839: Olivia Tiedemann on the Perks of Private Cheffing and Making Crab Cakes for Martha Stewart

19:20Matt Rodbard:Yeah, probably. So I want to know, have you had any good meals while you've been in New York? Yeah. Just last night, I went to dinner at a place called One White Street, which I'd never been to before. And it was really good. And the night before, one of my favorite places here is Forsythia, the pasta restaurant. I like going there. It was very good. When you go to a new restaurant, is there anything that you look for or like order on the menu to kind of get a sense of the food? I wouldn't say there's one particular thing I always get. I'm big on like seafood and pasta, though. I feel like you could judge a place pretty well on pasta, especially because that's kind of something that has to be made to order.

20:02It has the taste right to order every time. Pasta is a great way to judge a restaurant's skills, I think.

20:08Matt Rodbard:Yeah, I feel similarly about that. And reading the book, I had a feeling maybe you weren't going to say vegetables as one of the things. Definitely not. They did send me out a cabbage last night and I was like, I think you have the wrong person. Yeah, send out a steak instead. Yeah. So I want to talk to you about being a private chef in the Hamptons, which is how a lot of people kind of came to know you online. And I know you came back to the Hamptons this summer. And I'm curious what it was like going back to the Hamptons to cook again after kind of getting recognition for doing that the first time around.

20:41This is actually I think this is the third or fourth summer, third summer since I started making videos. So every summer I still go back to my original clients because I just love them. Yeah, they're kind of they're kind of cool. And I like that job a lot. I, you know, regardless of what my career is now, that was always kind of the thing I wanted to do. And it's definitely interesting going back. It's a lot harder to balance everything. That can be a pretty demanding job. So I kind of have to find ways to, you know, do it as much as I can without overdoing it. But it's it's weirdly the same, but very different as well.

21:21What do they think about your fame and success? They love it. They've been like the biggest supporters the entire time. They're the nicest people. They were so excited when it happened. And I think it's like fun for them too. Yeah. Kind of happen in their house. And then, you know, then they have their dinner parties every summer and everybody's always excited. Like, oh, Olivia's coming back to cook. And they're really sweet. They're excited about it.

21:44Matt Rodbard:Yeah. To me, I guess it's kind of like when you have a friend that you just know is so talented and you really believe in them. And then that actually happens. You kind of feel like, oh, I got in on the ground. Like, I saw this before anyone else. I guess so. Yeah. I mean, it's cool if that is what they think. For your work as a private chef, how much of it is cooking what you want versus what the client is asking for? Surprisingly, a lot of it, at least in that scenario, is kind of cooking whatever I want because they tend to like whatever I make. Like they have things they like and don't like.

22:16Like the man, the husband, he will really only eat meat and the wife only eats fish. But other than that, like they're pretty wide open. So I can be really creative. And as long as I don't touch on anything they dislike, it's kind of anything every day.

22:33Matt Rodbard:Yeah. I feel like that must be nice as someone who's developing recipes to have that balance of having the freedom, but also sometimes maybe having constraints lets you come up with something that you wouldn't have done otherwise. Totally. Yeah. One of the biggest challenges with that is if I'm doing entrees and I don't want to have, you know, usually it's like a three course dinner with like hors d 'oeuvres and it's just me. So I don't want to have to do that many things. So I have to get really clever about what the entree course is going to be to kind of find like pairings that are going to work with a seafood and a meat.

23:01So like that was definitely creatively challenging in a good way. You know, you kind of grow from that kind of thing. And yeah, having like super wide open creative freedom as well, you know, while you're developing recipes is awesome. Like I got to develop a lot of those recipes while I was working, which was a crazy thought that I thought that I could do that, like do my job and also be writing this book. But it was kind of a good way to do it, even though it was very difficult.

23:29Matt Rodbard:Yeah. I think I remember reading the book, there are certain recipes like a rice ball that you're talking about while you have leftovers when you're cooking these big dinner parties or maybe like a meatball that's coming from somebody's preference. Are there any examples of recipes in the book that you feel like really came out of just the realities of private chefing? And honestly, a lot of them, because that was, you know, when I went from working in restaurants to working as a private chef, that's when I was able to kind of do my own thing, you know, and write my own ideas. And a lot of the recipes were written truly on the job at that place.

24:05So kind of the whole book is inspired by that world and that job.

24:10Matt Rodbard:It must have felt really nice for you to get to go from, you know, being in kitchens, which are such a specific social context, to having the freedom to kind of do what you want and cook for yourself. Yeah, it was like the best thing ever. That's definitely the best part about being a private chef. Restaurants, a lot of constraints. You know, there's a menu. And unless you're the head chef, which not everywhere you are from day one, you don't get to make a lot of creative choices. and you definitely don't have the same kind of budget or, you know, there's a lot more limitations in restaurants.

24:43You have to think about a business, which is very different from just thinking about like, okay, these people just want to eat really good shit every day and I can make kind of whatever and there's, you know, I have a big fat credit card to do.

24:55Matt Rodbard:Yeah. I was thinking about that on the subway on the way in is like why are people so obsessed with private chef content online? And I think for me it's the credit card fantasy of like you're going to the best grocery store and getting like the best of the season produce, all of that. Yeah, it's really cool. It's shocking, you know? Like I remember my first couple of days on that job just realizing that I could truly buy all these like$600 steaks and stuff. Like I was still nervous thinking like, oh no, I'm gonna spend too much. And they just never even knew how much I spent, never asked, never cared.

25:27So that was really, really cool. Having access to so many fun ingredients and just getting to play with them.

25:32Matt Rodbard:So this might be where the title for your book comes in, which is Eat Like the Rich, which is such a fun title. How early did you come up with that in the process of the book? Okay, so the title came about really early on. And I was so excited once I like landed on it. I don't remember I was playing around with a couple different ideas and just I wish I could remember like how or why or when. But there's one day that popped into my head. And I was like, that is it. And that was like permanently it. We never even we never thought about anything else. Yeah, I like the title. Yeah. And it fits kind of this ethos in so many ways.

26:08Matt Rodbard:And I'm curious, you know, you share your recipes online in so many different formats. Like, what about making a book was exciting to you? Well, at first, it was very daunting. I feel like it doesn't truly get exciting until later on. And not even to sound like pessimistic about it, but writing a book is a lot of work, especially if you're not a writer and you are a cook. You know, that's not a common crossover of skills. So it was a daunting task, but it was really, really exciting because that kind of cements your career in a totally different way. Like, I never imagined that I could be a person that would write a cookbook that anybody would care about, you know, and then a lot of things just changed really quickly.

26:48And that becoming a real

26:50Matt Rodbard:opportunity was like, like mind blowing, you know, and I had no idea how difficult it would be. Yeah, I think it always is. It's really exciting. Then it's really scary. And then maybe now is the point where it's starting to get exciting again, hopefully. Yeah, yeah. And it's weird how there's a hiatus in between, too. It's like this book primarily was written over the course of like a year, like a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. Then there's like photo shoot. Then there's like a whole year where you just have to keep rereading it. And at this point, it's like, you know, you put it down for a little while, then the project comes back up and it's like coming out and restarts.

27:25And I feel like I had to reread it.

27:28Matt Rodbard:Right. Oh, I did make this. Yeah. It's a weird feeling. What were some of the early recipes that you knew you wanted to include in the book? Honestly, some of the smaller recipes, like snackier things, are the ones that are most exciting. There's a really cool recipe for hash browns, like some personal little fun side quest projects that I've had over the years. I've been really into something kind of simple and then turning it into the best possible version of that thing. Right. One of my hyper fixations was hash browns because I feel like they're never how they're supposed to be when you make them at home.

28:03like the McDonald's hash brown kind of thing. They're never that crispy. Yeah, they're just never right. And I obsessed over that. I came up with a really cool recipe for hash browns that are actually really easy to make. Then there's like a lobster grilled cheese that I would make as these little hors d 'oeuvres for my clients a lot. And that seems like a simple thing, but like they're really fun. It's kind of the fun, kitschier things that stick out in my head.

28:27Matt Rodbard:Yeah, I like those ideas. What is the percentage of like completely new recipes in the book versus ones that you had maybe like already had in your back pocket? Well, a lot of them are things that I've made frequently, you know, like kind of fan favorites, I guess, for my clients or like friends, things that I like to make. A lot of it is just very true to like the way that I cook. And I've never been one to fully write down a lot of recipes. Like I'll make the same thing over and over again, but it's kind of by hand. Right. And so, yeah, it's a lot of things that I make very frequently and just finally had to like hone in on and and write down write it down in a way that a home cook also who maybe isn't as experienced as you can still get the same result too yeah which can be tough yeah to figure out reading the book i think your voice comes across so much and there's so many moments where you're saying like this is a formula you can add in things from here like you can trust your instinct but also like don't do something crazy like add in this i think that's a really kind of like comforting experience as a reader to know that you've put the time in on that and that people can kind of use it as a blueprint.

29:32Yeah. Well, thank you. I kind of wanted to feel like I was like coaching you, like I'm standing there. You're firm, but you're going to get us to victory. Yeah. Yeah. I have a lot to say about cooking. So writing the book, I think very frequently they had to stop me from over explaining things,

29:48Matt Rodbard:you know? I mean, better than the other way around, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. Is there a recipe in the book that you think took the longest to kind of properly dial in and perfect? Hmm. That's a good question. I mean, there are some that are tougher than others just because like there's process and technique that you got to like. I really wanted to simplify some of my tougher things as well and just find the clearest path to the final product without maybe the million extra steps I sometimes take because I'm insane. and have the time to do that. Off the top of my head, one that was really tough, I mean, desserts are not my forte.

30:26And my mother is a really good pastry chef. So she actually helped me fully to write those ones and that kind of chapter is hers, which is cool. So I don't know if that fully answers that question.

30:38Matt Rodbard:I mean, it answers it in the sense that you just outsourced it to your mom, which is kind of awesome. I wish I could do that. Yeah, yeah, I was very lucky that I was able to do that because otherwise there'd be no desserts in this book. Did you tell her I really want like a fruit dessert or a chocolate dessert or she just kind of went for it? Yeah. So I think some of them are just hers. And then some of them are like I've made desserts before, obviously. And I had an idea of ones that I wanted to put in. But I'm not in a position to be like developing a dessert recipe. Like baking is so scientific.

31:10And that's one thing where I will just follow a recipe if I'm, you know, making a dessert. So I kind of had things that I wanted and then I just had her develop the recipes for them. It's a little bit of a mix of the both of us. So it's fun. Is there an example of a dessert recipe that you kind of commissioned from her? Yeah. The pistachio cheesecake. That's a really good one. Big fan of that. And she made a really, really good version of it. So I love a pistachio cheesecake.

31:37Matt Rodbard:I think that's one of my like top tier desserts probably. Really? Yeah. There's something about it. So like satisfying. Yes. I love pistachio and I love a cheesecake. And it does feel like the rich nut to me. Do you agree? Yeah, it's definitely a rich nut. That's a bougie nut. It's like maybe bougier than a pine nut. Macadamia, how does that fit in? Macadamia is an okay nut. Right? I feel like it's like a brunch pancakes thing and then you don't really see it anywhere else. Yeah, I think honestly that's the first time I've heard about a macadamia nut in a very long time. Wow, I'm bringing them back.

32:10Underrated nut.

32:10Matt Rodbard:I wanted to ask you about the shit or not shit list you have at the beginning of the book, which is kind of you highlighting the ingredients that are worth it to ball out on and not. Can you give me some examples of ingredients that you think fall into one of those two categories? Yeah, for sure. So that the whole shit or not shit list actually came to be because every time I was writing a recipe, I was over explaining that what's really important is like the ingredient that you use in this scenario or that. Like, I don't know. I kept thinking about how, like, you could make this same thing with a fucking terrible tomato and it's just not going to be good at all.

32:44So then the shit or not shit list was born. Definitely tomatoes. I mean, tomatoes are easily top tier of that list. Pickles also. I never want to see a fucking Clausen pickle for the rest of my life. Like, there's certain things that just will entirely change the final product if you don't know which product to buy, you know?

33:06Matt Rodbard:Yeah. And then do you think about like the application of it as well? Like obviously you don't want to eat a bad tomato on a sandwich, but if you're cooking it down into something, maybe that's more acceptable. Yeah, it's definitely more acceptable. And for most things, I would fully agree. I would say, though, that there's a lot of really terrible tomatoes in this country. and that's one area where it's like if you got a really really bad tomato it's gonna be really really hard to cook to even to cook it down but there's always something you can do with everything i guess is there an example of an ingredient that you think like it doesn't really matter the quality you're getting or where it comes from um not like rotten or bad obviously um i mean even simple things like salt do matter you know um maybe olive oil because you could use it for cooking if it's not great olive oil.

34:00Like, I wouldn't be a huge snob about the type of olive oil you're using if you're putting it in, like, a hot pan. But if you want to, like, drizzle it on top of something, obviously you want a really good olive oil. It all kind of depends what you're going to be doing with it. Totally.

34:15Matt Rodbard:And on the salt front, I imagine you're a diamond kosher salt girl. Yeah. Yep. It's weird how much salt can actually matter. Like, have you ever been in an Airbnb and they have, like, the shittiest stuff? in there. Sea salt always. Yeah. Or they have like the salt that's like so, so fine. And it's in like a little nasty little thing. And it's the saltiest thing you've ever tasted. It throws everything off entirely. I had to go on like a multi-year campaign to get my parents to switch over to kosher salt because I would come back to their house and cook dinner for them. And I just couldn't adapt to the salt that they were using.

34:48Matt Rodbard:So I just bought them new salt and said, try using this one instead. And now my whole family is on it. So it really worked out. Hell yeah. I support that movement. I want to go through some of your other kind of likes and dislikes in the book and get more context on them, such as mayo. Why do you hate mayo and what do you put on BLTs instead? I hate mayo because mayo is disgusting. And that is, I mean, what more is there to say? We live in a crazy time of like mayo slop everywhere. It is actually so bothersome. And I find it to be so, so lazy that like everything is served with some kind of fucking mayo they'll call it an aioli put a little gochujang in there and now it's something else no it's mayo it's all mayo and like i just think that we need to learn to make different sauces break free yeah like if you're a person that doesn't like mayo it's impossible to survive because it's fucking everywhere and um i just think that's so annoying i just find it lazy i hate to be that judgmental but i am so tired of seeing it everywhere on top of everything like Like expand your fucking horizons.

35:55And I don't mean like you or like people just, you know, sitting and eating. The collective. I mean the people making it or like restaurants. It's like just do something else for a BLT. Sometimes you do still need like a sauce on a sandwich and there's not – people aren't inventing a lot of things to fill that void. so I forever ago heard about this technique where you could juice corn and kind of cook it down and it thickens up because corn is very starchy and kind of just turned it into like a corn mayo and it's really smooth and weirdly has the same consistency as mayo but it tastes so much better especially if you have like really good like summery corn it's very sweet it's very corny and it kind of like fills the mayo void in a way it works really well in a BLT because obviously I mean, corn and bacon love each other.

36:43Corn and tomatoes love each other. It's so good. So actually I'm going to make that tonight at an event.

36:48Matt Rodbard:Maybe I'll come to the event and eat some because I love that recipe in the book. And you're not going to like this, but I've been sauteing corn or like boiling corn and then mixing it into my mayo and putting it on BLTs. So I feel like I've been kind of getting closer and closer to what you invented. And then I saw it in the book and I was like, damn, I should be making corn mayo. Yes, definitely recommend trying the corn mayo. I didn't realize you were a mayo girl. Well, OK, Kewpie mayo only. Okay. How do you feel about that? I think that's, you know, I can respect that. I used to hate mayo, truly.

37:18Matt Rodbard:Not I'm trying to get your approval, but I truly didn't like mayo. And then I tried the Kupi mayo and, you know, it's so much richer and it has the MSG in it and it just doesn't have that kind of like eggy quality that I think sometimes less good mayo has, strangely. And so it's only mayo I'll buy. Yeah. Okay. I'm into that. I like that it's in the fridge. Yes. I think something that really disturbs me about mayo, too, is that it sits in, like, that jug, like, on the shelf in the grocery store. And I just – I don't understand how that is okay with anybody, you know, or, like, how it can be there that long in that condition.

37:53Matt Rodbard:Well, I shouldn't tell you this, but the Kewpie mayo does come on the shelf. It's just that when you open it, then it goes in the fridge. But to me, you know, it's next to my vinegar. It's next to, like, everything else. I think it's safe where it is. Okay, good. Well, if you feel safe, then I'm with you. That's what matters. Yes, I'll support you in your QP mail. Okay, I felt really happy with that. And we can talk about something you like more, which is halibut, which I was reading as your favorite fish. And I'm curious why it's halibut and what you like to do with it. Halibut is just a really good fish.

38:24You know what's funny is that question just reminded me of writing the book. So much of this was actually voice notes.

38:31Matt Rodbard:I was wondering because really your voice comes across and how you kind of got that in there. Yeah, I would sit there and my co-writer would be like, you have to talk about this you have to talk about that and i would just like go on these like spin out tangents about like this fish is the best fucking fish and i just love how and like these crazy things that we then have to turn into something normal um but halibut is a fabulous fish i mean very decadent fish fatty fish meaty fish likey fish i mean halibut with like some lemon i think if i had to pick one thing to eat forever it could could maybe be halibut and like lemons or maybe scallops.

39:11Matt Rodbard:That'd be pretty good. Your skin would be glowing still. All the collagen. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I should try that because I'm like kind of deftly right now. The book tour diet is just like halibut every day. That would be nice. I wish that was the case, but it's more so like I ate a little bite of that bacon, egg and cheese today. Yesterday, somebody fed me a bite of pizza. And other than that, I don't know. You're gonna have to eat the rest of the bacon, egg and cheese later just for your own continued sanity, I think. I think so. So what's the halibut recipe in the book? There might be a couple.

39:45I mean, the one that's coming to mind immediately, I think I put the halibut with like a corn puree and this tomato chili bourblanc. That's a really fun dish. Very summery. Works really well with the halibut. I think that's the halibut one. There's a lot of recipes in there.

40:03Matt Rodbard:There are. I'm not trying to do a pop quiz with you, but I think the tomato corn power duo is kind of continuing over in that recipe, which is cool. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of summery stuff in there. There's a couple of recipes that definitely feel really, really summery just because of the nature of where all these recipes were written. So a lot of corn, a lot of tomatoes. I think there's also the crab bisque recipes with halibut, which was a fun one. And that one came to be because I had like this giant king crab and I made this crazy crab stock and like a crab bisque. And that's a really fun one, too.

40:38So I kind of like simplified that for somebody to make it home.

40:41Matt Rodbard:Oh, I love that. Yeah. Yeah. No, you definitely don't need like a whole live king crab. I wouldn't know what to do with that. Yeah. But talking about crabs, in the book, you kind of briefly mentioned that you made crab cakes for Martha Stewart. And I just have to know more about that. Yeah. That was a fucking crazy day. That was wild. When did you know she was coming? I didn't find out that she was actually coming until that day. My clients are friends with Martha Stewart. And I think like every summer she'd been meant to come but then didn't. So they didn't want to get my hopes up the day that she did come or the week that they thought she was coming.

41:16Like they weren't sure to the last minute. And I believe it was day of that it was like fully confirmed that she was coming. And I had been working on a crab cake recipe. and I think I was planning to make it that day anyway and then I was like Martha Stewart's coming now I have to like really fucking knock these crab cakes out and there was a lot of traffic in the Hampstead that day I ended up being really late because Joe Biden was in town and then I had to really rush those crab cakes and it was terrifying but it was okay in the end it was okay in the end she was really cool and she brought me some eggs and she is a very stoic lady very powerful feeling lady Were you trying to watch her when she was eating the crab cakes?

41:58You know, I was trying not to bother, but I was definitely probably behind the door, like peeking in, trying to get any, you know, any clue of how it was going. But it went very well. She liked them a lot. Wow. So that was cool. What do you think was special about the crab cake that she enjoyed? I had been like really going crazy over that crab cake recipe because I feel like crab cakes are important. Like that's very make or break. Like nobody wants a shit crab cake. Like if it falls apart as a cook also, it's just really demoralizing. Yeah. Yeah. But you also don't want it to be too bound because then you're not tasting the crab enough.

42:30So you kind of have to hit like a perfect mix of like a binder and the amount of crab so it's not, you know, it's crab forward enough but not bready. So I've been working on that recipe and I really wanted to get that right because I love crab cake. And I was very proud of it in the end. so it was really cool that she liked it yeah i think finding out day of must have been so

42:54Matt Rodbard:interesting did you have a moment where you wished you were making something else or you just committed to the plan i committed i felt like that made sense as because it was also lunchtime right so it was like a little bit casual um and i don't know i feel like she it made sense to me a lot for some reason to make martha stewart crab cakes right i think it has like a similar aura of what I would imagine. It seems like the perfect thing to feed her. I just think because it's so perfect, I would be worried about, well, you know, the execution on the crab cake has to be there, but it was, so it all worked out.

43:27Yeah, yeah. It felt like a lot of risk, a lot of reward, almost. Like, if I get it right, then that would be really sick, you know?

43:34Matt Rodbard:The only reference point I have for this is, like, on Drag Race, when people do a character that, like, RuPaul really enjoys, and it's like, you have to nail this because they're going to be looking for a lot of expectations. Right. Exactly. Somehow we've connected RuPaul and Martha Stewart. I mean, we must not be the first. I feel like this must have happened previously. Did you see what she posted on Instagram yesterday, actually? About how she wants to release her nudes? That was the funniest fucking thing I have ever seen. I'm so obsessed with her. Like, what's going on? That was so funny and jarring to come across.

44:09Right? She really knows, like, what people are looking for, you know?

44:12Matt Rodbard:Yeah. Not just her nudes, but her social media presence as a whole. She knows how to keep people on her side entertained. For real. She is funny as fuck. I'm very interested in her. Yeah. Are you going to get her a copy of the book? I hope so. I mean, I don't have her address. I don't think she's that easy to contact. I think someone can get it to her and you can say, here's the crab cake recipe. XO. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe my old client can get her one. I'll have to ask. We're going to manifest this. Yeah. I want to talk about the aesthetic for the book because I think it's really cool and clear. And I'm curious what kind of vision you had for it.

44:50so for the book I definitely didn't want I mean there's a lot of cookbooks in the world and I felt like I have kind of a particular vision for most things that I do you know and I don't know that um most of my my vibe is the typical sort of cookbook vibe you know like smiling with my pie wasn't really gonna be the thing um so I really wanted it to be cool I wanted to feel like it made sense with you know everything else um and I found a really cool photographer named Marcus Nielsen and that was another definitely like immediately I knew that he was going to be the guy um as soon as I saw his work like it all just it felt very different I mean I'm not a photographer I don't really know the words to describe but I wanted um I just didn't want anything looking like super perfect or like overdone.

45:45I have never looked that way in my life, you know? So yeah, I wanted it to feel very kind of raw, but also like the food is going to look great because I care about that. But I didn't want anything else to feel like overly perfect, you know? What was the shoot process like? It was 10 straight days. And I think the first two or three days were in the Hamptons and it was kind of like more like the lifestyle part of the book. And that was really fun. I was in a pool in a robe with a whole bunch of tomatoes. It was really fun. It was also incredibly hot those days and humid and horrible. So actually that kind of sucked.

46:26But then once we got to the studio, like that part is crazy. That's a whole operation, the way that cookbooks are shot. And like we had such a great team. So many people working on it, like and they were all really excited about it, too, which was really cool. the food stylists were awesome like so many people so prop stylists like it's shocking

46:44Matt Rodbard:yeah and it's so cool to see people who are really good at their hyper specific job like watching a prop stylist style everything and wipe everything yeah i've never thought so much about like plates and cups and they have like tiles like it's it's really nuts and then you know you have like the food style she's got like a paintbrush right on a short rib did you try to steal any of the props from the shoot? Did I? I don't think I stole anything, which is unusual. I think I actually left a lot of stuff behind because I was in New York. I had actually a lot of pots and pans. I think I left them with like a whole set of pots and pans in the end.

47:24Looking back on the whole book making process, was there anything about it that surprised you? Everything? Yeah. I think every part of it was a shock and surprise. Like I was coming from no frame of reference. I also didn't read a ton of cookbooks prior. So I just I was just all in, I guess, on whatever was going to happen to me the whole process. The shoot is definitely something that's really surprising, though, the way that that all comes together and the amount of times that you have to reread a book and how many people will read it and then send it back to you with like half of a note. You know, it's like a whole million times, a million times back and forth.

48:08Matt Rodbard:Do you think there was a moment when you knew this was going to be the cover of the book? No, I actually fought on this cover for a long time because on the back of the book, there's this really fun picture. Oh, yeah. You're in like a flamingo pool float. Yeah. In the pool with the robe and the champagne. Like that idea just happened very much in the moment. I was like, we have all this shit. I want to be in the pool. I'm going to be in the pool with my robe. Like this is feeling like private chef. Robe, champagne. Is that a slice of pizza? It's a steak. It's a raw steak. Oh, of course. And this part, I don't know.

48:45This was really fun. And I really wanted this to be the cover. But fortunately, my publishers, you know, more mature than I am. And they were like, well, there's not really food in this picture. And it's a little bit rogue. And they really liked this one. So I was like, OK, I'm going to trust you on that. It's a gift for the back cover. Yeah. What does it say on the back cover? It says, I like to cook things. You like to cook things. I think that's why we're all gathered here today. It's true. Yeah. That was another voice note moment. Oh, wow.

49:16Matt Rodbard:I love this pool float moment. I feel like I've never been surrounded by heirloom tomatoes in a pool before, and now I've probably been missing out. Yeah. You should try it. I highly recommend. Seriously, I don't even know how or why that idea came to be, but I was like, we need a thousand tomatoes. I need that fucking pink flamingo pool float that actually was from a motel that we were staying in in the Hamptons. Like we borrowed it, stole it. Maybe that was stolen. That's the thing. That's the thing. Yeah, that was just so fun and out of the blue. This is maybe strange, but I didn't realize tomatoes would float like that.

49:49Yeah. I don't know if we knew that beforehand. No, I think I did know that. And I think that might have been actually the root of the inspo somehow.

49:56Matt Rodbard:Because you're cleaning like huge quantities of tomatoes in a giant bowl. And so they float in context. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought they would like look cool in the water. Wow. This is like a chef creative directing a book cover. That's how you get the floating tomatoes. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. There's a moment every fall when I want my kitchen to actually feel like fall. And it usually comes around the time of my first pot of chicken soup. When I wrote Food IQ with my buddy Daniel Holtzman, we spent a lot of that book pushing people past their comfort zone with recipes for sous vide, homemade pasta, and boss-style braising.

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51:14My kitchen project was a small refresh, but it's the kind that actually makes me want to cook even more. Transform your space with prices that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair. Every style, every home. This episode is brought to you by Z-Biotics. When you travel the way we do for taste travels, you see the same thing over and over. Somebody on the trip is having the time of their life at dinner, even though there is an early morning of filming ahead of them.

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52:51Matt Rodbard:Propel Fitness Water with Gatorade electrolytes, zero sugar, and vitamins. Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self. What propels you? Propel with Gatorade electrolytes. so I want to play a rapid fire game with you to close but beforehand I have to ask you do you flip people off as much in real life as you do on the internet I think I used to more but now that it's like such a part of my thing like I find myself doing it instinctively less because I'm like everybody's always calling me like the middle finger girl or whatever it's so talked about now that it no longer feels like i used to do a lot in the car though yeah for sure um you know i've been a slightly hostile person many times now it's maybe like less powerful because people expect it of you yes maybe that's what it is you nailed it you gotta move on to like blowing kisses or something that could maybe carry that weight yeah or just serving like fuck you yeah and what about that well it must be nice to be in new york because people say that to each other all the time here well well that's i mean this i came from here yeah maybe that's why it's such a part of my ingrained deep within you yeah okay ready for the rapid fire i'm ready okay a favorite cookbook that isn't your own um simple by otto lenghi it's a really cool book your favorite season for cooking summer your go-to breakfast breakfast is strange because eggs are a little bit weird but Probably bacon, egg, and cheese.

54:29Your go-to late night snack? Grilled cheese. What kind of cheese? American. Like trashy American. But no mayo on the outside of the bread? Hell no. No mayo. Anywhere near the bread. Your favorite bakery? Hmm. Favorite bakery? Oh, there's a really good place near my house. I live in Texas right now called Sourduck Market. And they have really, really good baguettes that I like. If that counts as bakery. Totally. It is a bakery, yeah.

54:57Matt Rodbard:Your favorite special occasion restaurant? Hmm.

55:05I think just because it's like top of mind right now, I'm just going to say Forsythia. It's a cool place. Your favorite place to eat in the Hamptons?

55:14Matt Rodbard:My kitchen. Something that you will never make from scratch? Bread. You never had a bread baking phase? No. No. Most baking, I'm not really into it. It's very scientific. Yeah. It's not as fun. Plus, you can buy it at so many places. Yeah. There's always going to be someone that can do that better than me. So I'd rather, you know, a professional do the baking. Okay. Final question. Is a fictional food scene, like from a book or a movie or something made up that you wish you could magically eat in real life? Hmm. That's a tough one. Oh, maybe like a Krabby Patty. Yeah. Right? Like as a kid, didn't you want to know so bad what was going on with that?

55:53Totally. Like what about the Krabby Patty is so good? I don't know. I mean, maybe just the fact that it's a cartoon and like we'll never know. Aren't there conspiracies, though, that they're saying like it was crab? It was made of crab or lobster or something like that.

56:08Matt Rodbard:I think people say that just because it's called a Krabby Patty. But I think clearly that's because it's Mr. Krabs' restaurant. Right. That's why that's just so dark for a children's show. Yeah, definitely a little dark and also completely made up to begin with. so like I guess the world will never know but the burger did always just look really good it did look really good I think that's a great answer and Olivia this has been so much fun thank you for coming on the show thank you so much for having me this was so much fun and happy pub day thank you so much hopefully it's a good day buy the book buy the fucking book go eat like the rich

56:50Matt Rodbard:This is Taste is hosted and produced by Matt Rodbard and me, Eliza Abarbanel. 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. Episode portraits by Louise Zergang Pomeroy. Logo design by Ellie Skurzat and Ian Dingham. 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.

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