know, five bucks, but it's 12 bucks and you're getting a meal with wholesome quality ingredients that some people make two meals out of.

28:30Yeah. So what does expansion look like? I mean, you're at 350 now. You clearly have big plans for growth. Are you just looking at real estate constantly? Do you have that meeting on your calendar like every few days? So, I mean, we just opened Chicago, which was so fun, right? First time in the city? Yeah, we did. We did Wicker Park and we have a couple other locations popping up there in the suburbs and down closer in the city, in the loop. And it's so exciting because Chicago has a big, big Greek population, right? And I grew up going to the parade there. There's a Greek museum there. Every time we go, we see it.

29:08And so we've always wanted to go to Chicago. They've always been asking us to come. And so it was so exciting. I went. And this wasn't like a free food day. This was like opening day where we were actually charging. And there was like a two-hour wait that went all the way around the block. It was really, really amazing to see. We had to shut down the digital order lines. We had built a catering kitchen in there. And we were like, no caterings today. You know, it was crazy to see the response that we got. And so when we look at real estate and we look at all the places that we want to go, we're looking at like South Florida, for example, we just want to make sure we do it right.

29:44The last thing you want to do is, like you said, you want to control your quality. You want to be food safety as an issue. You want to make sure you hire the right people. And so we like to enter a market when all that stuff is ready to go. And so we have the right people in place. We have our supply chain, right? I mean, when we opened up Chicago, we had to bring in every single item on our menu from that supplier in Chicago. Yeah. And then remake all those recipes in our culinary kitchen. This took us weeks, months, thinking about making every single recipe down to the salt. Yeah. And so you want to make sure you enter a market right, but we're excited.

30:19I mean, Chicago was awesome for us. We're looking at South Florida. We're looking to expand. We want to have 1 ,000 restaurants by 2032. There's the number. I was wondering. That's a big number. That's like 3X, you know, in less than 10 years. It's exciting. For me, I'm so excited. It's like I started out this little tiny restaurant in Rockville, Maryland. And I see it and I'm in awe of all the people at Cava doing what they do to expand this place. A restaurant opens and almost every day now. It's like every day, every three days there's like a restaurant opening at Cava. And I'm in awe of all the work because I'm not doing that.

30:57I mean, if anybody thinks that I'm doing that, that's crazy, right? There are so many people that do so much work. And sometimes a restaurant opens, I didn't even know it was going to open. But it's still so exciting and it's so cool to see. And I was actually coming up here and I saw last night and I saw people with bags from Cava. Great bags, man. Yeah, I love it. I still get emotional. I'm like, oh, that's so cool. As if we were just running that first restaurant back in 2006. Very cool. I got to ask you about protein because it's clearly important right now in our diets. And we think about a lot.

31:32We talk about on the show a bit, you know, with GLP-1 drugs being so popular and prevalent and protein and really nutrient-rich cooking is key. How do you, like, think of this? I mean, it feels like it's probably a tailwind, I would think, for kava. But I'd love to get your take about this idea, like the protein age that we live in. Yeah, it is a tailwind. And I mean, we recently launched steak, I think a year and a half ago, which was a huge boom for us. Everybody was, since we had gotten rid of grilled meatballs, which were beef meatballs, everybody was asking for some kind of beef option. And, you know, it took us two years to launch that steak item because we wanted to do it right.

32:13But we got chicken, like you said, lentils on the line. So it's not, I think a big part of what people come to Cava for is the flexitarian option. You have, I can get chicken, I can get lentils, I can get veggies and steak. I don't have to just be a straight meat eater. I don't have to be just a vegan eater. But we have those two, right? We got the guy that comes in and gets the double steak and the person who comes in gets the double veggies and then the person that comes in and mixes those together. But you're right. It's a tailwind for us. We have lots of foods on our line that are natural in terms of whole ingredients that have protein in them, like the lentils, chickpeas.

32:51And then you talk about the actual proteins like steak and chicken that we have is a big part of the Mediterranean diet. And we're still innovating. We have lots of stuff that we're innovating on. What's on the vision board right now? You've got to give me a little bit of a hint of a menu item that you're thinking about. You know, we're always thinking about everything. Okay. It's hard for me to, I can't let the cat out of the bag. I know. If you think about what's missing on the line, you could probably put it together. I mean, something that we've looked at very closely, and I just give you a big category, is like seafood in general.

33:24I was going to say that. And how it will fit in the line. And will it work, right? Like, you want to make sure that you're not, obviously, you can't throw something on the grill because you have people with shellfish allergies or seafood allergies, and so you can't mix that stuff. So we take all that very seriously. We obviously don't bring in nuts since, you know, nuts are a big part of the Mediterranean diet, but we don't bring them in because of the nut allergy. And so many people love us and come to us for that. And so as we look to innovate, we want to make sure that we're doing it in the right way.

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35:23Terms and conditions apply. Today's episode is brought to you by ButcherBox. As a food writer, I can be a little skeptical about subscription cooking boxes you hear about on podcasts. There's big talk about cooking simplicity, but you're usually left with disappointment after smashing that promo code. Now, Clayton, have you ever tried one of those subscription boxes? Yeah, Matt, my friend gave me a code for that one that has all the chopped vegetables and little baggies. I felt like a drug dealer trying to cook dinner. Yeah, man, I have so been there. ButcherBox is a true exception. I was sent a box of premium beef and pork and was blown away by the quality and variety.

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36:37As an exclusive offer, our listeners can get free protein in every box for a year, plus$20 off your first box when you go to butcherbox.com slash taste. Visit butcherbox.com slash taste to get this limited time offer and free shipping always. That's butcherbox.com slash taste. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. Ted, on This is Taste, we ask guests about the discerning taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious taste check. Are you ready? The best fruit? Kiwi. Tell me about a great kiwi. I love that one. What makes it so great? I love kiwi.

37:15I don't know why. and I'm so lazy to peel it sometimes. And I go into Whole Foods sometimes and buy the already peeled one. Oh, yeah. I love the sourness of it, the sweetness, the bite that you get. When it's a little bit on the harder side and you're getting that middle bite, I don't know why. I'm enamored with kiwi. It's something I really, really love. I've tried to make juice out of it. It's not that good. It's tough. But like a meat marinade. Yeah. Pretty amazing meat marinade. Yeah, I've never used it like that. I literally sometimes my wife will see me. It'll be like 11 o 'clock at night and I'm sitting over a trash can like peeling kiwis and just eating three o 'clock at night.

37:52So good. The worst vegetable. Okra. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And it's a big part of the Mediterranean diet. My mom makes it. She makes it and I like want to eat it. She braises it in this like beautiful tomato sauce. It's so mushy and just I just can't get behind it. What is your typical breakfast? So my olive oil fried eggs. so putting that olive oil in there frying those eggs, salt, pepper tons of oregano, it's funny my 4 year old son loves them that way now too, obviously you gotta have some feta cheese in that and slice of bread is typical for me so sunny side up I imagine? oh yeah, all sunny side up, just crispy at the bottom, I just let them sit in the olive oil until they're just like all the way brown and crispy, they're curling up the olive oil egg, I mean I love myself a french omelet with a little bit of butter but olive oil egg pretty great Well, and it's, I don't know, you know, the amount of olive oil I'm putting in there, I'm not sure if it's healthy anymore.

38:47But it feels so much better than, I love omelets and I love butter and I love all that stuff. But like it feels like a good start to my day to have a little feta cheese and some fried eggs. The best dessert. Ooh, that's a tricky one. I mean, for me, it's a Greek one. It's galactoburico. It's a tough one to pronounce. It's a custardy, creamy, milky center wrapped in filo dough, baked in the oven, topped with cinnamon and sugar. And when you get it in Greece, especially in Greece, when you get it, they serve it warm, which is amazing. We used to come up to New York all the time and go out to Astoria and all the Greek cafes that were lined up there.

39:28It was like Avenue Grand, Athens Cafe. Sure. Sit and have a Greek coffee. And Galactoboudica was one of my favorite things. When you are craving fast food, and kava is not that, so I'm being clear, where do you go? I mean, I'm going to be very honest. It's McDonald's. I mean, if I'm craving fast food, I try not to eat it when you're on the road. And like I said, there's no kava around. And you need a quick meal and drive-thrus there. Or in the morning at 8 a.m., you need that something to just get you going. And it's definitely McDonald's for me. I think they beat all the rest. What's the order then?

40:08Or one item? For me, Quarter Pounder. Quarter Pounder with cheese. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to, you know, I obviously don't get, I don't eat that all the time, right? You don't want to eat that all the time. You feel, as soon as you eat it, you're like, oh my God, what did I do to myself? Yeah, yeah. But if I'm choosing fast food, I'm definitely choosing McDonald's. QPC, I'm all about that. I'm with you on that order. Your favorite city to visit outside America for food? I'm biased for this, and I'm actually heading there in two weeks, but Athens, Greece. We're taking our whole culinary team there in two weeks, which is super exciting.

40:41And you just get this infused kind of meeting of east and west there. And you've had, in Athens lately, you've had this big influx of immigrants come in. And so you're seeing the food scene change there a lot. And so you're seeing some of the classical kind of like simple Greek cuisine infused with Turkish, Lebanese, Syrian. And so it's really, really exciting what's going on there right now. Man, I had such a good time in Athens last summer. Yeah. Really, really, really cool. Between like the coffee. It's amazing. The seafood. The small restaurants. The big restaurants. Yeah. It's such a beautiful city for food.

41:21I love telling people about it, but like I don't want them to discover it. and fill it up. And so that it turns into one of these like touristy traps. I know a lot of people go there and see the Parthenon and the Acropolis and all that. But it's really the small neighborhoods that you're really getting to find these awesome restaurants. Oh my God, I had some great pics. And Cucuvaya is a place. Oh, Cucuvaya is amazing. So good. I've been many times. One of my favorite things that they do, so whenever I'm sick and I have a good memory of this, my mom makes this soup called Avgolemono. And it's basically egg, lemon mixed with, you know, chicken broth, rice.

41:59And they make a version from scratch. And the waiter is telling us about it. And we're like, how do you make avocado lemon from scratch? It's so time consuming. And it was the, don't tell my mom, but it was the greatest avocado lemon soup I've ever had in my life. Oh, man. Yeah. I'm looking at my phone at photos as we're speaking. Oh, it's amazing. I'm loving that city. I've been many times to Cucuvaya. It's a must visit when going to Athens. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, really good spot. Last one, your favorite sandwich. My favorite sandwich is Italian cold cut. I mean, I'm a huge fan. I love going to Charleston.

42:31There's a place called Porchetta Shop there. And, you know, they do obviously porchetta and they do prime rib sandwiches. All of those things I love. But they do it with mortadella, prosciutto, salami, and obviously burrata cheese. And it's just so, so good. They make the bread in-house. else I'm a huge huge fan of the Italian cold cuts yeah great call any mayo or only Italian olive oil and vinaigrette what do you put on it I it just depends where I'm eating it at if it's a place like that I'm going with the you know the vinaigrette the time but you know I'm I'm never one to say no to mayo on an Italian cold cut Ted what a great conversation thank you so much for joining this to taste thank you man I really enjoyed it appreciate it

43:22Alexandra Metz, welcome to This is Taste. How are you doing? I'm great, thank you. How are you? Oh, I'm really good. I just got to tell a little story. It started with an Instagram handle, MetzaballSoup. I've been, of course, watching your incredible show, The Pit, and just absolutely loving it, and just the ensemble cast, and we'll get into it. But tell me, what's the genesis of the handle? What made you do that out of all the names? Well, obviously my last name is Metz and I am a food lover. I love matzo ball soup. I'm from New York. I'm from Manhattan. So my paternal side is Jewish. My grandfather is the first American of Polish immigrants.

44:07and so his his parents taught him all about polish food and um basically i'm jewish in blood and in culture i'm a bagels and lox jew from new york um but i'm also i'm latina i'm afro latina on my mother's side so i grew up eating so many wonderful things rices and beans and stewed meats and so many great things that I actually, I wrote my college entrance essay about how much I love food. Oh, wow. I've been surrounded as a New Yorker and someone who grew up around all the best food with food that I cannot stop talking about. So this can be a more perfect bond between this podcast and me. Yeah, and I wanted to have you on because I knew, you know, we share a mutual friend, Jamie Feldmar too.

44:58Yes. Great food writer and a friend. And tell me, what's like the table like at your house for the bagel order? And second part is, you know, growing up in Manhattan, I just kind of like, what are your restaurants? Where are you going out? In New York? Oh, my God. I mean, the turnover is so fast in New York, I'm sure, as you know. And I live in L.A. I have for the last roughly like 12 years. So I don't even know what's cool in New York. My favorite restaurant is Eleven Madison Park, if someone else is treating me, because it's just such a glorious experience and so innovative and truly, I think, lives up to the hype.

45:36And in terms of the go-tos in New York growing up, I mean, the first memory that comes to mind is I'd go to the beauty salon, the Dominican beauty salons that my mom would go to to get her hair done. And they would have people come through with little coolers filled with empanadas they had made or like little abituela con dulce, which is like a sweet bean dish that, oh, in the winter, it's just exactly what you want. And they'd just be serving that stuff as you sit in the salon. As a child who had nothing to do in the salon but wait for my mom to be done, it was what I would look forward to. And then it was always just top quality home cooking.

46:17Yeah, I mean, were you yourself in the kitchen? Were you cooking yourself? You know, I would let the adults do that. I was always curious and interested. And then I remember, I think it was like sixth grade or seventh grade where I had a home ec class and we had, we coached something in that class. And I remember we started with very simply as most dishes start with chopped onions, sauteing that and thinking, wait, the smells are already happening. The dish is already done. This is it. This is where it begins. And this is where it ends. And I realized, oh my God, And if it's that simple, then I can do this.

46:55So I went home that day and I told my mom, I was like, I want to start getting more involved and watching you cook. I became a lot more invested in that side of it. Before I was just waiting at the table with my fork and my knife up waiting, always talking about what is the next meal going to be? Like I'm that child. My family would be like, oh my God, we are in the middle of breakfast. Why are you asking about dinner? I feel like a lot of our listeners can relate to that feeling. Oh, yeah. Of course. Now, in L.A., I mean, every L.A. guest we speak with has their takes, has the locals, has their new spots.

47:37Where do you like to go in L.A. right now, restaurant-wise? Oh, that's a good question. I don't go out a whole lot, mostly because I'm on a very specific diet for treating of endometriosis that I've been dealing with for many years. And diet is a big part of dealing with that. So it's no fun to be restrained, limited in my choices. But that's where I am currently. But when I dream and when I have a cheat day, because occasionally that has to happen just for my sanity, my go-tos are pine and cream. It's just never missed a beat. Like I feel so many restaurants, especially when they blow up, they can kind of lose quality.

48:23I imagine quality control is a really hard thing. And just running a restaurant is there's so many aspects to it in the business itself that some some things can fall by the wayside. And unfortunately, the food is often that. But Pine and Crane is just always amazing. And I do this thing where my husband's gluten-free, so he can't really eat anything from there. So when I go, I'm like, well, I'm going to just order basically the whole menu. And then I'll have things in the refrigerator that I can mix and match. So I have the mushrooms, and I have the jadori chicken, and I have the pork buns, and I have the wonton soup.

49:00I'm just fully, just my fridge is stacked with Pine and Crane when I go. What a great restaurant. I love that you called it out. It's such a well-said point, you know, when places do fall off when they're buzzy. That place was buzzy like a decade ago, maybe, and it's not falling off. That's a great check-in at Pine and Crane. So with yourself not going out a lot for meals, you must be pretty nice in the kitchen right now. I'm pretty nice. Yeah. I'd say so. You know, I think everything starts with good ingredients. So I love going to the grocery store. Like this whole, the experience of the kitchen starts in the grocery store for me or in a garden if I have that privilege.

49:39And picking out the best ingredients and seeing what's fresh and, you know, grass-fed meats and good produce. And then once I'm in the kitchen, sometimes I'll just riff. But often I'll be looking at New York Times' app, the cooking app. And I have a couple of recipe books that I'll kind of peek at. But really, it's New York Times or I'll ask a family member or friend what they're cooking lately and get some intel. Love that Times app. You get a lot of stars. You get a lot. Your recipe book is filled of Times recipes. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I'm always reading the comments. Like, I get so involved.

50:16I'm like, oh, interesting. This person had this take on it. And, you know, actually, that's more of my style anyways. And I think that's what I'm going to work with. This person's note is actually really helpful. Yeah, I love that part. I like it's community-driven. It really is. And, you know, a lot of recipes can have great swaps, especially if you're going like meat free or if you want to swap it. Gluten free. Gluten free. Exactly. Yeah. Gluten free. Well, I really wanted to talk about the show. You star as Dr. Yolanda Garcia on The Pit. And again, it's been called the most realistic medical drama.

50:47I have a couple of doctors in my life. I've been sending them questions. They've been like, yeah, it's there's some stuff in there. You know, that's real. What was auditioning like and how did you find yourself on the show? Auditioning was kind of simpler than one would imagine for a show of this caliber. I got the audition. I found out at the I think it was the last day of May that I would have a self tape due in the next week. And so I submitted that tape the first week of June. And then I was in New York visiting my grandfather, who's 102. We often go out to meals and we'll go to sushi. And we were sitting at our favorite sushi place, having our shumai and all the things he loves.

51:35And my manager called me and said, hey, the day after you get back from New York, you have a callback for the pit. And I was like, cool. Yep. and he was like uh and I was like yeah I just felt like there was a immediate connection and a knowing of this character and and the work that it was asking me to do that I wasn't surprised and then I was obviously excited but I didn't want to hype myself up too much I just wanted to stay in that vein of like okay cool I'm just gonna go back to work and do what I did the first time and you know take whatever notes they give me in that callback and go from there and the callback was on zoom um it was with john wells and um the casting team and he directed the first episode and obviously he's an executive producer on the show and so many other shows that preceded his reputation precedes him beautifully and i couldn't believe how down to earth and kind and i mean i could believe it but you just you don't know what you're gonna walk into in a room like this and he just was so welcoming immediately and um i did the take and he was like great and you did a scene and he's like great he no no no no no no no um and then we did the second scene and he was like you just could see that he was really pleased and that was pleasing to me because i've been in a lot of rooms like this and sometimes even if you're giving your best and you're doing a great job it's just not what they're looking for.

53:10Um, there's so many factors, obviously. So I, he was just like, can you just do it again? Just to, I just want to try this one thing out just for fun. And he gave me a fun note and I had a great time with it. And then he was like, cool. He just shrugged his shoulders like, yep, that's it. And I was like, okay, well, thanks so much. And then I, uh, heard an hour later that I was the creative favorites, which happened really, really quickly. great way to phrase it is that parlance and acting the creative yeah yeah so there's the creatives and then there's the network and the studio and so after that you're just waiting for the network and the studio to give you the green light to be part of this dream project so I was really patient for maybe I think it was like one or two days before I found out I had missed a call from my manager and I was like trying to be so patient that I was off my phone and then I texted him the floodgate broke and I was like I can't wait any longer you can't make me wait through the weekend and he was like I called you like 10 minutes ago did you see and that's when he told me that I booked it when you're preparing for the role I mean it is and you gotta watch the show listeners it is incredible if you're a fan of ER this is taking it up several notches and it's on, you know, not on network TV, so they can do a lot of cool things.

54:34What are you doing in terms of getting ready to become a doctor and really get the movements right? Because I think you do such a great job, all of you in the cast, selling it hard, that this is, you are doctors, you are not actors. Thank you. Yeah. Well, I mean, just a little tidbit. I was in an eight-year medical program at my college. What? I only ended up doing the undergrad portion. I didn't end up going to the medical school. I went to Brown and they have a program called the Program for Liberal Medical Education. And it basically you apply as a high schooler. And I got in. My sister also went through that program.

55:13So she was a few years ahead of me. And I knew I didn't want to be a doctor, but I loved all the things that I got to study on that journey. Not to say that I remembered any of it, but I was already, you know, in that on that journey at one point. And so because of that, I have a lot of friends who did finish that program, are now amazing doctors, some surgeons. So I reached out to one of them, Solange, shout out to Solange Bayard, and she gave me some incredible intel on what it's like to be a surgeon. And we would go over, especially for the first few scripts, what was being asked of me, what the kind of knowledge I'm meant to have, the things that I'm learning in the room.

56:00That was so, so helpful. And then also I got to hop into the very last day of boot camp. There was a medical boot camp that the main 10 doctors had two weeks of. And then I was like, can I get in there? I'd love to, you know, get whatever knowledge, foundational knowledge to feel secure in what I'm doing because we're playing pretend. But it's helpful to feel like you have that support of knowledge behind underneath you to, you know. Oh, yeah. Not make you look like a farce. I got to say, when you say you're not in the top 10, that does not play that way. And I'm not just saying it like your roles are memorable.

56:36Your scenes are memorable and I'm sure they'll expand it out for future seasons. Let me ask you about Food on Set. It's a food show, so we've got to talk about it. How the hell do you eat food after, I know it's fake, it's obviously, you're not using real blood. Oh, it looks so real. It looks so real. What's that like? You know, it's so funny. I never really counted myself as a squeamish person, but the prosthetics team and makeup team on the pit are absolutely top notch. Um, we often have to remind ourselves that this stuff is fake. Um, but I, the way that I'm eating in advance of, you know, a long day on set is kind of, I have to balance it out with good proteins and, um, good vegetables.

57:26I try not to overeat because then I'll just be in a food coma and not have the energy to, you know, allow my brain to stay all these really, you know, high paced medical jargon lines. So it's a balancing act. But when I walk in and I see, for instance, you know, the burn victim, I'm forgetting which episode number that was, but I remember walking in and being like, holy, and I have to just kind of, you know, be calm and composed. and also I know based on the stats that I'm given pretty quickly in that scene that this patient isn't going to make it, likely isn't going to make it. And me as Alex, I'm a very empathetic person and seeing that I was just like, oh my God, I have to cover.

58:17I have to cover because Garcia is just doing her job and can't get emotional. But that was a particularly tough one to see. Full of body. Oh, and so after that scene, you have to take a break. And then what's craft service looking like on set? What are we talking about? Oh, man. Crafty is good. Crafty takes care of us. They do a whole bunch of different things. They'll have, you know, different ethnic cuisines. Some days it'll be Asian inspired. Some days it'll be Latin. Sometimes it's just good old fashioned barbecue. And they really do a great job, both crafty and catering. Phenomenal. So let me ask you, you also are an actor of the stage and you've done many productions on stage.

59:00So when you're filming television, film or stage, how do you like balance the eating? Because I, you know, especially for stage, if it's like a long production and you have to, you know, do the lines, you know, you know, as an actor, you don't want to be like, you know, nothing should be coming up. And so you've got to have like a real sense of your diet. How do you balance that? um like i said i think what's funny because even though the pits on television there is a very stage like um kind of format to the way that we work because when you're on set you're pretty much staying on set until you finish a scene and often they'll because it's shot chronologically they'll tether scenes together if it makes sense to you know okay they're coming out of trauma one and they're walking into this out you know this space right here we're just going to shoot it all as one shot or one scene.

59:54So I often have to just feed myself and be prepared to have that, that meal sustain me through a much longer time than you would normally need to on a television set. And I think that it took me some time to figure that out for myself. That was a definite part of my learning curve in this experience because I, you know, I, I've never been on set this often. This is my first like really big job. And so A, I'm trying to do my best. And then B, I'm trying to take care of myself. And yeah, it just was something that I had to figure out for myself. So I often would wake up early in the morning if we had a five o 'clock call, I'd wake up at, you know, 3.30 and start prepping my meals for myself.

1:00:42Even though catering and crafting, if crafty was so phenomenal, I couldn't necessarily eat everything that was being served. or I would learn in an unfortunate way that some of the things just make you feel lethargic and you got to just not go towards those things the next time they're served. So I would prep my own little meals and then kind of suss out what was being served that day. That seems like the very smart professional way to do it because I don't know about having like a big rack of ribs for an actor. Right, yeah. End of day, if I'm wrapped for the day, then I am filling up on this good food.

1:01:18What about for the stage? You're doing the production every day, four weeks at a time. Do you have any food rituals before? I know the stage is all about traditions and superstitions and it's baked into your profession. What do you think about that way? Well, look, I grew up on like hot cereal. So oatmeal is still a staple in my home. And my husband and I are often making that as our backup. If we're just like not, we don't have time for, you know, eggs and sweet potato home fries or all that good stuff. It's oatmeal. So it's oatmeal mixed with a protein powder and, you know, some blueberries, some nut butter, some nuts.

1:01:59And I'm basically I'm eating right until I start to feel full, like right before I start to feel full. You don't want to eat to the point that you're full already. You know, our bodies often can they trigger different reactions in you that you'll realize, OK, I should leave myself hungry a little bit so that I can run through this entire run of the show, of whatever play we're doing on stage, and then leave feeling hungry so that I can fulfill that meal later. But I like the feeling of being a little bit hungry in the work, not terribly hungry. It just drives you in a way that it's helpful. And you've got like the adrenaline pumping, so that's gonna like have some stimulation of your appetite.

1:02:47You don't wanna be digesting too much on stage. I mean, Rust and Digest is something you want to do again after you've finished a long, hard day. Yeah, well, it's really cool hearing about some behind the scenes for this great show. And again, it's The Pit. You got to check it out. It's streaming now. What's next for you? Do you have any stage roles booked? I don't know if they've renewed it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we got renewed some months ago. So season two, they're currently in the writer's room. and that'll be really exciting. And in the meantime, I am just at home taking care of myself, taking care of the dogs.

1:03:28And also I'm really involved in my theater company here in Los Angeles. It's called Public Assembly. And we have one show a month. Actually, we have a show tonight. It's always the last Thursday of the month. And it's for 501c3. And anyone who's been in the audience at least once before is eligible to submit a premise to then write and develop that one act in that one month's time. So it's a very involved process. And we get to work with artists from varying levels of experience. And it's super, super gratifying. So what's tonight's production? What's going on in this? The theme of tonight is it's only okay when you're a kid.

1:04:09And that's a theme that got shouted out by one of the audience members at the end of last month's show. That's what we chose. I'm one of the curators for this month. And so we have three amazing one acts and they're all centered around that theme. I will definitely have to check it out during my next trip to LA. The LA theater scene is remarkably strong. You know, here in New York, we have so much amazing theater, but give LA theater a plug for real. Oh man, it really is amazing. I'm going to see plays maybe like three to four times a week at least. And people often find that surprising, but certainly we're not on the scale of New York's theater scene, but there is a really robust, thriving theater scene and it's only growing.

1:04:52And, you know, what we do as public assembly is it's kind of different in the sense that it feels like community theater being reinvented. And I think that's also created a spark in people that realize, they've now realized like theater can be a lot more than just the traditional idea of theater that most people are familiar with. Yeah, well said. And really, I try to see theater in L.A. when I can because it really is remarkable. Alexandra, on This Is Taste, we have guests who brought their starting taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious taste check. Are you ready?

1:05:25Yes. All right. The best fruit? Mango, but especially when it's sun ripened and picked directly from a tree. If you've never had that experience, go down to Mexico and have it immediately. Yeah. Oh, what a good sentiment. the worst vegetable i don't think there's gotta be one all right no no it's all in how you prepare the ingredients and you know that's on the chef it's on the chef fair enough i'll let you take that one that's good um outside of oatmeal do you have a typical breakfast oh yeah so something called nangu which in dominican culture it's a plantain that's been boiled and mashed it's kind of like a potato but um it's wonderful you top it with sauteed onions that are kind of pickled and sauteed and with peppers sometimes and then you can have that with a side of whatever you want like in Dominican Republic it's like fried eggs fried cheese and sausage but at home we keep it kind of simpler with just eggs and avocado that sounds amazing wow so good it's so sustaining too Which farmer's market do you hit?

1:06:33The large pot one. It's closest. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. The best dessert. God, no. I know. You can't make me choose. Okay. Well, I love desserts that are not too sweet. I'm a fan of just like a subtle sweet. But I love creme brulee, panna cotta, anything with egg flan, a good bread pudding. You can't make me choose. I'll keep talking. Yeah, you're like going off here. Anything with dark chocolate. Your favorite city in the world to visit for food? Oh, that's so hard. You know, I'd have to say Oaxaca. Yeah. Oaxaca is a great one. I love mole. They make mole, I think, like 30 different ways.

1:07:23And you don't know that until you're actually in Oaxaca where mole is born. and also beyond the mole, they've just got such incredible food. Oh, well, yeah, good plug for Oaxaca. Do you make it down there a bit? I've been there twice in my life and it's funny, it's really popping off. People are starting to find out that it's wonderful. It's like the new Mexico City is where everyone used to go all the time and I love Mexico City so much, but Oaxaca is a little bit further off the beaten path and I highly recommend. Last one, your favorite sandwich. if you know wax paper here in los angeles they have two locations i specifically love almost all of their sandwiches at the chinatown location which shut down during the pandemic and they've kind of you know shut down come back shut down but they're finally back and you should definitely check it out all of their sandwiches are incredible but i love the chinatown good plug for wax paper i think it's a great spot i've been able to have a sandwich there that's great they They have this vegetarian one that it's like, I can eat any of the sandwiches, but I'm so blown away by the vegetarian one.

1:08:30It's got all these unexpected flavors and it's so delightful. Alexandra Metz, thank you so much for joining This Is Taste. Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

1:08:45This Is Taste is hosted and produced by Eliza Abarbanal and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is edited by lead producer Clayton Gumbert and supervised by Pat Stango, director of media production and development at Penguin Random House. Thanks to Shalia Harris and the production team at Penguin Random House. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Logo and guest illustrations by Ellie Skrzat. Visit Taste Online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste. you