Latest / I Am All In with Scott Patterson / Luke’s Diner: Antonia Lofaso

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Luke’s Diner: Antonia Lofaso · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am all in. Again!
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: More, more, more. I want to kiss you more.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: More, more, more.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I want to kiss you more. I am all in. Again,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Scott Patterson. I am all in. Podcast 111 Productions.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio Media. iHeartRadio. podcast luke's diner episode with the one
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and only chef antonio lafaso uh she's an award-winning chef
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: restaurateur cookbook author and television personality from top chef chopped
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: worst cooks in america just to name a few she
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: also is the owner and executive chef behind los angeles
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: restaurants Scopa Italian Roots, Black Market Liquor Bar, and Dama.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: You're doing so good.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not doing bad. You're doing great. You can now
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: see her in Food Network's Kitchen Undercover and Bobby Flay's
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: The Line. Welcome, Antonia. How are you doing? So good.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's our pleasure. You got a few shows on
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the Food Network, not just one, but a couple. Let's
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: start with Kitchen Undercover. where you go undercover with your
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: sous chef nester and with the employees to find out
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: what's really happening in these kitchens. What are the most
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: common qualities among kitchens that do not perform well?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: You know, I have to say we're in the fifth
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  Speaker 3: episode this week of Kitchen Undercover.
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  Speaker 2: The finale is next Tuesday. It was a whirlwind.
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  Speaker 3: You know, obviously I've opened restaurants in Los Angeles that
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: have not just survived a lot of the things.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: That have happened, but have thrived. I've also had restaurants
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: that have closed.
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  Speaker 3: So I understand sort of the struggle that happens when
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: you see restaurants doing really well, and then all of
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: a sudden they don't, and where you can go in
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: and look. And really what Nestor and I do is,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: The owner knows we're there. The staff knows that they're
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: being filmed. They don't exactly know what it's for. They
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: think it's for a documentary. So we get to really
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  Speaker 3: see what's happening. And honestly, the biggest issue is always communication.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: It's the communication between the front of the house, the
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: back of the house.
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  Speaker 2: The expectations.
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  Speaker 3: You know, a lot of times owners feeling like they're
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: not doing enough and all of a sudden creating menus
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: that have 75 different things on them. And it's like,
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  Speaker 3: I bring everyone back to the basics, which is cleanliness, organization, communication,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: and what does your customer want?
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Serve your customer. And that's it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, I cook dinners a lot of nights here.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I need all of those things. I need communication.
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  Speaker 2: Just for dinner at home.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: My communication is stay out of my kitchen. You cannot
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: use the sink while I am cooking, preparing the meal.
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  Speaker 3: No, I actually make a joke at my house where
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  Speaker 3: the kitchen is my domain.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Like, you know, well, I don't go to clubs anymore,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: but like back in the day when there was a
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: red rope and a bouncer with like a list.
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  Speaker 2: Like that's who's, that's who is in my kitchen. We're like,
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  Speaker 2: unless you're on the list, like you can't get through
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  Speaker 2: the rope.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Just for a minute, I said, no, go upstairs, use
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the bathroom up there. I'm busy. All right, so what's
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the cover story you and Nestor used to get him
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: in the door as just another new hire? Has that ever...
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Anyone ever come close to figuring out what was really
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: going on?
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  Speaker 2: So it's funny.
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  Speaker 3: I think, you know, I think a lot of times
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  Speaker 3: the chef figures it out or any kind of anyone
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: who's really paying attention because you can't really fake, you know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: he's gone in under the ruse of being a culinary
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  Speaker 3: student who needed to get his hours of, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, of practice.
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  Speaker 3: He's gone in as like a new hire and he's
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  Speaker 3: like pretending like he doesn't know how to clean shrimp.
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  Speaker 3: And it's like this is someone who's cooked at a very,
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  Speaker 3: very high level. And so it's funny trying to seeing
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  Speaker 3: him sort of fumble through. But a lot of people, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: catch on because at the end when I announced it,
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  Speaker 3: everyone's always like, what?
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  Speaker 2: Or I knew it, you know, like they felt something.
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  Speaker 2: So it's hard. It's hard to kind of keep him
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  Speaker 2: fully undercover. But it doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 3: People still, you know, do what they're going to do,
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  Speaker 3: which is good because then we can really get into
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  Speaker 3: the nitty gritty and then fix it.
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  Speaker 1: Right. Well, what's the most unhinged thing you've watched a
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  Speaker 1: line cook do on camera thinking no one was watching?
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  Speaker 2: This is the problem is that they know we're watching.
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  Speaker 2: So it's not even... The problem is, it's just habits form.
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  Speaker 3: And when bad habits are formed and they're not broken,
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  Speaker 3: nobody really thinks they're doing anything wrong.
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  Speaker 2: That's actually the problem.
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  Speaker 3: So then I go in and be like, hey, by
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  Speaker 3: the way, you can't use the trash can to hold
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  Speaker 3: your tongs because that is.
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  Speaker 2: Unsanitary. And everyone's like, but why?
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  Speaker 3: I think that one, that one for me, I like
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  Speaker 3: made up a song about it.
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  Speaker 2: It was like a whole thing.
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  Speaker 3: Cause I try to bring a little bit of like
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  Speaker 3: humor and sarcasm to, you know, listen in the restaurant
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  Speaker 3: industry all over. We were, we're shit talkers, you know,
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: we like to poke each other, you know, you know,
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  Speaker 3: and so in a good way, in a, in a
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  Speaker 3: fair way, but I also think it kind of softens
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  Speaker 3: the blow when you have a little humor behind it.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And so I try to bring a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: like humor to the whole thing so that, listen, at
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  Speaker 3: the end of the day, we're not like we're not
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: doing brain surgery.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Like we're we're we're cooking.
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  Speaker 1: Right. All right. So, you know, you have this tough
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  Speaker 1: love attitude. That's great. Going into these kitchens. Is it
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  Speaker 1: is it hard for some restaurant owners to hear that?
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  Speaker 3: So, you know, I think I do a pretty good
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  Speaker 3: setup with them, which is like, listen, you are wearing
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  Speaker 3: your heart on your sleeve, and I commend you for
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  Speaker 3: it because we're about to go in there and we're
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  Speaker 3: going to see some things that we probably don't want
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  Speaker 3: to see, right? Feedback, as much as it's necessary to grow,
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: is sometimes uncomfortable and somewhat painful. And I kind of
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: set that stage where it's like, you asked for feedback
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  Speaker 3: and I am so prepared to give it to you
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  Speaker 3: in the most honest, direct, with resolution type of way.
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  Speaker 2: But it's not always pretty.
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  Speaker 3: And so there were a couple of times where I'm like,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know, like, could this be the time where
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: I get thrown out and.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Then tell me like, you're out of here? It never happened.
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  Speaker 3: It was very much like, I thought there were a
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  Speaker 3: couple of times and then, All of a sudden I had,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: you know, tears and thank you and you're right. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, because also it's very cathartic when you know
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: when something's wrong. The staff knows when something's wrong. Owners
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  Speaker 3: know when something's wrong.
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  Speaker 2: You just don't feel right. And you go to work
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  Speaker 2: feeling dreadful.
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  Speaker 3: And I think having someone come in there with like
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  Speaker 3: a white flag being like surrender everything right now.
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  Speaker 2: Let's start over.
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  Speaker 3: There's this feeling of catharsis that happens. And by the end,
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  Speaker 3: there's happy tears and everyone's reinvigorated.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what feels really good.
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  Speaker 3: Listen, all the clips that you see online and everything
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: that you do, you're seeing the worst parts of it,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: but the worst parts of it are this small. Then
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  Speaker 3: you see this rebuild and you see these people coming together.
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  Speaker 2: You see back of.
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  Speaker 3: The house, in front of the house, mending, chefs and owners,
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  Speaker 3: servers and bartenders. You see everyone feeling this sigh of
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  Speaker 3: relief being like, we wanted this place to succeed.
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  Speaker 2: We didn't have the tools, but now we do.
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  Speaker 1: Right. Beautiful. All right. Let's talk about Bobby Flay's The Line.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Where chefs like you compete against some of the country's
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  Speaker 1: award-winning restaurant staff. This is a Really cool new concept.
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  Speaker 2: Dude, this was a hard show.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, he handpicked you for his home team. He did.
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  Speaker 3: And let me tell you, like when, when he calls
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  Speaker 3: and is like, do you want to do this? I
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: was like, like all of a sudden, like I don't
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  Speaker 3: have anaphylaxis.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not allergic to anything. Like my throat closed. I
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  Speaker 2: was like, because it's nerve wracking.
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  Speaker 3: This was probably one of the hardest challenges, you know,
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  Speaker 3: besides like tournament of champions that I've had to do
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  Speaker 3: because it's This is such an incredible concept that Bobby
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  Speaker 3: came up with where we are his home team, myself,
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  Speaker 3: Claudette Zepeda, and Michael Jenkins. And every week we take
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  Speaker 3: on a visiting team. And we know nothing about the
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  Speaker 3: visiting team at all. The only thing that we are given.
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  Speaker 2: Is the type of cuisine.
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  Speaker 3: So every week we are challenged with, as the home team, with,
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  Speaker 3: you know, modern Asian, burgers, brunch. You know, American Italian,
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  Speaker 3: Costa Rican. It is the it is all over the place,
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  Speaker 3: you know. So one minute I'm thinking about Middle Eastern
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  Speaker 3: and then the next minute I'm like, I need a
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  Speaker 3: good brunch service. And so it really challenges us as
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  Speaker 3: his home team. To be very well-versed in a lot
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  Speaker 3: of different styles of food, a lot of different styles
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  Speaker 3: of service, and a lot of different styles of cuisine.
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  Speaker 2: Honestly, being very good line cooks.
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  Speaker 3: Like back in the day when we actually were on
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  Speaker 3: the line cooking, not just running kitchens.
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  Speaker 2: So we're cooking like you wouldn't believe.
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  Speaker 3: And then the visiting team has all the advantage in
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  Speaker 3: the world because this is their cuisine. This is what
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  Speaker 3: they do on a daily basis. This is what they
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  Speaker 3: serve their customers. And they come in four against four.
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  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Wow. And there's a pivot strategy, strategy, mids, service
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: based on the real dinner ratings, right?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, because here's the thing. Like when a chef is
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: designing a dish, we usually, it goes through like a process, right?
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  Speaker 3: We don't just like get ingredients, make the dish and
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  Speaker 3: then put it out. In this scenario, we kind of
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: are doing that because we don't really have weeks or
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  Speaker 3: months to prepare for a dish. And so there's situations
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: where it's like, okay, wait a second, that didn't work.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: And we're getting feedback in real time. That's kind of
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the beauty of it.
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  Speaker 3: And also it's a beauty and a curse because you're
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: sitting there cooking. We have 80 dishes to put out
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  Speaker 3: in 90 minutes, which do that math.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, a little over a minute a dish. Okay.
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  Speaker 3: To put out or we don't get points for it.
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  Speaker 3: There's five total stars that can be given by real
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  Speaker 3: diners in real time. So they come in, they get
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: a menu. There's 12 dishes on that menu. They're in
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: no particular order. They can order the way they want to.
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  Speaker 3: We don't know how the dishes are going to come in.
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  Speaker 3: It might be visiting team. It might be our time.
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  Speaker 3: It might be a mix of both.
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  Speaker 2: We have no idea.
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  Speaker 3: So it's like a real service. And in that moment,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: they pull up an app on their phone and they're
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  Speaker 3: like one star, two star, three star, four star, five star.
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  Speaker 2: And we start to get the averages.
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  Speaker 3: We have these huge monitors that stand behind our expo station.
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  Speaker 2: The expo is where.
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  Speaker 3: The lead chef of the day is making sure the
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: food goes out to the right table. And behind us,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: we just keep turning around being like, so-and-so's dish is
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: a 3.1.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: So-and-so's dish is at a 4.2.
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  Speaker 3: So you're seeing in real time if you're failing or succeeding. Yeah.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk amazing competition, amazing pressure. Everybody should
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: watch it, really. It's so fun. Let's talk a little
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: bit about Gilmore Girls. It's going to be a shock
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to you, but I played a diner owner named Luke Daines. Hey,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: did you know that? Wow, what a shock. What is
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: one piece of advice? that you would give a local
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: small town diner owner to keep his restaurant going for
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: years and years to come?
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  Speaker 3: You know, honestly, I think consistency, whatever that is that
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  Speaker 3: everyone comes in for that. Everyone talks about that. When
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: they walk through the door, they're pissed for some reason.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: If they, you don't have it on the menu, you
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  Speaker 3: are consistent every single day. So when they know they're
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: coming in for, when I go to a diner, it's
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: like a, you know, a tuna melt, turkey melt, BLT,
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  Speaker 3: like I'm a sandwich person, that it's the same every
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: single time that you.
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  Speaker 2: Can count on it.
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  Speaker 3: Like people count on being like, I'm going to this
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  Speaker 3: diner for X, Y, and Z. And it's the same
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  Speaker 3: every time. And it makes me feel the same way
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: every time.
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  Speaker 2: It makes me happy.
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  Speaker 1: Consistency. Well, now here's a question that I, it's, it's, it's,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I know this is out of left field. And I
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: don't think anybody's thinking about it in the fan base,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: especially Gilmore Girls fan base. Do you think a Luke's
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Diner would be successful? Do you?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a Long Island girl.
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  Speaker 1: So I grew up with diners.
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  Speaker 3: So I now am all over the place, all over
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  Speaker 3: the country. And the diner culture, right, of Long Island
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: and those sort of like outer areas of New York,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: aren't really prevalent.
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  Speaker 2: I love a diner.
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  Speaker 3: Whenever I'm back anywhere in like the New York tri-state area,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: I am like, where's the good diner? You know, it's
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: like you can get the Greek omelet, but you could
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: also get like the burger, but you could also somehow
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: get like meatballs, mashed potato, meatloaf, mashed potatoes. Like it's
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: got 75 different things on it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Everything's done well. All of a sudden you got a
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Dover sole wrapped with like spinach and feta. You know
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: what I'm talking about? I love a diner. I don't
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: think the diner should ever go anywhere. In fact, there
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: needs to be.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: More of them. All right. I'm working on it. I'm
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: working on it.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: What is a diner staple you would never want changed
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: on a menu if you were to pick one?
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: A diner staple.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a big like breakfast diner, you know
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: what I mean, person.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: So I'm just like the omelet, the hash brown.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Or the, you know, the potato that they do. Sometimes
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: it's like a potato or an onion or, toast, bacon,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: like don't change your French toast, your pancakes, your like
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: morning specials.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Your omelets, your eggs and stuff like that.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: When I go to the diners in Long Island, like
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I love a Greek omelet.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Like that's like my whole thing, you know, and listen,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: everyone goes like burgers, French fries, burgers, French fries, gravy,
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: you know, French dips, like all of that, like the
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: classic things.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: But to me, like diner breakfast is like no other.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: All right. Let's say lightning does strike. And look at that.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: There's a Luke Steiner flagship somewhere. Okay. There it is.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: You're driving by. You go, Bobby, Nestor, get the hell
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: over to the side of the road. Let's go to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Luke Steiner. Join the line. We'll get you to the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: front of the line. We'll get you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Right.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: First class right there.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I want to BLT.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: That's what you want to BLT? I want to BLT.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: All right. Where are you going to sit?
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm going to sit in a booth. I need
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: to sit in a booth.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we got a booth.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: I want to sit in a booth, and I want
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: you to have one of those, like, rotating cake displays.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean? That has all the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: cakes and pies in it and it turns and.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Like the entire time I'm eating, I'm just like, what
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: dessert am I getting?
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Like, am I getting the chocolate cream pie?
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: What about a jukebox that you can flip it? Like
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: a little box. Yeah. Old school.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: They have to be at each of the booths.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I don't want to have to get up from my
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: booth to go to the jukebox.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: No, there's no way.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Well, look, all right. We're running out of time here.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks for chatting with us. Antonia, Kitchen Undercover season finale
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: airs Tuesday, September 1st, and Bobby Flay's The Line premieres Tuesday,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: September 8th, which is when my cookbook comes out, my
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: diner cookbook comes out, at 9 p.m. Eastern time on
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Food Network and streams the following day on HBO Max. Antonia,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: it was a pleasure. Good luck with everything. Thank you.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Just win. Keep eating. win some more, keep eating. We'll
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: do the same. That's the plan. Hey everybody, don't forget,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram at I am all in podcast
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and email us at Gilmore at I heart radio.com.