Latest / The Restaurant Guys / Tom Colicchio on Top Chef, Craft, and What Makes a Great Chef | Preview

Transcript

Tom Colicchio on Top Chef, Craft, and What Makes a Great Chef | Preview · The Restaurant Guys

• 1:40
  Mark: Hey, good morning, Mark.
• 1:40
  Mark: Morning, Francis.
• 1:41
  Mark: How are you this morning?
• 1:42
  Mark: I'm well.
• 1:42
  Mark: I'm always well.
• 1:43
  Mark: Well, well, well.
• 1:44
  Mark: Well, well, well.
• 1:45
  Mark: Weasel fell in the well.
• 1:47
  Francis: Right.
• 1:47
  Francis: Um, so, so, uh, you were talking this morning about a product that, you brought to my attention in this article.
• 1:54
  Francis: Because you knew to get me angry, and that always adds a little, a little positive energy madder Francis
• 1:59
  Mark: is, the more energy the show has.
• 2:01
  Mark: Okay, look, here's I poke the bear in the morning
• 2:03
  Francis: sometimes.
• 2:04
  Francis: Here's how, here's, here's the deal.
• 2:07
  Francis: Pork.
• 2:08
  Francis: Pork is really good food.
• 2:09
  Francis: It's not the other white meat.
• 2:10
  Francis: It's red meat.
• 2:11
  Francis: And, uh, pork has been bred to be the other white meat.
• 2:15
  Francis: Pork, the fat has been bred out of pork.
• 2:17
  Francis: Sadly, the flavor has been bred out of pork.
• 2:19
  Francis: And the way to produce pork cheaply is to be really mean to the pigs.
• 2:24
  Francis: and have them live in disgusting agribusiness.
• 2:27
  Mark: And I think we should stop doing that.
• 2:30
  Francis: What they call containment farms.
• 2:31
  Francis: There's a move, and you can go to Heritage Foods USA, to find out where you can buy real pork, and, you know, forget the Save the Whales vibe that the show occasionally gets.
• 2:38
  Francis: If you want pork that tastes, I don't know, 3700 times better than the pork you find in your supermarket.
• 2:43
  Francis: And it's better for you.
• 2:44
  Francis: It just simply is.
• 2:45
  Francis: Oh, and it's also, right, and it's also better for you, better for the pig, better for the planet.
• 2:48
  Francis: But it also tastes like something.
• 2:50
  Francis: Now look, I grew up, my mom used to put the pork chop onto the broiler about 2 in the afternoon, we'd eat it at 6.
• 2:55
  Francis: Sorry.
• 2:56
  Francis: Um, put a can of sauerkraut on top of it.
• 2:58
  Francis: So I never realized how great pork could taste.
• 3:00
  Francis: and the pork that our grandparents ate was different than the pork we have today.
• 3:04
  Francis: That's true.
• 3:05
  Francis: Now let me read to you, uh, We're
• 3:06
  Mark: about to
• 3:07
  Francis: tell you how
• 3:07
  Mark: different it
• 3:07
  Francis: was.
• 3:08
  Francis: From Newhouse News Service, they've realized, they went on this low cholesterol thing, reduced the pork, The agribusiness one on this, reduce the fat in pork.
• 3:15
  Francis: And so they bred pigs that are easy to torture and keep in confinement barns and, uh, that have very little fat.
• 3:21
  Francis: And they become the other white meat.
• 3:22
  Francis: Problem is, they bred out the flavor.
• 3:25
  Mark: That does hurt sales sometimes.
• 3:26
  Mark: So
• 3:26
  Francis: now, we have a situation where your pork, when you get it in the market, will be labeled, probably, all natural pork.
• 3:34
  Francis: Uh, or enhanced pork.
• 3:36
  Francis: Anytime an idiot tells you something Anytime an idiot tells you something is enhanced.
• 3:39
  Francis: It's Better
• 3:40
  Mark: than it was before.
• 3:41
  Francis: I don't think so.
• 3:42
  Francis: Here's what enhanced pork is all about.
• 3:44
  Francis: All natural pork or all natural chicken or all natural turkey has to be fresh meat that's not been injected or marinated.
• 3:50
  Francis: Enhanced pork and poultry, as a matter of fact, has been injected with a solution of water or broth, sodium phosphate, and some breads also include other preservatives, flavorings, and antioxidants.
• 4:03
  Francis: They shoot it with salt water.
• 4:04
  Francis: So, you don't have to, Pay for the salt water?
• 4:08
  Francis: Uh, no, you gotta pay for the salt water.
• 4:10
  Francis: See, that's the ticket.
• 4:11
  Francis: If you have 7 percent salt water shoved into your, into your flavorless pork chop to give it a little bit of flavor,
• 4:16
  Mark: then you pay 7 percent more for your pork chop.
• 4:18
  Mark: Right on.
• 4:19
  Mark: Okay.
• 4:19
  Mark: That's one of
• 4:19
  Francis: the ways that
• 4:20
  Mark: they keep the price
• 4:20
  Francis: down.
• 4:21
  Francis: The pork, the pork industry has a long list of reasons for using additives, but one of its biggest is that pork has been bred to be much leaner than the meats our parents and grandparents enjoyed.
• 4:29
  Francis: Fat provides moisture and flavor to meat, and that means that really lean pork will be dry and tough, uh, even if it's slightly overcooked.
• 4:37
  Francis: Enhanced pork will still be moist if it's overcooked, just like it were natural.
• 4:42
  Francis: Right.
• 4:43
  Francis: Beautiful.
• 4:44
  Francis: And I love this.
• 4:45
  Francis: And it'll be
• 4:45
  Mark: moist with the salt that you, in salt water that you injected into it.
• 4:49
  Francis: Sounds like a good, so says the article, sounds like a good idea, unless you don't like paying for salt water.
• 4:53
  Francis: Um, and also, I mean, you know, pork is really good.
• 4:56
  Francis: Go to Heritage Foods USA.
• 4:57
  Francis: Yes, it's much more expensive.
• 4:59
  Francis: Yes, it's 20 times better.
• 5:00
  Francis: Eat pork less often.
• 5:02
  Francis: And, and, and people don't realize a
• 5:04
  Mark: three ounce serving of pork could add as much as 400 milligrams of, of salt.
• 5:08
  Mark: Okay, that's a lot of salt from a shaker.
• 5:10
  Francis: Right, and, and you don't realize that it's salt.
• 5:11
  Francis: Anyway, so, our friends at Heritage Foods, you can go and buy some real, always get all natural pork, but if you go to Heritage Breeds of Pork, pork that's raised locally on family farms, You're going to get a better product.
• 5:21
  Francis: We have a wild boar on the menu at stage left.
• 5:24
  Francis: So good.
• 5:24
  Francis: That knocks people off their chair.
• 5:26
  Francis: So good.
• 5:27
  Francis: And it's just, it's a natural And it's red.
• 5:29
  Mark: It's red, okay?
• 5:30
  Mark: It looks like, it looks like a lamb chop, except it's bigger.
• 5:33
  Mark: Yeah.
• 5:34
  Mark: It's red.
• 5:35
  Francis: Delicious.
• 5:35
  Mark: Alright, I got,
• 5:35
  Francis: I got, I got a little, uh, trashy news for us.
• 5:37
  Francis: Trashy news.
• 5:38
  Francis: TGI Fridays, uh, when the kitchen manager at the TGI Fridays in College Mall in Bloomington, Indiana, accidentally cut his finger, severing a small part of it on April 25th, fellow workers rushed to his aid, but somehow in that chaos, a piece of that severed digit Ended up in a hamburger that was served to a customer,
• 5:53
  Mark: soon after the incident.
• 5:54
  Mark: Now, why'd you have to go there?
• 5:55
  Mark: Enhanced beef we're talking about now.
• 5:57
  Mark: Why'd you have to go there?
• 5:58
  Francis: Yikes.
• 5:59
  Francis: The Associated Press reports the customer spotted the piece of human flesh immediately and did not consume it.
• 6:04
  Francis: Good! So, good morning everybody.
• 6:05
  Francis: Did you enjoy your Cheerios?
• 6:06
  Francis: Was that good?
• 6:07
  Francis: Are you guys ready to go now?
• 6:08
  Francis: Amy Freshwater, a spokesman for the popular chain, told the AP, We absolutely acknowledge the seriousness of this incident.
• 6:16
  Francis: Yes, ma'am.
• 6:17
  Francis: Involuntary cannibalism is a bad thing.
• 6:21
  Francis: You know what?
• 6:21
  Mark: I'm going to go with, Voluntary cannibalism is also a bad thing.
• 6:25
  Francis: Okay, okay.
• 6:26
  Francis: But if you make me do it and I don't want to.
• 6:28
  Francis: Uh, anyway, so, uh, the problem was Until he was in the hospital emergency room, the injured kitchen manager didn't realize that he lost a small part of his finger.
• 6:36
  Francis: Freshwater said the restaurant's been in contact with a customer who had called the police about the incident.
• 6:42
  Francis: He was informed that it was not a criminal matter.
• 6:44
  Francis: I guess as long as the Finger was not surreptitiously taken.
• 6:50
  Mark: So you're saying if it had been in Jersey that maybe Right, right.
• 6:52
  Mark: It would have been If they weren't trying to teach the kitchen manager a lesson.
• 6:57
  Francis: Then it would have been a matter for the police.
• 7:00
  Francis: Uh, foie gras ban.
• 7:01
  Mark: We gotta talk about the foie gras ban in Chicago.
• 7:03
  Francis: Foie gras ban.
• 7:05
  Francis: It's just one of those things.
• 7:06
  Francis: The city of Chicago has banned the sale or service of foie gras.
• 7:09
  Francis: Foie gras.
• 7:10
  Mark: You know what's upsetting about this?
• 7:11
  Mark: I, and I know that Charles Foie gras is the
• 7:13
  Francis: fattened liver of a duck.
• 7:14
  Francis: It's, it's been on, in Western European cuisine for a long time.
• 7:18
  Francis: And animal rights idiots who don't know anything about, and I, and I believe in animal rights.
• 7:22
  Francis: You've hear, you've heard us do shows on humane methods of animal husbandry.
• 7:26
  Francis: But, foie gras ducks lead a pretty good life.
• 7:30
  Mark: We had Charlie Trotter on this show.
• 7:32
  Mark: Charlie Trotter's one of the leaders of the, uh, I don't want to serve foie gras on my menu.
• 7:36
  Mark: And that's, that captured the headlines.
• 7:38
  Mark: Okay, because he decided he didn't want to serve foie gras on his menu.
• 7:41
  Mark: But, Charlie Trotter's been on this show where he told you, our audience, that he does not support a foie gras ban.
• 7:49
  Mark: Okay, and we've told you a million times.
• 7:52
  Mark: Why would you have a foie gras ban when the chicken that, that large agribusinesses is serving you is treated much less humanely than the ducks for foie gras?
• 8:05
  Mark: You should outlaw chicken made at these factory farms.
• 8:08
  Mark: Long before you outlaw foie gras.
• 8:10
  Francis: Absolutely.
• 8:11
  Francis: Long before.
• 8:11
  Francis: If I had to come back as either a foie gras duck or a McDonald's chicken, I'll come back as a foie gras duck.
• 8:15
  Francis: And listen, it sounds unnatural because you don't know anything about animals.
• 8:19
  Francis: Because you don't know anything about farming.
• 8:21
  Francis: To force, do they call it force feed a duck?
• 8:23
  Francis: Advocates call it hand feeding a duck.
• 8:25
  Francis: You know, it's pro choice, pro life.
• 8:26
  Francis: It's all, it's all charged language, right?
• 8:28
  Francis: So, the way That it works with a duck, though, is a duck naturally gorges itself before it goes on a long migration.
• 8:35
  Francis: Before migration.
• 8:35
  Francis: The
• 8:35
  Mark: Egyptians learned this a long time ago.
• 8:37
  Francis: And what they would do is they'd go and try and capture the ducks that were gorging themselves before they took off.
• 8:41
  Francis: What foie gras does is it takes these ducks and it treats them very humanely.
• 8:45
  Francis: To have great liver, which is a high end product, you've got to have a normal method of care for these ducks.
• 8:51
  Francis: And they're not abused.
• 8:52
  Francis: And you hand feed them.
• 8:54
  Francis: And yes, you can tamp down cornmeal down the throat, but they love it.
• 8:57
  Francis: Okay?
• 8:58
  Mark: Right, they run to the person who's about to feed them.
• 9:00
  Mark: So she They blow a horn in the, at the farm, and the ducks run to the person who's going to feed them.
• 9:04
  Francis: So, so, the foie gras ban is a feel good, do nothing measure by a bunch of toadies who don't know anything about animals, and that's just crazy.
• 9:10
  Francis: Tom Colicchio from New York will be joining us in just a moment.
• 9:13
  Francis: You're listening to The Restaurant Guys, Our guest today is Tom Colicchio, he is the co owner of Owner, founder, and executive chef of one of our favorite restaurants in New York City, Gramercy Tavern, as well as the Kraft Restaurants, Kraft, Kraft Bar, Witchcraft, and Kraft Steak.
• 9:25
  Francis: He's the recipient of five, count them, five James Beard Awards, his cookbooks are Think Like a Chef and Kraft Cooking, and he's the head chef and judge on Bravo's reality TV cooking show, The Only One That We Like.
• 9:36
  Francis: Top Chef Hey Tom, welcome to the show.
• 9:39
  Speaker 11: How you doing?
• 9:40
  Mark: We're, we're doing very well.
• 9:42
  Mark: You know, Tom When we opened our second restaurant, we, uh, spent about two weeks running reruns on this show.
• 9:49
  Mark: You're opening a restaurant tonight, Kraft Steak in New York City.
• 9:52
  Mark: What are you doing talking to us?
• 9:53
  Mark: Uh What, are you nuts?
• 9:58
  Tom: Um, you know, I'm, I'm, I had a late night there last night with just, you know, family and friends, and we really, uh, sort of, the wheels kind of came off, so I was there pretty late last night, and, uh, I'm going to head over to the restaurant in about an hour or so.
• 10:11
  Tom: All right.
• 10:11
  Francis: Great compliment to us that you came on the show.
• 10:14
  Francis: Thanks.
• 10:15
  Francis: Uh, can we talk about your show on TV, Top Chef?
• 10:18
  Francis: Sure, of course.
• 10:18
  Francis: Um, that
• 10:19
  Speaker 11: is the The only thing I can't talk about is who won.
• 10:21
  Speaker 11: I know, yeah,
• 10:22
  Francis: we're not gonna We're fans, though.
• 10:24
  Francis: And I'll tell you, I don't own a