665: Queer Eye Was a “Middle-Aged Boy Band” with Antoni Porowski

In short

Podcast Notes: This Is TASTE - Episode 665: Queer Eye Was a “Middle-Aged Boy Band” with Antoni Porowski

Episode Overview

Host: Matt Rodbard
Guest: Antoni Porowski (food and wine expert from Netflix's *Queer Eye*, author, and host of *No Taste Like Home*)
Event: Recorded live at the Traverse City Food & Wine Festival, hosted by the National Writers Series.
Additional Guest: Lindsey Baruch, author of *Something Delicious*.

Key Themes and Discussions

Early Influences and Cultural Background

Food as Love: Antoni shares that every child should see their parents cook, emphasizing the importance of food as an act of love.
Cultural Diversity: Growing up in Montreal, Antoni experienced a rich tapestry of cultures, often participating in a "buffet of nations" at school.
Family Background: His mother, a scientist and excellent home cook, influenced his relationship with food, despite not allowing him to cook with her initially.

Transition to Cooking Professionally

From College to Cooking: After moving out for college, Antoni discovered his passion for cooking while trying to support himself financially.
Restaurant Experience: He worked in various roles in restaurants in Montreal and New York, which provided him with insights into the food industry.
Respect for Chefs: Antoni emphasizes the importance of respecting professional chefs, despite being self-taught.

Journey to *Queer Eye*

Audition Experience: Antoni vividly recalls auditioning for *Queer Eye*, being inspired by mentors, and accepting the challenge despite initial fears about reality TV.
Impact on Society: The show's format encourages conversations around acceptance and positivity during politically turbulent times, making it a source of comfort for many.

Unique Aspects of *Queer Eye*

Group Dynamics: The chemistry between the cast members during filming contributed to the show's warmth and relatability.
Handling Emotions: Antoni discusses the emotional labor involved in interacting with individuals who welcome the cast into their lives, balancing authenticity with performance.

Behind the Scenes of *Queer Eye*

Loss of Anonymity: The rapid fame experienced by Antoni and his co-stars led to challenges and adjustments in their everyday lives.
Audience Connection: He describes the importance of connecting with the audience through shared experiences and storytelling.

Self-Care and Coping Strategies

Post-Episode Healing: Antoni shares the importance of having a debriefing routine with his co-stars after filming emotionally charged episodes to process their experiences.
Personal Rituals: He mentions his self-care rituals, including baths, herbal teas, and maintaining a balance between personal and professional life.

Cooking Philosophy

Democratizing Food: Antoni emphasizes the importance of teaching accessible cooking, focusing on overcoming fears and connecting with food on a personal level.
Favorite Recipes: He shares anecdotes about specific dishes, including his approach to avocado and guacamole, as well as his mother's recipes and influences.

Lindsey Baruch's Contribution

Background: Lindsey discusses her cooking style, which merges her Iraqi Jewish and Indian heritage, and her journey to creating her cookbook, *Something Delicious*.
Culinary Heritage: She reflects on how her family background influences her cooking and shares specific dishes that represent her cultural identity.

Key Takeaways

Food as a Love Language: The podcast emphasizes that cooking is an intimate way to express care and connect with others.
Cultural Exchange Through Food: Both guests highlight the power of food in bridging cultural gaps and fostering understanding.
Emotional Elements in Cooking Shows: The emotional connections built during the filming of *Queer Eye* contribute significantly to its impact on viewers.

Conclusion The episode encapsulates a rich conversation about food's role in personal history, identity, and community connection, showcasing the transformative power of cooking and storytelling in fostering understanding and acceptance.

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Listen to the full episode for more insights and anecdotes from Antoni Porowski and Lindsey Baruch.

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Transcript

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0:00This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. Resi is a digital platform that connects restaurants to restaurant lovers by elevating dining experiences, providing original industry content, and helping to fill some of the country's most exciting dining rooms. Because restaurants have always been more than just places to eat. The amazing world of restaurants is just a few taps away in the Resi app and at resi.com.

0:31I think every child should be able to see their parents prepare a meal for them, whether it's a sandwich or whether it's a stew. I don't care how simple it is, but I think that's like the ultimate act of love.

0:45This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

0:59Anthony Porosky is best known as the food and wine expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, which will be airing its final season later this year. He's a best-selling author and host of a terrific food travel show, No Taste Like Home. I joined Anthony on stage at the Traverse City Food and Wine Festival for an amazing conversation. I hope you enjoy it. Also on the show, we have a really great conversation with Lindsay Baruch, author of the new book, Something Delicious. I hope you enjoy this episode. Let's start from the beginning because I want to hear about food growing up in Montreal and learning from your mom and learning from your mom who was a scientist who learned to cook from cookbooks and was quite the home cook.

1:45I want to share with us a story about the way food became a part of your life early on. Yeah, I mean, to quote my therapist who asked me to stop using her full name, her name is Carol. If it's hysterical, it's definitely historical. And I think that my love and my appreciation of food comes from the environment I was in when I was growing up. a child of immigrants being raised in Montreal, which is despite nine months of yes to immigrants. Because unless you're First Nations or part of a native tribe, we are all descendants of immigrants, and I think we should all remind ourselves of that. But being raised, it is so easy for my ADHD to go off on segues with you, rowdy bunch.

2:40But I'm going to try to stay focused. I'll get you. I'm your wingman. Thank you. That's what you're here for, Matt. I'm here for that. But I was raised in an incredibly culturally diverse environment where even in elementary school, we had a tradition twice a year called the buffet of nations where you would go to school with a dish from wherever your parents were from. And you would just break bread and you would learn about each other and each other's customs through food. And so I was exposed to that at a very young age. My mother was an excellent, excellent home cook. Never went to, yeah, you've had her food?

3:15Yeah. Yeah. I got questions, but it's okay. That's for another time. But she was amazing. She didn't let me cook with her. Really? Yeah. She didn't let you touch the pans? But I get it. You get it. I like to cut an onion a very specific way. So even though I'm a people person, I'm more of like, just like, let me do it so that you can enjoy the final product. Right, right. But I am changing because I think we should always try to grow and change. And I'm, for the first time in my life, actually, even two nights ago, I've often, you know, I've been really stubborn about sort of not letting people into the kitchen and letting me do the thing the way that my mother did.

4:01And I get where that it comes from a place of love of really wanting to perform and to to offer that love because food is truly love. But for the first time ever with, with, with, with my partner now, we actually made a meal from start to finish that we like conceptualized and made it together. And it was like one of the most beautiful things. So I'm changing. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Yeah. So he was able to slice the onion. Yeah. No, I didn't let him, I didn't say I let him cut the onion. Let's not be crazy. Yeah. No, his hands are too big. He's not capable of the, yeah. He doesn't have dainty fingers like me.

4:34Okay. Calm down. Like enough. Couples have strengths and weaknesses His family is here, okay? Like, a little bit of decor in Traverse City You're doing so well I'm kidding Be you, be you Wild times Just let your freak flag fly But, anyway, coming back Yeah, so my mother didn't let me cook But I did I watched her And that was something that was incredibly important I think every child should be able to see their parents prepare a meal for them Whether it's a sandwich or whether it's a stew I don't care how simple it is, but I think that's like the ultimate act of love. And I feel like I was just kind of learning and just taking it in like a sponge.

5:14And then when I was, you know, left to my own devices in college and I moved in with roommates who had an apartment and I like didn't know how to show up because I couldn't afford to pay rent for the first couple of months because my parents cut me off. That's for another day. It's fine. It's okay. Smooth C never, Smooth C makes for a skilled scaler. There's a whole thing. You guys, there's a sailing community here. You get it. And I turned out okay. And so I learned after I moved out of my parents' home where I was sort of like, I realized that I had all of these tools to kind of like figure out how to cook for myself.

5:50And I just started cooking for other people as a result. Let's talk, let's go to New York, moving from West Virginia to New York to pursue acting, but also you end up working in restaurants. You end up becoming part of the food community. and I think when we watch you on TV, we know that you have this back of house and front of house experience. You know what's up. And I want to get some New York stories because I don't think you've told a lot of them. I feel like we're going somewhere with this conversation. What's it like working at the restaurants in New York? I mean, probably has a kaleidoscope of emotions.

6:26It's like toxic and it's beautiful and it's sexual. It's like every book that Bourdain ever wrote Like it's exactly that You couldn't even capture it all But what are these experiences like Working in New York City restaurants? I think I've only worked Front of house And I was in the service industry for about Like 12 12-ish years before Queer Eye came about In Montreal and then in New York And in New York I worked at a place called Fatty Crab Really? You worked at Fatty? I worked at Fatty Crab Oh, I was at Fatty Crab, yeah. Zach, Baccio. This is storytelling hour. I was at that annual barbecue every year.

7:08Oh, you were? I stole his child's Stormtrooper helmet. Oh, God. He's such a great drummer. No, it was Optimus Prime, actually, and I still have it. I stole his child's mask. Zach's son is like a hell of a good drummer now. He's like an adult now. Really? Anyway, sorry. I can't believe you worked there. I worked at a great Malaysian street food type restaurant where I basically spent all my money on just eating the food there because their chili crab was outstanding, and they actually had this crispy pork belly wraps with pickled watermelon rinds, which we were just talking about the other day.

7:37Amazing. Yeah, pickle your watermelon rinds. Don't throw them out. Amazing. But yeah, I worked there for a few years and then I was working at Bond Street where I was a busboy and then a runner and a server and then became manager. And I worked there as a salmon manager until basically like a year before Queer Eye came about. What is the crowd like at Bond Street? Because Bond Street is like in page six. It's in Us Weekly. It's the type of place where it was sort of, it became an institution pretty quickly in I would say like the late 90s where it was just like a very like fashion-y type crowd, but it's one of those few places that have really stayed and they've kept the decor and everything in the menu just kind of like really intact.

8:19Working in the service industry in general, I think, should be mandatory for letting you a little like understand like interpersonal skills and how to how to deal with people how to respond and how more importantly sometimes not to respond um because there's a lot of entitlement in new york with people like engaged in the rat race um god the more i talk about new york i'm just like i just want to like i'm not going back you're gonna get that zillow that flight back working out we need that house quicker real estate agents my phone's not buzzing yet let's go. But I mean, it taught me so much about how to deal with people and patients in general.

8:59But for me, it was like being the front of the house was just, I respect chefs so much. And I'm someone who didn't go to culinary school. I am self-taught. I've always sort of prided myself on referring to myself as a home cook as opposed to a chef. One, out of respect for chefs who actually went to school and trained for it. But two, because I just kind of wanted to have the freedom to just kind of like do my own thing but i love performing and i've been performing since i was a little kid and so being able to like recite a whole menu and have like knowledge about where the different elements come from and all the different types of fish and being able to like say them in japanese is like i i got so much joy out of it like it was it was you were clearly absorbing it yeah when you're working at oh yeah 100 it's a serious restaurant you're absorbing it Let's talk about booking Queer Eye 2016, taking over.

9:48Let's take it over for Ted Allen, a legendary. Is he with Ted Allen fans in the audience? We love Ted Allen. I wouldn't be here without him. And talk about the audition. Talk about trying out for the show and really thinking about this reboot with five fresh faces on TV doing and putting your own stamp on Queer Eye in the culinary realm. um so i was at the time when when queer eye was being cast i was just to like paint the picture i was in like a 350 square foot brooklyn apartment with uh a kitchen where i had one drawer and only two of the burners worked on the oven but at the same time it was like the best time because that's when i was the most creative i've ever been with food because when you have limitations is when you're forced to be creative.

10:36And I was a struggling actor. And I graduated from this really great institution called the Neighborhood Playhouse, thinking I was going to land all these roles. And then seven years went by. And I had friends throughout that time who were basically always telling me, like, I had a couple, I had like two mentors and a close friend of mine who kept on saying like the way that you talk about food is like you you have like it's it's literally all you think about whatever topic we're talking about it always somehow pivots to food we can be having breakfast and then you're already trying to think about what you want to have for lunch and then it's like and i don't know if it's like the generational trauma of like all my grandparents being like holocaust survivors and like not having for like whatever it is but like it's there and that's just like in me and my whole family is like that and that having that deep obsession and figuring out how to make something better and simpler and like getting rid of the mess and um it's just been a deep obsession but i was fighting it because i just all i wanted to do was to be an actor and um finally a friend of mine reached out and they were like look so the show queer eye um is being rebooted by netflix it's their first unscripted series um it's definitely going to be a lot more documentary and like storytelling more storytelling than than when it was on bravo which was more ad driven um and so it's like a whole different format and they want you to share more about your personal lives.

12:00So immediately, like my little butthole clenched because I was like, reality TV wanted nothing to do with it. You're like a dramaturg. I was way too highbrow for that. And lo and behold, look where I am. We're in a theater. Yeah, exactly. Well, there you go. Here you are. On a stage. Your dream come true. In an opera house in this wonderful city. We can call it. it's like a three-quarter circle it's not quite full but it's there right um and um and and they met so there was that part and also cooking in a professional capacity was actually something that i never really considered because it was something that was very personal and it was intimate um and i was met with this fear and i decided like okay i'm really terrified but i also really get off on fear in a weird way um and so i was like i have to like lean in and see what this is all about.

12:54So I auditioned for it. I happened to be an assistant for Ted Allen, who was the food and wine expert on the original literary. So you were aware of the original series. I was aware of it. I was like that. You know, there's like, I think, is it Octavia Spencer? There's like a meme of like her hiding behind like a tree when something is cringy. I would be watching it when my sisters were watching Carson and Ted and all of them do their thing where it was like I didn't really know who the hell I was and I but it was I was really entertained and it was in New York so it was exciting and so I was very familiar with it and I called Ted and I was like hey like they're rebooting Queer Eye he's like I literally just got out of a meeting with the with the show creator and he's like wait I was like he's like you he's like oh you want to go for this oh and I was like do I though and I was like Ted I'm not a chef and he was like and he was like i was a journalist yeah i didn't go to culinary school he was like he was like i think this is perfect he was like i think with a lot of um uh generally speaking with a lot of like chef de cuisine like they don't necessarily have the patience or the bandwidth to teach someone how to how to slice a lime properly yeah and with you it's like it's you're passionate about it and you can sort of be this like mediator this bridge in between and he He was like, and you're really passionate about it.

14:15I've been cooking for him for years at this point. And I was confident enough in that respect. He was like, I think you should go for it. And so with his blessing, I kind of went, not thinking that I wanted to do it. And I did my casting tape, which I just got to watch. Really? Yeah. They made, okay. During the wrap of the recent season. So a little secret for all of us here. Doesn't leave the room. No, so we just wrapped our, this is like known, but we wrapped our 10th and final season in DC. like weeks ago yeah we uh three weeks ago two or three weeks ago um and um and by the end they were uh we were doing some like some social media stuff for for netflix and they had a thing where they had us watch um oh they had us watch uh like each other's casting tapes we were such little cherubs um and watching my audition tape i was like i'm gonna set myself up for success and literally do the audition from Ted's beautiful Brooklyn Brownstone kitchen as I did.

15:13Um, and I, the audition went well and then I got sent to LA and it was a pool of a few hundred of us. And then they started narrowing it down and that's where my pathological drive for competition kicked in. And I was like, Oh, it was a full chemistry test. That's why the show is so great because we know that the five of you guys are all on the same page we'd never met and i remember the moment where they put me in a room with uh with the original four um and it was the first time that i'd ever seen them and i'd been to hundreds of auditions and the way if you're like it i don't why it's like acting is terrible you need to really love it it's like a first responder or like a teacher you gotta really love what you do and I'm not putting myself on that level, by the way, because first responders and teachers and me here.

16:07But, you know, you go to auditions and you do the thing and you leave and then it's radio silence and you just move on. And they always talk about things like chemistry. We want that chemistry. And I remember sitting there and they were showing like a photo of a guy with like Crocs wearing cargo shorts, which ironically are back right now. Yeah. You've been on TV for a minute. Yeah, that's true. That's true. But I remember all of us were just riffing off each other and like finishing each other's sentences. and I was like, oh, I'm like, this is what it feels like when it's good, when it's supposed to like make sense.

16:38Interesting. And I think in that moment, it was just that realization of like, I've been fighting to pursue this thing that I thought I was destined to do when I've just been getting out of my own way of just like believing and trusting that everything I have done in my life to this point has like led to this. Studying psychology and understanding bedside manner and being passionate about food, like all of that stuff led up to this. Um, so then I fought like hell and we, you know, started, one of us started a group chat on day one, which was highly delusional. No way. Um, but it worked out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:11Um, and then we stuck together and then I, I found out maybe two to three weeks later that I was going off to Atlanta to film the first two seasons of Queer Eye. That's incredible. 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. Aura Frames is the solution with a gift that feels personal, a little curated, and sent with love. And a gift that can be purchased in no time with a few clicks of the mouse. Aura Frames are great. They sent me one to check out and it was really cool and dumb simple to set up.

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18:35That's A-U-R-A frames dot com, promo code TASTE. The deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. From February 20th to March 7th, dive into Canada's biggest culinary festival, Montreal en Lumière, an exclusive partnership with the McCord Stewart Museum and its exhibition, On the Menu Montreal, a restaurant story. The 2026 festival invites food lovers on a flavorful journey through time. Montreal's top restaurateurs will reimagine 65 years of the city's iconic astronomy, crafting inventive, nostalgia-inspired dishes with a modern twist.

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20:16And so she had a lot to prove. She was queer herself. And she was very passionate about the show and cared for it deeply. So she had a lot on the line and wanted to make sure that it was a big deal. And no one told us about the advertising budgets, that the day that it was launched, we were going to be on two Jumbotrons in Times Square. We were driving to our first TV interview ever, which I'd never done one before. And we're in the Sprinter minivan and we're going on 7th Avenue. and then I think Karamo screamed like holy shit we're not look at that look at the bus stop and then I look and it's us and I'm like how why are we there and then we look at the next street and then it's us again and then there was like a painted mural and I was like what the hell is happening and it was this like shock of like being thrust into yes it took years in the making of like getting us there and all kinds of hard work and whatever but it was this kind of like a flash in a pan where people got really excited and responded to it it was also a really tricky time not unlike today um in in what was going on in the climate politically where it was just like i think people were just looking for anything that provided a sense of comfort and joy and connection when when when everything just felt so polarized and that someone was actually trying to have a conversation about meeting in the middle or just at least being curious about it and having conversations like it just it was the the elements were just all right and back to the group chat full circle um like that was our safe space we could vent to each other about whatever it was where other people wouldn't necessarily understand where it's like oh whoa was you you're experiencing all the success but like stuff that gave us anxiety and the loss of anonymity and like dealing with all of that let's go to the loss of anonymity because i think you lose it all that moment it gets on netflix and it's not like every like they're they're they're on like all the episodes right and it was so they drop everything at once and it was the first series ever ever even for scripted that netflix dropped it in all 190 territories simultaneously so it wasn't even like we were like like i have like like you're like famous in one city but then you can like travel abroad and be like okay i can like chill here it was just it was everywhere and it's not like growing week after week as most shows grow like you debut a show like what that what is that like when you start getting recognized on the street overnight yeah i mean what what's that it's not well it's weird because i mean if i'm like i youngest child pathological need to be seen apparently that's a thing according to carol um carol she's right i've always wanted to be in movies i've always wanted this like concept of what it is but in actual practice it's sort of like oh i don't get to like switch this off and then like go out to a restaurant in clinton hill where i was living at the time and and just like shut it off like it follows you everywhere you're picking up your laundry right like it's it's just it's there all the time and being i i can be pretty in my head sometimes and just kind of like i'm a bit of a dreamer so i like forget even to this day and then you leave and you're like oh this is still like a thing a friend of mine uh compared it to a mentor of mine actually explained it he's like in the art world so it's a weird comparison but bear with me but he was like basically becoming famous is like losing your virginity it's like once it goes away it's just gone and it might be really amazing it might be painful it might be a mix of all those different feelings but you have to just accept that it's gone and just kind of embrace the next chapter in your life and eventually hopefully get excited about it way to put it.

23:58He's in the art world. He's in the art world. He's conceptual. I think it works for this audience. I think it works. Let's go behind the scenes a little bit for the production because I think what happens on the show and why we all love it so much is you do this magical trick. You show up and you start filming with your new friend and there's a familiarity between you and the subject. and it's right away we feel this connection and like you're doing this for tv it's like not all real we know that like we're but like how do you achieve that when you're going into one of the episodes that right away you have this chemistry with your your folks i mean i think with the five of us i think we were lucky where we just all kind of we did the fear that we were experiencing particularly i think we felt it after the season came out and we came back to film our second group because we did the first two seasons in Atlanta and then we were back in Kansas City.

24:55So we had already experienced what it's like to be like a public person and to have that loss of anonymity. And so we leaned into each other even more. And I think those were some of our strongest times together because we really relied on each other. And so with our scenes, for example, you know, some of us are more outwardly emotional than others. We all, you know, we're all bleeding hearts at the end of the day, but we would kind of like communicate a lot more like if karamo had like a really intense scene and he was just like handing kleenexes he would text me if he knew that i was coming up after and he was like okay just like chill on the emotional stuff because like i like ran this person ragged emotionally and like a bit of levity so we would figure out because you're dealing with an actual human being this isn't an actor this isn't someone who has wanted to be on tv they've never been in front of cameras before and you have to treat them that way yeah um and again it's like that's going back to everything that I learned of just like being a server, that you have people from all different walks of life who are going to meet you.

25:52And you just have to remember that no matter what someone is bringing your way, whether it's aggressive, whether it's painful, whether it's offensive, and it's really hard sometimes, but you have to remember that it's always a person. And so I just always have tried to remind myself, but even that was a journey because look, season one and two came out, we got all of this praise. And when you get all of this praise, then there's this come down of people kind of like coming at you. People came after me for doing like really there was a whole avocado thing for anybody who's watched the show which in my defense like everyone needs to calm down can we paraphrase it for those who don't know it yeah so no oh no i'm gonna get into it because clearly i'm not over it our first two seasons we filmed in atlanta it was 16 episodes okay and this isn't a linear show so they're all you don't they weren't presented to the public the way that they were filmed in two of 16 episodes i used avocado which is high in omega-3s it's good for you it's not a weird thing to use multiple times and it's delicious it's delicious and of course netflix um was had a lot of things to consider but they decided to have the two episodes that i did in the first two episodes of the season so that became my entire identity jokes on them I've gotten tons of brand deals with avocados in Mexico since then and it's like I'm fine so good but that became my whole identity and then there was this narrative of like oh he's basically like doing simple recipes for these people when it's like you have to remember our first ever episode that we filmed which was the first one to air was Tom Jackson R.I.P.

27:28passed away a couple years ago he um he was obsessed with Tex-Mex cuisine but he was basically only eating at a restaurant all the time. And I did this whole spread for him because I didn't understand how editing worked. God, we could be here for 10 hours. I'm going to try to make this quick. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. But I remember like I did this whole spread for him and my clip just ended up distilled into like two minutes. And of course, they only kept me making guacamole for him. It's fine. Yeah. Good guacamole. And I stand by putting Greek yogurt because it's added protein and it prevents it from browning.

27:58So get over it. Yeah. And so, but I remember when I was cutting open an avocado he asked me, I was like running through it because I've done it a million times, making it for like my sisters growing up. And then he looked at me and he's like, what's that? And I was like, what is he pointing to? And he was pointing to the pit. He'd never seen the inside of an avocado before because he would order it at restaurants. And then I was like, oh, and I was like, okay, slow it down and don't take for granted what someone may or may not know in the kitchen. And then I cut open a lime and he was asking me about like why there aren't seeds in a lime.

28:32And And so then I explained that. And that was like a teaching lesson. I got to learn from him as well. And so I tried to apply that. When we came back from Kansas City after getting hate for being simplistic, I remember the first episode we did with a camp counselor. A showrunner comes up to me and she's like, okay, so what are you doing for your dish this week? I was like, we're going to make cassoulet. Oh, you went there. Which is like a complex, like a country, like hearty French food. You needed to flex a little bit. And she's like, what the hell are you doing? She's like, this guy's literally eating peanut butter sandwiches.

29:00is he doesn't even toast his bread. But sure, he'll have a nice cassoulet. Maybe he's never had duck before, but he's not going to recreate this. And she reminded me, she was like, you need to cut out all of the buzz and the noise and just focus on the person. And then I remember Tom Jackson, and I kind of leaned into that. Not without the support of my castmates. I mean, I think that is why your show is so successful and beloved. Because you are a food professional on TV, but you're not acting the part. you're democratizing food. As it should be. As it should be, but it's hard not to. A lot of chefs were in this era of top chef.

29:40I'll be talking about that tomorrow. Come back here. Oh yeah, come see him tomorrow. We're in this era where to be successful on television and food, you have to be a master chef. It's literally the name of a show. And you're not doing that. And you took flack from the media critics, from the Twitter people in New York, but ultimately you became beloved because you were teaching people to cook at the most basic level openheartedly. And a lot of people on TV, they can't do that. Well, thank you. I don't know what to say, but thank you. I'll follow it up by asking, after all of these seasons, what did you learn about Americans cooking and some of the mistakes that they kept making over and over and over again that you were like, you know what, you should probably do that.

30:29You know, you should, like, there's got to be some themes. Yeah, that's a really good question. Some themes were appearing. I think, ooh, themes. Like when you're working with each of these, you know, these subjects. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the biggest, the recurring theme, and it's not like a specific mistake of like a step or not adding lemon when you should or seasoning every step of the way, which you should. but it's the it's it's the it's it's a human fear of the fear of fear of the unknown it's of not doing something because you're afraid of the result or that it's not going to be perfect like I've screwed up so many chickens until I figured out how to roast one perfectly like there's just there there's a fear that comes from that but I think with all of those people like the secret sauce sorry has always been like just ask them about their childhood like get them the people the most interesting people to me are the ones who treat food as utilitarian yeah where it's like i just want calories fuel food is fuel like the soylent people like literally soylent but it's those people that interest me because it's it's those where it's sort of like okay that's totally fine i hear you i'm gonna see you where you're at but like let's talk about childhood every single person in this room has a story of a dish that shaped them, of someone who loved them and who made that thing for them when they were growing up.

31:52We all have that. It doesn't matter where you come from or whether you grew up in whatever socioeconomic status. And that's like a human universal truth. And when you get to that core, when you find a reason, if you're not willing to do it for yourself, then finding someone who you can do that for, that recipe has never failed. Sorry. Oh, so many food puns. Wow. It's great. You're born for the food pun. Give us the most challenging episode to film. There's got to be one time when you were on location. Well, yeah. There's one. There's a few. No, there's a few. Oh, there's a few. There's one that if you tune in to our 10th and final season, I'm really excited to see how it gets edited.

32:38But we have a lovely hero. Well, we had a hero. No, they were lovely. they just had a lot of hangups that had nothing to do with just food but just like life in general of just holding on to the past and understandably having felt the need to survive and not having had the opportunity to just like really explore a relationship with themselves and really trying hard not to give any specifics. But it's always the challenging ones for me. It's like, if you don't want my affection, Like that's where, like that's where my mommy issues come in. And I'm like, I am going to, it's like when I go to Paris, it's like, you're going to be cold with me.

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33:22Cause they're like kind of bitchy. I'm like, I will, I will get your cell phone number, not in a weird way, but like we will become friends by the end of this. Like I will, I will like, we will figure this out and I will soften you up somehow. And it's like, that's always like my biggest. Did anything ever catch on fire though? Did anything ever catch on fire? I'm just trying to get a fire story out of you. Oh, did anything ever catch on fire? Yeah, did anything ever catch on fire? Wait, I did. No, I sliced my finger with a mandolin once. Oh, really? Which is horrible. The tip came off? A radish.

33:49Yeah, the thumbs right here. You got the scars. I've had three heroes cut themselves, but they were all super game. So they were totally fine and they didn't freak out. Like, they were totally okay with it. They had their bandage. Yeah. Oh, no, no. Yeah. You put a little, yeah, you put a little condom on it and you're fine. Yeah. Not an actual one, but yeah. Let's talk about No Taste Like Home. Your great show. Hey, people are watching this show. it is so good and i'm for real it is so good it's a documentary series you're taking big name celebrities to their hometown to learn about food i want to just know auntie how did you how did you come up with this idea and then execute it at such a i mean high level it's a really nice documentary filmmaking thank you um so for um uh anyone who has a life and isn't watching tv all the time and doesn't know um i mean that's basically like the soft bitch of the show i i always knew that i i mean kind of like going back to what i learned on queer eye about asking them questions about their childhood that sort of helped shape in helping me figure out what i wanted to do for my next step um where i realized i don't like i love a dump i call it a dump and stir like those classic shows that we all love, like watching Ina cook for Jeffrey and all the amazing Food Network shows of like cooking food.

35:11Like I love those, but I'm not that person. And that's not something that I could just do and feel fulfilled with. And I've kind of like, I learned to embrace the fact that for me, it's more about storytelling through food. And I've been obsessed with, you know, again, taking us back to like the buffet of nations and like learning about other people's cultures, a love of travel, a love of exploring diversity. I kind of wanted to figure out how to like do something in that realm. And so I had an idea for basically family history through food and pitched it to a whole bunch of different networks.

35:43Nat Geo was one of them. And because Disney is on board, their parent company, they were like, let's leverage our Marvel superheroes, which I was like, absolutely, let's go. And it turned into this thing of basically starting out with a dish that shaped them when they were young and going back to their country of origin and dissecting it and learning what was on going on culturally politically and socially at the time in unpacking it because it's never just about the dish right like as soon as you research it or ask chat gpt it's like there's a whole history there of like how the ingredients ended up there um like just one little tiny example um i'm trying to be mindful of time but I'm horrible at that.

36:20We did an episode in Senegal with Issa Rae, who's like... Such names on this. Francis Pugh. Yeah, that's like my... Let me pick up the name I just dropped off. I mean, you've got Aquafina. But you've got the... It's not like... You've got James Marsden. In Bavaria. That was amazing. I mean, you've got great names. Wait, you're distracting me, man. I have to focus on this one thing. Sorry, sorry, sorry. So we went with Issa and we went back to Senegal And she had been there many times visiting like her aunties. And, um, but she never really, like so many of us, when we go visit our families, it's like, you don't get to go to all of like the exteriors.

36:57Cause you're just going from one relatives to another, like just basically like a stuffed pig by the end of it. You're just like eating food and making all your relatives happy. And so we were like out there in the streets and we were like eating this food. And there was this wonderful street food that we tried, um, that was basically a baguette that was filled, it's called dambe, that's filled with this like a vegan, it's kind of like a black-eyed pea stew with some spices. And what we learned about, it's basically the equivalent of like going to LA and finding a taco stand at every single corner or farm eggs for you guys on literally in front of everyone's house from their beautiful chickens who are leading very happy lives.

37:41and it's this common thing that you just see everywhere but that you never really question um i'm thinking about chickens now back to the dombe you're thinking about breakfast tomorrow yeah to that and um and then we basically learned that you know like dombe this like this this beloved baguette is basically the symbol because the french colonizers came in and they came with all of their customs that they just pushed on to all of all of the local people and when they left for the most part because they're still indirectly there and still control so much of it but that's watch the episode the Senegalese decided like we like a baguette but it's a little too crusty on the outside so we want to soften it up a little and we also want to bring back a dish that is inherent to our culture that has basically disappeared for the past 300 years of oppression and turn it into this beloved street food and so it was just it's literally a million discoveries like that throughout the show and what I learned doing the show and what isa actually brought to my attention is like we have like i me and my friends being polish oh i know a lot of polish people here probably yeah yeah we don't have to clap but we can yeah yeah um you know we we i joke with my friends about generational trauma and like having uh you know grandparents who are like holocaust survivors and we don't waste any bread no my dad has bags of breadcrumbs even if it goes stale um but we don't talk about generational gifts.

39:04And it's like, why are we the way that we are? And she had this, she worded it a lot better than I ever could, where she was like, I feel like knowing, getting to know my ancestors, where I'm actually from, what they accomplished. She found out that she had three lines of women in a very like patriarchal society who was like, her great grandmother was the first one to import peanuts from Mali, which changed the entire industry of like the markets that were going on in Saint Louis on a coastal town. She's like, I am who I am. And Issa is someone who has her own massive production company right now.

39:38Insecure is a fantastic show. She invests only in female-owned BIPOC businesses. Like she really like, she's that girl in the best way. And it's like, she's like, the reason I want to always uplift women is because I didn't even realize how many strong women I had to thank for, for me being the way that I am. Like we all have our ancestors and the sacrifices that they made to thank for that. Love that answer. It's a terrific show. And that's a recurring theme through every single episode of the show. It's a great show. Hi there. It's Matt, co-host of the show. We are currently running a This Is Taste listener survey, and we'd love to hear from you.

40:17Do you have a guest request? A restaurant you wish we'd visit to talk about on Three Things? What about a lesser-known cookbook author who deserves a spot in our studio chair? You can let us know by clicking the link in our show notes to complete the survey. It will only take a couple minutes, I swear, and will help us continue to make the best show possible. That's the This Is Taste listener survey, link in our show notes. 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.

40:56Now, 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 in 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. There was 100 % grass-fed pasteurized ribeye, tri-tip, and ground sirloin for my favorite at-home smash burger recipe. George Motes, you better watch your back. For pork, they sent me a beautiful center-cut pork loin for slow roasting.

41:33I was super impressed, and I haven't even talked about the ribs, which I cooked in my Instant Pot. There was a rub of salt, white pepper, and togarashi, and I pressure-cooked with water and apple cider vinegar. It was incredible. These ButcherBox ribs are amazing. For nearly a decade, ButcherBox has led the industry with meat and seafood that's antibiotic-free. As 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.

42:13That's butcherbox.com slash taste. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. So be thinking questions. We're going to be taking them in like a few minutes. So get your questions ready. so tell me next season is there a new season also where are you going to eat in Traverse City for the rest of your trip here what's on the agenda go to a couple places or just plans we don't say the places but plans well Sam left us 12 scones when we got here yesterday and we have 3 left so I'm going to be having the pecan maple probably tonight and tomorrow morning so there's that I have a couple places that I want to check out and recommendations that I've had which I'll make sure to post on social you'll post after you're there I've gotten a lot of lovely content of local businesses and stuff that I definitely want to share with everybody it's tricky because this place is so special I feel like I discovered a thing that's a big secret meanwhile you all have been living here forever but you can gatekeep you can gatekeep but it's like I want everyone to know how amazing it is but then at the same time it's like I don't want too many McDonald's here So it's like, what do we, it's hard.

43:27You want people to visit, but not all at once. There's a balance here. Because this place is special. It really is. I landed and it was like, I was immediately, Zach was telling me this. He was like, we're very small business driven and we take a lot of pride in that. And it's like, you can be told something until you experience it. It's sort of like, oh. I was signing books with the lovely women at the Horizons at the bookstore and just getting to know them. And it's like every little shop that I've gone to has just been like, it's just been so special. I don't even remember what your question was.

43:58No taste like home. It was what you're up to. We're finding out. Disney's figuring it out. There's an algorithm. Shows are really expensive to make. It's kind of like we're figuring it out. But I'm keeping busy. And there's some, I will say, I'm really excited about a couple of things that are coming up. What can you share? In a professional capacity. Friends only off the record. What can you share? There's a couple of things where I'm kind of like continuing down my mission to just tell very diverse stories and the constant reminder that unless you are, you know, First Nations or a part of a native tribe, like we are all the descendants of immigrants and we need to really reiterate that, especially with everything that's going on right now.

44:41Absolutely. and and and just focusing on telling personal stories because it's like i think we're all afraid of we're all generalized but i think a lot of people out there are afraid of what they don't understand and what i learned on queer eye it's like look well the five of us are not very secretly very liberal and we went in there and we met people who were really conservative and those are actually the people who taught me the most about myself and taught me to kind of like open up my heart and they were concepts to me but when you get to meet them as individuals and you understand why they are the way they are and the values that they have and how they were raised what they have and more importantly what they didn't have and things that i've been privileged to have and not to assume that others have it's just like it just it opens you up and it just it makes you just a tiny bit little less afraid and it just it makes you realize that like the you know this thing that's a concept like the statue bleeds if that makes sense yeah yeah that was a weird one but thank you for sharing let's let's go to some audience questions here can we get the house lights on we have a roving microphone here i think we have about so bright 10 to 15 minutes to do some questions because i think we've got one over there on the left hand side but let's go on the right hand side i right there is great there we go i'm wondering where you stand on salting scrambled eggs before or after cooking?

46:12That is a beautiful... What's your name? My name is Alex. Alex, that's a beautiful and thoughtful and important question. Thank you. I had to get up for that one. So, you know, the pandemic was terrible, but um bear i have adhd i'm neurodivergent it just is what it is what it did teach me was how to perfect soft scrambled eggs and i spent about six months doing this and i tried every single method and what i did learn was i i'm i love i'm sick for salt i just i could lick a salt stone and my partner is not but he's taught me to like it's more about like letting the ingredients shine but it's like whatever well also true two things can two things can exist um with eggs specifically i'm very much of like a season as you go but with salt and pepper with eggs i wait till they're done and with eggs specifically room temp which all of you know because you have your farm eggs here you don't put them in a fridge duh and then i whisk them up and then for every two eggs, I add one teaspoon of water.

47:28I've tried creme fraiche. Yes, we love our dairy farmers. I'm big into it. You can top it on after on a French omelet with some trout roe. It's fantastic. But I've tried milk. I've tried heavy cream, cheese, all of it. No, it is water. And that's steam on low heat. And remember, if you have a gas range that you can lift. I know this sounds obvious to chefs and cooks, but you can lift and control the heat. Keep it low and slow. This isn't a rush job, take your time, it's worth it, and treat it like a risotto. A soft, like a nice silicone spatula or a flat wooden spoon, which we need to normalize.

48:06Like, they just need to be more of them. Flat wooden normalization. You get more surface. You have to do that. And treat it like a risotto and just gently create that small little curd. Now I'm thinking of cheese curds, back to the eggs. And then about a minute and a half before you think they're done, that's when you cut the heat and they will keep on cooking and then you salt it because if you salt it too early it just it affects you over salt it if you salt it too early because and then if you and if you over salt it too exactly you're not trying eggs as you're making it uh next question let's let's get we're gonna try to get to a bunch of these all right okay oh here we go in front row here we go hi hi tell me about your favorite places in new orleans oh okay i'll tell you one place because i want to get to everyone and there's a really adorable child there who had their hand up who i want to get to after yeah you you know it's you yeah we'll get to you i promise um there's uh uh i'm not just saying this because a friend of mine opened it but there was an old boys school in like the 1800s that like closed down and then it was like falling apart forever and her name is liz lambert and she bought it and she opened it up and it's called the saint vincent hotel and they found like there was a like there was a homeless person who was living in the attic um who had all of these like gargoyle sculptures that she incorporated into the design and their food and beverage program is exceptional the best caesar salad with like this chili crisp and just like the whole anchovies and they do like a wonderful like a crawfish sauce with their steak but yeah.

49:41Love that rec. Now I really want like a nice gumbo. Okay sorry wait there was a cute you the kid yeah you you yeah. In No Taste Like Home you at the beginning of the episodes you visit people with family recipes what is your family recipe? Okay. Kids got a future. Kids should be sitting right here. Yeah. Thank you for that very thoughtful question. I think it would depend on the... I think the one... Yeah. I mean, Montreal is mostly winters. You guys know what cold is like. And we have this thing called bigos, which is a hunter's stew, which is equal parts cabbage and sauerkraut, which is cooked down with prunes.

50:24And then you can use beer, wine. I prefer wine. My dad kind of... We disagree. a lot of bay leaves and then you do off cuts of different meat so it's like leftover little bits of kielbasa of wild boar no chicken chicken is great it does not belong in there pork just my opinion sometimes beef and it just cooks down and then you leave it in your garage which is really cold because it's probably not heated and then the next day you reheat it and you get those little burnt ends and the caramelization that happens from the prunes and the wine that's reduced down and you take um uh you take pumpernickel bread and you take room temperature salted butter and you smear it on like it's cream cheese and then you put a little dollop of this stuff and then you take a bite and your eyes roll to the back of your head and suddenly you're like i understand what it's like to be polish oh my gosh great and pierogies are a close second Although we never made them at home Great explanation why soups and stews taste better the next day Always Next question Hi, okay, so speaking of being Polish Do you know that there's a polka fest going on There is a polka fest going on, I know And are you going to go?

51:41I I don't Try mouth I'm hoping I have every intention to pop by But look, you have to understand Literally meeting my Future in-laws. Like, you know? Proposal? Like, there's a lot going on. I'm also going to the Grand Tasting tomorrow, Food and Wine. I have to take my dog out. I got, like, I got a lot on my plate. Do I want to support my people? Absolutely. Do I want to see both traditional and also innovative ways of stuffing pierogies that would probably make my ancestors roll in their graves? Yes. But I can't do it all, but I'll try. If the Zillow hits, you're going to just be here for Poker Fest.

52:27Yeah, I'll be the chairman of the Poker Fest. There you go. Grand Marshal. Self-appointed Grand Marshal. Question, raise your hand. All right. There's probably a lot of readers in the room because we're at a writer series. So we probably have a lot of TBRs, but I want to know, Antony, do you have a TBP, a to-be-prepared, like a dish you've not made yet, but you want to make? That's good. A dish that I haven't made yet. So my parents traveled a lot when I was a kid, and I had someone who raised me who was amazing, and she was Polish, Pani Teresa, rest in peace. She had a lot of really wonderful gifts.

53:08Cooking was not one of them. It was wet, soggy breadcrumbs literally on everything, which right about now kind of tastes good. So I would sneak over to Arjun Chotwal's house, who lived two houses down, and they had um they had a indian restaurants and one of the chefs would literally be at their house making fresh roti and dal every day which for it's just like the best indian food ever so i was raised on indian food basically but my parents didn't know because then i would show up at home and eat polish food again um indian cuisine to me just like the complexity and the layers and all of the spices um is something that's highly intimidating to me that is very much like like a mother's hug.

53:50And so it's something that kind of like terrifies me that I might try to do. Or you know what? Tan will just come in from Salt Lake and teach me how to make his doll. His recipe is excellent, by the way. He uses like 36 cloves of garlic. I mean, you reek, but so it's worth it. You can use 36 cloves. Oh, okay. I can't pick because I don't want to make anyone unhappy. We've got probably time for three more. What do you think, Doug? Wait, we need someone. Upper deck. Yeah, we need upper deck. Right here, sorry. Upper deck right there. Hi. I wanted to know if you were to take your partner's family to New York, where would you want to take them to eat?

54:34That's a good question. That's a good question. Good question. You know what? I set myself up for that one, didn't I? I'm always like, don't be too personal. Keep some stuff for yourself. And then I come out and I'm like, I am what I am. So the Polish side, I feel like we have covered. Like maybe, okay, let's start the day. So we wake up, as one does. We go over to maybe like Washington Square Park for a little walk and go to Stumptown and get some nice coffees. And then, yeah. And then after that, we would take the subway, take the L train to Greenpoint and I would go to Kishka which is my favorite meat shop because it's just like bitchy old Polish women who like have no time to waste next in line let's go like that is how I was raised I love it and we would get Cabanos but we would get the two day old one that's already dry with Dobraty Szczova which means happy mother-in-law fitting mustard because it's spicy and you dip the Cabanos into it so we would have that we would go back to the city and it would be like early lunch i guess we're starting our day with cabanos it is what it is and then i would go over um to my favorite italian restaurant uh these two women in the in the west village have uh uh they have a lot of restaurants actually no i would go to their first restaurant bouvet and we would have the soft scramble on the sourdough with a bit of french ham on the side and their shaved carrot salad which has so much cumin and cilantro delicious.

56:14We'd have a little coffee and then we would go across the street to their other restaurant Via Corotta where we would have top two New York Times recipes ever recreated are Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce, neither here nor there but amazing, worth it. And the other one is the Insalada Verde that Samit Nasrat reposted as well with the greatest vinaigrette of all time. Do you have the bat phone to get reservation? Via Corotta is like very hard to book. FYI you had the bat phone. Anyway You got the plug So we would get the insulata verde. And it's very produce-driven, which I feel like as Michiganders, they would really respect and appreciate.

56:52Wait, did I also mention, so Zach is like half Italian. So this is like to honor his Italian side. Yeah. Sharing a lot of information about them that they did not sign up for showing up here today, but that's fine. Their last name is? No. And then I would order the Svizzarina, which is three different cuts of beef. it's basically a hamburger patty but it's well done on the outside and it's perfectly raw in the center but warm with a single clove of slow roasted garlic and a sprig of rosemary that you brush on it you squeeze that little piece of garlic like a pimple and just smear it right on top and it is poetry and then we would go home for a nap and then after that I would maybe take them just because Zach and I our favorite is I got him really super addicted to at ABC Casino, which is a Jean Georges restaurant.

57:44He has this lemon chicken rice with crispy chicken cracklings because he loves to eat like all the weird bits off of like all that kind of stuff. Preach. And so I would take them for that. So they would have that. So they would really enjoy it. And then for dessert, I think we would go home and I would just like hand whip some like beautiful cream with like beautiful, no, not blueberries because you have better ones here. You can't serve that to Michigan. That's bullshit. You can't do macerated cherries either. Damn. You know, I'd go to Magnolia and get them some banana pudding and call it a day.

58:17Oh, that was good. Like, questions. What are you going to do? Where's our microphone at? All right, we're doing one up there. Okay. Right over here. Is it me? And then we're going to do down here. Perfect. Hi, Anthony. Nice to meet you. Hi. My name is Tai, and I am originally from the Bahamas. So immigrants make this country great.

58:44And you're so right about all of us having a history with food. When I was growing up, every Friday, the fishermen would come to our house and offer us fresh snapper. And I remember my grandmother would make soup every Friday. She would bake bread, and we'd also have fried fish. And because of that, I started my own baking business a few years ago, and I sold bread during the pandemic. Anyway, I just wanted to give you that history just so you know. Yeah, no, I love it. Thank you. Wait, what's the name of your business? It's no longer a thing, but it was called Broken Bread House. Okay. Yes. Well, rest in peace, Broken Bread House.

59:20Thank you very much. Great name also. Thank you very much. Six months later, Ant launches Broken Bread House in New York. I've never baked in my life. Yeah. Way too precise. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Go on with your question. My question is, there are a few episodes that stick out to me that mean a lot to me. One of the episodes, two of the episodes were the wheelchair episodes. One was the episode with the guy who is deaf. I'm a person with a disability, so they mean a lot to me. And two other episodes, one was with the mother whose husband left her and with her kids. Nicole. Nicole. And the other one was the mother with the queer son.

59:59And all of those episodes are very, very heavy. and I want to know Mama Tammy Mama Tammy oh I literally tried to leave the scene because I was crying so hard so my question to you is what is your self-care routine after experiencing all of these heavy moments the most important question though after you answer this question sugar or salt in your grits wow I love that you're asking a white guy about grits

1:00:30One time I made gumbo in New Orleans And I only put in corn because the restaurant owner wanted to And I got roasted for six months I'm not answering the grits question Yeah, learned it In terms of self-care Probably salt

1:00:52Couldn't help myself But I think in terms of self-care I'm definitely what my therapist rule of three, I guess, would call a highly sensitive person, which is a great book that you should have on Amazon. You only have to read like the first 35 pages and you're good. Like you'll get it. Like if you cry at a painting or if someone's crying at a cocktail party and you take it on, like that's me. And so I had to figure out how to, because you meet these people and to your point, you're having these like really intimate conversations and like you're spending a lot of time with them and you get really close and then suddenly it's like poof, goodbye and the cameras are done and it's like, which I can't even imagine what it's like for them.

1:01:28But for me, it's actually very, I'm a very ritualistic person. And so, you know, when we were filming in DC now, we had a lot of really emotional episodes and Tan and Jeremiah and I happened to be living in the same building. And so we always have like a debrief and we do Rose, Thorn and Bud, like favorite part of the day, least favorite part, what we're looking forward to tomorrow. And whether we were cooking, we never cooked because we didn't really have real kitchens. So Jeremiah would order dinner and he would order a lot of Nobu because he's a little bougie. No detail that no one asked for.

1:02:00But I think having, I used to be alone a lot and that was kind of the worst thing for me. But when I am alone, I try to just, I had this obsession with trying to create the perfect time of just like spending time with myself. And it's usually a bath with Epsom salts, lavender, a really good candle, some Maggie Rogers or like later Taylor Swift. Maybe a bit of Lana, depending on the vibe. And then I take a little, like a supplement that makes me feel like a little cozy at night. That I feel on my... All right. Yeah. That makes me think of like a nice lettuce-y green. It's usually the vibe. And then some whole flower chamomile tea.

1:02:49Oh my gosh, this amazing tea store that you guys have here. Yeah. Yeah. You know what it is. Yeah, right. Clearly. They're amazing. We went today. It's awesome. And so like tea is very important for me at night as well. And not to have too much caffeine. But yeah. Great. Question over there right in the far corner. Yeah, you. Hi. Hi. You mentioned early in your career that you're interested in acting. And I'm wondering if you're considering pursuing something down those lines at this point in your career. Yeah. um yes i mean i think it's definitely the way that i see it i'm not i've always had many passions um and that's definitely one that like i've i've dabbled here and there on like little projects and like doing little cameos here and there and there are like conversations the answer is yes i definitely want to and for me it's it's not about pivoting into another thing but it's just doing more different things to just kind of keep myself and my ADHD brain just kind of like inspired and busy but it's definitely something that I really have enjoyed doing and that I definitely want to do more of yeah but I'm never letting go of food that's for damn sure yeah I like that let's do two more right let's do a few more so my question to you is what is your favorite corgi breed

1:04:13I saw two beautiful young Pembrokes today on the beach that sounded a little like to catch a predatory but they're just walking around with their little floofy butts on the beach they literally were though they were so cute there's something elusive and a little rare about a cardigan because they just have those long tails I think it would be I mean yeah I don't know I love all of them truly I love all dogs but also adopt don't shop yeah but also there are responsible breeders out there which we have to give a shout out to who like really take pride in what they do and that's important as well of all the things you taught everyone over time what would you say is the most important lesson that you shared with people as something that they actually continue to carry with them in their life beyond just the brief segment that we get to see with you with these people for real yeah um that's a damn good question i think um it would be there's like in like the first three pages i think of the great gatsby there's something about um like not ever judging someone unless you've had the opportunity or the misfortune to walk a mile in their shoes.

1:05:39And I think with literally anything, anything that whenever you experience any type of discomfort of someone who you don't understand, whose ideology you don't agree with, who makes you feel a certain way about something, before you shoot the arrow, just look in the mirror. And it's not that it's your fault or that you're doing anything wrong, but just recognize what's being affected in you. And you might learn that what's being affected in you is a beautiful thing that you really want to protect and nurture. Or you might learn that maybe this is an opportunity for you to change the way, okay, I'm going to bring up Carol four times, fuck.

1:06:22So in any type of situation where we're uncomfortable, she always tells me you can do nothing. You can leave. You can try to change the situation. You can try to change the way you look at the situation, so perspective, or it's like a combination of those things. And so I would say it would be that. Whenever anything just makes you kind of like clench up and tense up, just like take a beat and just like listen to your body. And what I've been taught in the past almost a year of my life is like just like take a breath. Good answer. Thank you. Right here in the front. First, thank you for being here tonight Wait, where are you?

1:07:07Oh, hi, you're so close Hi, I'm like I'm easy to ignore I kind of fade into the woodwork Hey, no, we don't know What's your name? Terry Terry T like Travers Big round of applause for Terry

1:07:31What was your most embarrassing cooking moment? Your most triumphant? And most exciting thing you've ever done? Or have you done it yet? Okay. Most embarrassing cooking moment. What was the second thing? Your most triumphant. Most triumphant. And the most exciting thing you've ever done? Or have you done it yet? And the most exciting thing I've ever done. Okay. Or have you done it yet? the biggest cooking like mistake that i've ever made i think would be i'm gonna get back to you on that one because i want to find a good one for you the most triumphant was actually cleaning out um i was cleaning out my like den closet this is like a weird one but just like bear with me it's kind of wacky but i was cleaning out my my den closet of a lot of things because I can be a little bit of a hoarder, but I also love to get rid of stuff.

1:08:23And I found a Belvedere bottle of vodka that they sent to me after the show came out and it lights up from the bottom and it has my name on it. And I don't even drink, by the way. And my dad was over. I'm Polish, mind you. In Belvedere, you have the presidential palace that is on that bottle. He was over, and this was right after Queer Eye won their first Emmy. And he came to visit me in New York with his girlfriend. And we were going to this like wonderful City Harvest gala that I was hosting. Like, I'm not saying any of this to like be braggy, but like I had a lot of exciting shit going on. I was hosting it with Chrissy Teigen.

1:09:07I was like, what the hell? Like my child itself would have been like, what is happening? and my dad went into the freezer to get ice for his gin and tonic because he makes the best gin and tonics in the world i'm like it's literally just gin and tonic calm down and he finds this bottle and he sees that my name is engraved in it and as a polish man vodka is like a big part of our identity he literally 20 minutes later he's not coming back to the table i'm like what what's going on? I go into the kitchen and he had a tear coming down his eyes and he's staring at this bottle of vodka. Dead ass sober too.

1:09:46Something about that moment as he's like texting his brothers a photo of him next to the bottle. It was like one of those obnoxious big ones. There was something about that moment that just kind of like clicked for him. that his son did a thing.

1:10:05And I've had a lot of those moments where I'm just kind of like, I can't believe that this is happening. But it was like, I often would tell myself I'm really my own person and I'm gonna do things so differently than my family. But I think at the end of the day, we all wanna make our parents proud. And just in that moment, seeing that bottle of vodka, I yelled at him because I was like, why are you been out of here for like 20 minutes? And why are you taking 50 photos of this goddamn bottle? Like, just take the bottle. Like, you don't need to document it. But there was something about there that just kind of like, that it just kind of like clicked where I was like, oh, wow, which was really beautiful and really weird.

1:10:44A big, a triumphant moment. I think it keeps happening. That's why I'm like so lucky. And it's like embarrassing to say, because it's like, it's weird to talk about successes sometimes. but it's like whenever um when i get stopped by someone especially at airports because families tend to travel together and where you have multiple generations of people who are like we watch your show together and there's something about a thing that brings people together as opposed to pushing up pushing us up against each other and having like mindless debates where we're not going to convince people but that's just unifying for me that just kind of always warms my heart and the fact that I was able to be part of this thing for 10 seasons that just told stories and made people a little more comfortable considering the other side of the fence and a little more curious to get to know their neighbors and that just like where our mo was truly just like kindness um I think is like that's like that's like I'm like that's the thing that I get to like experience every day and I'm like really really lucky um and in the kitchen like I've never really screwed anything up.

1:11:55I'm kind of perfect. I don't know. I don't know. It's my cross to bear. I don't know. One time I over-salted a little, I guess. No, I've over-salted a lot. I've definitely over-salted a lot. That's my number one. We're going to end it here. Thank you so much for joining. Thank you. As a Michigander born in Kalamazoo, I feel so proud that we impressed you and that you want to come back. Thank you for sharing. Oh, you're stuck with me now. Thank you so, so much for coming out. I really appreciate it.

1:12:33Lindsay Baruch, welcome to This Is Taste. It's great to meet you. Thank you. So happy to be here. Well, we're going to talk about something delicious, your brand new cookbook. And I want to hear about your style of cooking, for those who don't know it. And what led to you launching your own platform to represent this style? yeah I think my style of cooking is fun and I try to make it super approachable when I'm cooking and like what I'm sharing I try to make it approachable but I think from my experience um in restaurants and just like eating at a lot of restaurants in the area I feel like I've been able to pull tips and maybe types of flavor profiles to bring at home that like give me restaurant quality at home with approachable ingredients and flavors.

1:13:26So I feel like that is kind of my cooking style in a chill, but fun and inventive way, I would say. And yeah, I just like, I can tell you like a little bit about like how I started. But I started so I started posting restaurants on Instagram. And I've always loved cooking ever since I was young. I would always watch the Food Network. That was like my go-to all day, every day, the Food Network. And so when I was like going to high school and college, I started to go out with friends, eat out at restaurants, be exposed to new ingredients. I was actually like a pretty picky eater in middle school like I would not eat fish at all like fish sushi if it was if salmon was next to me like cooked salmon I would get I really did not like it I don't know why I was such a picky eater but I was and it's crazy now because I'll eat anything so there's just kind of like this shift from even though I liked cooking in middle school there was still this like big shift to try all these new things um so I started posting restaurants and it just kind and then I just kind of transitioned into like recipe development.

1:14:40When I was like, I think it was like after college, I just wanted to like transition to that, like love and passion that I had for cooking. And again, like being able to start in restaurants and going to these restaurants, taking photos, learning from the chefs. And also I was exposed to so many different ingredients than I was growing up because I was in like a small knit community. So I wasn't really exposed to different types of cultures. So I think that had brought me to sort of the way that my cooking style is today. And then yeah, I just started posting more recipes and, and all of that on my social, it was just Instagram at the time.

1:15:20And then it expanded to like my blog and other social media. And that and that's what brings us. And then it got you to the cookbook. I mean, as a kid, like when I would watch the Food Network, I was always like, wow, this would be really cool to have a cookbook. Right. Because I loved cooking. I also loved photography. Like that was a really big part of like my whole journey. Any kind of photography in middle school, I was always the person with the camera taking pictures of everything, posting the album on Facebook that like night. So you have a really cool background. You have Iraqi Jewish heritage.

1:15:53You have Indian heritage. And I want to just get into some of those dishes. you grew up eating? Yeah, of course. There's definitely like a bunch sprinkled throughout the book. And as I've grown older, I've come to really appreciate that type of like heritage that I had growing up and learning a lot from my aunts. My mom is a sister of five. My mom does not cook at all, but she's the baby of five. So I've learned a lot from my other aunts and we'll like, you know, they've taught me everything whenever we'll get together for holidays and things like that. But in terms of the like cooking style, it's definitely, it's interesting because it's not like super traditional Indian.

1:16:36It's like a certain type of Jewish Iraqi Indian cooking. That is like, there's like this small part in India that's like they're called Baghdadi Jews. And it's kind of like a fusion between Iraqi and Indian food, which I thought was really interesting. As I was like writing the book and writing some of these recipes, it was also around the time where my grandfather passed away. So as we were cleaning out their house, I found all these cookbooks, like really old cookbooks that don't even exist anymore with just like all this education about this type of really small community. So I was able to like learn a lot from that.

1:17:12But of course there's like in terms of specific food, Dahl is like a big one always at the like centerfold at the start of dinner they always do it in different ways like every aunt has like a different way of uh making their dolls i'm sure everybody does um and in the book there's a recipe with doll um and i gave my own spin on it too um my husband's persian so i really like ashveshtim probably saying that pretty bad and i'm so sorry um but it's kind of it's kind of like a bean stew and it's topped with like crispy onions and cash, which is like Persian way. So my interpretation taking inspiration from my aunts was like topping it with a yogurt and crispy onion.

1:17:59So it's kind of like mixing my husband and my upbringings together. Very cool. Very cool background. And you see it throughout the book. Thank you. You also see the MLT. I love it. the mortadella lettuce and cheese tell me about this great idea because i i'm a huge fan of mortadella oh oh my god i love mortadella this so this recipe actually started as like a bacon and mortadella sandwich so it was like so i was doing crispy bacon and then the mortadella wasn't even crisped or anything it was just kind of crispy bacon the more like the mortadella as it is. And then it kind of adapted into this situation because as I had it and my first test with the bacon and the mortadella, it felt it didn't feel BLT to me.

1:18:52It was kind of feeling more like a slice, like a meat sandwich. And I was like, I really want the tomatoes to come through. I really want this to feel like a BLT. So then my next test, I think I tried like just mortadella not and no bacon but i didn't crisp it yet and i was like but i want that crunch that i get from the bacon so then it turned into that like crispy mortadella and then that was like my perfect happy place because it like you get that char from the mortadella like you would with bacon you still get the like really good tomato that you would in a blt and then the lettuce and then i think there's like yeah there's like a shallot mayo which is like super pungent and it like balances it out so i think it turned it turned out the exact way that i wanted it and i also like it because you can make it kind of faster than bacon and it's not like as splattery as like as bacon would be super super smart uncle ira's good dressing it's that's the name of the recipe and i and i love a good dressing so tell me about it okay so it's it's simply like a super creepy balsamic dressing basically but also again with a lot of shallots um dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar shaken up and this is called uncle iris dressing because he makes this at every like family function and so when you'll come into the function there'll be like a bowl of salad right like as we're serving and then my cousin would say is there uncle iris dressing and then like Basically, no one eats the salad unless there's Uncle Ira's good dressing.

1:20:28And it's called, like they literally, like my whole family, it's like Uncle Ira's good dressing. I love that combination and that you pay tribute in the book. Yeah. Well, Lindsay, it's been great catching up with you. Thank you so much for joining This Is Taste. Thank you so much for having me.

1:20:48This 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.

From the publisher

Antoni Porowski is best known as the food and wine expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, which will be airing its final season later this year. He’s a best-selling author and the host of a terrific food travel show, No Taste Like Home. Matt joined him onstage at the Traverse City Food & Wine festival for an amazing conversation. The event was hosted by the National Writers Series, a terrific organization bringing authors to stages around Traverse City, Michigan.

Also on the show we have a really great conversation with Lindsey Baruch, author of the new book Something Delicious.

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