December 12, 2023 • 47 mins
Host Bryan Ford is joined by actor and comedian Jason Biggs. With an extensive acting career that began at the age of five, Jason is best known for playing Jim Levenstein in the American Pie comedy film series, Leonardo in the first two seasons of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Larry Bloom in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. He also starred in Boys and Girls, Loser, Saving Silverman, Anything Else, Jersey Girl, Eight Below, Over Her Dead Body, and My Best Friend's Girl. For this episode, Jason asked Bryan to make him a classic Italian-American dish that he eats every holiday season, stromboli.
Watch Bryan make his version and Subscribe: Youtube
Recipe from today's episode can be found at Shondaland.com
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Jason Biggs IG: @biggsjason
Bryan Ford IG: @artisanbryan
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Flaky Biscuit is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Welcome to Flaky Biscuit, where each episode we're
cooking up delicious morsels of nostalgia. We talk about these
meals and recipes that have comforted and guided our guest
to success. Each episode, I'm creating a recipe from scratch
(00:21):
and literally hand delivering it to my guest. All right,
these recipes. I hope y'all are making it at home.
Go to Shawnaland dot com. I'm Brian Ford. I write cookbooks,
I make TV shows, but most importantly, I like to
cook and bake for people. And I'm staring into someone's
dreamy eyes in my kitchen right now. Today. It's a
guest who is quite familiar with food. An actor, comedian,
(00:45):
so many different things, best known for playing Jim Levenstein
in the American pie comedy film series, Leonardo in the
first two seasons of Teenage Mutant Into Turtles, and Larry
Bloom in the Netflix original series Orange Is New Black.
Some new movie that just came out on Netflix right
The Christmas Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, Christmas movie, Best Christmas Ever, Best Christmas Ever.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It is my new friend who I just did a
special project with and is now hanging out with me
coming to my pop ups. Jason Biggs? What's up, dude?
How are they?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'm great, man, I'm happy, super happy to be here
with my new friend, new friends Bryan and Bridget I
just made the br connection. By the way, the bris
Have you talked about the special project we did yet?
Are you dropping what it is yet? I haven't really
(01:40):
talked about it either.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I don't know it is a baking project. But how
are you? In general? Man? You came to my pop up?
That was very special.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
That was awesome, you know when we were working together,
of course, or even before. I mean, when I heard
who else was going to be involved in the show,
was like, Okay, this is gonna be cool. He's he
seems like a cool dude to Hay with which you were,
and seems like a really special baker. And I can't
wait to try his stuff. And you know, we did
a baking show and we tried lots of baked goods,
(02:10):
and to hear you talking about those baked goods but
having not yet tried your baked goods, I was super
excited to come back and hit your pop up. I
hit it that first weekend. Yeah, my kids and I
and my wife Jenny, we were out and about. It
was awesome. I'll be perfectly honest. I'm still I'm still
working out all the names because obviously they have very
(02:33):
specific names. I'm still calling them like, you know, the
doughnut thing, which is the guava cream stuffed concha. There
you go, Yeah, the chocolate chocolate conchu and the guava cuncha.
Oh my god, it was so good.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Anyway, I'm really listen, man. That's how I know you
real man, because you pulled up brought the fam. You
know what I'm saying, Cops, Yeah, that was really special.
So it's been nice to double park for you and everything. Absolutely,
and now you're in the Queen's basement.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's love, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So so I was running late doing deliveries and I
gotta prep this meal. We're gonna do a little change
up here. I'm going to prepare this meal in front
of Jason right now. But why don't you tell the
listeners what your most nostalgic meal is that you're having
me prepare. I will.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So it is Stromboli Italian Stromboli and actually to be
perfectly honest, I don't know if it traces back to
Italy or if it's more of an Italian American thing,
But I grew up in an Italian American household, and
my mother would make this stromboli and she would make
it sometimes randomly throughout the year, but always always around
(03:43):
Christmas time, so either for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day,
sometimes both. Sometimes she would do it for Thanksgiving. She
actually was randomly right before you asked me to do
this and to come up with the food. She was
telling me that she made it for the first time
in a little while for my niece, her granddaughter, who's
like obsessed with it. Damn yeah, yeah, my mom make it.
(04:06):
And so basically it's baked rolled dough, stuffed with rolled
with Italian meats and cheeses. Right, so it's like salami,
pepperoni ham Maybe I'm not quite sure. I mean you
could obviously take some liberties there and whatever, and then
Italian cheeses provolone and maybe more privolone. And it was
(04:29):
always served as like the appetizer, or if it was out,
if there were some antipasta on the table, you know,
there'd be like you know, some olives and some rolled
cold cuts and some whatever anchovies what all this stuff,
and then my mother's sliced romboli, you know, coming right
right out of the oven.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
And had a little sausa dip in and.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Then a sausagh you do the marinera sauce to dip whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's all right, I'm glad that you described it that way,
in a way that doesn't compromise what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay. The thing I will say about it too, is
like I love food since I moved away from home.
I moved out when I was nineteen and then started
traveling more and being exposed to more cultures and cuisines
from around the world, and my palette expanded, my budget increased,
et cetera. Right, Yeah, and so all that excites me.
(05:21):
That kind of food, that's you know, people are doing
crazy stuff with. But I grew up in a house
where there was simple food, simple you know, Italian food,
and not even every day. I mean we had some
days we were rocking TV dinners and whatever. It was
a you know cereal for dinner. Yeah, hungry man, dude,
the little cranberry thing in the middle.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's why my blood pressure probably increased because all the
hungry Man's I've eaten.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's hilarious. That's probably why I'm on a statin. Yeah,
but I still love and appreciate my mom would make,
you know, some beans, soups and stuff or whatever, you know,
like Italian peasant food, poor man's dinner. I love it.
And Stromboli was just one of these for me. It
just felt very blue collar North Jersey Italian American things
(06:07):
that my mom would make. We loved it so much
it became like a holiday thing. But it's just real simple, yeah,
and I love it. I love it. It brings me back.
I love it, man.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I appreciate you sharing that. And we're gonna dive deep.
I'm gonna have to get this in the oven. I'll
give you a little a rundown of what's going down.
So I looked up Stromboli. You know, I never made
stromboli before. I made pizzas ficaciaus. I'm actually quite good
at making that. And the dough looks similar to pizza dough.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It looked like a little.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Enrichment with olive oil, a little salt, hydrated nicely because
it's got to stay light. You know, you don't want
it to be too dense. And so, you know, I
went through my morning today. I got to the bakery
at five. Everything seemed normal, and then the bakers were like, yo,
the cookies are fucked and we need to make a
new batch a dough. And I was like, okay, that's
(06:54):
gonna set my day back significantly. I delivered the cookies
too late that and then in my head, I'm like, damn,
I didn't have a chance to strombolie. Well, you know,
but you're lucking out because I had extra, better quality
dough than I could have made on the same day.
I have some nicely fermented it's a hybrid between what
(07:17):
you might know as a facasha and a baguette. It's
for these beatout thests, these baguettes that I served to
a wine bar. And the dough's got a little bit
of enrichment to it. It's nicely hydrated and it's been
resting in the fridge all night. So I grabbed it
out the walk in and I've got it with me.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What so were you planning on using I was.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Going to make a same day dough with some pre ferment,
some fresh yeast, some olive oil, a little sugar. You know,
I was basically going to make this type of dough
but on the same day, and you know, because like
my brain is like not that organized, I was like, wait,
I have I have some like better dough. Yep. So
I snacked that and then I was like, okay, I
gotta get the meat, the cold cuts. I'm not about
(07:58):
to go to you know, the grocery store, to Arthur
as shit. I mean, I wish I had that kind
of time, Okay, okay, okay, But I went to something similar.
I went to David Toni's Deli. I love it out
here on thirtieth as it's the second time of you
Dave in Tony's man homiees in there. It feels like
you walk in and you're in Italy because nobody speaking English.
Day plande Italiano. They're going in. Old man behind the counter,
(08:21):
He's like, oh, what do you want? And like so
I pulled up and I told the dude, I need
to make sure on bowli and he said, I know
exactly what you need stock man, yo. So he gave
me i' gonna show you right now.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, what do they give you?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
All? Right? So, first of all, for your dipping sauce
imported San Martano, San Marzano. We're gonna crush these up,
get some salt in them, dope, and for our for
our meat selection here all right, so we've got by
the way, this is the wax paper. This is what
you're supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
This is great. I'm psyched on this.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Some excellent Italian mozzarella. Okay, that's what pounded it? Right?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Getting a piece of that? Or no, are you handed
me that ship?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Have a little slice or what what you.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Have me?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, I'm gonna have a slice, baby on a slice. Yeah,
there you go. Mmmm, that's nice. That's gonna melt really nicely.
Then I've got two types of cop cola, got a google.
One is spicy, one is not spicy. So in my
(09:32):
head I'm like, I don't know if you like spicy
or not. So I got both. So I'm gonna just
like kind of layer them, and then of course some
pet on some nice freshly slice. Look at that. Look
at the color on that, dude. Yeah, look dig in
well I told you earlier.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I said part of it is the antipasta laid out.
It's already cold.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Is your coca? Here we go? So we already hitting
the nostalgia because I'm laying.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It out of spicy.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's good, just got a kick.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Now for the dough, so we're gonna assemble this and
we're gonna pop it in the oven. I'm trying to
make this look nice. You know what I'm saying for
my viewers. All right, look at this dough. Oh what now?
Smell it? Oh, come and smell this dough. What I'm
gonna do? I never made stromboli before, all right, so
unde dude is gorgeous. This dough is kind of wicked.
It's gotta be kind of long so we can slice it.
(10:20):
So I'm gonna want to roll it this way, get
it kind of long, and I'm gonna start with the
cheese and I'm gonna go heavy on this ship. I'm
not gonna play around. M h. I have a little
semolina on the dough. So the dough is funky. It's
a twenty four to forty eight hour forer men. All right,
I'm gonna do do a layer. Oh my goodness, so
many options here. So I'm gonna start with a spicy
(10:40):
so as you're as you're watching me, right now, what
can you tell me about my approach, Like, how did
your mom do it? Because I'm just sitting here just
layering things up.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I mean, that's basically what she would do. She did
the pizza dough, rolled it out, started stuffing the hell
out of it, mm hmm, and then uh, rolled it
up and baked.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Do you think I'm over stuffing it right now because
I'm I'm just kind of going in.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Based on the I think her dough is usually a
little thinner. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, this
is gonna be dope, dude. So I think because yours
seemingly is gonna be a little thicker, you have more
room to get more meats and cheese in there. That's right,
that's what's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So now comes the roll up. So I've got two
layers of cheese, two layers of meat.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I was gonna say, maybe another layer cheese. And I'll
tell you why, just because part of the appeal of
the stromboli is when you cut it and then bite
into it, that ooz, that ooze, that ooze is big.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
So we got another layer of cheese here, Just put
some more meat on it too. I mean, like I'll
just put like a single, just like a single pepperoni line.
I'm gonna brush this with some melted butter. So I'm
gonna get up real quick, get some parchment. Oh yeah,
we got Stromboli facts Strom.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
In Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Wait, well, I knew it wasn't going to go trace
back to Italy. There's so many Italian foods that, like
I grew up with in Jersey that you do a
little research, you go, oh, wait, that's not even it
doesn't even come from Italy.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And we're gonna go into the oven. Tell me about
the first time you had your mom's trumboli.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Hmmm. It was something that in my memory doesn't go
back to early childhood. It was more of a I
want to say, I was maybe ten or something like.
It's not something that I remember in my life at
all times, because I remember my mom trying it for
the first time, discovering it, and I don't know if
she what prompted her, but it sort of usurped the
(12:40):
pizza in terms of what I have two sisters in
terms of what we and my dad in terms of
what we would wanted and asked for the most. Because
you know, the other thing is you slice it up,
and then family of five. That thing's like gone. She
was put in two three at a time. Four. Maybe
it's hard to pinpoint the first time, but it was
(13:02):
an immediate love affair, and we immediately started requesting it. Interestingly,
the other thing that she made that we really liked
more in your world, I suppose, was an apple crisp.
Oh yeah, like a fritter, like a cobbler, kind of
a yeah, except for the one year she was on
(13:23):
a bit of a health kick, so instead of sugar
she tried splendor. It was a no bueno. We still
give her shit about it.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The splendid crisp.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The splendid chris Ma, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
How many times did she do this? Just once or
multiple times?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I think once? But we we came down hard and
we were bummed.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
We were really bummed cutting up little bags of splenda?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Can you imagine?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
No, I've never like even con considered, oh could you?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
By the way, how do you even measure it out?
Because splenda has a totally different like you can't measure
the same amount of splenda as sugar, right, And there's
no recipe of apple crisp that calls for splendor. Not yet, dude,
it was it was not edible.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
I'm gonna make sure I make you a splendor Crisp
one day. The thing is, I'm not going to tell
you I put splendor in it right away. Dude.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That's a taste I will never It's burned into my memory. Dude.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
We should start an opposite podcast of like things you
don't want to eat?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yes, yes, yes, foods you need to avoid at all costs.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Memories. We didn't want to bring back up, but we
brought it.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Back Welcome to the Food Trauma Hour with Brian and
Bridget So. Yeah, I remember it being heavy in the rotation,
especially you know, middle school and high school when the.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Next time you're going to see your mom's savor us
slice of this strum bowl.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We should. Actually, I'd be psyched.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
If let's see how it comes out that my dad,
my dad tell me.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
If my dad tries it too, like, I could see
him saying something like, oh, Ange, that's my mom's name.
Why don't you make it like this, and then he's
like kicked out of the house.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That'd be awesome to see it. It'd be great if
you break up my parents.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Oh wow, Yeah, that's the whole time.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
You imagine that'll come back. That'd be a great follow
up episode. Do you guys remember the episode where Jason
Bix came on and we mates from Bolie for him
funny story.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Then we'll talk about your favorite nostalgic moments of when
your parents were together. Now that I now that I
left them apart, it would be curious to see your
dad try it though, if it was.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Like, dude, it's going to be sick. I can tell
you already. Also, because you know what the capa cola.
It's so hard for me not to say gabba gool
when I have my dad, when I have my dad
in my mind, because that's literally like he is Soprano's
like every there is mouturel gabba ghul, pepperona. Like my
dad's like, what is kalama?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Go Dad?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It's at right, Okay, I understand, but it's actually the
word is calamari. It's like, nah, it's come on God,
It's like the C is a GM, like capa cola
is gabba ghoul. Makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, it's an Italian American thing, right, Yeah, you know
I'm Hispanic American, an American, So there's like the kind
of spanglish thing that we do, which is like, yeah,
it's gonna be different than a Hispanic from the main land.
So I think over time, you.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Take the man out of Jersey, but you can't take
the jersey out of the man. And I'm sort of
like that, except I'm now pronouncing things, you know, the
way they're spelled. We would have so Sunday and Sunday,
by the way, Sunday dinner and an Italian American household
is you know, two o'clock. You know that's literally we'd
go to my grandmother sometime, my Italian grandmother who lived
(16:26):
a couple towns over, and she would make a big
thing of Gavatelly Govit dell or Cavatelly. That was her
special tape. So yeah, remember a lot of like Sunday
dinners during the week. It was kind of ad hoc.
One of the my dad calls it poor man's dinner
is potatoes, hot dogs and scrambled egg one pan, one
(16:48):
pot salt pepper ketchup. That was dinner speak, salt salt
pepper ketch SPK.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah. I learned that from her. All right, So I'm
gonna I'm gonna do a lit some for my listeners here,
which is kind of break down some of the fundamentals
of the dish itself. So the dough, it's hydrated nicely,
probably about eighty percent water. The technical part here, because
my eggs were frozen in the back of my fridge
because it's set at a cold temperature. I was not
able to egg wash the Stromboli, which I think would
(17:17):
have given it more of the color that we'd be
looking for, that kind of dark golden brown. I put
melted butter on it and analyzing it, it's not taking
on much color. That upsets me, you know. I wanted
to get that nice bold color before we cut into it.
So the specifics of the dough recipe you can find
on shannaland dot com origins Strombolis from Philly, from Philadelphia,
(17:39):
and it's different from a calzone or calzone, which is
from Italy, all right, so don't get it twisted. And
I think calzonas calzones have sauce in them.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, they saw right. And it's also almost like a pocket.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Correct right from OLLI uses a rectangular dough, whereas a
calzone's a rounded dough that's folded in half. Apparently there's
a third difference between them, and which is the filling.
The classic strong bully fillings we have here are different hams, meats, cheeses,
forkel zones. You want to get the sauce, you want
to get fresh mozzarella could be in there, some sausage
and stuff like that, and some green some green bell peppers.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Ricotta.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Is this Italian one on one with Jason Biggs. Oh wow,
it's safty color. Okay, it's it's actually ready. My first
ever strong Bully has come out of the oven. I
have a feeling this dough might be able to crispy
because it's that highly hydrated dough. But we'll see. I'm
gonna let it cool for two seconds. So I have
a sauce. I typically when I make sauces, I'll take
(18:39):
some nice whole peeled tomatoes, crush them and add salt.
That's literally all I do, and a little I put
a little regano in here. But I don't cook my sauce.
I don't do any that kind of thing. I know
cats that cook their sauce. I know cats that don't.
I found that the fresh even though they can, but
like if they're a good quality, that you can get
that in so so yeah, so I got some sauce
to bring out that flavor, and the Bridget was kind
(19:01):
enough to present our little antipasty situation. We got some
Arti chokes and oil, some tomato. I made a pesto
the other day with the last basil harvest from our
garden because it's starting to get cold. This is a
walnut pesto with some paramagano roggiano olive oil. Obviously it's
a little thick, and you know, garlic salt, and of
(19:21):
course our meats and cheese is still on the table
because you already know we're dogs, and we got the
dog in as about a heat and then it wouldn't
be complete without Bridget's heirloom familial Italian pasta plates, garlic,
sweet basil tomato. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back
(19:43):
after this. Hey Brian again, let's get back into it.
I love it, so so here's what's going to happen.
It's probably pretty hot, but I think you can handle it,
(20:04):
and I want you to tell me what you're tasting smelling.
First of all, tell me about what you see right away.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's taken me back. This is familiar this looks bro
it looks amazing. One of my favorite things that happens
with the stromboli after it's bit in the oven is
you'll get little pockets of exposure. Right the doe will
break in different points. Sometimes it's you just never know where,
but that's a good sign. You get a little of
the meat and cheese poking its head out there.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Uh huh, extra stuffed.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I'll probably request although this is dude, this is soft.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Oh my god, it feels good. Dude, this is softer here,
this is soft here in the middle. Yeah, it must
crispyer here on the edge.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I might request something a little further away from the edge,
just to get a little My dad, for example, we
all had different My dad loves the heel, although of
course inevitably a little less meat and cheese there, just
the way it bakes, the way you fold it. Look
at that, that's just all bread. Yeah right here, that's
your move right now, boom.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
You know you guys understand, give me that getting a
sauce a little bread, double dip, double dip, absolutely triple dip.
So my theory is that the edge is cooked. Now
I'm a little nervous about the middle being gummy because
it's so stuffed. But at this point, man, we just
gonna have it, so I'm gonna cut into it. Oh yeah, dude,
(21:24):
Oh yeah, that looks good.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
That looks awesome. The dripping, the oil from the pepperoni,
from all the meats, the drippage that's happening, dude.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
The floor is yours, my friend.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I'm not gonna dip yet, just so you know, I'm
gonna go.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Just you got a nice cheese ooz.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Got a nice cheese ooz and a pepperoni ooze, which
I love.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
The cheese is gonna happen right now when I fight
into it and pull out and let's do it. Don't don't, don't.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Mmmmm hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
There it is all right. I'm gonna start dipping.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Start dipping. Wow, my body is like, where have you been? Bro?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
You're gonna make this again?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Are you go? Oh my god?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I've never had with pesto before. H That pesto is awesome,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So bear with me. I've been onder the diet for
ten days, guys, I have I haven't had nothing like this.
I'm kind of feeling it a little bit. Oh my goodness.
Uh sorry, I'm in a state of ecstasy here.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I like the real fough part of the middle.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
So Jason's going in right now. So what are you tasting?
Give us some of the details.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Taste this is This is it? Bro, There's nothing to
say except this is it. I mean, this dough might
be it is a step above my moms. My mom's
is more simple, but still like, this is it is
what I remember. The pesto is a really I'm gonna
I'm gonna talk to my mom about this. Yeah, I'm gona. Yeah,
I'm gonna try to introduce pesto this Christmas.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So we just want to know. Did I bring you back? Bro?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm back. I'm there right now, I'm there right now.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I'm very happy that you're back because you're gonna have
to take this with you, because if you don't take
it with you, I'm going to regain all the weight.
I just think I lost, dude. I think I have
to go, and I'm gonna go in for a little slipper. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
No, it's work, Yeah, it's work. This is one of
those foundational, the standard Italian American New Jersey things. I
was always out of our my family, the one with
the more adventurous palette, which is to say, I wanted
the linguini with clams when I was, you know, eight
years old, right. But like I said earlier, once I
(23:54):
once I moved out, and once I started traveling, and
once I got more exposed, once I had a bigger
budget that I can play with and sort of try
different things. Fine dining Michelin stars World's fifty Best expensive
tasting menu Oma Casse awesome. But at the end of
the day, authentic food, regional cuisine simple. This is my heart.
(24:21):
You know, this is like and all cultures, you know, obviously,
this is me. This is Italian, American, this is what
I connect you from my past. But I'll go on
these food trips I think I was telling you about them.
I'll go on these crazy food trips with my best friend,
and it's great and we're lucky that we can do it,
that we can afford to do it, and that I'm
lucky I have a friend who appreciates it and can
(24:42):
also afford to do it. But the highlight of those
trips always ends up being, you know, we go to
Barcelona and we're eating at tickets and Enigma and dysrutar,
which is going to be number one in the world soon.
And they're all great, But that little taps place that
we went to in the back alley that someone told
us about on an airplane over right, that's the fucking spot.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
That's the jam. That's the spot. That's the jam. And
then I feel like that that right there. It takes
obviously getting out there in the world and really just
living it. Like there's no list that can give you
the experience of that. That's just stuff you stumble into
that simplicity, things that make you feel comforted, things that
are delicious, things that are friendly, are on the wallet, yep,
(25:23):
but still use high quality ingredients. You know. I want
to talk a little bit about how, you know, you've
had quite the career. You've been doing what you do
for a long time. How did this food kind of
fuel you in that direction? If it did, you know,
when did you start acting? As I was five, you
were five years old when you started performing for people
(25:44):
at a high level, which is just I don't think
most people can. You know. It's almost like athletes, like
soccer players that start when they're like four, right, It's
like that expectation yeah, do you turn to stuff like
this in moments where you are like, oh, man, like
I need a break, I need to go eat.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I'll tell you what if for me one of the
reasons I think I am the kind of person I
am today, which is to say, someone who appreciates everything
that I have, understands the peaks and valleys of this industry,
respects my coworkers, and just loves being on a set
and pinches himself. I pinch myself every time, like, this
(26:21):
is my job? How cool is this? This is the
coolest job. I'm so lucky.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Did you pinch yourself when you met me? Brian?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Right? There are exceptions, obviously there are exceptions. But I
credit my family, my upbringing, and my connection to my
home and my community and my family and meals like
this with keeping me grounded and balanced, because again, five
years old, I'm starting working professionally in New York City.
(26:49):
You know, if there's any sort of theme to my
life looking back, it is the sort of two worlds
that I straddle and have my whole life, right, that
sort of small town Italian, blue collar, working class New
Jersey world where I would eat meals like Stromboli and pasta,
(27:14):
an iceberg lettuce salad.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Oh yeah, you know, yeahs by the.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Way, best the best, and then this other world that
you could see and I would go into, as you know,
and I would act professionally and work with mostly adults
and people who were on different paths and living different
life experiences. And it was very adult and different. And
the reason I think I never got swept up in
(27:38):
that and knock on woods so far am not a
casualty of coming up in the industry that way, is
because of my connection to my home. You know. My
mom didn't up and move with me to Los Angeles
to try to, like, you know, do that, which a
lot of the other New York actor kids did, right
their families would just pull up and be like, okay,
(27:58):
and do it all for this kid, and like, let's see,
we're gonna go he's gonna be famous, and let's go
do it. And that was never on the table, and
they gave up a lot for me. Again, I was
mentioned earlier, my mom started working nights just in case
I had an audition or a job that she would
take me to after school. You could drive me into
the city, but that you know, it was just hey,
(28:20):
I'll take you into the city. We'll travel with you
if you get a job. But this is our life,
this is what we can afford. This is home. Even
if I would go to la for three months to
do a TV series, we came back.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I credit them and that childhood with making me the
way I am now as an adult actor who has
attained quite a bit of success.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah. Yeah, and I can feel that. Like, honestly, when
I met you, I was like, yeah, I mean, I
have no clue that this du this dude's don't though
when after I met you, Oh, it's real. Reality is
something that you can sense within people. It's interesting because
you know, when you have this idea of some and
you meet them in person, you instantly can tell if
they're just like regular And I tell you what, they
(29:05):
all have been most people that we've kind of met.
But you were. You just a real cat. You're a
New York type cat. I really appreciate that you hold
your family so dearly in your heart, because that's like
everything for me, Like family is everything to me. Having
that cultural background from a different country, like having the
cuisine element that I strive for, like my mom cooking
(29:27):
special dishes, from Honduras or something like the fact that
you also are going through the same thing. It's just
really nice to kind of be around. It's also real
from your parents. Man, it's just like yo, like, sure,
you might make a big time, but this is where
we at. Man, we out here in New Jersey, bro, Like,
this is where we live and this is what it is.
And I think that probably has kept you quite humble.
I don't know if humble as were no.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Humble is if I can humbly say that, I think
I am pretty humble. I mean, I you know, I've
got an ego. I've got, but I recognize it, and
I recognize when it sometimes needs to be right, you know,
and I have people around me that would check it.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
So with your kids right now, they're not actors, are they? They?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, it's so funny you ask, because literally my oldest
kid is going through a phase right now where he's
wants to be an actor. He's seeing it. I also think,
is it because you're an actor? Is yeah, Well it's
so current. But I think a little bit of it
has to do with he's now at an age where
(30:26):
he's recognizing that people react to me and my and
my fame right in a certain way. And he kind
of likes it. You know, he's nine.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
He's nine. Yeah, yeah, he'll.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Be ten soon. But it's about you know, it's tricky
because of our jobs and what we do. When we
put ourselves out there in the public forum and people
recognize us, it's it's tricky. I'm learning. He's my first son,
so I we have no idea how to do this
or what we're doing. We're learning as.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
We got making some strombolia.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I gotten to start making some making.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, that's a good idea. Like it's strumbling something you
would buy.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I've run into it in some delis in Jersey. It's
not a very commonplace, even in Italian delis. It's not
very commonplace. But when I do see it, if I'm
in the mood, I will I will grab it. And
it's always good. I mean it's hard to honestly, bro,
it's hard to like mess up meat.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Meat cheese and bread.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Take away from you, but meat, cheese and breads, right, like,
come on, meat cheese and bread is the trifecta combo
that some friends and my brother growing up, we had
this moment and we were not high or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
But we were sitting on the couch in like late
high school and we were just like philosophizing a little bit,
and we started talking about bread, meat and cheese, and
we were like, we were talking about how many different
iconic foods. If you take it back to the basics,
it's just bread, meat and cheese, tacos, burritos, like the burger,
the bread meat and cheese, the hot dog, the bread
(31:59):
meat and cheese. If you put chatter on your hot
dog like a savage like me, sandwiches bred meat like.
That's the thing about Italian food I love. I've been
to Italy a couple of times. That's why I proposed
to Bridge. You already know what it is. What I
love about Italian food is when the quality ingredients hits
you don't really need to do much to it. That's it.
And that's why I was like, I'm not gonna go
to the grocery store and get some prepackaged bores head
(32:22):
or whatever. I'm gonna go find some Italian cast who's
importing it, cutting it fresh. That's all you need. And
you know, the nice does not gonna hurt you know
what I'm saying. We'll be back after these messages from
our sponsors back to the interview.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
But I tell you what though, like for me, the
most important thing for Jenny and Knife is to try
our best to raise our kids. Use the word real,
you know, as real kids who understand, you know, between
obviously right and wrong, good and bad, but also sort
of take what we do with a relative grain of salt.
(33:09):
We don't want to tell him to not be proud.
I mean they're proud of you know. When he hears
that I'm on something or he sees me in something,
he's definitely proud. But it's about trying to make sure
that his desires around it and his happiness around it
is not because we're famous and people validate us, right,
because that validation is temporary and it's transactional. Not that
(33:34):
it's not real, but it's not the kind of validation
that I want my kids to be seeking. Oh you
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
So throughout your career, obviously did you have to think
about that on your own? I mean, because like you,
you're a famous person and your kids see that. Now,
your parents were not famous people, so the way they
dealt with your career was different than what you have
to do right, it's different, exactly right, and you're having
to live through both of them, right, exactly, So, like,
(34:03):
what would you have done differently? I guess like, because
you have so much information to give to your kids,
how did you get through all this?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Not to sound repetitive, but obviously a lot of that
goes back to my upbringing and where I was raised.
I also think a lot of it really has to
do with understanding the fickleness of my industry and knowing
that even though I've achieved a certain level of success,
(34:35):
there's still dark times. There's still hard times, and so
it's recognizing that and being prepared for that as best
you can, and having a certain confidence that when things
are in a bit of a lull, whether it's personally professionally,
it's understanding that there's a plan and being confident in
(34:58):
your abilities that you will that it's all good. Like
you've been doing this since you were five years old.
You've gone stretches without work, You've gone stretches, you know
where it's been hard, really hard. It's not all roses.
Just keep grinding and be patient. Patients is obviously a
huge part of it. You know, right now, my kids
are only seeing the good stuff, and that's good. I
(35:20):
don't want to show them like you know what it's
like to not have a job for a year and
a half, you know what I mean. Like right now,
they're they're seeing, Oh, people come up to him and
recognize him on the street. My dad, how cool? You
know where he go? My kids go to school. A
lot of it's happening at school, right And this is
part of the reason why we moved out of Los
Angeles and back here, is because you know, my sons
(35:43):
are in school, not with a bunch of other famous
actors kids and directors kids, and like in LA that's
sort of the it's kind of a who's who, Like
are you ever going to a birthday party this weekend
at the Rock's daughter's house? You know, And it's like, oh, okay,
but you know, so my kids will go to school
and I think they're fellow classmates will be like, you know, oh,
(36:05):
your dad, I saw your dad in a commercial thing
and we were flipping or or my dad says, your
dad is famous, you know, And I think they get
a kick out of that. It gives them that momentary.
You know, it's hardy and get in it's dope, right,
But you know, I got my ten year old almost
ten year old and now coming home being like, I
want to act, I want to white. Can I be
(36:25):
in movies too? And it's like, that's the other part
of this in terms of how we're navigating it and
trying to keep it real is I mean, I wouldn't
say definitively, because Jenny writes a lot, and there's always
a world in which Jenny writes something that maybe we
would put the maybe we would consider allowing the kids
to be in Maybe we could, But at the end
(36:47):
of the day, we don't even show their faces on Instagram.
We really try to protect them because they're going to
be adults at some point and look back and it's
not it's not their choice, Like we don't want them
to look back on things and be like I wouldn't
Why did you post that about me or say that?
So it's tricky and obviously Jenny's a writer and she
writes very truthfully and brutally honest, and so much of
(37:10):
her material comes from home, and so it's hard for her.
But she's also trying to navigate that in her own
way when she writes about the kids. But in terms
of getting them into acting. People ask me that all
the time, and now my own nine year old son
is asking me about that, and the answer is, no,
we are not going to do it. I have this
sort of weird relationship with me being a kid actor.
(37:33):
At the end of the day, I'm super grateful for
it because it made me an outlier. By the time
I was nineteen and living in Los Angeles, I had
already had this career. I had had tons of hours
of practice. I had worked opposite actors who won Tony's
for the role that I was acting opposite them with.
I don't know if that's English at all, but you
(37:54):
understand what I'm saying. So by the time American Pie
came around, I was positioned well to do that. The
thing about my kids is, my kids don't need to
be kid actors in order to be positioned well. They're
already going to have an advantage. Let's be perfectly honest, right,
There is going to be a certain accessibility that I
(38:14):
didn't have as a kid that I had to earn
in a different way. Not saying that they're not going
to earn their stake, but if they want to be actors,
they can wait till they're eighteen or I mean, if
they want to go to college, they're going to college.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yeah, you going to college. Go to college. I mean,
you heard it here, you're going to college.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
But you know what I mean, they can make that
choice as an adult for themselves. They can do whatever
they want, you know, and we will support as best
we can. But yeah, in terms of getting them into it,
I mean, it was kind of an accident. And how
I got into it. It wasn't like my mom was like,
I want my kids to be famous. I mean, that
was not the path we took. It was kind of accidental.
My older sister, as one of her after school hobbies
(38:53):
was in dance classes. She was really good. She ended
up with another dance group that traveled around and performed
and did well, and a lot of the other girls.
Because of the proximity to the city, their mom started
taking them into New York to get agents and managers
and tried doing commercials and stuff. My sister wanted to
do it, and my mom was like, all right, you know,
it could be a way to save money for college,
(39:15):
and so it happened with her. He got a manager,
that manager a couple of years later, was like, Jason,
would he be interesting because I could set him out.
I bet I could get him auditions and stuff. And
I was like, yeah, I want to do that, and
so that's how it happened. And I just loved it
and started working consistently enough where I was like, this
is great. I feel comfortable here. It was very freeing
for me. I really felt like I could you were liberated.
(39:38):
I was like liberated. It was fun, and very early
on I was. It kind of started skewing comedic, and
so I enjoyed making people laugh and so I identified
with that feeling very early on and enjoyed it. Loved it.
In my mom's head the whole time was all right,
college bunny. You know. The irony of course now is
(39:59):
I've dropped out of two colleges and have twelve non
transferable credits to my name, But.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Right twelve is more than no credit.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
It's true. Yeah, I just my kid's situation is different,
and we want to try to protect them, you know,
empower them to make the choices. We're not going to
make the choices for that, right, And I feel like
when kids go into acting, it's the parents making the
choice for them. To be right now, the kid can't
do it himself. It does, yeah, you know, I mean
there are more passive instances, you know, where a kid
(40:29):
is super like. I just want to do this. I'm
not going to begrudge all kid actors and their parents.
I don't want to do that again. I was one,
so but I just have a different take on it all.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I think. Yeah, it's a tricky balance. Man. You've got
the experience, You've gone through it yourself. It's a different
world today than it was back then, and you know,
you make the best judgment. At the end of the day.
It's all gonna be okay. It's going to know what
I mean, You're all going to be able to do
your great father. You're doing what you can for your
kids and love them and bring them from bowling.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
And bring them from making.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I'm gonna tell you what. I'm gonna tell you one thing, man,
I'm gonna tell you one thing for real. You better
start making shrom bowling.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I'm going to, I really am, I'm going to. Did
you see my post the other day? I got some
Barada and uh oonie.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Uh were you in your kitchen?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I was in my kitchen.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
You were doing something.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I just had some pre made for Kacha Foraly and
I had some Barda on it and some Oonie and
sea salt and olive oil. It was great. But dude,
if I had your facaca, which.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
You can, private lessons start around two thousand dollars an hour.
They don't, by the way, they don't. They're cheapest. Fuck man,
the market's hard out there. Wow, Jason, it's been really
exceptional to kind of hear you know. And I'm not
sure how often you talk about how food you know enough? Man, Yeah,
(41:48):
because like getting to know you, you talk about food a lot.
That's what I was, Man. I really got to get
Jason flakey biscuit because like food, and I do hope
that you know you passed some of you your food
traditions onto your kids, whether it's rekindling your your from
Bulli Flame or or maybe it's you love the Omacasti
store like whatever. Man, Like whatever it is, bring those
(42:08):
Sunday dinners to your family and I'll love it. Take
their mind off that acting. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
You can get him to be a chef, man, that'd
be fun.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
It might be a little brutal. Tell them not to
be a baker at the hour. We love to close
out our episodes with a little fun, flaky game. I
got a few questions for you, Jason. Are you ready
for the flaky game?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
I am ready for the flaky game.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Bro. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna throw you a softball. Here.
The three toppings of the margarita pizza make up Italian
flag colors. What are the they?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Hey, listen, obviously have the tomato sauces red, the basil
is the green, and then the white is the cheese
the muzzarel.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Wow, that was actually a very sophisticate you know what.
You kept it classy. Yeah, you kept it really classy
with that answer. I have a I have a question
I want to ask you at the top of my head.
So we're talking about iconic classic foods from the Northeast, specifically,
you know, the New Jersey, New York area, which is
the following is an iconic New York staple. And I'm
asking you this because you're a dog like me, all
(43:19):
right now, and let me get through the whole three trials.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
I't you. You can't get through you.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Is it clean water hot dogs? Is it filthy water?
Hot dogs or is it dirty water hot dogs?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
It's dirty water dog dogs.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Come on, we got one more for you. Is a
deep fried what is it? Oh? Do it? Well?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Was it like a deep fried doughnut? Basically it's like a.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
A which is basically a doughnut, Yeah, which is dough ball.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
But then the best for me, the best, like at Sanjranaro's,
is you go to the Zeppelin stand and you have
the dough you drop them in a brown paper bag
and then you do the jerk them off. You do
the powdered sugar into the bag, and then you kind
of close the bag up and you shake the bag
up and then you get all that powdered sugar on
(44:17):
the fresh greasy man and then and then the bag
starts getting the grease stains on the bottom of it.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Anyway, I love that sounds like Bennet's Yeah, shaking up
Italian Italian benees. It's almost like with bread, meat and cheese.
There's also this other sector of like yes, it's like
bro It's it's like people from different cultures talk about something.
You're like, oh, that's like that, that's like exactly, yeah,
it's like yeah, like that you're.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Describing this, but it's like called something different because you're somewhere.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Somewhere else, Like Indian cast will be like, man, that's
like ROTI and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
It is, yeah, but but it's.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Like that, you know, bread, meat and cheese. Guys, that's it,
Jason Bigs. We want to highlight today the Community Food
Bank of New Jersey. Right, let's talk a little bit
about that, and let's let our listeners know how they
can help.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
I mean, for me, obviously I'm from New Jersey, so
that's a good one. But basically just you know, any
any of your local food banks. I know you talk
about it a lot, Brian. I think it's a great
place to put your time and money if you can,
because it it assists people who are you know, have
some food and securities and needs. And so for me,
it's a Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
If y'all are out there out here in this area,
get out there and volunteer. You might catch me and
Jason out there handing out some Stromboli's right.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
We probably should act if we don't eat them first.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
If we don't if we managed to not eat them first,
we might need to pull up and hand some of
those out with the holidays coming up, making sure people
have some full bellies out there, man, So go out there, donate,
volunteer and mister Jason Biggs pulled up to Queen's today,
pulled up to the Flaky Biscuit podcast.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
This was awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Thank you so much, min.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Thank you Brian, This is awesome, dude appreciated. Yep, thank
you for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Thank y'all so much for listening. Fam. You can find
my recipe for the Stromboli on shanlan dot com. And y'all,
I want to know how it goes. Please tag artist
and Brian, tag Jason Biggs, post your photos, your videos,
tell me how you did when you made a strombowlie.
You can find your local food bank and volunteer or
donate at Feedinamerica dot org. All the handles and links
I've mentioned are in the show notes for this episode. Fam.
(46:31):
If you like Flaky Biscuit, you already know what to do.
Leave us a rating, review, share, subscribe. You already know
we coming through with the best food podcast content out there,
so you might as well let everybody else know that too.
Flaky Biscuit is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, alex Alja,
Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our creative producer
(46:53):
is Bridget Kenna and our editor and producer is Nicholas Harder,
with music by Crucial. Recipes from Flaky Biscuit can be
found each week on shondaland dot Com. Subscribe to the
Shondaland YouTube channel for more Flaky Biscuit content. Flaky Biscuit
is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(47:17):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Flaky Biscuit is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Welcome to Flaky Biscuit, where each episode we're
cooking up delicious morsels of nostalgia. We talk about these
meals and recipes that have comforted and guided our guest
to success. Each episode, I'm creating a recipe from scratch
(00:21):
and literally hand delivering it to my guest. All right,
these recipes. I hope y'all are making it at home.
Go to Shawnaland dot com. I'm Brian Ford. I write cookbooks,
I make TV shows, but most importantly, I like to
cook and bake for people. And I'm staring into someone's
dreamy eyes in my kitchen right now. Today. It's a
guest who is quite familiar with food. An actor, comedian,
(00:45):
so many different things, best known for playing Jim Levenstein
in the American pie comedy film series, Leonardo in the
first two seasons of Teenage Mutant Into Turtles, and Larry
Bloom in the Netflix original series Orange Is New Black.
Some new movie that just came out on Netflix right
The Christmas Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, Christmas movie, Best Christmas Ever, Best Christmas Ever.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It is my new friend who I just did a
special project with and is now hanging out with me
coming to my pop ups. Jason Biggs? What's up, dude?
How are they?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'm great, man, I'm happy, super happy to be here
with my new friend, new friends Bryan and Bridget I
just made the br connection. By the way, the bris
Have you talked about the special project we did yet?
Are you dropping what it is yet? I haven't really
(01:40):
talked about it either.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I don't know it is a baking project. But how
are you? In general? Man? You came to my pop up?
That was very special.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
That was awesome, you know when we were working together,
of course, or even before. I mean, when I heard
who else was going to be involved in the show,
was like, Okay, this is gonna be cool. He's he
seems like a cool dude to Hay with which you were,
and seems like a really special baker. And I can't
wait to try his stuff. And you know, we did
a baking show and we tried lots of baked goods,
(02:10):
and to hear you talking about those baked goods but
having not yet tried your baked goods, I was super
excited to come back and hit your pop up. I
hit it that first weekend. Yeah, my kids and I
and my wife Jenny, we were out and about. It
was awesome. I'll be perfectly honest. I'm still I'm still
working out all the names because obviously they have very
(02:33):
specific names. I'm still calling them like, you know, the
doughnut thing, which is the guava cream stuffed concha. There
you go, Yeah, the chocolate chocolate conchu and the guava cuncha.
Oh my god, it was so good.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Anyway, I'm really listen, man. That's how I know you
real man, because you pulled up brought the fam. You
know what I'm saying, Cops, Yeah, that was really special.
So it's been nice to double park for you and everything. Absolutely,
and now you're in the Queen's basement.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's love, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So so I was running late doing deliveries and I
gotta prep this meal. We're gonna do a little change
up here. I'm going to prepare this meal in front
of Jason right now. But why don't you tell the
listeners what your most nostalgic meal is that you're having
me prepare. I will.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So it is Stromboli Italian Stromboli and actually to be
perfectly honest, I don't know if it traces back to
Italy or if it's more of an Italian American thing,
But I grew up in an Italian American household, and
my mother would make this stromboli and she would make
it sometimes randomly throughout the year, but always always around
(03:43):
Christmas time, so either for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day,
sometimes both. Sometimes she would do it for Thanksgiving. She
actually was randomly right before you asked me to do
this and to come up with the food. She was
telling me that she made it for the first time
in a little while for my niece, her granddaughter, who's
like obsessed with it. Damn yeah, yeah, my mom make it.
(04:06):
And so basically it's baked rolled dough, stuffed with rolled
with Italian meats and cheeses. Right, so it's like salami,
pepperoni ham Maybe I'm not quite sure. I mean you
could obviously take some liberties there and whatever, and then
Italian cheeses provolone and maybe more privolone. And it was
(04:29):
always served as like the appetizer, or if it was out,
if there were some antipasta on the table, you know,
there'd be like you know, some olives and some rolled
cold cuts and some whatever anchovies what all this stuff,
and then my mother's sliced romboli, you know, coming right
right out of the oven.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
And had a little sausa dip in and.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Then a sausagh you do the marinera sauce to dip whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's all right, I'm glad that you described it that way,
in a way that doesn't compromise what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay. The thing I will say about it too, is
like I love food since I moved away from home.
I moved out when I was nineteen and then started
traveling more and being exposed to more cultures and cuisines
from around the world, and my palette expanded, my budget increased,
et cetera. Right, Yeah, and so all that excites me.
(05:21):
That kind of food, that's you know, people are doing
crazy stuff with. But I grew up in a house
where there was simple food, simple you know, Italian food,
and not even every day. I mean we had some
days we were rocking TV dinners and whatever. It was
a you know cereal for dinner. Yeah, hungry man, dude,
the little cranberry thing in the middle.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's why my blood pressure probably increased because all the
hungry Man's I've eaten.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's hilarious. That's probably why I'm on a statin. Yeah,
but I still love and appreciate my mom would make,
you know, some beans, soups and stuff or whatever, you know,
like Italian peasant food, poor man's dinner. I love it.
And Stromboli was just one of these for me. It
just felt very blue collar North Jersey Italian American things
(06:07):
that my mom would make. We loved it so much
it became like a holiday thing. But it's just real simple, yeah,
and I love it. I love it. It brings me back.
I love it, man.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I appreciate you sharing that. And we're gonna dive deep.
I'm gonna have to get this in the oven. I'll
give you a little a rundown of what's going down.
So I looked up Stromboli. You know, I never made
stromboli before. I made pizzas ficaciaus. I'm actually quite good
at making that. And the dough looks similar to pizza dough.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It looked like a little.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Enrichment with olive oil, a little salt, hydrated nicely because
it's got to stay light. You know, you don't want
it to be too dense. And so, you know, I
went through my morning today. I got to the bakery
at five. Everything seemed normal, and then the bakers were like, yo,
the cookies are fucked and we need to make a
new batch a dough. And I was like, okay, that's
(06:54):
gonna set my day back significantly. I delivered the cookies
too late that and then in my head, I'm like, damn,
I didn't have a chance to strombolie. Well, you know,
but you're lucking out because I had extra, better quality
dough than I could have made on the same day.
I have some nicely fermented it's a hybrid between what
(07:17):
you might know as a facasha and a baguette. It's
for these beatout thests, these baguettes that I served to
a wine bar. And the dough's got a little bit
of enrichment to it. It's nicely hydrated and it's been
resting in the fridge all night. So I grabbed it
out the walk in and I've got it with me.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What so were you planning on using I was.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Going to make a same day dough with some pre ferment,
some fresh yeast, some olive oil, a little sugar. You know,
I was basically going to make this type of dough
but on the same day, and you know, because like
my brain is like not that organized, I was like, wait,
I have I have some like better dough. Yep. So
I snacked that and then I was like, okay, I
gotta get the meat, the cold cuts. I'm not about
(07:58):
to go to you know, the grocery store, to Arthur
as shit. I mean, I wish I had that kind
of time, Okay, okay, okay, But I went to something similar.
I went to David Toni's Deli. I love it out
here on thirtieth as it's the second time of you
Dave in Tony's man homiees in there. It feels like
you walk in and you're in Italy because nobody speaking English.
Day plande Italiano. They're going in. Old man behind the counter,
(08:21):
He's like, oh, what do you want? And like so
I pulled up and I told the dude, I need
to make sure on bowli and he said, I know
exactly what you need stock man, yo. So he gave
me i' gonna show you right now.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, what do they give you?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
All? Right? So, first of all, for your dipping sauce
imported San Martano, San Marzano. We're gonna crush these up,
get some salt in them, dope, and for our for
our meat selection here all right, so we've got by
the way, this is the wax paper. This is what
you're supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
This is great. I'm psyched on this.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Some excellent Italian mozzarella. Okay, that's what pounded it? Right?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Getting a piece of that? Or no, are you handed
me that ship?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Have a little slice or what what you.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Have me?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, I'm gonna have a slice, baby on a slice. Yeah,
there you go. Mmmm, that's nice. That's gonna melt really nicely.
Then I've got two types of cop cola, got a google.
One is spicy, one is not spicy. So in my
(09:32):
head I'm like, I don't know if you like spicy
or not. So I got both. So I'm gonna just
like kind of layer them, and then of course some
pet on some nice freshly slice. Look at that. Look
at the color on that, dude. Yeah, look dig in
well I told you earlier.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I said part of it is the antipasta laid out.
It's already cold.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Is your coca? Here we go? So we already hitting
the nostalgia because I'm laying.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It out of spicy.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's good, just got a kick.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Now for the dough, so we're gonna assemble this and
we're gonna pop it in the oven. I'm trying to
make this look nice. You know what I'm saying for
my viewers. All right, look at this dough. Oh what now?
Smell it? Oh, come and smell this dough. What I'm
gonna do? I never made stromboli before, all right, so
unde dude is gorgeous. This dough is kind of wicked.
It's gotta be kind of long so we can slice it.
(10:20):
So I'm gonna want to roll it this way, get
it kind of long, and I'm gonna start with the
cheese and I'm gonna go heavy on this ship. I'm
not gonna play around. M h. I have a little
semolina on the dough. So the dough is funky. It's
a twenty four to forty eight hour forer men. All right,
I'm gonna do do a layer. Oh my goodness, so
many options here. So I'm gonna start with a spicy
(10:40):
so as you're as you're watching me, right now, what
can you tell me about my approach, Like, how did
your mom do it? Because I'm just sitting here just
layering things up.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I mean, that's basically what she would do. She did
the pizza dough, rolled it out, started stuffing the hell
out of it, mm hmm, and then uh, rolled it
up and baked.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Do you think I'm over stuffing it right now because
I'm I'm just kind of going in.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Based on the I think her dough is usually a
little thinner. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, this
is gonna be dope, dude. So I think because yours
seemingly is gonna be a little thicker, you have more
room to get more meats and cheese in there. That's right,
that's what's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So now comes the roll up. So I've got two
layers of cheese, two layers of meat.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I was gonna say, maybe another layer cheese. And I'll
tell you why, just because part of the appeal of
the stromboli is when you cut it and then bite
into it, that ooz, that ooze, that ooze is big.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
So we got another layer of cheese here, Just put
some more meat on it too. I mean, like I'll
just put like a single, just like a single pepperoni line.
I'm gonna brush this with some melted butter. So I'm
gonna get up real quick, get some parchment. Oh yeah,
we got Stromboli facts Strom.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
In Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Wait, well, I knew it wasn't going to go trace
back to Italy. There's so many Italian foods that, like
I grew up with in Jersey that you do a
little research, you go, oh, wait, that's not even it
doesn't even come from Italy.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And we're gonna go into the oven. Tell me about
the first time you had your mom's trumboli.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Hmmm. It was something that in my memory doesn't go
back to early childhood. It was more of a I
want to say, I was maybe ten or something like.
It's not something that I remember in my life at
all times, because I remember my mom trying it for
the first time, discovering it, and I don't know if
she what prompted her, but it sort of usurped the
(12:40):
pizza in terms of what I have two sisters in
terms of what we and my dad in terms of
what we would wanted and asked for the most. Because
you know, the other thing is you slice it up,
and then family of five. That thing's like gone. She
was put in two three at a time. Four. Maybe
it's hard to pinpoint the first time, but it was
(13:02):
an immediate love affair, and we immediately started requesting it. Interestingly,
the other thing that she made that we really liked
more in your world, I suppose, was an apple crisp.
Oh yeah, like a fritter, like a cobbler, kind of
a yeah, except for the one year she was on
(13:23):
a bit of a health kick, so instead of sugar
she tried splendor. It was a no bueno. We still
give her shit about it.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The splendid crisp.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The splendid chris Ma, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
How many times did she do this? Just once or
multiple times?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I think once? But we we came down hard and
we were bummed.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
We were really bummed cutting up little bags of splenda?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Can you imagine?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
No, I've never like even con considered, oh could you?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
By the way, how do you even measure it out?
Because splenda has a totally different like you can't measure
the same amount of splenda as sugar, right, And there's
no recipe of apple crisp that calls for splendor. Not yet, dude,
it was it was not edible.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
I'm gonna make sure I make you a splendor Crisp
one day. The thing is, I'm not going to tell
you I put splendor in it right away. Dude.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That's a taste I will never It's burned into my memory. Dude.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
We should start an opposite podcast of like things you
don't want to eat?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yes, yes, yes, foods you need to avoid at all costs.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Memories. We didn't want to bring back up, but we
brought it.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Back Welcome to the Food Trauma Hour with Brian and
Bridget So. Yeah, I remember it being heavy in the rotation,
especially you know, middle school and high school when the.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Next time you're going to see your mom's savor us
slice of this strum bowl.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We should. Actually, I'd be psyched.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
If let's see how it comes out that my dad,
my dad tell me.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
If my dad tries it too, like, I could see
him saying something like, oh, Ange, that's my mom's name.
Why don't you make it like this, and then he's
like kicked out of the house.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That'd be awesome to see it. It'd be great if
you break up my parents.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Oh wow, Yeah, that's the whole time.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
You imagine that'll come back. That'd be a great follow
up episode. Do you guys remember the episode where Jason
Bix came on and we mates from Bolie for him
funny story.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Then we'll talk about your favorite nostalgic moments of when
your parents were together. Now that I now that I
left them apart, it would be curious to see your
dad try it though, if it was.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Like, dude, it's going to be sick. I can tell
you already. Also, because you know what the capa cola.
It's so hard for me not to say gabba gool
when I have my dad, when I have my dad
in my mind, because that's literally like he is Soprano's
like every there is mouturel gabba ghul, pepperona. Like my
dad's like, what is kalama?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Go Dad?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It's at right, Okay, I understand, but it's actually the
word is calamari. It's like, nah, it's come on God,
It's like the C is a GM, like capa cola
is gabba ghoul. Makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, it's an Italian American thing, right, Yeah, you know
I'm Hispanic American, an American, So there's like the kind
of spanglish thing that we do, which is like, yeah,
it's gonna be different than a Hispanic from the main land.
So I think over time, you.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Take the man out of Jersey, but you can't take
the jersey out of the man. And I'm sort of
like that, except I'm now pronouncing things, you know, the
way they're spelled. We would have so Sunday and Sunday,
by the way, Sunday dinner and an Italian American household
is you know, two o'clock. You know that's literally we'd
go to my grandmother sometime, my Italian grandmother who lived
(16:26):
a couple towns over, and she would make a big
thing of Gavatelly Govit dell or Cavatelly. That was her
special tape. So yeah, remember a lot of like Sunday
dinners during the week. It was kind of ad hoc.
One of the my dad calls it poor man's dinner
is potatoes, hot dogs and scrambled egg one pan, one
(16:48):
pot salt pepper ketchup. That was dinner speak, salt salt
pepper ketch SPK.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah. I learned that from her. All right, So I'm
gonna I'm gonna do a lit some for my listeners here,
which is kind of break down some of the fundamentals
of the dish itself. So the dough, it's hydrated nicely,
probably about eighty percent water. The technical part here, because
my eggs were frozen in the back of my fridge
because it's set at a cold temperature. I was not
able to egg wash the Stromboli, which I think would
(17:17):
have given it more of the color that we'd be
looking for, that kind of dark golden brown. I put
melted butter on it and analyzing it, it's not taking
on much color. That upsets me, you know. I wanted
to get that nice bold color before we cut into it.
So the specifics of the dough recipe you can find
on shannaland dot com origins Strombolis from Philly, from Philadelphia,
(17:39):
and it's different from a calzone or calzone, which is
from Italy, all right, so don't get it twisted. And
I think calzonas calzones have sauce in them.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, they saw right. And it's also almost like a pocket.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Correct right from OLLI uses a rectangular dough, whereas a
calzone's a rounded dough that's folded in half. Apparently there's
a third difference between them, and which is the filling.
The classic strong bully fillings we have here are different hams, meats, cheeses,
forkel zones. You want to get the sauce, you want
to get fresh mozzarella could be in there, some sausage
and stuff like that, and some green some green bell peppers.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Ricotta.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Is this Italian one on one with Jason Biggs. Oh wow,
it's safty color. Okay, it's it's actually ready. My first
ever strong Bully has come out of the oven. I
have a feeling this dough might be able to crispy
because it's that highly hydrated dough. But we'll see. I'm
gonna let it cool for two seconds. So I have
a sauce. I typically when I make sauces, I'll take
(18:39):
some nice whole peeled tomatoes, crush them and add salt.
That's literally all I do, and a little I put
a little regano in here. But I don't cook my sauce.
I don't do any that kind of thing. I know
cats that cook their sauce. I know cats that don't.
I found that the fresh even though they can, but
like if they're a good quality, that you can get
that in so so yeah, so I got some sauce
to bring out that flavor, and the Bridget was kind
(19:01):
enough to present our little antipasty situation. We got some
Arti chokes and oil, some tomato. I made a pesto
the other day with the last basil harvest from our
garden because it's starting to get cold. This is a
walnut pesto with some paramagano roggiano olive oil. Obviously it's
a little thick, and you know, garlic salt, and of
(19:21):
course our meats and cheese is still on the table
because you already know we're dogs, and we got the
dog in as about a heat and then it wouldn't
be complete without Bridget's heirloom familial Italian pasta plates, garlic,
sweet basil tomato. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back
(19:43):
after this. Hey Brian again, let's get back into it.
I love it, so so here's what's going to happen.
It's probably pretty hot, but I think you can handle it,
(20:04):
and I want you to tell me what you're tasting smelling.
First of all, tell me about what you see right away.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's taken me back. This is familiar this looks bro
it looks amazing. One of my favorite things that happens
with the stromboli after it's bit in the oven is
you'll get little pockets of exposure. Right the doe will
break in different points. Sometimes it's you just never know where,
but that's a good sign. You get a little of
the meat and cheese poking its head out there.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Uh huh, extra stuffed.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I'll probably request although this is dude, this is soft.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Oh my god, it feels good. Dude, this is softer here,
this is soft here in the middle. Yeah, it must
crispyer here on the edge.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I might request something a little further away from the edge,
just to get a little My dad, for example, we
all had different My dad loves the heel, although of
course inevitably a little less meat and cheese there, just
the way it bakes, the way you fold it. Look
at that, that's just all bread. Yeah right here, that's
your move right now, boom.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
You know you guys understand, give me that getting a
sauce a little bread, double dip, double dip, absolutely triple dip.
So my theory is that the edge is cooked. Now
I'm a little nervous about the middle being gummy because
it's so stuffed. But at this point, man, we just
gonna have it, so I'm gonna cut into it. Oh yeah, dude,
(21:24):
Oh yeah, that looks good.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
That looks awesome. The dripping, the oil from the pepperoni,
from all the meats, the drippage that's happening, dude.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
The floor is yours, my friend.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I'm not gonna dip yet, just so you know, I'm
gonna go.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Just you got a nice cheese ooz.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Got a nice cheese ooz and a pepperoni ooze, which
I love.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
The cheese is gonna happen right now when I fight
into it and pull out and let's do it. Don't don't, don't.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Mmmmm hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
There it is all right. I'm gonna start dipping.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Start dipping. Wow, my body is like, where have you been? Bro?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
You're gonna make this again?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Are you go? Oh my god?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I've never had with pesto before. H That pesto is awesome,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So bear with me. I've been onder the diet for
ten days, guys, I have I haven't had nothing like this.
I'm kind of feeling it a little bit. Oh my goodness.
Uh sorry, I'm in a state of ecstasy here.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I like the real fough part of the middle.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
So Jason's going in right now. So what are you tasting?
Give us some of the details.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Taste this is This is it? Bro, There's nothing to
say except this is it. I mean, this dough might
be it is a step above my moms. My mom's
is more simple, but still like, this is it is
what I remember. The pesto is a really I'm gonna
I'm gonna talk to my mom about this. Yeah, I'm gona. Yeah,
I'm gonna try to introduce pesto this Christmas.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So we just want to know. Did I bring you back? Bro?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm back. I'm there right now, I'm there right now.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I'm very happy that you're back because you're gonna have
to take this with you, because if you don't take
it with you, I'm going to regain all the weight.
I just think I lost, dude. I think I have
to go, and I'm gonna go in for a little slipper. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
No, it's work, Yeah, it's work. This is one of
those foundational, the standard Italian American New Jersey things. I
was always out of our my family, the one with
the more adventurous palette, which is to say, I wanted
the linguini with clams when I was, you know, eight
years old, right. But like I said earlier, once I
(23:54):
once I moved out, and once I started traveling, and
once I got more exposed, once I had a bigger
budget that I can play with and sort of try
different things. Fine dining Michelin stars World's fifty Best expensive
tasting menu Oma Casse awesome. But at the end of
the day, authentic food, regional cuisine simple. This is my heart.
(24:21):
You know, this is like and all cultures, you know, obviously,
this is me. This is Italian, American, this is what
I connect you from my past. But I'll go on
these food trips I think I was telling you about them.
I'll go on these crazy food trips with my best friend,
and it's great and we're lucky that we can do it,
that we can afford to do it, and that I'm
lucky I have a friend who appreciates it and can
(24:42):
also afford to do it. But the highlight of those
trips always ends up being, you know, we go to
Barcelona and we're eating at tickets and Enigma and dysrutar,
which is going to be number one in the world soon.
And they're all great, But that little taps place that
we went to in the back alley that someone told
us about on an airplane over right, that's the fucking spot.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
That's the jam. That's the spot. That's the jam. And
then I feel like that that right there. It takes
obviously getting out there in the world and really just
living it. Like there's no list that can give you
the experience of that. That's just stuff you stumble into
that simplicity, things that make you feel comforted, things that
are delicious, things that are friendly, are on the wallet, yep,
(25:23):
but still use high quality ingredients. You know. I want
to talk a little bit about how, you know, you've
had quite the career. You've been doing what you do
for a long time. How did this food kind of
fuel you in that direction? If it did, you know,
when did you start acting? As I was five, you
were five years old when you started performing for people
(25:44):
at a high level, which is just I don't think
most people can. You know. It's almost like athletes, like
soccer players that start when they're like four, right, It's
like that expectation yeah, do you turn to stuff like
this in moments where you are like, oh, man, like
I need a break, I need to go eat.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I'll tell you what if for me one of the
reasons I think I am the kind of person I
am today, which is to say, someone who appreciates everything
that I have, understands the peaks and valleys of this industry,
respects my coworkers, and just loves being on a set
and pinches himself. I pinch myself every time, like, this
(26:21):
is my job? How cool is this? This is the
coolest job. I'm so lucky.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Did you pinch yourself when you met me? Brian?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Right? There are exceptions, obviously there are exceptions. But I
credit my family, my upbringing, and my connection to my
home and my community and my family and meals like
this with keeping me grounded and balanced, because again, five
years old, I'm starting working professionally in New York City.
(26:49):
You know, if there's any sort of theme to my
life looking back, it is the sort of two worlds
that I straddle and have my whole life, right, that
sort of small town Italian, blue collar, working class New
Jersey world where I would eat meals like Stromboli and pasta,
(27:14):
an iceberg lettuce salad.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Oh yeah, you know, yeahs by the.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Way, best the best, and then this other world that
you could see and I would go into, as you know,
and I would act professionally and work with mostly adults
and people who were on different paths and living different
life experiences. And it was very adult and different. And
the reason I think I never got swept up in
(27:38):
that and knock on woods so far am not a
casualty of coming up in the industry that way, is
because of my connection to my home. You know. My
mom didn't up and move with me to Los Angeles
to try to, like, you know, do that, which a
lot of the other New York actor kids did, right
their families would just pull up and be like, okay,
(27:58):
and do it all for this kid, and like, let's see,
we're gonna go he's gonna be famous, and let's go
do it. And that was never on the table, and
they gave up a lot for me. Again, I was
mentioned earlier, my mom started working nights just in case
I had an audition or a job that she would
take me to after school. You could drive me into
the city, but that you know, it was just hey,
(28:20):
I'll take you into the city. We'll travel with you
if you get a job. But this is our life,
this is what we can afford. This is home. Even
if I would go to la for three months to
do a TV series, we came back.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I credit them and that childhood with making me the
way I am now as an adult actor who has
attained quite a bit of success.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah. Yeah, and I can feel that. Like, honestly, when
I met you, I was like, yeah, I mean, I
have no clue that this du this dude's don't though
when after I met you, Oh, it's real. Reality is
something that you can sense within people. It's interesting because
you know, when you have this idea of some and
you meet them in person, you instantly can tell if
they're just like regular And I tell you what, they
(29:05):
all have been most people that we've kind of met.
But you were. You just a real cat. You're a
New York type cat. I really appreciate that you hold
your family so dearly in your heart, because that's like
everything for me, Like family is everything to me. Having
that cultural background from a different country, like having the
cuisine element that I strive for, like my mom cooking
(29:27):
special dishes, from Honduras or something like the fact that
you also are going through the same thing. It's just
really nice to kind of be around. It's also real
from your parents. Man, it's just like yo, like, sure,
you might make a big time, but this is where
we at. Man, we out here in New Jersey, bro, Like,
this is where we live and this is what it is.
And I think that probably has kept you quite humble.
I don't know if humble as were no.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Humble is if I can humbly say that, I think
I am pretty humble. I mean, I you know, I've
got an ego. I've got, but I recognize it, and
I recognize when it sometimes needs to be right, you know,
and I have people around me that would check it.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
So with your kids right now, they're not actors, are they? They?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, it's so funny you ask, because literally my oldest
kid is going through a phase right now where he's
wants to be an actor. He's seeing it. I also think,
is it because you're an actor? Is yeah, Well it's
so current. But I think a little bit of it
has to do with he's now at an age where
(30:26):
he's recognizing that people react to me and my and
my fame right in a certain way. And he kind
of likes it. You know, he's nine.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
He's nine. Yeah, yeah, he'll.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Be ten soon. But it's about you know, it's tricky
because of our jobs and what we do. When we
put ourselves out there in the public forum and people
recognize us, it's it's tricky. I'm learning. He's my first son,
so I we have no idea how to do this
or what we're doing. We're learning as.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
We got making some strombolia.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I gotten to start making some making.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, that's a good idea. Like it's strumbling something you
would buy.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I've run into it in some delis in Jersey. It's
not a very commonplace, even in Italian delis. It's not
very commonplace. But when I do see it, if I'm
in the mood, I will I will grab it. And
it's always good. I mean it's hard to honestly, bro,
it's hard to like mess up meat.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Meat cheese and bread.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Take away from you, but meat, cheese and breads, right, like,
come on, meat cheese and bread is the trifecta combo
that some friends and my brother growing up, we had
this moment and we were not high or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
But we were sitting on the couch in like late
high school and we were just like philosophizing a little bit,
and we started talking about bread, meat and cheese, and
we were like, we were talking about how many different
iconic foods. If you take it back to the basics,
it's just bread, meat and cheese, tacos, burritos, like the burger,
the bread meat and cheese, the hot dog, the bread
(31:59):
meat and cheese. If you put chatter on your hot
dog like a savage like me, sandwiches bred meat like.
That's the thing about Italian food I love. I've been
to Italy a couple of times. That's why I proposed
to Bridge. You already know what it is. What I
love about Italian food is when the quality ingredients hits
you don't really need to do much to it. That's it.
And that's why I was like, I'm not gonna go
to the grocery store and get some prepackaged bores head
(32:22):
or whatever. I'm gonna go find some Italian cast who's
importing it, cutting it fresh. That's all you need. And
you know, the nice does not gonna hurt you know
what I'm saying. We'll be back after these messages from
our sponsors back to the interview.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
But I tell you what though, like for me, the
most important thing for Jenny and Knife is to try
our best to raise our kids. Use the word real,
you know, as real kids who understand, you know, between
obviously right and wrong, good and bad, but also sort
of take what we do with a relative grain of salt.
(33:09):
We don't want to tell him to not be proud.
I mean they're proud of you know. When he hears
that I'm on something or he sees me in something,
he's definitely proud. But it's about trying to make sure
that his desires around it and his happiness around it
is not because we're famous and people validate us, right,
because that validation is temporary and it's transactional. Not that
(33:34):
it's not real, but it's not the kind of validation
that I want my kids to be seeking. Oh you
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
So throughout your career, obviously did you have to think
about that on your own? I mean, because like you,
you're a famous person and your kids see that. Now,
your parents were not famous people, so the way they
dealt with your career was different than what you have
to do right, it's different, exactly right, and you're having
to live through both of them, right, exactly, So, like,
(34:03):
what would you have done differently? I guess like, because
you have so much information to give to your kids,
how did you get through all this?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Not to sound repetitive, but obviously a lot of that
goes back to my upbringing and where I was raised.
I also think a lot of it really has to
do with understanding the fickleness of my industry and knowing
that even though I've achieved a certain level of success,
(34:35):
there's still dark times. There's still hard times, and so
it's recognizing that and being prepared for that as best
you can, and having a certain confidence that when things
are in a bit of a lull, whether it's personally professionally,
it's understanding that there's a plan and being confident in
(34:58):
your abilities that you will that it's all good. Like
you've been doing this since you were five years old.
You've gone stretches without work, You've gone stretches, you know
where it's been hard, really hard. It's not all roses.
Just keep grinding and be patient. Patients is obviously a
huge part of it. You know, right now, my kids
are only seeing the good stuff, and that's good. I
(35:20):
don't want to show them like you know what it's
like to not have a job for a year and
a half, you know what I mean. Like right now,
they're they're seeing, Oh, people come up to him and
recognize him on the street. My dad, how cool? You
know where he go? My kids go to school. A
lot of it's happening at school, right And this is
part of the reason why we moved out of Los
Angeles and back here, is because you know, my sons
(35:43):
are in school, not with a bunch of other famous
actors kids and directors kids, and like in LA that's
sort of the it's kind of a who's who, Like
are you ever going to a birthday party this weekend
at the Rock's daughter's house? You know, And it's like, oh, okay,
but you know, so my kids will go to school
and I think they're fellow classmates will be like, you know, oh,
(36:05):
your dad, I saw your dad in a commercial thing
and we were flipping or or my dad says, your
dad is famous, you know, And I think they get
a kick out of that. It gives them that momentary.
You know, it's hardy and get in it's dope, right,
But you know, I got my ten year old almost
ten year old and now coming home being like, I
want to act, I want to white. Can I be
(36:25):
in movies too? And it's like, that's the other part
of this in terms of how we're navigating it and
trying to keep it real is I mean, I wouldn't
say definitively, because Jenny writes a lot, and there's always
a world in which Jenny writes something that maybe we
would put the maybe we would consider allowing the kids
to be in Maybe we could, But at the end
(36:47):
of the day, we don't even show their faces on Instagram.
We really try to protect them because they're going to
be adults at some point and look back and it's
not it's not their choice, Like we don't want them
to look back on things and be like I wouldn't
Why did you post that about me or say that?
So it's tricky and obviously Jenny's a writer and she
writes very truthfully and brutally honest, and so much of
(37:10):
her material comes from home, and so it's hard for her.
But she's also trying to navigate that in her own
way when she writes about the kids. But in terms
of getting them into acting. People ask me that all
the time, and now my own nine year old son
is asking me about that, and the answer is, no,
we are not going to do it. I have this
sort of weird relationship with me being a kid actor.
(37:33):
At the end of the day, I'm super grateful for
it because it made me an outlier. By the time
I was nineteen and living in Los Angeles, I had
already had this career. I had had tons of hours
of practice. I had worked opposite actors who won Tony's
for the role that I was acting opposite them with.
I don't know if that's English at all, but you
(37:54):
understand what I'm saying. So by the time American Pie
came around, I was positioned well to do that. The
thing about my kids is, my kids don't need to
be kid actors in order to be positioned well. They're
already going to have an advantage. Let's be perfectly honest, right,
There is going to be a certain accessibility that I
(38:14):
didn't have as a kid that I had to earn
in a different way. Not saying that they're not going
to earn their stake, but if they want to be actors,
they can wait till they're eighteen or I mean, if
they want to go to college, they're going to college.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yeah, you going to college. Go to college. I mean,
you heard it here, you're going to college.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
But you know what I mean, they can make that
choice as an adult for themselves. They can do whatever
they want, you know, and we will support as best
we can. But yeah, in terms of getting them into it,
I mean, it was kind of an accident. And how
I got into it. It wasn't like my mom was like,
I want my kids to be famous. I mean, that
was not the path we took. It was kind of accidental.
My older sister, as one of her after school hobbies
(38:53):
was in dance classes. She was really good. She ended
up with another dance group that traveled around and performed
and did well, and a lot of the other girls.
Because of the proximity to the city, their mom started
taking them into New York to get agents and managers
and tried doing commercials and stuff. My sister wanted to
do it, and my mom was like, all right, you know,
it could be a way to save money for college,
(39:15):
and so it happened with her. He got a manager,
that manager a couple of years later, was like, Jason,
would he be interesting because I could set him out.
I bet I could get him auditions and stuff. And
I was like, yeah, I want to do that, and
so that's how it happened. And I just loved it
and started working consistently enough where I was like, this
is great. I feel comfortable here. It was very freeing
for me. I really felt like I could you were liberated.
(39:38):
I was like liberated. It was fun, and very early
on I was. It kind of started skewing comedic, and
so I enjoyed making people laugh and so I identified
with that feeling very early on and enjoyed it. Loved it.
In my mom's head the whole time was all right,
college bunny. You know. The irony of course now is
(39:59):
I've dropped out of two colleges and have twelve non
transferable credits to my name, But.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Right twelve is more than no credit.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
It's true. Yeah, I just my kid's situation is different,
and we want to try to protect them, you know,
empower them to make the choices. We're not going to
make the choices for that, right, And I feel like
when kids go into acting, it's the parents making the
choice for them. To be right now, the kid can't
do it himself. It does, yeah, you know, I mean
there are more passive instances, you know, where a kid
(40:29):
is super like. I just want to do this. I'm
not going to begrudge all kid actors and their parents.
I don't want to do that again. I was one,
so but I just have a different take on it all.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I think. Yeah, it's a tricky balance. Man. You've got
the experience, You've gone through it yourself. It's a different
world today than it was back then, and you know,
you make the best judgment. At the end of the day.
It's all gonna be okay. It's going to know what
I mean, You're all going to be able to do
your great father. You're doing what you can for your
kids and love them and bring them from bowling.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
And bring them from making.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I'm gonna tell you what. I'm gonna tell you one thing, man,
I'm gonna tell you one thing for real. You better
start making shrom bowling.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I'm going to, I really am, I'm going to. Did
you see my post the other day? I got some
Barada and uh oonie.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Uh were you in your kitchen?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I was in my kitchen.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
You were doing something.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I just had some pre made for Kacha Foraly and
I had some Barda on it and some Oonie and
sea salt and olive oil. It was great. But dude,
if I had your facaca, which.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
You can, private lessons start around two thousand dollars an hour.
They don't, by the way, they don't. They're cheapest. Fuck man,
the market's hard out there. Wow, Jason, it's been really
exceptional to kind of hear you know. And I'm not
sure how often you talk about how food you know enough? Man, Yeah,
(41:48):
because like getting to know you, you talk about food a lot.
That's what I was, Man. I really got to get
Jason flakey biscuit because like food, and I do hope
that you know you passed some of you your food
traditions onto your kids, whether it's rekindling your your from
Bulli Flame or or maybe it's you love the Omacasti
store like whatever. Man, Like whatever it is, bring those
(42:08):
Sunday dinners to your family and I'll love it. Take
their mind off that acting. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
You can get him to be a chef, man, that'd
be fun.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
It might be a little brutal. Tell them not to
be a baker at the hour. We love to close
out our episodes with a little fun, flaky game. I
got a few questions for you, Jason. Are you ready
for the flaky game?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
I am ready for the flaky game.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Bro. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna throw you a softball. Here.
The three toppings of the margarita pizza make up Italian
flag colors. What are the they?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Hey, listen, obviously have the tomato sauces red, the basil
is the green, and then the white is the cheese
the muzzarel.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Wow, that was actually a very sophisticate you know what.
You kept it classy. Yeah, you kept it really classy
with that answer. I have a I have a question
I want to ask you at the top of my head.
So we're talking about iconic classic foods from the Northeast, specifically,
you know, the New Jersey, New York area, which is
the following is an iconic New York staple. And I'm
asking you this because you're a dog like me, all
(43:19):
right now, and let me get through the whole three trials.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
I't you. You can't get through you.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Is it clean water hot dogs? Is it filthy water?
Hot dogs or is it dirty water hot dogs?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
It's dirty water dog dogs.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Come on, we got one more for you. Is a
deep fried what is it? Oh? Do it? Well?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Was it like a deep fried doughnut? Basically it's like a.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
A which is basically a doughnut, Yeah, which is dough ball.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
But then the best for me, the best, like at Sanjranaro's,
is you go to the Zeppelin stand and you have
the dough you drop them in a brown paper bag
and then you do the jerk them off. You do
the powdered sugar into the bag, and then you kind
of close the bag up and you shake the bag
up and then you get all that powdered sugar on
(44:17):
the fresh greasy man and then and then the bag
starts getting the grease stains on the bottom of it.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Anyway, I love that sounds like Bennet's Yeah, shaking up
Italian Italian benees. It's almost like with bread, meat and cheese.
There's also this other sector of like yes, it's like
bro It's it's like people from different cultures talk about something.
You're like, oh, that's like that, that's like exactly, yeah,
it's like yeah, like that you're.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Describing this, but it's like called something different because you're somewhere.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Somewhere else, Like Indian cast will be like, man, that's
like ROTI and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
It is, yeah, but but it's.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Like that, you know, bread, meat and cheese. Guys, that's it,
Jason Bigs. We want to highlight today the Community Food
Bank of New Jersey. Right, let's talk a little bit
about that, and let's let our listeners know how they
can help.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
I mean, for me, obviously I'm from New Jersey, so
that's a good one. But basically just you know, any
any of your local food banks. I know you talk
about it a lot, Brian. I think it's a great
place to put your time and money if you can,
because it it assists people who are you know, have
some food and securities and needs. And so for me,
it's a Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
If y'all are out there out here in this area,
get out there and volunteer. You might catch me and
Jason out there handing out some Stromboli's right.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
We probably should act if we don't eat them first.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
If we don't if we managed to not eat them first,
we might need to pull up and hand some of
those out with the holidays coming up, making sure people
have some full bellies out there, man, So go out there, donate,
volunteer and mister Jason Biggs pulled up to Queen's today,
pulled up to the Flaky Biscuit podcast.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
This was awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Thank you so much, min.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Thank you Brian, This is awesome, dude appreciated. Yep, thank
you for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Thank y'all so much for listening. Fam. You can find
my recipe for the Stromboli on shanlan dot com. And y'all,
I want to know how it goes. Please tag artist
and Brian, tag Jason Biggs, post your photos, your videos,
tell me how you did when you made a strombowlie.
You can find your local food bank and volunteer or
donate at Feedinamerica dot org. All the handles and links
I've mentioned are in the show notes for this episode. Fam.
(46:31):
If you like Flaky Biscuit, you already know what to do.
Leave us a rating, review, share, subscribe. You already know
we coming through with the best food podcast content out there,
so you might as well let everybody else know that too.
Flaky Biscuit is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, alex Alja,
Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our creative producer
(46:53):
is Bridget Kenna and our editor and producer is Nicholas Harder,
with music by Crucial. Recipes from Flaky Biscuit can be
found each week on shondaland dot Com. Subscribe to the
Shondaland YouTube channel for more Flaky Biscuit content. Flaky Biscuit
is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(47:17):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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