Tosh Show - My BBQ Pit Madam - Winnie Yee

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Daniel wants all the smoke with chef Winnie Yee in an interview about blending Texas BBQ with her Chinese heritage, selling brisket in parking lots, and becoming the Smoke Queen.

Hey guys, it's me Daniel. Do me a solid. I don't ask for a lot, but like and subscribe to this podcast. Also, you could rate it. Highly, I would appreciate. Maybe even write a review. Maybe we'll become best friends. From your first burnt brisket to selling a brisket to someone, how long of a time is that? Maybe like two, three weeks. My first week. I just want everyone that thinks that it takes forever to figure out how to barbecue. cue to hear that welcome to welcome to Lipson's Toss show. You think they

appreciate that? Yep. Lipson's Toss Show. That's our parent company. Lipson. We are a proud podcast under the Lipson umbrella. If things seem different around here, it's because the Lipson umbrella has taken care of us. I'll be honest, I haven't noticed a difference yet. Have the ads changed? I heard the view count is skyrocketing.

Well, I just want everybody over at Lipson to know. I don't really know what you're supposed to do with hats like this. You're probably wondering why I'm wearing this hat. Eddie? Is Lipson sent it? No. No. Nah, son.

Uh-uh. This hat right here, this is my Tahoe lid. Uh-huh. I brought it back from Tahoe because I'm going to a dude ranch later on in the month, and I wanted to make sure I had it. Right. I've had this Stetson for, I don't know, 10 years. Mm.

I had a good time in Tahoe. You know who I saw up there? Who? I saw Zuckerberg on the lake. Here's what I saw. Me, Carl. And my buddy, Brian, we're wake surfing one morning. First thing in the morning, 6.30, glassy, nobody on the lake, completely alone.

Technically, that's illegal. I need to have a third person, a spotter. One driving, one spot. But Carl knows how to spot. So whatever. We roll the dice at that hour. It's just the three of us on the boat. Then, about a half hour in, I see a boat coming.

over and I go, oh, is this, I thought maybe it was a pro, a pro wakeboarder because like there's, maybe there's camera crews, because there was adjacent vehicles following their boat. But nope, sure enough, it was Zuckerberg. And I don't know if it was him or one of his kids, but they were wake surfing. And next to them was a wave runner. Like when I say next to him, I mean like feet away with two guys on that. then one of those black ops inflatable tubes on the side boat just you know a little bit further behind and then people on the boat and i'm just like bro it's seven in the morning if you just did what i did just jumped on the boat with brian and i and and wake surfed for 30 minutes or so whatever you do

till you get leg burn you would have saved at least a hundred thousand dollars that day oh you would I saved him so much money. I mean, just to, the amount of people that had to get up at an ungodly hour load up on vessels just so he could stand still behind a boat and go, it's just, it's comical. I mean, I know I'm an idiot and I'm doing the same thing, but like I'm, it's just me and my buddy and Carl here. Well, yeah, you got to get, you got to get in touch with him. Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg, just come over to my house, leave the security detail, and I'll pull you for 20, 30 minutes. I'll drop you off at your pier and just let your great, great grandchildren appreciate the savings. I don't get it. I mean, listen, I know I'm out of touch, but that level is bonkers. You think somebody's really out on the lake waiting to, you know, get them? Get him. Get him. That's how you talk when you wear a hat like this.

I know. I've watched Yellowstone. All five seasons plus the ridiculous second half of season five, which is just infuriating. Uh-oh. The season five was going to end, and then Kevin Costner and the Taylor guy got in a big fight, the creator of the show, over scheduling or something. So he just killed off the movie star that was on the show. Yeah, he's dead. Okay. And it's just like it becomes unwatchable because it's like, oh, you mean the one reason we watch the show he's gone and then he just tries to wrap it up and he like he puts himself in the show constantly and it's just showing him riding horses, which listen, I get it if you're a horse person and you think it's it's fun to be on a horse. Watching it. is fucking nonsense. He, he like, just all he does, there's just scenes,

episodes after episodes of him dancing horses in front of cattle and then running and doing these power slides with horses. And I have to act like I give two shits. It's so bad. It becomes, the, the final season of the show becomes an infomercial for this ranch that he bought in Texas for a hundred, hundred and fifty trillion dollars or something and like it's like an infomercial for buy your stakes from us it's just it's so embarrassing if yellowstone if you were proud of the show that

you worked on and were a part of and then saw the last half of the season where they killed off kevin costor it's just it's it's it's bonkers how bad it is seems like a different show oh it's just embarrassing should future viewers just end after kevin costner shot yeah and just be like oh the show didn't get to end the way you wanted it yeah all right go all the way through season five but just watch the first half of season five not this bonus half of season five where he got into a little pissing man that's what always bothers me i get it you it's your show you created it but it's still the talent that drives it and when the talent if kevin costner was a complete asshole about the schedule, go with it.

Yeah. You just got to. You watch 1923 or 18? No, I'll watch those eventually, but I don't know. I might not because I don't want to give this guy, uh, you know, more cattle to buy. You don't want to help out his ranch. I don't want to help his ranch out. Yep.

Anyway. That's my land. That's my land. You don't give up one inch of it. This hat puts me. me in the right mindset for today's guest. So once you guys come on down to the barbequeer, oh, shit.

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and start selling today at shopify.com slash tosh. Shopify.com slash tosh. Tosho. Today's guests can smoke a brisket so tender you'll hit your mammy in the bag of the head with an aluminum bat. She's combining the low and slow techniques

of Texas meat with the sweet, rich flavors of her Chinese heritage, I only hope she arrived here in a truck that can tow a smoker behind it because her restaurant doesn't deliver to Malibu. Please welcome Smoke Queen, Chef Winnie. Thank you for having me. That was a mouthful. That was a mouthful. Holy moly.

Chef Winnie, huh? Smoke Queen. I'm surprised, was Smoke Queen taken? Are there other smoke queens out there? You know what? I don't think so. I'm just guessing it would be a stoner. Somebody smokes a lot of marijuana.

Yeah, I've made that mistake before by just hashtagging Smoke Queen without the BBQ at the end. Uh-huh. How often a day do you walk around saying, if you look and you ain't cooking? No, I've never said that before. You never said it. Oh, if you look and you ain't cooking. I always say it. I don't even know what it really, I mean, I know what it means.

I mean, stop opening the grill and peeking on your meats, but. So dumb. Do you believe in ghosts? I do. Oh, sorry. You do believe in. Goves. Have you personally had an experience? I had when I was very little. It was probably 30, 35 years ago, so I don't really know if it's real or not. But the feelings were real. Being scared was real. Sure. Yeah. We were all scared as a little kid. I used to run upstairs quickly as a kid. I was always terrified of going upstairs. Yeah. I always thought somebody was right behind me. Sometimes when I was home alone at an age, I used to talk real loud because I get scared about my, hey, dad, put down the weights.

In case there's somebody there. Yeah, and they're like, oh, that guy's dad is working out. Meanwhile, my dad's never worked out of day in his life. Where are you originally from? I'm originally from Malaysia, which is in Southeast Asia, between Singapore and Thailand. Do you go back frequently? I try to go back every year. My parents brought us my brother and I back when we were younger almost every year,

just so that we stay in touch with our heritage and culture. How old were you immigrated to the United States? A sixth. And where did you move to? Garden Grove. Okay, that's number question two. Malaysia, we know where Malaysia is. Where is Garden Grove?

It's actually in this pretty much the center of Orange County. It's a small city. Okay, you're O.C. Did you like growing up in the O.C? I didn't mind it. Were you confused by it? What do you mean by that? I don't know.

I always find it. I find it confusing down in the Orange County. What kind of food as a child? Was it only Chinese, or were you experiencing a lot of different types of food? So our home cooking is predominantly Chinese cooking, but then a lot of Malay curries and Indian curries are integrated in our own home cooking. Which heritage do you like more? You know what?

It's a really hard question to answer because... Do people actually ask that question? Because I thought that question was ridiculous. You're the first one. Okay, okay. I'm of Chinese descent. My grandparents immigrated from China to Malaysia, and my parents were born in Malaysia. I was born in Malaysia.

So we've integrated into the Malaysian culture. And actually, I think Malaysia is like the ultimate fusion food because one third of the population is made of Chinese immigrants, one third Indian immigrants, and one third indigenous. So we all celebrate each other's holidays and cultures. So, for example, like a typical breakfast, a Malaysian breakfast, would be curry noodles or laksa. It's like a, how do I say this? It's like curry meat, soy sauce.

Okay. This just seems like a rough way to start for my stomach. If I'm being honest with you. Like breakfast in general, I'm like, oh, here we go. Yeah. I always find it interesting in cultures where, like, you predominantly have a certain type of food, but that you eat basically aversions of that every day. Whereas in America, it's like, oh, you got to mix things up.

I couldn't, whatever you want to call American food, if you had me eat that every day, I'd lose my mind. Vice versa, it's like I got to mix in. I got to go, we're doing Chinese tonight, tomorrow, we're doing the sushi. Let's go. Mix it up. I think what we do take for granted living here in Southern California is the variety of different ethnic foods. Yes.

So here, down the street, I can get. tacos and I can get a kebab and I can get chau main and I think this is like one of the most wonderful things of southern California because we can not just it's not diluted white Chinese food or diluted Mexican food it's actually authentic yeah I don't take it for granted yeah I long for it when I get home I'm like oh good but I'm also not even talking about restaurants I'm talking about in homes I always find it interesting when like homes only cook one style of food. Oh, okay.

I'm just kind of like... Yeah, in my home, growing up, we only had Chinese Malaysian food. Right. I mean, listen, I'm just saying at some point that has an effect on you, you're like, listen, I'm going to make barbecue for a living. And make it Asian. By the way, get me from graduating from UCLA to opening a barbecue restaurant in Orange County.

Oh, that's a really long story. I graduated with an econ degree in a county minor, and I worked for Target Court for a while. I hated my job. No offense to Target. By the way, Target, it seems like a great company. No, a great company. I just hated the corporate job. Of course.

Yeah, and I wanted to be in culinary. So I went back to culinary school. I joined the pastry program. Uh-huh. This is my wheelhouse. Oh, I love pastry. Pastry and culinary are two different studies. I think people always say when you go to culinary school,

it doesn't mean you can be a good pastry chef, but if you're a good pastry chef, you can be a good chef. just because of the discipline in measuring and understanding how everything chemically works. And once that cake is in the oven, if you screwed up, it's too late. Whereas if you're stir-frying something and you forgot one ingredient, you can just throw it in midway and you can save your product. Right. baking's impressive and cooking is like, eh, something you have to do. No, cooking is great too.

Okay, you finish there or no, you drop out. I dropped out. Okay, you dropped out. Because, you know, I got really bored making muffins, and I found, and cookies, and I found out the school was using our products that we made to sell at the cafeteria. I wanted to make masterpieces. I wanted to do sugar art and all that fancy stuff. Then you jump ship and you own three food chains. So when I was at UCLA, actually, with the help of my parents and my uncle, we opened a really small hotel gift shop in La Mirada.

What are you selling in this gift shop? Random stuff. random stuff, I would go to downtown L.A. on my way back from E.CLA and pick up inventory and then go to Costco, get cigarettes. Did you enjoy that or was that not fulfilling in any way? It was not fulfilling. But the money was good because I graduated with no debt. Okay. And I had that store going and that's how I was able to open three more stores. This whole time I'm like in culinary school too. So once I opened my restaurants, I I decided to just quit culinary school. Okay, you opened three, you opened a Sabaro? Sabaro, Baja Fresh, and Submarina. I want to talk about Baja Fresh. Yes.

I always felt when I first moved out of California, and I was, you know, in that situation of where I would eat at that tier of a restaurant, let's say, I always would take Baja Fresh over Chipotle. Chipotle. I didn't like Chipotle. I was like Baja Fresh ran through me pretty quickly, but that's, I mean, I don't think that's on them. That's my own problems. I didn't even talk about the other restaurant that I'd never heard of.

Submarina. I don't know if they exist anymore. No one's heard of Submarina. You've ever heard of that? Never. Never my life. Have I ever heard of Submarina? A lot of franchises are in the business of selling franchises and not selling the actual product.

And that's the problem with the franchise model. It's hard to be passionate when you're handcuffed to what this franchise can do. Mm-hmm. Although you could be one of those franchise that's not participating. you know they're always like participating locations only and your restaurant could sell nothing like your baja fresh could sell nothing but chinese barbecue and be like yeah listen we're not participating you're different you all can go fuck yourself so the pandemic happens we literally shut down with the day's notice i remember that week we had like 15 000 worth of food come in that day

and the next day we gave everybody their checks and said you know what like we'll see you in two weeks Of course it wasn't two weeks. How long from shut down your businesses to I've got an idea? I have ADHD, so I had so many ideas. I was doing gardening. I was doing hydroponics. I was making chocolate bombs selling on Etsy. You're just a hustler.

Yeah. And then one day it was, I think, June or July 2020, when the meat packing industry had breakouts of COVID. And so they had to shut down. And then there was a limitation to how much. meat and everybody can buy. Oh, it was like toilet paper. Yes. It was that one day I went to Costco and I would go out in a hazmat suit and it said, you know, one piece of meat per customer. So I thought, okay, let me just buy the biggest piece of meat I can find. So I looked around,

I saw a brisket. I was like, hmm, okay, I know you're supposed to smoke a brisket. I do have a like the egg smoker that I've never really smoked with. And I thought, okay, let me try that. So I bought it. I went home. I didn't even know how to really light a charcoal. I didn't know what's direct heat, what's indirect heat. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to put the meat in there when the fire was blazing. You know, I had no idea.

Yeah. I put it in. I go on YouTube, how to smoke a brisket, and I watch a bunch of videos, and it came out like crap. But you were still like, you were motivated by this to like. Yeah, because I just couldn't be defeated by that piece of meat. Right, but you're just making a meal for yourself and your family. family at that point? I think I needed that distraction. Did they complain about the food? Because I have kids and when I have to prepare food for them, the last thing they want to hear is, hold on,

it'll be ready in 72 hours. Planning ahead. I mean, it just seems like a nightmare. Those days, you know, I look back and I wonder how I got through those days and I think it was just, you know, keeping my mind busy and determined to not be defeated by this brisket. So, then you got you got good at making brisket? And at what point did you say I'm going to try to sell it? Or was that always in the back of your mind as I'm going to sell this? You know what? It's funny you asked me that because while my restaurants were open, I had always had the creative side that was not let out. I couldn't be creative with anything. And I remember one day I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw this brand called Republicue, something like that. They were just a side business. They were

hustling, selling barbecue from their backyard. And I was scrolling through and I was thinking like, this is so cool to be able to just put something on the menu on a whim and just create something and people buying it and loving your creation, right? So when the pandemic hit, it was actually a blessing in disguise. It was the break that I needed. Barbecue was a distraction I needed from my, you know, financial despair. Another pandemic success story is what I say. Yeah.

Wait, do you know all the barbecue regions in the United States? I need nothing. Okay, so you got Texas Barbecue, and then there's like the Kansas City, that Midwestern. And Midwestern, does that lump Memphis into it? I would say. Okay. And then the Carolina is, which is just garbage, gross vinegar, not, just everything about the Carolina Barbecue. Anybody that says Carolina Barbecue is the best, just a conversation over.

All right, but then you started just selling meat like a drug dealer. Yep. By the way, is it legal just to sell meat? Okay, first of all. I used my business's E-I-N number. I created a website. I used my business's EDD. I paid all my employees who came to my house.

Did they try to shut you down? They did. Yeah. My hater neighbor reported me. Of course. I mean, listen, you're smoking meat every day. Your neighbors are going to be like, what the fuck is going on to the store? No, they're probably pissed that.

I didn't give it to them. That's on you then. You should have bribed, greased the wheels. But I have a neighbor that I despise. and there's nothing I can do to ever mend the fences. So when I walk by their house every day, I know that their audio thing is triggered, their microphone by their front gate.

So I just say something to them every time. What do you say? You know, sometimes I'm like, hey, hey, kids, say hi to the cunty neighbor. Oh, God. Well, you know, it's fun stuff for the kids. Okay, so your neighbor reported you, but they couldn't shut you down because you did technically find a little loopholes. Yeah, so I do have a health department.

permit at my restaurants. And I said, you know what, I'm cooking everything there. They really didn't catch me in the act. And this is pandemic loophole where everybody was just trying to survive businesses. Yeah. And I, you know, the health department came and the city code enforcement came. And they were both going to cite me like $500 or $800 a day for every day that they find me running a commercial business in a residential zone. And I remember yelling at one of them. I think the health department, I'm like, F you, dude. I have a safe certification. I know how to handle food. It's not like, you know, I'm a mechanic and all of a sudden I don't know how to handle raw meats and I'm cooking and I'm trying to sell something to make people sick. First of all,

how much does a single order cost? Depends on how much they order. Of course. Was there an actual menu or was it? Yeah, I had a menu, a website with photos and description and everything. So you were doing the full thing at this point? It wasn't just brisket. No, I was doing ribs. I was doing pork belly. I did size. From your first burnt brisket to selling a brisket? to someone. How long of a time is that? Maybe like two, three weeks. My first week. I just want everyone that thinks that it takes forever to figure out how to barbecue to hear that.

My first weekend, I sold one whole brisket, and I was just amazed. And how much for a whole brisket back then? I sold it by the pound, and I think I sold it at $22 a pound. And what do you pay for it? Back then it was like two something a pound. Now, today's price, I just checked. just like seven-something a pound. Don't worry, Trump will fix that.

It's going to be so cheap, so soon. I hope so. Did people have your address for your house when you were selling a... No, I would actually meet them at, like, a parking lot in the shopping. All right, so you were a drug dealer. You were a straight drug dealer, and everyone should have shut you down because you can't sell meat out of the back of your car. How do your parents feel about you selling meat to strangers and parking lots? Initially, my dad did not like that.

My mom didn't either because I think it was just a risk fact. My dad said, just stay at home and wait until we reopen. You know, I think they didn't see how far I could take this business. And they didn't see the vision that I had. Now, your father? Here's the thing. In Asian culture, in Chinese culture, we're not very emotional with our parents. We don't really say, I love you, and we're not lov-y-dovey.

It's more of an American thing, and that's how I am to my children. What about are you that way to your parents, though? No, it's kind of weird. I know. It's kind of weird. I'm not lovey-dovey really with my parents. parents, although we say it, but it's sometimes it's a little awkward, our hugs are a little weird,

but whatever. So the thing was like my very first pop-up with that trailer smoker, I had to rent a truck because I couldn't tow it. And my dad and mom showed up and they saw that I had a huge line and I sold out. I think I made like $3,000 that day,

which is actually really good for a pop-up. And immediately when I saw them the next day, my dad says, hey, Winnie, do you want me to buy you a truck for your smoker? And I said, no, you know, that's okay. Thank you because I want to do it on my own. I want the business.

That's why I'm not people that don't want any. He wants to help. He wants to let him help. It's his way of saying I'm proud of you. I know it is, but let him help. So now every day he, like he talks about me to all his friends, to random people. He was in Malaysia and he was talking to one of the restaurant owners, which is his friend. And he's like, oh, yeah, my daughter has this restaurant called Smoke Queen Barbecue

and some random customer there said, oh, smoke queen, I was there just like last month because I went to visit my son who lives in Irvine and he took me there. So it's just kind of funny that, you know, he's just, he's so proud. And, you know, I think that's very satisfying. How big was your first, your big industrial smoker? It was a 500 gallon on a trailer. I think I paid like 15, 16,000 back then. 15, 16,000 for a smoker.

Mm-hmm. So you were like, at that point, you're like, well, I guess I'm going all in on this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good for you. But it's kind of like a gym membership, right? The more expensive your gym membership is, the more you feel guilty for not going. I've never had a gym membership.

And the same thing with the smoker, like, shit, I need to not give up because I've already invested so much. Are you good at towing a trailer? I can't reverse. Okay. You know, so. It's embarrassing. But it's not like you have to load a smoker. into a lake

Well my point is Like I All these things Men really make other men feel shitty When they can't do stuff Like I can't drive a trailer at all I'm horrible at it I mean I can

As long as there's nobody around But the guys that are like Just whipping trailers into the I'm always impressed I can't do that And I can't really barbecue well I know how to turn my grill on And I can heat things up

I have a pizza oven And I get pretty good at that Do you mess with pizza at all? I do. I actually just got a Ghazni for my backyard. So I love it. Okay. So there could be some other fusions in the pipeline. Maybe. We'll see. Yeah. What's the longest thing that it takes to prep?

Obviously, it's a brisket. It takes about 12 hours to smoke. So when do you do? Is that just constantly? You're just like, you just know when? We're always a day ahead on brisket. So, for example, today we are smoking brisket. We're not open, but we're going to be smoking. brisket tonight for tomorrow's service. Does somebody have to stay there at night while it's being smoked? Yeah, it's manned. I don't know.

I don't know how to do stuff. I am so overwhelmed by restaurants in general because it's just all I, when I look at it, I just seem like so much work. It is. Thank God you exist, but man, I would never be cut out for it. It's just so much work. Is there truly a noticeable difference between woods? I mean, can you smoke meat with plywood?

No, because there's chemicals in there. So you have to use wood that is treated for cooking food. Unrelated, though. Can you infuse drugs into your food? Like, why do we always just do pot brownies? Why not pot brisket? I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud here. You could be out to the rub. It could be part of the rub. By the way, you're not a tall person. No. You picked the heaviest of the cooking. I mean, like, how are you physically moving some of these meats around?

You know, just... You're on a stepstool at all times? Sometimes, but, you know, the smokers at my restaurant are specifically custom-made, and I had them made a little shorter so I could reach in. How many pounds of brisket are you selling every week? Do you have any idea? I don't know, but I know we go through like 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of meat a week. week.

Two to three thousand pounds of meat. Yes, sir. You can thank your cowboys for that. It's insane. I always, this is the dumbest thing in the morning. I just love the presentation of these fancy good barbecue places, the silver tray with the nice piece of paper and the glop of sides. I visually like how it looks. Yeah.

I think it's so pretty. Yeah. Now, I don't eat red meat, so I have to stay away from brisket. But, you know, I can do the pork ribs and I can do some links. By the way, did you eat like this before you got into it? No. If you could only eat one thing at your restaurant, what would it be? It would be the pork belly chaschew.

Now, there's a fusion. Mm-hmm. And I just happened upon it kind of by accident. I think my ADHD kicked in when I was starting to sell barbecue and I kind of got bored with the typical flavors, the whiskey peach sauce and whatnot. And I looked at my heritage and tried to find something that I can recreate with the American smoking technique. How often are you trying to create something completely new for your menu?

Not very often now because we're a full-blown restaurant open five days a week. And so doing new items and then having new SOPs just takes a lot more time. But I don't want you to get bored. Yeah, no. Ranking a restaurant, you're not bored. Okay. Let's talk sides. What's your best side?

I think it's the dirty rice. It's kind of our Asian take on southern dirty rice. We take jasmine rice, sesame oil, and we take all our cutting board trimmings and our homemade sausage, and we steam up the rice. When you buy a platter, do you get to pick two sides? No, so we sell everything a la carte. Good for you. Yeah, so you pick and choose.

Because I get upset when I have to pick two sides. I also don't think sides should be priced the same. There's just no way, you know, coleslaw should cost as much as. pick something that cost way more. Chili. Thank you. You're telling me chili and coleslaw are the same price. And I also think there should be

instead when people don't sell al-a-cart, I think it should be four sides. I don't like to pick two. What other sides do you have? Mac and cheese? Yeah, mac and cheese, slaw. baked beans? Sesame slaw.

What's sesame slaw? So I developed this recipe when I was a vendor at Smorgasburg L.A., which is the largest open-air market. I know what that is. Well, not all your view. Yeah, they do. Oh, okay. No, I don't know. You're right. They don't. It's a, it's basically an honor to be there, right? Yeah, because you have to be chosen. You have to be approved. So it's, you know, in L.A., downtown L.A. gets really, really hot in the summertime. So instead of a mayonnaise coleslaw, I developed a sesame paste slaw.

My wife might eat that because she just despises anything like a mayonnaise. She doesn't like it. And I don't like. I honestly, I make what I like. And I sell what. what I like to eat. And if you don't like it, don't buy it. That's it. I'm right there. And I think it gets pretty crazy when you try to please everybody. Never done that. Because there's, you know, so many types of customers out there.

You just have to cook what you love to eat. I tell jokes that Eddie likes. People don't like my jokes. It's like, it doesn't matter. If Eddie likes it, joke stays. All right, what are our sides? Cornbread. We make that from scratch.

Do you put chunks of actual corn in it? I don't like it. Oh, sorry. I don't like that. I'm not going to change. change it for you. That's fine. I don't dislike it, but I get happier when I don't taste actual pieces of corn in my cornbread. That's just what I like an instant box. You know what I'm like? Oh, that's where I grew up on some cheap jiffy thing, the little tiny blue box, blue and

white box. Yeah. All right, so cornbread, what else? Tallow fries. What are tallow fries? So tallow is actually rendered beef fat. We go through so much brisket every week. When we trim off the fat, we grind it up and we bake it for about 18 hours or something. so, you know, at the end product, we sift it and we have oil. So we use that oil in our fryer to make our fries. And the best way to describe these fries are fries from the 90s because now all the restaurants are using seed oils or peanut oil. Are they thin fries? Are they thick? Crinkle. They're crinkle fries. So they are on the thicker side. They're not seasoned, are they just with salt and pepper. Do you have sides of ranch?

No. You don't have ranch dressing. No. That's going to be a problem. I'll bring my own ranch. Can you bring your own bottle of Hidden Valley? Absolutely. Okay. You're not going to be kicked out for that? I won't judge you. What is, is there an interior dining here?

Is it all just outside picnic tables? So our restaurant is actually a 70-year-old residential home. Our smokers are outside in the front yard. So this home has been converted to a restaurant, a kitchen. It's a neighborhood. Their house is next to you? Yeah. So you're still cooking illegally in a house.

No, now. We're cooking legally. Okay, got you, got you. Yeah, so it's all outdoor seating. My landlord owns about 12 houses in that square block, and she worked with the city to convert it to mixed use. She kept the exterior and the architecture the same, so it looks like a house, but inside, you know, we made it into a commercial kitchen.

Do you keep a bedroom just for the late-night brisket watcher? Mm-mm. That would have been nice. Good idea. You have nice bathrooms? Yes, we do. Okay. Yeah. Take pride in that. You know, you ought to just have somebody just full time. You know what? I go in after every single person and just do a little spruce up. Give me a minute. You know, the smell of barbecue so delicious when you're craving barbecue. When you're not craving barbecue, eh, a bit much. When you smell like meat and you've been working all day and your hair smells like smoke.

What do you do about that every day where you're like, oh, I got to smoke? I mean, because if I smelled barbecue every day, I think I would be like, oh. I think it's worn off on me. Like, I get used to it. Okay. Yeah. How often do you eat barbecue? Every day I'm into the restaurant.

You do? I mean, like, I don't have a full-on barbecue meal, but I do taste for quality assurance. Okay. And then you go to home and have a Malaysian meal? Yeah, noodles and salad and rice. How do you stay? So most pit master, what do we call you, a pit madame? Pit madame, yeah.

Pit madame, just obese is what I'm thinking, right? Just horribly, like one clogged artery away from kaput. Oh, I don't get high on my own supply. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. You have tons of fans and you're wildly successful, but the people that, the haters,

you have a certain type of person, you're like, oh, of course, this person. Because barbecue people are so opinionated. I always think of barbecue as, you know, a manly thing. So you're probably getting it from a lot of directions, from men because you're a woman. And then let's throw in the California thing is another reason people to hate you.

Yeah, because we're not doing barbecue right, right? So I always say there's no wrong way to barbecue because people are looking at barbecue the wrong way. They think it's a cuisine. I think it's more of a technique, and you can take it in any cultural direction you want because it's the art of smoking. It's not just a specific cuisine tied to a region.

Well, you're preaching to the choir here. How often weekly are men telling you that you're doing it wrong? Initially, when I first started, I would get comments on my reels or Yelp reviews maybe like once a week or so. How's Yelp? Is Yelp horrible? The thing I don't like about Yelps, is these customers don't give us a chance to fix anything.

You ask them, how's everything? And they say, oh, yeah, it's great. And then they go home and they write a one-star review. Like, hey, why didn't you tell me we have a manager on duty? Let us fix it. But, you know, I do get a lot of new customers because they find us on Yelp. So it is a necessary evil. Are you proud of yourself?

You know. You've done a good thing. When I, you know, you know the feeling where you have to pinch yourself like, this is a dream? No, I don't ever do that. stuff, but I understand what you're saying. Yeah, sometimes I do get that because when I go to the restaurant, I see so many people dining there, like, where the heck do, did these people come from? And they're actually eating my food.

They love my food. Aren't you glad Sabaro went out of business for you? Mm-hmm. Do you see a lot of Asian, more Asian people in your line at just because, you know, you're an Asian business owner? I think so. I do, I would say, like, 30, percent would be Hispanic, maybe 20 percent Caucasian, and then 50 percent Asian.

Well, I don't know. No black people? Well, come on. Sorry. Give them a percent. Another 10 percent. I don't know. Nice. Listen, don't get me started. They love barbecue. Are you, do your kids? Do they love your food? They do. My daughter, she was only two years old when I started and it got to a point when I would give her mac and cheese and she would look and say, where is the brisket? Are they heavy children? No, they're not. Are they going to force them to work in the restaurant? I do sometimes, yeah. I think that's illegal, too, just so you know.

Do you do private events? I do. What do you bring to the house? Do you bring a smoker to the house or no? If you pay me, I will. You got to back into my place. Yeah. But, yes, we can bring a smoker.

Here's the misconception about barbecue catering is a lot of people ask me to bring the smoker. Everything's already smoked and ready to go. So bringing a smoker is just for show and it's just an extra thing for me to lug around. Also, if I have to start the fire, I have to consider how much time I need to spend there, start the fire, and then I have to kill the fire before I drive off. And also, while I'm serving, I have to make sure no kids are running around my firebox. So really, it's more for show. Well, I just want you to show up 12 hours early in the middle of night. Guess who's?

Winnie's here, everybody. Everybody that's on the show gets some gifts. It's just stuff around my house. I really wish, your daughter's first name starts with an M. I wish it was started with a P because this company sent me a backpack

that's got a pee on it, but it's not for my kid. That's so cute. Well, whatever, you'll have to figure it out. It's for back to school. And then there's a, it's just this company lit little chicken. I'm not giving them a plug.

They sent me the wrong stuff, and you're supposed to stand, when they send anything wrong. This is a lunchbox. But back to school is coming. It's brand new. The receipt's still in there. This was Amanda Star.

I got your order. I'm not sending it back. Have little chicken figured out. I'm going to give that to you. You can give that to your daughter. Oh, it's nice for her. She'll love it. Next thing, I thought, oh, this is a perfect gift for you.

Your kids, you like it. You're doing barbecue in the backyard. Okay. You need an outdoor movie theater. Now, this is an inflatable outdoor movie theater. Oh, my gosh. Is this used? Yeah, everything's used and stuff in my house that I don't want.

It's been used one time. Eddie was with me the one time I used it. We watched in my backyard Christmas vacation. Christmas vacation. It was awesome. We watched Christmas vacation. And it's huge. It's a huge theater, like outdoor theater.

Your kids will love it. You'll have a movie night. Oh, thank you. Oh, you're going to love that. Put that on the floor. Oh my gosh, that's heavy. Yeah. It gets bigger than her, Daniel.

Well, she can handle 2,000 pounds a week of brisket. You appeared on Chopped and Barbecue Brawl with Bobby Flay. What was that like? It was surreal. Which one did you do first? Barbecue brawl. Did you win it? I was a finalist.

How many people are finalists? Just two people? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you just lost the last challenge or something? Yeah. Okay.

Don't be, are you still beating yourself up over it? There are things that happened on set that was never edited in. Like, for example, one of my competitors' friars was broken. We had a challenge within a challenge. We had a whole hog challenge, which was like six, eight hours. And then we had wings challenge within that challenge. And so my competitor's friar broke. I had finished my wings already, plated it ready, because the time was running out.

And they stopped the clock, and they let him. him, and I said yes, because he was my friend. Oh, yes, that's on you. I don't want to hear any more then. So I don't want to win because I said no. You should have said no, and then what you, and they would have edited that out, and they would have just, and you would have won you to have been the champion. But he's my friend, though.

Is he still your friend? Yeah. Oh, well, and then you did the right thing. At the end of the day, it was just the exposure. Whether I want or not, I think it didn't really matter to me. My only goal going into that show was to not be the first one to be. kicked out, you know. That's everybody's goal on any type of reality show. I used to watch Chopped, but then it started to annoy me because I don't care about somebody being able to cook

when there's a basket of nonsense in front of them. It's actually, yeah, I mean, it really puts you to the test. Right, but it's a test that none of us need to pass. I agree. Did you win chopped? No. Were you the first one out? Nope. Okay, that's all that matters. So I achieved my goal. By the way, here's a question about Chopped. Tell me if they're... Do you know the secret ingredient ahead of time? Do they taste everything while it's hot or do they wait? So temperature is not supposed to be part of the judgment. Okay, good fucking luck telling me that it's not...

If I bite into some cold chili, I'm not going to be like, oh, this probably would be amazing if it were warm. What's next for Winnie? Oh. Oh, no. like any of this oh look at this you wrote a book yes Chinese American barbecue I wish American would have gone first but that's just me oh you got to talk to my publishers that's good that look at congratulations yeah so I've been working on this did you actually make that is that actually I cooked everything here okay there's a hundred recipes here let me see this

what's this pasta salad down here so that's a green curry mac and cheese. That looks good. Yeah, that's really good. What about this cucumber salad? What am I looking at? So that's our spicy cucumbers. I love that too. So everything in our restaurant, the recipes will be in the book and then some. Well, then no one's going to come to your restaurant anymore. No. I'm kidding. Congratulations. Thank you. On writing a book. Yeah, it'll be released spring 2026. That's too far. I know. Pre-order today. Can you pre-order it already? Yes. Really? Yeah. Did you bring some meat with you? I did.

Oh, no. This is going to end poorly for me, isn't it? So I'm just searing this off to get it warm because you can't have my barbecue cold. Okay. Are we set up for this in here? Oh, this is heaven on earth now. Oh, man, come on. It's good, huh?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So you will not get that kind of toss shoot. This is called pork belly chashu. You will not get that anywhere else because charshu is actually a Cantonese style barbecue and it's roasted and not slow smoked. So I like employed the Texas style of smoking onto this charshu so you have a different texture. Nobody bites into this and goes, that's not for me.

If you like this type of food, you're going to love this. So that and pickled onions and rice is my go-to. But I forgot the pickled onions. Well, thanks a lot. Yeah, sorry. Do you want to go back and get it? Sure, two hours there and back, no problem. Well, this is wonderful.

Listen, I hope you have all the success that you can handle. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. I want to thank Winnie for being on the show and feeding the boys. That's good.

Carl, did you get any of that cue? It's east and west coming together for a collision, a taste bud collision. Okay. Go to tooshoshoshostore.com. Get some merch. Check out our tours. Eddie and I doing some stand-up comedy. Come see me in San Francisco.

I can't wait to get back to my once favorite city. Now, it's just in ruins. San Francisco's just in ruins. I don't know why my hotel's so expensive then. Should be getting a deal if it's in ruins. Yeah, if the city's in ruins, how come rooms are so expensive? I've got to fight my way into the front door. God, I love San Francisco.

You know why I love San Francisco? Because there's always been like a San Francisco, L.A. rivalry. And I never cared. Yeah. Every time I performed in San Francisco, I didn't care. I'd wear my Dodger hat on stage. And we'd just have a good time. That people are great.

Shows are fun. Amanda, finding her sweet, sweet love, hasn't been easy. I don't know if my viewers aren't taking this seriously, but I need you to call in, okay? I tell you who she took a shine to.

Who's that? Our boy RJ. Oh, that'd be nice. Running Rivian. Guess what, guys? RJ went surfing with me That's Oh yeah

Came over to my house Started laughing immediately He like verified everything I said was true Like saw He was like oh my goodness Your diploma is in your chicken coop That would be a funny lie Yeah

And then he's like he's like You do have rivians I mean yeah there's rivians here He looked at the The sambar The 360 Subaru old van He loved it He's checking out the E30

Loved it We went surfing, walked in, told my wife, my wife's family was there, my in-laws were there. He was blown away by all these people that are from Florida, from his neck of the woods, just hanging out in Malibu. And then I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to surfing

with RJ. We were about to sit down for, they were about to sit down for dinner waiting for me. And he's like, you can just like leave and go have, like, go surfing. I'm like, I do whatever I want him, the king of the castle. King of the Castle. He was blown away. He was like, well, that's impressive.

Is she like, are you sure? She's not going to be mad at you. I'm mad at me. You see this roof I put over her head? Good luck getting mad. Let me know how that works out for you. No, she wasn't mad. She was fine. She was like, so RJ, she was happy. We went surfing. Waves weren't great, but we had fun. Came back to the house. Amanda's there. And they just start chatting. And, you know, he's just hanging out. Just hanging out with a fam. I'd love RJ to be part of our family. Go ahead, RJ. Mary Amanda, do we have any new potential suitors that called in?

We got a couple. Okay, let me hear. Let me hear these voicemails. Hey, Josh, I got a proposition for you. You date Amanda because you fit all of those, and I'll start doing your life. Think about it. Let me know. You thinking about it?

Thinking about it. I think about that every night of my life. that's the last thing I think about before I go to bed and I just think oh man if I could date Amanda no I no it doesn't work I didn't want somebody that already had children and has a vasectomy she wants children I can't produce that for her I guess I could get it reversed yeah but they say the success rate of reversing your vasectomy after five years I think is where it really falls off. But I do have the best reversal of vasectomies

working on my junk. There's time. That was his pitch to me. He's like, this is permanent, but I'm the best at reversing it. I'm like, well, I don't think you know what the word permanent means. Let's see how good he is. You've got a couple years to feel it.

The point is I don't want to go have surgery just so I can ruin my marriage. Right. Okay, so that guy. I appreciate him wanting to date my wife. And maybe my wife would want to go out with this guy, I think, but that's her decision to make. Whoever marries and impregnates Amanda, that's my decision.

All right. Do you have anybody else? Yeah. Okay, Eddie, let's hear it. My name is Edl. I'm 5-8, 160 towns. I'm a mechanical engineer, and I would make you laugh harder and better than any of as ever.

My number is and I live in Omaha and Nebraska. God. That just couldn't get any worse. Go big a grad. That guy sounds like a rick. Keep that number up, though.

People call him to that guy. That guy can't be serious. Doesn't vote 5-8, lives in Omaha and thinks he's going to make me laugh harder than anybody that ever made me laugh. Ever. Oh, God, this will be harder than I thought.

This is... This pool. that we're pulling from is is depleted let's go guys there's got to be a few good guys out there that are attractive that want to become a part of my family see you next week