594: New York Chef ​​Leah Cohen Is On TV, and Under the Radar

23:48and the networks want to have all of them. It's sports. It's sports. And I like watching it. I think it's super cool. But I also kind of miss like the days where it was just like, I don't know, like Emeril cooking in front of like an audience and like bamming it up and like really learning how to make food. And like, yes, you can learn all these different, you know, recipes through social media, which is great, but it's quick and it's different. It's not - There's an appetite for knowledge. It's obvious. This is why these quick hit how to make something videos do so well, I believe, fully. And I think we sell a lot of cookbooks and people are buying them of all ages.

24:24So it's always a puzzle to me why competition is the one type of program everybody wants. It's all they want, though. And like for me, for someone who, you know, I don't enjoy it. I do it because I feel like you've got to play the game, right? Like if that's all Food Network is putting out, then and you want to be on Food Network. But then and like and you want to judge, right? then like you have to give and take so did you choke one time like on camera for a for a competition like did you absolutely just like go blank and have no idea what you're doing and just have to no i don't think so because like i have like a pretty good like i have like good fundamentals right like even when i was doing top chef i was just kind of like you know something pops into your head whether it's good or not it is a different story but like i think you know If you have if you're knowledgeable enough, which I really try to do, like, yeah, just because I cook Southeast Asian food professionally doesn't mean like I don't try to learn like tons of other cuisines and make myself like a well-rounded chef.

25:27But, yeah, I think that really comes into play, too, when you're doing competition shows. I mean, that time in Sicily, you must have been just working like crazy. Oh, yeah. A Michelin restaurant in Italy at that era. Like, man, you're working hours. Yeah. Putting in the time. I mean, we could talk all day about competition versus stand and stir. There is a hybrid, I believe. Maybe it's your show. Yeah. Maybe like there's a way to bring your personality and teach people about cooking in Asia, but do it without it being like a quick fire version of that. Yeah. I would love that. So what's it like growing up Jewish and Filipino?

26:00I mean, you were just on a panel of the New York Times and I want to tap into that topic because it must have been difficult. I would say, you know, I never used to talk about it coming from like a blended background, like a multicultural background. I think it was funny, like I did the New York Times thing two days ago and it was I was on a panel with two other mixed mixed race, half Asians, and they were much younger than me. And, you know, for me, I was like, this is kind of crazy that I'm up here and talking about this because it's just not something that we spoke about, you know, like growing up.

26:38And I just think that for me personally, I never wanted to talk about it because I didn't want it to seem like I was complaining. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because like I think it's really hard when you come from two different backgrounds to try to figure out where you belong. Right. Like am I I'm not Filipino enough. I'm not Jewish enough. where, you know, you're young, you're trying to figure out who you are, you know, there's anyone. And then, you know, coming like not feeling like you're enough from both sides is kind of challenging and it's hard. And so I think one of the reasons why I probably cook the food that I do is to like tap into that part of my background and to maybe prove myself to the Filipinos that I am, like, you know, really trying to just be a proud Filipino, help promote the culture.

27:29And then on the other side, you know, it's like a very weird mix because Jews, a lot of Jews are like, why are you cooking like pork? Yeah. And it's like, you know, and I'm like, well, there's, you know, at this point, I think 2025, a lot of people are mixed. Right. And I think it's great. I think at some point we probably all will have a little, you know, something. I mean, in America, at least. In America, for sure. The change dynamic of America. I mean, we're a melting pot. We're a melting pot. We're multicultural. We're very proud of our multicultural identity. Contrary to headlines and people in the White House, you know, it's what America's about.

28:06Yeah. And I think it's great. And I think the fact that people are giving us a platform to talk about it and we actually want to talk about it now, I think is huge. because before I know for me, I just like I felt like weird, like I didn't want people thinking I was like complaining about about it. Well, you have a generation your age that and especially from the chef culture is like complaining is like the cardinal sin. Yeah. Like you have to suck it up in every level. And I'm happy that you can talk about it now that we can talk about in the show. I mean, it must have been difficult to not feel like you're grounded in an area, but have clear passion and really like you have intellect about identity and about place.

28:46It's important to you with your cooking. It was weird. Like, you know, when I would go and visit the Philippines, I always, you know, they love mixed, like half white, half Filipino or anything. Like anything half Filipino. They, I remember we would go to the mall and they'd be like, oh, your daughter's mestiza. like we should get her to model like it doesn't matter like if you're good looking or not like they love that kind of half mix um but you know when I was with my family and I didn't I didn't speak Tagalog um or any of the dialects I felt like very out of place so I'm like my mom is having conversation with everyone I'm having a hard time dealing with you know understanding what's going on at like and it was just like it was like I felt awkward like all the time when I was there I mean I can't imagine I mean like visiting now in more modern times when you're older what's it like to visit Philippines now I mean I love going to the Philippines I try I'm trying I took my kids last cool or a year to a year and a half ago we're trying to go back in January it's the best time for a restaurant owner to go um and so because like I want my kids even though they're only a quarter I want them to know that part of you know of their family and they are so proud of me because they're like they're like oh you're famous and you're you're you're cooking Filipino stuff and like yeah you know people in the Philippines like in Manila like they they know me too and so like my family thinks it's really cool it is cool and I think it's cool yeah totally It's very cool.

30:26Yeah. And so I and then like one of my cousins, she owns a small little restaurant in like the province. And her food is amazing. And she's just like so excited that we, you know, we had like a family gathering there. And so it's nice. It's really I think for me, I'm really happy that I chose the path that I did to embrace my Filipino culture. And, you know, really just try to help spread the knowledge, the love. Because Filipino food has been having a moment, but I feel like right now it's like really blowing up. Yeah. Like before it was slow. And now I think it's just like it's kind of exploding.

31:05Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those cuisines that every year there's just so much more information out there. Yeah. And it's not just adobo and sisig. No, it's not. You know what I'm saying? And the Filipino bakeries. Yes. Like I'm going to Chicago next week for the NRA. Cool. And I'm like, there's like four, three or four bakeries that I obviously will not get to. But like I need to go to at least one of them. Yeah, I love that. So this leads to a question about Baking Cow's future. I mean, where do you want to take this, Leah? What's five years like for you? Because I mean, are you thinking about other markets?

31:36Well, definitely Philly. And I guess we got to see how Philly goes. You know, restaurants are rough right now. I'm not going to lie. And like, I'm not getting any younger. So I don't know. I mean, I might be okay with just Upper West, LES and Philly. I mean, that's a pretty nice footprint of restaurants. That's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And it's always just, you know, one restaurant will be good and then the other one won't be, you know. So it's a lot of jumping around. And honestly, I feel like I want those restaurants to do well. And then I would love to focus on doing like more TV stuff.

32:16Another restaurant question. And we've talked a lot about the structure of restaurants, the taxation of restaurants on the show. And I mean, how can restaurants be supported by both governments, local, federal and just diners in general? I mean, we talked about this payroll tax issue. You know, you're shaking your head. I mean, it's it's just wildly insane that you're paying 30 percent payroll tax for a place with so many employees and paying the same tax rate as like the watch store next door. Or listeners, I apologize that we're repeating it, but it's so important for the industry to hear this from you, how like fucked up the structure is and how unfair it is.

32:53So that's just one topic. But what are you thinking about? I mean, I just think like every year, the city, the state, they make it harder and harder for restaurant owners. I mean, even like so we like Upper West just had a DOH inspection, right? So Department of Health came and like they're always changing the rules on us. So like we are in and we're in a building. And so in our kitchen, not in our kitchen, but like to go to the basement, there is like a door that is always locked. But it goes to the lobby or like a hallway in the building. And so like the DOH guy and we kind of have the same thing in LES, but it's like the boiler room.

33:33Right. And so the DOH inspector was like, you got to open that door. And we're like, well, no, we don't have access to that. And he was like, well, you're not going to pass your inspection. Like, that was not a thing even a year ago. Right. And so, like, also, I don't even know if the inspector knew what he was talking about. But, like, you're going to get fined. And then, you know, and then, God forbid, we don't pass the inspection. I mean, we got an A. But if you don't pass the inspection for that, you know what I mean, then you have a grade pending in your window, which deters guests from wanting to eat there because it's like, you know.

34:11It's a mark, of course. It's a mark. It's like a shady thing, even though there's nothing wrong with a grade pending. Yeah. And it has to do with the sanitation or the cleanliness. It's about this door situation. But, I mean, and so, and then you'll get fined. And then if you want, you either have to pay the fine or you have to pay someone to go fight the fine. So either way, you're paying, right? So there's just like one more thing that they keep adding on, like with separating the trash. You're now using the trash bins. If you like Maman, the bakery next to us, they got fined because the city makes you put your trash in these huge bins.

34:45And as a small bakery, they have nowhere to keep it. So they keep it on the street. But you're not allowed to keep it on the street. So they got fined. It's just crazy. Then like noise violations, you get fined. Like all this stuff, like the city just like I feel like is setting you up. I understand like they need money, too, but like they're taking it. It's a profit center for them. For sure. It's obvious that there's a real calculation that you need to make X amount of fines per street address, like constitution of addresses. And then just like the sheer, like the number that like the amount that you have to pay just for like a liquor license renewal.

35:19You know what I mean? Like every year it's like seven or eight grand. Like all of it just adds up. Then you add the fact that like congestion pricing, people are not driving into the city or not driving, you know, in general. Like I live in New Jersey. I am like very anti-congestion pricing right now. It worked for the first month and I was like, oh, OK, this is good. Like, I don't mind paying the extra at nine dollars if I'm going to get home in like 25 minutes. But now the traffic is just as bad. I'm paying more money and less people are coming into the city because of it. Yeah, the optics of it are terrible, even if it doesn't do anything.

35:55I mean, it's like you're paying more for no reason. Yeah, truly. I mean, I feel the same way as a driver myself into the city. It's quite interesting. What about as on the guest side? How can we as guests be be like supportive of you, the restaurant owner? I mean, I think. Guess who like linger and just like stay at the table and not let us turn the tables is really hard, you know, especially like the food that I do. Yeah, we we make our money by turning tables like I mean, like everyone else. But we do volume because we have raised our prices, but we're not I would say we're like mid range. We're not like we're not cheap and we're not expensive.

36:35And so because of that, we need to just make sure that we, you know, get people in and out in a timely manner. And I think the people that like linger really kind of. Yeah, especially if you're seeing a line outside. I think it's like a great reminder to if you're dining at a restaurant and you're having that wonderful conversation, you can take it somewhere else. Yeah. You have a great bar. Be mindful of the fact that we have reservations after you. If it's a Monday night and it's like slow or whatever, it's fine. Like, right. Right. Like take your time. Have some extra drinks. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

37:03I have noticed that people are drinking less, too. Very, very, very good point. Tell me, what are you seeing? Like, I mean, so when we first opened, it was just pretty much like holiday season. So our our drink sales were obviously more. So we thought that that was probably we should have factored that in, but we didn't. So we were like, why are why are our Bev sales like down so much from when like when we first opened? And obviously you have like dry January. Fine. But I think people in general, Gen Z, they don't drink as much. And then I think people in this climate, like they're very concerned about like spending money, even if they have a lot of money there.

37:41So like they're not getting that like third, fourth drink that like, I don't know, I would normally get. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have some great N.A. options. We do. And we purposely did that because my husband doesn't drink. Yeah, it's a great – you have a couple of aids. You have like Lime-Aiders and you have as many beers. I mean it seems like a blend of all of that. I mean the price, the sticker shock is definitely real at restaurants for a lot of diners and definitely people aren't drinking as much. I don't know why you would think with everything going on in the world, you want to like drink a little bit more.

38:15I would think so. I mean I think it's like health too. People don't want to drink as much, but it's so important to a restaurant's bottom line to make sure you have a healthy alcohol sales program. So, I mean, but you're doing well. It sounds like, you know, the numbers are there. I mean, I think definitely they're good. They could always be better. We always want them to be better, you know. We open for brunch, which is great. Brunch is good. But again, like we had bottom, like we would crush at bottomless mimosas downtown. No one really orders it Upper West Side. Yeah. So we're like, OK, we need to like rethink that whole retool.

38:53It's like not, it has to be something other than the mimosa. Yeah, we're going to, yeah, exactly. What's the drink that you want? People like spritzes a lot. Yeah. I don't drink that much anymore, honestly. I think now also because I have two kids, like the last thing I want to be is hungover with two little kids. Yeah, like the 6 a.m. hits a little different after like some rosé. Yeah. Too much rosé. Maybe when they're older, I'll start drinking a lot more again. I mean, could you just go hard and just be like, oh, you could drink Long Island iced teas? L-I-T-E-S? I mean, me or for other people?

39:24No, for your bottom line. Oh, I mean, there's a lot of alcohol in it. I know. That's like the kind of irresponsible bottomless offering. This is why I'm not in the restaurant industry, of course. But I just love your cooking. And I say it again, you're a super underrated chef. because I just think we think of you as maybe a TV person, as a cookbook author, but these restaurants are special. I love them. This episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. If you're one of those last minute shoppers, you might know the feeling. Ideas are running low and the clock is ticking. Here's a fun idea, Aura Frames.

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42:39Visit 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. On This is Taste, we asked guests about the discerning taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious taste check. Are you ready? Okay. The best fruit? Mangoes. What kind of mango? How are you doing it? A Filipino mango. Okay. I'm just eating it plain. Love that. Yeah. The worst vegetable? White asparagus. Why? First of all, I don't like the color. It looks weird. It's weird. Yeah, it looks weird.

43:14It's like albino. No offense to the albino. No, no. It just looks a little, it's like we want to look color nervous. Yeah. And it's just like, I don't know. I don't like it. What's your typical breakfast? Breakfast. I try to eat a lot of protein as an aging woman. So I do like an omelet with like maple turkey in there. Like as much like vegetables and protein as I can add in there. Nice. Are you doing egg whites or going full? I do. I do two whole eggs and an egg white. Oh, that's my guy right there. I can't just do all egg whites. I think that's gross. It's not great. Yeah. I mean, if you're like brunching or breakfasting for a meeting, you want to eat like super light.

43:57Yeah. And they have like a fancy egg white omelet. I'll dabble there. Yeah. Not at home. No. No. The best dessert. Best dessert. I like so, I have like a sugar tooth, like a sweet tooth. So like I love all desserts. But you know what? I love a good rainbow cookie. Sick. I love Vicks Rainbow Cookie. Vicks, yeah. I got married at Vicks, and I think I fell in love with Vicks because of their rainbow cookie. And Hillary was a chef at the time. Hillary Sterling, shout out. I love her, and I was like, yo, girl, let me get your rainbow cookie recipe. Friend of the show, I love that. Oh, it's so good.

44:38A restaurant you wish you could bring back from the dead? I mean, showing some love to my Clinton Street WD-50. I just, I don't know. They were doing some crazy shit and some of it did not work, but it was so, but the ones that did, did. And it was so creative and innovative. And when Malcolm was the pastry chef there too, I mean, it was just great. Malcolm was great. We had a terrific episode with Malcolm talking about those days. I love Malcolm Livingston. He's such a talent. That was a great era, the Malcolm era. Yeah. I like that one. Great call there. When you're craving fast food, where are you going?

45:16I don't eat fast food. Not at all. Zero. I've never eaten Chipotle. I don't eat McDonald's. I don't eat anything. You've never dabbled in the arts of the McDonald's. French fries if like someone's eating them. But like I don't really eat fast food. Yeah. It's fair. I'll take that one. Not even a Shake Shack? No. I'm into it. Okay. Like fair enough. Like if I'm going to indulge in the calories, I would prefer to go to like a really good bakery and just eat like some donuts. You know what I mean? Like I've just – yeah, it's not my thing. your favorite city outside America to visit for food Bangkok I love Bangkok I spent a lot of time there that was like my hub when I was in Southeast Asia I would always go back when my visa ran out to in other countries and I would just like yeah I used it as my home base and I have a lot of friends there I love it it's a great call last one your favorite sandwich favorite sandwich um it's from a place in Jersey, Jersey City.

46:17It's called Bread and Salt. Oh, yeah. Have you been there? Oh, yeah, of course. Rick, man. So I live like maybe like a 10-minute walk or like a three-minute drive from there. And very simple, classic like prosciutto and mozzarella. Their bread is just like so thin. You don't feel like bad eating it because it's not super carb heavy. And the quality of the prosciutto and the mozzarella is just like perfect. It's a really, really good spot. Really good. I love that call. Leah Cohen, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us to taste. Thank you.

46:49We're going to have a conversation here about your life and about the book. Right. And I think there's a bit of an—there was an anniversary that happened yesterday, and it leads to my first question. Take us back. I think many in the room want to know, what was it like posting that first post? The first post that changed really everything. It changed my life, really. It was five years ago to the day yesterday. We just realized, we like checked, like, oh my gosh. You know, I always say nothing happens by chance. So here I am with you in New York, five years and one day until we posted that first video.

47:28And it was during COVID. And I was doing like, you know, retired, semi-retired things that an older lady does. I was going to water aerobics. I was watching my grandkids. I was going to Bible study and also substitute teaching, but I could like decide my schedule for that. And so, you know, that was my life. And then COVID hit and I said to my daughter, who had two toddlers at the time, I was expecting a third. And I said, you know, if you'd like, I can come and help you for a few weeks. So I was at Elizabeth's house. The kids were asleep. We were in the kitchen. And she said, Mom, I think you need to try TikTok.

48:12And I said, I think you're crazy. Liz, how would you even come up with this? And she was like, well, I said, you know, I love to dance, but your nieces are dancing on TikTok, but your mother's not dancing on TikTok. And so she said, no, Mom, you could cook on TikTok. And, you know, I really was not on any social media. So this was all very new to me. And I but I did know that because the kids would tell me they had like one minute to do whatever dance they were learning. So I thought, what can you cook in one minute? That's like crazy. One minute. One minute. One minute to make a recipe. Had you ever edited a video before?

48:50Had you consumed any? You didn't know what TikTok was, but had you watched like Facebook videos or anything like that? You know, I was on no social media. I didn't have a Facebook account. and I would just, when my granddaughters were over, they would show me their dancing and sometimes they'll coerce me to get up. And I was like behind them, but they never posted. I'm like, don't put that on. So anyway, so yeah, this was very, a new total experience for me. So I of course said, no, I don't wanna do cooking either. And, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. So I finally thought, all right, I'll do one and done.

49:25And I made this chicken oregano that my grandmother would make with like roasted potatoes. And it was over. That was my video. And I thought, okay, she's happy. And I'm happy because I don't have to do another thing. And so the next day, she shows me her phone. And she's like, look at this. And it was like a calculator. And I'm like, what is that? Those are people who are following you. And I'm like, oh, my word. That's incredible. And then later she'd say, would you like to read your comments? And I'm like, well, what are the comments? You know, people comment on your video. Oh, sure. And the comments were like off the charts.

50:08They were like, you remind me of my mom that I can't see right now. You're the closest thing to home that I have. You're the grandmother that I miss so much. I'm like, oh, my gosh, you're reading these. And it was very heartfelt. It was like incredible. Yeah. I mean, that's really it. People who don't have grandparents and don't have parents, they connect with you. How do you how do you feel about that when you are many people's you're the you're the grandmother they don't have? Oh, yeah. It's a pretty, I mean, first of all, it's the ultimate compliment. Hopefully you have a good relationship with your mother when you say you remind me of my mother, right?

50:46In a good way. But yeah, it is kind of the ultimate compliment, right? A mother. And you remind me of my mom. So that really is an or a grandmother, you know? It's a heavy weight. It's like, well, I want to live up to that compliment, you know? You post that first video and you see the calculator gets rolling. But then how do you think about the rest of the story? Like, are you posting every couple days? Do you start to have fun with it? Does it feel like work? What's it like? Let's do six months of your first post. What's that period like for you? Well, then I came to the realization that it's not just a video every now and then.

51:29Now we've entered into a new space. And now it's a little bit more serious six months from then. But we used to post videos with, so Scooter was born, Liz's baby, and we'd post videos with him and his old bassinet. And I'd be at the counter and he'd be like, you could hear baby sounds. And people were like, what is that noise? I'm like, well, that's my grandson who's like in his bassinet like right at my feet. So it was kind of developing into something more than I could ever have imagined. Yeah. Do you start to think about recipe development at that point? Like thinking about building a recipe database.

52:07I know we talked previously about you had all these old recipes from this recipe book. But how do you think about like YouTube and TikTok content, you know, as your main source? Yeah, that's because at that time it was just TikTok because Instagram did not have like reels. So I got my start on TikTok and it was a very welcoming community for sure. But TikTok is different than Instagram. You know, I think Instagram is more of my, I would say, my active online. I call you my online family. I know you're out there, even though I don't see you, but now I see you. Yeah. So now I know you're out there.

52:45But so but but TikTok is different. TikTok, you have to be a little bit at the time, though, TikTok, when we first started, they making a video where an older lady was hardly talking was very well received. But now it's developed into something that you have to be more quick, more snappy, do hacks. They want to they want tricks, you know, where Instagram wants to hang out and do a recipe and visit, you know. It's really interesting that you can split the difference that way. Yeah. Do you have a preferred platform out of the two? The community that you build in? Yeah. I would say I obviously would be Instagram for me, but I also will be forever grateful to TikTok.

53:25I like that answer. It's diplomatic. Yeah. Yeah. For you meta executives out there and your TikTok executives, we'll get a little bit more into the digital side of your world, but let's get into Babs as a person. I think when I was reading your book, it was clear that you grew up in an Italian household. Right. But then you had Lebanese background as well. And I think that really informs a lot of your cooking. Tell the audience a little bit about your background growing up. So Mr. Babs and I are Chicagoans. And I grew up in an Italian family. I mean, my dad was Lebanese, but we were much closer.

54:06Well, my grandparents had already died. I never even knew my Lebanese grandparents. But when I was born, we lived in an apartment building in the city, and my grandfather owned the building. And the entire building was the family. So I could go upstairs to my grandmother's and, you know, hang out, and she'd give me a job to do or whatever, and then go back downstairs, you know, and, you know, be home, right? So the whole building was kind of like home, which was, I mean, it's unusual now, but it was, I didn't realize that it was very much a blessing, you know? So I grew up being extremely close to my grandparents.

54:48And I think seeing my mother interact, my mother was the oldest girl of nine children. Wow. So she had an older brother, and then there were my mom, and then there was a bunch of boys, and then the rest of the girls. And so my mother was the worker. She was the one that helped my grandmother. I mean, my grandmother didn't have, at that point, a washing machine. She had a basin and a scrub board and a clothesline for nine children. So it was a tough life, but, you know, it was just a warm, loving environment. And I'm sure the kitchen was the center of that. That was the hub. You know, my grandmother came over.

55:29It was an arranged marriage. So she came over to marry my grandfather. Do you know where she came from? She came from Salerno. Okay. My grandfather was from Avellino. Okay. And so when she left Italy, she never went back. She never saw her parents again. My grandfather went back. Oh, really? But my grandmother was like, yeah, go back. Who's going to watch all these kids? So she was kind of stuck. But anyway, food was sacrosanct. Food was the center of their lives. I mean, my grandmother worked a lot. She worked outside the home, but she worked from day up, sunup to sundown. And food was sacred, I think, especially during the Depression, or my grandmother would tell stories that there was enough food to feed my grandfather and the kids and she'd have like a little, like a crust of bread at the end of the day.

56:23So once they got through that, food was sacred. So tell us a little bit about the types of dishes cooked inside this family home and what these meals were like, what these celebrations are just general day-to-day. I mean, are we cooking a lot of red sauce Italian? Are you cooking Chicago style, you know, recipes as well. Well, my grandmother brought over and my grandfather lots of traditions from Italy. So she made her own pasta, noodles, the gnocchi, the lasagna noodles. She had her machine. Did she dry them out on the racks? She dried them out like on the lawn. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And everything that she made, you know what?

57:03She couldn't read. So literally everything was done by feel and taste. And she was an amazing cook. I don't know how she made biscottis, to tell you the truth, without reading. But she did. And so she, it was all the roasted meats. They were huge. We always had lamb. And they would go to the, they'd call it the Greeks, and buy like a full lamb. Then they would roast everything, including the head. As like, what do you think about the lamb head as a kid? I'll tell you what I thought about it. So my grandfather, this is a true story. my grandfather says, Barbara, why don't you eat this? I'm like, it's the eye.

57:47And I thought, there's no way that's an eye. I thought, of course I'll eat it. Turns out it was an eye, the lamb's eye. Oh my gosh. What about restaurants? Did you go out at all as a kid? No. The first restaurant I ever was in, I couldn't believe it. You know, this was like many, many, many years ago. You can't even imagine, you know, you young folks out there, what the culture was like then. You would never go out. There's no fast food. I mean, in the summer, when we were in this apartment building with no air conditioning, our treat was that the police, the fire department would come by, open the fire hydrant on the corner and we'd all run in.

58:22And we could be outside at, you know, after dark, like nine o 'clock. Here we are as kids running in the fire hydrant. So it was, you know, and I'm not like 110, but I'm getting close. But what was the question, Matt? The question was, we went from lamb eyeballs to un-air-conditioned. Yeah. Oh, and another tradition with my grandfather. Yeah, great. So he was, he loved his Italian wine. And so every fall, the whole entire family, which is like, you know, my nine aunts and uncles and their spouses and all my cousins, 22 of us, would gather at my grandparents. At that point, they lived in the suburbs because you couldn't do this in an apartment building.

59:05And he'd have cases of grapes and they would be purple from top to bottom, everybody crushing all the grapes and going through like the crusher. Yeah. And then my grandfather had three oak casts in his basement. And so there was one new wine, one half fermented and one ready to draw. And they would take a brick out of their basement in this room to have it cooled at the right temperature. Oh, my God. And then they would hang sausage to dry. So everything was done by hand. It was done like, you know, this was their life. It was like people. Oh, so fast food. That's where it came, right? We came full circle.

59:49So the fast food question was, no, I had never been to a restaurant until like maybe I was 10. And my Aunt Vi and my Uncle Corky took me to like a bar kind of place and ordered a hamburger. and I was like, how does this work? They're like, you mean there's somebody back there in that kitchen who's gonna come out? Yes, I can't believe, I was over the moon. I just couldn't believe that somebody was making me food. I could sit there and be served at a restaurant. That's a beautiful story. When you're, take us back when you were young, did you ever think you'd be famous? I mean, are you kidding me?

1:00:26I mean, not even. Did you have a dream at one point of being famous? You know, I think, no, I didn't ever. But I think we're all famous in our own right. Right. We're famous to the people you love and your family. And I think, you know, but no, I never did. It wasn't like I had all these talents and thought one day I'll make it to Hollywood and be a big star. In fact, you know, I was in my daughter's kitchen. We made a Tic Tac. What can I say? And the rest is history. And the rest is history. Now we can hang out. I love this. Well, let's talk a little bit about your new book. I think it's really, really, really well done.

1:01:04I think you have a lot of learning in there. And I think it's not just like your best recipes. It is, of course, but it has a lot of theory behind it, which you'll understand when you read it. Each day of the week represents a different mood, possibly a vibe to use a TikTok parlance. And honestly, I learned a lot. And I've worked, you know, I work in books, so. I'm honored because you're, you know, James Beard Award winner. No, I mean, listen, you're like on TikTok. I mean, that's what matters. But no, like, take us through. I think it's great to think about the Monday through Sunday cooking strategy that you've laid out in this book.

1:01:44I'd like to hear it in your own words, some of these ideas. You know, I think it's a new idea. I've never seen this in cookbooks before. And when my daughter and I were talking about this other book, well, when Celebrate came out, Celebrate with Babs, it's all about the holidays, right? So now it was people would say, oh, my gosh, thank you so much. I have the holidays covered. But what do I do about every day? The real cooking. The real cooking. Like, you know, you're on the front lines. You have to answer that question over and over again. And then my daughter found out that everybody makes 36 ,000 micro decisions a day.

1:02:22You know, like what kind of what color socks am I going to wear? Am I going to take that way to work or that way or, you know? So so why not alleviate one pressure that you have to answer every day? And that's what's for dinner. So we wanted to set it up then by the days of the week. So Monday, every day has a different feel, right? There's a different mode. So Monday is vastly different than Friday. You know, Friday. Yay. But Monday. I feel that. Yeah. I like it. Oh, my God. How do you go Monday? What's the Monday vibe? Monday vibe is like you need to get in and out of that kitchen. Yeah. And you need a fast prep.

1:03:01Yeah. Right. And yeah, because Monday was OK. The title of the of the chapter was get your sheet together Monday as in sheet pan meals. And we have 13 great sheet pan meals. Delicious and easy. But it's an easy prep and quick dinners that are, well, three things recipes had to live up to. They had to be easy. They had to be delicious. And there had to be an easy cleanup. So you weren't in the kitchen like an hour after you served everybody. You're still scrubbing pots and pans. So all of the recipes. And you know cleaning. I know cleaning. You know cleaning. I have some cleaning questions. Not just the cookbook talk.

1:03:44We're talking cleaning here. But continue about the rest of the week the way you think about like Tuesday and Wednesday. Sure. Because you have some really smart ideas there. Sure. So Tuesday you could do a little batch cooking. And, you know, we've got like grandma's chicken cutlets or whatever. And you could make half of that recipe and you'll have eight cutlets, which would be plenty for dinner. And then you could freeze eight that are not quite cooked off. And then you could bake them in the oven 400 later in the week. You could go from the freezer to the oven at 400 and they will crisp up on the baking sheet as if you like saute them.

1:04:24So that's great. And there's like two meatloaves. So you'll always have food in the refrigerator or in the freezer because there's those nights where it's like there's nothing to eat. You'll always have food. You always have that reserve there. Yeah. And that is a good Tuesday. I feel like you just pulled out of the freezer. So Wednesday is the one and only. So it's one pot, one skillet. And, you know, it's the broccoli and pasta. It's I'm trying to think of other recipes in there. I'm drawing a blank, but there's a bunch of them. Yeah. And it's been a long day. I started like at 630. You were on TV today, right?

1:05:02I was on. Yes, I was on TV. I was on GMA. Yeah. And. Oh, and they. How did that go? They tell me it went well. I'm sure it went well, but what's it like going on live national TV? You know, I try and I like this could be national TV, but I'm looking at you and you're great. And it's, you know, we're having a conversation and all these wonderful people here. So I don't think about it. But but yeah, I've been on DMA a few times. They're a great group. Yeah, they're very welcoming, I have to say, and warm and loving. And yeah, we started there. And then every day with Babs was on the Jumbo Tron. Oh, in Times Square.

1:05:37For four minutes. That was like incredible. I love that. And then I had a couple of interviews. Yeah. Yeah, it's been a lot. It's been a beautiful day. It was the perfect publication day. Yeah, you're. For sure. Let's get into Thursday and Friday. Yeah, Thursday. Okay. So by Thursday, it's Thrifty Thursday. A lot of times your food budget has been depleted, right? So you rely on pantry staples, you know? Yeah. So we have a sloppy joe casserole recipe in there. It's so good. And also pasta fagioli, but we say pasta vazool, you know. And so just like basic, you can open up your pantry, you grab a couple ingredients and you can make dinner.

1:06:24And then Friday, you made it through the week. So Monday through Wednesday is more quick, easy recipes because you're busy, right? And then Friday is Fri-yay. So let's celebrate. And so they're fun recipes. We have a spicy tuna sushi casserole. Oh, that's fun. I like that. And it's really fun that my grandkids even love. Your grandkids are eating sushi? They are. Oh, yeah. Some of my grandkids won't eat like regular food, but they'll have Indian food and sushi. Oh, I love that. This is like the future of the world, eating Indian food and sushi. Forget the mac and cheese. Yeah, come on. They're like, no.

1:07:06I think we do some iniguri. Exactly. So anyhow, so fryer, like we have like a Reuben pastry pocket, pimento cheese patty melt. Oh, that's nice. Oh, so really fun things like for movie night, family night, game night, you know. And then Saturday, we figure you're at games or you're shopping or you're laying on the sofa, whatever you do on Saturday. Right. So it's low and slow. So as in slow cookers. So you're going to do a little prep in the morning because let's face it, you don't just usually dump, even though we do have some recipes that you put everything in and it's going to taste fabulous.

1:07:45But some recipes, a little prep before, everything goes in your slow cooker and you leave. And when you come home from whatever you're doing, you have dinner waiting for you. Do you know the slow cooker was invented outside Chicago? Oh, really? Yeah. I don't know. It's like a supper, but that's where it comes from. Oh, cool. I had no idea. Give us an idea of the slow cooker on a Saturday for you. So I have a wonderful recipe. Well, they're all great recipes. I can't imagine. But I'll highlight a few. So we have a French onion soup pot roast. So it's very few ingredients, but you do have to steam those onions, which there's prep, but it's like non-active.

1:08:25You know, you just let them steam for some minutes. And then you saute your roast, your beef. And you saute that first. And you steam those onions and kind of get them nice and caramelized. And then that goes right on. And with wine and thyme and whatever you'd find in French onion soup, beef broth. And that's why I'm saying there is a little bit of prep to some of the recipes. But, you know, eight hours later, six hours later. It's the best thing. It just perfumes your kitchen and then you unplug it and you're done. It's nice to come home and smell like the aroma of dinner waiting for you. So take us a Sunday and then I have some more questions about specific recipes that really jumped out.

1:09:12But tell us about Sunday. So a Sunday is Sunday supper. And they're more elevated recipes for a Sunday. And, you know, if there's – I know our schedules are crazy. I mean, I know your schedules are – my mind's kind of busy too, actually. But, you know, when you're like raising kids and going to games and going to practices and all that business, you maybe don't have time to sit down as a family and have dinner. Right. Everybody kind of grab and go. And but Massachusetts General Hospital did a study, a 20 year longitudinal study on the effects of family dinner. I have all this in the book. And basically it was that after 20 years, they discovered that everyone in the family benefits in their spirit, their brain and their health.

1:10:06If you sit down with technology free, including no TV and share a meal with the people you have most in the world. And so I'm shooting for, OK, America, we can do this. Let's do it at least one night a week. And for us, that's Sunday. And also for kids, the results were off the chart. It was like they felt more connected to their family. They were able to talk to their parents. They had higher achievement. They were less likely to get involved with things that keep parents up at night. And so it's in a simple, in fact, they said that the kitchen table was the best family therapy they've seen. So how simple is that?

1:10:50Yeah. Right? It's a great sentiment. Tell me about the olive bar chicken. Oh, I know. Because that jumped out at me, the idea of like the olive bar at, you know, Whole Foods or at a grocery store. What's the kind? I loved it. You know what? It's all the ingredients that you'd find in an olive bar, like the marinated artichokes, the roasted red pepper, the sun-dried tomato, the olives, obviously, right? Yeah, yeah. And all that on a sheet pan. So this is probably the easiest prep recipe in the book. it probably takes five minutes to prep. And you know, I'm a chicken thigh girl. You know, you might be into chicken breasts, but I think thighs - I mean, we all know that thighs are better.

1:11:31Let's just be honest here. We all know, everyone's nodding their heads. There's some applause. It's only - Exactly. Bone in? Yes. Obviously, good. You gotta have that flavor, right? So bone in chicken thighs. Yeah. And you just, it's really kind of a dump recipe. People love dump stuff. Like, you know, when we post, it's, oh, if it's a dump meal, it goes like, it's viral, you know? So, but this is like a healthy dump meal. You know, it's not like, by the way, somebody's like, oh, cans, number one, jars. And number two, what's wrong with canning? I mean, that's how people, canning isn't bad, you know, or getting something out of a can.

1:12:10But anyways. Truly not. Exactly. No shame for that. Absolutely not. So anyway, so it's basically you dump sun-dried tomatoes with all the juice onto the sheet pan. And then it's the artichokes. No, then the chicken thighs go right on with a little brown sugar. And you kind of get all that. Interesting brown sugar. Just a little. You can use honey if you'd like. It's great. And then you kind of massage that all together with the sun-dried tomato juice of the sun-dried tomatoes. And then next is the roasted bread peppers right on. You want to get the chef's cut because you can't have big pieces of roasted pepper.

1:12:50And marinated artichokes, olives. And then you pop it in the oven for like 40, 45 minutes. And you can serve that with pasta, mashed potatoes, or just like garlic bread on the side. And I'll tell you the next day, I'm a leftover person. The leftovers are even better. Definitely better. And like the bone in, like you can go a little bit longer with the heat because it kind of dry out as quickly. And I like that. Exactly. Let's talk about this is great. Your warm hug bacon pasta. Right. Is first off delicious. I like putting bacon in lots of things. But how does it tie back to Mr. Babs getting arrested?

1:13:30So we were young newlyweds and we're actually finishing college seniors. And so Bill was driving a cab and I was waitressing. And I tell my grandkids, like, they need to waitress so they can appreciate, you know, like waiting on people serving. Right? Yeah. It's a great. You serve people. And guess what? You you're respectful to people who serve you. It's a great. But anyway, so in Chicago with the cab business, you couldn't pick up someone a fare in Chicago because he worked for a suburban company. So you couldn't pick up in Chicago and then drop the fare off in Chicago. You had to go like O 'Hare Airport to the suburbs.

1:14:17You couldn't go O 'Hare to downtown Chicago. So this company said, pick up at O 'Hare and drop them off in Chicago. I was like, OK, well, the Chicago Police Department really at that time didn't have much to do, I guess. And they were following cabs and they saw what he did when he went like from O 'Hare and then he continued in like the Chicago city limits. They pulled him over and arrested him. Mr. Bev, he gets sprung out of jail. Yeah. And it had had a great time in jail, as most people have. And you make him something. So I make him, you know, what is the most comfort food on the face of the earth?

1:14:55It's pasta. So it's a simple, it's like pasta amatriana, right? Yep, exactly. But you don't have the pork jaws. We use bacon. So it's bacon. It's so simple. It's in the one pot Wednesday. That's it. One of those. So it's basically sauteed bacon and red onions and then the tomatoes. And you put your uncooked spaghetti right in the pot, right in the 12-inch skillet. You lay it right down. And there's very few ingredients to this. And then you rinse out. You use good tomatoes when you make this. What makes a good tomato? Oh, I like San Marzano. Yeah, of course. Is that like, yeah, I know. And you know what?

1:15:38Food is, I don't know if you, not to plug another book, but it's not a cookbook, but Good Energy. I don't know if you're familiar with that by Casey. I'm not familiar, but I'm sure it's available at these beautiful bookstores. Check it out. So basically they talk about the importance of really buying good food because good food becomes a part of you, right? And it strengthens your cells, all that. So if you're going to buy tomatoes, buy good tomatoes. Don't look for the cheapy on sale ones, you know? So San Marzano are the only ones. So with the bacon, you're just putting it all, like are you crisping it ahead of time?

1:16:12Well, you have to saute the bacon and the red onions for like seven to ten minutes. So that the bacon's golden and the red onions are, you know, are like, you know, ready to cook through, you know. Let's take us to the photo shoot when you're shooting the cookbook and you're styling. What's that like for you to work, you know, to make these recipes and then have a photo crew shoot the recipes? So when we published our first book, Matt Celebrates, all of that was taking place in Indianapolis. It was DK Publishers. That's where they're headquartered in the U.S. So we had no experience. You weren't there at the photo shoot.

1:16:52No, no. Well, we had no experience whatsoever when they said, could you write a cookbook? I'm like, no. But then obviously I did. And so they handled so much of it because we were newbies, you know. So now this time around, we were definitely more involved in every stage of book development. and a huge piece of it. Let's face it, you want to buy a cookbook where every recipe is photographed, don't you? You don't want to like, you have to imagine. I wonder what that looks like. Is it supposed to look like this or was I supposed to brown it a little bit longer? Not all cookbooks have a photo with every recipe.

1:17:28No, I know. Because it's a lot of work for you as the author to commit to shooting every single recipe. Every single one. And having like a set for every single one. Yes. And having it food styled and prop styled. Right. Yeah. So, of course, you know, I have a team. You know, I started this when I was 71, just to let you know. But anyway, so we shot the book and we were in Brooklyn for like seven full days. I have to say, I did not go in a few days. My daughter, Ger, Elizabeth, like lived there for like the full 14 days practically. And we were commuting from Brooklyn back to Connecticut every day too.

1:18:06We weren't staying like any place near where the shoot was taking place. But yes, there's a tremendous amount of, you know, those 36 ,000 micro decisions. We made like, I don't know, 72 ,000 every day. Because, you know, Matt, you've written cookbooks. There's so much to every photograph. It's incredible. There's the photograph and you've got the prop and set styling. You've got to make sure it's garnished correctly. Right. Because you don't want to like have a photo without the right garnish, right? No. It's important. Or if there's water in a glass, is it like tap water or are we going to use sparkling water so you see the little bubbles?

1:18:46Are we going to take an overhead shot or like a full shot from the side or whatever? There's a ton of decisions. It makes you look at cookbooks a little differently when you make one. Again, it's like waiting tables. You know what? I have great respect for people who write cookbooks. Well, the book is absolutely beautiful. I have a couple more recipe questions and then some cleaning talk. So Scotch-a-roos. Right. Definitively a Midwestern. It is. Yeah. Like, I feel like those who are not from the Midwest might not know exactly what goes into a Scotch-a-roo. Tell us about your perfect Scotch-a-roo.

1:19:22So in 1960, actually, the Scotch-a-roo recipe was on the back of the Rice Krispies box. But it was born in the Midwest. That's where they came from. So the story goes. And I think the original recipe was like peanut butter and Rice Krispies kind of patted down like in a 9 by 13. And then over that was chocolate and butterscotch melted. So they were bars. They're more like candy looking things, right? So we elevated them a bit and ours are more across between a Rice Krispie treat and a Scotcheroo. So we have not only the Rice Krispies, but marshmallows, which make them light and more like less.

1:20:10They're not hard. They're more chewy and light and not a Rice Krispie treat totally, but certainly more of that feel. And then, and so it's the peanut butter, the marshmallows, the Rice Krispies, all kind of melted together. And then that's poured out into your pan. And then it's topped with melted chocolate and butterscotch morsels. Oh, morsels, like double chips and morsels. Yeah, got it. And then it's topped off with roasted peanuts. Love that. And you square them as bars. Yes, and other bars. Right. So they're not like flat and kind of hard. They're like, you know, chewy and gooey What makes a Babs dessert a Babs dessert?

1:20:59Well, I love chocolate But we have a lot of desserts in the book that aren't chocolate You know, I love dessert So I think anything, again, that's easy to assemble That you can do ahead of time Scotcheroos can be made two, three days in advance. So a BAMS dessert would be something you serve that is delicious, but it's not going to stress you out because you don't want dessert to be like another headache, right? You want it to be a treat. Yeah. No bake or like icebox cakes. Yeah, we do. We have an icebox cake. We have a key lime icebox cake. We go to Florida for a few weeks every year with Mr.

1:21:42BAMS's family and we shop at Publix. And so Publix has, I think, the best key lime pie around. It's so good. So we have a key lime icebox cake in the book. Yeah. And that's terrific. We also have a strawberry shortcake made on a sheet pan. That's fun. Nice. It's so easy to make. All you need is a bowl, one bowl and a sheet pan. And you make your shortbread in the bowl. Dump it on that sheet pan, kind of comes together. And then it's baked. And later when you're ready to serve it, you add the whipped cream, freshly whipped cream. And then on top are macerated strawberries. And it's fabulous. And the beauty of it is you can serve it right from that sheet pan if you don't even want to dirty another tray or dish.

1:22:32Just carry it right to the table and cut it. And cut it. And it serves like a lot. It'll serve like at least six to eight people. Do you get stopped in the grocery store when you're shopping? I do. What? So what is that? What's that like? Because like this is like your turf. Like, yeah, this is like you're in the grocery store. Yeah. I mean, what are those interactions like? So I used to go to the grocery store. Like, let's face it, it's a grocery store. You go in your sweats and a sweatshirt. I can't do that anymore because they always want you want to take pictures. Right. Yeah. So. So anyway, I used to be like really surprised.

1:23:04Honest to goodness. Like, oh, my gosh, that's so nice of you. Like that you're out there. You know, and and I like to converse with people. I'm a talker. Um, in fact, yesterday we had kind of a pre-kickoff event in New Canaan and a gal that was there was from my town. And she said, you probably don't remember me, but I met you at Carluzzi's, which is our grocery store. And, uh, she said, I met you and I was getting, uh, my ingredients for one of your recipes. I'm like, I do remember you. It was, um, for the Superbowl. And we had posted like a corn dip and she was she said, oh, my gosh, that was the recipe.

1:23:43And here she came to the event yesterday. Yeah, really fun. So sweet to me, just meeting all these people. I know you're helping them change the way they cook, you know, teaching them to cook. Yeah. And that's you know, we're all here to do good. Right. And people say, oh, you're a grand influencer. Yes, I'm older. I'm a grandma. And if you think about it, everybody influences people. Every time you open your mouth, you're either influencing for the better or the worse. And so we're all here to kind of build each other up. And as I said, you're all influencers, just so you know. I agree. All right.

1:24:20Big question. You know, Basket House update. Basket House update. I think we all want to know. Right. What can you say just for this audience? Right. Just for this audience. Right, right, right. We'll keep it in this... All right. Don't tell anybody. We'll keep it close. All right. Just between you and me. Yeah. The folks who came and bought the book. Yeah. Well, I was saying that, you know, we had to raise the house. You know, I don't know if you remember that because we were in the floodplain. Even though we did our due diligence and we thought we would never have to do that. Well, things unraveled with the historical society and, you know, everybody gets involved, you know.

1:24:56So that really delayed it. But now we're getting super close. The kitchen is terrific. I can't wait for you to see this. We have an amazing pantry. The greenhouse, well, the greenhouse that was on the original, you know, was leaking. It was acrylic. It wasn't really glass. But we kept that same look. And that is finally done. It was finished last weekend. So that's done. So what's left is really some of the fine carpentry in the family room, some cabinets that still have to be put in. And in an old house, you don't have a lot of closets, right? There's hardly any closets in all houses. So we're sneaking in a few closets, which haven't been done.

1:25:42But by and large, if we could have like, I mean, it's not ready for furniture yet or anything. But I mean, it's not cleaned, you know, ready to be moved in. It's still in that mode. And for those who don't know about the basket house, you are restoring a house. Yes. And this is like a weekend house. It'll be like our home away from home. We'll spend some time, like maybe three nights a week or something. I like that. Yeah. I thought my home away from home. What's the kitchen like? Oh, my gosh. It is fabulous. Okay. I mean, we have this fabulous stove. I think you knew the name, right? Agar? No.

1:26:16Oh, what is it called? Aga. I know. I've never had an Aga stove. In fact, to look at this thing, one of the gals that we know that we work with actually used to rep AGA stoves. And so she's going to teach me how to use it. It's one of these things that is just massive. And there's three ovens and there's 12 like knobs across the front of it. It is formidable. Like, it's like, whoa, this thing is like, I need to know how to handle this. I cannot wait to see your new videos from this brand new kitchen. It's like a new chapter for you. It really, I mean, I have a lovely kitchen, but this kitchen will knock your socks off.

1:26:55It's really incredible. But for those of you who don't know, we bought an 1830s cottage. It was originally a blacksmith shop. In 1850, it became a basket shop. It's on a river. And so the reeds for the baskets were soaked in the river and sold right in this home. And that's why we call it the basket house. So we're keeping that tradition. There's a lot of elements in the house that are basket-themed, like we have lattice, a lot of lattice. We have a whole bankette that's total lattice, and it looks out onto the river. So there's a lot of touches that we incorporated to respect the history of the house.

1:27:38We kept the floor in the main room, I guess the family room, was brick. And that's probably the room where they shooed horses. Right. And so when we lifted the house, that floor stayed like on the ground. There was no foundation. There was nothing. And I thought, oh, and so but the first floor is all terracotta. So it looks like all stone, keeping, again, the the history of the blacksmith shop. The tour will be coming soon. Yeah. Like within a month. Great. On This Is Taste, we have guests about their discerning tastes. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious taste check.

1:28:19Are you ready? Well, wait a minute. I'm not sure. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll go. We'll go anyways. Don't make it hard. There are no wrong answers. I mean, there are a few wrong answers. I won't fail. Okay. You won't fail. The best fruit. Oh, I love watermelon. Like in the middle of the season, ripe, sweet watermelon. But now they make them seedless. It's not as fun. It's not as fun. You want to have it work a little bit for it. I like that. The worst vegetable? Okra. Yeah, tough. I lived in the South. We lived in Richmond for a while. I didn't like okra. Yeah. It's kind of mealy and I don't know.

1:28:55Slimy a little bit. Yeah, slimy. Yeah. What is your typical breakfast? You won't believe it, but now I am having, are you ready? A powdered mushroom drink called OM. Okay. Have you guys heard about this? I don't know if you've heard. And you know what I have? Do you find that on TikTok? No, but maybe I should make a TikTok. I think you should. Yeah, there you go. Thanks for the idea. Yeah, yeah. But it's almost like, it tastes like, I have chocolate. So it tastes like hot, it's hot chocolate. And I make a drink in the morning and I, and it kind of, kind of evens me out for a while until lunch.

1:29:31What kind of mushrooms are these? I don't know. Dang. I love it. There's lion's mane. Oh, it's lion's mane. Great. Oh, that's beautiful. Oh, that's good. Yeah, the good stuff. So you start. The legal stuff. Legal stuff, right. I mean, grand influencers have grand visions. All right. Is there anything else or just the mushroom drink for breakfast? Well, otherwise it would be protein, like eggs, like definitely like poached or omelet or whatever. I think it's important for me. Like when I have more time for breakfast, I would definitely protein. The best dessert. The best dessert would be, well, chocolate chip cookies.

1:30:09I mean, with milk. Yeah, of course. And I've got a great chocolate chip cookie recipe in the dessert chapter. I think it's the number one recipe, like first when you open that chapter. And it is fabulous. You're going to love these cookies. So good. A couple more. When you're craving fast food, where's Babs going? In our town, there's a place called Sycamores. And it's one of those drive-up places that they come to the, like carhops. Oh, that's fun. They come to the window and you order and then they set the tray on your window and you eat in the car. Oh, my gosh, I love that. You could go in.

1:30:43But I think it's been there since 1947. Oh, wonderful. And it's like down the block. Is it a burger? Oh, and they like, you know, it's like smash burgers. And like they were the original, I mean, they're thin. Yeah. And they're like, you know, hand formed and all that. It's a good place. Your favorite city outside America to visit for food? Well, one fall, Bill and I took a trip with one of our best friends. And we went to Provence. I know it's not one city, but it's a lot of little towns. And I thought the food was off the charts. I was just blown away. I gained seven pounds. Mazel, as you should.

1:31:29I mean, all. I had to have all that bread for Pete's sake. The bread, the cheeses. Oh, my word. Great wine. It was unreal. Is there like a Babs on the Road idea? Babs on the Road? Yeah. Babs in Provence? Oh. Babs in Rome? Oh, wow. Like Rick Steve and now Babs? You know it. Well, that would be fun. I think that would be fun. I'm ready to get off the road. But once I'm done with the road, then maybe we'll take it away. It'd be fun to get you into some kitchens. All right. The last one, your favorite sandwich. You know, my favorite sandwich. Oh, Chicago Italian beef. Oh. So great. I love that. Do you watch The Bear?

1:32:11Yeah, we only watched a few episodes. I know everybody raves about it. But to tell you the truth, we don't watch a lot of TV. I heard it's good, though. Do you watch it? It's a good show. Yeah. It's a Chicago show. And it's about a beef and hot dog place. Beef's in there, yeah. That's the only reference. I could definitely relate to that because we own a beef and hot dog place way back. Well, Babs, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you all for coming. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you, Matt. You're a doll.

1:32:36This 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.