A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Reflecting on 100 Episodes of Last Meals

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Today, Josh and Nicole celebrate and look back on 100 episodes of Last Meals. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: youtube.com/@ahotdogisasandwich To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this is mythical. Nicole, what would your last meal be? Man, I think I'd do like Brazilian barbecue, food made by my mom, salmon sashimi imported from Japan, and a whole jar of Nutella. Best I can do is a burger in a room temp, sprite budget cuts, man. It's getting tough out here. This is a hot dog as a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie.

Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. is the sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, a hot dog is a sandwich to the show we break down

the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host Josh Air. And I'm your host, Nicole Iniety. And today we're celebrating something. Room Temp Sprites? We're celebrating room temps rites.

My favorite thing about it is that the Fizz is extra hard when it's room temp. So then when you lean down into the cup, it like kind of tickles your nosies. Yeah, yeah.

You inhale it. I did inhale. She did inhale. Not like Bill Clinton. He didn't. Free. No, no, no, no. Absolutely not.

I think political dyneties are bad, no matter how you spend it. Anyways, today we are celebrating the 100th episode of Last Meals. Oh, cool. Where if you're watching or listening on the Wednesday that this comes out, our 100th episode of Last Meals comes out on Thursday, and we have a very special guest. We're not going to spoil who it is. I will not.

But it was, it's a deep, deep food nerd, somebody that I've known, I've known about their deep food nerddom for a long time, but they are a big time movie star, which is very, very cool. And I love seeing those worlds collide. And we already shot it, and it was absolutely spectacular. We pulled out all the stops.

They were so much more than advertised, just like the coolest person in the world. And so today we're going to kind of reflect on 100 episodes of last meals, and actually executive producer, Annalise, and friend of the show, put together a really cool document where she compiled every single person's last meal.

Very cool. It's been codified. And it's been codified. And so we actually have a bunch of statistics through 100 people's last meals. Well, 99, because we're not including. You're right, 99 people's last meals. Yeah, that would throw off some of those numbers.

But anyways... It's okay. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Just entertain us, if you will. Entertain us, if you will. Nicole, what have you noticed through 100 episodes, sorry, 99 episodes of last meals that you were shocked by?

Like, any big patterns? I mean, I think we like to say that there's four foods that really hit on YouTube. But it's burger, pizza, chicken, macaroni? Mac and cheese, yeah, fried chicken. Burger pizza, fried chicken. And then mac and cheese. Those are the four food groups. But I will say that.

There's like eight different variations within fried chicken, though. Yes. You can do fried chicken wings. Chicken tenders, fried chicken sandwich. So, yeah. So I noticed that with last meals, I think people like to, of course, it's their last meal. Yeah. So they're going to be a little bit more extravagant.

I've noticed steak is a big one. Mm-hmm. And alcohol is a big one, which makes hope sense. Pizza is still up there. And sushi, surprisingly, everyone wants to eat raw fish for their last meal. Yeah, we actually have the numbers here. So through 99 episodes, we've had burger appear 20 times, which is crazy to me. Which is expected.

I mean, burgers are delicious. Can I say like, from beyond that, though, right? Like, you'll have people who, when they send us their last meal, we've gone through a couple different iterations of how to ask for it. Because if you just send a blanket query out to celebrities and their reps and go, what would your last meal be? Sometimes you'll just get a one-re response. That will be pizza, right? And so then you're like, well, we have to make a show and we're, you know, trying to. Can't just be one thing.

Here's what a last meal will typically look like. Here's how to think about it. Here's people we've had in the past that we thought were really good choices. Sometimes we'll have people send way, way too much. You know what I mean? Yes, we have to edit. We'll sometimes edit. But sometimes, you know, people will throw in little editorial clues.

They'll be like, hey, this is the single most special food in my life, this thing that my mom made, you know, Catherine Hahn and like the bunker special. That was really, really cool. That was awesome. Was that brown sugar and butter? Yeah, on toast. On top of peanut butter toast. Yes, yes. Very cool.

And, like, broiled. And, you know, so, as in that, a lot of people, the burger almost seems to be a throwaway. There have been very few people for where the burger was the most important thing. I think whenever people just generally say burger, I agree. But whenever people get really, like, in depth. with you when they like specify like a smash burger with two kinds of cheese or something like yeah yeah like I think I agree with you on some level it in you never had a big steak like a thick burger like a steak burger I was just thinking about that um god nobody's specified it so a burger

specificity is really funny we've had um in and out I think only five times that's crazy there's it feels like more you get so many people who are like why does every celebrity want no boo for their last meal. It was the very funny, very funny Instagram and TikTok video about it. Nobu's appeared five times,

which is like a lot. It feels like more, though. It's a lot. I even asked Colby, who like used to work at Nobu. I'm like, hey, I just did a little bit of research

and it looks like we've only had Nobu five times. Does that sound right? Does that feel right? He's like, yeah, that sounds about right. And I'm like, okay,

whatever I'm saying. But five times is a lot. Like, you know what I mean? For 99 episodes of a show For an independent restaurant. To keep coming. Yes. I mean, like,

I guess Nobu just equates fancy to people. You know what I mean? I think it's also like Nobu was the fanciest coolest restaurant still obviously is. It's still big. But it was the fanciest coolest restaurant at a time that is more correlational to people ending up on last meals, right? Hear me out. If you're about to end up on last meals, you know, you are probably somebody who has had a long career.

We do. Sometimes we even think about reaching out to younger guests who are very, very famous. And we're like, I don't know that a 19-year-old would have. that much to say on last meals. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Those give the best episodes.

And so if you look at, say, two people that had Nobu back to back, which is, I think, what happens with people, they'll see two back to back. And then they'll go like, oh, everyone's doing it. But it was Ken Jong and Marlon Wains. Okay. And Marlon Wains is, you know, in his early 20s, world, world famous in like 1998. Right, yeah. Right.

And so that is the time. When did Nobu open, 2000? When did, I think Nobu... When did Nobu open? 1994 in New York. When did Nobu Malibu open? Nobu Malibu's a big deal. That was a big deal.

Have you ever been to Nobu Malibu? Nobu Malibu opened in 1999. I've never been. I've been once. Yeah? Literally I was doing a road trip, like going to Carlsbad and stuff like that. And we stopped. And we literally, there was a huge line.

And we just went there and we were like, hey, can we sit outside while the sunset is happening? And she looked at me and she's like, you know what? You look like you. need it. And I'm like, that's so rude, but thank you. And so we literally sat outside during sunset at Malibu Nobu, and it was incredible. Spent like 200 bucks on maybe like four and a half pieces of sushi. But whatever, that doesn't even matter. Hear me out. So right, Marlon Waynes is, you know, big comedy family, uh, uh, Damon Waynes already, you know, doing stuff. Sure. But he, uh, comes out to Los Angeles. Requium for a dream comes out, which is,

which is, dude, he's awesome in Reckley and for Dream. He's so good in it. And he's a classically trained actor, right? He went to the New York School of the... O'York. Is that what it's called? The School of the Arts in New York? You know, like, he was there. And Scary Movie came out, which was, like, world famous. He was also in a Dungeons and Dragons movie, Scary Movie 2.

All within, like, a year and a half. Iconic. That No, that's the coolest restaurant in L.A. So it's natural. He's going to want... No, he's going to have fond memories of that time's life. Sure. Sure.

Ken Jong didn't achieve, like, you know, fame until, like, kind of the 2010s. However, he also had his I Made It Moment, which is being a friend. freaking very successful doctor. He and his wife are like huge foodies, and they were both like actively working doctors. They'd finish residency, right? Were they in school together?

Yeah, yeah. They were, I believe they were both in school at Duke or no, do they meet in LA? I can't remember. I don't know, but I love when I hear stories about people that like they grow together and they get successful together. I love that so much. Yeah, yeah. And similar, I think Jacob Collier had no boo and his was, you know, a moment of being flown

out to L.A. after making YouTube videos. And so it makes sense that you get a lot of people with those in there. The burgers, I was going through all 20 burgers and trying to figure out, like, who kind of had the most special connection to them. The only one that comes to mind for me is Ben Schwartz because he specified he wanted burgers never say die. Burgers never say die, which is interesting. Which I had a few days ago. Wow, what a time capsule that burger is. It's funny because it's still very new.

It came out in what, probably 2016, 2017. The food people, it is such a relic of the times in the way that the father's office burger is for me. It's just the flavor and the way, and it's small. It turns a tide. This is a burger that started, they were the first to make like pop up kind of smash burgers that were very simple, but very, very good. In Los Angeles, I think they're one of the ones that are responsible for this new boom in smash burgers of the last 10 years. Agreed, agreed, agreed. Yeah, yeah.

So I had that recently. And then I remember Ben Schwartz was very specific about what he wanted on his. So I would say that was the one for me that I noticed that someone was like very specific. And also his foods were all L.A. Yeah, he was. Which is pretty awesome. I know. But what is it for you?

Well, so there's a couple. Brennan Lee Mulligan's diner order. Okay. That was very specific. Also, like Brennan Lee Mulligan is very much a New York guy. Did he have something like a brown paper bag in his last meal? Oh, yeah. So Brennan's whole thing is that he.

Empanadas? Was it empanadas? No, it was, what's the Venezuela? Repas? Aripasco Montagia. And I believe he had like Venezuelan or Colombian, like, neighbors that were very influential for his life. So cool. So cool.

But anyways, his whole thing, which is something that I love so much about him, is that he believes the heaviest, densest foods are the best. And when those heavy dense foods get in a brown paper bag, as many of the best ones do, you should be able to drop that off of a, you know, not a tremendously high ladder and do some damage to the cervical spine. That is what he wants in food. And so we actually thought about doing some sort of bit where we set up a ladder and would drop this bag to see how much damage it could do. Okay. And that was one of those moments in production. Use the phrase, kill your darlings where you're like, hey, is this actually going to be funny or cool if we drop a bag of our repus on our guest's head? Maybe not.

And instead, what we decided to do was to weigh his entire meal and then have him guess the weight afterwards. Nice. I like that. I like that. We believe that he did indeed have the heaviest last meal of them all. But he has a special connection where he's like my one true last meal, one food before I die, is his very specific diner order, which is a diner-style cheeseburger, which I love medium thickness, right? Six-ounce patty, big wide bun kind of DIY with fries and I believe it was a chocolate shake and bacon on the burger as well. When it was served, if you don't mind me asking, because I remember last meals, but there's something since I don't necessarily work specifically on it anymore.

when it was plated and presented to him, were the hot wares on one side and the cold wares on the other? Gosh, dang, right? Really? I love that. Those are the details that make last meal so special. Like, as a viewer, like, the fact that the culinary team has the wherewithal and the ability and desire to recreate a diner experience in the confines of the mythical kitchen is so special. The fact that it was split and they know that at diners, they split it, why? So the hot and the colds are, you know, temperature dependent.

And you can put sauce where you want to put sauce. And also, you don't have to take everyone's order of, like, what do you want on this burger? Exactly. You give them, give them all the onions and the lettuce and whatever, do what you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got pancakes and flip. We got coffee to serve. So true.

Oh, my God. I just love the, we bought diner plates. I love it so much. This is the level that we go to on last meals. And when you've done 100 episodes, like, real quick aside, when we shot our cookbook, like, we hired a prop stylist who owns, what up, Alicia. Alicia Bushach, she's great. But she owns a prop library because over her, you know, several decades in this business, you end up with a lot of cool ass plates that you just kind of keep. And so we're now 100 episodes in where it's like we've bought the exact like diner plates that they use, those big like long oval ones.

Yeah. Then we've bought the ones with like the little brown rim on the outside. Love the brown. Yeah. You bought the diner coffee mugs. We have the condiment caddy. So we kind of have this, you know, whole litany now of if you want, you know, fajitas, we have our sizzling fajita platter.

Right. You know? And I think that's so special. Yeah. When did you, do you remember the first time you asked the culinary team when you wanted to add a surprise in? Do you remember? Because I don't remember the first time.

Maybe, yeah. That's become kind of a, a signature thing now. I think that's such a great running line through every single episode is you giving the celebrity, like the guest, a surprise and disarming them. Yeah, yeah. And I think it's brilliant. What was the one that you remember that was like, oh, this is great? Or do you remember the first one?

Well, I remember it kind of goes along with plating, actually. And this was one of the first moments where I was like, oh, the extra attention to detail makes people know that we're very serious. And it was Tom Hanks because he wanted the Taste of History platter from El Cholo, which is like a hundred-year-old Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica. It was next to his production offices at Playtone. And they used to do like, you know, end of the month happy hours there and get margaritas and intellectuals and that. but their taste of history plate, this is a combo platter that has like five different items on it.

From different dates of the restaurant, right? Exactly, yeah, from when the item hit the menu. So it'll be like, Angelaudas, 1923, Chili Reno, 1964. And it says it on the plates that are like hand-painted. And so I sent KG down there. KG was a production assistant at the time. And I sent KG down when she went to pick up the food and I was like, hey, take like 200 bucks in Petty Cash,

offer, you know, the people tell them you're a producer, Tom Heng. He loves it. You know, maybe see if they'll take like 50 bucks per plate and buy it. And Kiji was like, oh, cool. And then Kiji comes back and she has two taste of history plates. And I'm like, hell, yeah, this rules. Awesome.

Give me the change from the petty cash. And she's like, oh, I gave them all $200. And I was like, what? Kage, you have to learn how to barter. Start out with 50. Maybe even start with 25. Yeah, well, exactly. You know, I was like, I was like, I was like, ask him how much it would cost.

And she was like, well, no, I kind of, you know, I pull out $200. was like, I got $200 So I buy these plates from you. Well, I'm sure that money went to the crew and they all had a nice beer or two. You know what? Listen, yeah, I'm sure that manager pocketed that money immediately. I like to think that I went to the back house.

Yeah, also listen, at the end of the day, production expense. That is a well-worth-up production expense. Totally, I agree. Because then we, one, he was so impressed that we went through that level of detail. We made short of food style everything as if it were at the restaurant. Right, right. And then we actually, we washed and dried the plates. and then we mailed them to him afterwards,

and he mailed me a copy of his favorite book. That I still like, Tom, if you're out here listening, and I know you are, are you working on a film treatment of the monk of mocha by Dave Eggers with the story of Moktar Alcanshali? Because I think you should be. I would really watch that movie. Just come back here and talk about it.

We can drink coffee together. I'll always remember you, for Ella Pernell's last meal, trying to find Toffet Faye. Yeah, yeah. And for some reason, you went on your own to find Toffet Faye. and I don't know why you went on your own to find off a thing. I'll tell you exactly why. So I am, when I'm researching a guest,

and now it's kind of become more of a thing as the show standardizes where I'm like, in the intro, if I have a really fun fact, you know, that I can kind of, I don't know, impress them with, get them to understand that, hey, we're really doing our research here. I'm going to throw it out immediately in the intro. Right. But I'm researching all the way up until the 11th hour, and I don't want to screw over our culinary production team.

right, by like, you know, at midnight texting. I'm like, hey, we need to find Toffee Faye because I found that she, you know, did a commercial when she was seven years old that was dubbed in Croatian, you know. And so if there's any requests that come after work hours on the night before, even sometimes before then,

I'm just not going to bother any of the culinary production team. And I'm like, this is my own burden. I'm going to drive around. For some reason, Toffee Faye is, like, only in Walgreens and CVS. It's really hard to find, but they are delicious. No. Yeah. And then I still, I remember she was blown away because I think I said in her intro, like, and if you

were like a, and she sold millions of pounds of chocolate to Croatians in 1990s or something, and she was like, what are you talking about? And then I said, if I said, Punozabave, criu Toffee Fe, does that mean anything to you? And she just blew up. So crazy. But yeah, it's so cool. And then like she started talking about how much she loves actually eating Toffee Faye. She's like, he had such a nostalgic thing

and I was able to like pull it out. It was so stale though. It was like the dustiest most stale Toffee Faye that I got from a pharmacy and I had to apologize to her for that. Well, you know, not everyone's buying Toffee Face. They should be buying Toffee Face, but they're not. If Ella Pernell doesn't convince you to buy Toffee Faye, you know, who does?

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Just entertaining football talk from your favorite buds at the bar. So come hang out with the Heathes. The Call Heroes for football news, analysis, and mirth. All the mirth. Follow and listen to the Heed the Call NFL podcast wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel doing 99 last meals? Like, I'm sorry, now we can say you did 100. Like, how do you...

Yeah, we shot 100. Actually feel... I think we've shot 103. Really? Yeah, we got a couple. We got a couple in the hole. They're going to be fun. They're in the whole.

103? 102. Okay. We shot 100, too. That's a lot. Yeah. How does it feel like sitting across? from like really famous people

and like breaking them down to the point where they're an emotional wreck eating a grill cheese sandwich. Like how does that make you feel as an interview? I was like, you're a professional interviewer now. Like, did you know that? It's kind of crazy. You're like the Nardwar of like food interviews,

which is so weird. You're Nicole and Idy. We have to know. That's true. Dude to do. Love Nardwar. Nardwar. Please come on the show. I love Nardro. The human serviette.

Human serviette. We have to do. have to have Nardwar. Nardwar, please come on last night- If you Nardward, Nardwarnwar? No, no, Nard- The space-time continuum would collapse. It would be too hard. Well, this actually speaks to something, though.

It's like, it's hard to keep sort of one-upping yourself, because there have been several times when, like, I don't have a Nardwar fact for the guest, right? I don't have some crazy deep cut. Like, when has that happened? I'm trying to think, well, shoot, we're shooting an episode tomorrow. That is kind of tough to research for certain reasons. But I don't know

There are times when you have something like really good Quoting Jimmy O Yang's First Ever Rap bars that he wrote to him And naming his rap crew from like Beverly Hills Beverly Hills Here's a trick Here's a little behind the curtain If somebody wrote a memoir more than 10 years ago

They probably don't remember anything they put in it Because I wrote a kind of memoir he cookbook 10 years ago and I don't remember anything from that And so you can really kind of surprise them If you just memorize something from it But there are certain guests where I'm like I don't have this This was cheap.

I found their high school track and field stats. Do they even care about that? Sometimes you'll even pull out a fun fact, and they just like don't even know what you're talking about. And it's like you've tried – I've tried too hard to Nardwar somebody as opposed to just connecting with them. Sure. You know, and so you also have to kind of realize that and pull back. So if Nardware was here, I would honestly probably default to pure earnestness and, you know, actually wanting to understand his process. And then I'm sure he would, you know, Nardwar me right back.

And I would accept that, right? You never want to hold yourself in a position where you're doing things because of the bit as opposed to the thing that I think has made Last Meal such an awesome show and just something that I really enjoy working on, which is this is all about like an earnest exploration into someone's life using food as the lens. Sure. You know, and so talking about, you know, celebrities, a lot of them really have broken down. and they have gotten really vulnerable.

Matthew Freakin Lillard, man. I know. Matt Lillard had, you know, in the green room, he was, he wasn't even, he wasn't closed off. He was outright belligerent in such a fun way, in such a beautiful way. But he was like, you, man, you're not fucking taking me alive. Dude, I'm not eating my last meal. I'm never going to die. What's up?

Dude, I'm excited I need pizza with you. But he was so cool. But, you know, just crying about his dad. and dementia and steak and eggs, you realize that, you know, every celebrity is just a person. There's no. Sure. That's true. And it's kind of interesting for me.

I don't know if you've kind of dealt with this at all, but like you almost feel like you are on the outside looking in of like we've all gotten more famous here than when we started. Right? Sure. Yes. You got recognized more out and about at restaurants and the Whole Foods and all that. Airports. Airports. It's all those airports.

But, you know, it's almost like I'm tracking my own increase in fame and, like, tracking the change in my own psyche because of it. Okay. And there's never a point at which you're like, I was once a normie and then now I am a famous. You know what I mean? There's no point. It's just like gradually people start treating you differently at a higher rate. Okay. You know.

Yeah. I feel that, but not clearly not to the extent of you or rett and stuff like that. It's shocking sometimes. the way like you are treated. And it's like you sometimes just want to be treated like, you do want to be treated like a normie. Yeah.

But what is a normie treated like? Are you invisible? Like, do you know what I mean? No, exactly. Sometimes you see people, you know, trying to sort of eye you and then trying to not. But you don't know if that's... You know that somebody knows who you are,

but they don't come up and say anything. But you don't know if that person is doing that for like a ton of reasons. Exactly. 100%. They might not like you. They might not like your shirt. I had one person approached me who I think actively

disliked our channel and what we do. We're waiting in line at a food truck and he goes, I know who you are. I go, hey, thanks, I'm a great to go to your channel. Josh. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I was like, what the fuck is wrong with you, buddy?

Enjoy your beat home fries asshole. But anyways, the point is, the point is the most humanizing thing you can do is just like share a meal that means a lot with somebody. I agree. And so for me, it was always like very, very important that we just keep that

emotional anchor, right? Of like, it's one of the reasons that, and this makes me really proud, we had somebody like Rain Wilson on the show, right? You obviously, most people know as Dwight from the office. I would say specifically a lot of people, but not you. I know him as the guy from The Rocker.

I like the movie. I know him from the guy that said, and Juno, that's one doodle that can't be undid, homeskill it. Sorry. But no, you know, a lot of people know him as Dwight from the office, and I'm sure he gets people yelling at him, you know, Bears Beats, Battlestar Galactica, all that stuff. He's like a such a, I'd say, relentlessly thoughtful, philosophical man.

You know what I mean? And his last meal had all these ties to all the Persian food from his roots in the Baha'i faith, and he's written multiple books. And so I was like, you know, I'm probably going to throw in one small question about the office to get a social clip, right? But then the rest of the interview, I want this to be about the things that actually matter to him. Right. Of course.

Because he's given us that amount of time. Right. And I want to treat him like a person who has interests as opposed to somebody who's now been pigeonholed as a character. Exactly. And, you know, anybody who does, say, have somebody like Rain Wilson on their interview show and only asks about the office thinking like, that's what the fans want to give it to them. No. The top comments on that video are like, hey, thanks for not just asking him about the office. Exactly.

They've already seen that, man. Yeah. And so to me, it's just, you know, everyone's human. Everyone has interests and passions and everyone has foods that mean a lot to them. How many people do you think you've actually made cry on last meal? It's interesting. Can we search that in our document that has all the facts about burgers and pizza? Pizza 19 times.

It's right there. Sushi 13. I remember we had a W.W.E. wrestler. I forgot her name, unfortunately. Becky Lynch. Becky Lynch. I remember she got very emotional about her daughter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I thought that was really, really beautiful. As a mother now, it was like, I actually watched it back recently, and I saw it, and I was like, damn, I feel exactly everything she's saying. And it's so brutal. But I think that's why people like the show so much. It's because they watch these interviews, and they're so lucky to have that depth, you know, because we're so used to those surface. Like you said, how many times can you ask Dwight from the office about the office? Yeah, yeah.

Until it gets really stale. You really put a stapler in, you really put a staple in a jello. You really could. That's safe. I mean, who got it out? Who did that? So I really, I, as a viewer, love the depth of last meals and the fact that food. But the thing is, the food is also so important. Yeah, yeah.

You can't do last meals without the meal. You really can't. It's an impossible thing to do. I would be so uncomfortable, too, just sitting there and asking somebody about their life without having. So hard. Yeah. The food is my connection point to these people. Of course.

You know what I mean? And the progression of how incredible the food has gotten also has been so beautiful to see. I remember me and you were talking about like the way that I used to run it and how it was very production focused. And then I said, you know, whenever we're having more restaurant, people on the crew, it's going to turn more into a restaurant. Yeah, yeah. And then you said, that's exactly what I want it to be. Yeah. And I'm like, holy crap. That's really, that's really funny looking back on that. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm so glad you made that choice. Because when it's run like a production, the soul of the food is a little bit different.

Yeah. I know I sometimes have to tell people here, like the way mythical kitchen is run, the way that last meals is run is like a restaurant. 30 seconds over there versus 30 seconds on the GMM set are two totally different times. It is make or break those 30 seconds whenever we have a celebrity guest over there versus waiting 30 seconds on, like for a round for a GMM episode. Yeah, yeah. And I am so happy that you made that conscious effort to change it. And I think it improved not only the food, but the interview style as well, because they don't have to think about, like, I don't want you or like the guest to think about how long it's going to take for their next course to come. Yeah. But again, that's the reframing of hiring the right people and changing the way that the show goes.

So it is more of a restaurant vibe. Yeah. Yeah. It's so funny because this is such like inside baseball that when you've been working in this industry, you understand. but this came up for our 100th last meal, actually. The guests wanted a basque-burnt cheesecake. Again, they're a food nerd, baby. Basque-burnt cheesecake.

And I was talking to Lily about executing this because she was, there's no real great place to buy one. And we wanted to do this. We wanted to serve it whole. We wanted to make it from scratch. Right. And Lily and I are talking about, like, you know, there's probably 15 other dishes on this last meal.

It was a really big one and such a fun one. But this is one of those things. That probably takes 10 minutes to mix the ingredients, takes 45 minutes to bake it. an hour to rest it. However, you kind of only get one shot, right? Yes. If you screw this up, your whole day is now ruined because now all of your other prep has been pushed back. Mm-hmm.

And so if you are trying to make a minimally viable product, something that looks good on camera that we can serve, you put an extra two tablespoons of flour in there, right? That's what we would do. The danger, that's what we would do. The danger of a basque cheesecake. We being me and you. Yeah, you're going to like, so the worst thing that can happen, if you get this thing on camera and you cut into it and it just just bleeds and it doesn't slice. You can't get that

shot of it being lifted out. And also you can't eat it. You can't serve something to the guest that's runny. You can serve something to the guest that looks like a slice and is a little bit gummy from that extra flour. But I'm like talking to Lily, I'm like, hey, what I would do, what we would do as producers, a little bit of extra flower in there, it's going to sacrifice taste by 10%, but it's going to be 30% more of a sure thing that it's going to be on camera how you want it to be. And Lily's like, nah, I'm good. I love that so much. But that's been like, you know, they're cooking, they're properly, properly cooking food.

And there was one moment that I remember seeing a guest completely change from a bite of food that we nailed so hard. And I'm pretty sure you made it. We served two of them and one of them was screwed up. And I saw whoever was bringing out. It might have been you. Give me the screwed up one. And I think you mouthed, I'm sorry. Because it.

I did. You know what I'm talking about? Yes. It is Gabriel Iglesias grilled cheese. Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'm doing this off of memory. It's on whole wheat bread with American cheese and spam. Krispy spam. Yeah, yeah.

God, let's go. It was like an after school snack that his mom used to make him when he was like selling beepers, you know. Like that's another like production thing. Like I made, because I knew that our time was short and I had to get this to him. as soon as possible. And I knew that I had to give, of course, the guess, the better one. But now, I don't even think that happens anymore. No, no.

Which is great, which is exactly what we want. Because, again, we want all the foods to be at 100%, which doesn't happen anymore. And I'm very sorry about that. I'm very sorry about it. But it was one of those moments where I was like, I have to have Josh eat the crappier one in order for the guests to have a good experience. She's not melted. Also, deceptively hard.

Deceptively hard to time a grill cheese. Easy to make it home, right? But sometimes, you know, you need an extra like... I'm sorry. No, no, no. This is genuinely an awesome moment where I saw Gabriel Iglesis's eyes light up when he bit into that like fresh, hot, freshly melted grilled cheese, right? Because you work on so many food shows.

A lot of the food shows where there's like a $20,000 prize. They're judging cold-ass food. It sucks. What they actually do is they do what's called a fresh tasting sometimes. Where the judges will taste off camera. Yeah. Just so they know what the ice cream tastes like when it wasn't melted. Right.

You know what I mean? But like we want to be serving that fresh hot food as if it was a restaurant. One course is cleared. Another course comes in. You know, we want all the cocktails to be like ice cold and not overly diluted. And I'm just, I'm like so proud of what we built, both from, you know, the consumption standpoint of people watching it and telling me how much it means to them. it's such an incredible production. It is.

No one else is doing anything like this. That's why it's so special. Presenting somebody with, say, a last meal, you know, there's some other properties that have started doing this out there. It'll be like one thing, right? It'll be one, a bowl of stew or something. Even someday it's a challenge to get a bowl of stew that's hot and fresh to a set. You know what I mean?

I know. Yeah, of course. The fact that we're doing this with like 15, 16 items sometimes. It's really cool. In the one tomorrow, we have an omicasse based off of this person's film career and just sitting down with like Lily and Colby. Colby's a resident sushi chef because he actually worked at Nobu, which is hilarious. But like sitting down with them and just trying to like, you know, think how to take a

blockbuster movie that he was in and then a weird indie thing that he produced and how do we make it that the sushi is still excellent. Translating that career into a few bites is pretty incredible. Yeah. It was so fun, man. What a time. I'm going to ask you, if you could have anyone's last meal other than your own because people don't know that you actually did your own last meal many moons ago, where Trevor

dressed up as the Grim Reaper slash Patrick Warburton. Hey, buddy, it's time to go to the underworld. So yours is what? Like shrimp cocktail, carneasada burrito. This was something that we didn't know that one episode of me cooking. My last meal would turn into now 100 episodes of an interview show. The best show in the world, yeah. I think I just really wanted garlic bread.

I said a whole loaf of garlic bread dipped in ranch. And then you made Blue Cheese Ranch. I think I made, was it I made Blue Cheese Ranch? Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is like a great food. I don't think that would end up in my last meal. Yeah.

But it would be definitely a big seafood tower to start. Maybe, God, maybe like a sparkling wine, like a pet net. You would? Crazy. Do you remember the time we ate oysters and drank sparkling wine on Tamales Bay with my wife? Yes, that was great. Such a great romantic time with Miu and my wife. If only she hadn't tagged along, right?

But I was going to ask, who's last meal out of all of the, 102 last meals that you've enjoyed, which one would you duplicate again? Which one, just from the food? Just from the food. Oh, you could also do the company. But let's just really like the food. Like this person knew what they were doing. And it was all hits, no skips. Dude, I, this is a really tough one.

I know. Brennan Moly Mulligan is up there. Vic McAhaless is in last. Vick, you're awesome. Vic, you're the best. The pretzel pizza, that was on us. That was a surprise. That was a gift from the kitchen.

The best is gorgeous. And gorgeous. The plain steamed broccoli. M. Daya Red Bull and coffee, which I drink almost every day. And frankly, I associate with just pure stress. That was easily the worst. Not the edible clay from Simone? No, that was a hard.

Awesome. Eating fresh jackfruit with a buoy knife. That was awesome. I'm going to say Elizabeth Olson. I think. Controversial. Because there are some people, there are some people who saw Elizabeth Olson say her last meal and say, this last meal called me poor. Nothing Elizabeth Olson had on there cost money. Caviar kind of does. Caviar was maybe 60 bucks. Anybody that has, and that's for a lot, anybody who has ever asked for a steak, right? Somebody wants especially like a wog, a wog, something or even a normal tomahawk steak. Any guess that has ever asked for a tomahawk, that tomahawk cost double what we paid for any amount of caviar. All of Elizabeth Olson's foods, none of them were expensive except for the caviar. They were all very well curated.

She knows ball on a level that is deeper than every guest we've had, including some chefs. The fact that she named like Fabio DeHia as a winemaker, that was a $30 bottle of wine. We've had people drink a thousand dollar bottle of whiskey on the goddamn show. That's right. And not a single person said that that person, that their whiskey called them poor, right? But like the fact that Elizabeth Olson was so specific, right? And this is a person that she bought a whole lamb to butcher herself, not slaughter, butcher. A whole lamb to butcher herself for a dinner party when she was 16 just because she wanted to explore it.

You know, that is so awesome. And her meal had this through line. It had stuff from her family, her mom's salmon ball, all of these little bites with like, you know, a little the potato with the anchovy on it. She was like naming the anchovies, a local pizzeria in Sherman Oaks, where I live, it felt like home. Elizabeth Olson, you had, I think, my single favorite last meal. And I know that's controversial. I'll say this.

Her last meal didn't call me poor. It called me unsexy because her last meal was sexy. Her last meal was incredibly sexy. Sexy is last meal. And you can, and you're fine being called unsexy sometimes. Not every person needs a crunched up supreme on their, on their, their last meal. Then that's okay.

You know, you can be called unsexy. Well, all right, Nicole. I've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas rattling out there in the universe. It's time for the segment we call. Opinions are like casseroles. Let's get to that first caller.

Hey, y'all. Hi. I'm a huge fan of the show, and I'm also a huge fan of last meals. Heck you know. And the recent episode has gotten me thinking. If you couldn't have a last meal, but you could have a first meal, what would it be? So, like, if you've never eaten food in your life, what would you want for the first meal? Oh, okay.

All right. Oh, interesting. I'm curious if this changes the calculus. Because, like, there's kind of been a debate on, like, is your last meal just your favorite foods? And I was talking about this to somebody, and I realize that, like, there's something I would put on my last meal, that was something my mom used to make for me on my birthdays that would always be a little messed up depending on how okay or not okay she was. And I have not tasted this thing in like 15 years, but no, more 20 plus, probably 25 years, in fact. And I don't know my own emotional reaction

if I were to taste this again. I don't know the things that would bring up, but I know it would be on my last meal as a way to sort of, you know, tie it back. So what? What is it? Dude, pepperage farm, I don't even know if they make them. They were. make them anymore, they were puff pastry cups. You would bake them and they would rise and you would hollow them out and it would be this like hexagonal puff pastry cup. And you would mix cooked minute rice, cream of mushroom soup, rotissory chicken, canned peas. You've made it before. Top of slivered almonds.

We made it for your birthday. Do we make it, make it? Interesting. So I have tasted it. You have tasted it. I've forgotten all the things because I remember I tried to make an updated version of that dish. Oh, we did. I tried to make a fancy version of chicken liver.

and then we made two different... Yeah, we've made it before. We've done so much. We've done so much. Did you get upset when you ate it? I don't know. I don't have to check the tape. Things that happen on camera, you know what I mean? How can you remember?

You do so much. I know. Gosh. It's like when we asked Keith if he had had Nigerian food and he goes, I don't know, let me Google search it. Oh, my God. No way. Poor Keith.

I think my first meal and my last meal are the same. And my last meal is deeply nostalgic. It's very, very, you want to know all of it? Okay, can I pull up my phone? Bludge fun. Sorry, is it in my... It was in my ass crack. Let me see.

Where's my... Okay, yeah, I'll give you my last meal. It is all nostalgia foods because I had a... I'm sorry, not to flex. I had a great upbringing. Let me see where it is. Sorry, hold on. Yeah, of course I have it.

I have a Persian breakfast. Warm bad berry and sang egg bread with sour shier, feta cheese, Persian sour cherry preserves, rose jam and some honey, two soft-boiled eggs on those little pedestal cup thing with a side of salt and pepper, Persian tea, Sadaf or Ahmad brand with Persian sugar cubes Alvan brand. Then Brazilian barbecue. Papa's Brazilian barbecue, black beans Kuva de Minera. I don't know what that is. Poutiquejo, Farofa, and an orangina.

My mom's Gormesabzi, my mom's Gemi, my mother-in-law's rice with Taddi. get an ice cold spright, not room temperature. My mom's zaboon with a side of lime and salt, zabun is cow tongue, sashimi, and a really good almond croissant. And for dessert, a custard ponchik microwaves slightly, jar of Nutella with a spoon, and two fingers of Amaranoino with a nice fat ice cube.

Ponchick, huh? Yeah, that's my dad's favorite. Specifically, microwaved until it's a little bit warm. My last meal is all nostalgic foods from my life. And so your first meal, like you say, You get like, like, like a, like, what's that thing? No country for old men? No, no, no, not no country for old men.

You get men in black. No, you get men in black. No, no, no, no, you get men in black. You go, no, no, no, no, no. They call it like an equalizer. They call it like a rememberizer. Okay. What do they call the thing from?

I don't know. Neutralizer. Yeah, neutralize me. Logan, look it up. You'll find it. You get, you know, you forget that you saw aliens. Oh, okay. And so you forget what food is.

Okay. And they're like, one, the first food that you taste. from this ambi-egette. Persian breakfast. Persian breakfast. Sort of restart your life anew as a Persian woman. Specifically, the first bite would be hot barberry bread with a scoop of sour shere, which is breakfast cream, rose jam, and a sip of Persian tea with a single sugar cube. Wow.

That would be mine. But I know my last meal, so whenever you want to make it for me, just let me know. First thing, sorry, I stopped listening. First thing I taste. That's so mean. Why do I immediately go to gruel? Josh. No, but the first thing you taste, what's the strat here?

What would make it? What do you want to strat? Like your last meal, it's like, well, I want to maybe have my entire life flash before my eyes. That way, when the rush of dimethylptamine hits me as I'm dying, maybe I can sort of perennially live in this memory loop. That's why people come on for their last meals is so they can enter an inception type time loop. Is that why people with a rush of DMT? I thought it's to like promote their newest. We got a rom-com out and Miles Tellers in it.

And it was a wonderful movie. Did you know that another time whenever you have DMT release is whenever you give birth? Really? Did you know that? You got you... No, I had an emergency C-section. I told you about it. Yeah, that's right.

Wait, yes, I guess you didn't. I told you about it. So I didn't get to do that. I really wanted a little DMT as a treat. Yeah, number two. I didn't get any. That sucks. I'm not having a V-back?

Am I crazy? I had a roommate who used to make it. Yeah? Yeah, yeah. Like, which one was it? You haven't met him. You haven't met him. Was it?

Was it? Hold on. Can you turn off the camera? I'll tell you after. I'll tell you after. I don't think they still make it. They're like an adult. Just slack it to me.

That's the thing that you can't do. Anybody out there, you can't go to your college plug when you're an adult and say, hey, you're still a plug. They'll go, no, I'm an adult and I have a job. Lose this. I work up progressive now. Literally that happens. Anyways, crying a sot of a burrito.

Yeah, it's just like the best. It's the best food. It means a lot to me. Being from Southern California, it feels like this is a sense of time and place there. And that's the first thing that I'd want to eat. Maybe, or maybe just a plain bean burrito. The best bean and cheese. Yeah, I guess bean and cheese Brito. The cheese doesn't even do that much for me. The cheese is just glue.

The cheese is just glue. And really, really well-seasoned beans. You know what I mean? Well-seasoned silky beans. Some of them still kind of whole. A lot of lardomal spite in there. You can taste the chili and the beans. There's no acidity.

There's no freshness, no nothing. But you can taste like the toasted chili and the beans. Mm, flower tortilla. You can see through it. Dude, come on. That's like such a good food. I might need to have that a long. Alongside a cronistada burrito for my last meal.

A bean burrito? I think it's kind of the best food. Really? That is such a hot take. The way the beans envelop your mouth. You know, alternating chili to our bowl and salsa verde on it. Hell yeah. Hey, Josh and Nicole.

This is Susan Stocker, a long-time listener. Hey, Susan. Just finally got caught up, fully caught up. But I'm watching the Ed Sheeran eats his last meal. We had a chair. That was crazy. And you talked about deep fried pizza and it blew my mind. Pizza crunch.

You have to talk about that. Please describe what that looks like. Do I just dip the whole pizza? I've made it before. Into the fire or is it like more like a calzone? I don't know. So many questions. Please just describe deep fried pizza for us all.

Please. Thank you so much. So you take. So nice of you season. So you take the whole pizza and you dip it in a batter. Then you put it in a deep fryer, you pull it out, and that's it. Was that a good accent? But you're talking about pizza crunch.

Isn't that a good accent? There's many different kinds of fried pizza and I'm Connor McGregor. I can't handle me left hand. I think you got a little Disney Pixar's Brave. Well, that's expected. I'm not a lady. I'm not a lady. I'm not a lady.

No, deep fried pizza. I've made it before. It came from Scottish chippies, I believe. Those freaks will deep fry anything. They really will. Gordon Ramsey had a deep-fried Mars bar on his last night. He hated it. He hated it.

It kind of confusing if you were like trying to connect the dots on what happened there. But anyways, there's a couple different types of fried pizza. That, the Scottish pizza crunch, they're literally taking a whole ass slice of pizza. Probably not the best pizza in the world, but you don't want it if it's going to be defried. Dipping it into like fish batter. Yeah, and a batter. I said in a batter. In a batter.

In a batter. And then what do they call the loose batter Krispies? You know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm? You can just get it on the side. They just call them, mm. The crunchies. Give me a side of crunchies.

It's, it's, it's, uh, they have it in like Okonomiaki. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They just fry the batter. I forgot what they're called, but they're so good. You can be, yeah, it's like, can get a side of just the pee liquid. You know what I mean? Pea liquid? Give me a side of pee wet.

Oh, like liquid from mushy peas. From mushy peas. I was like, what the fuck are you? There's a couple Italian fried pizzas that are really good. There's pizza Montanara. Pizza Mantaara, which is one of my favorite things in the world. You literally fry the round pizza dough and you top it with tomato sauce and generally like a parmesan cheese or a pecorino. And it's so wonderful.

There's also pizza frita, which you take the raw dough, you fold over. That is like a calzone, I believe. So there's a couple different kinds. But yeah, dude, fried pizza is pretty good. I don't know if it's ever better than just like the best. Neapolitan pizza? Any sort of fried pizza? Do you have a favorite Neapolitan pizza?

Like in L.A.? Yeah, mine was Soto for a long time, and then it went away. Soto, yeah. Soto was good. Have you ever been to De Sano? Yeah. De Sano just does a really good. Standard-ass job. Sometimes you need a standard pizza.

You need a standard Neapolitan. Soto was great. They cooks their pizzas like a thousand degrees, and they were... Ronan does a great job. Ronin. Ronin picked up where Soto left off, which is why I like them. I like Ronin. It's not a sour-doughy, though, which makes me sad.

Yeah, Soto was like it. I like my pizza sour. Soto did that. They like a guancholy and leak pizza, I think. Fudge, man. Faj. Yeah, fried pizza, fun times. Hi, I love your. I'm sorry, I'm watching Scottish people eat deep fried pizza. No, Logan, the floors is. Logan, play it. Have some respect. This is a podcast, and I love mythical kitchen, and I love you, Josh, and I love you, Nicole. I love you. I love you. And say how to Trevor and D. and Lily for me. I know. But anyway, I called because I want to know you got this thought on picky eaters.

Because I have myself in the picky eater. How picky. And I got a lot of hate for it by a lot of people. And my argument is always that I stick to what I like, you know, because, yeah. And I get people who don't like picky eaters who are like, I refuse to try anything, like, everything is bad. Because, like, you can at least try. But I'm not like that. So I'm wondering what you guys think about that.

What are your thoughts? So, okay. Love you. Bye. I love you too. We did a podcast with Link about picky eaters. And I'll say this. As someone who wants their kid to not be a picky eater,

I think I have to introduce a lot of things to my baby, like from year like zero to like three. And just open, like they can eat whatever their heart desires, right? and I would like to think that that leads them in adulthood to not be picky eaters. I don't know if that actually works. I'm curious how you're going to find the nature versus nurture debate when you have one child, maybe multiple children who are wildly different despite your best efforts. That's very true.

That scares me a lot. Can you actually do anything? Maybe it has to do with like, what's it called? Like their temperament, their discernment. Yeah, their balances of the humors. You know what I mean? That's such an odd way of like speaking. If the bile and the colic is out of whack, then the,

They don't like, they don't, that sounds like it's from the 17th century. You need to be leached. No, the picky eating thing, I think it all depends what you mean by a picky eater, right? If there's somebody who's just very discerning, like Link Neal, Link actually, when we made that podcast, he convinced me that I should be like pickier a little bit. Because I will never order the same thing twice at a restaurant in a way that, I mean, if it's Taco Bell, even Taco Bowl, probably get in a different combination orders. That's crazy. I've changed up my in and out order a lot even.

I do that too because I'm trying to achieve greatness. You're a seeker. I'm seeking greatness at in and out. You're a seeker. But how many times have you sacrificed your happiness chasing something else? 15,000 times. You went chasing waterfalls. You should have stuck to the rivers of lakes that I used to.

You know what I mean? Similarly with, you know, Link who's just like, I found what I like and I like that. But if you're somebody who is, say, holding yourself back from new experiences, especially with friends, I think that's where you actually have a problem. You know what I mean? Okay. So you need to know the difference between being a discerning eater and being picky. And then also sometimes picky eating is, you know, you can go so far as having like ARFID, right?

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder or something. I'm not sure exactly. But things that are like really related to clinical anxiety. Like aversions. Yeah, yeah. Like a true, this is inspiring fear. Yes, this is unsafe. As opposed to I could have a three-second negative experience in my mouth, and then after that, it's fine.

You know what I mean? So there's a lot of different spectrums here. But at the same time, like, I don't know, dude, I got picky eating friends. If I'm going out to a new Uighur, Western Chinese hot pot spot in Arcadia, I'm not going to be a bikie. You know? Dale's not coming with me to Uyghur food. Nah, dude, you know? But I got friends who do love going out to eat, you know, with me, and I know he can order anything.

I really appreciate that. Well? I just see everything. from like a lens of motherhood now and it's really hard. That's kind of beautiful, man. Kind of. I would love to not, but it's so intertwined with everything I am. Yeah. That everything anyone asks me ever, I think about me being a mom.

Isn't that insane? Did you think that, did you have a fear of other people pigeonholing you as a mother, but then now you feel like you're doing that yourself? I'm okay being pigeonholed, self-pigeon-holing myself as a mom. Sure. It is, I think it's a very Western, way to separate yourself. I'd agree with that.

And I think that's wrong. And I think that's doing a disservice to you and your family unit and your child. Yeah. Yeah. You think it's like a Western thing to think of being a mother as something you could be pigeonholed as. Say that again. Like you think it's weird to even think of motherhood as something that you could be pigeonholed. Yes.

As you know what I mean? As opposed to just, hey, this is a really big milestone in life. Yeah. Yeah, and that has been everything throughout the entire history. 100%. And it's only a very new thing that we're now looking at that through, like, maybe a lens where you're sacrificing things. 100%. Yeah.

So sorry if sometimes I, like, I'm very, like, motherly with my answers and questions and stuff. Dude, no, not at all. I mean, like, truly, no, no, truly. I mean, that is one of the nostalgic because we've done, you know, 100 episodes of Last Meals. Go check out Last Meals. But no, like, the fact that we've all known each other for like seven, seven years, six, seven years now. crazy. You know, we've grown with each other.

God damn it. God damn! She's still so young and youthful. She knows what Six-seven is. But, like, we're going to see each other, you know, grow and evolve. I know. So funny. And I think it's very cool.

Very exciting. It's a really, it's a privilege to, like, be in somebody's life for that long. I agree. I agree. The money has nothing to do with it. The money, I want the money. The money is mine. I won the money.

Vegas Vacation. Great movie. Well, on that note, you got anything else to say to the people? Um, yeah, if you want to be featured on opinions are like casseroles. Give us a ring. She's always saying this to people at AG3 Dog Pod 1. In the checkout line of CBS and goes, if you want to be featured on opinions like pastels, go.

Subscribe, Mythical Kitchen. We're over there doing stuff. Subscribe to the YouTube channel of this, of this podcast. You don't. Nicole is going to come at you and say earnest things about motherhood. I'm going to be a little helpful. I'm going to hold your ear in a really semi-hard way and you're not going to like. I'm gonna do that.

See you all next time.