A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What's The Best Food Movie? ft. Binging With Babish

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

Today, we're joined by Andrew Rea of the Babish Culinary Universe to discuss: what's the best food movie? 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, this is Mythical. Forget the Oscars. Today we're declaring the Oscar Mayer winner for Best Food Movie. This is A Hot Dog is 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. A hot dog is a sandwich.

What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Handizadeh. And today we're joined by the Babish Culinary Universe's own Andrew Ray. Andrew's one-part chef, one-part filmmaker, a generous dash of irreverent YouTube personality, a heaping handful of bourbon enthusiast, a cyclist and karaoke singer to taste, and no, I didn't just read that from his Twitter bio.

I did, Andrew, I read that from your Twitter bio. His show binging with Babish recently celebrated its five-year anniversary of exploring the question. What does the food from film and television actually taste like? This makes him the perfect teammate for today's topic. He's also my friend and I owe the internet a tattoo of his face somewhere on my body, but more on that later. Andrew, welcome. Thanks so much for having me, man. And major kudos for being able to do that in one take. I can't read through a single sentence to save my life in one take. So really just big, big kudos. I really appreciate that. I found out that I, if I lean into the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and try and just like use that as a sort of superpower that hinders my life in a lot of other ways, I can get through a lot of script in one take.

Oh, see, I've been trying to medicate away my problems and you're leaning into them. Lean in. That's the key. You got to lean into them. That's what the Kanye West way. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Let them consume you and ultimately drive you under the ground. But for now, hey, let's record a podcast. Yeah. All right, we're getting into real issues. Let's talk food and movies. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. So, I mean, we figured, right. You've, you've made your, your entire career on YouTube after, you know, uh, bringing the food from movies and TV to life. So we were hoping that you would go on record as saying what the greatest food movie of all time

is. Are you willing to do that? Yes, I'm willing to do that yes i'm willing to do that and just you know fair warning i and this is not me name dropping even though it totally is uh but you know i'm a dear john favreau is a dear friend of mine uh yeah well i know where you're going no i met uh i met roy choy once and he gave me a bro hug. So that's something. He's the best. I met Ron Artest in a bathroom. He was pretty good for the Lakers and Bulls, you know?

I mean, you know, we all have our- Pierce Brosnan winked at me one time. Really? Yeah. That's cool. Sorry, go ahead. We all have our biases. So, you know, but just contractually and personally and spiritually, I have to say chef because, you know, and like I if I'm actually going to answer that question, I think I have to give the crown to big night.

They all love food and not just showing food, not just, you know uh pornographically uh showing you pretty shots of food they love food as a communal object as a a thing that brings people together as a thing that that that soothes relationships chef and uh big night in particular are about the um unifying power of food and uh that's why they're at the top of my list. Uh, Tampopo is definitely deserves its place on that list. I think more because it's inventive more than anything else. Um, but it's, it's a, it's a great movie and I do recommend, uh, giving her to watch when, when there aren't so many interesting documentaries on HBO to watch, which is never because they have so many great documentaries. There's so many, but, uh, no, I mean the thing you're talking about chef uh i worry that we may all have the same answer which might be chef

well nicole what's your answer my answer is not chef what is it my answer is the wonderful movie waiting dot dot dot okay i've learned a different sort of food movie i've learned that my food movies are like socio-political economic like food movies like I loved Super Size Me that's like probably one of my other ones and I also really like The Platform I don't know if you guys have ever heard of The Platform but it's pretty much a like allegory about like trickle down economics how like

these people at the top of the platform have like a huge Venetian style feast and then it trickles down 200 levels it's a really yeah I guess my food movies are all like weirdly political. That's cool. Just because I enjoy it. That's a way cooler answer.

I think it's really cool. Sorry, but like that's a way cooler answer. Well, no, I mean, one, Andrew, you're not nearly as cool as Nicole. So that makes sense. But no, I mean, the movies that Andrew's talking about of like Chef, like showing a ton of reverence for food, where like the food is almost the main character in a sense, right? It's about all these characters, you know, Jon Favreau, his son, fantastic John Leguizamo in there.

Sure. But, you know, the food is playing such a central role. Yeah. Whereas in the movies you're talking about, food is a lens through which to view the world. Yes, exactly. Which I really love because, I mean, like I said, I wrote this, let's talk about ISIS more.

I wrote this article, I mean, the reason I got into food writing, you know, especially I started writing about food as it related to politics and social justice. So I wrote a lot about agriculture and stuff like that and public policy. The reason I got into that is because food has always been the most important thing in my life. So every single thing I see in the world, I kind of see it through the lens of food. So like, for instance, right, when the Super Bowl comes around or the big game comes around every year, I don't know what we can say. And everyone eats chicken wings. Where does the rest of the chicken go? You know? And then I

really started digging into that. This is just a curious 14 year old me stuffing his face with chicken wings. And I started Googling it and then find out that, you know, all the thighs and legs are shipped to Russia and China. And then all of the feathers are shipped to Malaysia for processing. And then a lot of the chicken that we ship to China and Russia actually gets processed and then shipped back to the U S so like any single story out there become, this is a weird tangent, bear with me. Any story out there becomes a food story to me. So things like, you know, uh, I mean, supersize me or even like fast food Inc. I mean, there's so many great food documentaries like that that can teach you so much about the world through the lens of food.

No, I totally agree. Have you ever heard of a movie called Ramen Girl? Have you guys ever heard of a movie called Ramen Girl? I've not, no. Okay, okay. Hear me out. Brittany Murphy, she gets left in Japan. Her boyfriend leaves her and then she goes into a ramen shop

and it's raining and she's sad. And then she says, oh my God, ramen? I'm going to become a ramen chef. And then she becomes a ramen chef. That's raining and she's sad and then she says oh my god ramen i'm gonna become a ramen chef and then she becomes a ramen chef that's a good food centric movie don't you agree i i like it you know uh another a show on netflix that i would highly recommend if you haven't watched yet is samurai gourmet you ever see that no what's it about it's amazing if you're especially if you're hungover if you just need something like really easy for your brain, there's no conflict in the show. There's no, there's no rising tensions or,

or, uh, uh, apex of drama or anything like that. In any episode, it is a simple, well-told little linear story that loves food. It's about an old,

uh, not old, but retirement age, uh, Japanese guy in Tokyo, I think. I don't know where he is, but he retires. And he doesn't know what to do with his time, with his life,

because he's worked his entire life. And he decides to just channel this samurai that he imagines in his mind that just eats and drinks with wild abandon and enjoys food and dining to its fullest. And he goes to some of the best restaurants in his area. And this is an extremely pornographic show. Like the food is up close and gorgeously photographed. Gorgeous.

And it's just his interior monologue, mostly, as he's eating. And that's it. It's easy. I love that. That sounds right up my alley. It's eating. And that's it. It's easy. I love that. That sounds right up my alley. It's sweet. And it's just this very, very lovable, adorable old guy. Again, not that old, retirement age, probably 65, who is just enjoying the hell out of food, like really losing himself to the experience of dining and being fed and to trying people's craft. It's really lovely. And it kind of reminds me of Chef Show, which is

Jon Favreau's show, which is a very easy thing to watch because there's no conflict. It's just a look at food through the lens of different people in the industry. That's, that's one of the most beautiful things is being able to experience someone else's unbridled joy of food through a screen. And it's something that like we, not to get like into a meta narrative about food media, but so many people who want to be overly analytical about things or act like they are too cool or too good for certain foods. Uh, to me, it, it like takes away so much from this element of joy, which is what made chef so beautiful is that they treat a shot of a grilled cheese. The grilled cheese scene in chef to me is one of the most iconic scenes.

So for anyone who doesn't know, chef is a movie, I believe written and directed by Jon Favreau. Written, directed and starred in by Jon Favreau. It's like the sling blade to Billy Bob Thornton. You gotta incorporate sling blade somehow, don't you Josh? I gotta bring sl Bob Thornton. Oh, we've got to incorporate Sling Blade somehow, don't you, Josh?

Oh, we've got to bring Sling Blade in somehow. Oh, we've got a Sling Blade fan here. That's a good food movie. Huge fan. That's a good

French fried potatoes. French fried potatoes. You've got to make the French fried potatoes from Sling Blade now. From the Tasty Cream? I know that movie well. Oh,

that's fantastic. You really do. The best part is the lead from Tokyokyo drift is the child yeah no absolutely and uh what's his name plays the villain what the hell is his name oh yeah i don't i'm not gonna reach it uh uh he's an incredible country singer that guy he's so creepy and terrible in that movie he's like a drunk you know abuser terrible awful person and then he's like in real life he's just he's an amazing country He's like a drunk, you know, abuser, terrible, awful person. And then he's like,

in real life, he's just, he's an amazing country singer with like a huge following. It's incredible. What the hell is his name? Hang on. Wait, it's Nicole Googling it.

Yeah, I can. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Sling blade. Well, some folks call it a Kaiser blade.

Okay. Some folks call it a Kaiser blade. Some folks call it a Kaiser blade. Okay. It looks like Dwight Yoakam. Dwight Yoakam. Dwight Yoakam is a renowned country singer. I can tell.

That's incredible. So chef, we can't get sidetracked. This is my fault. This is my fault. So chef written, starred in directed by Jon Favreau. It is all about a chef who won a ton of awards while he was cooking in

Miami. And then he moves to Los Angeles to open up a restaurant that he finally gets a ton of investment in. And this is from a restaurant owner played by Dustin Hoffman, which I love watching the dynamic between the chef and the restaurant owner. And then he learns that he doesn't want to be boxed in creatively. And then he has a huge sort of meltdown. He goes off on a food critic. And then he launches on a journey of self-discovery where he starts a food truck.

And his son goes along with him as well as his sous chef from his old restaurant. And then he starts cooking Cuban food. He starts making Cuban sandwiches in that mojo de ajo brined pork in the medianoches and the fried yuca. And then he drives across the country with his son, finding himself in his relationship with his family along the way, as well as, you know, his purpose. And it's this great, you know, allegory of how food is something that it shouldn't be exalted to a certain level to the point where it destroys your happiness with it. That was like a huge message that I got from it. And the cinematography like follows that message so much where so many simple dishes that he cooks are just shot with such like precision and just food pornographic elements i mean that spaghetti aglio e olio which andrew i

think that was i mean that was one of the first like really huge videos on your channel right yeah it was actually one of the first episodes full stop is the third episode ever um and uh it definitely caught fire later on but another great message in that movie that i personally resonates with me personally is uh in order to find that that creative fulfillment sometimes you have to burn everything down not literally but figuratively absolutely uh and you need you need to start fresh and really examine where you're deriving your happiness from and what gets you out of bed in the morning and attack that and sometimes it's hard and sometimes you you have to you have to grind like my man goes from you know being the the head chef at a renowned la restaurant to uh of cleaning the gunk out of an ancient food

truck that he got for free from robert downey jr and uh uh great role you know that that's that's the uh the fire you have to walk through sometimes to find that creative fulfillment as somebody who's had to do that personally, like that, that really, uh, uh, resonates with me and it's not necessarily a lesson for everyone, but it's definitely an important lesson for people who might be so, um, sort of stuck in their ways that they need a fire under their ass. They need a wake up call. Yeah. So when you, when you watch chef, did you like see your own journey reflected in that? Or

did you watch chef and then that sort of reified in your mind that this is my ultimate journey and how it's going to go? Or had you already burned everything down? So to speak? No, I, um, I, at the time when I saw chef, I had not burned anything down yet. Um, and, uh, the, the, the message didn't really resonate with me till after that's like the clarity you get from therapy is like, you don't really connect those dots until after you've had a mental health expert help you do it. Um, so, uh, uh, you know, that, that's, that's, that was my journey, but, um, uh, Carl Casper is a, is a, is a life that I think we can all, you know, lean, especially if you're creative, uh, Carl Casper is a, is a, is a life that I think we can all, you know, lean,

especially if you're creative, uh, you can glean some information and some inspiration from. Yeah. A hundred percent. I think, I mean, my answer for this officially is chef to me,

chef meant so, so, so much. Um, however, uh, for the purpose of this, and this is a great segue, the one food movie that really helped me sort of understand my life's journey um nicole

knows what i'm about to say because it's embarrassing is uh eddie's million dollar cook-off starring taylor ball and i believe his name is orlando brown this is a disney movie circa 2004 uh and it is about bobby flay this is like the rise of food network bobby flay had just like stood on the counter at the iron Chef Japan stadium and been electrocuted. I don't know if anyone knows that story. What? No. No, Bobby Flay was the first American chef to travel to Iron Chef Japan and compete.

I can't remember if he competed against Chen Morimoto or Sakai. But anyways, after he competed, one, there was like a live wire running through a puddle of water. And he stepped in it and Bobby Flay gets electrocuted. But Bobby Flay finishes the cook And then he like stands up on the counter victoriously, which apparently in Japanese culinary tradition is incredibly disrespectful. It's kind of disrespectful anywhere you go, but I would appreciate that American bravado, right? That's like a Donald Lowe or let him stand on a table. That's what I'm saying. Anyways, Bobby Flay is like the starring cameo in this Disney movie.

Um, but it is about a, a kid who is like a baseball phenom. And again, this is Disney channel original, like not to theaters straight to the, to the channel on basic cable. So it was very low production budget.

Um, but it's about a baseball phenom in high school who has a ton of pressure from his parents to succeed in sports. And of course, tons of societal pressure because of his gender and his presentation and all that. All he wants to do is cook, but he has to hide it from his friends. And so you all see where this is going.

And so he, he joins home Mac and you know, of course it's, everything's Disneyfied. So all his friends are like, Oh Mac, that's for girls. You're learning to bake cookies.

That's for girls. And then of course, this is like a mixed gender sports team because that's how it exists in Disney movies. It is very rare in the real world. And then, you know, the girl who's a star pitcher on the team is like, girls can do anything a boy can. But anyways, I'm watching this as a 12 year old who had, you know, really just started to love to cook. But, you know, I was playing multiple sports at the time and grew up in a household with just, you know, a single dad and my brother, and we're only internalizing messages we get from the media.

And so watching that was like, oh my God, I don't have to choose. I'm a large child and I can cook and do sports and love myself. And yeah, then Bobby Flay says like, I'm proud of you to him, but I thought he was saying it to me. And so in my mind, and yeah, then Bobby Flay says like, I'm proud of you to him, but I thought he was saying it to me. And so, uh, in my mind, I mean, do they treat food with any respect in that movie?

No, absolutely not. His like dish that he really finds his love for cooking in is just this cartoonish purple sludge, uh, that he gets in a food fight at school in this purple sludge drips off the ceiling and he tastes it. And he's like, my God, that's the best thing I've ever had. A lot of people have asked me to make that just for the record. Really?

Oh, then you gotta make it. Man, if you ever- We gave you two episodes. We got two episodes. We got the sling blade mashed potatoes. I mean, french fried potatoes and the purple sludge from Eddie's Million Dollar Cooker. Dude, next collab, you and me,

let's make that purple sludge. Honestly, I would love to. I can make any purple sludge you want. He makes it every morning anyways. I actually do. My breakfast every morning, it's a mixture of protein powder, Greek yogurt, and blueberries

that I mash together by hand and it looks like that. Okay, I was about to say that's literally what I have for breakfast every morning because I'm trying to look more like you. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. He pointed to Nicole, by the way.

But I don't mash it together with my hands like a psycho. I use a blender. No, no, no. That's the problem, man. That's the problem. No, you gotta mash it. Yeah, because here a psycho. I use a blender. No, no, no. That's the problem, man. That's the problem. No, you gotta mash it. Yeah, because here's the thing.

Subcutaneous nutrient absorption. It's bro science. Go to a bodybuilding.com chat room and you'll learn so much. I already learned so much from bodybuilding.com chat rooms. Usually nothing about bodybuilding. I'm going there to see what prescriptions interact. I get the weirdest miscellaneous info there a lot of upsetting political opinions in chat rooms to tell you that much yeah not a great hub for moderation

there there's another food movie though that i have watched more than any other food movie especially in the last five years can i guess what it is is it burnt yes you trash person yes it is bradley cooper's burnt uh andrew you've seen the movie yeah i've seen it and i don't think that that movie loves food as much no it doesn't it doesn't it is uh maybe the worst food movie ever made oh well okay well that explains why you watch it so much what what i you hate watch it well i don't but i don't know if it's a i don't know if it's exactly a hate watch because, okay, has anyone seen Troll 2? No.

Yes, of course. Of course he's seen Troll 2. You haven't seen Troll 2. I have no reason to watch Troll 1 or Troll 2. Oh my God. Oh, wait, no, that's Hobgoblins. No, no, that's Troll 2. That's a, they're eating him.

Are you talking about the movie with the leprechaun? No. Okay. So Troll 2, it's about goblins. They live in the town of Nilbog. It's referenced in a Tyler, the Creator music video. Okay. Goblin.

But anyways, that is actually a weird allegory for vegetarianism. I guess. Yeah, you're right. What portal did I just step into? Because the goblins are like, you humans eating stinking, rotten meat flesh. And then the goblins turn the humans into plant-based food. Oh, well, that's, see, that's a, there's a positive message to that. Well, now you ruined it for me.

Sorry, Nicole. Well, now I can't watch it. Speaking of sequels of campy 80s horror movies that suck. Have you seen Silent Night, Deadly Night 2? No, I have not. Just go to YouTube and search for Garbage Day from Silent Night. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Garbage Day. It's one of my favorite bad movie moments ever. So, I mean, I've watched Troll 2 probably five or six times. Nicole's watching YouTube clips while doing the podcast. I'm watching Garbage Day. Watch Garbage Day. It'll make your day, seriously. It's maybe my favorite movie of all time.

And this is god damn it it's the point break remake 2015 point break remake and i'll tell you why it it is so stimulating to me it gets my it gives me an emotional reaction at so many turn to turns because it's such a bad movie it's about these like buddhist eco terror they took the original movie with keanu reeves and patrick swayze and a great gary bucey uh that you know was at least somewhat subdued right it was surfers robbing a bank to fund their surfing and then the remake of it they're these like buddhist eco-terrorists who are trying to conquer the world's most extreme sports challenges so they can reach nirvana and it's it's utterly insane they crank everything up to 11

but that's how i feel about the movie burnt where everything is so dramatic at every turn that movie hates food it does and also if you look at the executive producers on that gordon ramsay and mario batali both of whom i believe hate food no way as opposed to someone yeah i mean i had no idea that they were, they were the executive, like, you know, consulting producers, which is a great story. If you watch chef, you can name, we just rattled off the names of about eight dishes that they made. I can't name one thing that Bradley Cooper cooks and burnt. Yeah.

I don't remember anything. Yeah. No, I remember there, uh, is there a lobster pasta or something? Some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, many people ask for food from that. And I think the only scene that I ever, that I liked was the one where he like blows up

on the manager for mistreating somebody, but he's mistreating everybody. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Yeah. It makes no sense. Yeah. Down to everything. So, so Bradley Cooper, uh, he plays like the ultimate sort of Marco Pierre white would

be like, that's what I was going to say. He's the one who like raised Gordon Ramsey and he and he's the reason gordon ramsay is the person that he is uh so he plays this like bad boy chef who's going for his third michelin star which is not even how the michelin star system works so they're all they're like already proving that they have no idea about the actual food world or they're not trying to um give their viewers any respect and thinking that they might understand how it works so he's going for his third michelin star but then he has a huge breakdown because he's addicted to drugs and he like owes the mafia money and so to punish himself he goes to new orleans to shuck one million oysters that's his punishment and the opening shot of the movie is

him shucking an oyster writing down one million throwing his apron on the ground going i'm out boys and hopping on a freaking motorcycle it is so bad it's like that it is good it's like the end of dexter in reverse and worse it's but i mean that to me it's such a stark contrast between what makes a good food movie a great food movie chef and a absolute terrible food movie. And this is reflected in streams and box office as well in a bad movie like Burnt, where Burnt, you can't name a single dish because they never tell you what he's making.

What they do is Uma Thurman plays a food critic and she eats a bite of food and just goes, mmm. And that's the only indication you get that he is a good chef. She goes, mmm. And then they the only indication you get that he is a good chef. She goes, mmm. And then they do B-roll of people eating and they're going, mmm. And it's ugly and weird.

You know, how you do at a restaurant. Yeah. Yum, yum. Just softly moaning whale sounds throughout. I recently went to Danielle and it was just a moan fest. You know what we haven't talked about, guys, yet? The animated classic Ratatouille, which I just watched maybe like a month ago for the first time. And I was so impressed.

I loved it. It was beautiful. That is another movie that loves food. I mean, obviously, just because it's truly loves. Yeah, it's about, you know, somebody's willingness. Somebody is in a rat, their willingness to overcome any obstacle, namely being a rat. obviously just because it's truly loves yeah it's about you know somebody's willing that somebody isn't a rat uh their willingness to overcome any obstacle namely being a rat uh to be a great chef and uh and and performs the miracle of seeing a kitchen full of rats cooking and making it not

gross somehow i don't like pixar really are miracle workers because they like i know people with like genuine phobias of of rodents like that and they watched it like oh i wonder what they're making i wonder if that has like changed the discourse around restaurant cleanliness and now people see rats in the kitchen because if i see a rat in a professional kitchen i'm just gonna assume that's a rat that too we rat i'm be like no that's the head chef he just he's out from i saw them wash their little hands no I can differentiate you know Pixar animation to a real life rat

a house can float away on a balloon you put enough balloons on a house it can float away toys talk when you're not around are you talking about small soldiers what please tell me someone's seen small soldiers I've seen small soldiers

what did you think she was referencing she said toys talk when you're not around someone's seen small soldiers what did you think she was referencing she said toys talk when you're not around that's a small soldiers reference that's toy story never heard of it and the small soldiers talk when the people are around they talk in their faces that's right that was a big part of the movie was them interacting with the people and then the small soldiers tried to kill anyway i was such a young kid when I saw that and I couldn't believe how violent it was. Remember when he shoots like the corn holders in that dude's leg? I was like, I'm not old enough to be watching this. That's going to get sepsis.

That's going to get infected. That person's dead. What were we talking about? We were talking about Ratatouille, but I have another classic film. Wait, hold on. Can I talk about Ratatouille? Sure, if you want to. I blew the opportunity because I started talking about small soldiers.

Yeah, you really... It's okay. We can backtrack. Continue. The big part of Ratatouille that really hit me was Anton Ego, the critic. Yes. So recently we did this video on YouTube. We started doing these new things where we just put the camera on me and they go, hey, Josh, talk for about 15 minutes and then I talk. You start big beefs with Gordon Ramsay. I've seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not only Gordon Ramsay, there's more. Yeah, exactly. about 15 minutes and you start big beefs with gordon ramsay i've seen it yeah yeah yeah not only gordon ramsay there's more yeah exactly um but uh what was i doing i was talking about this uh interaction i had with guy fieri when i crashed his child's birthday party back in the day and um just being very impressed with you know how generous this man was with his time and all that uh and this is coming off of pete wells absolutely eviscerating american kitchen and bar in time square in that thing and i was like you know a food writer i was writing restaurant criticisms i would be unnecessarily cruel i once referred to a restaurant sauce as being like a jamba juice razzmatazz smoothie that had been left in a 7-eleven parking lot for three days

which brutal burn got him uh but no i thought that's like what made you clever was being able to tear something down from your stupid ivory tower while you were making thirty thousand dollars a year working in a gross cubicle that sold 65 cent expired diet cokes uh in the vending machine yeah that was a fun office to work in uh but anyways uh point is big thing with anton ego when he says you know it is always more beautiful to create than to criticize the job of a critic is to sit there blah blah blah and in this Guy Fieri video I just plagiarized Anton Ego

and did not notice it and then a couple people called me out so good for them but that was a huge takeaway for me for Rassatoui that meant a lot it's intrinsic it became an intrinsic like model for you internalized it and as for Guy Fieri I mean like like that, that takedown was brutal in the New York times.

And my thought there is like, find me a good restaurant in Times Square. Like it's not like, you know, what is this garbage he's putting out in the, in the dining Mecca that is Times Square, like right next to an olive garden in a, so I got, I got no beef with Fieri. Like I, somebody asked me

about him recently um when i was doing a live stream for colleges and they were like what's your opinion on guy fieri expecting me to like tear him apart i'm like i would never get in the way of that man earning that guy makes money and he's figured out how to build an empire i'm not going to get in the way of him and his bag. That sounded wrong. No, get in the way of him and his sack. But I mean, God, my big thing with that is, I mean, I grew up, the fanciest restaurant I'd ever been to until I was like 18 was the Olive Garden, you know? And I think that's the experience for like a deceptive amount of people in America, right?

Yeah, sure. And I mean, I grew up in Orange County too, which is like, you know, a somewhat moneyed area, but it has so much money that it does like culture in a way. And so I just, so many like restaurants serve different purposes for different people. It's like a Guy Fieri restaurant. It's not meant to stand up with Danielle, with Le Bernardin, with, you know, restaurants like that.

It's meant to serve, you know, ahi tuna tacos and spinach artichoke dip with some jazzed up Guy Fieri seasoning for $17. To people, to non native New Yorkers, to people who aren't used to people who are visiting and they want something like, you know,

Americana, like where's the harm in that? I don't know. Anyway, that's what I'm saying. It's a, it's a pure value exchange. Uh,

and I think it's great. Yeah. When I was in Mexico, I got a coupon to go into Guy Fieri restaurant. Yeah. I unfortunately did not have time to go. Oh man. Yeah. When I was not have time to go. Oh man. Yo,

when I was pretty inebriated on this carnival cruise, uh, cause they sell the, all you can drink tickets on the carnival cruise line. Okay. But it turns out they cap you at 15 drinks. I will say you think you can't, you think you can't get there in a day or the whole trip in a day,

in a day when here's the thing. There's a difference between the long Island iced tea. That's one drink and a Mike's hard lemonade at 3.2 percent is still one drink turns out you drink 12 mike's hard lemonades throughout the day it's not that hard um but anyways you get the sugar shocks a little bit you get the shakes and the fingy tips but they had a guy fieri guy fieri has a restaurant a burger restaurant on every carnival cruise line oh wow and it's very similar to a normal burger restaurant with Guy Fieri's face plastered on it.

Yeah. But it was really fine. I mean, it was, you know, perfectly okay and acceptable. And again, the man's out there making money, leaving generational wealth for his family. I mean, you were 15 mics deep. So, I don't know, man. Yeah, how bad could it have possibly been?

No, I guess you're right. What are other food movies? I got a good food movie for you guys. You ever heard of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Oh, hell yes. That's a good horror movie. That is a great horror movie. That is a great horror movie.

What am I, the boat scene? Well, the first one. I didn't really care for the Johnny Depp remake, personally. I thought the Johnny Depp remake was fine, but it, I mean, it couldn't compare to Gene Wilder. Nothing compares to Gene Wilder. But also, as far as like a movie that made me see the like wonderment and the magical element of food, which is something that we do here at Mythical Kitchen,

which is the YouTube channel that we run. Stop by. We got new videos. But no, I mean, seeing so many things like the chewing gum that is flavored like an entire meal, right? So you have the blueberry pie, the roast beef and the soup flavored chewing gum. Seeing that in like a movie, now we're making stuff like that for our jobs totally uh my first move my first like food like scene that did that for me was indiana jones in the temple of doom whenever

they're eating like the snake and the and the beetle and the monkey brain i was like holy crap how are they doing this because there's no way that's real monkey brain is it real monkey brain i was like holy crap how are they doing this because there's no way that's real monkey brain is it real monkey brain like it was crazy to me so i had that same experience but with indiana jones yeah there's there's kind of this element of watching food movies to see the actual food styling like now now i watch these and i'm like oh how did in in hook how did they make you know the imaginary pie like i wonder what food dyes what materials they were using yeah like in hannibal yeah yeah every time i watch the show hannibal there's an amazing blog from the food I wonder what food dyes, what materials they were using. Yeah. Like in Hannibal. Yeah. Yeah.

Every time I watch the show, Hannibal, there's an amazing blog from the food stylist of Hannibal, like who actually talks about the breakdown of how they've made everything. And a lot of it is really rooted in great culinary technique. Like, obviously they have to do a lot of weird stuff to make it work on television. They have to paint it with lacquer or whatever, but like,

um, you know, the, the, the food stylist really cares about food, uh, on that show. So it's,

it's a great, gorgeous. Um, I, I also do want to touch on big night real quick, which is my, I think my favorite food movie, um,

mostly for the last scene. I, I, I think if you guys not seen that one or, uh, missed that one, chief, that's our bad that's

our bad sorry andrew mind if i spoil it for you all right well you know these these brothers uh in brooklyn in the 50s i think uh you know just undergo a major blow to their egos and to their relationship and to their um to their business and they probably they're probably going to go out of business uh because they wanted to host this gigantic feast for Louis Prima, who never ended up showing up because they thought that would drum up press for the restaurant and they would save it. But he never shows. So they end up just making, you know, this incredible feast, like it's one of the best food scenes in film history for just their dinner guests. And it becomes about the connectedness of that meal and the importance of that meal to its guests. One it becomes about the connectedness of that meal

and the importance of that meal to its guests. One person ends up sobbing at the end because their mother was such a terrible cook growing up. And the last scene, the very last scene, these brothers have gotten into a drunken fistfight and they wake up in the morning hungover. One of them's sleeping in the kitchen. And in one single shot,

one of them fries up eggs and serves it on a little loaf of bread and they eat together in utter silence and it's just their little way of just starting to heal the massive wound from the night before is with a little you know very simple just eggs salt on a baguette and that is their like way of just trying to start healing together and that that to me is the most beautiful scene in the movie i just want to talk about that so you should definitely go watch that movie another great hangover movie very low-key that's that's so beautiful i mean that scene with eggs it's like the cycle continues no matter what happened there is all this food that is always a thing sort of connecting us i mean that's a huge thing like all of us we've we've

chosen such a bizarre i would be willing to call it a stupid career path in a very beautiful way that we all love very dearly. Yeah. I mean, that connects us so much to the movies that we see on screen, even if it is a terrible Disney movie with a $100,000 budget made in 2004. You know, we're all seeing something of ourselves

and it means a lot to us reflected on screen and food. And I think that's beautiful. All right, Nicole and Andrew, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Casseroles. Yeah, Andrew said it. There he is. What? What did he say? say well i'll say it's hard for him to join yeah we're not in the same room the thing yeah yeah try it again see if we can do it more synced

up yeah yeah okay okay okay let's do it let's do it let's do it all right andrew you were pitchy on the first one sorry sorry it's time for a segment we call opinions why why we've done this is like our 60th episode or something. We can't. All right. All right. First up, we got our Dutch. Do you think Parmesan cheese belongs on any seafood or fish pasta? Yes.

I told Andrew we'd get the first crack. Sorry. I know. It's okay. I had to think we had to fill the airwave somehow. I personally don't go in for that. Seafood with most dairy. In fact fact like cheese in general and seafood not crazy about it like lobster mac and cheese i don't fully understand i'll eat it but i don't really get the appeal of uh but uh parmesan

in particular that's such a such a harsh cheese for such a gentle gentle thing um sorry i got weird there uh i'm trying to f me up fam i'm trying to think of a seafood that parmesan would work really well on well i mean parmesan for me it's it's like it's hardly a cheese yeah parmesan is a seasoning it is no honestly parmesan's like it's like miso to me like it's i agree it's just salt and umami and like it's so crystalline and that you're not getting so much dairy miso to me like it's i agree it's just salt and umami and like it's so crystalline and that you're not getting so much dairy funk like to me especially or something like a pecorino it's just like acid salt umami yeah i agree that parmesan isn't as combative of a cheese with seafood yeah for some reason to me it's it like works yeah but also it's a very combative

cheese because it's very strong but it's not all the time it's kind of like i recently made lobster thermidor and that is like lobster and a cream sauce topped with gruyere and yeah i gotta say kind of weird but you know just the answer to most of these questions for me is going to be live your life oh you know what yeah i mean honestly that's that's the key but there are a lot of mex Mexican seafood dishes that use a fair amount of cheese in them. And so you're talking about a fish that works really well with cheese, smoked marlin. Ooh, that sounds great, actually. Tacos de Marlin.

So they call it jamón del mar, the ham of the sea, because they literally smoke it and cure it like ham. So it's kind of the combination of like a very fatty, fleshy tuna that has the texture and flavor of ham. And then they do these like, you know, hard griddled tacos with like a kind of melty white cheese in it. So good. Unreal. That sounds really good. My dear friend, Rick Martinez, who has a new show coming out on my channel.

Oh, exciting. He's down in Mexico. He's in Mezatlan, which is a lovely coastal town in Mexico. And they are huge about smoked tuna there where it's like smoked to this cherry red consistency and they make I think tacos out of it as well oh that's awesome no I'm really stoked to that show I've I've loved Rick for for so long and I love seeing you bring other talent into the fold in your channel too that's super exciting thanks guys that's a segue for you to plug anything you want by the way uh cookware cookware is out now. Buy Babish knives. Fart E-Man says,

Avocado, mango, and cucumber with sriracha is the best combination, but why? Andrew, why? I can't answer why, sir. Tell them why they have these beliefs. Why? Because, I don't know, because you have damaged taste buds? I don't know because you, you, you have damaged taste, taste, but I

don't know. So, okay. I'm sorry. Avocado, mango, cucumber. Yes. With Sriracha. It's the best combination. You know, you know what?

I'm going to try that. That doesn't sound terrible to me. It doesn't sound great by any means. I think the, the, the cucumber is what throws me. I think avocado, mango. I'm like, okay, we're in sushi. We're in what's called the raw seafood dish. Ceviche?

Ceviche territory. But I don't know about that cucumber. We'll see. You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of like tajin. Yep. Like if this person, because you know, if you bought sriracha powder, which exists, you could just put the sriracha powder on and have the same tajin experience with just more Asian flavors.

Andrew, are you familiar with tajin? I can't say that I am. Sending you a bottle. Honestly, yeah, we should. So, I mean, it's huge in Southern California. If you go to, there are fruit carts everywhere in Southern California. And cucumber is really popular. It'll be like cucumber, mango,

pineapple, fresh coconut. And you can get tahini, which is like a chili lime salt that you dump on fruit. And it's beautiful. But I mean, this reminds me of chamoy. Chamoy is another thing that's like a chili and pickled fruit puree. This violently red sauce that is

delicious on fruit. But the thing that bumps me with sriracha is the amount of fermented like garlic and sugar. Totally. And so for me, the garlic might clash with all this. And I think what they're looking for is just tahini and chamoy on fruit, which is already perfect. I mean, that sounds delicious. And if there's one thing I've learned from just the past 10 seconds of this conversation

and when we collabed with Alvin Kylon is that I know so little about the cuisine of Southern California, maybe because I've spent a lot of time there, but I've, I heard, I learned about like seven new dishes that day. And now I've just learned about like three more. Oh, you got to come out, man. I would love to take you around. I don't like New York. It makes me claustrophobic. It's very, the tall buildings are very scary. I don't know. I've never been to New York. Isn't that sad? Come on, Adam. In Brooklyn, it's shorter out here. Yay.

All right, what do we got? At A Mayberry, soup in a bread bowl with the lid on is a sandwich. Disagree. Disagree. Disagree. Maybe at best it's a stuffed item of some sort, but like a sandwich? Can you eat it like a sandwich? Is there any sandwich whose

contents are entirely liquid uh i've hold on ivy i french dip if this is a can you eat it like a sandwich yes uh i have i have eaten a whole clam chowder bread bowl we did a big like clam chowder bread bowl party at my apartment in college with 10 dudes because this is how we partied this is how we partied and we we made as a giant thing a very stodgy clam chowder and we went out drinking and you know someone's working on the soup all day and they put it in bread bowls and i just picked it up and put the lid on and i would take a bite and then go and i'd take a bite and go and so you can't eat like a sandwich if this is purely a matter of practicality that's different you. Sounds like vomit. You could eat a coconut that way,

but you're not going to call it a coconut sandwich, are you? True. No, no, you're right. I'm just talking about feasibility. I'm talking about feasibility here. I will sooner say that a bread bowl with lid on is a coconut than a sandwich. I'm willing to write that into the canon of our show right now. Okay.

Conron 28 says, pineapple and cream cheese sandwiches aren't as weird as you think. Oh, you don't know how I think that is weird. I don't like that. Again, I'm not going to I'm not going to judge a person for what they decide to put on a sandwich. But I'm certainly I'm under no obligation to try it myself. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. You grew up. Nicole, I know what you're going to say. Can I tell you what you're going to say? Are you going to talk about the cottage cheese and the cottage cheese Knudsen with a little pineapple on the side? I knew you were going to bring that up. And you love that, don't you? No, I didn't.

My mom loved it. Oh, I get you and your mom confused all the time. You're so similar. You look like your mother. You're so weird. You know what I would get down with sooner than that is marshmallow fluff and pineapple. Yeah, I'm down with that too. That makes a uh marshmallow fluff and pineapple oh yeah i'm down with that too oh that makes a lot more sense than cream cheese or cottage i grew up with a lot

of like jam and cream cheese on a bagel that was my like after-school snack that my bubby would make me yeah i guess on the frozen sarah lee bagel that had been in there for four years you know puts it in the toaster oven still icy in the middle um no bring back bring back weird pineapple foods when when uh white people discovered the pineapple in 1954 with the brutal annexation of Hawaii, that stays in the edit because it's true. And then they started just being like, how can we ruin this delicious fruit? So the original idea before the Filet-O-Fish to give Catholics a reason to eat at McDonald's on a Friday was the Hula Burger, which is just a slice of canned pineapple,

a slice of American cheese in a bun. And that was it. Yeah. And so like back in the fifties, when people literally didn't know what to do with this exotic fruit, there was so much just like horrifying experimentation. And I would love to bring that back. Same with bananas. I think we should be wrapping bananas and ham and putting hollandaise on top. That sounds horrific. Oh God, we've killed it.'ve seen i've seen that that's uh that advertisement too yeah you know something i'm just made for today's episode actually was uh tapache which is absolutely oh interesting gorgeous use of pineapple yeah so tapache is the uh it's like a fermented uh mexican i don't know what you'd call it i mean it's almost fermented like a like a beer or wine think technically speaking, it's a wine,

but, uh, like it's pineapple wine. It's barely alcoholic, like one to 2%. Uh, but you just basically chop up a whole pineapple skin included, uh,

add water and brown sugar and maybe some, you know, um, clove and, and star anise and, uh, a chili if you want and let it ferment for like two days. And you got this like really

lovely to drink very lightly carbonated barely alcoholic things really really refreshing man come out to la smuggle some homemade tapache on board that aeroplane uh and we'll take you all around find some food to pair that with bring three ounces of tapache with me on the plane and then you can finally multiple three. Yeah, tape them to your body. Put them in the crevices. Put them in the folds. Ring up like a complicated straw system between each one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like wires. Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. And on that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. And thank you so much for joining us, Andrew. Be sure to tune in Hot Dog is a Sandwich. And thank you so much for joining us, Andrew.

Be sure to tune in to the Babish Dipper. And thank you so much for joining us, Andrew. Be sure to tune in to the Babish Culinary Universe on YouTube. Also, I know you released a cookware line recently. Where can our listeners check that out? LESbrother, bingingwithbabish.com slash cookware. It's available now. That's bingingwithbabish.com slash cookware.

And that's available now. That's what I, yep. Sorry, I do too many ad reads on the podcast, and that's how they do it. That is literally what he just said. And if you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on Opinions Are Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or at NHandizadeh with the hashtag OpinionCasserole.

And for more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube, where we launch new videos every week. And of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at mythicalkitchen. That's Instagram at M-Y-T-H-I-C-A-L-K-I-T-C-H-E-N. You are a human troll, too. Troll, too. You are troll, too.

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