The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - David Chang Explores the World's Culinary Landscape in "Ugly Delicious" (Rebroadcast)

Episode Date: December 25, 2019

Chef David Chang talks about how his Netflix series "Ugly Delicious" examines the cultural and historical underpinnings of food from around the world. Originally aired August 29, 2019. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. You're rolling? But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listened 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts. Please welcome David Chang. Welcome, sir.

Excited to be here. Welcome to the show. Glad that you're here. Disappointed you didn't bring any fried chicken with you. I'm addicted to a lot of your food and so many other people are. This Netflix series has started off with the bang. People are loving it. Why the title, ugly, delicious. Well, as you saw in that clip, I grew up eating really well. My mom cooked a lot of Korean things and growing up in Northern Virginia, it wasn't that cool. In fact, I was like the butt of many jokes. So when I started cooking professionally, those were the foods that I never wanted to touch because I was ashamed of it or I just didn't want to like to like to like to like to like to like to like to like to like to like to like to like to to to to to to to to to to to be to be to be to be to be to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be. to be a to be a toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to. the to. toean. toean. toean. tooan. tooan. tooomean. tooomeanan. tooomriicooomb. tooomorrow tooomorrow tooeanan. toean. toean. to like embrace it. And that sort of encapsulates a lot of the foods that I think are truly delicious,

but may not be cool or looks good on a photograph sometime. Like a curry is a perfect example. Buller curry is so good, but isn't something that's gonna be on the cover of a magazine. And for you growing up, your food was a part of your culture, but it was also something that people used to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to be, to be, to be, to be, to, to, and, and, to, and, and, to, the, and the, and, and, and, they, the, and, and, and, and, they, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and, the, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they, the, the, they.......... And, they, they, they, thi...... And, t t t try, try, t try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try something that people used to tease you about. Do you think that that's a big part of food is the cultural identity that comes with it? Absolutely, because we're not a crossroads, but food is more popular than ever before. And it sort of intersects so many different parts of culture throughout the world. So in so many ways, creating the show with Morgan Neville and Eddie Schmidt, we decided that food could be sort of a Trojan horse to talk about

many of the great things in culture and many of the bad things in culture. Right, like for instance with Chinese food. There's an episode where you delve into Chinese food. And it feels like it's less about the Chinese food itself and about how Chinese people in America, and what that means, and how the food has food is is is is is is is is is to have food is to have food is to have food is to have food is to have food is to have food is to have food is to have food is to food has had to assimilate in many ways to fit in with American culture. Like, what did you learn in that experience when looking at Chinese food on its own in America? I mean, it goes all the way back to when they came to work on the railroads and how they

were marginalized way back then in the 1890s or so. And without getting too much in the history, I feel like as delicious as Chinese food is and it's like the most prevalent kind of food throughout the world it seems it's never been seen as like as cool as other European cuisines right and quite frankly I think that there has been a lot of sort of hidden racism in how people perceive not just Chinese food like basically anything that's like different than the mainstream America right you see that with MSG or how people see like cheap meats in Asian restaurants, Chinese restaurants. And a lot of that's not true, right? They're just, you know, not even misperceptions, they're just wrong, right?

It's interesting that you bring up racism with regards to food because those are stereotypes that you see, you know, rearing their ugly heads all over the world. You know, people, people go, watermelon, black people, and they'll be, and th. And th. And they're, and they're, and they're, and they're, and they're, and they, and they're, and they're, and they're, and they're, and they, and they, they, they, they, they, they, th. And, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. And, th. th. thee. thee. thee. thee. their, thee. their, their, their, th. thee. th. th. th. And, th. oh, watermelon, black people, and chicken, black people, and they'll be like, oh, you eat this type of food if you're Asian and you eat this. There are certain ideas that come from food. There are certain stories that are told by the food. There's an episode where you talk about fried chicken. And what I loved is in the story, you know, you're out in the south. You're meeting with people who fried chicken, white people who make fried chicken. Did you find that it was interesting to speak to people about where the chicken came from, how it came to be popularized and how they saw the story as it related to the food? Absolutely. And I think first and foremost about fried chicken, it's a story that a lot of people don't know about. Everyone I think that eats chicken will find out. the world to be their their their. A their. A their. A th. A th. A thi. A thi. A thi. A thi. A thi. A thi. A thi. Si. Si. Si. Si. Si. Si. I, thoomfi. I's, thoe, thi. thi. thoomoomoomorrow, tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their. their. their. their. their. their. their, their, their, their, tha. tha. tha. tha. thau. thau. thau. thau. thau. today, today, thau. today, today, thau. thau. thau. thau. t a fried chicken to be delicious. Again, the world over almost.

But the story of how it was born out of oppression and slavery for the most part, the fried chicken that we all most are commonly associated with, that's a really tough story to tell. Right? And if we can't talk about fried chicken, how are we supposed to talk about other the popularity of fried chicken shops, there's a scene where I'm talking to my friends really and questioning them, the same questions I'd answer myself, and the reality is it's like, it's a responsibility that I think today in 2018 that we should know more about and we should talk about. And it's, it's not easy to talk about. I mean, I think you have to watch the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, the episode, to watch, the episode, to watch, the episode, to watch, the episode, to watch, to watch, to watch, to to to to, to, to, to, tho, thi, to be, too, too, too, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, their, thin, their, thin, to be tooomoomoomoomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, toe.e.a, tooooomoi.a, toe.a, toe.a, toe. We're, talk about and it's not easy to talk about. I mean I think you have to watch the episode because I think we're not trying to answer anything we're just trying to start the conversation about that. Because it's just too dense of a topic.

Do you feel like that's something people could do like at restaurants? The waiter should have to tell you about the fried chicken. Let me tell you about slavery and oppression. This chicken over here comes from a long history of people being oppressed and you're like, mmm, I'm going to go with the rice. Can I go to rice? No, it's not about that. I mean, certainly it could be, but we live in a world where there's so scene in that fried chicken episode where it's not about fried chicken, where I say to David Simon, great director of the wire, where I'm like, hey, I would have a problem of someone that's not Korean starts making kimchi. And he sort of smacks me down, being like, you're an idiot, right?

Like America is about cultural appropriation when it's done very well. And that makes any sense. And I was like, man, he's absolutely right in the sense that the only way I'm going to get this person that's making kimchi to appreciate kimchi is to let them go down the rabbit hole. Right, right, right. And maybe they're going to be the biggest advocate of it.

But if I'm there judging So I feel the same way about fried chicken and I think that I could have been that that fried chicken shop down in Nashville because I love hot fried chicken so much. Of course the first thing you want to do is pay homage but we it's a it's a problem sometimes right it's a what happens if you start killing the very thing that inspired you. Right that's really interesting and that's I think what the show does. It asks questions. It starts conversations and most importantly it makes me hungry that shit. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thanks, Juggler. Amazing the Hague to Hocon. I'm from the show.

Ugly Delicious is available on Netflix now. David Chang, everybody. The Daily Show, and the Daily Show. The Daily Show,com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes.

It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts.