August 10, 2021 • 26 mins
In this episode of "Always Hungry", Bobby and Sophie dig into to everything that makes summertime eating and drinking so enjoyable. For starters, Bobby explains his perspective as a frequent host of summertime lunch parties. Then they make fish tacos together while discussing all of the details that make for a perfect summer get together.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay and I'm here with my
daughter and co host Flag and I'm Always Hungry. Sophie
and I gathered around my stove to cook together. Well,
you cook, I asked the questions, and eat the food.
If there's any food left. You come to the table
together to share a meal, connect as a family, and
tell the stories that matter to us. All right, Sophie,
(00:26):
since we're in the middle of summer, let's talk about
what we're going to eat and drink. Love it. You
always make the best food during the summer. That those
are like my favorite food memories with you, and it
all comes with a glass of Roseys. Bore it up.
So I spent a lot of time in the summer entertaining.
It's what I look forward to all year long. Honestly,
I have a pergola that sits in my backyard which
(00:52):
reminds me I got inspired by when I went to
Sicily on a trip many years ago. We rented this
house and the house looked like it was out of
the Godfather. It was like this really a beautiful southern
Italy was Sicilian house who knows when it was built,
and it was actually owned by some countess I don't
(01:15):
even know what that means. And she was renting it
out and she was in Paris at the time. It
was like it was a very romantic story. Like but
I mean, I don't know who she is. But so
Michael Simon and I and a bunch of other people
rento the house and you rent the house for like
I think we read it for ten days. And the
house came with a house manager, a cook, and a housekeeper,
(01:40):
and Michael and I wanted wanted to cook all week,
so we we we said to the chef for the
we got there. She had put out this beautiful meal
was very very simple, like a capraise salad, a beautiful
pen a pasta, maybe some ravioli or something I can remember,
and like in a rugal salad. And we've been traveling
it which felt it felt like forever they lost our bags.
(02:01):
I mean, it was just like the classic Sicilian trip.
And you know, we were on three different planes, you
can imagine. So we were exhausted and we got there
and she made this beautiful meal and we said, congratulations,
you get you're getting fully paid for the for the
entire time you're here, but you're off. We're gonna cook.
We're going to relieve you of your duty. Yeah, you
don't need to hang. You can just getting a paid vacation.
(02:21):
So then it was in Marsala and we went to
the market and we bought like everything in the marketplace,
all these different you know, whole sword fish and creates
of tomatoes, quarts of salted capers. Anyway, long story, short
was that I'm trying to get back to my point,
which is that they had this beautiful outdoor progola that
(02:41):
so you would sit under this progola, you know, it
would protect you from the sun. You would sit outside
and you sort of dine al fresco, as they say.
And as soon as I got back to the United States,
I like, I was like, I have to have this.
So I asked this guy who was a really good
craftsman to build it for me in my back yard.
And I use it so much. It's where we have
(03:03):
like our lunches that I had to call him lunch
at my house every Saturday in the summer. I shouldn't
say every Saturday. Most Saturdays in the summer I make
lunch for a bunch of people. It's never less than
like eight, and it's usually somewhere in between twenty and
thirty people. And I invite lots of different kinds of
(03:25):
people and a lot of people that don't know each other,
and I try to try to put together really interesting
groups of people. I remember one actually, one of the
ones that I remember mostly was you were there and
we had actually a handful of just happen to have
a handful of amazing journalists, you know, as you and
our friend Carolyn Mono and who else was there? Vanessa
(03:48):
your Covic and Katie Kirk, you know, some big names.
Who was you know the headliner? Katie you know, was
so nice to come. And my dad was there. My
dad was in the middle of the whole thing. Bill
Flay was like holding court with people. Yeah, and like
and and you were you were in brought you were
(04:09):
in journalist school. You were in broadcast journalism school at
USC at the time, and like to listen to all
of you guys talk about, you know, journalism, where it
is today, where it's going tomorrow. It was mesmerizing. But
you know, we share meals like that in my house.
They're not always that sort of specific, but there's always
really fun and interesting people there, and a lot of
(04:31):
a lot of them don't know each other. And and
that's one of the things I like to do, which
is bringing a lot of people together to the dinner table,
because people don't do that anymore. But we don't really
make dinner. We make lunch. And the lunches are long,
and they're always at one thirty. And the reason why
they're at won thirty is because twelve o'clock is too early.
One o'clock seems about right. But I always want that
(04:53):
extra half an hour because it's something that I'm not
done with and I want to be finished. I want,
I want my I want for the most part, I
want almost everything ready to go when people start walking in. Yeah,
because you want to be able to enjoy it. Two.
I want to be able to enjoy it two. And
I want to be a host as well. I don't
want to just be like, you know, the cook left
in the kitchen. I want to be part of what's
what's happening there. I want to be able to make
(05:14):
sure that my guests are having a good time. I mean,
they have to have cocktails. It's a big undertaking, but
it's so great. All right, we are making some fish tacos.
We're making fish tacos, and I'm gonna make some swordfish tacos.
Is that cool? Okay? So so fish tacos. You know,
we're talking about summer, summer eating and drinking, because one
(05:34):
goes hand in hand. And so I make fish tacos
a lot. Now, Usually what I do is I usually
got I usually buy a two or three different kinds
of fish in the store, depending on what's fresh. So
I usually buy some shrimplet to make shrimp tacos, and
then I usually make a couple of other fish. Today
I have some swordfish, and and I don't marinate fish
(06:00):
for instance, like very long. Usually it's like a quick
marinade or an automatic marinade, what I call. So this
has got some red chilies on, it's got some garlic powder,
it has human and coriander, some red chilies, and some
orange juice. It looks really pretty, yeah, some orange juice.
And this is a swordfish steak. Uh, But they get
a little bit hotter. And so basically what I do
(06:22):
is I cook the fish basically right before I'm about
to serve, and then I have like lots of accoutremants, like, um,
I have lettuce, but usually I make some sort of
cabbage flaw, and then I have I have some kind
of did you eat all the sausa? A lot of
salsa sulfie doing a podcast, So I have some sauce
here and then either usually some sort of red sauces,
(06:46):
some green salta then some like green onions, some pickled onions.
Usually then I have like an array of hot sauces.
I have your favorite hot sauce, and then um, you
know some quarant to a tea is about more than
half the times I usually make the quarn to a
tea out of massa arena. Um. These these are really
good quality tortillas that I got from the from the
farmer's market in Hollywood. There's a Mexican family there that
(07:10):
is that has great salsas, great tortillas, great tortilla chips,
like all kinds of like great like fire roast and
tomato salsas. They have like a tomatillo SAUCEA that's great.
They have like an avocado salsa, some guacamole. I mean,
they're they have really really good quality. It's almost like
hard to make your own because it's so good. So
(07:30):
these are their tortillas. Smell on I mean it really
smells like corn. So I'm just heating't look on a
flat top. So here's the kind of things that we make.
(07:58):
First of all, my house is nicknamed Rose Country Day Camp,
so you know that we drink a lot of rose.
I mean like a lot. There's been some records set. Yeah,
there's been some track records set at my house. In
terms of empty rose bottles, there are in the parking
lot definitely. But that's okay. Actually, I remember when Whispering
(08:21):
Angel for Us came out, like I think that we
depleted the entire Eastern Long Island supply by ourselves. Um.
Now we're drinking um just because obviously I'm obsessed with Italy.
So I found this delicious Italian rose. We drink a
lot of that. We drink a lot of spritzes Compari
spritz is Apparel spritzes, and and then we cook a
(08:45):
lot of food. And I cook it's always family style,
Like what do you look forward to when when I'm
cooking summer food? Or do what about? What what do
you look forward to like when you're cooking summer food
I usually let you cook summer food so and fall food.
I feel like I mentioned this a lot, but I'm
just obsessed with your shrimp pasta. That is a dish
(09:05):
that is inspired from your trips to Italy as well. Yeah,
that's the shrimp pasta. I don't know, it has become
a crowd favorite. It's addicting, you know what it is.
First of all, it's this I forget what the noodles
called because it's got a weird name, but it's if
you took lasagna noodles and cut them in half and
(09:25):
then gave them a crinkly edge. That's what they look like.
So they're kind of they're kind of broad and silky,
and they they also have like texture because they have
a kind of crimply edge and that holds onto the sauce.
The other thing that's really important about that sauces that
I make shrimp stock, and the shrimp stock reduced gives
that pasta tons of flavor. So it's not just shrimp
(09:47):
running through the pasta, it's the shrimp stock that's bathing
in the noodles. Yeah, and then the saffron and it
as well, which is a very perfumey flavor, great favrance.
A little bit goes a long way. You don't want
a lot of it. Saffron is amazing. And then I'll
just tell you that I finish you with butter. There's
some anchovies, and then it's also um tomatoes, garlic and
(10:11):
yes and tomatoes. It's so good. That is by far
one of my favorite things that you make in fresh basil. Yeah,
but also I like cooking things on on on wood.
I make pizzas a bunch in the summer. Yeah, you
have like a lot of fun tools out there. I mean,
I have a pizza oven. I've had the same pizza.
I've had a woodstone pizza oven for twelve years now.
(10:32):
It's an amazing It's way too big. This oven is
bigger than the ovens that I had it, you know
in my restaurants. I mean, it's it's it's it's insane, right.
I can't cook. I can't bake enough pizzas for it
to even validate why I have such a big oven.
I mean another another one of my my favorite things
about you your summer cooking is I feel like you
(10:55):
end up trying a lot of different new recipes and
we all just get to be taste testers, and you know,
whether it's something that is you're testing something out for
like a restaurant or um. You know, just interested in
like what this is going to taste like, or it's
something that you've been like craving but you haven't made yet.
I feel like that's one of my favorite parts too,
is like just being a taste tester. I mean I
(11:17):
have I have like a handful of things that I
do more than once, but for the most part, a
lot of stuff I just do once. You know, like
I'll make a porquetta on the rotisserie. I don't know
if you were around for that. Last year, I made
porquetta with with salsa veride. I did like barbecued chicken
with like like the Korean red pepper paste, the cote
(11:37):
Young so good. What's been your favorite your favorite lunch
that you've made My favorite, Sophie. There's so many lunches, Okay,
I will give me one or two that have been
like standouts for you. I don't know. Last summer, I
made a lot of zucchini pasta because I was practicing
for a malfie. I made a lot of zucchini pasta.
I made a lot of whole fish on the grill
in the oven. That was totally fun. Um. Yeah, I
(12:01):
mean I've been making a lot of passes the last
few years and a lot of fish. But also now
I had this rotisserie and I've been doing like these
rotisserie chickens that are just spectacular. I mean they just
get this like I love chicken. They're so juicy, and
they get this crispy skin and I put a bunch
of spices on them, and the spice has become like
this really great crust on the outside of the chicken.
(12:22):
It's so good. Tissrie chicken the best, And I like,
I can I can literally stand at the grill and
watch the things spin because you see it. You literally
watch the change before your eyes every spin. It looks
a little different. When people come over for lunch, did
they ever offer to help? Not really, I mean they
(12:43):
do offer to help, but basically, like if somebody says
to me, what can I do? And I say, would
you like to peel some shrimp, They're like, ship, here's
thirty pounds of shrimp. Had at it right right? So
I don't I don't want people who have to do that.
I always love that people are violent tire to be helpful.
But I think that for the most part, I'm cooking,
(13:03):
so like, don't worry about it. Okay, the swordfish is sizzling.
It really is sizzling. And again, like you know, we're
just enhancing it with the chilies and the orange and
the spices. We you know, we still wanted to taste
like the fish itself. Sword of fish is one of
those things that you want to cook just about through.
I don't like medium rest word fish. It's not sooner.
(13:24):
I love swordfish. Yeah, I love sard fish, really good stuff.
These tortillas smells so good. I love these corn tortillas.
And a good way to kind of hold the coid
tias is once once you steam them on top, I'm
actually like reheating them on top of a grittle or
kamal as they call it, and then you can stack
(13:45):
them and as they stay warm and they just cover
them with a towel and they stay pliable. That's the key.
I also cook breakfast. I cook a lot less dinners
than I cook anything else. You cook a lot of breakfast. Yeah,
So for breakfast, I cook like a lot of biscuits.
I do a lot of my black pepper biscuits all
the time and always a crowd pleaser, biscuits out of
(14:10):
the oven in the morning after everybody's hungover. I know.
I have like friends that will stay there and they're
like siblings, come pick them up in the morning, and
then they'll be We'll be like, do you want breakfast
now that you're here, and they're like, yeah, sure. Nobody
leaves my house. Nobody leaves my house. People are walking
in to pick up their brothers, sister and it's you know,
they're like, oh, I get a free breakfast out of this. Great. Yeah,
I don't want anybody to leave hungry. I mean, it's
(14:30):
I think it's I think it's it's it's part of
what I do, you know, it's and and and that's
and that's the thing that I hope that you pick
up on as my daughter, which is like being inclusive
to the people that you care about. Like everybody in
my house, of course, has a connection to me in
some way that's significant, and it could be even if
they could just be an acquaintance, but it's something that
(14:51):
we want to spend time together, you know, whoever that is.
And so I invite people to my home to show
them my love and appreciation to cooking. That's that's how
I so I do it. Oh I. The other thing
that I like doing is like and we do this
like on the fourth of July or Labor Day weekend,
like real classic summer holidays. Like we'll make barbecue. Oh yeah,
(15:14):
so I have a big green egg which you make ribs.
I make ribs and pulled pork so good. Sometimes I
do smoked chickens. And then I'll do like like the
classic fixings. Will make you know, cast iron corn bread
with orange honey butter. We'll make, um, you know, an
amazing coast law potato salad with like whole grain mustard
(15:37):
and green onions. Um. You know, homemade barbecue sauce of
some of some sort. Yeah, you make a really good
homemade barbecue sauce. You look like you're getting hungry. Sounds delicious.
And then you know, we have to make cocktails, you know.
So it could be a bourbon cocktail for barbecue. Um,
or we can just open open some rose. I mean
(15:58):
that's the easiest thing. It's like, that's the great thing
about like drinking rose in the summer. You pop the cork,
you know, and it's and like you're good to go,
and it goes down really easily. And the thing I
love about my house is that our lunch is usually
last about two and a half three hours. You know,
over time, we're sitting around under the progola. There's twenty
(16:19):
people sitting around, We're eating, we're drinking, we're telling stories.
Some people think they're funny than others. We all laugh along.
It's just yeah, it's like, you know, and begin into
really great conversations. It's where I think that, like real
important conversations should take place around the table with lots
of food and lots of drink on it. I think
(16:40):
it's really important. I know in a lot of times,
that's like the first time you're seeing me and my
friends that day and you guys are all looking at you,
and your friends are all looking at us. So would
you guys do last night because you guys go out
after we go to sleep? Yeah, I mean I can't
keep my eyes open past nine thirty out there. Yeah,
because you start drinking rose at ten am. I don't.
I don't even know what you're talking. That happens. What
(17:01):
happens is Laurence says, you want to drink, and I'm like,
wait a second, it's not even eleven o'clock, you know,
but like, you're not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere.
Nobody's driving. That's the rule. Once we start drinking, the
gate is shut. You're closed in. And so I go
shopping really early in the morning. Yeah. So then I
make a lot of eggs. Also, yeah, you do. I
(17:23):
make scrambled eggs, waves, sharrows. Sometimes I make like a
post egg dish, one of one of the one one
of us really likes the eggs, Benedict, that would be you.
I actually like it too. You don't really make eggs
Benedict though, And what are you talking to? Summer? Sometimes
I do. I make waffles. You make good, Benedict. You
(17:45):
do make a lot of waffles. Oh my gosh. This
you're like cinnamon sugar waffles. That's a staple. That's a
summer staple. Yeah, and I make it with toasted corn meal,
so that's a little bit crunchy. They're so good. You
like them, Oh my gosh. Yeah, Oh my god, I
would die for those right now, I know. And I
always get that thick cut bacon as well. Really key, wow.
(18:08):
I can't wait. We Also I also make burgers sometimes too.
You make burgers a lot one of the things about
what listen because everyone like I don't make them a lot.
I make them about every two weeks. I do like
a burger bar, just like the fish taco bar. Like
I'll cook the burgers, I'll put cheese on the burgers,
melt the cheese, and then I'll put out like avocados,
catch up, different kinds of sauces, different kinds of condiments,
(18:31):
pickled onions, pickles of different lettuces, tomatoes, barbecue sauce, mustards,
chipotle catch up, potato chips to crunch of fire burger.
(18:57):
You know, classically, I guess the most amos fish tacos
are in like San Diego or Baja and fish taco
like a lot of times, like bill be fried, which
is the more classic. You know, San Diego or Baja Ta.
You know, it's usually a beer batter or some sort
mah mah he is is one of the most classical ones.
(19:19):
Or red snapper or something like that. And now, of course,
because people want to be healthier, there's a lot of
grilled fish tacos, ye grilled shrimp tacos, which is besh tacos,
which is what I make most of it. Like when
I'm cooking at home, I usually either cook them on
top of a cast ride pan or outside of them grill. Yeah,
they're so good. But I have to say, like when
I go to a restaurant and they say, and I
(19:42):
ordered the fish tacos, and they say, do you want
to fried or grill? I always order them fride. Yeah,
of course, I mean we need to bed. We all
want crispy. But is what it is? All right, I'm
flipping it over. Look at that crust that looks a
little burnt. No, it's not, thanks Sophie, that's actually you
(20:05):
know what that's from. What do you think that's what?
Do you think those crispy edges are from? Oranges? Yep,
it's from the orange juice and the red chilies creating
a crust. So the you know, the orange juices, it's
caramelizing from the natural sugar. Is there a calf iron? Yeah?
It's so clean butt see, But that's that's gonna be delicious. Yeah,
that look crispy. That's what you want for sure. And
(20:27):
then I usually make my own hot sauces too. I'll
make like a magnet. I have a narrow hot hot sauce.
I make a green hot sauce with with either poblanos
or palapenos or a combination of both of them. Um,
you know, lots of vinegar, some kind of sometimes they
have like honey in them, or some ripe fruits, something
(20:47):
on those lines. Some cilantro. The cabbage flaws are really
good thing to make as well. Yeah, I love when
you make your own salsas. Like a ton of tea
of salsa looks so good. Yeah's as it smells smoky,
it's pretty good. Right. So what are you looking forward
to making this summer? But by the beginning of the summer,
I can't wait for the following things. Slice tomatoes, olive
(21:08):
oil and fresh mozzarella and basil. Then I make a
lot of corn. I make like street like Mexican street
corn with the cotiha cheese, lime and mayonnaise, little chilies
in it. What else? I make fresh corn to molly
sometimes in the summer as well. You know, sometimes we
just make like steam lobster and steam corn with like
butter delicious. Nothing wrong with that. There's there's nothing wrong
(21:30):
with it. Have you ever gone climbing not for a
long time. We should do that there this summer. You
want to go climbing. Yeah, it's so fun. You've done it,
yeah on Rhode Island. Just do it like every summer.
What's the technique? I mean a lot of people use rakes, right,
and you want to go with someone who actually knows
where the beds are. But you can also like if
it's shallow enough, you can just like use your toes.
(21:52):
I can feel out the shells and then just reach
down and grab them. It's so fun and then it's
like so rewarding because you just go home and you
steam a bunch of clamps. That sounds really good. Yeah,
we should do that. I do make fresh fretucchini with clam,
like a clam posta like a white clam sauce, which
is so good. Lots of garlic, lots of butter, you know,
(22:12):
white wine. I do that sometimes, and like I make
a lot of muscles also, big pot of muscles. It
kind of like, especially if there's a lot of people there,
you just get a bunch of muscles, You put them
in a pot, throw some white wine over them, some garlics,
some shallots and some butter and boom. Before you know it.
Fifteen minutes later, people are like they have their faces.
(22:32):
They have their faces and the muscle broth. Yeah, exactly,
and it distracts everybody, so you can cook the rest
of the dinner. You know. I make a lot of
steaks as well, cash Iron. Oh yeah, I do a
lot of like Porterhouse steaks out there where I crushed
the steak and then I slice it and then put
the butter on top. It's like, it's my it's the
technique that I've come to to use a lot on steak.
I'm excited for you to make pizzas too. What's your
(22:54):
favorite pizza? The lobster pizza really, which I really feel
like you only made once, but like it was noteworthy
made it. I've made it more than once. Um it's
lobster and toasted garlic, and I got I had that.
I had a pizza similar to that, like twenty years
ago in a restaurant in Boston. In Boston, what are
(23:17):
you talking about, a woman named Lydia Shire. I think
the restaurant was called Viga. Ladyshire was one of the
sort of first New American chefs in the age of
like you know, when Jonathan Waxman and wolf Gang and
Stephen Piles and Mark Miller and all these like chefs
started making lots of noises American chefs. I was the
next generation after them, but like they were the first,
(23:39):
and she was part of that. And she had a
bunch of restaurants in Boston. I remember eating that that
that pizza there. She's lovely woman and gret cook. Yeah, listen,
I get inspired by That's what's so great about my
profession is I get inspired every day. Like I could
be in a sandwich shop and be inspired. You know,
it doesn't matter. Food is my is my life, and
(24:00):
so like I'm always thinking about how I can take
something I'm influenced by and you know, either recreated or
do a version of it, or use a piece of
it to something that I want to do. That's that's
how we all learn. It's great. Are you going to
bring any dishes from Amalfi to uh to your house
this summer? Absolutely? Like what, Well, we're gonna eat a
(24:22):
lot of fish this summer. And you know, we're gonna
eat a lot of fish, and we're gonna eat a
lot of pasta. And let's face because you know, just
because the restaurant is open and people seem to like it.
Doesn't mean I'm going to rest on my laurels. We're
gonna keep this thing going. So like, I'm always constantly
thinking about, like what dishes I can introduce next, um
and so. But those need work, they need to be
(24:44):
worked on. So people in my house this summer are
going to be the guinea pigs. I have no problem
with that, as long as we got a glass of
rose rose country day. Al Right, So we brought the
swordfish over to the cutting board. We're gonna give you
a twig to you. Thank you? Is your sword fish?
Thank you? Do you want another piece? Was good because
(25:08):
it's really thick? Okay, yeah, make your own salsa. Okay,
I'm adding some lettuce, definitely, some salsaato sausa. I did
eat all the sausa. Sar a little red onion, green onion, Yeah,
green onion hot sauce. What are you adding? I'm gonna
(25:28):
do the exact same thing. Oh, great, little salsa hot sauce.
Is it good? That's really good? Dog? Is it? Talk
to me about it? Do you like the sword fish?
The swordfish is so good. Sometimes fish tacos are a
little too fishy, you know, to me, Wow, it's spicy
(25:52):
to me. Um. Sometimes like soft coin tacos are missing spicy? Yeah?
Oh sometimes what Sometimes like soft porn tacos are missing texture? Yeah,
I totally agree. It's like sometimes I like a crispy
shell taco, which is like you not allowed to not
(26:14):
supposed to admit that. Oh, I have no problem in
bed that. I'm just goodding, but that's good make a
good fish taco, so I think I had to make.
Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay.
Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungry is produced, edited,
(26:36):
and mixed by Jonathan hoss dress There. Always Hungry is
engineered by Sophie Flay. For more podcast in My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows,
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay and I'm here with my
daughter and co host Flag and I'm Always Hungry. Sophie
and I gathered around my stove to cook together. Well,
you cook, I asked the questions, and eat the food.
If there's any food left. You come to the table
together to share a meal, connect as a family, and
tell the stories that matter to us. All right, Sophie,
(00:26):
since we're in the middle of summer, let's talk about
what we're going to eat and drink. Love it. You
always make the best food during the summer. That those
are like my favorite food memories with you, and it
all comes with a glass of Roseys. Bore it up.
So I spent a lot of time in the summer entertaining.
It's what I look forward to all year long. Honestly,
I have a pergola that sits in my backyard which
(00:52):
reminds me I got inspired by when I went to
Sicily on a trip many years ago. We rented this
house and the house looked like it was out of
the Godfather. It was like this really a beautiful southern
Italy was Sicilian house who knows when it was built,
and it was actually owned by some countess I don't
(01:15):
even know what that means. And she was renting it
out and she was in Paris at the time. It
was like it was a very romantic story. Like but
I mean, I don't know who she is. But so
Michael Simon and I and a bunch of other people
rento the house and you rent the house for like
I think we read it for ten days. And the
house came with a house manager, a cook, and a housekeeper,
(01:40):
and Michael and I wanted wanted to cook all week,
so we we we said to the chef for the
we got there. She had put out this beautiful meal
was very very simple, like a capraise salad, a beautiful
pen a pasta, maybe some ravioli or something I can remember,
and like in a rugal salad. And we've been traveling
it which felt it felt like forever they lost our bags.
(02:01):
I mean, it was just like the classic Sicilian trip.
And you know, we were on three different planes, you
can imagine. So we were exhausted and we got there
and she made this beautiful meal and we said, congratulations,
you get you're getting fully paid for the for the
entire time you're here, but you're off. We're gonna cook.
We're going to relieve you of your duty. Yeah, you
don't need to hang. You can just getting a paid vacation.
(02:21):
So then it was in Marsala and we went to
the market and we bought like everything in the marketplace,
all these different you know, whole sword fish and creates
of tomatoes, quarts of salted capers. Anyway, long story, short
was that I'm trying to get back to my point,
which is that they had this beautiful outdoor progola that
(02:41):
so you would sit under this progola, you know, it
would protect you from the sun. You would sit outside
and you sort of dine al fresco, as they say.
And as soon as I got back to the United States,
I like, I was like, I have to have this.
So I asked this guy who was a really good
craftsman to build it for me in my back yard.
And I use it so much. It's where we have
(03:03):
like our lunches that I had to call him lunch
at my house every Saturday in the summer. I shouldn't
say every Saturday. Most Saturdays in the summer I make
lunch for a bunch of people. It's never less than
like eight, and it's usually somewhere in between twenty and
thirty people. And I invite lots of different kinds of
(03:25):
people and a lot of people that don't know each other,
and I try to try to put together really interesting
groups of people. I remember one actually, one of the
ones that I remember mostly was you were there and
we had actually a handful of just happen to have
a handful of amazing journalists, you know, as you and
our friend Carolyn Mono and who else was there? Vanessa
(03:48):
your Covic and Katie Kirk, you know, some big names.
Who was you know the headliner? Katie you know, was
so nice to come. And my dad was there. My
dad was in the middle of the whole thing. Bill
Flay was like holding court with people. Yeah, and like
and and you were you were in brought you were
(04:09):
in journalist school. You were in broadcast journalism school at
USC at the time, and like to listen to all
of you guys talk about, you know, journalism, where it
is today, where it's going tomorrow. It was mesmerizing. But
you know, we share meals like that in my house.
They're not always that sort of specific, but there's always
really fun and interesting people there, and a lot of
(04:31):
a lot of them don't know each other. And and
that's one of the things I like to do, which
is bringing a lot of people together to the dinner table,
because people don't do that anymore. But we don't really
make dinner. We make lunch. And the lunches are long,
and they're always at one thirty. And the reason why
they're at won thirty is because twelve o'clock is too early.
One o'clock seems about right. But I always want that
(04:53):
extra half an hour because it's something that I'm not
done with and I want to be finished. I want,
I want my I want for the most part, I
want almost everything ready to go when people start walking in. Yeah,
because you want to be able to enjoy it. Two.
I want to be able to enjoy it two. And
I want to be a host as well. I don't
want to just be like, you know, the cook left
in the kitchen. I want to be part of what's
what's happening there. I want to be able to make
(05:14):
sure that my guests are having a good time. I mean,
they have to have cocktails. It's a big undertaking, but
it's so great. All right, we are making some fish tacos.
We're making fish tacos, and I'm gonna make some swordfish tacos.
Is that cool? Okay? So so fish tacos. You know,
we're talking about summer, summer eating and drinking, because one
(05:34):
goes hand in hand. And so I make fish tacos
a lot. Now, Usually what I do is I usually
got I usually buy a two or three different kinds
of fish in the store, depending on what's fresh. So
I usually buy some shrimplet to make shrimp tacos, and
then I usually make a couple of other fish. Today
I have some swordfish, and and I don't marinate fish
(06:00):
for instance, like very long. Usually it's like a quick
marinade or an automatic marinade, what I call. So this
has got some red chilies on, it's got some garlic powder,
it has human and coriander, some red chilies, and some
orange juice. It looks really pretty, yeah, some orange juice.
And this is a swordfish steak. Uh, But they get
a little bit hotter. And so basically what I do
(06:22):
is I cook the fish basically right before I'm about
to serve, and then I have like lots of accoutremants, like, um,
I have lettuce, but usually I make some sort of
cabbage flaw, and then I have I have some kind
of did you eat all the sausa? A lot of
salsa sulfie doing a podcast, So I have some sauce
here and then either usually some sort of red sauces,
(06:46):
some green salta then some like green onions, some pickled onions.
Usually then I have like an array of hot sauces.
I have your favorite hot sauce, and then um, you
know some quarant to a tea is about more than
half the times I usually make the quarn to a
tea out of massa arena. Um. These these are really
good quality tortillas that I got from the from the
farmer's market in Hollywood. There's a Mexican family there that
(07:10):
is that has great salsas, great tortillas, great tortilla chips,
like all kinds of like great like fire roast and
tomato salsas. They have like a tomatillo SAUCEA that's great.
They have like an avocado salsa, some guacamole. I mean,
they're they have really really good quality. It's almost like
hard to make your own because it's so good. So
(07:30):
these are their tortillas. Smell on I mean it really
smells like corn. So I'm just heating't look on a
flat top. So here's the kind of things that we make.
(07:58):
First of all, my house is nicknamed Rose Country Day Camp,
so you know that we drink a lot of rose.
I mean like a lot. There's been some records set. Yeah,
there's been some track records set at my house. In
terms of empty rose bottles, there are in the parking
lot definitely. But that's okay. Actually, I remember when Whispering
(08:21):
Angel for Us came out, like I think that we
depleted the entire Eastern Long Island supply by ourselves. Um.
Now we're drinking um just because obviously I'm obsessed with Italy.
So I found this delicious Italian rose. We drink a
lot of that. We drink a lot of spritzes Compari
spritz is Apparel spritzes, and and then we cook a
(08:45):
lot of food. And I cook it's always family style,
Like what do you look forward to when when I'm
cooking summer food? Or do what about? What what do
you look forward to like when you're cooking summer food
I usually let you cook summer food so and fall food.
I feel like I mentioned this a lot, but I'm
just obsessed with your shrimp pasta. That is a dish
(09:05):
that is inspired from your trips to Italy as well. Yeah,
that's the shrimp pasta. I don't know, it has become
a crowd favorite. It's addicting, you know what it is.
First of all, it's this I forget what the noodles
called because it's got a weird name, but it's if
you took lasagna noodles and cut them in half and
(09:25):
then gave them a crinkly edge. That's what they look like.
So they're kind of they're kind of broad and silky,
and they they also have like texture because they have
a kind of crimply edge and that holds onto the sauce.
The other thing that's really important about that sauces that
I make shrimp stock, and the shrimp stock reduced gives
that pasta tons of flavor. So it's not just shrimp
(09:47):
running through the pasta, it's the shrimp stock that's bathing
in the noodles. Yeah, and then the saffron and it
as well, which is a very perfumey flavor, great favrance.
A little bit goes a long way. You don't want
a lot of it. Saffron is amazing. And then I'll
just tell you that I finish you with butter. There's
some anchovies, and then it's also um tomatoes, garlic and
(10:11):
yes and tomatoes. It's so good. That is by far
one of my favorite things that you make in fresh basil. Yeah,
but also I like cooking things on on on wood.
I make pizzas a bunch in the summer. Yeah, you
have like a lot of fun tools out there. I mean,
I have a pizza oven. I've had the same pizza.
I've had a woodstone pizza oven for twelve years now.
(10:32):
It's an amazing It's way too big. This oven is
bigger than the ovens that I had it, you know
in my restaurants. I mean, it's it's it's it's insane, right.
I can't cook. I can't bake enough pizzas for it
to even validate why I have such a big oven.
I mean another another one of my my favorite things
about you your summer cooking is I feel like you
(10:55):
end up trying a lot of different new recipes and
we all just get to be taste testers, and you know,
whether it's something that is you're testing something out for
like a restaurant or um. You know, just interested in
like what this is going to taste like, or it's
something that you've been like craving but you haven't made yet.
I feel like that's one of my favorite parts too,
is like just being a taste tester. I mean I
(11:17):
have I have like a handful of things that I
do more than once, but for the most part, a
lot of stuff I just do once. You know, like
I'll make a porquetta on the rotisserie. I don't know
if you were around for that. Last year, I made
porquetta with with salsa veride. I did like barbecued chicken
with like like the Korean red pepper paste, the cote
(11:37):
Young so good. What's been your favorite your favorite lunch
that you've made My favorite, Sophie. There's so many lunches, Okay,
I will give me one or two that have been
like standouts for you. I don't know. Last summer, I
made a lot of zucchini pasta because I was practicing
for a malfie. I made a lot of zucchini pasta.
I made a lot of whole fish on the grill
in the oven. That was totally fun. Um. Yeah, I
(12:01):
mean I've been making a lot of passes the last
few years and a lot of fish. But also now
I had this rotisserie and I've been doing like these
rotisserie chickens that are just spectacular. I mean they just
get this like I love chicken. They're so juicy, and
they get this crispy skin and I put a bunch
of spices on them, and the spice has become like
this really great crust on the outside of the chicken.
(12:22):
It's so good. Tissrie chicken the best, And I like,
I can I can literally stand at the grill and
watch the things spin because you see it. You literally
watch the change before your eyes every spin. It looks
a little different. When people come over for lunch, did
they ever offer to help? Not really, I mean they
(12:43):
do offer to help, but basically, like if somebody says
to me, what can I do? And I say, would
you like to peel some shrimp, They're like, ship, here's
thirty pounds of shrimp. Had at it right right? So
I don't I don't want people who have to do that.
I always love that people are violent tire to be helpful.
But I think that for the most part, I'm cooking,
(13:03):
so like, don't worry about it. Okay, the swordfish is sizzling.
It really is sizzling. And again, like you know, we're
just enhancing it with the chilies and the orange and
the spices. We you know, we still wanted to taste
like the fish itself. Sword of fish is one of
those things that you want to cook just about through.
I don't like medium rest word fish. It's not sooner.
(13:24):
I love swordfish. Yeah, I love sard fish, really good stuff.
These tortillas smells so good. I love these corn tortillas.
And a good way to kind of hold the coid
tias is once once you steam them on top, I'm
actually like reheating them on top of a grittle or
kamal as they call it, and then you can stack
(13:45):
them and as they stay warm and they just cover
them with a towel and they stay pliable. That's the key.
I also cook breakfast. I cook a lot less dinners
than I cook anything else. You cook a lot of breakfast. Yeah,
So for breakfast, I cook like a lot of biscuits.
I do a lot of my black pepper biscuits all
the time and always a crowd pleaser, biscuits out of
(14:10):
the oven in the morning after everybody's hungover. I know.
I have like friends that will stay there and they're
like siblings, come pick them up in the morning, and
then they'll be We'll be like, do you want breakfast
now that you're here, and they're like, yeah, sure. Nobody
leaves my house. Nobody leaves my house. People are walking
in to pick up their brothers, sister and it's you know,
they're like, oh, I get a free breakfast out of this. Great. Yeah,
I don't want anybody to leave hungry. I mean, it's
(14:30):
I think it's I think it's it's it's part of
what I do, you know, it's and and and that's
and that's the thing that I hope that you pick
up on as my daughter, which is like being inclusive
to the people that you care about. Like everybody in
my house, of course, has a connection to me in
some way that's significant, and it could be even if
they could just be an acquaintance, but it's something that
(14:51):
we want to spend time together, you know, whoever that is.
And so I invite people to my home to show
them my love and appreciation to cooking. That's that's how
I so I do it. Oh I. The other thing
that I like doing is like and we do this
like on the fourth of July or Labor Day weekend,
like real classic summer holidays. Like we'll make barbecue. Oh yeah,
(15:14):
so I have a big green egg which you make ribs.
I make ribs and pulled pork so good. Sometimes I
do smoked chickens. And then I'll do like like the
classic fixings. Will make you know, cast iron corn bread
with orange honey butter. We'll make, um, you know, an
amazing coast law potato salad with like whole grain mustard
(15:37):
and green onions. Um. You know, homemade barbecue sauce of
some of some sort. Yeah, you make a really good
homemade barbecue sauce. You look like you're getting hungry. Sounds delicious.
And then you know, we have to make cocktails, you know.
So it could be a bourbon cocktail for barbecue. Um,
or we can just open open some rose. I mean
(15:58):
that's the easiest thing. It's like, that's the great thing
about like drinking rose in the summer. You pop the cork,
you know, and it's and like you're good to go,
and it goes down really easily. And the thing I
love about my house is that our lunch is usually
last about two and a half three hours. You know,
over time, we're sitting around under the progola. There's twenty
(16:19):
people sitting around, We're eating, we're drinking, we're telling stories.
Some people think they're funny than others. We all laugh along.
It's just yeah, it's like, you know, and begin into
really great conversations. It's where I think that, like real
important conversations should take place around the table with lots
of food and lots of drink on it. I think
(16:40):
it's really important. I know in a lot of times,
that's like the first time you're seeing me and my
friends that day and you guys are all looking at you,
and your friends are all looking at us. So would
you guys do last night because you guys go out
after we go to sleep? Yeah, I mean I can't
keep my eyes open past nine thirty out there. Yeah,
because you start drinking rose at ten am. I don't.
I don't even know what you're talking. That happens. What
(17:01):
happens is Laurence says, you want to drink, and I'm like,
wait a second, it's not even eleven o'clock, you know,
but like, you're not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere.
Nobody's driving. That's the rule. Once we start drinking, the
gate is shut. You're closed in. And so I go
shopping really early in the morning. Yeah. So then I
make a lot of eggs. Also, yeah, you do. I
(17:23):
make scrambled eggs, waves, sharrows. Sometimes I make like a
post egg dish, one of one of the one one
of us really likes the eggs, Benedict, that would be you.
I actually like it too. You don't really make eggs
Benedict though, And what are you talking to? Summer? Sometimes
I do. I make waffles. You make good, Benedict. You
(17:45):
do make a lot of waffles. Oh my gosh. This
you're like cinnamon sugar waffles. That's a staple. That's a
summer staple. Yeah, and I make it with toasted corn meal,
so that's a little bit crunchy. They're so good. You
like them, Oh my gosh. Yeah, Oh my god, I
would die for those right now, I know. And I
always get that thick cut bacon as well. Really key, wow.
(18:08):
I can't wait. We Also I also make burgers sometimes too.
You make burgers a lot one of the things about
what listen because everyone like I don't make them a lot.
I make them about every two weeks. I do like
a burger bar, just like the fish taco bar. Like
I'll cook the burgers, I'll put cheese on the burgers,
melt the cheese, and then I'll put out like avocados,
catch up, different kinds of sauces, different kinds of condiments,
(18:31):
pickled onions, pickles of different lettuces, tomatoes, barbecue sauce, mustards,
chipotle catch up, potato chips to crunch of fire burger.
(18:57):
You know, classically, I guess the most amos fish tacos
are in like San Diego or Baja and fish taco
like a lot of times, like bill be fried, which
is the more classic. You know, San Diego or Baja Ta.
You know, it's usually a beer batter or some sort
mah mah he is is one of the most classical ones.
(19:19):
Or red snapper or something like that. And now, of course,
because people want to be healthier, there's a lot of
grilled fish tacos, ye grilled shrimp tacos, which is besh tacos,
which is what I make most of it. Like when
I'm cooking at home, I usually either cook them on
top of a cast ride pan or outside of them grill. Yeah,
they're so good. But I have to say, like when
I go to a restaurant and they say, and I
(19:42):
ordered the fish tacos, and they say, do you want
to fried or grill? I always order them fride. Yeah,
of course, I mean we need to bed. We all
want crispy. But is what it is? All right, I'm
flipping it over. Look at that crust that looks a
little burnt. No, it's not, thanks Sophie, that's actually you
(20:05):
know what that's from. What do you think that's what?
Do you think those crispy edges are from? Oranges? Yep,
it's from the orange juice and the red chilies creating
a crust. So the you know, the orange juices, it's
caramelizing from the natural sugar. Is there a calf iron? Yeah?
It's so clean butt see, But that's that's gonna be delicious. Yeah,
that look crispy. That's what you want for sure. And
(20:27):
then I usually make my own hot sauces too. I'll
make like a magnet. I have a narrow hot hot sauce.
I make a green hot sauce with with either poblanos
or palapenos or a combination of both of them. Um,
you know, lots of vinegar, some kind of sometimes they
have like honey in them, or some ripe fruits, something
(20:47):
on those lines. Some cilantro. The cabbage flaws are really
good thing to make as well. Yeah, I love when
you make your own salsas. Like a ton of tea
of salsa looks so good. Yeah's as it smells smoky,
it's pretty good. Right. So what are you looking forward
to making this summer? But by the beginning of the summer,
I can't wait for the following things. Slice tomatoes, olive
(21:08):
oil and fresh mozzarella and basil. Then I make a
lot of corn. I make like street like Mexican street
corn with the cotiha cheese, lime and mayonnaise, little chilies
in it. What else? I make fresh corn to molly
sometimes in the summer as well. You know, sometimes we
just make like steam lobster and steam corn with like
butter delicious. Nothing wrong with that. There's there's nothing wrong
(21:30):
with it. Have you ever gone climbing not for a
long time. We should do that there this summer. You
want to go climbing. Yeah, it's so fun. You've done it,
yeah on Rhode Island. Just do it like every summer.
What's the technique? I mean a lot of people use rakes, right,
and you want to go with someone who actually knows
where the beds are. But you can also like if
it's shallow enough, you can just like use your toes.
(21:52):
I can feel out the shells and then just reach
down and grab them. It's so fun and then it's
like so rewarding because you just go home and you
steam a bunch of clamps. That sounds really good. Yeah,
we should do that. I do make fresh fretucchini with clam,
like a clam posta like a white clam sauce, which
is so good. Lots of garlic, lots of butter, you know,
(22:12):
white wine. I do that sometimes, and like I make
a lot of muscles also, big pot of muscles. It
kind of like, especially if there's a lot of people there,
you just get a bunch of muscles, You put them
in a pot, throw some white wine over them, some garlics,
some shallots and some butter and boom. Before you know it.
Fifteen minutes later, people are like they have their faces.
(22:32):
They have their faces and the muscle broth. Yeah, exactly,
and it distracts everybody, so you can cook the rest
of the dinner. You know. I make a lot of
steaks as well, cash Iron. Oh yeah, I do a
lot of like Porterhouse steaks out there where I crushed
the steak and then I slice it and then put
the butter on top. It's like, it's my it's the
technique that I've come to to use a lot on steak.
I'm excited for you to make pizzas too. What's your
(22:54):
favorite pizza? The lobster pizza really, which I really feel
like you only made once, but like it was noteworthy
made it. I've made it more than once. Um it's
lobster and toasted garlic, and I got I had that.
I had a pizza similar to that, like twenty years
ago in a restaurant in Boston. In Boston, what are
(23:17):
you talking about, a woman named Lydia Shire. I think
the restaurant was called Viga. Ladyshire was one of the
sort of first New American chefs in the age of
like you know, when Jonathan Waxman and wolf Gang and
Stephen Piles and Mark Miller and all these like chefs
started making lots of noises American chefs. I was the
next generation after them, but like they were the first,
(23:39):
and she was part of that. And she had a
bunch of restaurants in Boston. I remember eating that that
that pizza there. She's lovely woman and gret cook. Yeah, listen,
I get inspired by That's what's so great about my
profession is I get inspired every day. Like I could
be in a sandwich shop and be inspired. You know,
it doesn't matter. Food is my is my life, and
(24:00):
so like I'm always thinking about how I can take
something I'm influenced by and you know, either recreated or
do a version of it, or use a piece of
it to something that I want to do. That's that's
how we all learn. It's great. Are you going to
bring any dishes from Amalfi to uh to your house
this summer? Absolutely? Like what, Well, we're gonna eat a
(24:22):
lot of fish this summer. And you know, we're gonna
eat a lot of fish, and we're gonna eat a
lot of pasta. And let's face because you know, just
because the restaurant is open and people seem to like it.
Doesn't mean I'm going to rest on my laurels. We're
gonna keep this thing going. So like, I'm always constantly
thinking about, like what dishes I can introduce next, um
and so. But those need work, they need to be
(24:44):
worked on. So people in my house this summer are
going to be the guinea pigs. I have no problem
with that, as long as we got a glass of
rose rose country day. Al Right, So we brought the
swordfish over to the cutting board. We're gonna give you
a twig to you. Thank you? Is your sword fish?
Thank you? Do you want another piece? Was good because
(25:08):
it's really thick? Okay, yeah, make your own salsa. Okay,
I'm adding some lettuce, definitely, some salsaato sausa. I did
eat all the sausa. Sar a little red onion, green onion, Yeah,
green onion hot sauce. What are you adding? I'm gonna
(25:28):
do the exact same thing. Oh, great, little salsa hot sauce.
Is it good? That's really good? Dog? Is it? Talk
to me about it? Do you like the sword fish?
The swordfish is so good. Sometimes fish tacos are a
little too fishy, you know, to me, Wow, it's spicy
(25:52):
to me. Um. Sometimes like soft coin tacos are missing spicy? Yeah?
Oh sometimes what Sometimes like soft porn tacos are missing texture? Yeah,
I totally agree. It's like sometimes I like a crispy
shell taco, which is like you not allowed to not
(26:14):
supposed to admit that. Oh, I have no problem in
bed that. I'm just goodding, but that's good make a
good fish taco, so I think I had to make.
Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay.
Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungry is produced, edited,
(26:36):
and mixed by Jonathan hoss dress There. Always Hungry is
engineered by Sophie Flay. For more podcast in My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows,
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