Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen - Prue Leith on Baking Show, Favorite Contestant, and Paul Hollywood’s Blue Eyes

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

Prue Leith [Great British Baking Show, Great American Baking Show] joins Olivia, Rob and Rachel to talk about whether she gets sick of all the food she eats on the show, the ‘Baking Show’ recruitment process, and Prue’s favorite foods. They also discuss why they shoot ‘Baking Show’ in a tent, the difference between bakers and cooks, and whether Paul’s blue eyes and dark tan are “real”.Broad Ideas is supported by Factor. Head to factormeals.com/ideas50 and use code ideas50 to get 50% off.Broad Ideas is supported by Marine Layer. Find your new favorite fits and get 15% off at marinelayer.com/IDEAS15.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hax is back for its fifth and final season, and so is The Hacks podcast. Join the Hacks creators and showrunners, Lucia and Yellow, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky as they unpack the Emmy-winning comedy series. On each episode, here's stories from the set, what goes on in the writer's room, and how these beloved characters close out their final season. Watch Hax streaming exclusively on HBO Max and listen to The Hacks podcast on HBO Max, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi.

Hey. Welcome to broad ideas. Rachel and I are very excited for today's guest. We're so excited. And Olivia, we get introduced to someone near and dear to both of us. Near and dear to our hearts and our mouths. And our stomachs. Yeah, on stomachs.

That's the saying. Mouse, whatever. Prew from the great. British bake-off, the great American baking show. I didn't want to get it wrong, guys, because, you know, similar but different. Yeah. The great British menu. She is a legend, honestly. I love watching this show. It is like my comfort show. It's so cozy. It was my COVID show. It was your COVID show. It was. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's so cozy. Oh, yeah. I had it on in the kitchen when I'm cooking, just even if it's in the background. It's

soothing. I go to sleep every night with that show on. Do you? Are you serious? Yeah. It is so tender, Rob. That is tender. It's so tender. It's so tender.

Like her cakes. Okay, anyway, the Great American Baking Show has their Celebrity Holiday episode. True story. We got to see it a little early. I was like very, very geeked out about that. I was like, I know who wins. Yeah, I want a biscuit. I want a biscuit.

That's right. Do you want a biscuit? Let's find out what a biscuit is and... Everyone will find out what a biscuit is and... Everyone watch. Okay, dooky. When you can. Let's talk to Prue.

Sometimes when the worst's sick inside of Rachel's little brain, all these thoughts are swirling round and round inside. To join us on this journey as we take a little ride. We'll talk about dogs and kids and things. We'll talk about chicks and tampon strings. Because people die. I'm a huge fan, huge fan of the show and you. So this was very, very exciting.

But we can't wait to talk to you about all of it today. Yeah, sure. Go ahead. And you met Casper, right? Casper set you up for this. Okay. So Casper is so starstruck. He didn't want to see anything.

but he's been geeking out over having you all week. He'll just randomly text us like, yay, Prue. And he meets a lot of people. You know what? I mean, I can, I absolutely, it's not some sort of false modesty. It's just that I simply cannot understand why everybody is so lovely to me because, I mean, all I do is eat cake. That's hardly a claim for fame.

However, I'm not complaining. No, no. Well, I think that that's goals, right? It's most people's goals, is how do you turn eating cake into such a big deal? Into a career? Yeah. But yeah, so my main question, I think when I watch the show, you have to taste so many things. And I wonder, how do you do it without getting sick?

Well, you know, if you think about it, I actually lose weight generally when I'm on either the Great American Baking Show or the Great British Bake Off because if you think about it, okay, you have half a dozen, maybe 10 people at the beginning of a competition and they're all making the same thing. but all I have to do is eat a teaspoon of it. And it's true. And if you're judging the great British menu, and it was top chefs, and they each cooked five courses, and each plate, I tell you what, had a meal on it. So it had, you know, they're showing off these chefs,

so there's drizzles and foams and little crisps and jelly bits and powdered this and, I mean, so much stuff on the plate for every course. And so I really felt ill by the end of the day. And I didn't eat any breakfast and I didn't eat any lunch. And it was hard work. And I had to eat it all because, or taste it all, because, you know, they're in a very important competition and they want to win. And you can't chicken out and say, well, I'm sorry,

I don't feel up to eating the potatoes as well. but in a cake you can get the filling, the icing and the sponge in one teaspoon. The difficulty is at the beginning of the day, because you've had no breakfast, you're quite hungry. But the first time you start tasting at about 11 o'clock or half a first 11. And then at the beginning, you know, is really difficult to have just one spoon. I mean, Paul is brilliant at it. If you watch Paul, he never has more than one mouthful. I sometimes force him to have another mouthful because I don't agree with him or something.

But I normally end up with two. But even two teaspoons six times, if you add up all that, it doesn't amount to more calories. As long as you don't eat any other meals that day, you'll fight. Right. And I always, I don't eat anything else. I don't eat lunch. and I don't eat breakfast. But when it comes to the evening,

what I can't forego is a couple of glasses of wine. So my diet, for my diet, for several weeks, is basically cake and alcohol. So lots of sugar. Probably not ideal. I don't know. You seem to be doing great. It's nice.

Yeah, it's nice. You're thriving. You know, there's one trick I learned. A long time ago, I had to do a commercial for ice cream, and the amount of ice cream I had to eat was a lot. And someone told me that if you have unsweetened iced tea, it cuts the sugar and it's more palatable. Have you ever heard that trick? No, but I'm not surprised because you do, if you have a lot of sugar in anything, you do need something that will cut it. Just sort of contradict it, even if it's, you know, lemon juice.

or vinegar or vinegar and water would do it too. Right. Do you find that your body gets addicted to the sugar then? Because I have a sugar addiction. It's real. I crave it all throughout the day. Do you find that you crave more sugar when you eat more sugar? No, I don't tend to like sugar much.

What? You're like, I don't like this job. No, I do like this job. I like, obviously I like a bit of, I love ice cream, I like cake, but I don't, you know, if somebody makes a cupcake and the thing about cupcakes these days, the great fashionable thing about cupcakes is to absolutely pile the butter icing on it in a great big swirl and then there's lots of, I mean, it's ridiculous because there's more icing than there is cake. And that's quite the wrong balance for me. I couldn't, I just have to take the whole. whole lot off the top and just eat the bottom with a little smear of icing on it. Yeah. Same.

But I love marzipan, for example. Lots of people who don't, who, a lot of people who don't like fruitcake, what they don't like about it is the marzipan, but I love marzipan. And that's very sweet. Yeah. I didn't know. There's marzipan and fruitcake. I didn't realize.

You know, Marzipan's like, yeah, you know, you normally get a, yeah, between, you get a cake and then you get a layer of marzipan, and then you get a layer of white icing. So it's quite usual. Or quite a lot of cakes have a, I mean, it's not called a marsy pan filling, but it's very similar to a marsy pan, which is frangipani. You know, we do them in bakewell tarts. You probably wouldn't know a bachral tart, but in what is that lovely American thing that bakers do with brioch,

where they put ground almonds and sugar and on top of brioche and almonds all over it and bake it. Is it called a bearclaw? Bosch, or Boschkopf or something? I don't know. Some of the words go. Oh, gosh. When you guys get into technicals and some of the words come out, I'm just like, I couldn't say it and I don't know what it is. Well, I tell you what, what I found really difficult because, you know, I hadn't done the,

American baking show before. I've only done one series of it. And there was a, there's a cake. And I noticed they've got it on this bit of paper here. Do you know what a suffganiot is? I do now. I do now. Yeah. I didn't know what that was. Oh, you didn't? Okay. That makes me feel that. A pillowy donut filled with raspberry jelly filled with and dusted. Sort of basically we'd call it a donut. Right. Yeah. So do we. Or a beignet. Or a beignet. Oh, that's how you say it.

Sufganio. Yeah, I had no idea when it was said. But they looked really good. Were they good? Yeah. Were they good? I mean, honestly, what was so delightful for me, I suppose. I'm going to get myself in trouble here.

Do it. That's what you're here for. I was quite nervous about American baking show because. the few competitions that I'd watched on American television are really quite aggressive. You know, the contestants want to kill each other, basically, and they're certainly quite prepared to trip each other up or try to, you know, sabotage them, really. Right. And they're quite sort of, I'd watched a couple where the competitors,

I suppose it was because they have these huge money prizes, So it begins to matter enormously. Well, here you're putting this months of effort into winning a cake plate. It's not a big deal, is it? But because of that, the people who are in there really are bakers. They want to bake. They absolutely love it. And so they are prepared to give up months of their life.

First of all, just to apply is a huge, you know, enormous. process because, you know, the sort of love productions have to weed out all the people who just want to be famous or just think, you know, their granny said, look, you know, you're great, you should go into this. And just because she makes one thing beautifully. And so they have to fill in this enormous form. And it really tests what you know about makeup. And of course, theoretically they could go on the internet and get all the answers but it would still take hours and hours and hours so that that gets rid of a lot of people

and it's thousands of people and then they get them down to hundreds and finally down to the so when we finally end up with 10 American amateur bakers they are really really good bakers because they've sent thousands of people off right we did them out beaten we did them to it So they, and they are prepared to practice all the time.

You know, they get, they get given in advance what the first few signatures are and showstoppers so that they can think about what they'd like to do and so that they can practice. And so they spend all their time when they're not working. A lot of them are work or working mums or very busy. And they work away and then they come home and, put the kids to bed or make dinner, and then they start practicing, go to bed at two in the morning. Oh, my goodness. You know, it requires real dedication.

Yeah. So I'm full of admiration for them, and I loved your bakers, and they weren't at all, like I fear. They were not pushy. They immediately sort of bonded with each other, and they'd start helping each other. And I mean, what I love about the baking show is that it's so friendly. And they got that immediately. They didn't come in at all aggressive or pumped up. That's my favorite part of the show is just how wholesome.

And it's not like a real cooking competition show where everyone's trying to cut each other's throat. Everyone's so nice. Everyone's crying when they get eliminated. They're so happy when someone wins. I know. And it's extraordinary how when we announce. the star baker for the week and the person who's going home, everybody's far more upset about who's leaving than they are thrilled about who's that they've won.

Yeah. It's quite sweet. It's really sweet. It's nice. It is. It's just like you create a family in the tent. And I'm always amazed that you're baking in a tent and I'm wondering, how do they have all the ovens? And do you know, because it's a tent that's just like a makeshift.

I'm often asked that, why aren't Earthy do this in a tent? It makes it so difficult for you. It's either freezing cold and you're all, you know, we're sort of chattering because England can be cold even in the middle of the summer and you're in some sort of flimsy dress that the wardrobe people thought would look great in the middle of summer and it's now utterly freezing. And so you've got a hot water bottle stuffed underneath your jumper. Oh my goodness. Oh, boy.

Or we're doing, which happens all the time, we're doing the Christmas shows, or in this case, you're in a holiday special in a heat wave. And we're in warm Christmasy snowsuits or Christmas jumpers or, you know, holiday warmth. Right. Sweating away. Now you said jumpers. So this is something we talked about because there is a difference with British slang and American slang. So you say jumper and people are like, what? What do you mean by jumper?

I think of like a onesie. Well, you're wearing a jumper. I'm wearing a jumper. You're wearing a jumper and you're wearing a cardie. That's a jumper. Oh, a cardi. But a jumper is, yeah. That's a cardi and that's a jumper and that's a hoodie.

Okay. To us, a jumper is like a one piece. No, no. No, no. No, no. We've got it right. It's a knitted top. And then you pull over your head.

And then you're, you know, cookies or biscuits and you say that. Yeah, I know. I find that so difficult. I keep saying the wrong thing. But the thing that Paul can't get rid of, is just the simplest little linguistic habits. Like you say on your mark gets that, go. We say on your marks in the plural. And Paul keeps saying, why did they say on your mark?

It's like math and maths. And math and maths, exactly. You do the math and we do the maths. Oh, you do the maths? Oh, I didn't know that you did the math. I didn't know I did the math. Yeah. It's mathematics.

Oh, right. Yeah, no, that makes sense. A lot makes sense, I think, personally. A jumper doesn't make sense for this. Yeah, well, I suppose you jump it over. I don't know why it's what about crisps. Yeah, and chips. Chips and chips.

When I came, I was born in South Africa and we called them chips. Oh. What the Brits call crisps and you call chips. Right. Crisp. But like crisps or chips? Yeah. Yeah.

And fries. And then fries are chips. Yes. Right? Yeah. French fries. French fries are chips. Yeah.

It's funny because, you know, in Canada they have adopted a lot of lot of the British lingo. So I was more used to the slang. Okay. Do you have to change your vocabulary when you go to the America version? Do they give you a list of words that you have to? Well, we try to. But I mean, just, just remembering to say baking show is difficult. Yeah. Because we say bake off. And the reason we can't say bake off in the States is because Pillsbury own the word bake off. What? Wow. And they don't use it. But they won't let us use it. But why?

What? They don't use it. I suppose one day they think they'll cash in and, you know. Start a TV show. That's so bizarre, though. Isn't it weird that you can own a phrase? They don't. Yeah, they must have registered it at some point when they were doing a little

competition or something. And so they own the bake-off and we don't. That's crazy. I have a question. Do you think there's a difference between people who bake and people who cook like a type of person because I've noticed there's certain people

like my sister's an amazing cook but she's not a baker and then I know people who are amazing bakers but they're cooking and to be honest I think the skills are similar you do the skills are similar but the interest isn't I mean I'm

I probably shouldn't be saying this but I'm not a baker I'm a cook I mean I can the reason I got this job was because I had had for many, many years, a cookery school, it's called the Leith School of Food and Wine. And it's been going for years. And so I have tasted thousands and thousands of students' efforts and exams and so forth. So I think, and then I was for 11 years judging the great British, I get so muddled about these names.

Big off. The great British menu. The great British menu I judged for 11 years. And that was all professional chefs. And I had a restaurant and I'd come up from being a chef, not a baker. And I had a really smart Michelin-Star restaurant and I knew all the top chefs. So when they started the program of the Great British menu, they thought I was the right person to judge it

because I had the school and I'd done a lot of professional tasting. So really, then I went from that into judging bake-off. But I'm not really baking at all. I like baking, and I can make quite a mean cake, but I've never been as interested in it as I have in savory cooking. And actually Paul, although he's a baker, is not really a patissier. You know, patisserie is not his thing. It's bread.

So when breadweek comes around, Paul and I are both absolutely in seventh heaven because we're not tasting, it's not sweet, or most of it's not sweet. Some of it will be quite sweet. It'll be slightly sweetened breads or enriched breads or broshen, croissant, but I mean, not seriously sweet like cakes can be. And so we both love it. You know, nothing better than somebody making flatbread or pizza or, you know, doughnuts or whatever. So I think maybe they ought to have one of us that we came from the cake world.

Like, I mean, I made cakes in my, I started my career as a caterer. I started going around making people's dinner parties, you know. I don't have cook for hire, really, sort of traveling. cook for hire. And that grew into big catering company. And so I used to make wedding cakes all the time. Every weekend, there were two or three wedding cakes. And so I got to be a dab hand at making all in those days. And today it's much easier. You can use fresh flowers and ribbons and people can put, you know, use fondant to make teddy bears and all sorts of. But in those days, it was much more formal and you made like these regency frilly cakes you had to pipe little trellises and little fences

god it was boring oh you know hours and hours now another layer of um trellis on the wretched wedding cakes and always just in white it's pretty boring so as soon as i could i offloaded the wedding cakes but i still made the basic cake but i used to get them decorated by a professional who just loved cake icing. I mean, there's some people who live to ice cakes. Yeah, and decorate. And occasionally we get some of them on one of, you know, the baking show or the bake-off, and they, you know, they're just astonishing what they can do with the piping bag.

Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, I've seen some of them, and it's so impressive. And, you know, you said fondant. Some people say fondant. Fondon. I want to know what the correct pronunciation is. Well, I suppose it would be a French word. It would be fondon.

Fondon. But, yeah, you tend to say fondant. Fondon. My daughter is obsessed with fondant. Fondon. She loves it. She'll just eat it by the hand. I know.

Sugar. It's just sugar. She loves it. That's always her request for cakes as long as it has fondant on it. Oh, I don't. Heaven. I try. I mean, the contestants, the bakers get pretty well get to know that neither poor

or I really like fondant at all. Much rather you have. You made, if you make it yourself, it's not quite so horrific. But if you buy it in a packet, which most of them do, it's pure sugar and it's so cheap. Then they use it really thick. And actually, you can roll it very, very thin. And then it's not too bad because you just get a little kick of sweetness, not a great gobful.

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Oh, do tell. Because when I was a child, I grew up in South Africa. And my parents were quite well off. And we had a cook who cooked for, you know, most privileged white South African families had servants. And so we had a Zulu cook. And he was a wonderful cook. And he had been trained by the sort of best gentleman's club in Johannesburg, which had a French tradition of French cooking.

So he was trained in the classical French manner. And I could have learned to cook at his apron strings. But because the culture in South Africa was just so them and us, you know, you couldn't talk to the servants really. and I was devoted to Charlie and adored him because he was nice to me, but it never occurred to me that he could teach me to cook. And I went off to France to university, and I'd never cooked anything. And then I became an au pair, so I was working in a house looking after children.

And the woman who was my boss, Madame, she was a terrific cook. And so I was helping her in the kitchen and stuff. Actually, she never let me cook anything because she thought the fact that I spoke English would guarantee the food would be, you know, I'd ruin it. And she'd probably write. And so I came back to South Africa all full of myself because I'd learned to make a few dishes from watching her. And I was particularly proud of a crepe of pancake filled with seafood and a creamy sauce

and hollandaise on top of it and then put under the grill. so very sophisticated and extremely, you know, I thought it was really posh. And so I started to show rather grandly, I said to my mother, I'm going to show Charlie how to make this, you know, seafood pancake. And then I suddenly realized that Charlie, it was helping me, and we were doing this together. And I just thought, my God, look at the way he's doing. chopping the herbs and look at the way. And then I curdled the hollandays. And he quietly took it

away and started again with another egg yo, and fixed my hollandays. And I thought, God, this guy knows everything. He knows far more, and what do I'm doing thinking I can teach him to make a anything in it? But it was a bit late by then because I, you know, I'd left home. So in the end, I went to cookery school in England. I couldn't afford the cookery school in France. And so then I realized that the English Cordonbleau course was not only a bit cheaper, but I could live for free because I could stay with some friends because my parents had friends in London.

So that's what I did. So I never made the French, I never made the French Coromboa. Wow. I think you have done wonderfully without it. When you got there, did you know that this was going to be your career? Did you feel? Yes, I think once I realized that I was interested in food, not just to eat it, but I was so impressed with the way the French, it didn't matter whether you were a metro worker or a captain of industry or, you know, a movie star. everybody talked about food.

I always brought up in a family, you never talked about food. There were sort of certain things that I suppose I just, it might have just been the time because I'm so old, but my parents thought lots of things were a bit vulgar to talk about. You didn't talk about money, politics, sex, food, or God. no religion either well I don't know what the hell they did talk about because honestly those are the five most interesting things you can talk about

but in France everybody talked about all these things and they talked so that you'd get you'd be in a the family that I worked for we would sometimes go to the brasserie on the corner and have coffee and croissant stuff and we'd be standing at the bar and it was wonderful because you'd have the metro workers from down the road who were having a break and they would be and they'd be discussing you know things like which local restaurant made the best steak and chips or

everybody was interested where food is grown and who you know who grows the breast raspberries or i mean it was amazing because of the general interest in food. And I thought, oh, it's okay to be interested in food. And sex. And then I decided that I did want to. And the plan of me being at the Sorbonne at all was that I was supposed to be doing a course on history and culture of France, French civilization,

because I wanted to be a interpreter. I thought I'd work for the United Nations and I'd travel all over the world. translating. But I very quickly realized, I'd much rather cook. Where's your favorite city to eat? Oh, my favorite city today to eat. Yeah.

Do you know, I think I might say New York. Just because it's so different. And you can get, you know, you still get the best breakfast in New York, I reckon. And it's so cosmopolitan. And, you know, I went a couple of years ago now to that huge complex called Italy. Yeah. And really, they had stuff there that the Italians would have been proud of. Milan, which is the center of all gastronomy.

And they think of Milan as the gastronomy of Europe. But this was just a single company doing amazing stuff. And so, yeah, I like New York. And I've never been to the Lebanon. Beirut or anywhere. And I would dearly love to go because I love that cuisine. I love Middle Eastern food. Same.

And I think that somebody, people I really admire, as we have a chef here who actually is, I think he now has a restaurant in New York too, called Otolengi. Have you heard of him? Otelengi. But he's Israeli, his Lebanese, is. I mean, I think one of his parents is Israeli and the others. And he was just a revelation in England when he started, and fundamentally it's about

spicing correctly, you know, not too, not heavily, not just chili, but just a little bit of the right spices, careful spicing, and chopping up everything very, very fine, and using pulses a lot. And so I love that, um, the excitement of a bowl of salad or something, which has got maybe, you know, black-eyed beans and chickpeas and I'd like to say Beirut, but I've never been to Beirut. I suppose it's not worth going to now because it's smashed to hell. Yeah. Could you take us through your dream day eating? So what would breakfast be? What would snack be, we're food obsessed. We are food obsessed. So what would be your, if you had your dream day of eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, dessert. I'd start off with a New York's

version of a maybe an earth Florentine, you know, like a, like a Hollandeus, but with spinach in it. But basically, I love stuff on toast. The last cookbook I wrote is called Bliss on Toast. And it's just stuff on toast. And honestly, it's full of really, really good stuff. I'll show it a minute. Hang on, I'll get it. I love stuff on toast. Not because if I fall off, I might fall down. No, you can take it out. Yeah. We're getting the cookbook. I love this background. I know. I love anything on toast. Anything on toast. It's basically like a brusetta, you know, just anything. Anything on toast. Okay. All right, let's see. Oh, that thing I was trying to talk

that New York thing with Frangipani I was talking to about is called Bostok. Bostok. Never heard of it. No, never heard of it. Well, I'll tell you what. No, no, no, no one. thing in New York. Basically, it was invented by French bakers to make use of leftover brioche. But I want to show you, Maya, you see, I think, I mean, I think anything that you, the taste good on a plate tastes even better on toast, especially if it tastes, it's very good. So here's a, this is peppered steak with salsa verde on sourdough.

Ooh. Yum. Oh my goodness. Would you? No. No. I mean. Yes.

I need this book. This is chicken teaker. With your toast. Ooh. With yogurt on toast. Non bread. Like a raida. Non bread.

And then there's some fairly obvious ones like smoked salmon and wasabi. I mean this good book. Beautiful. Oh, you have the, you have it right. And that's, you have it right. That is a Caesar salad that made the scholars, but on top of bread. So I had such fun thinking. What do I like, yes, what kind of bread and what would be nicest on it?

And I began to realize that I wrote it in lockdown and I was just feeding my husband every day. And we did eat an awful lot of stuff on toast. And then if I made a chicken casserole or something, then we'd have it the second day on toast. You know, we'd have the leftovers on toast. And then I began to realize actually, everything's better on toast. Yes.

Were you making your own bread at that point, too then, too? Yeah, like most people in lockdown. Right. I didn't. Oh, no, I did. I wish we were staying with you. That was great. Okay, so eggs, florists.

quarantine on toast. What kind of toast would you put it on? I'm not quite sure I get this right. What do you call an English muffin? I think that would be good. Is it an English muffin? Does it come from England? This raises a good question. I've never thought about it. Oh, I don't know if it does. I don't know either. But they're great. And then for lunch. Snack in between lunch, Prue. Don't you need a snack in between lunch, yeah. No, I'm really boring about that. I think one of the problems is that we all eat too much in between,

and then we're not hungry at lunchtime and don't enjoy it enough. I'm all for the pleasure of food. And so it upsets me to see kids getting snacks all day, because I know they're not going. First of all, you know, that means they're not. going to be hungry enough to ever try anything new, and they'll always just want the same old pizza or whatever. So then for lunch, I would like, I think my idea of thing would be some really simple grilled fish, any fish. And if I was feeling really extravagant, it would be

maybe a dover sole fillets or something. Oh, that if I was feeling hard up, it would be macral or something. But any plain grilled fish with almost nothing on it except a bit of butter. and lemon. Nothing with the fish, just the fish. I quite like a salsa with fish, you know, chopped up mango and onion and stuff. It's good with fish. And then for supper, I'm getting dribbling now

because I'm thinking about it. I think for dinner, I'd like something really, Do you know French cassoulet? Do you know what that is? Yeah. It's basically a bean stew. Yeah, I was going to say it. But it's traditionally made with several kinds of meat.

You get a, let's say, a sausage, quite a spicy sausage. And a piece of duck or ham or chicken, it can be anything. But it's various pieces of meat cooked very, very slowly. in a very savory base, you know, the usual thing of onion and garlic and good stock, and white beans, you know, harriet beans. And it's all cooked together very, very slowly. And then it has a sort of crunchy top on top. What's the crunchy top?

Well, it's just, I think it's done different ways, but it can just be breadcrown. and what else would be in there? Maybe a little bit of cheese, but just a sort of crunchy. The main thing is it's cooked incredibly slowly and so savory. And when you take the lid off, you can just dive in there. Making us all very hungry. Yeah.

And it's nine something. Dessert. Oh, dessert. She's not done yet. I'm not done. I'm not done. No, no. Gosh, well, after all.

all that. Do you know, I think my favorite dessert is actually a cake. Really? Which is, because I love almonds, it's a palenta almond citrusy cake. So it could be oranges or lemons or even a mixture of lime and lemon maybe, but it's a lot of acidity and no flour. And no flour. So you just use ground almonds, palenta, and lots of eggs. Oh, wow. And I make all sorts of variations of that. And it's lovely just as a piece of cake. But it's also wonderful if you have it slightly warm with a big dollop of ice cream or cremfish or something

and maybe a bit of a fruit puree with it, you know, like a bit of raspberries or something. That sounds wonderful Okay I feel good I feel good now It's like EMDR Is that what it is? ASMR AMR

EMDR It's like ASMR Stomach Yeah it's like really comforting To hear I have a question about Paul And You are his blue eyes

His eyes are so blue Are they real There's a blue light Right? That'll help make it possible No no Honestly I hate to tell you But his eyes are exactly as they are.

When I thought they were contact lenses, you know, I think he was very clever, you know. But no, they're not. They're just absolutely real. And I'll tell you what the muse used. I've just done a tour all around England, a sort of one woman show, just talking about my life and stuff like that. And then in the second half, it's audience questions, And the most frequent question is are Paul Hollywood's eyes really that blue?

I'm glad I asked. So well done, you hit it. And I just hate to tell you, yes, they are. That is absolutely so. And the next question about Paul is the tan fake. I mean, can't does he really look that good? Yes, he does. And what's more?

If he goes in the sun for 20 minutes, he comes. comes out of the sun two or three shades darker, immediately. And he doesn't go red. He just... Yeah. And the makeup girls absolutely hate it when sometimes we find we're filming in the middle of a heatwave. And obviously Paul and I have quite a lot of time off because we have these people have to bake. Right.

And so we don't always have other things to do. So Paul will take his shirt off and go and lie in the hamlet. And then come back 20 minutes later and the makeup people complain bitterly that he doesn't look now like he looked 20 minutes ago. Three shades darker. They're trying to, you know, continuity won't be right. Oh my gosh. That's so funny. Can you think of the worst thing you've ever tasted on the show?

Does that stand out? The worst thing I've ever eaten. Yeah. On the show, though. Yeah, we'll go on the show. Or you could just say, but yeah. Do you know, I'm not eaten anything I've disliked with the Great American Baking Show, but I haven't done that many, you know.

Right, right. It'll come. I think that sometimes I'm surprised at how you think you've given somebody, you've given the baker's a really easy challenge, and then they don't do it right. They just, they all get it wrong. and I think maybe that's because we're asking them to do something that they've not heard of. Right.

But we try to make it accessible, you know. But I better not tell you about the disasters because you're about to watch it, aren't you? Yeah, we already watched. Well, we've already seen it. Have you already watched them all? Do you remember how, if you've already watched them all, you will have seen that they didn't do the ginger steamed puddings very well, did they? They tasted absolutely delicious.

Spicy, right? Delicious? They were really gingery and lovely. Gingery. But you like ginger. Flavor was fantastic, but the execution was appalling. They all came out of all. Oh, no.

Do you, so like, let's say the holiday special, right? When you go into something like this and you meet everyone and you're getting to know them and you're tasting their biscuits or whatever you're tasting, are you internally rooting for someone right off the bat or do you really oh interesting i think you i think it's difficult not to immediately take to some people more than others but i think we're all and it's really distressing when somebody you you think is just got it and going to get you know do well and they don't but it's not it doesn't lead to sort of favoritism because in the end what you're looking at is the bake.

Yeah. And that's what's talking to you. You know, this isn't right. It's undercooked. You can't cheat on behalf of somebody you really like. But yes, it's not. I mean, I've never disliked anybody. That's good.

But some people take a little longer to, to, a little longer to like in the main show. But in, yeah, because you get to know them, you know, at the beginning they're a bit shy and they, you know, and you don't know them very well. Yeah. But I'll tell you, in this one, the special, I mean, I have to say that there's no question that are my favorite from the start was DeAndre. Yeah. I mean, he's just so divine. First of all, he's crackingly good looking.

Yeah. He is. And there are not many people who tower over me because I'm very large, I'm rather large. So it was such a delight to stand next to somebody and actually have to look up. And he was so witty and so charming. He was endearing. Yeah. Vegan baking as well.

That's hard vegan baking. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It is. Well, it's harder with some things than others. You know, vegan breads are right.

It's cakes as difficult because of eggs and cream. Right. But it's getting easier because the substitutes are getting better and better. Right. But he was just so interesting and such a delightful guy, so I guess he was my favorite. Who's your favorite of all time through Great British Bakeoff? Ah. Raoul, Liam?

You know, we're in the middle at the moment of airing Bake Off, And so I'm not going to tell you how anybody did. But there's a baker on at the moment called Tasha. Have you been watching it? Yeah, I have been. And Tasha's death. Yeah. And she is the most delightful girl.

You know, she's so admirable. She's so funny. She's got such a good sense of humor. Terrific baker. And she's quite profoundly death. And she manages to get on with her life. It's just beautiful. So she's admirable as well, but she's also so funny.

She's lovely. I can't wait to see it. But the holiday, I just thought it was funny because, you know, it's the celebrity version of it. And Joel McHale, who I, is hilarious. I love him. Oh, my God. So funny.

It must have been so entertaining because you have all these personalities that are. Yeah. And the trouble is because I don't watch American telly and they don't. live in America. I'm not really familiar with any of them. I actually had heard of Andre, because, you know, he's just so famous. But they were all interesting. And it was a really good mix, I thought. And the comedians were funny. Yeah. Phoebe and Joel were really funny. Yeah, very funny. I liked their... And I liked that. Ego, is that how she says her name? Ego. Or ego. Ego. Ego, I think she called it.

Yeah. She was such a, she was just such a delightful girl. They all took it so seriously too, which is amazing. Yeah. The commitment. I feel like I would get frustrated. I mean, I would be nervous, but do they have time to practice before coming into the tent? No.

Oh, they have time to practice, but what always upsets them or throws them is that, you know, it's one thing practicing in your own kitchen. But walking into the tent when you watched it on telly and it's, you know, the tent has a kind of atmosphere that it's not meant to be intimidating. But of course, if you've been mad about bake, and they wouldn't be on Bakeoff if they weren't mad about the show. So they can't really believe. They often say, God, I'm standing in the tent.

They've been, you know. Rob, really want to. to be in the tent. Did you do the American one in the same tent? Or did you build one here? Well, it's not exactly. To be honest, we have a separate tent because at the same time that we're filming

American Bake-off, we're also doing the English version of Junior Baker. Oh. And so we need an extra tent. And it's in England, all of it. Yes, we film it in Pinewood. Oh, wow. in England.

So all the bakers come here. And actually it's rather good fun for them, because what happens is, you know, they're 10 of them. And obviously they get, they, you know, they, it's not like celebrity, not like this one, you know, this celebrity, whatever they call it. The holiday, holiday special is just celebrities.

So they just spend two, they all spend two, days there and then they all go. But in the main show, they have 10 bakers and one goes on the first week and another goes the second week and so on the whole way through. But we like them all to be there at the end to celebrate the winner. So if they get thrown out straight away, they then have a six weeks holiday in England, all expenses paid. Oh, wow. And they bring their families over and they have a brilliant time. So it's almost worth getting thrown out.

Yeah, I was going to say. It's great. Compensation for losing out is that you, you know, then they go on a tour around England or they do what they like. That sounds great. I think I'm going to apply. I think you should. You're a great baker. I wouldn't say a great baker.

You're great. I'm okay. You're good. I mean it. I like all the tricks, you know, that you learn with baking and, you know, because it is a science, right? Yeah, that is. Yeah, and I'm not good at science. But I try my best.

And it was really funny. But it's practical science. I mean, the lovely thing. I was one of the reasons I think all children should learn to cook and to bake is because it's a great way of, of learning all sorts of things without actually trying. You know, you learn what yeast does. You learn what by carbon of soda does. You know, what will emulsify and what won't.

You learn a whole heap of science and you learn a whole heap of arithmetic. Yeah. Patience. All of it. Patience. My daughter learned a really good. lesson we were baking during the pandemic. We were making Holla. And my aunt, who's a huge baker, she always makes it and gave us the recipe, but she does it off memory. So she's just telling us

the recipe. Well, because sometimes she's forgetful, she told us two tablespoons of salt instead of teaspoon. So now it's a joke that we always bring up about salt. We send her a big thing of salt for Christmas because of this that happened during the pandemic because she, it was so disgusting. Was it? Oh my God. Yeah. And my daughter is, so my daughter always makes fun of her great aunt. And that was her lesson. She really knows. That's too much salt. I think you should leave her alone now. She's standing up, Frank, Carol. Yeah. Giving her a hard time. Yeah. Yep. Yes. So we make her write things down now. She is a great baker. Yeah. No, she's real deal.

For sure. But yeah, it's also... She should go on. She doesn't like the pressure of the time limit. I've talked to her about it. Because there's a lot of pressure that comes along with it. But it is so much fun. And I think it's so great to do with family and children, like you said.

It's just such a nice thing to share together in the kitchen. Yeah, even if it's just, you know, occasionally, you know, when it's, you need to make a birthday cake together. or you make some festivity together. It just makes that festival much more fun and much more meaningful. Yes. My daughter decorates her grandmother's cake with fondness. Yeah, exactly.

And that would have given her grandmother so much more pleasure than you're going to buy the most expensive cake from the potters bakery. She'd rather have your daughters. Yes, exactly, exactly. And I have to tell you, Prue, Prue was on a short list of baby names for me when I had my daughter because I just, I love it so much. It's such as, just one of my favorite names. Yeah, well, I've always really disliked it because when I was a child, it was a very unusual name. And my mother had chosen it because she liked the idea of virtues.

And so she actually thought she might call me faith. But then my father pointed out that Faith Leaf would be a horrible thing to have to say. So she was thinking of charity and all these names. Anyway, she ended up with prudence. I love it. It's a beautiful name. And you're a Beatles song, so you're a Beatles song. You can't go wrong.

Well, you know, it's so, and I'm really very unmusical. but you can't live through the 60s without having noticed that there's some good songs around. But the trouble is that once I grew, I think that everybody's favorite music is what they heard when they were 17 and 18 or 16, 17, 18. And by the time you're 25 when I don't know how you girls are. 25. life. But then you start not, well, certainly in my case, I just, I stopped with the Rolling Stones, really. I mean, I hardly know any, obviously, you can't not have noticed Beyonce or, or

Madonna or whatever, but I never really followed anybody after about the stones, I suppose. even when my children were mad about Duran Duran and take that and all that, I couldn't name you a single song. So I'm never any good at pub quizzes or anything because I just have no interest in popular music. Well, you know the important stuff. Do you listen to music while you cook or do you need focus? No, I never, I don't. I sometimes listen to the radio.

You know, I might listen to, you know, classic FM or I might listen to, but I only listen to it if I don't need to think, if I'm just doing something absolutely automatic like washing apple. Right. Or making something that I've made a hundred times. But if I need to think at all, I have to turn everything off and concentrate. Yeah, I get that. That makes sense. Well, you are just so lovely and we are so grateful that you talk to us about all of this today. Well, I've enjoyed it.

I've enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Yes. Well, thank you. You've been so sweet and so nice. I have some stuff to share with you guys, which is kind of funny. The first time you're coming. First time I've come from here.

I actually, guys, I actually took notes because Nicole was over the other day. Oh, good. First, you're really going to appreciate this first thing that I wanted to tell you so bad. For everyone, like Nicole is one of our very good friends. She's been my stylist for 20 years, whatever. She's hilarious. Hilarious. Like her personality.

Anyway. Old, old, old, old friends. Yes. Yeah. What are you saying, Mom? Nothing. I was trying to make us feel old. I had, like, I had to go to an event, and the event was held at Pasadena Humane, you know, an animal shelter, and Nicole was getting me dressed.

I'm already laughing, just thinking in Nicole. He was getting me dressed. And we're looking because we tried on stuff, and we're looking. looking, I have one outfit, and it's like all brown, you know, and she's, she's like, okay, she's like, well, she's like, looking through the pictures. She's like, okay, well, I can't, I know, does she think you're going to get mistaken for one of the dogs? You're getting, killing the story.

Sorry, she's making me laugh. She's flipping through. She gets to the brown outfit, but she's like, okay, well, a lot of dogs are going to be in brown. So you can't. And she didn't even, she's like, a lot of dogs are going to be in brown, so you can't wear brown. Like, dogs don't wear brown. They are brown. I love her so much.

I died. I died. So every time I'm telling you, it's my favorite because she was just dead serious, not even like a second thought. Like, well, a lot of dogs are going to be in brown. So you're not going to wear brown. She's a fucking icon. Oh, my God. Okay.

She killed me. So we kept talking and she had just gone on a field. trip with her 11-year-old son. Seven, she's talking, like, these boys at 11, what they're talking about? What? Oh, I got some new lingo. Do tell. Like, sex terms, whatever, what the kids are using.

The 11-year-olds are using sex terms? Yes. What are they? Yeah. Clap it out. What's that mean? Is that chlamydia? Sex.

Did they clap it out? I was like, what? Rachel, do it again. No. Yeah, please. What did they do? Did they what? Hide.

Okay? And then... Look at Rob's face for a second. It's our favorite. Then, bricked up. What's that mean? Wrecked? What do you guys take a ghost?

A rack? A ghost? One of you take a... Steve? Take a guess. Bricked up. Yeah. Like she's got, she's like a brick house.

She's stacked. No? No. Yeah, wrecked. I don't know. That makes sense. Boner. Yeah, that's what erect means.

Oh, you said erect? Yeah. Oh, I didn't hear you. The beanie's covering my ears. I'm bricked up. Bricked up is boner. Okay. Yeah, bricks are hard.

There's something, she doesn't remember this is the exact thing, but like grandma cakes or something like that. It means jiggly, but I do like that this is the telephone version of what kids are saying. Yeah, I know. We might need clarification on this, but I was dying. Should we call her? Should we call him? She called Nicole.

No, we should call Nicole. Call Nicole. Call Nicole. Call Nicole. She'll probably answer. She probably won't answer. No, she probably will. A lot of dogs are going to be in Brown.

A lot of dogs. Come on. Like, Rob, you couldn't go there today. No. Someone might mistake you for a Weimariner. Whymeraner are more... I know. It just was the first thing that came to my head.

A lab. She might be working. Hi. Hi, I'm so sorry. We have you on speakerphone and we're recording. So now is your moment. That's very awkward way. First, I just told a lot of the dogs

are going to be in brown. Oh, yes. Yes, of course. They will be. Well, we're the dogs in brown is really the question. You know, there were a lot less brown than I was expecting. Really? Yeah.

Yeah. But more importantly, I was brought up the terms that you told me the other day that all the kids are saying. Yeah. that, and they were like, it's the telephone version because I'm saying it. So we just needed to clarify and for you. Telephone that Nicole's saying it from Zat. Yeah, but he said it to her.

There's like four links in this. Because I would have gotten a download from Zet. He's in a movie right now. But I know because I even tried to look up one of them, which was grandma cakes just now at lunch. And even in the slang, like, even on it's not even registered. So either I'm wrong or it's super under the radar. It's just coming to you now. It's fucking hot to press.

You talked about what? Clap it out, yeah. Clap, clap it out, yeah. Bricked up. Bricked up. And granny cakes or grandma cakes, we don't know. Grandma cakes, yeah, that's like, that means like jiggly butt. There is another term for jiggly, but I just don't know.

I don't remember what it was. But it's something super random. That doesn't. That doesn't make sense at all. What else is there? Well, W. Riz is like winning Riz. And then there's L, which is like losing Riz. What's Riz?

Riz is like, like, it's kind of like swag. Like it's kind of like, it's like you're cool, like your game. It's like your game. You got game. You got Riz. So like Shepard has Riz. Shepard has definitely W. Riz. What's W. Riz?

Like winning. Like you're winning Riz. Like winning Riz. Oh. Like you're a loser. Like losing Riz. Okay. Got it.

I love Zeph is our finger on the pulse. Yeah. Well, can we set up a call with him soon so he can. Yeah. Yeah, 100. Okay. Great. Yeah.

Yeah. He's a, he's at. They have the day off, so he's on going to be right now. All right. Well, we look forward to. Well, we love you so much. You're so mad. Get all, you got to keep, you know, we got to keep our ear to the street.

You're keeping us current. You're keeping us current. Yeah. Love you. You know what, Nicole, you've got mad W. Riz. Mad gummy Riz. Oh, that too. No, W.

Riz. Oh, W. W. W. Riz, yeah. She says 100 back. Oh, am I supposed to say 100, Rob said? Those are super muscle.

They can't hear you. Oh, okay. Is that like a compliment? That's your muscle? I'm kidding. All right. All right. We love you.

We'll call you later. Bye. Bye. That's not what she was. That is not what she was expecting. No, not at all. What? So I found this.

Why? It was in your closet. I don't know why you had it. Why are you in my closet? There's a quiz that you in. answered. Oh, let's do it and see if she answers the same. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's fun. So, name? What year is that magazine? 2013. Okay. Okay.

Cheers. Nicknames Ray, Ray, Rach and R dog. With double G. All right, the three most. You said that? Who calls me R dog? Wait, you said that? These are her answers or is it multiple choice? It looks like you wrote these in. It looks like your hand writing. Raw dog. Is that what you said? What are you trying to say? Did she say her nickname is raw dog? Our dog.

Oh. Jesus. I was like, she's like, oh, me, people call me raw dog. All right, the three most listened to songs and my iPod are. What? In 2013. Oh, yeah, try and guess. Yeah, you're guessing these. What do you? It's like, I don't know. It's not easy. being green by Kermit the frog.

I love that answer. Losing you. Oh, by Salonge? Mm-hmm. I was really into that song at the time. Miguel's entire album. Oh, I loved Miguel's at a dorm. Yeah.

Yeah, okay. I'm an 80-year-old woman inside. That is true. I said that. To what, though? That's just a quote. No, nobody asked. Just a random quote in here.

That is correct. These are the songs I'm listening to and side note. I'm an 80-year-old woman inside. It's like Miguel Adorn. I'm an 80-year-old. I can't stop buying. Shoes. I don't know.

Lipsmackers. Suitcases. I know. I'm crazy. Oh, that's true. That is correct. That has not changed. Filming sexy scenes is a awkward.

B, just another day at the office. Or C. Fucking awesome. Really pretty funny. Pretty funny. You circled all of them. Okay, sure. All right, the role I would most love to play is...

Brittany Murphy's role in 8 Mile. Anything where I can sing and dance. Is that what I said? No, anything where I can sing and dance. Oh, okay. The celebs closet I most want to raid is... At the time, I probably said Sienna. You want multiple choice?

Or Diane Keaton? Nope. A, Gwen Stefani, B, Kate Moss. C, Rachel Zoe, or D other. Rachel Zoh. Rob. See Rachel Zoh.

They gave me multiple choice. I would have picked Kate Moss out of this. Pick Kate Moss, but then you also wrote another. Who did I write?

Ciana. Nope. Ashley Olson. Oh, okay. That makes sense. What's an an app you can't live without?

An app I can't live without? Grindr. Was it the Decider app? Nope. Oh. What is it? Dogbreed.

Oh, yes. I loved digging dog breed quizzes. I have a really, you guys, I have a very, like, extensive knowledge, weirdly amazing knowledge of dogs. Yes. I said that. She's still bragging the same way. Did she say that in the article?

Yeah. You really, you went above and beyond on your answers. It was multiple choices. And she's like, and another thing. All right. My favorite thing about Heart of Dixie. Aw. What was my favorite?

Is A, my hilarious co-stars, B kissing Wilson. Oh. C, playing a doctor. D, the clothes, or E, fill in the blank other. I said the clothes. Nope. Oh.

You learned how to do proper suture. Souture. I was going to say, I did learn how to do a suture. Need a stitch, anyone, smiley face. Did she write that? Yep. Oh, really. I was really proud that I could suture.

Yeah. Don't ask me. to sew you up now. You never leave the house without what? I said like gum candy or Dr. Pepper Lipsnackers. An extra pair of socks. That is true. Do you know?

Oh my God. This is amazing. It's like watching her brain unbreak in real time. Do you know? She's like, oh, I like this girl. Who is she? I can relate. I really feel her. I hate what socks

are you guys? I do hate what socks. Why would you have wet socks? If you step in like the grass and... Yeah, something. Or a dog bulls nearby and there's water. Who doesn't hate wet socks? I remember one time in high school.

Everyone is going home early because my socks. It's a bad feeling. It's a horrible feeling. All right. The most surprising thing in my handbag. Candy. That's not surprising. Well, is it?

Not everybody has it. 80 year olds to do. Flaming hot Cheetos. Oh, yep. Oh, yeah. There she is again. If I could do a karaoke duet with anyone. A what duet?

A karaoke duet. Oh, okay. Who did I say? If I could do a karaoke duet with anyone, it would be. Do it, is this multiple choice? Nope. Fill in a blank. Did I say M&M?

You did. Oh, my God. And then he said, and we would sing. And we would sing. And make love. Blank, you would sing blank. We would sing rainbow connection? You would sing anything.

I secretly want to be a rapper. Oh. God. Not so secret anymore, little Rachel. I got all my answer's right though, guys. Some of them. Last one. Oh, yeah.

Oh, there's more? This one comes with a photo. Oh, geez. The first thing I notice about a guy is blank. His eyes, his body, his smile, his butt, or other. Well, I either said other and I talked about his shoes or I said something about his teeth. Shoes. Oh, that's what I did.

I said other and I said shoes. His shoes, love a good pair of kicks. Okay. I just knew what I would have said. I'm not saying that's necessarily how I feel all the time or now, but I think 10 years ago, that's what I would have said. You guys want to answer some advice? Okay.

Yes, please. All right. My boyfriend, 29-year-old male. You have a boyfriend? Sorry. Got upset that I, 29-year-old female, did not shave before meeting him. What? We have been together for four years now.

My boyfriend still points out and makes me a good. My boyfriend still pulls out. Good. He makes me get rid of my body hair all the time. I'm pretty hairy person. I need to shave every other day if I want to stay baby smooth. Tried waxing and lasering. But my skin is very sensitive and does not take very well.

He mentioned how I am really unlucky when it comes to body hair. And he said he finds body hair very gross. Oh, that's mean. He's pretty hairy himself and shaves regularly, so expects the same for me. But I cannot manage to shave all. the time and I feel humiliated when he asked me to do it every time we get intimate. Ooh. I have shared how I feel bad, but he says things like how it does not take long to shave or how

it does not look at aesthetic. We recently met after one and a half years of long distance and he asked me why I did not shave before meeting him. He said it shows how I do not put effort into the relationship. Am I the problem here? If that's how she's comfortable and she owns it, if he's. if he loves her and has been talking to her for a year and a half, that does not fucking matter.

Yeah. I mean, it's her body. It is her body, but here, here, I'm just going to say this because if the roles were reversed, so for him, he probably looks at it as like effort, self-care, these kind of things, right? And we don't know what kind of culture he comes from. We don't know their background. We don't know anything.

For me, if they, The roles were reversed and it was my first time meeting a man and he didn't shower and he smelled really bad and his armpit stunk. I might be like, that's interesting. Like, you might not have put any effort into presenting yourself in a way that feels in alignment with me. Right. I mean. But to get mad at her about it is psychotic. She also specifically said she would need to do it every other day.

How often are you, you're not waxing four times a week. Here's the problem with waxing. Well, that's a difference between shaving and waxing. Let me talk about the conundrum with waxing, okay? If you always want to be clean and, you know, whatever, you have to, like, wait it out till there's enough hair to get rid of it. It's not the best solution for people who enjoy not having hair or being clean in that way, right? Not clean.

Clean is not the right word, but, you know. Yeah. So it is a difficult thing. And then you shave. I'll say this. I shave my legs every day. Every day? Every single day.

Every day? Every single day. I definitely don't shave my legs every day. But I have, oops, I have like, if I don't, I'll get stubble or, like, growth. But for her, the thing is this comes down to how he's treating her about it. isn't right. That's the issue. From her perspective,

like, no one should be mad at you about how you care for your body, but you are allowed to express preferences to your partner. Like, I prefer if you shower every day, or I prefer,

you're allowed to have preferences when it comes to attraction to another person. Yeah. I prefer. I also, though, wouldn't equate her not shaving every other day is not taking showers.

Oh, I feel like comparing those two is a little. little rough and kind of what he's doing where he thinks she's like a slob if she's not. I don't agree with him or how he's handling me either. I'm just saying if it was reversed. Right. If it was

reversed. But if it was reversed, that's like him not shaping his beard. Okay, so that brings up an issue. How about this then? So you're saying as a partner you shouldn't have any input on what the person does with their hair? No, I think you can

I think you can express your preference, but I think it's totally up to them on what they do if they choose. I will say I'm a big fan of like people that don't care either way and they're like whatever. Of course. I get what you're saying that like showing

that you're making an effort right is important. Right. But I like seems like she like she could be making an effort and still not shave every day. This is an example. Sure. Guys, you start dating someone. You chew gum all the time.

You want to make sure you have like the freshest breath. like whatever. As the relationship goes on, you don't give a fuck. Like I, you like eat onion. You're eating an onion like an apple. Like an apple. You're the Grinch. And you're like, whatever.

And then, you know, there could be comments like, you don't do that anymore. It's like you're not making an effort. Yeah. Well, I think that there is a certain level of effort that equates to higher attraction. Yeah. I do. But there's also like.

If someone were to hear Jeff likes my legs shaved, people would be like, it's your body, it's your choice. However, I don't let him choose on his facial hair. You don't? Hell no. I like stubble. I like the beard. I do too. I like facial hair.

The fresh face on him, he reminds me of a politician. It just doesn't do it for me. You know? Yeah. No, I don't like it. But if he didn't. a little ruggedness. I get upset.

Oh, well. Yeah, I don't like it. So double standard. That's what I'm saying. It's a double standard. It is a double standard. I know. I get it.

I definitely prefer. I like the scrap. It's just like manly. Yeah, it is. But like kissing a long time, like do you ever, have you ever gotten like the chafing or scabbing? No. Scabbing.

Well, from the chafing. Scabbing. I got what you meant. What the hell kind of kissing for you? Swallowing faces. We've been together 11 years. I know, but in the beginning In the beginning, he was fresh-faced.

Oh. Yeah, and then he like let it grow out for a minute because we were on vacation or something. And he's like, I know I have to shave. And I was like, never again. You know what else? I love you guys. What? Cozy blankets.

I live. I live. I live for cozy things that are so. You know, I felt really great last night. We went and watched a movie at... What movie? Elemental. That's a TV show.

No, it's not. No, it's a movie. Elemental. Yeah. It's the movie with all the little... It was like an outdoor live. I mean, not live, but like, whatever. Screening.

Yes. And everyone was there and we're all sitting in our chairs, but I had my blanket from the grate that snaps. It buttons. It's freaking... buttons. It's the most genius thing anyone's ever created. It's like a sleeping. No, but it's not a jacket. It's a wearable blanket, Rob. It's like a shawl. I actually almost wore it right now in this. I won the day. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Do you have the bandana print or the floral?

I have the bandana print. Oh. You have the floral. Yeah. Yeah. No, I felt special. Yeah. I did. I was like, I've got something really good here, guys. You can wear it. I feel like this is a P. say for wearable blankets. The great. It snaps, dude. So you're like cold and you wrap a blanket around you and you snap it and then you're like in this little jacket. It's not a jacket.

Can I tell you? It makes you want to go to a fire and sit and be cozy. I am looking forward to soccer practice for Briar Monday evening because I can wear my blanket. Oh, I have to. Everyone's going to want that. It's Calvin Soccer got moved to, it's 915. on Saturday mornings. What was it?

It was 10. But I moved to the field where there's no benches, no bleachers. You don't have soccer chairs in your? I got a chair. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have many. You could have taken one of mine. I'm like, I was going to get one of those chair, I wasn't going to get the chair that had that. I want one of those so bad

with the awning. Yeah, those are great. Amazing. I have one that's a cooler in the arm. Mine is a little cooler in the arm. Oh, yeah. Keep your water cold. There's a man that

brings a chair that he builds every day. What do you mean? He builds. He has to put it together. It has to be put together. Like a tent. Yeah. I'm always watching. That's amazing. That's a lot of work. A lot of work. Have you seen Nicole's soccer chair? Oh my God, I need to. What is it? It's fur. Yeah, but I'm like one of three people that have a chair. So I already feel weird.

Is there a picture? Can you ask her to send a picture of her soccer chair, please? Rob, you need. She's going to be like, one. Why are you guys just talking about me? Do you need Nicole's soccer chair? I already feel like slightly high maintenance enough bringing a chair. What did you get? On Amazon. What chair?

What color? Black. I have the Coleman. For the first like four weeks, I just sat on the cement and was. No. You just would not have a soccer chair. How much better is your life? I love a soccer chair.

I am so comfortable. I'm happy with my decision. It's quite comfortable, right? Yeah. Yep. I know. I hear you. I pulled it out of my softball game last week. In between games. I love it. It's great. I don't know the difference between a soccer chair and any other.

Well, there's like a camping chair. It's like, oh, that's what we have. I had one with the legs that go out. Well, that's not a soccer chair. What is it? That's a lazy boy. That's a lazy boy. That's a chaise. It's like a beach chair, but it has your legs go out too.

That's a lounge chair. chair. Was it foldable? The soccer chairs are just the, you know. Collapsable. They go into it. But they're not low. They could be, but not traditionally.

Okay. Yeah. So that's what I have. The beach ones are usually lower. Uh-huh. Right. So I had the other ones last night and everyone else had beach chairs and that was an issue because you were blocking everyone's view.

So then we had to go in the back. All right. Okay. We've talked about a lot. All right. So much. I don't think we have to talk for a while now. ever again.

Goodbye. We'll wait like a week. Okay. Bye. That was a hate gum podcast.