Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 254 - Chris Bianco

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

This week on Breaking Bread, Tom is an absolute fangirl because the legendary Chris Bianco joins us in the studio. They discuss how comedy and baking both have the ability to comfort people in times of need. Chris shares about his efforts to help people during the LA fires. He even handles Tom's bread like an old grandma - but - does he give Tom his stamp of approval? We still don't know. Enjoy! Check out one of Chris Bianco's many restaurants! https://www.pizzeriabianco.com/ Visit Factormeals.com/factorpodcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tom Papa is a celebrated stand-up comedian with over 20 years in the industry. Watch Tom's new special "Home Free" out NOW on Netflix! Radio, Podcasts and more: https://linktr.ee/tompapa/ Website - http://tompapa.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tompapa Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tompapa Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/comediantompapa Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/tompapa #tompapa #breakingbread #comedy #standup #standupcomedy #bread #chrisbianco #pizza #pizzeria #eggs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Insurance isn't one-size-fits-all, and shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit. That's why drivers have enjoyed progressives' name-your-price tool for years. With the name-your-price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they show you options that fit your budget. Enough hunting for discounts, trying to calculate rates, and tinkering with coverages. Maybe you're picking out your very first policy. Or maybe you're just looking for something that works better for you and your family. Either way, they make it simple to see your options. No guesswork, no surprises. Ready to see how easy and fun shopping for car insurance can be, visit progressive.com and give the name your price tool a try.

Take the stress out of shopping and find coverage that fits your life on your terms. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. I'm Tom Poppa and today. This is very exciting. We have Chris Bianco on the program. Award winning chef from Bianco Pizzeria. He's so great. This is the second time on the podcast.

Not really. It's really the first time. Because the first time was during COVID. And he was in a noisy restaurant. I was in my bedroom. And he tried to do a podcast. It sounded not great. Didn't look good.

So this will be really the first proper one. But he has been feeding me for a long time. He is some of the best pizza in all of America. He's got a place in Phoenix and a place here in Los Angeles. He also has this amazing line of tomatoes. He does his own tomatoes, Bianco Danapoli, which I actually have a painting of the label in my kitchen, in my dining area. It's just great, and I use it all the time.

when I'm making my big Sunday dinners. He's so great. He's got great stories. He's such a giving, giving character. He's just, he's an artist. He's truly an artist at what he does. And that art is part being a great chef and part being a great host. He really makes everybody feel like he's, like you're his best friend. And I just want to say on this podcast that you all that think that, are wrong. I am his best friend. So let's get to it now. This is my conversation with the great Chris Bianco. It's time for breaking bread with Papa. Hey! Don't you know? Hey, it's how we go. Hey, it's time for breaking bread with Papa. Hey. Don't you know? Hey, it's also a show. We'd like to thank the good people at Factor Meals for sponsoring today's program. Factor. You know Factor.

They send you all these great meals and they're delicious and fun and easy and beautiful. Get started at factormeals.com slash factor podcast and use the code Factor Podcast to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's code Factor Podcast at FactorMeals.com slash Factor Podcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. And we'd like to thank the good people at tompapa.com. Oh, man, what a Crackerjack staff over there. We've got lots of shows. The Grateful Bread Tour is out and touring right now. We've had great shows recently in California just last weekend.

It's been really fantastic. Lots of people coming out. And we have lots of shows on the calendar. We've got April 11th at the Chicago Theater. It's going to be gigantic. March 20th in Dallas, Texas. May 3 at the beacon in New York City and a whole bunch of other dates.

If you look up tompapa.com, you will see that I am pretty much everywhere. So I don't think it's possible, even going to Hawaii. So I don't think it's possible that you live someplace that is not just a short car ride from a show. So thank you to all the people at tompapa.com

and really thank all of you for coming to these shows. It's been amazing. The Grateful Bread Tour. Are we going? We're on right now. on now. This is it. Yeah. All right. Well, I will say a thing about comics I find. Yeah. And this is not because I'm not at home being home or nothing like that. Like if I was sitting with, let's say, physicists, I would have the same, you know, perspective. But I would say

comedians to me, not just in times of horrible apocalypse and global events that are unthinkable. The comfort they bring, and I think that's the whole thing, of, of, of, you know, you know, the first responder are now amazing. You know, my grandfather was New York City firemen. I understand from a young age, like, you know, to revere that, swap of all community that's like heroic, true heroes and first responders of all kind, and people are just spilling out, you know, of every kind of door

doing whatever they can. But I think, you know, making each other laugh and finding both either ridiculous, hypocrisy and somehow making us, you know, think about it in a new way, but also just, you know, you know, it's good medicine. You know, it is comfort food in that way. Yeah. Speaking of comfort food. No, you know, it's, I saw Gina Yashiri, comedian, and her house was in Altadena. And it was the first post that I saw of someone that I knew that she was away and she didn't know yet what was happening. But in her first post

about the potential of losing her home, she made a joke. She was like, so if you guys see me in the next six months wearing the same t-shirt every day, you know, back off. You know, don't, don't tease me or something like that. I'm butching her a great joke. But it was, I really just as a comic, I remarked to myself, like, even in the eye of this, like this, she's getting ready for a big, big event in her life. And she's still putting the little twist on it. She's still, and that's not just to get a laugh or to get likes. That's truly where I think it's a defense mechanism and it's valuable.

It really does work. Even in the darkest times, if you can kind of do it, it keeps you afloat. I've definitely laughed at a few funerals, you know, embarrassingly sometimes. maybe it's some type of, I don't know what, or in times of, you know, you want to find, like, it's a relief. It's a, you know, it's some disarming, you know, attribute that you can provide.

As a comic, as a comic who is spoken at a couple funerals, I mean, they're not great events, but it's a really good place to get a laugh. They always sell out. They always sell out. You really don't have to really hit it that hard to get a laugh. People are just like, thank God. Yeah, thank God.

But that's what you do too. I mean, food is the other one. Food is the other comfort food. Yeah, well, I think that's it. You know, we find ways to, you know, to, I guess, like triage, you know, and kind of decompress. Yeah. And, you know, so we can all sit around and, you know, not make everything politically divisive or whatever the fuck. We're just like, who needs help?

Yeah, exactly. You got a shitty, you know, perspective. Who's hurting? Yeah, who's hurting? And to be clear to our listeners, because we didn't really set it up. I probably will in the intro also. But we are, this is the last day of the fire threat. Like, we're in it.

Like, this is the last wind event is tonight into tomorrow. And so this is like kind of the brunt of it. And they told me that you were trying to feed some people. Yeah, I mean, thankfully we fed a lot of different people through, you know, a lot of different fire departments and, you know, different organizations that I had today, Ark from their downtowns. They work with a lot of, like, you know, incarcerated and, you know, recently released, you know, a lot of kids and young people that kind of serve their time and look for ways back in. Oh, wow. and work with them to help get the some of those incarcerated kids that are out you know everybody's a kid at me at my age but yeah people out there are just you know out there doing something positive in society and and and you work with them for a while I work with them on a bunch of other different things as well but in this case you know we're we're kind of easy to find and you know um you know we're donating tomatoes we have a little tomato business and we're doing it and whatever we can to people that understand.

And I think that's, like I was telling somebody this morning, what's weird is, is in the horrors of, I got to tell you this because it was a horrible scenario. Okay. Love it. But you might find the humor in this because I know that you might. But it was a couple of years ago, and I was on the phone, and I was telling, I was talking a friend of mine just about, you know,

just about how we treat each other or whatever, you know, people unkind or whatever. And my wife came walking through the room at the exact moment when I said to him, I wish every day was like 9-11. And what I was leading into saying, what she just froze, I was leading in and saying, there was a window of time maybe 4 p.m. Right. To 11.30 p.m.

where people were so fucking kind. Yeah. And they were like hanging flags and putting arms at each other and weeping. And no one asked where you were from or what you did or fucking believed in or didn't believe in. They just saw people in. pain. Yeah. And so I think in this moment, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm also like, you know, what can we do?

Like, okay, maybe it is only thoughts and prayers for some people that are far away, you know? Yeah. Maybe some people have, you know, a fucking few pizzas or, you know, a box of tacos or a hug or fucking handy wipes or diapers or, you know, and then like, you know, I saw Snoop Dog, you know, has, you know, his drive, you know, Jimmy Campbell's, Jimmy's got the whole. parking lot out with like it's like a very inconvenient convenience store where you know you can get toothbrushes toothpaste diapers all those things that you know that we don't think about and like and there's some things people don't need like you know like I guess that I you know so finding out what I think

what every situation like needs right now and and I'm also very along with all the seeing the people in pain that breaks all our hearts yeah I'd be lying if I was and also like in that seven and a half hours I felt on 9-11 where I like, you know, fuck, this is, you know, it's moving. This is, you know, it's moving to see. You know, but I never have to see it again. Yeah, that crushed me on, and you're seeing it now, on 9-11, during that, we were in New York,

and we were in the Chelsea area, like the 21st Street, and, you know, you're just all like, you don't know what to do. And I walked down to the West Side Highway just to see, because the skating rink they were saying they might be bringing people in, And so I was just trying to get a grip. And my wife and I had just, we had no kids at the time. And I just went for a walk. It was just like, ugh.

And I walked down there. And I, on the side of the west side highway, truck after truck from New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, upstate New York, just people wanted to help. Just streaming down the highway. I was in tears. I was sobbing because you see people who just want to help. Yeah, I mean, you see now

a fire department from Mexico, from Canada, you know, these water scooper planes and guys diving through flames like McGiver shit, like, you know, crazy, crazy stuff. Incredible. And it's so much greater than the people who are looting

or acting shitty online. Well, unfortunately, you know, those get the sound bites and they get the clicks. And, you know, like, you know, the noisy, situation or the one, you know. Yeah, because it's so absurd.

It's so fucking absurd. The idea that someone would dress up like a fireman. Yeah, I saw somebody that, you know, they should definitely have to trade places with those incarcerated people that, you know, that are helping do something positive in the world. Yeah. So I think, you know, in this, like, you know, there's two things we can't control, which is yesterday and the future, but we can control right now. And I think that's what we're seeing. Yeah. In a lot of cases, people from all over that are just doing things from other countries, from other states.

It is amazing. It's a pretty beautiful thing in this kind of very not so beautiful time. Yeah. It was bonkers. It was really crazy. I mean, for a city this big and that sprawling, to be united in anxiety, fear, grief. it's like even now like today like walking around it's like the fear's gone but people are somber there's like a there's a sadness no it really feels like kind of maybe because you know the

pandemic was just so fucking crazy that you know um it was all so surreal and like you know dolphins are jumping in Venice and you know shit's going on and there's no traffic and yeah like it feels like a weird holiday that wasn't on anyone's calendar ever right um And there's some of that, you know, where even though it's, you know, it's hopefully the last day of, you know, the threat. The threat. You know, the threat, big threat, you know, the jury's still out. Like, who the fuck knows? Like, you know, you watch these, you know, sparks fly through the air a mile in a minute and start a new fire.

And, you know, the other thing's like, you know, we haven't had rain for two months. Man, we're a tenderbox, you know. I know. Here, Arizona, all through the west. And, you know, you think about this, these, like, nuclear war and, you know, and all the horrors that, that, you know, adversaries, like, what's the next thing of the airport matches? Yeah. You know, what's going to be the next kind of, like, what's a great idea, you know, like, you know, to cause a community, you know, terror.

We'd like to thank the good people at Quince for sponsoring today's program. If you spend a lot of time cooking at home, it's time to elevate your game. When your cookware actually feels good to use and is thoughtfully made and looks beautiful on your counter, it just makes the whole experience better. That's what I've really liked about quince. Their cookware, knives, and tableware are elevated, but they're still super practical. Everything is made to last, designed to be seen and honestly priced way more reasonably than you'd expect for that kind of quality.

It just makes everyday cooking feel a little more special. Quince has a really solid kitchen lineup. Their stainless steel and ceramic non-stick cookware performs like the kind you'd find in a professional kitchen. And their Japanese Damascus steel knives make prep feel way easier and more precise. I love having quince in my lineup. I've got these good ceramic frying pans and sauce pans. They're very cool. They're good in your hand and they clean easy, which is another very cool thing.

The best part, everything at Quince is priced way lower than you'd expect, 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Go get it right now. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com slash Papa for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. That's Quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash Papa, P-A-P-A, for free shipping and 365-day returns. turns quince.com slash papa. It is, I said to my wife, I'm, I'm a little over the once in a lifetime or a hundred year events that we've racked up in the last day.

I know. I was seeing something like, are you going to watch? There's a planet alignment. It's like, if it doesn't burn your fucking house down or like, kill everyone. Is it that big a deal? I know. Anytime you hear something like the other, like, all the plants are. if they're hurling towards us.

By all means. You're just like, what does that mean? And also there's like a shrug to it. Like you expect it. You're like, my wife said last night, can you believe this happen? I was like, yeah. You can be. Aren't you?

I said, are you not walking around every day thinking at any minute? Something big is going to go down? Something big is going to go down. I'm always thinking that. Yeah. I mean, no, there's no doubt about it. And it's, but I think it's also like right now, like, it's a little bit like just in

saying Los Angeles for instance where it's hard to like I mean obviously the pandemic every community in the world was hit but you know coming out of that I was like thinking that you know we just opened our restaurant here in the tail end in LA

but you know the next year we're going to start to rebound we're going to start to see brighter days and then you know the writer's strike yeah and then people like oh what the fuck's a big deal like all those rich guys you know writing these novels They're just counting money and just checking their mailbox every day. They'll all be fine.

Yeah. And then, you know, you see like, you know, some, you know, young editors, grips, this, got, that guy. Yeah. Like the trickle down of people that make up a big, you know, swath of industry. Hurting. That are hurting bad. Yeah. And, you know, mentally, economically.

Yeah. And, you know, like now it's still kind of, there's fumes of that. Yeah. Still, and like a lot of, obviously, you know that much better than me. But like, you know, guys, women, society, world, that this has been their life. And now they have to question, like, well, you know, between AI and stop and like, where the fuck I'm out? Like, video kill the radio star. I know.

This town did not need a punch in the nose. No, I didn't. And I think it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, I don't want to say easy to look at far, place to not understand impact of. of, you know, I would say pain is pain, you know, coming out. Exactly. You know, it's like that sometimes, like, ironically, we're sitting in that scene like in jaws, you know, when it's like, that's not a scar, you know, it's a scar. They're all like, out fucking scarring each other.

Oh, that's not a disaster. Yeah, I've got one for you. I was during this one. Yeah, exactly. And it's, you know, I think sometimes it's, it's, it's, it's, just letting it sink in whatever people's pain was, whatever story. it is. And you learn that it's, you learn that it's, people, we're resilient.

Like, you go through enough of these things and people do kind of, you know. Yeah. If we're still breathing, we've got a chance. Yeah. I mean, you know, and then, you know, me and if we're not breathing, maybe there's still a chance we can become steps or something or fertilizer or something. Organic, regenerative fertilizer. Yeah. I think I'd be delicious.

Yeah. At some point. Yeah. You have to have so much. I'm definitely well marinated. You got to have so much stuff in you now. Between sauce and tomatoes and prosciutto, you'd be very tasty. Yeah.

And not enough physical activity anymore that, you know, all that musly, that's going to. Yeah. You're nice and marvellized now. I said I've got to get your own at the end of the day. So I was back to the beginning, knowing I was going to see you. And we did this. You were actually on the show. Oh, my God.

Right? That's beautiful. and you were in your restaurant in Arizona. We did like a funky Zoom thing during the pandemic. That's right. This is our first time to sit here and politely. So I was, you know, I make bread for a lot of people. I wasn't really sweating it because I know what I'm doing.

But you didn't want it to be a Frisbee. No, but you know what? I probably would have made up a story if it was. I would tell you chefs, bakers, whatever, they're usually the easiest, unless you're a dick, which is a whole lot. But I mean, they're usually like, man, like, you know, that's the thing about, I think, about baking. It's a beautiful thing.

It is definitely a, probably the ultimate metaphor for the relationship business. Like you never master it. We're totally equals. Even if there's a portion of my life where I become dominant. Yeah. You know, there'll be a time when whatever, whatever that means, you know, I won't be able to reach the, you know, the top cabinet for the salt or like I did something exactly the same. and it just has not happening, whether it's weather or, you know, my, you know, the thermostat was off in the oven or the wood was wet or, you know,

and then every conversation starts with, well, you know, it's not, instead of just letting it be, you know, and I think that took a long time for me. Yeah. Like to, you know, like, I've been in business since 88 and, you know, I've, luckily I've, I think I've made more bad than good, but, you know, I learn things when I burn things, which is my favorite catchphrase there. for your kids at home. I mean, that's where all the lessons are.

I mean, going back to the comfort comes from pain and, you know, and, you know, and understanding. But when you have a spot and everybody loves your spot, some people. You can't really afford to have a bad day. Like, that's what's always so impressive. Well, you know, the same thing, man. The level of it being and being consistent. Well, the same thing is like, you know, how many rooms you've been in, like, where, like, if they're not ready to receive it, you know,

like the happy hour got, was cut 30 minutes before, and there's this uproar of dysfunctional. You have to overcome. Right. You have to overcome that kind of whatever, the parking. They don't fucking go to even park. My wife made me go. You know, and like you feel like you're there,

or the lighting is just off where you can't get away from this thing or this guy, even no matter how good you handle hecklers, you get pulled into this stupid fucking argument, just like I would have. The guy that asked me questions and it answers every once. Oh, yeah, me too. And I'll try, let me too. I do that before that.

And I'll just kind of let you go. Yeah. Yeah. But when you were finding your way early. Still finding it. Yeah. No, I get that. I get that.

And honestly, that is why I love baking. Yeah. Is that it's very close to comedy in that you can get good. But you're humbled all the time. All the time. You never, it's never something you're going to master. Yeah. And I think, but it is that, but it's saying, it's like my marriage, you know, definitely no mastering in that scenario.

And definitely I, if I respond, I'll just say not that my wife isn't it by any means. My kid's kind of it's, but, but if I respond to what it needs, in this case, she needs. Right. There's a better opportunity for the, for the end results. Right. more than what I want to give it. You know what it needs? Oh, it needs Walmuts.

Maybe. Someday, you know, if that was appropriate. But maybe you should submit with it first. You know, like, or you write a joke, you think it's great. You know what it needs? It's great, Tom. But I really use, you know, that. Like, okay, but the next thing you were going to tell because you're going to answer that question.

There was deprivation at some point in anything. Right. You know, do you find that sometimes with somebody, like, and sometimes when you ask somebody to look something over or taste something, you know, they don't want to just give you sometimes hey this is perfect they're like wait I should probably know know that I'm really listening and then it goes to this whole fucking thing

which is okay now you're an expert I just want to make you laugh we're going to tweak it or we're like in its totality in the hour set it'll make sense or like in this one menu item and you saw it one it's like oh fuck there's not even any

whatever with it it can really use that and the next you know like like if there's four courses which is probably my limit. Uh-huh. Because I'm already losing me. You know, even though I've had some great tasty menus and different experience, they can be fantastic. But for me, like, if I got something to start, some in the middle, something to finish, and good glass of wine, I'm usually pretty chill and happy.

Yeah. Yeah. But somewhere in there, like in that four courses, you know, there's an opportunity to punch in the face with whatever it's flavor or fat or, or, and then somewhere where you're, you're, you're, you're, you're. that thing makes you really maybe unintentionally have an expectation for what the next thing comes. Like this just cleanses your palate.

Right. You know, like whatever. You know, I keep using the comedy thing, but just like there may be a point in the set where you just, I'm going to keep you, I got you and I'm stringing you along in a positive way because I know this thing's coming in. Right.

If I just grab your attention, I'm going to connect it back, you know. And it's all going to make fucking sense at the end. Right. And I think that's what cooking is. You know, we want it to make sense at the end. Yeah. That when you get the check somehow as, as a restaurant or fucking whatever, that you've, somehow, whatever the monetary suggestion is or, or agreement that you made when people came in, they saw the price, they came to bill, that somehow at the end of that, you feel like, I understand why. Right.

see all these people working focused in this place and the lights in this neighborhood in the real state holy shit and the insurance and you know whatever all these things that somehow now the food was delicious the people were kind and welcome yeah they were competent they were informative even they were just kind i don't even yeah or just open but just yeah you know just um they did the end of that thing you just said man that was really worth the price of admission yeah yeah and you know just answer your question before like You know, back in the day, you know, in the, like, mid-90s when we started getting some attention from different things,

that's when people used to start coming out, which I never really heard, like, you know. There was back in the day there was this thing, which the Zaget guy, remember that? Yeah, yeah. And I didn't know shit. I knew who James Beard was, but I didn't know about the wards. I knew.

I didn't know anything about any type of anything, rating, anything. And somebody came in and said, dude you got a fucking 29 in the Zaget. You only wanted two restaurants they got in the country. And it was like awesome Valentino at the time. And I was like

20 fucking nine. I know I got 62 and I'm, I had to you know, leave high school early. 29. It doesn't seem too promising. But it was like 29 out of 30 and you know, and and that started a whole different thing from that point

on. People stopped maybe some people stopped coming to eat and the other people came to check you out. Right, right. See if you're all that. Check, we're going to check out. And it felt so clinical like a fucking alien, like, you know. Probing you. Probing.

And, like, you know, just like lay down and tell me, you know, help me tie this thing in the back, you know. Yeah. And like a dog at the dog show. And I think that that's something for young chefs I try to do. And sometimes even compliment you like, like guys that work for me. Like, I went to another little place and it sucked or whatever. And you're like, what's something? like, what sucked about it?

Let's talk about, well, I didn't like, oh, you didn't like anchovies? Or, so I think, like, replacing things that it wasn't for you. Mm-hmm. That something wasn't funny. Yeah. Or something wasn't delicious. Like, you know, maybe taking time before we, you know, give it two rotten tomatoes or whatever the fuck to really, like, maybe look at someone's body work or maybe that particular

day or that time. Mm-hmm. And just to be more thorough. You don't have to be the breaking news. Mm-hmm. Right. Exactly. be the most thorough, truthful news and then find the best way to articulate that.

Yeah. You know. I saw this great. Make sense. Stom. You don't. Some of it. That's pretty good. Some is an uptick from my no fucking one.

Oh, boy. All right. Do you want to eat well? Do you want to eat easy? Do you want to eat in a way that is going to save you time and money? I would sign up for Factor immediately. Factor has chef-made gourmet meals that make eating well easy. They're dietitian approved and ready to heat and eat in two minutes so you can fuel upright

and feel great no matter what life throws at you. I signed up, there's all different ones. There's keto, there's vegetarian, vegan, calorie smart, protein plus, all these different ones. I signed up for the vegan one because I wanted to clean up my diet. Don't judge me. and they sent me all these vegan meals, and it was such a delight. Because not only does it all come all prepared,

you open up the box, you poke the top, put it in the microwave, you're eating in like two minutes. When you look at all the ingredients, and I thought of all the time I would have to spend researching what to put in this meal and then go to the store and get it all, and then bring it all home and make it, it would have been so costly

and it would have been taken up half of my day. and here I just popped it right in and had this very satisfying, delicious vegan meal without any thinking. I have to say, it was great. And I'm not saying it because they're a sponsor. I have more of them in my fridge right now. You can lose up to eight pounds in eight weeks with Factor Keto meals based on randomized control clinical trial with Factor Keto, with 40 options across eight dietary preferences on the menu each week. it's easy to pick meals tailored to your goals.

Like I said, calorie smart, protein plus keto. You could also get snacks. You can have smoothies. You can have your breakfast, whatever you want. You're going to love it. Eat smart with Factor. If you want to support this podcast and eat well, go to factormeals.com slash Factor Podcast and use Factor Podcast to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.

That's code FactorPontex. podcast at factormeals.com slash factor podcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. You will like it. The Taste of Things is this movie that my friend turned me on to. It was a couple of years ago. It was in the countryside of France and it was about a chef. I know that movie. You know this movie? Yeah, I mean, I haven't seen it, but I... You should... You should appreciate it. Yeah, there's a pig. And it goes to town or some shit like that.

Disappears or it's hijacked. No, yeah, no, I think it's a different one. Yeah. The taste of things is this chef and his, a woman he wants to marry is like sous chef. And it's, it's, you know, it sounds dangerous. It's a time. Yeah, exactly. It's a time period.

But they're making the whole first 25 minutes is the two of them working on this meal. Oh, I've seen this yet. And it's beautiful. Oh, man. It's beautiful. Every ingredient that they put in and they're really taking all their time and then they bring it out to the person that they're making it for. And he takes it. And it's like, and then what wine to go with it?

And it's just slow and thoughtful. And at the end of the film, the next meal I had, I was paying so close attention to everything that I was eating. The flavors of everything. I just opened up this appreciation rather than just the rush. When you're talking about all the people coming in and probing you and trying and, oh, and that sucked. And that was that. It's also fast. Yeah.

What's in this dish? What are the five things that are blowing my mind right now? Why is this working? Well, I think it's the whole thing. When I say, anyway, what makes good things good at? That might be different than somebody else. It doesn't mean I'm right. Right.

But I mean, tasting good is not the same as being good for me. Like if I'm, you know, if I'm manipulated some type of fucking, you know, die number 58, number six, and I created this flavor that tastes like spring and you didn't give a shit. Right. It was only 99 cents and I could bring it to my house and a bag. Like that goes back to get better answers. We need better questions. If we're not questioning, like, where our food comes from and what source and what

we supporting and you know is the hard-earned money that we all spend on these things um what is it supporting you know and what is is it's opportunity oh it's regenerative farm it's organic farmer i know that guy saw alex wiser at the sanamotic farmers market or uh you know laura from j j's londra ranch you see their face and you're like oh my god that's six dollars for one avocado and then or something or whatever and then you understand how they're and how they're grown and the yield and the land costs and all those things and it'll be the best

avocado you've ever had. Will it taste the same if you don't have the knowledge of all that? I don't... Do you think it's... Do you think that it permeates without the knowledge? I don't think it could be delicious. I think it's... This is the whole thing. I think it's diligence and confirmation. You know, so at first

like, and at first the diligence has to be warranted by, this is fucking good. Or this guy's funny and then you're find out they stole all your jokes, you know, like, you know, I saw this guy and he's like, holy fuck, you know, you know, I lost that notebook on the plane in Fresno, you know, and, and, and so without that, you know, I think, well, this is the first stage of my own recommendation is going to be, wow, this is, this passes the first test. Right. It's pretty fucking good. Or maybe it was backwards. Like, I saw this film or I saw this story. I read this book about this person.

And you're so set up for it that, if it does match that or even podcast, possibly exceed that, there's a chance for really to have, by the time the meal ends, an incredible experience. Yeah. And then sometimes, like, you know, like back in the day, reviewers just to come in, you know, unannounce, whatever, like three, four times, then they would write something. Right. Make sure they get out, like, now you can't do that because you won't break the story.

You won't get the hit. It won't be your discovery. Right. So it becomes different agendas, which sometimes are based on one's own, nothing against influencers or whatever. but if part of that is their own relevance. I mean, that's not knocking it or not. Right.

It's not it. That's the game. You know? So I think it's confusing at best. I'm not an anti or pro. I just think for me or for anybody. Like if you don't give a fuck about, you know, you think you can get a burger for 99 cents and it's going to be of good source of good things, I would probably beg to differ.

Right. And that's not from elitist. perspective. Yeah, you know the process. I'm saying they come a point that, you know, if we could teach people, maybe nutritionally sound at different parts of the world, is that there's consequence. Right.

To political decisions. And I'll fuck this story up, but there's a friend of my name, Gary Neibhan, who's started something in Southern Arizona called Native Seed Search. And they were, like, collecting, you know, like disappearing native seas in Southwest. And I went for this talk at U of A that he was doing with another professor, a Native American professor. And she was talking about like the correlation of, you know, oh, we read in the paper. It's 1918. And Good Year Tire Company is going to move from Cleveland to the west side of Arizona.

And they're going to do this whole town. And all these farmers are making this growing wheat, cotton, cotton. cotton and wheat well we're going to take forget about that cotton shit because we got something I mean forget about the you know the the wheat

that you guys are grown this corn white wheat that thankfully some of it's coming back now but forget about that wheat that you guys are growing and it's 50% of your diet or 40% of your diet fuck that shit

it's cotton we need shit loads of for these tires that on these new cars you know they were doing it they were in the Middle East in India whatever they were bringing cotton in

now they say well shit we're gonna Arizona be a pertinent environment and then later on Texas. But boom, you know, the native farmers and American farmers are now, you know, they're growing shitloads of cotton and all the farmers. And then you see from 1820 to 1950, like, you know, in native peoples that now their diet is been placed by 50% more animal proteins. frying this, that, the other thing. Like, they became out of balance.

They took their something out of that. So even though I'm saying, like, there's no disrespect for a good year, we didn't know smoking was bad for us at one time. We didn't know the decisions that were bad. So it's not about knocking or past. Right. It's learning from it. It was like learning from it.

Like, hey man, like, you know, like if, and what the amount of chemicals it needed and pesticides it needed for it to grow and the damage that it did. and the damage that it did, it took even after they, there's still some cotton growing in Arizona, but most of it went to Texas. And, but the land was at 15 years to recover. Right. In a lot of those farms.

15 years? Yeah, I mean, you know, for the time that, you know, the soil regenerated or whatever it was. Jeez. And, you know, I hear different stories about different parts of the world that, you know, you can only extract so much without something kind of, you know, just young uncle, you know, at some point. It is amazing when, back to the, knowing the origin of it and knowing where it came from

and how that affects the meal and the whole experience. It is true. Like if I have like a couple wines that I love. And it's because I knew the story or heard from somebody who loved it and why they found, how they found it. And that just, it literally makes your brain say this tastes better. I think that's everything. I think that's the thing about, it's funny because I'm a, you know, a localist and I want to make growing greens and buy from our local farmers.

But there's certain things that, you know, we are a global economy. And part of that is like if I can bring a bottle of, you know, like Kianti over there over, and I was lucky to visit that place and eat with the family. Like this becomes a fucking genie in a bottle. It's true. And when you say, holy shit, oh, 2019, when the golfers were jumping up in Venice and Venetoa, you're doing, like, what, what would that will taste like capture? Right.

You know, or the stress of that time or that yield or that whatever. And I think that is the one thing in this, as we able to breast, you know, bread from fresh meal grains and, you know, go to the farmer's market and get beautiful, you know, highly seasonal things. Yeah. I think it's important if you can, like, if you don't have lemons or what you. you are. Yeah. God forbid we have a scurvy outbreak.

We got to make sure that we can get you lemon sustainably delivered and you get, give us what you can grow. Right, right. Exactly. You know, we can go potatoes there, but if it was Idaho, someone can yield, we can, we can find ways to work with each other. Yeah. And it's funny how that kind of connects because, like, you have all the research of all

the stuff that goes into the stuff that you make in your, in your spots. and you could, like the first time I walked into one of your places, I was just told this is really great. Right. But I don't know, I don't know the backstory on all the stuff. I knew a little bit about you. But whatever you do and however you learned and sourced and all of that stuff, when I bite into it, it's different, without knowing any of that. I bite into it.

It's a different experience than all the other pizzas that I had eaten up to that. point. You know what I mean? It's kind of a trippy thing that that it's, I mean, that's what an artist is. I mean, I think, I think it's, well, that's very kind first of all time. But, but it's also like, it's funny. I, I only use the best in one reference in my life. I see all the time, like to my kids, my friends, you know, you know, like, oh, this is the fucking best day ever. This is the best. And I don't feel bad about that because it doesn't make us trade in all the other best days. Right. It is like the steamroll.

and this fucking now this big kind of, you know, you know, whatever of best collective best days. Unlike something singular. Like I never made a best pizza in my life. Right. But like whatever our views of spirituality is,

all the good ones seem to end in a collective, you know? Yeah. Not on an island of like, if you're fucking so good in this life, you'll be placed on a fucking island with no one else. Whatever your spirit,

you know, And I would like to think that whatever our energy goes. Yeah, yeah. And it goes with a bunch of energy with a similar intention. Yeah. You know, just try to, hey, man, at the end of day, I ain't curing cancer. The kid dropped out of school. It was fortunate enough to, like, you know, to be stuck at home.

Like when I was a kid with asthma, it sucked sometimes when I couldn't do things. But it was what a gift it was to learn in early age. It was something greater than me. was breath, you know. I was not invincible or immortal. And I was stuck home with, you know, with, you know, my mom, we had, we had National Geographic, which no one ever looked at me once in a while. And we had Encyclopedia Botanica. And we had gourmet magazines, you know, like every fucking one from like 47 to present day.

And it was so weird in that. Like, I remember years ago, I did a thing during the old gourmet offices. I remember walking upstairs. And they're photographer, Ramalo Yains. I never forget because I saw his name for, you know, he's there forever. Yeah. And I saw these, you know, photographs of how when there was nothing out. Like, now we go on our thing.

It's like a million things. A million things in videos. It's like, it's like I remember, like, seeing, you know, my first concert was, this is all connect somehow. It's going to connect. But my first concert was Peter Frampton. Frampton comes alive. 76. And the next year I saw, you know, Led Zeppelin.

And that's when it hit me when I never saw live music really until then. There was no live music. It was like when Saturday Night, Saturday Night started, I remember right after that in New York, there was Don Kircher's rock concert. Yeah, yeah, I remember that. And if that, you could see live music. like staying up late. Yeah. You can see like, yes, you know, in a very blurry image with fucking horrible sound.

Yeah. And you felt like you were somehow like I'm immortal or like a ghost in the machine. I never get. Like Robert Plant said, you know, you know, the gardens for the weed and fucking whatever, you know. And Robert Plant said, hello in New York City. I'm like, motherfucker, they're in New York City and I'm in New York City. And this is crazy. They were bringing me, like, and there was something about that.

And I think it goes back to, like, going to someone's restaurant. Right. And connecting with something that was either not to be dramatic, otherworldly. Yeah. But I do that. No, I know. I was just in a bakery in Frozenoni in Italy a couple months ago. We're going to get some olive all down in Puglia.

And this friend of mine is a little bakery, Roberto Pizzella, I stopped that. And she's crazy in the most beautiful way. and like she's a one woman like wrecking crew of like an amazing baker. Yeah. Like when you go to Italy next time, you have to, it's one of the best bakers anywhere from,

not because of bread's so good, but because like everything has a story. Everything's from her friend. And, you know, she sent me down to her friends de Cheka in Pugia that are amazing cheese makers. And it's like all of a sudden this like, oh, you like good shit. Yeah.

It doesn't, you know, there's some really good people. you know, that's the thing that makes me like, oh man, I see your face in that. Yeah. You know, like, it's human beings. You know, in a world that's constantly dehumanizing every fucking thing to make it easier to negate it. Yeah. You know? Like, all of a sudden, whatever this costs, when you had to make it and struggle through it and wait for it and burn it and, you know, it becomes an unbelievable value.

Yeah. At whatever you pay for it. That's right. Yeah. But yeah, man, it's... Now, you can't... You're on a little bit of a diet, you can't eat things right now. You know what?

I would say this, Tom. I learned that I got a mirror at my house over the holidays. And I had a little bit of a health issue. I had some stuff with my asthma. And right now I'm just doing a little bit of a kind of a thing. But I will find a place to enjoy this. All right. Thirdly, right now I'm enjoying this.

the aroma therapy. This is, yeah, just the way you're handling the bread, honestly, is making me very happy. Really? It's like a grandmother, like, taking a child in. Yeah, this is pretty much, I don't think there is ways, like, in that way of, like, you know, like eating something or something that we're just ripping off and hammer it.

But, like, even the anticipator, you know, like the foreplay of the old. We do a thing on this program called an uncomfortable moment. I got plenty of other. We have a lot of researchers who go and take deep dives into you and what you're about. I'm sure it was just a puddle to find the uncomfortableness in my life. No scuba gear. And, you know, we're talking a lot about, you know, the source of things and things that are good. And you have, I think the reason that you're successful is that you really care and you have a lot of integrity about food and how we deliver.

it to people. But we found this, and I don't know, this looks like this is you as a grown-up. But can you explain this picture to me? Well, I would say, that could be AI. I would say. No, no, I think we just kind of found, it looks to me like you are delivering Pizza Hut

in your car. You know, I would say, this is true. Just two stories. I don't remember much. Because, but I remember that scarf, and I wore that scarf on a William Sonoma shoot that I did for them. Oh, you did? And I know that, I know, I don't have, if you look on my little only thing I have,

there's probably 5,000 posts and there's three pictures of what I'm in. And that might be one of them. But, so there's zero explanations that. Not that I would have took that job in a minute if I need it. If you're on the road. I'll fucking eat it. If you're on the road and there's a cheap, very commercial. pizza option? Is there a favorite of yours?

I'd probably just go with a plain cheese pizza, meaning you don't want to not press your luck, and I think that... Are you Domino's or Pizza Hut? Well, I mean, I'm not either. No disrespect to either. But if I'm like at a kid's party or some shit, I'm fucking, I'm not gonna like, I'll throw it down.

It's all good. You know what I mean? My daughter's a Papa John's kid now. She's going to school in New Jersey. There's worse. She's falling in love with Papa John's. And we keep saying, you're in New Jersey. Yeah, really. You're in New Jersey.

Yeah, we got to get, you know, we hope, like, like a lot of young love, it's fleeting. I just say. You cook for thousands and thousands of people throughout your career. Tell me a little bit about your home life. Do you cook at home? You know what? I occasionally, I do cook at home. I do.

You do. Are you the cook? Or like, it's. I learned that. When the family's around. My wife is actually makes a couple of. things really good. You know, she's Mexican-American and awesome.

And she makes, like, killer enchiladas. She makes really good tamales. She makes this calabasita soup that I love. But I would find that I've understood. It's been brought to my attention. I should say that I have a tendency maybe in the kitchen and maybe the only place I feel. an inkling of competence that somehow I

tend to to take a little bit of an intrusive role, I should say. You're a bully. Somewhat. But do you like, because I mean you cook, you know, your whole life, like, do you enjoy cooking at home? Yeah, I do. I do.

I do. I do like it. It's just different because it's also like, you know, I mean, I got married, you know, late in my life. Like my kids don't know what the fuck that I do now. Uh-huh. So maybe if you make something that doesn't suck totally, even though they hate everything. Ironically, my daughter, Nina, she's 10, going to be 11.

She hates tomatoes. But I know just like myself is bullshit. I know that I did not eat mayonnaise so I was 19 because my brother Marco loved mayonnaise so much. So I ate only Goulden's mustard in defiance. And then later on with no. was around. I got a jar of almonds and put it on a BLT and I'm like, I give in. I give in.

So, yeah, I'm not offended by it, even though tomatoes, you know. Do you think she doesn't like tomatoes because you sell tomatoes? Yeah, because we grow tomatoes. I mean they're on pizza, whatever. Now, you know what's in my, you know what's in my dining room? I do not know. You don't know? I don't know.

I have no idea. I'm not going to scroll through my phone again. I have a big framed label of Bianco Donopoli. tomatoes. That is the only thing hanging up in my dining room. Well, that means one I could tell you. My dad, speaking of like video killed, the radio star, my dad was, you know, a great portrait painter, you know, but like most, you know, didn't make a lot of money and he had to go into some commercial art, did, you know, did greeting cards. Did he fucking hate it? Like, there's no no card in my house ever. Right. Oh, really? Because he hated it.

He had so much disdain. Like, you know, he worked in his little, like, basement at like in New York cards at 26th Street and like down he'd fight fights whatever and you know dark and everybody's in that chain smoking

like you know there'd be the guy you know my dad would like paint the roses and the lettering guy on this special day you know and he fucking and he would never buy one for my mom and let us get him

and like it's all scam and that was that was a funny kind of a funny thing and then he he started his own little studio with him and one of the one of the, it was like Harry Shankman did the lettering and Violin Nakashima did the watercolor. My dad did the portraiture for like wine and liquor labels and stuff like that.

And then like in, you know, then Adobe Illustrator came out, you know. Right. You know, which was a artist AI, I guess, for the writer. Yeah, first step. And it was like, well, if I can get this kid at Pratt to do it for 20 bucks. Yeah. I know, you know, hand embossed and whatever, don't give a shit. Yep.

Because I just got to turn it out. One more typesetting. Weasley, you know, art director. but high five because you get something that looked eerily like the other stuff. Yeah. And, um, and, uh, yeah, it was just- And he made that label? We did art.

Yeah, my labels. Yeah, yeah. I did the letters on them and he did the art. And he did the art. Did he, did you just capture something he had done already or he did it for you? I did it. I did it. Matter of fact, um, he painted the wrong tomatoes once.

Oh, really? The wrong varietal. And actually Jimmy's got, uh, uh, that chemical. He does. original one. Oh, really? It just was painted on a piece of wood. And it was no good to anybody anymore.

It was so a beautiful little painting. Sure, but it wasn't the right tomatoes. It wasn't the right tomatoes. So we had to paint the right tomato. Right. It is really good. Because it's like no one wants that like in a, you know, it's a movie about Hendrix and they're playing right hand and you're like, well, fuck. It was almost pretty good. You almost got it. You can't have the wrong tomato. They are great tomatoes.

Well, you know, it's funny, man. I love cooking with them. Or my partner, Rob Denapoli, sometimes people think, because the name's on it, it's like just from Naples. But, and I love Naples. I love San Marizano tomatoes when, you know, when they're great, they're great. But like everything else, like wine or anything else, my oral idea was, you know, my partner Rob was, you know, three generations of growers and packers, his grandfather, or his great uncle, I think, in the overall. invented the apricot pitter, which is, again, in those insignificant things in life,

like during World War II, when they were canning foods and peaches and apricots and whatever, it was like a game change in California. And they were also in the tomato business. And, you know, when you approached me, like, you know, a little over 20 years ago now to do something, you know, they had a great line of tomatoes on their own. And I was using something from Italy at the time

that I was happy with. And these were grown in California These were grown in California And I was just like, hey man Well, if you ever do something That you want to commit to organic Or regenerative farming You know, let me know

And maybe we can collaborate on something At that point Right Because I wanted to know I didn't want to stick my fucking name on something I want to understand We could work with our farmers We could

We could make a pantry better than we found it Without calling bullshit anybody else Like it's like wine, great Love it Tuscany you know Pooia you know, Napa, Sonoma, you know, Bordeaux, whatever, all great. So my thing was, well, why don't we take why the Italians came here anyway?

They understand how fertile land was. Great tomatoes would grow here. They just think they would grow. Yeah. Where tomatoes were discovered in Chappas, Mexico, went to Chile, went to Russia, ended up in Italy, where they did a pretty fucking job. Really, that's the real tracking of it? That is pretty much the tracking, China. I mean, all of it.

I mean, it's all, it's not a native Italian thing. Right. Like many, many things. Yeah. Like many things. But the Italians like to take credit. Well, they definitely had an environment. Yeah.

And there are great farmers and understood. I mean, all the varieties and that's the thing too. Like for us, we'll use a shorter like box type Roma. Because unlike like a maritime or, you know, you have the sea, you have it more, like you have the fog rolling at night. And in Naples or in San Marzano, you know, in Sack Valley, you know, it's 105 during harvest. Right. So they got a fruit as quick as, you know, as quickly as possible.

Right. It's going to be tough. Set. And then, you know, you're at the mercy of a lot of things. So anyway, so when one of our farmers, you know, said, hey, we'll do 50 acres one year. And we had the first harvest, it was pretty much just for me. It was like I used 2,000 cases a year. And there was like 2,600 cases that we got.

And I gave them some of my friends and they really liked them. And, you know, Alice Waters, I gave it. and Alice was a big supporter and a friend in late great Judy Rogers at Zuni, tried them and said something really positive to a couple people. And, you know, the Italians at the beginning were like, oh, they, you know, I'm like, dude, I love Italy. I'm using six, eight, right now, six wheels of Reggiano Week. I love it.

Right. But I think there was also something for me that was more about, that same thing about, I wanted a genie in a bottle. And in this case, I wanted to be in Northern California. Yeah. And I wanted you to know that, like, if you were anywhere else or you were here, you could kind of close your eyes and have, you know, just like sometimes we, as we pine for places in our youth, especially about, like, nostalgia. I remember seeing, like, you know, I and I love Lucy when they went to California. Yeah.

Like, I remember started thinking about that, you know, when they only went that little room. The whole time that little apartment, and all of a sudden they're in California. It was like a hedge or a thing or even though it was in Blackaway, you can imagine a swathing. off the blue sky. Yeah. And you started thinking about your world broadening. Yeah. Yeah.

And so how much do you create, how much do you generate a year now? How many cases? Word about all together, about 500,000 cases. Whoa. Yeah. From 26 to 500? Yeah, I think 400. $2,000.

Man. That's all everything. Is it nationwide now? Nationwide. Toronto's huge for us. Shout out to all our Canadian friends. No nicer people. I was just there.

Hopefully, you know, they'll remain Canada. Keep you Canada people. Yes, stay Canada. We love them. And then our good neighbors in Mexico, which Mexico cities use for us, which is amazing they have great tomatoes there as well. Yeah, yeah. Especially in their history and all the different varieties that grow.

Oh, it's great. But is it funny? Back to the story thing. It's like, I really love, I mean, I have a picture of the label in my dining room. So when I cook with it, I'm thinking about you. I'm thinking about our time. And it makes what I'm making that much better. Well, it's, you know, for me, just to be on, I mean, I hate saying to be honest because it makes like the other things I'm saying are not honest.

But this one's really honest. But this one's truthy honest. You know, I was, I mean, like, you know, back in the day, we should say back. I was a kid. I was so fascinated with branding in general, not because my dad was just an artist, and he was doing that in a lot of cases. And I remember when I was a kid,

in the summertime, one of my many jobs, I'd run stats for him, which were, like, stat copies before they had, like, it was like Xerox machines. You had to run down to, they were, like, 26th Street, and, like, on the west side, you go to these stat houses,

and they were, like, kind of those rooms downstairs, knock on the door, slide, come in, you know, like these, Big machines, you give them, kind of fuck around for like 45 minutes, you know, and another 45 minutes as I walked back to the studio on 39th Street, you know, getting these stack copies. Yeah. And, and, you know, there was just something that... The branding.

That, yeah, just connected me to the power of STP stickers. Yeah. And Coca-Cola stickers. Uh-huh. And Tony the Tiger. stickers and used to be able to go to the gas station and fill up and they give you a stack of stickers. Yeah. And I remember driving my grandfather was New York City fireman, a hook and lavish 17 in the Bronx, 143rd Street.

And shout out there. But my dad lived across the street, but they moved to Connecticut. And I remember driving from the city to Mystic, Connecticut, where he was a fire marshal there for 25 years. retired and I remember like it was like going to another country but there's one gas station we would stop and they had the old school coke machines we'd pull out the coke so you get this bottle which which in New York I don't know we didn't for some reason they were kind of gone yeah by then it was like cans would come in with the pull tabs but but we could get these glass bottles I remember drinking this thing like it was like it was you know like a treasure yeah like it was you know sassicaia

you know and I would rinse the bottle out and save it and stack it and I'd have on my stickers and and you know later I I I saw that same thing with food like you know whether whatever it was in the deli that when you grabbed your tomatoes or that olive oil that became you didn't know that was somehow when you went to other people's houses there was there was a common denominator factor was it was it was it quality was a common denominator was it familiarity yeah and I think a lot of it I thought was the same thing that totality of something which was like it had to be good things good it wasn't going to slap our you know i don't slap my name on a pedestrian thing would it make it good we had make it good source people that

were looking at organic farming and regenerative farming and understood the impact to not only its flavor profile to the planet um but i wanted could we use some of that like i remember seeing some movie back in the day on the subliminal avatizing the 50s go to the movies and halfway through you're thirsty and then you slow it down, you see like, you know, dogs panting, the Sahara and all this bullshit, but what if you could use that for good in some way? Whatever the end of that rainbow, that, you know, that siren led you to an island. Like, where to take you to a good place?

You won't be the island of Misfit toys. It'll be actually toys. It'd be toys that are good for you and you want to play with. And I think of anything else, like we had a couple years ago, my buddies, John and Vinny, dear dear friend, and people speak in the middle of this tragedy of help so many people are now giving so many things away and those guys are fucking always there

as so many other chefs. But anyway, they gave me a call one day they leased, they owned the building that Tyler the Creator had a store of Golf Wang which was his brand of clothing and then like he's like, you know, John was like, Johnny Shook was like, hey man, like, dude, you should check this out. Like in the window is your tomatoes.

Or it says Bianca the Navi says golf wang. Oh, yeah. And so I, you know, they send a picture. And it's not like a copy of it. It's actually the art. And then just the art in there. Oh, really? And it was funny, but they were like, you know, shirts, boxers, everything in branding.

And we had a, you know, it was probably one of his kids in the company that saw our thing. I think that's a mindless company. that won't give a shit. Yeah. And that was my fucking dad's art. Right. And it happened before that we had other people that would kind of sample it, I guess, or whatever. Jeez.

The terms is, but the good news was they were super cool about it. And all I really wanted was my kind of dads to get the credit for the artwork on it. And we did that. It was a limited edition anyway. Right. But they were super cool. Jeez. Well, it is attractive.

I mean, and it really stands out. But I think that that's the thing about it. It's like if imagine like, you know, all our wives are beautiful, but, you know, the ones that hang around or us are we beautiful internally. You know, beautiful gets ugly quick when it's not internally beautiful. Right, right. And so I think that was the opportunity even with something is with tomatoes. Like, even with a wine label, like, you know, these things are like this. As I look at this, it's nostalgic and it says something.

I don't want to say I'm being a dick about it, but I don't want to spend 20, 26 minutes with an ugly label. You know, and that sounds terrible. No, it's true. But I think when you have something, it's like, you know, scribbled by somebody's daughter. There's a paw print with someone's dog that had great must out on their feet, whatever, they're going to be like, oh, like, what do you make for breakfast? You know what?

Another relationship I have is scrambled eggs. And my wife actually makes better scrambled legs than I do now, even though at one time I was the teacher. Oh, really? The student is. The trick is this. I do like to make it in a stainless versus a nonstick pan. And I get it screaming hot, you know, screaming out until you can bounce water off it.

And then I use a pan that's way too big for it. have a really big cast answer with a lid. And I'll, you know, for, like, they can take six eggs at a very thin layer. And so I'll get it screaming hot to water dances. I'll let it temper cool for a minute. And then it's just, you know, getting a knob of butter, letting it roll and hit.

And then just beating the shit out of the eggs, just eggs, you know, black pepper, good sea salt. and then it's just hit in the thin layer and I just cover for like 10 seconds and then just one scrape, hopefully another scrape and then kind of dump. Really?

That's it? That's it? Yeah. One scrape? Just two scrapes and that? I think it might be three scrapes. Or you can at that point you have one scrapes take it off the heat,

almost like you do a French arm. Like if it's people have trouble for it but you scraming, scraming, scrab and let it sit. Like you can get to the, that point where like I saw Ludo do a great video on this word

that you know you kind of take it off the heat immediately let it cover let it cook through safely and then kind of do your kind of blow up for the on the for your butter it

but in this case I kind of want shards right I don't use the word shards must but in this case I'm looking for shards of yokey right deep orange hopefully

eggs that um but in a big pan but too big a pan it's like anything like crowding anything right crowds are rarely good except for the circuit on the comedy circuit of course it's right i literally was making eggs earlier today because my daughter was home and it was too small of a pan yeah and the spatula was too big for the pan and it was a shit show you can't know the other thing too was like in the in the 70s we never went out to eat unless somebody died it was a wedding but but um When we moved to this little town, Austin, New York, from the Bronx to Austin. There was a place, rigatones, or whatever, we would go. And, like, that was the first time I went out and I, you know, the salad came with the meal because, you know, whatever.

You wouldn't really order. But I remember, like, the whole thing of, like, let's put a really, let's put a big fucking handful of shitty salad on this tape. Where every time the fork touches it, it's already annoying. And I have this thing, like, I do want a too big, like, for pasta, anything else, for people. pizza, I want it to be exactly appropriate. I don't want it to be, even if you got, if it's an 18-inch pizza or a 12-inch, with a 17-it-it-it-it-it-to-minute it is. You want it to be at the edge of, like, you see, just enough, just enough cuff, you know?

Yeah. But for salads, you know, they have to be appropriate, or soup, I would say, working just cool. Back to the eggs. You're saying once across, so it's a big thing. So if I'm going once across, what do you mean once-cross? So if you dump your eggs in. And now, like, you know, your butter went everywhere. You have coverage, but you didn't let it get brown because you hopefully let it heat up.

Let it cool for, you know, 30 seconds while you're beating your eggs or a minute. So then, boom, the butter goes in. It gets a swirl everywhere. And then you're dropping your eggs in a thin layer. Right. So it's not like you've got this tiny pan where the bottom's cooking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the top's the liquidy and then whatever the fuck.

Right. So it's equal. It's equal, just what we want. Which is just like our relationship. Right. And the bread and all the other things. Yeah, balance, baby, balance. But at that point, like if I can, you know, I can just do it there.

You could even do it. You can even try this at home with one push. Take it off the heat, covered for like a minute. The push. The push is the part I'm getting confused on that. Well, the push is just with your spatula. Right. Preferably a wooden spatula with a flat bottle. Why?

Where you're going to get it? And the push is the push. So now it's all one, so you just almost like flipping it. So it's like, let's like, let's. Let's call it the gather, not the push. Okay. Want to gather. So you're going to get like, what would be?

Like a sharp hay. Okay. You know, like those guys at the wrinkly dog? Yeah. You know, like a sharp pay or one of those fucking cats that do the same kind of thing. Yeah. Brink up with the back of the neck, you know. Oh, you're okay.

You know, bunch it. Like when I bunch it, sleeve it up. And then, um, and a little texturey. I like that. And I don't like a little mint scramble. So we're not beating the shit out of it and breaking it all up. Not fucking with it. At all.

I end up when you roll, when I stretch pizza, though, that's the exact same philosophy. Don't fuck with it. Right. Like, gravity's your friend. Right. Like a beat, slap. I got to toss in the air only when it's underproofed. Right.

But if it's proved perfectly, it's, then we're going to use another big word. There's two words on the mood bar. Yep. Coaxing, which is my other word. Uh-huh. Or shards already got up there. Okay. And then coaxing?

And then coaxing where, like, you know, I'm going to coax this thing, you know, either to transfer. And now, like I said, the dough is perfectly jiggly. Now I'm working to get you not fucking with it and whatever. Disturbing you. Right. You know, all the hydration, the proofing, everything's come together. I want to do it.

Just like when you fold and you kind of stitch and whatever. Same kind of thing. It's what we're doing it too late. Yeah. Too early fucked. You know, what's the three bears thing? Two out, too cold. Just right.

Porthing, same thing. Yeah. Finding that window we're like, I don't want to fight. Back to the relationship. I don't want to fight. Right. I want to make my point. I want to find out what you need.

I want to address the need for something that I need as well. Like it might just be peace, you know, or buy it or your wife. So it's so thin that it's cooking through. So typically if it's small, you've got to flip it to get the running part. This you don't have to do. It's actually cooking through. You're not fucking with it. Like I want to be cooking in seconds.

The other thing I love is the soft boiled egg, which I think is the most underrated of all eggs. Yeah, I don't mess with that. Well, my grandfather, big sonny, Bianco, my dad's dad, what every day would have, when he moved up to Pine Bush, New York from the city, which is like in the Catskill somewhere. And we drive up there and he turned into it like, you know, Italian mountain man.

Yeah. My uncle, like two acres they bought, like him and like two brothers. Yeah. And they all built houses like 150 yards of each other. Yep. And he would have. He had some guy that had chickens, and then he had a huge garden. But every day he'd have two scrambled eggs and a piece of wheat toast,

unless I brought, you know, bread from Taronova in the Bronx up, which you do. But he'd have toast. He buttered the toast, productically. We'd warm toast, warm scrambled eggs. And he put a little bit of butter. No, I mean, Albao was big, but we didn't have great aloe. We had Filippe-Barre. It was like the pies level.

level or whatever with no disrespect everything's fine but it wasn't like you know what you know it wasn't I didn't have the whatever

but it was a little bit of butter and it was probably from you know that Italian immigrant store it was like butter fat yeah so it was just a little bit of butter the toast

and then he would take it and he would just perfectly almost like turn it all together just it was like kind of like you know the ice cream shops they do the mix ends

it was like that mix in with the butter where the yolk and the white and whatever, it was all perfectly together with the torn up. He'd tear the toast up. Wait, this isn't scrambled eggs, though. This is soft-boiled eggs.

Okay. Soft-boiled eggs. The other egg is going to be your new friend, I'm telling me, because it just does something. It's like, fuck, you're coating my toast. We're not dredging it. You're not runny, which I like a poachshade too, but you're not running, yet you're not running from me.

Yeah. Like you're hanging around. You know, you're hanging around. And I think those things are, That's when we want people in our lives It's the good ones Hang out I'll get into it

I haven't really messed with the soft boiled It's with like this Like you toast this motherfucker right here And then it's like If it was like lunch You could go crazy You're like little Dude just rubble with raw garlic

Maybe bumpo You know branched oregano Some really good sea salt Nothing else Then you would use Really good olive oil Just soak it And then you take that egg

That soft oil Then you're smashing it into that toast. So it's like this eggy blusketa. Oh, boy. And then you're like, fuck, it all makes sense. It all makes sense. Toast. And the shittiest town you ever went with.

If they knew, they had access. Yeah. Yeah. Do you make fauce? I do make foket, a lot of fokacha. That's my, that's my 2025 endeavor. It's good. We'll come down a poni and, you know, we do a lot of fauce.

We do fokcha sandwiches. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do like, you know, fokcaccia. It's done. I want to do the thick fukasha. Yeah, we do, you know, we do a pretty thick fulccia. But we also do like poochia bread, which is basically like a, you know, like a pulleze, almost like a peter bread.

Where you can just kind of, but we kind of still docked pretty good. So it doesn't open up like a peter bread. It's a lot of structure that we just kind of split warm and fill up with like, you know. Oh, nice. With appropriate condiments, we would say. Oh, man. It's nice. Yeah.

Well, thanks for being here. Oh, my God. It just flew by, didn't it? Man, oh, ma'am. Everyone's waking up now. Yeah, I know, because everyone's hungry now. Yeah, they're waking up. They're waking up from there now.

What an honor to be here, Tom. So great. And especially during this crazy week. During this crazy times, but we have to remember to, you know, feed hungry people and hopefully make sad people happy. Yeah. I want to come down to your L.A. spot, but I only want to come when you're there because you've never met white way for my kids.

I'm usually there. usually there at least a couple days a week. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I, you know, when I love New York, even when I moved from the Bronx to, you know, 20 minutes north, like, you know, and maybe coming from a family of immigrants,

my grandparents, whatever, I've always felt a visitor. And that's a very comfortable place. You know, like you're right around, like locals only. And I go, I'm boring. My DNA is, you know, like, and then I'm like, fuck, dude. I'm just visiting.

Yeah. Even though we've been here, we've been here, we have a place here, business here, friends here, family here. I feel that, you know, it's, you know, home definitely, not the all the cliches of the world where all the hearts are. Yeah. You know, when my family's here, my friends here, it's hard not to, in business and these young kids that work with us. And it's hard to see them in pain or in. We'll get through. We'll get through.

Yeah. Right? We've been to do this stuff before. We've been through it. We've been through it. We can do it. Yeah, exactly. Well, you're the best.

Thank you for being here. Oh, my God, back at your time. This is an honor, and I'm sure, like, would all be had anywhere to get three good minutes? Yeah, I think so. Solid minutes of golden, golden network television. If I send you away with the spread,

do you have people that you can share with? I have people. You know, I might, I might, when no one's looking and it's 1130.30. You know what? One bite. I will say this. This is what I'm going to do.

And I will send you pictures. All right. I would like to smash that softball egg on this toast. It would be an honor. It's a siren for your thing. If it ever became a thing, you know. You could probably do a mashup with like a mix-in version. Like the gateway to that would be maybe the avocado toast, but it makes a friend.

You're always thinking. I'm always true, for better or worse. Anyway, the choice, I would thank you. Thanks, buddy. Give to the rest. Much love, brother. All right, you too. There you have it.

Chris Bianco, plus some secret recipes. I'm going to try those eggs. That sounds like it's not going to work. But I will try. Thank you, Chris, for being on the program and get ready to host my entire family. We're coming in probably next week. Next week on the podcast, we have read a great comedic actress. She's super funny, super talented.

She's got a show on HGTV called The Ugliest House in America or just in the world or just in America. Such a funny show and we're going to dive in with her. So that'll be next week. Until then, go try those eights.