October 28, 2025 • 33 mins
Beef prices are surging, and the U.S. plans to spend $50B on Argentinian imports... what could go wrong? Chef Andrew and Lauren break down who really profits, the Del Taco shake-up, the viral Baja Blast Pie, and a deep dive on Thanksgiving turkey costs. Real talk, real food, and one sharp cooking tip to finish it off.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
And welcome back to another episode of American Gravy.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh yeah, the one and only show where we mix food, family,
and freedom in the same pot and somehow don't burn it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hey, but I'm Bump, and I'm Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Grohl and I'm Lauren Girl, and we are.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Excited to have you back. It's another exciting week, and
we've had a lot going on in the food world
and beyond since we last met. All of us in
this great audience.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I feel like they're here with us.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
They are with us. There's fifty two people right here
in the room right now, Lauren, myself, and forty nine
of my alternate personalities.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
This is true. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
We had a lot going on this weekend. We had
some kids' birthday parties. We had We.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Had so much going on. If you don't know, I
don't know why these they would know. But three of
our kids, three out of four of our kids pretty
much have the same birthday. Two of them have the
same birthday, and the little guy is born the day after.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Well you held that one in for a while.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I did, because I went into labor with him on
their birthday and I said, there's no way of having
three kids on the same day.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That is true. We turned all the lights off and
I just put Gregorian chants and it worked out. Well.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's very peaceful.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It was very peaceful. We also were on multiple planes.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh yeah, we've been all over. We've had a crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Out of the country. We were out of the country.
I landed at We landed as a family at like
three pm on Friday, and I turned around and took
a red eye out at seven pm, eight pm.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Anyway, God bless him because I don't know how he
did that, just to film for five minutes, film for.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Five minutes and then turn around and.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Come back home. And then we had another birthday party.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, those birthday parties are getting crazy. All right, Kid's
birthday party. King. Sorry, we digress.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Let's jump into these stories.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
All right. Well, everyone's talking about beef.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
What about it?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
What about beef? I've been talking about beef for years
and trying to explain to people how the beef supply
chain works. But it's come to a bit more public
light recently due to the administration's plan strategy. And when
I say administration, I mean you know it's the Trump administration. Specifically,
this is handled by Brooke rollins with the USDA and
(02:07):
other agencies in regards to beef prices. Right, So I
just want to lay the foundation here, set the table,
if you will. Beef prices have been going up significantly.
The reason beef prices are so high is because we
have our lowest herd size. Herd size is the number
of cattle that we have in the United States. For
point of reference, I want to say, you know, we
(02:30):
let's take like nineteen ninety we had I think one
hundred and fifty million cattle or herd that that would
be the herd size. Now we're down to like, I
don't know, seventy five eighty million, but it's dropped even more.
We have the lowest herd size since like twenty nineteen.
You know generally in that timeframe, why is the herd
size so low? Well, they're going to tell you it's
(02:52):
two things. It is the drought. There was a significant
drought which dries up all the land. And then the
cattle don't have an opportunity It feed naturally on the
grass and the hay and the grains, et cetera. And
at number two input costs. Right, so the cost of
feeding due to inflation due to coming out of the
Biden administration. The cost of soy, corn, wheat, et cetera.
(03:15):
That's an issue, and then all the other input costs
associated with gas. Right, so just generally the consumer price
indeed and everything that goes into it. But the problem
is is that there's also the hedging. There's looking ahead.
So cattle ranchers are going to say, well, we're looking
out three four years and we foresee costs are going
to continue to go up and we need the cash now.
(03:36):
It's going to be difficult to bring on loans capital investments,
so we might sell our cattle early. It's called culling
the cattle, right, sell them early so that you can
get more money now, or you at least kind of
bet or try and speculate as to what the future
costs are going to be versus current. So they sold
a lot of cattle a couple of years ago. It
takes two to three years. If I bring in a
new you know, the cow has a baby, it's going
(03:58):
to take two to three years for it to come
to mark its size. So it's not like something that
you can fix overnight. So that's kind of setting the
table obviously for the purposes of politics, everyone wants to
point towards the opposite party. You know, Republicans are going
to point to the Democrats and they're going to say, well,
it's because the cost of they pump so much money
into the economy and so much regulation and the cost
of everything has gone up. And then by way of
(04:19):
a lot of the climate change conversation, they were trying
to decrease cattle production because they were pinning a significant
amount of the issues related to hypothetical climate change on
the methane coming from the cows aka the farts, or
the effect that they have on the surrounding ecosystem. And
then of course the Democrats are going to point and say, look,
Trump's in office and the tariffs have created this major
(04:41):
issue there for the cost of everything has gone up,
primarily beef. Unfortunately, it's not that easy, and we can
get into that throughout this episode. But where it's brought
us to today is that one of the solutions that
was proposed last week was well, if we need to
increase supply right to bring and demand is there. We
(05:02):
just need to increase supply to bring prices down. We
have this partnership with Argentina malay right, very friendly with
the current administration. Why don't we put money into buying
Argentinian beef bringing it into the United States and that
can reduce some of the demand or reduce some of
the supply pressure and therefore bring prices down. And that
has created a lot of cause. That has caused a
(05:22):
lot of stirring controversy because people are saying, and by
the way, the number specifically is, let's invest fifty billion
dollars into Argentinian beef to bring in as imports. And
they've said, well, that money should go to US ranchers
and farmers.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Okay, So the only thing I got from that entire spiel,
which was brilliant, by the way, was that you said farts.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Actually I said methane.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You said farts.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Methane, which is the formal word. At home, we'll say,
like when the kids will have a little routu tou we,
I'll say, all right, who released their methane?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, So question for you, why would he invest the
fifty billion dollars into Argentina? Right, Like they're ranchers, why
not invest it here.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Because we don't have the herd? Right?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So is it because people are buying so much because beef,
like we talked about a few episodes ago, have become
so popular, it's because we literally just don't have enough.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
We just don't have enough. So it's the general supply,
we don't have enough. And the argument is that by
bringing in, by buying fifty billion dollars worth of Argentinian beef,
that then we're going to bring it into our supply chain. Now,
keep in mind, most of this is going to come
in as ground beef, right, so you're gonna take lean
cuts and you're gonna grind it up into US ground beef.
(06:36):
You're not really going to get primal cuts, tender loins,
you're not gonna get ribis, et cetera, the whole muscle cuts.
It's lean Argentinian beef that is going to be ground.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So then how is that bringing prices down?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, that's that's the argument. So I would postulate as
an economist that it's not because even fifty billion dollars
worth of beef, if you extrapolate that across the amount
of beef that that would supply, it's really only like
point zero five percent of the total beef that we
have in our market anyway. So it's a drop in
the bucket. The beef packers are the ones that are
(07:07):
pushing for this. Now, this is where the real problem lies.
We have four major beef packers that ownly eighty five
percent of the entire supply of beef in the United States.
So you're dealing with Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and International beef Packers.
Those are the four major players. We have consolidated and
centralized our beef markets. So they're the ones that are
(07:28):
setting the prices. They're the ones that benefit from this.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I was going to say, So they're excited because they're
getting all this new product to then package.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Right at the cost of the US taxpayer. I think
fifty billion dollars of taxpayer dollars is going to go.
And Argentina is excited as well, which okay, I get
that they are friendly nations, so we want to do
business with them. And he's also decreasing any hypothetical tariffs
that there would be on Argentinian beef, so he can
kind of flip that lever and they say that's supposed
to help with supply, and then there's going to be
a downward price pressure. Now my perspective, the visits follows.
(08:01):
I don't think we should be giving any money to Argentina,
not because I don't like them, but because I think
fifty billion dollars should go into increasing our herd size
and making it easier the beef for the ranchers to
be able to increase their supply of cows of cattle. Now,
that's not going to help prices immediately. However, I think
(08:22):
there's other levers and mechanisms that can be utilized through
the USDA subsidies, etc. Through the government to decrease the
pressure on prices beef prices in the short term. And
that's going to cost a little bit of money, but
I'd rather that money be spent on us than that
money be spent on Argentini and beef. But then the
bigger issue here is that we need to take away
the powers that the four big beef packers have and
(08:44):
we need to give that power back to the independent ranchers,
the more family run ranchers, farmers, increasing processing capacity, increasing
the ability to raise beef regeneratively through the United States,
That'll have a long term effect.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I agree with you on that.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah. So I mean what this really comes down to
and what's interesting is is that even if we do that,
it's not incumbent upon the packers really to set the price.
It's the retail price. So in theory, if you decrease
the price that the packers, if you decrease the price
the packers sell to the retailers, right, and that's called
the wholesale beef price. That doesn't mean that the retailers
(09:23):
are going to decrease the prices for the consumers. We've
seen that so often is that we've seen that the
when prices are decreased on a wholesale side, the processors
of the retailers still keep the price high because they're
used to that high price. So that's the beef issue,
and that's what everyone's been talking about. So when you
see people saying US ranchers should be able to benefit
(09:45):
from any policy right, any policy decision, be it economic
or even regulatory, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Because that's
the quote America First philosophy that there was a campaign on.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I was going to say that was his whole spiel.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah. So one of the things I think that's important
about this, and we go back to, is ground beef. Right,
Like ultimately you're getting actually more benefit from your ground
beef when you're eating it than you are from your
whole muscles anyway, because the ground beef beef actually has
a lot more connective tissue, has more of the animal
ground into it, which is where you're going to get
more of the vitamins to creating, et cetera. So what
(10:26):
this comes down to is, even with beef prices high, look,
continue to eat your ground beef right like, ground beef
is the way to go, and we'll continue to offer
a ton of recipes related to ground beef. So that's
just a little bit of an overview on what we've
been talking about, or rather a deep dive on some
of the Maine food headlines this week, beef specifically, but
there's also a lot of things happening in a restaurant
(10:46):
in a fast casual world. You know what, I know
what I saw recently as well, is.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It Jack in the Box sells Del Taco to yadav
for one hundred and fifteen million dollars hundred when they
just what was it? Less than four years ago? They
spent five hundred and seventy five million to acquire the chain.
Now they're selling it to a franchise e. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah? Exactly, so they are Del Taco is selling I
mean that's huge. Jack in the Box owns Del Taco
and they're selling it for five hundred and seventy five
million dollars, as you mentioned, to a franchise e. But
what's crazy about this is that it actually and I
got to look at these numbers. They they bought Del
Taco like four or five years ago for I want
to say, like five x that amount.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I was yeah, so clearly it wasn't like turning a profit.
Right if they're selling it for so.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Cheap, well, that's the thing, right. So that's why I
think this is a really interesting story, is that how
are they able five hundred and seventy five million dollars
seems like a ton of money for Del Taco.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
That's a lot of Well, first of all, we always
talk about where do people get this money from?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Well, it's private equity. From this one, I mean, there's
there's there's a lot of money. Let me let me
look up. Let me see how much they you talk
about how much you love Del Taco.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I want to find out how much they said before
anytime we fly anywhere and we fly back home. Our
first stop is Del Taco. I don't know what it
is about Del Taco. We love it being burritos. We
get some of the carbone tacos, right, Andrew, I.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Like the Del Carbone.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You're just a Del Taco family, and I know some
people don't like Del Taco. It would rather eat Taco Bell,
but we cannot do Taco Bell in this family for
some reason, gut issues.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So I am sorry. This is actually not the case.
Jack in the Box is selling the entire Del Taco chain.
I got my numbers wrong. For one hundred and fifteen
million dollars selling me. They originally bought it for five
hundred and seventy five million.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Oh they okay, Well, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I said five hundred and seventy five million. All of
Del Taco for one hundred and fifteen million. I'm sorry.
That is not a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's not a lot of money. No, I mean, like
Del Tacos are nationwide.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Correct, No, there's no Del Taco on the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh there's not. It's just West coast.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
No, it's West coast. But there's a significant number of
locations Delta Taco to me if I'm going to eat
fast food like I would eat at Deltaco, they still
shred their own cheese fresh in house, which that's a
big deal for me. It's not the best food ever, However,
what I want to say that is interesting about this
is you see a brand that's being sold for a
major discount, a major discount. And one thing we have
(13:18):
noticed at Del Taco recently is that their labor is.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Down so many mass like one guy working like the
drive through and cooking and the inside, taking inside orders
and more like holy moly.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, so Del Taco is primarily a California chain. And
what's so funny is that when I read the headlines
about this, no one's talking about They're like, Oh, it's
just you know, a shake up within their portfolio. No,
I'm telling you right now, it's because of AB twelve
twenty eight. It's because they increased the fast foods minimum
wage and it killed their business.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
It has to kill at this point, I didn't even
think about that, but yes, the last few times we've gone,
there's been one person working the entire store.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It's nuts, it's and it takes so long to get
the food as well, granted we're the only family that
can actually order seventy five dollars worth of Bell Taco.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well there are six of us.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Back to the methane issue, so that's interesting. I want
to know what everybody's favorite is when it comes to
these fast food chains, Like if you had to eat
at one fast food chain, what would it be? Hit
us up, Hit us up on ex at Chef Gruel
or at Loren Gruel and give us give us your best.
So another food story this week that I think that
we're going to continue to hear a lot about is
(14:26):
the government food ays freeze so Snap benefits.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, so I heard it's really the Democrats, right, Like
is it their fault?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Well, once again, I mean, you know, all of this
has so much nuance to it, and it's always like
the pointing of the finger. I love that meme where
it's like Spider Man pointing at Spider Man and they're like,
you're you're a nark, right, Because that's ultimately what it
comes down to. So I think that just generally speaking,
politicians are going to be responsible in this case. Yeah,
you could say that it's the Democrats because they're the
ones that are holding it up. In the Senate, you
need a sixty vote majority in order to pass a budget,
(14:57):
and it's what we have, like fifty three. So you've
got a seven vote deficit, and you know Schumer's holding
it up by saying, the only way we'll vote for
is if you make these concessions.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
This is what I read today. So Senate Democrats have
now voted twelve times to not fund the food stamp
program also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And it's funny because that was actually posted on the
USDA website.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, I know that's where which that's.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
A bold move. That's a pretty bold move. Well, the
reality is is that and I've talked about this, what
people are now taught. What I find so fascinating about
this is we talk, we realize things when they become issues.
So everyone's out there and they're like, wait a minute,
we spend all of this money, and when you dig
into the numbers, it's like one on every five people
is on food stamps, right, And people are having trouble
(15:48):
stomaching that number because they're like, and it might even
be even smaller. The issue here is that we have
ignored this for years and years and years. So we're
in the final hour and we're talking about this and saying, well,
just eliminate it, right, Like you've got one side saying eliminated,
and you've got another side saying you want to kill kids.
Like that's what it comes down to. It's always this
like hyperbolic reaction.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, I mean it is sad though I didn't realize
the numbers were that significant, like one in five and
you said maybe even lower.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yep. Well, and I'll go back to this because we are,
you know, as part of our kind of brand DNA,
and by us, I mean Lauren and I. It's about
feeding people and making sure that people don't go hungry.
And we're constantly giving away meals at the restaurant and
that's really why we wanted to build the restaurants, as
we kind of wanted this like community kitchens that we
can help out as needed. It's not just us. There's
food banks, there's churches, there's community organizations, there's individuals who
(16:41):
run these organizations. I always say that we don't need
the government necessarily to help each other out like that
starts in the community. And I've already seen the week
leading into this where we knew that, we know that
the food stamps are going to be cut on November first,
so many organizations that are pulling together to say, well,
don't worry, we're going to fill this gap. Here's how
(17:02):
we're going to do it. That's a testament to the
good of community, and I think that there should should
be more of that. So, for example, when I say
that maybe we overspend on this program, it's not because
I don't want people to be helped out. It's because
I think that we need to give people the fishing
pole and teach them how to fish. And I think
that a lot of the people within the community can
pull this together themselves and put the money in themselves
as well, us included. So it's not like I'm putting
(17:25):
it on the backs of other people. In the state
of California, it's a huge amount. It's even higher than
it is in many other states.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I guess for me, it's like these individuals, you know,
I know a lot of people have fallen. I mean,
I'll admit it. When I was like young, I was
struggling and I had to go on some like food assistants,
like I'm not going to lie. When I was like
in my late you know, teen years, early twenties. But
I eventually got out of that. I broke because I
wasn't embarrassed, but like, I didn't want to stay in
it forever.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So yeah, well needs to be temporary. The problem is
is that when it comes with every federal program, right,
there's really not that much oversight. It's like, okay, let's
get the money from the Feds, and then we bring
it into the you know, kind of your local congressional rep.
Gets the money, brings it into the local community, and
then it's disseminated through a state program or ultimately a
local program. And then when you distill all of that
money through so many big government filters or bureaucracies, number one,
(18:14):
you lose a lot along the way under the guys
who administrative costs. And then number two, there's not that
much oversight and control on it. Now each state has
different controls put in place. Like I heard in Texas,
you cannot manipulate the program. It's virtually impossible. As we
know in California, we're spread thin and in regards to
any a will or a desire to regulate the program.
So what I've read is that what people have been doing.
(18:35):
Is is that let's say you've got five kids, it's
incumbent upon the parent to spend the money on the food.
And a lot of the parents are not spending the
money on food.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Well now aren't they? Just aren't they just getting a
debit card?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, because when I had it, like it was it
was like almost vouchers, yeah right, and it was for
whatever the grocery was, like say a cart and a
milk or whatever. Right, So it wasn't like it was
just like a free willy nilly. I could buy whatever
I wanted at the store.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Now you get a debit card, and there's still limitations
on it, although they're pretty wide in variety.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Because I see a lot of even if you go,
you know, to like a liquor store or whatever, there's
like ebt cards accepted here. Like there's a lot of
signage on that, whereas before it was like you could
only go to the grocery store and get certain items.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yes, but that's where the scammers always come in. There's
always a scam. I mean, I was at the grocery
store the other day and some guy asked me if said, oh,
I've got you know, four hundred dollars with the groceries
on it from a voucher or an EBT card, Like,
I'll buy whatever you want, just give me the cash
for it. So like they're discounting it so that they
can get cash, and then they use the cash to
go buy drugs or do something tofarious with it. There's
so many different ways in what you get.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, in an I feel like people definitely will take advantage.
I mean, obviously some people really do need this assistance,
so it is sad that it's going away.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, but look at it this way, right, So you
want you need food, you can buy a bag of
rice for you know, bag of rice for a month
for fifty dollars and dry bean for thirty dollars. So
for eighty dollars you can feed yourself for an entire month.
You just got to sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, I mean I think I ate potato salad for
like a year.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That's disgusting. We'll talk about that another tone. So, and
I'm not trying to be flipping about it. I'm just saying,
is that we have this problem. It's come to ahead.
So now let's utilize this opportunity because it's a national
conversation to fix the program, make it more efficient. I
don't think anybody is against the program in general, or
people being fed. I think they're against the fact that
two dollars for every one dollar that goes to somebody,
(20:28):
two dollars is spent. It's the most inefficient program. It's
all government programs.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And too, it's like all this money is going to
people who don't necessarily need it. They're all just like
milking the system.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, there are a lot of people who don't need it.
You are correct. I mean I've heard stories. One of
the biggest stories here in California is that what people
do is they take the EBT program and then they'll
like go buy flowers at Trader Joe's, and then they
go stand in a freeway and they sell the flowers
for I.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Heard that too, and or like the they'll sell like
the fruit yeah on the side, you know, like the
cutup fruit. But they're using that how to using EBT
card to buy that fruit, and then they're selling it
for double the price.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Which in a way is a small business loan. But
then they don't pay taxes on that because it's cash
home rade, so it doesn't go back and help the
system so maybe we digress a little bit, but I
think we can open up on that in a subsequent episode.
But let's at least make this a little bit more fun. Well, actually,
here I go. I'm it's not gonna be too fun.
But we're getting into the Thanksgiving season and rumor has
(21:25):
it the turkey prices are going to be going up.
And the result of that is because still I know,
we talked about the AVI and flew with eggs, but
they were, you know, they were raising the turkeys around
that same time. So we have a lower supply of
turkeys this year. So they say prices are going to
go up.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, so prices are going to be about one dollar
and thirty two cents per pound, a forty percent increase
from twenty twenty four's average of zero point nine to
four cents a pound.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yes. Now, what I find interesting about that is that's
going to become a huge political talking point going into Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Wasn't this a thing?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah? With the nine five minutes, it's like, I forget,
but we always use the gauge, the index, like the
turkey or the Thanksgiving holiday price index. But what I
think is interesting is so I dug deeper on this story,
and I'm like, Okay, so turkey prices are going up
in regards to wholesale. However, how are the retail operations
(22:18):
going to respond to this? A lot of the major
retailers are now saying, well, we're going to use turkey
as a loss leader, which means we're going to sell
it at a loss in order to bring people into
the store and then make money on all the other
things that we're selling. So you have big brands like
ald and I think Walmart and some of these major
brands and retailers are doing these like twenty or thirty
(22:39):
dollars turkey deals where you get an entire turkey dinner
for four for like thirty dollars. So I think the
perception when you're looking at the marketing is not necessarily
going to be that the prices are higher, But the
reality on the retail side is that they might be
a little bit higher, although you're going to see those
costs kind of amortized across a wide variety of products.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Turkeys in have been impacted by the bird flu this year,
including over half a million this month alone.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Half a million, half half a million dead birds, half
a million turkeys you know why. But that's also the
government forcing people to kill their birds. Remember we talked
about that in the past with the eggs. They force
you to call the birds because they don't want there
to be a spread, and they actually pay to decrease supply,
which artificially increases prices when a lot of the birds
(23:27):
that they were killing were healthy birds. That's where you
get the conspiracy theorists that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Are like, that's sad they want us all to eat
artificial meat.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I don't necessarily know if they wanted you to eat
artificial meat. A lot of this is, you know, the
economy is going to be a driver of politics, and
people within the world of politics are always competing within
that world for headlines and clicks and surveys and you
name it. So so many times people do manipulate policy
in order to help on the political side.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
All right, well, we've just deppressed our audience at the
last few stories.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The fork, Yeah, what the fork?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
The fork?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
What are some of the craziest food stories from this week?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
All right, So Taco Bell is turning its Baja Blast
into a pie and it is finally going nationwide this November.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
That does absolutely nothing for me.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It does nothing for me either.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I want to blast pie.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean, the kids made me go to Taco Bell.
Like we just talked, we don't do a Taco Bell
in our family. We go Del Taco. But the kids
had me go to Taco Bell the other day because
they needed the Baja Blast. And it's just just like
blue drink.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Wait, are you joking me? I love how you're just
telling me this right now because you knew I would
lose my mind.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Okay, listen, So you bought.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
The kids a baja because they wanted to try it.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I felt bad.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
That's horrible.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Okay, So anyway, I hope they didn't like it. They
I don't think they did that much. They haven't asked
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Since I'm gonna need to sit down to talk with
the boys, I'm going to crack some icine pen and
say this is your brain on Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So listen. This dessert pairs a gram crust with Baja
Blast flavored custard and whipped cream, and whole pies will
run for nineteen ninety nine and can serve up to
eight people.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I'm all for indulgence and every now and then like
breaking the rules and just indulging. But like, that's just
why would you want to waste your kind of indulgence
ticket or your free pass on something like a Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
It looks really gross too. It's available on November six.
It looks like artificial. Look it up. Look it up
and tell me what you think it's like.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Find me one thing within Taco Bell that's not.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Already yon blue color Pie.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Well, you know what I think for Halloween, I might
be a Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Oh that'd be cute. I'll put some whiff cream on you.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Okay, this just turned in. What why are you doing this?
It's midday, This is not between the sheets, this is
not after ours.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh my gosh. Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Speaking of Halloween, we got to get our Halloween costumes.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
We have nothing. We do this every year, and every
year I try to be more organized and get the
kids costumes ahead of time, and it never happens. And
here I am ordering like prime overnight delivery Halloween costumes.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah. But the thing is is that the kids changed
their mind all the time. Like Jack the other day
told me that he wanted to be a fart for Halloween.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
James actually told me he wanted to be a dirt bike.
And I'm thinking he wants to dress up as like
a dirt bike rider, like a professional. But no, he
actually wants to be the dirt bike like he wants wheels.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Oh, he wants to be he wants to be the dirt.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Which is great. But where the heck am I going
to find that costume?
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Wait? You mean to tell me you don't have four
hours to sew that together? I don't know we need
a sewing machine.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I used to sew.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, did you know that? So what? Yes? Okay, we're
going there.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Sharpen your skills, gruel.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
All right, what do you want to give me for
a cooking tip this week?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Why do you put me on the spot.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Because I like to put you on the spot.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
No, I need your I need your quick.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I'm gonna jump I'm going to jump around here. I
want to eighty six at first, because I've been thinking
about this one and what I want to see, like
food trends that need to end, or any trends in
general in regards to the restaurant industry, and that's AI
answering bots.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
You hate answer well because it's so annoying because they
sound real. But then you like you're talking to them
and they just say something like totally different than what
you're talking to them about, like just put on a person.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Well, and what's even hilarious about that is I tried
to do it for our restaurant, and it's impossible for
it to even get done because, like you pre programmed
these AI answering bots. I wasn't necessarily going to deploy it,
but I wanted to see how much it cost and
I wanted to understand it. Yeah, but they never called
me back. It was because it was an AI AI
person never call But you call these restaurants now and
for a second you don't realize that it's a bot. No.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Sometimes, so we at the restaurant, we were getting these
calls from Google and you'd answer and it would some
I don't know how they set this up, but they
would call the restaurant and it would be somebody requesting
a reservation on behalf of whoever put in their information.
So like the person could have just called us and
made the reservation. Instead they used Google to do it
(27:49):
and call us and using an AI bot.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, that one is really weird. What's your eighty six
at this week?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
My eighty six at speaking of restaurants, is restaurant awkwardness?
You know when you all into a restaurant and there's
like nobody in the front, You're not really sure what
to do. You're kind of standing there like awkwardly.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Then you see the stone as somebody else walks in
and you're like elbowing them because you want to make
sure that they don't get I hope.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
They know that I'm first in line, like I just
like I just don't like that. It makes me And
not just restaurants, I would say also like retail stores.
Like the other day, it was our daughter's birthday, so
I went shopping with her. We went into a store,
and my pet peeve is when nobody greets you when
you walk in, like you're just do they want to
help me? Do they want my business? It is like
(28:32):
and they're continuing on with whatever they're doing, and like,
don't help you.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
They don't want to help you because you're a nuisance,
right Like they want to they want to clock They
want to.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Chit chat with their friends at work and not help
you and actually do their job.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And they want to they want to clock in. They
want to get the money and when a customer walks in,
that's like you're a nuisance. That's it. So no, I
actually look for owner operator stores. You walk into an
owner operator store and they're all about it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
No, you know the difference too, You can spot the
difference between Yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I get that, and I would say parlaying from the
restaurant awkwardness too. It's like airplane awkwardness. So it's the
same idea. I assume everybody else operates under this modus
apparat like this this playbook of being polite to each other.
So for example, when you're waiting in line or when
you're about ready to be called for your you know whatever,
your lineup area, that no one's going to cut you.
(29:21):
But what happens is they do. There's always that one
person that's going to come in and cut you, and
they're gonna and they're gonna disrupt the entire system.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Oh I hate that. You're supposed to go in order
by row and some people now just like from the back,
just come and line up. So there's this huge line
you can't even get out when it's time to like dplane.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
And you you will say something. See I'm like, no,
I'm passive aggressive, Like Lauren will walk right up to
somebody and tap my on shoulder and like, excuse me,
that was incredibly rude and you need to be back.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
There're not like that aggressive, But that's not true. I
will say something I don't. I've come to learn in
my old age you have to speak up for yourself
because nobody else is going to do it for you.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I do this little cost benefit analysis in my I'm.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Like, is it you, Andrew? Andrew, what did we talk about?
We're not talking about it on air.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
They say that people who have like skin problems are
people pleasers. I read a study about that, So I've
like had just like I don't have like crazy psoriasis
or anything, but like i've my scalp was itching a
little bit here and there the other day, and I like,
because your people.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Pleasing, Like, look what you're doing right now. You're trying
to make everyone happy, which is a good, but also I.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Do want to make everybody in my family happy, especially
my wife.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Have you met her?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Have you met her? She's unbelievable. We should get her
in here.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Oh you're too sweet?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
All right? Well back to sorry, Well this just got
we'd back to the quick quick sizzle, quick tip, a
little sharpen your skill. So one of the things I
talk about all the time is acid, right, and I'm
not talking about LSD. I'm talking about like vinegars and
tomato juices, acids and food high bright the sour flavor,
if you will. Acid makes food taste so much better
(30:56):
if you add it at the end of your cooking,
food that otherwise would taste bland is going to be brightened,
it's going to be amplified. It's the way to change
your food at the end. It's not just salt and
pepper at the end of cooking. It's a dash of acid.
So that could be a squeeze of lemon juice, that
could be a dash of a high quality vinegar. That
could be even fresh tomato in there, or some pickled
(31:17):
onion something on there with a little bit of acidity
to balance the flavors that and it's not supposed to
taste sour, So don't overdo it with the acid. Just
a dash of acid, you shouldn't even be able to
taste it. You'll taste your food at the end and
you'll go, oh, oh, market, that's delicious.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Okay, what do you say though? You say, if you
think of the salty, sour, sweet, bitter and mommy, and
if anything's missing at it right, and most of the
time it is an acid.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's an acid because that takes and those aren't even right.
So salty, sour, sweet, bitter, new mommy. That's not like
a one to one to one to one to one.
That is, some of them play a stronger role in
the symphony food on your palate. So acid is one
of those. Obviously salt is another one, but it's not
always just salt like people think, oh this tastes bland,
(32:08):
I'm gonna throw a bunch of salt in there. Now,
that's how you get salty food. It's think acids. Maybe
you need some fresh herbs, which also fulfills the bitter
flavor profile, but try that right. So, what I would
suggest you guys do is take a bland piece of
chicken at home, if you're cooking it, cook one piece
with no seasoning, then hit it with salt, Taste it
with no seasoning, then taste it with a little salt.
(32:28):
Then taste it with a little bit of salt and acid.
Then taste it with salt, acid and maybe even a
dash of like soy sauce or worcester Shire sauce, which
is that umami, and or even tomatoes, some sort of
tomato sauce on there, because that's umami as well. And
each time you taste it, you'll be able to taste
how you're building those layers of flavor. And it's an
exercise that really teaches your palate how to understand the
flavor differences. Because once you teach your palate that, then
(32:51):
you'll be able to taste the differences better and know
strategically how you should season your food, especially at the end.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I love it. All right, Well that was fun.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, we uh, we've got we got a lot in
store for us over the next week. Halloween parties, birthday parties,
you name it. So I think we're going to bring
it back into some crazy stories over the next couple episodes.
But I hope that we gave you a really nice
primer on the beef industry, on the you know, the
history of Del Taco and the financial purchase thereof. We'll
follow that story closely. Love to hear your feedback on
(33:24):
what's going on with this government aid and snap benefit piece,
but make sure that you follow us. I am on
x at.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Chef Gruel and I'm Lauren Gruhl, and make sure to
give us your eighty six items as well as your
what the.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Fork stories and you can catch me on Instagram at
Andrew Gruhl.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
And I'm at Lauren Underscore gl and.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Make sure that you subscribe, leave us a review, send
us a letter, send us some fan mail hext, send
a mariachi band over to our house. Whatever you want
to do, we appreciate it all right, bye guys,
And welcome back to another episode of American Gravy.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh yeah, the one and only show where we mix food, family,
and freedom in the same pot and somehow don't burn it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hey, but I'm Bump, and I'm Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Grohl and I'm Lauren Girl, and we are.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Excited to have you back. It's another exciting week, and
we've had a lot going on in the food world
and beyond since we last met. All of us in
this great audience.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I feel like they're here with us.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
They are with us. There's fifty two people right here
in the room right now, Lauren, myself, and forty nine
of my alternate personalities.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
This is true. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
We had a lot going on this weekend. We had
some kids' birthday parties. We had We.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Had so much going on. If you don't know, I
don't know why these they would know. But three of
our kids, three out of four of our kids pretty
much have the same birthday. Two of them have the
same birthday, and the little guy is born the day after.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Well you held that one in for a while.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I did, because I went into labor with him on
their birthday and I said, there's no way of having
three kids on the same day.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That is true. We turned all the lights off and
I just put Gregorian chants and it worked out. Well.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's very peaceful.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It was very peaceful. We also were on multiple planes.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh yeah, we've been all over. We've had a crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Out of the country. We were out of the country.
I landed at We landed as a family at like
three pm on Friday, and I turned around and took
a red eye out at seven pm, eight pm.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Anyway, God bless him because I don't know how he
did that, just to film for five minutes, film for.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Five minutes and then turn around and.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Come back home. And then we had another birthday party.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, those birthday parties are getting crazy. All right, Kid's
birthday party. King. Sorry, we digress.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Let's jump into these stories.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
All right. Well, everyone's talking about beef.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
What about it?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
What about beef? I've been talking about beef for years
and trying to explain to people how the beef supply
chain works. But it's come to a bit more public
light recently due to the administration's plan strategy. And when
I say administration, I mean you know it's the Trump administration. Specifically,
this is handled by Brooke rollins with the USDA and
(02:07):
other agencies in regards to beef prices. Right, So I
just want to lay the foundation here, set the table,
if you will. Beef prices have been going up significantly.
The reason beef prices are so high is because we
have our lowest herd size. Herd size is the number
of cattle that we have in the United States. For
point of reference, I want to say, you know, we
(02:30):
let's take like nineteen ninety we had I think one
hundred and fifty million cattle or herd that that would
be the herd size. Now we're down to like, I
don't know, seventy five eighty million, but it's dropped even more.
We have the lowest herd size since like twenty nineteen.
You know generally in that timeframe, why is the herd
size so low? Well, they're going to tell you it's
(02:52):
two things. It is the drought. There was a significant
drought which dries up all the land. And then the
cattle don't have an opportunity It feed naturally on the
grass and the hay and the grains, et cetera. And
at number two input costs. Right, so the cost of
feeding due to inflation due to coming out of the
Biden administration. The cost of soy, corn, wheat, et cetera.
(03:15):
That's an issue, and then all the other input costs
associated with gas. Right, so just generally the consumer price
indeed and everything that goes into it. But the problem
is is that there's also the hedging. There's looking ahead.
So cattle ranchers are going to say, well, we're looking
out three four years and we foresee costs are going
to continue to go up and we need the cash now.
(03:36):
It's going to be difficult to bring on loans capital investments,
so we might sell our cattle early. It's called culling
the cattle, right, sell them early so that you can
get more money now, or you at least kind of
bet or try and speculate as to what the future
costs are going to be versus current. So they sold
a lot of cattle a couple of years ago. It
takes two to three years. If I bring in a
new you know, the cow has a baby, it's going
(03:58):
to take two to three years for it to come
to mark its size. So it's not like something that
you can fix overnight. So that's kind of setting the
table obviously for the purposes of politics, everyone wants to
point towards the opposite party. You know, Republicans are going
to point to the Democrats and they're going to say, well,
it's because the cost of they pump so much money
into the economy and so much regulation and the cost
of everything has gone up. And then by way of
(04:19):
a lot of the climate change conversation, they were trying
to decrease cattle production because they were pinning a significant
amount of the issues related to hypothetical climate change on
the methane coming from the cows aka the farts, or
the effect that they have on the surrounding ecosystem. And
then of course the Democrats are going to point and say, look,
Trump's in office and the tariffs have created this major
(04:41):
issue there for the cost of everything has gone up,
primarily beef. Unfortunately, it's not that easy, and we can
get into that throughout this episode. But where it's brought
us to today is that one of the solutions that
was proposed last week was well, if we need to
increase supply right to bring and demand is there. We
(05:02):
just need to increase supply to bring prices down. We
have this partnership with Argentina malay right, very friendly with
the current administration. Why don't we put money into buying
Argentinian beef bringing it into the United States and that
can reduce some of the demand or reduce some of
the supply pressure and therefore bring prices down. And that
has created a lot of cause. That has caused a
(05:22):
lot of stirring controversy because people are saying, and by
the way, the number specifically is, let's invest fifty billion
dollars into Argentinian beef to bring in as imports. And
they've said, well, that money should go to US ranchers
and farmers.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Okay, So the only thing I got from that entire spiel,
which was brilliant, by the way, was that you said farts.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Actually I said methane.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You said farts.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Methane, which is the formal word. At home, we'll say,
like when the kids will have a little routu tou we,
I'll say, all right, who released their methane?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, So question for you, why would he invest the
fifty billion dollars into Argentina? Right, Like they're ranchers, why
not invest it here.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Because we don't have the herd? Right?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So is it because people are buying so much because beef,
like we talked about a few episodes ago, have become
so popular, it's because we literally just don't have enough.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
We just don't have enough. So it's the general supply,
we don't have enough. And the argument is that by
bringing in, by buying fifty billion dollars worth of Argentinian beef,
that then we're going to bring it into our supply chain. Now,
keep in mind, most of this is going to come
in as ground beef, right, so you're gonna take lean
cuts and you're gonna grind it up into US ground beef.
(06:36):
You're not really going to get primal cuts, tender loins,
you're not gonna get ribis, et cetera, the whole muscle cuts.
It's lean Argentinian beef that is going to be ground.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So then how is that bringing prices down?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, that's that's the argument. So I would postulate as
an economist that it's not because even fifty billion dollars
worth of beef, if you extrapolate that across the amount
of beef that that would supply, it's really only like
point zero five percent of the total beef that we
have in our market anyway. So it's a drop in
the bucket. The beef packers are the ones that are
(07:07):
pushing for this. Now, this is where the real problem lies.
We have four major beef packers that ownly eighty five
percent of the entire supply of beef in the United States.
So you're dealing with Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and International beef Packers.
Those are the four major players. We have consolidated and
centralized our beef markets. So they're the ones that are
(07:28):
setting the prices. They're the ones that benefit from this.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I was going to say, So they're excited because they're
getting all this new product to then package.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Right at the cost of the US taxpayer. I think
fifty billion dollars of taxpayer dollars is going to go.
And Argentina is excited as well, which okay, I get
that they are friendly nations, so we want to do
business with them. And he's also decreasing any hypothetical tariffs
that there would be on Argentinian beef, so he can
kind of flip that lever and they say that's supposed
to help with supply, and then there's going to be
a downward price pressure. Now my perspective, the visits follows.
(08:01):
I don't think we should be giving any money to Argentina,
not because I don't like them, but because I think
fifty billion dollars should go into increasing our herd size
and making it easier the beef for the ranchers to
be able to increase their supply of cows of cattle. Now,
that's not going to help prices immediately. However, I think
(08:22):
there's other levers and mechanisms that can be utilized through
the USDA subsidies, etc. Through the government to decrease the
pressure on prices beef prices in the short term. And
that's going to cost a little bit of money, but
I'd rather that money be spent on us than that
money be spent on Argentini and beef. But then the
bigger issue here is that we need to take away
the powers that the four big beef packers have and
(08:44):
we need to give that power back to the independent ranchers,
the more family run ranchers, farmers, increasing processing capacity, increasing
the ability to raise beef regeneratively through the United States,
That'll have a long term effect.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I agree with you on that.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah. So I mean what this really comes down to
and what's interesting is is that even if we do that,
it's not incumbent upon the packers really to set the price.
It's the retail price. So in theory, if you decrease
the price that the packers, if you decrease the price
the packers sell to the retailers, right, and that's called
the wholesale beef price. That doesn't mean that the retailers
(09:23):
are going to decrease the prices for the consumers. We've
seen that so often is that we've seen that the
when prices are decreased on a wholesale side, the processors
of the retailers still keep the price high because they're
used to that high price. So that's the beef issue,
and that's what everyone's been talking about. So when you
see people saying US ranchers should be able to benefit
(09:45):
from any policy right, any policy decision, be it economic
or even regulatory, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Because that's
the quote America First philosophy that there was a campaign on.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I was going to say that was his whole spiel.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah. So one of the things I think that's important
about this, and we go back to, is ground beef. Right,
Like ultimately you're getting actually more benefit from your ground
beef when you're eating it than you are from your
whole muscles anyway, because the ground beef beef actually has
a lot more connective tissue, has more of the animal
ground into it, which is where you're going to get
more of the vitamins to creating, et cetera. So what
(10:26):
this comes down to is, even with beef prices high, look,
continue to eat your ground beef right like, ground beef
is the way to go, and we'll continue to offer
a ton of recipes related to ground beef. So that's
just a little bit of an overview on what we've
been talking about, or rather a deep dive on some
of the Maine food headlines this week, beef specifically, but
there's also a lot of things happening in a restaurant
(10:46):
in a fast casual world. You know what, I know
what I saw recently as well, is.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It Jack in the Box sells Del Taco to yadav
for one hundred and fifteen million dollars hundred when they
just what was it? Less than four years ago? They
spent five hundred and seventy five million to acquire the chain.
Now they're selling it to a franchise e. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah? Exactly, so they are Del Taco is selling I
mean that's huge. Jack in the Box owns Del Taco
and they're selling it for five hundred and seventy five
million dollars, as you mentioned, to a franchise e. But
what's crazy about this is that it actually and I
got to look at these numbers. They they bought Del
Taco like four or five years ago for I want
to say, like five x that amount.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I was yeah, so clearly it wasn't like turning a profit.
Right if they're selling it for so.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Cheap, well, that's the thing, right. So that's why I
think this is a really interesting story, is that how
are they able five hundred and seventy five million dollars
seems like a ton of money for Del Taco.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
That's a lot of Well, first of all, we always
talk about where do people get this money from?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Well, it's private equity. From this one, I mean, there's
there's there's a lot of money. Let me let me
look up. Let me see how much they you talk
about how much you love Del Taco.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I want to find out how much they said before
anytime we fly anywhere and we fly back home. Our
first stop is Del Taco. I don't know what it
is about Del Taco. We love it being burritos. We
get some of the carbone tacos, right, Andrew, I.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Like the Del Carbone.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You're just a Del Taco family, and I know some
people don't like Del Taco. It would rather eat Taco Bell,
but we cannot do Taco Bell in this family for
some reason, gut issues.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So I am sorry. This is actually not the case.
Jack in the Box is selling the entire Del Taco chain.
I got my numbers wrong. For one hundred and fifteen
million dollars selling me. They originally bought it for five
hundred and seventy five million.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Oh they okay, Well, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I said five hundred and seventy five million. All of
Del Taco for one hundred and fifteen million. I'm sorry.
That is not a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's not a lot of money. No, I mean, like
Del Tacos are nationwide.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Correct, No, there's no Del Taco on the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh there's not. It's just West coast.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
No, it's West coast. But there's a significant number of
locations Delta Taco to me if I'm going to eat
fast food like I would eat at Deltaco, they still
shred their own cheese fresh in house, which that's a
big deal for me. It's not the best food ever, However,
what I want to say that is interesting about this
is you see a brand that's being sold for a
major discount, a major discount. And one thing we have
(13:18):
noticed at Del Taco recently is that their labor is.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Down so many mass like one guy working like the
drive through and cooking and the inside, taking inside orders
and more like holy moly.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, so Del Taco is primarily a California chain. And
what's so funny is that when I read the headlines
about this, no one's talking about They're like, Oh, it's
just you know, a shake up within their portfolio. No,
I'm telling you right now, it's because of AB twelve
twenty eight. It's because they increased the fast foods minimum
wage and it killed their business.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
It has to kill at this point, I didn't even
think about that, but yes, the last few times we've gone,
there's been one person working the entire store.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It's nuts, it's and it takes so long to get
the food as well, granted we're the only family that
can actually order seventy five dollars worth of Bell Taco.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well there are six of us.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Back to the methane issue, so that's interesting. I want
to know what everybody's favorite is when it comes to
these fast food chains, Like if you had to eat
at one fast food chain, what would it be? Hit
us up, Hit us up on ex at Chef Gruel
or at Loren Gruel and give us give us your best.
So another food story this week that I think that
we're going to continue to hear a lot about is
(14:26):
the government food ays freeze so Snap benefits.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, so I heard it's really the Democrats, right, Like
is it their fault?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Well, once again, I mean, you know, all of this
has so much nuance to it, and it's always like
the pointing of the finger. I love that meme where
it's like Spider Man pointing at Spider Man and they're like,
you're you're a nark, right, Because that's ultimately what it
comes down to. So I think that just generally speaking,
politicians are going to be responsible in this case. Yeah,
you could say that it's the Democrats because they're the
ones that are holding it up. In the Senate, you
need a sixty vote majority in order to pass a budget,
(14:57):
and it's what we have, like fifty three. So you've
got a seven vote deficit, and you know Schumer's holding
it up by saying, the only way we'll vote for
is if you make these concessions.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
This is what I read today. So Senate Democrats have
now voted twelve times to not fund the food stamp
program also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And it's funny because that was actually posted on the
USDA website.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, I know that's where which that's.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
A bold move. That's a pretty bold move. Well, the
reality is is that and I've talked about this, what
people are now taught. What I find so fascinating about
this is we talk, we realize things when they become issues.
So everyone's out there and they're like, wait a minute,
we spend all of this money, and when you dig
into the numbers, it's like one on every five people
is on food stamps, right, And people are having trouble
(15:48):
stomaching that number because they're like, and it might even
be even smaller. The issue here is that we have
ignored this for years and years and years. So we're
in the final hour and we're talking about this and saying, well,
just eliminate it, right, Like you've got one side saying eliminated,
and you've got another side saying you want to kill kids.
Like that's what it comes down to. It's always this
like hyperbolic reaction.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, I mean it is sad though I didn't realize
the numbers were that significant, like one in five and
you said maybe even lower.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yep. Well, and I'll go back to this because we are,
you know, as part of our kind of brand DNA,
and by us, I mean Lauren and I. It's about
feeding people and making sure that people don't go hungry.
And we're constantly giving away meals at the restaurant and
that's really why we wanted to build the restaurants, as
we kind of wanted this like community kitchens that we
can help out as needed. It's not just us. There's
food banks, there's churches, there's community organizations, there's individuals who
(16:41):
run these organizations. I always say that we don't need
the government necessarily to help each other out like that
starts in the community. And I've already seen the week
leading into this where we knew that, we know that
the food stamps are going to be cut on November first,
so many organizations that are pulling together to say, well,
don't worry, we're going to fill this gap. Here's how
(17:02):
we're going to do it. That's a testament to the
good of community, and I think that there should should
be more of that. So, for example, when I say
that maybe we overspend on this program, it's not because
I don't want people to be helped out. It's because
I think that we need to give people the fishing
pole and teach them how to fish. And I think
that a lot of the people within the community can
pull this together themselves and put the money in themselves
as well, us included. So it's not like I'm putting
(17:25):
it on the backs of other people. In the state
of California, it's a huge amount. It's even higher than
it is in many other states.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I guess for me, it's like these individuals, you know,
I know a lot of people have fallen. I mean,
I'll admit it. When I was like young, I was
struggling and I had to go on some like food assistants,
like I'm not going to lie. When I was like
in my late you know, teen years, early twenties. But
I eventually got out of that. I broke because I
wasn't embarrassed, but like, I didn't want to stay in
it forever.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So yeah, well needs to be temporary. The problem is
is that when it comes with every federal program, right,
there's really not that much oversight. It's like, okay, let's
get the money from the Feds, and then we bring
it into the you know, kind of your local congressional rep.
Gets the money, brings it into the local community, and
then it's disseminated through a state program or ultimately a
local program. And then when you distill all of that
money through so many big government filters or bureaucracies, number one,
(18:14):
you lose a lot along the way under the guys
who administrative costs. And then number two, there's not that
much oversight and control on it. Now each state has
different controls put in place. Like I heard in Texas,
you cannot manipulate the program. It's virtually impossible. As we
know in California, we're spread thin and in regards to
any a will or a desire to regulate the program.
So what I've read is that what people have been doing.
(18:35):
Is is that let's say you've got five kids, it's
incumbent upon the parent to spend the money on the food.
And a lot of the parents are not spending the
money on food.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Well now aren't they? Just aren't they just getting a
debit card?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, because when I had it, like it was it
was like almost vouchers, yeah right, and it was for
whatever the grocery was, like say a cart and a
milk or whatever. Right, So it wasn't like it was
just like a free willy nilly. I could buy whatever
I wanted at the store.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Now you get a debit card, and there's still limitations
on it, although they're pretty wide in variety.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Because I see a lot of even if you go,
you know, to like a liquor store or whatever, there's
like ebt cards accepted here. Like there's a lot of
signage on that, whereas before it was like you could
only go to the grocery store and get certain items.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yes, but that's where the scammers always come in. There's
always a scam. I mean, I was at the grocery
store the other day and some guy asked me if said, oh,
I've got you know, four hundred dollars with the groceries
on it from a voucher or an EBT card, Like,
I'll buy whatever you want, just give me the cash
for it. So like they're discounting it so that they
can get cash, and then they use the cash to
go buy drugs or do something tofarious with it. There's
so many different ways in what you get.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, in an I feel like people definitely will take advantage.
I mean, obviously some people really do need this assistance,
so it is sad that it's going away.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, but look at it this way, right, So you
want you need food, you can buy a bag of
rice for you know, bag of rice for a month
for fifty dollars and dry bean for thirty dollars. So
for eighty dollars you can feed yourself for an entire month.
You just got to sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, I mean I think I ate potato salad for
like a year.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That's disgusting. We'll talk about that another tone. So, and
I'm not trying to be flipping about it. I'm just saying,
is that we have this problem. It's come to ahead.
So now let's utilize this opportunity because it's a national
conversation to fix the program, make it more efficient. I
don't think anybody is against the program in general, or
people being fed. I think they're against the fact that
two dollars for every one dollar that goes to somebody,
(20:28):
two dollars is spent. It's the most inefficient program. It's
all government programs.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And too, it's like all this money is going to
people who don't necessarily need it. They're all just like
milking the system.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, there are a lot of people who don't need it.
You are correct. I mean I've heard stories. One of
the biggest stories here in California is that what people
do is they take the EBT program and then they'll
like go buy flowers at Trader Joe's, and then they
go stand in a freeway and they sell the flowers
for I.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Heard that too, and or like the they'll sell like
the fruit yeah on the side, you know, like the
cutup fruit. But they're using that how to using EBT
card to buy that fruit, and then they're selling it
for double the price.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Which in a way is a small business loan. But
then they don't pay taxes on that because it's cash
home rade, so it doesn't go back and help the
system so maybe we digress a little bit, but I
think we can open up on that in a subsequent episode.
But let's at least make this a little bit more fun. Well, actually,
here I go. I'm it's not gonna be too fun.
But we're getting into the Thanksgiving season and rumor has
(21:25):
it the turkey prices are going to be going up.
And the result of that is because still I know,
we talked about the AVI and flew with eggs, but
they were, you know, they were raising the turkeys around
that same time. So we have a lower supply of
turkeys this year. So they say prices are going to
go up.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, so prices are going to be about one dollar
and thirty two cents per pound, a forty percent increase
from twenty twenty four's average of zero point nine to
four cents a pound.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yes. Now, what I find interesting about that is that's
going to become a huge political talking point going into Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Wasn't this a thing?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah? With the nine five minutes, it's like, I forget,
but we always use the gauge, the index, like the
turkey or the Thanksgiving holiday price index. But what I
think is interesting is so I dug deeper on this story,
and I'm like, Okay, so turkey prices are going up
in regards to wholesale. However, how are the retail operations
(22:18):
going to respond to this? A lot of the major
retailers are now saying, well, we're going to use turkey
as a loss leader, which means we're going to sell
it at a loss in order to bring people into
the store and then make money on all the other
things that we're selling. So you have big brands like
ald and I think Walmart and some of these major
brands and retailers are doing these like twenty or thirty
(22:39):
dollars turkey deals where you get an entire turkey dinner
for four for like thirty dollars. So I think the
perception when you're looking at the marketing is not necessarily
going to be that the prices are higher, But the
reality on the retail side is that they might be
a little bit higher, although you're going to see those
costs kind of amortized across a wide variety of products.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Turkeys in have been impacted by the bird flu this year,
including over half a million this month alone.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Half a million, half half a million dead birds, half
a million turkeys you know why. But that's also the
government forcing people to kill their birds. Remember we talked
about that in the past with the eggs. They force
you to call the birds because they don't want there
to be a spread, and they actually pay to decrease supply,
which artificially increases prices when a lot of the birds
(23:27):
that they were killing were healthy birds. That's where you
get the conspiracy theorists that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Are like, that's sad they want us all to eat
artificial meat.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I don't necessarily know if they wanted you to eat
artificial meat. A lot of this is, you know, the
economy is going to be a driver of politics, and
people within the world of politics are always competing within
that world for headlines and clicks and surveys and you
name it. So so many times people do manipulate policy
in order to help on the political side.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
All right, well, we've just deppressed our audience at the
last few stories.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The fork, Yeah, what the fork?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
The fork?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
What are some of the craziest food stories from this week?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
All right, So Taco Bell is turning its Baja Blast
into a pie and it is finally going nationwide this November.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
That does absolutely nothing for me.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It does nothing for me either.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I want to blast pie.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean, the kids made me go to Taco Bell.
Like we just talked, we don't do a Taco Bell
in our family. We go Del Taco. But the kids
had me go to Taco Bell the other day because
they needed the Baja Blast. And it's just just like
blue drink.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Wait, are you joking me? I love how you're just
telling me this right now because you knew I would
lose my mind.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Okay, listen, So you bought.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
The kids a baja because they wanted to try it.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I felt bad.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
That's horrible.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Okay, So anyway, I hope they didn't like it. They
I don't think they did that much. They haven't asked
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Since I'm gonna need to sit down to talk with
the boys, I'm going to crack some icine pen and
say this is your brain on Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So listen. This dessert pairs a gram crust with Baja
Blast flavored custard and whipped cream, and whole pies will
run for nineteen ninety nine and can serve up to
eight people.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I'm all for indulgence and every now and then like
breaking the rules and just indulging. But like, that's just
why would you want to waste your kind of indulgence
ticket or your free pass on something like a Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
It looks really gross too. It's available on November six.
It looks like artificial. Look it up. Look it up
and tell me what you think it's like.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Find me one thing within Taco Bell that's not.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Already yon blue color Pie.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Well, you know what I think for Halloween, I might
be a Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Oh that'd be cute. I'll put some whiff cream on you.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Okay, this just turned in. What why are you doing this?
It's midday, This is not between the sheets, this is
not after ours.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh my gosh. Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Speaking of Halloween, we got to get our Halloween costumes.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
We have nothing. We do this every year, and every
year I try to be more organized and get the
kids costumes ahead of time, and it never happens. And
here I am ordering like prime overnight delivery Halloween costumes.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah. But the thing is is that the kids changed
their mind all the time. Like Jack the other day
told me that he wanted to be a fart for Halloween.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
James actually told me he wanted to be a dirt bike.
And I'm thinking he wants to dress up as like
a dirt bike rider, like a professional. But no, he
actually wants to be the dirt bike like he wants wheels.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Oh, he wants to be he wants to be the dirt.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Which is great. But where the heck am I going
to find that costume?
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Wait? You mean to tell me you don't have four
hours to sew that together? I don't know we need
a sewing machine.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I used to sew.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, did you know that? So what? Yes? Okay, we're
going there.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Sharpen your skills, gruel.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
All right, what do you want to give me for
a cooking tip this week?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Why do you put me on the spot.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Because I like to put you on the spot.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
No, I need your I need your quick.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I'm gonna jump I'm going to jump around here. I
want to eighty six at first, because I've been thinking
about this one and what I want to see, like
food trends that need to end, or any trends in
general in regards to the restaurant industry, and that's AI
answering bots.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
You hate answer well because it's so annoying because they
sound real. But then you like you're talking to them
and they just say something like totally different than what
you're talking to them about, like just put on a person.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Well, and what's even hilarious about that is I tried
to do it for our restaurant, and it's impossible for
it to even get done because, like you pre programmed
these AI answering bots. I wasn't necessarily going to deploy it,
but I wanted to see how much it cost and
I wanted to understand it. Yeah, but they never called
me back. It was because it was an AI AI
person never call But you call these restaurants now and
for a second you don't realize that it's a bot. No.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Sometimes, so we at the restaurant, we were getting these
calls from Google and you'd answer and it would some
I don't know how they set this up, but they
would call the restaurant and it would be somebody requesting
a reservation on behalf of whoever put in their information.
So like the person could have just called us and
made the reservation. Instead they used Google to do it
(27:49):
and call us and using an AI bot.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, that one is really weird. What's your eighty six
at this week?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
My eighty six at speaking of restaurants, is restaurant awkwardness?
You know when you all into a restaurant and there's
like nobody in the front, You're not really sure what
to do. You're kind of standing there like awkwardly.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Then you see the stone as somebody else walks in
and you're like elbowing them because you want to make
sure that they don't get I hope.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
They know that I'm first in line, like I just
like I just don't like that. It makes me And
not just restaurants, I would say also like retail stores.
Like the other day, it was our daughter's birthday, so
I went shopping with her. We went into a store,
and my pet peeve is when nobody greets you when
you walk in, like you're just do they want to
help me? Do they want my business? It is like
(28:32):
and they're continuing on with whatever they're doing, and like,
don't help you.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
They don't want to help you because you're a nuisance,
right Like they want to they want to clock They
want to.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Chit chat with their friends at work and not help
you and actually do their job.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And they want to they want to clock in. They
want to get the money and when a customer walks in,
that's like you're a nuisance. That's it. So no, I
actually look for owner operator stores. You walk into an
owner operator store and they're all about it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
No, you know the difference too, You can spot the
difference between Yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I get that, and I would say parlaying from the
restaurant awkwardness too. It's like airplane awkwardness. So it's the
same idea. I assume everybody else operates under this modus
apparat like this this playbook of being polite to each other.
So for example, when you're waiting in line or when
you're about ready to be called for your you know whatever,
your lineup area, that no one's going to cut you.
(29:21):
But what happens is they do. There's always that one
person that's going to come in and cut you, and
they're gonna and they're gonna disrupt the entire system.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Oh I hate that. You're supposed to go in order
by row and some people now just like from the back,
just come and line up. So there's this huge line
you can't even get out when it's time to like dplane.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
And you you will say something. See I'm like, no,
I'm passive aggressive, Like Lauren will walk right up to
somebody and tap my on shoulder and like, excuse me,
that was incredibly rude and you need to be back.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
There're not like that aggressive, But that's not true. I
will say something I don't. I've come to learn in
my old age you have to speak up for yourself
because nobody else is going to do it for you.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I do this little cost benefit analysis in my I'm.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Like, is it you, Andrew? Andrew, what did we talk about?
We're not talking about it on air.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
They say that people who have like skin problems are
people pleasers. I read a study about that, So I've
like had just like I don't have like crazy psoriasis
or anything, but like i've my scalp was itching a
little bit here and there the other day, and I like,
because your people.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Pleasing, Like, look what you're doing right now. You're trying
to make everyone happy, which is a good, but also I.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Do want to make everybody in my family happy, especially
my wife.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Have you met her?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Have you met her? She's unbelievable. We should get her
in here.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Oh you're too sweet?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
All right? Well back to sorry, Well this just got
we'd back to the quick quick sizzle, quick tip, a
little sharpen your skill. So one of the things I
talk about all the time is acid, right, and I'm
not talking about LSD. I'm talking about like vinegars and
tomato juices, acids and food high bright the sour flavor,
if you will. Acid makes food taste so much better
(30:56):
if you add it at the end of your cooking,
food that otherwise would taste bland is going to be brightened,
it's going to be amplified. It's the way to change
your food at the end. It's not just salt and
pepper at the end of cooking. It's a dash of acid.
So that could be a squeeze of lemon juice, that
could be a dash of a high quality vinegar. That
could be even fresh tomato in there, or some pickled
(31:17):
onion something on there with a little bit of acidity
to balance the flavors that and it's not supposed to
taste sour, So don't overdo it with the acid. Just
a dash of acid, you shouldn't even be able to
taste it. You'll taste your food at the end and
you'll go, oh, oh, market, that's delicious.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Okay, what do you say though? You say, if you
think of the salty, sour, sweet, bitter and mommy, and
if anything's missing at it right, and most of the
time it is an acid.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's an acid because that takes and those aren't even right.
So salty, sour, sweet, bitter, new mommy. That's not like
a one to one to one to one to one.
That is, some of them play a stronger role in
the symphony food on your palate. So acid is one
of those. Obviously salt is another one, but it's not
always just salt like people think, oh this tastes bland,
(32:08):
I'm gonna throw a bunch of salt in there. Now,
that's how you get salty food. It's think acids. Maybe
you need some fresh herbs, which also fulfills the bitter
flavor profile, but try that right. So, what I would
suggest you guys do is take a bland piece of
chicken at home, if you're cooking it, cook one piece
with no seasoning, then hit it with salt, Taste it
with no seasoning, then taste it with a little salt.
(32:28):
Then taste it with a little bit of salt and acid.
Then taste it with salt, acid and maybe even a
dash of like soy sauce or worcester Shire sauce, which
is that umami, and or even tomatoes, some sort of
tomato sauce on there, because that's umami as well. And
each time you taste it, you'll be able to taste
how you're building those layers of flavor. And it's an
exercise that really teaches your palate how to understand the
flavor differences. Because once you teach your palate that, then
(32:51):
you'll be able to taste the differences better and know
strategically how you should season your food, especially at the end.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I love it. All right, Well that was fun.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, we uh, we've got we got a lot in
store for us over the next week. Halloween parties, birthday parties,
you name it. So I think we're going to bring
it back into some crazy stories over the next couple episodes.
But I hope that we gave you a really nice
primer on the beef industry, on the you know, the
history of Del Taco and the financial purchase thereof. We'll
follow that story closely. Love to hear your feedback on
(33:24):
what's going on with this government aid and snap benefit piece,
but make sure that you follow us. I am on
x at.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Chef Gruel and I'm Lauren Gruhl, and make sure to
give us your eighty six items as well as your
what the.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Fork stories and you can catch me on Instagram at
Andrew Gruhl.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
And I'm at Lauren Underscore gl and.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Make sure that you subscribe, leave us a review, send
us a letter, send us some fan mail hext, send
a mariachi band over to our house. Whatever you want
to do, we appreciate it all right, bye guys,
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