Dinner Time!

Wells and Tyler discuss the do’s and definitely don’ts of throwing the perfect dinner party! Family style v. buffet, recipes need-to-knows, the perfect amount of guests and so much more.  

Plus, Chef Stuart and RHONY’s Dorinda Medley each join them with more tips and juicy stories of dinner parties of their own. Including tales of some A-List celebrities! 

Consider this episode the preheating of your next great event! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Two Dudes in a Kitchen with Tyler Florence and
Wells Adams, an iHeartRadio podcast. All right, time for other
episode of Two Dudes in a Kitchen. It's Wells Adams,
who's a little sick right now, so by both might
be a little nasily, oh man alongside Tyler Florence. I don't,
I don't get it. Man. I eat healthy, I sauna,
I cold plunge at work out, and I still get sick. Well,

(00:23):
I'm sorry you sick, dude. Well, so please excuse my
nasily voice today. But I thought today we would focus
on talking dinner parties. Yeah. My first question is, I mean,
you are a professional chef, and I imagine you have
to do dinner parties a lot because if all your
friends are like, we'll just go over to Chef Tyler's
because we know the food's going to be good. How

(00:45):
do you prepare for a dinner party? Well, when and
you're right by the way, when people come over to
the house, there's a very very high expectation that the
food is gonna be great, and you know, nine point
nine percent of the time we knock it out of
the park. And it's either just me you know, and
I always give myself plenty of time. And I think
that's the number one thing you got to think about

(01:05):
when you're hosting dinner party. It's just to carve out
the majority of the day, right, Like, don't try to
squeeze it in, Like I'm gonna work until three and
three thirty and then come home with those some chicken
breasts on the grill and everyone showed up at six, Like,
you're really going to stress yourself out by not getting
yourself like plenty of time to get prepped and get
organized and feel comfortable. And so I think you got

(01:25):
a first and foremost, you got to know the audience, right,
I think it's really a who's coming over? What are
they into? And then you start to kind of build
a menu around that. Right, So if you've got you know,
if you've got some dudes coming over, you know, i'llsoe
a big piece of meat on the smoker, or I'll
grill you know, something really kind of fun. If it's
kind of couples, I'll try to kind of pair it
up with something light. I do think it's really important

(01:46):
to prepare it like a nice appetizer to kind of
you know, a to give yourself a little bit of
wiggle room if the food that you're putting together takes
a little bit longer than you thought it was going to.
I mean, just a nice cheese trait, it will buy
you up like thirty minutes, right, which is great. Um So,
I think first things first, like know your audience, and
then you start to kind of piece it from there.
You ask your guests what they'd like ahead of time. Sometimes, yeah,

(02:08):
sometimes because like you know, especially if it's like you know,
because my wife and I when we entertain, because we're
at that age where are all of our friends or couples, right,
So we have like a couple of friends. So if
we start putting together and I know a good buddy's
coming over, I'm like, dude, I'm gonna put those ribs
back on the girl you want those again? And they're
like oh yeah. And so normally i'll either you know,

(02:29):
set up a quickable phone call and say, hey, what
do you guys want tonight? What sounds fun? Or I'll
kind of make it up as I go, but with
the consideration that I know who's coming over. Um So,
to answer your question, I mean sometimes I do, but
but I think it's also kind of nice to kind
of build that expectation. And normally when we do, like
because because you know, because at Miller and Lucks or
Steakhouse in San Francisco, I get to luckily, I get

(02:51):
a chance to go shopping and my walk in at
the restaurant, which is great. Um and then you know,
just listen just the one of a tomahawk on the
grill and slicing up in front of you know people.
So it's a little bit of roussal DAWs, a little
show that kind of goes along with it. And then
the product is simple. I think keeping it simple is
really important when you're throwing a dinner party. Don't do
too much, do fewer better dishes, and then think about

(03:14):
dessert at the end, we got to think about the wine. Yeah,
there's a couple of things to consider. What about you guys, Well,
I mean, I guess the the issue is is is
size of the party for us? And then we can
kind of like work backwards. But um, like if we
have a if we have a lot of people coming over,
like Thanksgiving as a good example of that one where

(03:35):
there's just a lot of family that comes over, then
it turns into a buffet style, whereas when we do
a smaller group of people, I like to do more
family style. Do you have a certain style that you
like when it comes dinner parties, Well, somewhere between family
style and buffet style, I think that's the way to go, right.
So the difference between the two is that um family

(03:58):
style are large platters that hit the table, and a
buffet style it's food that's on a large plotter that's
put on like an a foyer or put onto a
buffet table that's kind of like near the table, so
people can get up and kind of walk through. I
prefer family style versus buffet because I think when people
are you know, are seated at the dinner table, the
last thing you want to do is kind of take
their dinner plate, then go up and you know, and

(04:20):
then put everything together. But if it's a really really
large event and I'm cranking out a lot of food,
like Thanksgiving, then we do normally go buffet. So when
you get these large plotters and you pass around, I
think there's a sense of community when it kind of
comes along with that, right, everybody gets a chance to
kind of passing me around and hold it and you know,
scoop something on for someone else's plate, And so I
think that's a nice way to go. And I'm with you.

(04:41):
It depends on the size of it. So last night
our dinner party was twelve people, So I think that's
a really good number. Twelve to fifteen is really good
for family style. Anything more than that, I think buffet
is safer way to go. When it comes to advertisers,
are you like make them the day beforehand to save
time or do you still do them day of I
think you can. I definitely think you when you're planning

(05:02):
out a dinner party, thinking through the appetizers I think
is a very crucial part of a successful dinner. And again,
you know, giving yourself plenty of time to get organized
for those things are going to make the difference between
a successful dinner party or one that kind of goes okay,
you know, and maybe you feel a little stressed out
and maybe it's not your finest work. And so I
think you want to think through things that are like

(05:24):
dippable or spreadable. Like last night, my wife had to,
you know, put together a spinach artichoke dip and she
made you know, homemade Christina to go along with that,
and uh and then she had, you know, a couple
of like nice cheeses and some beautiful charcuterie and salumi. Uh,
so you had like a lot of kind of fun
things to choose from. So I think thinking through that

(05:44):
he doesn't have to be It could be you know,
a sharable appetizer platter, which I think you're easier put together. Um,
if you want to kind of get fancy about it
and make bite size or derves those are very touchy
like we do, or derves and canopies at the restaurant
because I got twenty five people to do that kind
of stuff. But if it's just us goofing off of
the house with a really nice dinner party, I'll make

(06:04):
sure I'll spend a little bit of time at the
with the cheesemonger at the grocery store or the cheese
counter or aisle or whatever it is, and make sure
you get some really really nice cheeses and then some
fun things to go on top of that, because obviously,
you know it's like goat cheese and sauce, spreadable cheeses
like brie. You know, they can you can put like
a like a tomato chili jam on top of that,

(06:26):
and those are really really great. You can put like
a beautiful fig preserve on top of goat cheese or
brie and have a really nice sort of like contrast
between the rich fat and so either somebody's sweet which
is really nice, or something kind of spicy which is
really nice. Make sure you temper your cheese. Don't serve
cheese eyes cold, you know. Make sure you like leave
cheese at a room temperature for a little bit so

(06:47):
it's spreadable the flavors better if it's more of a
room temperature thing. But yeah, I think appetizers are a
crucial part of a successful dinner party. Okay, when it
comes to being creative before a dinner party, how do
you feel about trying new recipes before dinner party? Well,
I really make the same dish twice, be honest with you,
right so for me, you know what for me, because

(07:08):
I just kind of make it up, you know what
I mean. So we're gonna I'm gonna have this beautiful,
you know, grilled pork loin and then I'm going to
finish it with and I'm totally making up this recipe
right now. But like I'm gonna make a beautiful like uh,
roasted peach and basil salad to go along with that,
and then you know, like observe it with like parmesan polenta.

(07:28):
Like I'm making this stuff up because like I have,
I feel confident enough I can just sort of, you know,
wing it when I get in the kitchen. I do
think it's really you Like my wife, for example, she's
got about fifteen dishes under her belt that are spectacular,
that are showstopper, is really really great for a party
that she feels really confident about. And I do think

(07:49):
that in front of company, it's probably not the right
time to try something new if you're not really really
sure about it. But I do think it's also kind
of fun to give it a little tous run, right,
you know, because sometimes recipes, and again it depends on
how well the recipes written, ours all tested down to
the grain of salt. But if if you're trying to
brand new recipe for the first time and you're like, oh,

(08:11):
I'm gonna I'm doing this next weekend when everybody's coming over,
I'd give it a trial run. You know. If dinner
parties on Thursday, make it on Tuesday you know, go okay,
because I think by the time you make it twice,
you've got it on lock, you know. But I think
trying that for the first time, you know, just to
keep it by his nerves because it can be nerve wracking,
entertaining in front of a bunch of people. So try

(08:31):
new recipes, but have like a trial run before you
go live. Going live, we'll do it live. So this
is I think a good question because when you have
a dinner party, you have a bunch of people who
like their protein cooked a certain way. Some people like it,
like for me, I like my stuff rare to medium rare,

(08:52):
but a lot of people aren't like that, and so
that can be kind of touching. That can be an issue,
like someone wants something really well done and it's hard
to kind of like accommodate for everyone. What's the best
way to cook something for everyone to have every kind
of temperature available. Medium? I think medium is a way
to go because I and we talk about this all

(09:12):
the time because, especially from a chef's perspective, our medium
rare is very rare. It's really rare. Like sometimes I'll
see some stakes who have a kitchen, I'm like, bro
what temperature is that because chef, that's medium rare. I'm like, dude,
that is like mooing, Yeah, that's so rare. And so
I think if you if you like it medium rare,
you don't mind it medium. But if you like it medium,

(09:34):
you don't like it medium rare. Right, that's your thing, right,
So I think you know, some people, if they like
their proteins medium, well, the well done, they'll probably be okay.
So if you focus on medium, you're gonna get some
like more well known cuts towards the end of something
like sif it's a beef tender loin or a pork
coin or something, towards the end of that when it
sorts of taper off, you're gonna get some more well

(09:55):
done slices. So there is something for everybody, but I
always shoot from medium. Everybody's really super happy with it,
nice pink all the way through. Uh, not not too
under you know, where everyone kind of well, because the
last thing you want is for someone to not enjoy
it and then feel embarrassed about that they didn't want
to eat it because they thought that was too rare.
I think, So I think medium is a way to go.
So that's going to be about you know, one hundred

(10:17):
and thirty two using insity thermometer. Right, if you're going
to go, if you're pro bit, and just to make
sure you get something really really nice and tight. So
take it off about one twenty seven, let it rest
up to one thirty two tented, and I think you'll
be in a good chap. What I have dinner parties,
I'm usually the one that's doing the cooking. Sarah cooks right, No, No,
it's you're looking at the chef and the clean up crow.

(10:42):
Oh my god, right here? Well okay, well that's good.
Actually Sarah does clean up after dinner parties, but after
dinner like normal dinners. No, it's me. Yeah, but the
problem that I have is that I've got so many
irons in the fire or ladles in the bowls. I
guess that it's hard for me to entertain. So, like,
how do you find to be able to kind of

(11:05):
balance the two of entertaining which point of the whole
thing is and then also making the food. Yeah, so
m make part of what you're going to prepare for
your dinner party theatrical, save some of it for people
to gather around in the kitchen and watch you do
something which is really kind of fun. Right, So I

(11:25):
like to, you know, I'm kind of going back to
the grilled beef tenderlin. But it could be a poor coin,
could be a whole roasted chicken. It could be you know, ribs,
It could be something that it could be a pizza,
could be a pasta. It could be something that, you know,
if you're going to take it out of the oven
and you're gonna save that last little bit to shave
some cheese you know, over top of it, or or
if you're going to you know, slice something kind of

(11:47):
right the last second. You know. So when people come
into the kitchen, I think about having two separate stations
from like an order point of view. I'll set up
a cheeseboard in the kitchen, and I also set up
a cheeseboard out by the fireplace or outside in the
patio if the weather is nice. Right, Because when people
come in the house, like because I'm you know, I'm cooking,
and people want to hang out in the kitchen, and
you want to make it feel inviting when they're in there.

(12:10):
And sometimes if it's going to be a big dinner party,
I try to be meticulous about keeping the kitchen neat
and tidy and organized. And I'll break several times while
I'm cooking, just to clean up after myself. I'll do
a round of dishes, I'll clean the counters off, I'll
take the trash out one more time. I'll rearrange the
refrigerator so everything's kind of fits in there when I'm
When I'm done, so when people walk in the door,

(12:31):
you know, there's a sense of calm, right, there's a
sense of like you're ready to entertain. You feel nice
and relaxed and and and you're ready to have a
really good time. So I like to save some of
it to do in front of people, because people, you know,
love to pull out their cell phone and take special
with me anyway, like take their cell phone out and
like shoot a little quick little video or take a picture,
whatever it does. And you want to give them that, right,

(12:54):
give them that minute, right we kind of like look
at that slice. You know, you're like, you know, right
in the middle of a beautiful loind of something, or
you know, or there's you're basing something on the girl
one last time. So give them that that sort of
that fensive like that sense of like you're cooking for
them and cooking with them and also that one thing,
and it can be annoyed. But when people walk into

(13:15):
the kitchen and they say, hey, can I help, right,
the answer is no, Right, I'm all good, but you're
welcome to kind of come and hang out with me. Right.
So because of the there's that sense of like, I
want to make sure I can help, because you're you're
being incredibly hospitable about inviting me over and whatever I
can do. If I can take some platters out, that's
a whole different thing. But I'm good on cooking, and

(13:37):
you should be good on cooking too. The last thing
you want to do is is be so you know,
scattered or kind of feel like you're chaotic that you
need somebody else to kind of bail you out. Right,
So you don't want to do that. Make sure like
you're nice and comfortable with everything. Right, Um, do you
do that or do you feel that same way when
when people hop in a kitchen with you? I totally
agree with that. I also like, honestly hate when people
are in the kitchen. I'm like, get you're in my way,

(13:58):
Just get get out of here, go enjoy over there,
please leave me alone. That's the wrong energy too, that's
the long energy, right, because then they're like, oh my god,
things aren't going well in the kitchen right because they
kind of walk out like I just got kicked out
of the kitchen. Well, it's just threw me out. So anyway,
so just give yourself plenty of time. I think that's
the big life lesson here. If you're going to throw
a good dinner party, make sure you kind of carve

(14:18):
out half of your day. I mean, even with me,
I give myself three hours four hours that through a
dinner party. So I'm super comfortable with it. Like I'll
work for a couple hours in the morning, I clock
at at noon, and then I've got all my protein
and stuff right to rock and roll, and then I'll
put some music on and I'll casually start cooking dinner.
And I think it feels really, really great. So I
think having those two little stations so when people come

(14:38):
into your space in the kitchen, have something for them
to not do because you don't want them to jump in,
but haven't have something for them to eat. So set
up like two cheese stations so they can have like
a little cracker talk to you hang out because I
think that's sort of the nice thing about it. So
you don't feel like all of the energy is in
the other room and you're stuck cooking because people want

(14:59):
to hang out out with you. Right if people come
out of your house and they want to jump in
the kitchen, like have them, you know, be part of
the communal aspect of like cooking for them with them, um,
and don't banish them to the to the necessarily to
to like the you know, the other half of the house.
So anyway, I think it's really important to share it, um.
But I think it's really important to make sure that

(15:20):
you're you're you're calm, cool and collected when when you
do that, for sure, but that's the worst, right when
somebody says, hey, chef, can I help, or hey, you
don't need help, or and you kind of feel like,
you know, it's like, no, I'm good. You know, did
you ever do you feel? Yeah? And speaking of people
coming to hang out with us in the kitchen, we're
gonna take a quick break and we come back. We're
gonna have Stuart O'Keefe, celebrity and professional chef known for

(15:42):
super healthy meals. He's from freaking Ireland, which is super cool.
He's been on a bunch of TV shows. I'm sure
you're a big fan of him. I know I am.
And when we come back, we're gonna have Chef Stewart
on the show and we're gonna find out what he's
doing when he's having a dinner party. All right, welcome

(16:04):
back to two dudes in the kitchen. I'm Wells Adams
alongside Tyler Florence. And now coming into the kitchen is
Chef Stewart. How are you, my man? I'm good. Goods Monday.
It's like back to the week. You've been a celebrity's chef,
You've been a food writer, a TV personality. Yeah, I
don't think you're from America. My question is has has

(16:27):
this been your dream since you were a kid. Yeah?
It like look, growing up in Ireland was like brilliant
and cooking and all that kind of stuff. But my
dream was always to move to the States, specifically California.
I don't know why, it just I had it in
my head. I wanted to go there, and I first,
like I first moved to Napa Valley. When I first moved,

(16:49):
I worked at meadowood back in the day, like this
was wow two thousand and four for two years now
it is great before it burnt out. But yeah, you
didn't do that, that wasn't I was more like at
the grill and I was like cooking there. I was
doing banquets. I was doing like a ton of different

(17:10):
positions there. Um. But it was a great like living
in Saint Lena because this great like small little town
and coming from a small town in Ireland, it was
like the perfect fit. It wasn't too like intimidating. The
people were nice, We're friendly. And then you know, moved
down to Los Angeles is a different story. Let's talk
about Ireland because I think a lot of people probably

(17:33):
have big misconceptions about what Irish cooking and Irish food
really is or is that not true. It's I mean
right on with it. Sall potatoes and that's it. I mean,
that is a big part of it. But look, I
know it's like it gets this kind of like wrapped
that it's like bad. But I mean it has a
ton of Mission Stars restaurants there. Um. I recently ated

(17:53):
a Dare manner there and it was just like spectacular
of the food and um, look, I want to culinary
school there. I went for four years and we like
you learn about like everywhere, like all around the world,
but like yeah, like the potatos, the slow food movement,
like the stews, the soups, the castroles, like all that

(18:14):
stuff is because it's so cold there. But everything is
like grown there. Everything is sourced locally. It has to be.
It's just it's it is what. It's just like there's
no island. Yeah yeah, yeah, you've been there, Tyler. You've
they've done a show there and stuff, and it's like
like this the term organic or all those kind of words,

(18:35):
those buzzwords was healthy words, like they were never really
used because it just everything was just naturally grass fread
and you know, everything came from farmers, like locally. Like
my best friends growing up were butchers, so my mom
would go across the street to the butchers and then
there was like a country Mark down the street and everything.
He sours lots of stuff in from Italy, and like
I was all my mom always she always spent so

(18:57):
much money on food. She loved it so much. Watch
and I think like that's how I kind of had
a love for it and and of course, like not
being as book smart as the rest of my kids,
the rest of my brothers and sisters. So that was
kind of like the route for me. I kind of
took a chance of going to culinary school. I got
after my high school exams and I got offered it.

(19:19):
I didn't get my first six choices, which you know,
it all works out for a reason because I had
the best four years of my life and I just
really already enjoy it. So for somebody listening to this,
like and you had to describe the cuisine of Ireland,
and I've been there in the food is beautiful. It's
very like rootsie and organic and gorgeous. So it's all

(19:41):
about the ingredients. But if you had described like Irish
flavors to somebody, what would that be? Oh, Irish flavors
like like like rustic, like like dark, like savory um
like almost what's what's the term they use for like,

(20:02):
you know, the taste of guinness for example, Yeah, there's inky,
It's like I don't know, it's I know, what would
you think? How would you describe it? Well? So, yeah,
we shot there a couple of times, and yeah, yeah
we shot we did an episode uh, in County Cork
in the South, and we basically just kind of did
a whole thing on cold cannon um, which is one
of the world's greatest dishes. And it's so like tea

(20:25):
and simple at the same time. But it's it's a
potato puree um mixed with cabbage and ham. And I'm
assuming you can kind of makee up a couple of
different ways. That's not exactly. There's lots of different ways.
Some people you can put like an Irish cheddar in
there too, sometimes yeah, and then with a big pat
of butter and fresh men. I mean, there was something
really incredibly special about it. So it's just like it was.
It was great local dry farm potatoes cooked in salt water, uh,

(20:48):
and then smash with with like deeply caramelized delicious cabbage, uh.
Fresh ham that was like that was sauteed as well
and dice, and then the most golden, beautiful butter I've
ever tasted my entire life folded on top. And that
was the fat that kind of creamed everything out, Yeah,
like chunky, nice pepper and then torn like hand like

(21:10):
folds of fresh mint and parsley, just torn and thrown
on top of that and kind of folded in and
it was really really exquisite. I mean, I thought that
was it was incredible that the lamb is beautiful, Irish
lambage is so great, and then of course the seafood
is spectacular, you know, Like I'm like, yeah, I mean
that that's just like such good stuff it is. I mean,

(21:30):
I was in New York there recently and I got
invited to like board Bias. They were doing a whole
like campaign on like Irish meat and so forth. And
I was like, and it was a big thing about
like exporting and I'm like, do we have any left
in Ireland. They're like, oh, They're like we export. Like
I think the percentage was like fifteen percent, Like oh what.

(21:51):
And I'm like, how many farms are there? Like the
country's not that big. They said there was like fourteen
thousand farms. I was like, how because the country's not
that you can go from top to bottom in like
three and a half hour four hours now, So like
there was a lot of facts that I didn't even know,
which was like eye opening to me because I've lived
here now like what sixteen years, so it's kind of

(22:12):
like I've fallen off the like the Irish kind of
train of what's going on there, and like people are like, hey,
I need I need like restaurant suggestions. I'm like, I
don't know what happened lived in Dublin in like fifteen years.
I don't know, but you can you can take the
Boy out of Ireland, but you can't take the Irish
out of the boy. So when you're we're throwing a
dinner party, how does some of those like native flavors

(22:34):
of your home cooking, what you grew up on, how
does that hit the dinner play? Like I'll always like,
I mean, look, I've been private chef here for like
years now, and it's like I'll always push like short ribs,
beef roasts, like stews, and it's like it's hard here
in La. I mean I'm doing a dinner on Sunday
for like my friend and stuff, and I was like, hey,
can I do short ribs and like I'm gonna put

(22:56):
guinnis in that, Like it'll still like I still love
that's slow, Like that's slow cooking and just roasting in
the oven for hours. There's just nothing like it. It
just pulls so many flavors together and it's always going
to be like I like, I like to say it's
like hardy and healthy, you know, and like you have
a ton of vegetables in or you're not like deep frying.

(23:16):
You're not you know, you're using like beautiful wine or
are you're using guinness or and it's just a whole
like root vegetables in there, Like what's wrong with that?
But people have this idea, but that's not healthy. I
like it is so especially this time of year right
because it's kind of like the muddy season where the
tail of the winter early early spring, it's you know,
I'm thinking, you know, it's still kind of cold outside.

(23:38):
Chef walk us through a really great Irish lamb stew.
You use your imagination. You've got all the ingredients in
front of you. What do you look at and how
do you put it together? Well, I mean if I
was to do it like, I mean, I like start
off just you know, I would always put a bit
of butter in there, which your oil, and then start

(23:59):
off with your basic like parad salary onion. I'm just like,
you know, I'm pretty just simple like that. Um. Maybe
I would even do like a granmolada on top at
the very end. Yeah, my lamb cut it up in
the chunks and you know, brown that off first obviously,
and then I edg your aromatics and just like Bailey time,
like I keep it simple, you know what I mean?

(24:21):
And I would do red wine in there as well,
and then just like roast it off in the other
for a few hours, and then like the Grandmado would
be like maybe I would do like yeah, like lemon
horseradah parsley, like your bread crown. I just love like
a kind of a crunchy topping on something that's so
soft that falls apart. Yeah, with that with with this
Irish lamb suit in Ireland one time and it really

(24:41):
blew my mind. So like leg of lamb right, So
then yeah, cutting nice big chunks and that gets tossed
and flour right, so that the Interia flower is going
to sort of like begin to thicken the sauce right beautiful, Yeah,
really nice salt and pepper, you know and nice and
the chunks of lamb leg or you know, maybe like
are too much. Yeah, they're big, because they'll shrink. You're

(25:02):
gonna get everything smaller than that. It's gonna look a
little bit like stew meat. I want to stick a
fork into something when I'm done. Um, So then yeah,
so the nice big, beautiful brown color on the outside,
and then you can start jumping in some like maripla.
So it's gonna be carrots, that's gonna sorry, that's gonna
be onions, it's gonna be garlic, um and and finally chopped,
so there's not sort of a there's a difference between

(25:22):
the sizes. The lamb should be the big hero. And
then and then you want, I like to hit it
with a little bit of beefstock and then guinness all
day long. Right, And now the interesting thing about like
the Irish stew that I'm remembering so fondly, they added
um barley to the stew itself, and the barley cooked
in with the lamb and the liquid and had this beautiful, creamy,

(25:46):
silky texture to it. And then this was the trippy
part that they took a whole big beautiful Irish potatoes,
peeled them and then come up in half, and then
put the potatoes sort of like uh, cut side up,
upside down into the top of the stew and then
baked it. And so the bottom of the potato began
to dissolve into the stew. So I act like this

(26:07):
kind of fluffy texture on the top of it baked
where it was like almost crispy. So I had this
like kind of potato chip crunchy thing on top and
the bottom was fluffy. I've never seen that. That's awesome. Yeah,
that was a trip. And then Lamb and Carrot and
Barley on the inside. It's just so so incredibly there's
an earthiness to it, which is it's not it's not
just not British by any mea. It's right like despinctably Irish. Yeah, yeah,

(26:32):
I love that, or even just like talk like just
the Lamb Shank as well, just like I just I
absolutely adore a Lamb Shank, like same kind of way
of preparation that you were talking about it, and just
with Lamb Shanks, I just love so much. You want
no one weird thing I had in Ireland one time
I had seagull eggs. Never had that I've had. I
had seagull eggs in Ireland one time, like literally like

(26:53):
like you would have like hardboled egg you know, yeah, yeah,
but it was the egg of a seagull. I think
someone was just messing with you. Yeah, it was really
Joe Regan. There were you on Ear Factor. No, it
was a listen man. I mean, like especially in San Francisco, man,
Like there there was a point in time where seagull
eggs were like you know, a big piece of protein

(27:14):
here man. People love them. They would like take the
boat out to Farrellong Islands and go collect seagull eggs
and cook them. That was my next question. I'm like,
how the hell did they get those eggs? Yeah, there
was danger money, That's how you got them, because seagulls
don't play room. All right, I gotta know. I mean
we we've done a lot of uh Ireland talk. But
you you've lived in Los Angeles for a good bit. Yeah,

(27:36):
you were a private chef for a lot of a
list celebrities. Yes, can you name some of those celebrities?
I mean that thinks. I mean like Cindy Crawford, Like
I did her birthday party one year, and you know
what I made? I made shorts and she really yes,
she ate it up. Cindy Crawford love a short room.
So there we go. Like I did like a thing

(27:56):
for Johnny Depp's kind of like family kind of for
a bed um kind of Jimmy Buffett super super nice guy,
loved him. I did this party one night and there
was like so many celebrities in the room, Like it
was like Jane fond At, Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Bateman, Jenni
for Anderson. Like it was like nobody told me who

(28:17):
was going to be there. It was like a dinner
for twenty people, and like they just kept walking at
like left, right and center. I was like holy, like
and it's seen Jenna Ransonner person is like wow, like
this is like really really a less but that was
probably like the biggest one throughout the years. It's just
like Owen Wilson, like I went out to Kardashian's once,

(28:39):
like it's just opened like this. I don't do them
as much anymore. Yeah, kind of, I'm just kind of busy,
kind of like I have that one plight now. I
do kind of a few days a week just just dinners,
and then I'm working on my seasons, working on the
third cookbook right now, and just you know, and then
obviously pitching TV shows, trying to get back on TV again,
and you know, I'm just doing that whole thing. Yeah,

(29:01):
you just mentioned your seasonings. You've got out your own
line of seasonings tells yes, And that was exciting. I
just was, i know, in my kitchen like once and
I was like, you know, you just make up your
own blends and you're just like, okay, why am I
doing this all the time? And then you run out.
So instead of making like a big bulk of them,
I just was like, Okay, I just need to like
do these and just develop them. So I work with

(29:23):
these girls over in Massachusetts, Duxbury, Massachusetts, and they have
this Duxbury salt there and they're awesome people, and I
was like, look, I'm thinking about this seasoning. I want
the kind of an old purpose you can kind of
do everything. And so we did this, like I call
it lovely seasoning. I call it the original, and it
just goes on everything. It's easy. I just don't want
people to have to think they can just throw it

(29:44):
on and they're done. And then I went further and
I did a barbecue one, and I'm doing a Greek
one the barbecue which is great on popcorn as well,
and then like your Greek which is great with your
fish and your chicken and so forth. It's just it's
not going to think you know what I mean, It's
just I like this is these girls are awesome. It
was easy to work with them, and they hand blend everything.

(30:05):
They harvest the salts on the bay in Duxbury, like,
so there's kind of like a premium and uniqueness about it.
I love their story as well. Yeah, and if you
had to go and hand buy all those separate ingredients blend,
it would cost you fifty bucks exactly exactly the container.
It's all balanced out just exactly top. You got nice
flavor profiles. I love that it is. Yeah, it's like

(30:25):
a fun kind of thing. I'm like, I want to
do It's like a popcorn one next and just I'm
just having fun with it now, you know it's it's
it's really really great. Yeah, long time coming. Can we
bring up how you turned your love for the Real
Halves Wives franchise into a cookbook and it's like the
funniest thing. So how did you get this idea? This

(30:47):
is just like me being crazy, Like I had a
two cookbook deal with Harborclowns and they were like, look,
we need a second idea, and I was like, what
about a quick six fixed like if I and Tudor
like no, we don't want numbers in the titles. We're
done with that and so forth, and I'm like, okay.
So I remember just watching Watch Out Beverly Hills Housewives,
and I was like, why is there no cookbook on
the Housewives. They're always eating, girls at dinner tables are fighting,

(31:08):
they're doing this, They're drinking and all that kind of stuff.
It's all surrounded by food. And Andy Cone specifically when
they're editing that show. If you guys watch any of them,
every time the housewives sit down for like a one
on one or a dinner party, they always film what
they're ordering. And because it's just a unique thing, because

(31:28):
it's just it's such a personal thing, so that he
wanted that included. So I reached out to Amy Phillips.
I came up with the idea. We wrote the concept
and reached out to Amy Phillips, who's this. She has
a show on radio, Andy on a series XM. She
does all the she does all the housewill she does
impersonations of them. All. This is from the front cover,
like dresses, all the different ones. That's funny fill to

(31:52):
throw it. Yeah, the real Housewives a party cookbook, so
the all real recipes are all great, like we pope
fun at them. She's like a great writer, just like
Cody Rider, and like it's it's just it's silly, but
like it's like, you know, we're dressing up in like
robes like Luandela SEPs like it's yeah, it did great,
like you know what, it was super fun. And it's
like I was like, well why not. It's like it's

(32:13):
a whole causation that you know, it did really well
and people like and now people throw dinner parties because
they can cook recipes around the host fives at their home.
Look whatever it takes to get people in the kitchen, right, yeah, yeah, whatever,
that's what it's about. I love it. You should know
that we're having Dorinda on next to talk about her passion.

(32:34):
She's great, and I was wondering, do you have a
recipe for her in the cook She she did, what
do we do? We did a make it nice spider spiced,
make it nice spiced cider because she is the blue
storm manner. It's like it's really cold out there. So
that was a full recipe. And then we have she
does this thing in a scene where she's like clip

(32:56):
clip clip, and so we did clip clip clip, Medley
up dip dip dips, so she has like three dips,
and then when we do her hand in there, she
wore the same like it's I mean, the ship that
we came up with. It was just but it was
actually easy because there were so many different situations surrounding food.
We had, like I think we had like one hundred
and eighty five recipes and we had to cut it

(33:17):
down to like a hundred. So and Tyler like you know,
like writing cookbooks, Like I think the hardest part is
when you sit down and you're like, Okay, how am
I going to fill these chapters? And you're just like
roughly kind of writing out like this. Amy was like
did you do a beef with this? Tyble? Did you
do a chicken with this? Type? I'm like easy, easy, easy,
So she kind of was like writing it for me

(33:37):
and then all I had to do was come up
with like the protein in it or the appetizer or
whatever it was. It was actually a lot easier writing
it than I thought. The hard part was doing all
the photography that became like super expensive because we really
wanted to kind of get like, you know, the vibe
of housewives, her dressing up, pulling wine in my face

(33:58):
and another shot like all that kind of stuff. So yeah,
it was a super fun bug. That was your first book.
That was your first book. The first book. Yeah, the
first book I did with quick six fix. Okay sure, yeah, okay, right,
that's six key ingredients, six minutes, prop six wines. Such
a nice cover, my friend, yeah's your cover. Look at
you there, you brother, They're handsome. You've got a lot

(34:20):
of stuff out there right now? Where can people go
and find more about you and you know, order the
spices and spices and they can go to chef Stewart
dot com. My books are there. I send them out signed.
You can buy my seasons there. I shipped them all
out myself, and we're eventually getting to the Amazon thing.
It's a base though, because it's you know, with margins

(34:41):
and cost and so we're trying to kind of figure
out a way of getting the cost of the seasons
down so we can more be more competitive. But right now,
I do it all. I ship it out and so
forth right now at chef Steward dot com. One last thing,
tell us about your nutrol system. Oh yeah, and just
forgot so yeah. So, like my manager has been more
coing a nutricis for a while, and we're always trying

(35:01):
to get me involved kind of as a chef to
kind of promote the brand, to talk about the brand.
And so they shipped me a bunch of food or
like would you be interested in this? I try everything
before I'll ever put my name on something, and so forth,
and I came up with like they have this this
line of food called Hardy Inspirations. It's not like you

(35:21):
don't put it in the microwave. It's like it comes
in like a bag just like this, right, I just
have me here just whatever to show you guys. You
empty it into a skillet, you have the sauce. You're
cooking for like ten minutes. It's like you're cooking food.
All the vegetables are real, all the proteins are real.
It's not like it used to be. Like it's not
like people I think have this like misconception that it's
like lean cuisine, like with tons of sodium, like like

(35:44):
four under calories, like twenty grams of protein in each
in each serving. So it's just look, if you're busy.
I'm busy. Sometimes I don't want to cook. Sometimes I'm
cooking all day. I'll throw a dozen skills, it'll fill
me up. I'm out, I'm out the door. So it's
just putting like kind of a chef's name on it
to be like, look, guys, this is real food. It's

(36:05):
not crap, and so so here we are. So I'm
just kind of an ambassador for them right now. Yeah
for you man, yeah right, thank you. It's a great partnership.
I mean Neutral System. It's like it's such a good
easy way for a lot of people to counter calories
and kind of control. And if you could add, you know,
great chef's been too it um, it's you know, it's

(36:26):
one one for everybody. It's nice. Yeah. I do some
videos and sometimes I add my own little kind of
bits and pieces to the recipes as well, So it's nice. Okay, Well,
Chef Stewart, thank you so much for coming on, two dudes,
and thank you so much. Everyone. Go buy all his
spices and all his cookbooks. Go get Neutral System immediately,
and let's all get together and have some lambs do soon.

(36:47):
Oh yeah, I gotta get on that lovely to meet
you guys. All right, chef, thank you, buddy, Bye bye bye.
All right, quick break, we come back. We're gonna have
Dryanda Medley on the show Do Not Go Anywhere, all right,
Welcome back to two dudes in the kitchen at this moment,
it will won't be just two dudes. It'll be two

(37:08):
dudes and a lovely lady. Dorinda Medley is a TV personality, entrepreneur, author, hostess, philanthropist,
and fan favorite on the hit Bravo series Real Housewives
of New York City. Dorinda, it's so wonderful to speak
with you. We just had Chef Stewart on who wrote
the cookbook for your Guys show, and he was telling

(37:29):
us all about your recipe. Was that a weird experience?
Let me just ask you which one did he say
was his my recipes? That's because I don't remember being
consulted about this. Make it nice spiced cider. Oh okay,
did they use bluestom out of Burby? I hope so,

(37:50):
I hope they should, Yeah, they should. What are you doing?
I'm doing well? You know, I don't. I'll be honest
with you. I don't really do podcast. I don't know
if you know that I don't do really anything. I'm
the person that does no press. I always say to
everyone if you don't if you don't say anything, you
don't get in trouble. There's that old saying, you know,
when you what's that great saying? They say, when you're strong,

(38:12):
act week. When you're week, act strong, and just don't
say anything, and you'll never get in trouble. So if
you notice, I don't really do podcasts, but you know,
I love Richard Bresler and his wife, and I just Lisa,
and I thought, and I love food, and I thought,
how much trouble can I get into on two dudes
in a kitchen that's totally up to you. The floor
is yours, but we're super excited to have you. If

(38:35):
you want to spill some tea about something, that's great.
But I just thought we would talk about cooking. Well, unfortunately,
or fortunately in my situation, there's not a lot of
tea to spill. Thank god. It's we're sort of in
the quiet period and we had Ultimate Girls trip up
here a blue Stone manner, which it's a beautiful day here.
It's like it's the touch. I woke up this morning

(38:57):
and saw thousands of thousands, probably two hundred turkey covering
my lawn, and I thought, up, they're getting ready for
spring time, so we have the touch of spring coming in,
which is so great because I love blue Stone Manner
until it's about January February March. Then it's just dark
and gloomy. Every January February March. I'm like, oh, I'm
a solid place because I'm just it's just hard, you know,

(39:19):
the winters. But you know, we had Ultimate Girls Trip
up here and that was hugely successful. It's such a
great blue Stone Manner is such a great backdrop, and
it's kind of like a character on its own. So
it's great just to add the chaos of these women
up here. You can't help it get content speaking of

(39:40):
having a girl's trip up at this beautiful locale, blue
Stone Manner. This whole episode has been about dinner parties.
Do you have a theos when it comes to doing
a dinner party? What is your how do you attack
a diner? So I am I'm a huge dinner party person.

(40:01):
I have. You know, I love to entertain, period, but
I love to entertain up here. And I always say
to people that come to Blue Stermony you could do
whatever you want all weekend long, but at seven o'clock
you have to be in the blue room dressed. If
it's a theme, they have to be dressed for a thing,
no excuses. And then we always have a sit down dinner,
and yeah, I believe in a beautiful dinner. I always

(40:24):
have my dining room table set for I change settings
because I love. When I lived in London for years,
I was always just a love and I go to
people's homes and their formal dining room always was set.
I just thought it was so chic. So I always
I'm sort of a big collector of plates and things
and glasses and stuff like that. And yes, I do

(40:45):
have a whole routine about dinner parties. But my whole
thing about dinner parties are that I think I did
learn from living to Bard it doesn't have to be
that complicated. When I came back from living in London
for ten years, you know, I just realized people didn't
do dinner parties, not because they didn't want to be
as they were afraid. People are really afraid of giving
dinner parties. They think it's this big, complicated, overwhelming thing.

(41:07):
And I don't approach it like that. I sort of
have the back kitchen sort of attitude. I'd kind of
do everything in the back kitchen I can, so by
the time people arrive, you know, it's sort of just
about enjoying the people. And you know, I mean I
do everything. I cook as many things as I can
cook that could be pre prepared, and I make sure

(41:28):
the music's ready and the lighting's ready. So by the
time I, you know, greet and meet people, it's sort
of like a symphony that just kind of takes off.
And the truth of the matter is it's not that complicated.
I mean, I think one of the fan favorites is
I always make two different kinds of lasagnas. I can
make those a week ahead and freeze them. You toss
a big salad, you have a great or bread, lots

(41:51):
of you know, wine or whatever people drink, and there's
your dinner. And I'm a big believer in the buffet.
I love the buffet. I think the art the buffet
is even more reason to socialize and keep talking to people.
I don't formally serve like, I don't do all that.
It's just too much. And the great thing about the
buffet is it allows people to take as much as

(42:12):
they want, and they keep going up, and then people
end up in the kitchen talking again because they have
like you know, after they've had the second course of lasagna.
Then they're kind of getting a little loose and you'll
catch them in the kitchen and then people start creating
this little you know, this one then ends up setting
in your seat, that one end up setting in another seat.
And I love, I love to watch a dinner party
play out and see you know, I always have to

(42:34):
cast the characters, see who kind of meets whom. If
a good dinner party for me is on Sunday morning
when someone says me, oh my god, I just love
so and so and I'm going to see them in
the city this week, everybody should walk away with like
a new friend, a new story, a little gossip, something naughty,
you know what I mean. Yeah, look at dinner party,
it's less about the food and more about the kind

(42:56):
of symphony that took place and during I think you're
so right on that, because like the food doesn't have
to be like for me, from my perspective as a chef,
I always seem to you want to you know, kill
it on that end. But my wife on the other
side of it, she does the same thing. She'll make
sure that our dinner parties are well balanced. And because
we always have like these circles of friends, and sometimes

(43:16):
they don't, you know, they're different circles, right, Like we'll
know these people for because you know, our kids go
to school together, or we know these people because we
know them from the city or whatever. But then she'll
kind of like bringing all together and have this very
well curated group of people and not everybody knows everybody,
but everybody walks out with like a new bestie, which
is kind of cool, right. I love that, And it's
one of my wife's like superpowers, and that's being like

(43:38):
the connective source of everybody, like they allner party is
a beautiful thing. You know. You start with a blank
canvas and then you create this painting and there is
something very intimate and you know, once you've spent the
evening in a blue stone manner and maybe a late
night bourbon and you tell me your secrets, I'll tell you.
You know, they kind of lead. There's a bond that

(44:00):
you know. It's different than when you meet someone for
dinner in New York at la Galou. It's like, yeah,
I madam, but I don't know. You kind of get
to know these people, you know. I love throwing dinner parties.
I really enjoy it. I love cooking. I'm not a
you know, it's a chef, but I think I'm a
very good cook. I don't think people are unhappy when

(44:20):
they leave. I make sure there's always a lot of
food because I always my key with weekends for me,
I make enough food that the next day you can
serve it as sort of a brunch lunch and then
that's get everyone out of my house. But like two, yeah,
I don't like lingers. I know, like people hanging around
past du I gotta get Blue stone Otter back in shape. Yeah,

(44:40):
you mentioned something earlier that we hadn't talked about in
terms of dinner party. But I do think it's very important.
Which is the music. Do you have a specific type
of music you play one I'm a frustrated DJ, so
I have I curate my music for that dinner party.
I have the best I literally, Frank Greg Kula how

(45:01):
calls me DJ d nice because everybody and then what
I do for my guests is when they leave on Sunday,
I all send them that playlist so they have the
playlist from the night and people love it. You know,
people love to get you know, when I was young.
I mean I'm a lot older than you guys, but
you know, if you gave someone a mixtape, you were
basically love so they down the old mixtape, the Memoris stape.

(45:29):
But so are you making playlists specifically for who you
know is coming or the vibe of the night of
which you're celebrating, the vibe of the night for which
I'm celebrating. Okay, the birthday and I always have great
you know, um, I gave I love bossa Nova. I
always think you can never go wrong with the Bossonova start.

(45:50):
It's sort of mellow but sexy, you know. And then
during during the dinner, I always do sort of like
that little bit more Claude Shall kind of you know,
blue woomb London type of thing, and then I always
end up with the eighties at night so we all
can dance. Because I love frustrated aerobic teacher if you
can put that together and then send it to him,
Because like on our menu at Miller and Locks my

(46:11):
restaurants San Francisco, like I generate like playlists every season.
This is like season one and then there's like season two.
Like each each playlist is about seven and a half
hours of music. Right, Well, I didn't know you had this. Yeah,
I program all these myself. So there's a QR code
on the back of the menu and it's that like
sick flex that you kind of like hover your camera

(46:33):
over the QR code and you walk out with the
playlist of what you're listening to in the restaurant, and people, yeah,
and they take that home with them and it's so
much fun. You know, people always love it, and you
know you can never go wrong. I don't care how
advanced people get. There's nothing like a good old fashioned
eighties music. One thing that we love to do when

(46:55):
we're entertaining a lot of people is make sure we
kind of write out what the menu is for everybody.
And sometimes we'll print them out, but a lot of
times my wife will get the typewriter out and like
type it all out and then put it in a frame,
which I think is cool because then everyone's like, okay,
so that yeah, this is this, Okay, we're having this
and this. Oh I can't wait for that. I think
it's like a little touch. I don't do that, and

(47:16):
I love that idea. What I do do that I
find is helpful for me as I put about this
whole little system up. When Len lays out everything for
the buffet, and you know, you should always have someone
helping you too when you're going to have a dinner party,
because it really does just spend the money and just
make your life easier and have someone actually, even if
you think it got it down, it's so nice to

(47:36):
just know someone's helping you in the background for any
sap that's going to happen. But she lays out, like
on a little stand, what's there, so it's this, this
is vegetarian, this is this, so I don't have to
go through at all, you know, And I love that,
and I you know, we live in a day and
age two where we have to be It's not like
when I grew up, your mother put it in front
of you, you ate at. I mean, my mother could

(47:57):
literally put fried paper in front of me and I
was like, looks good to me. You know. Now we
have to be very careful about everything we put out
and make sure we know the dietary restriction. So I
always have something that's very sort of bland vegetarian that
has no dairy, you know, none nothing, no gluten, So
I don't even have to go through all that. I'm like,
that's the that's the the dish for the people that

(48:18):
have all you know, they're gluten sensitive or dairy sensitive
and stuff. M that's really really smart. I think knowing
your audience when they come over for a dinner party
is half the battle, and they feel they feel so heard,
Like if you know them personally and you know that
either it's their favorite thing or you've taken their dietary

(48:40):
restriction to consideration when you're planning them in you too.
I mean, I think it's very thoughtful and not pointing
it out, you know, like I always say, you know,
people don't want to be pointed out. They don't want
to be pointed out if they're not eating gluten, they
don't want to be pointed out if they're not heavy
a drink. It should just be seamless. The options should
be there and no one should know it, you know
what I'm saying. That's the thing about dinner parties are

(49:02):
it's such a great way just to make people feel comfortable.
I think it's such a for me, cooking, serving, having
people in my home, doing my table thoughtfully and thinking
about who's coming and whatever the theme is. I love
a theme. It's just such a for me. It's my
easiest way to show love, you know, that's my That's

(49:22):
easy for me. Yeah. And I think it's time, like
I think people should start having dinner parties again, you know,
especially kind of coming out of like the dark era
of COVID, right, like, start having some people over again.
It's not weird, you know what I mean. Let's just
do it, just like, invite six people over and just
do something fun. I'm talking to someone today that we're
planning an event for my Bluster Amount of Bourbon at

(49:44):
the hard Rock Hotel, and they were like, should we
have a sit down dinner? And I said, dare? I say?
I think the dinner that happy dinner in New York
City is dead. I have no interest in it, like
I would rather. My friend Greg Kleo and I had
started this great thing where we find out what bars
have a a dinner like a bar menu, and we
go and we go there about seven and we have

(50:04):
a drink and we order like great little things and
you meet so many more people. I just don't want
to sit down and go through the whole long dinner
thing anymore. It's very interesting. It's kind of a postcodd
thing for me. Sure sure you just mentioned your bourbon.
Tell everyone about bluestone man or bourbon. And then also,
there's a maple syrup right speaking up, all pretty bottle.

(50:28):
Look at the time. It's amazing, Wow, nice label, and
look at that. That really really nice. And I I
have my own maple syrup, which I've sold out of
three times. I just got the other, which is so
interesting because I hit the maple syrup thing so perfectly,
because I've noticed reading. I'm a recipe fanatic. I love
looking at recipes and like just saving them. I even

(50:49):
love buying them, you know, buying still cutting them out.
I actually take apart cookbooks, which drives people crazy. I
actually cut them up into by it. Create my own
cookbooks based on all different recipes used to gribe my
mother crazy. But I love that because I don't know,
I just love doing it. It's kind of like my
form of collaging. But everything has maple syrup. And now

(51:11):
have you noticed that a lot of people are replacing
drinks and it set of honey or kind of sweetener.
They're using maple syrup and so antioxid and so I've
kind of hit that way perfectly, especially in the winter.
Now are you are you double dipping on this bourbon
thing and aging your maple syrup and the bourbon barrels?
Are you doing that? It says here, bourbon barrel, that's

(51:32):
the alcohol. It's kind of hurt me in the if
people thought there is alcohol in it but there's not.
You know, legally you have to put that on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I think that that is So that is so nice
if you can like let your maple syrup kind of
kissed inside of a used bourbon barrel for a little bit.
Oh my gosh, is that delicious? And I used kind
of I cook with it. I use it on my

(51:52):
salmon recipes. Now I've kind of created a bunch of
recipes where I've added the maple syrup. You know what,
I love cooking. I never realized it because my mother
was a big cook. My grandparents were big cooks. I'm
Italian Polish and they all would be cook So cooking
for me was just part of my hands. Like I
never you know, I don't even know how to really,
Like my daughter said to me once, how do you

(52:14):
make a lasagna? Like she called me up from school,
how do you make alasign said, Hannah, do you watch
me make it a million times? I don't have a recipe,
think about me making it? So no one you have
the ingredience. I said, no, you don't. You've sat on
the counter and watched me make that lasagna. You know,
you just gotta feel it and if it's not right
the first time, then you'll get it right eventually because

(52:37):
it's such a you know, cooking for me is just
such a natural extension of who I am. You know,
I talk about it in my book a lot about
how I think some of my best lessons were given
from my mother. Well, she was cooking, because we had
to be in the kitchen cooking. You know, that's where
all the good stuff happened, the fights, you know in
an Italian Polish family, left where it all happens. Right,

(52:58):
what's the best lesson you in the kitchen? Um? My mother.
So I'm very famous for my derendicisms, and you know
they think that from me, but my mother just comes
out with the most amazing things. My mother said something
the other day and I laughed so hard. She said
it before, but she said, she says, be careful of

(53:20):
people that have the face of an angel in the
mouth of the devil. She's got the face of the
angel in the mouth of the devil. And she was
making these delicious pork ribs, but not barbecue. She just
soaks them and everything that I don't ease, olive oil,
minced onion and garlic and lots of salt, all the

(53:42):
things that like, I don't you know, it's a funny story.
I got to I'm saying, this is someone the other
day when I went to college. I grew up in
a big family, four kids, and you know, I grew
up with a lot of money and stuff. And you know,
my mother was a huge cook and my father was
a telephone man. So we had huge dinners that night
because my father was out all day. Then you literally
climbed the pole, so dinner was a really big dinner.

(54:03):
When my father walked in, you know, it was like
God came home and we had to get food on
the table. So my mother used to always cook, obviously
with a lot of butter. So I remember I used
to love my mother's corn. It used to have a
slight foam over it that I knew. That was very exciting.
So it was the butter So college. Yeah, all this

(54:23):
free food, right because who knew that you went to
college and you could just eat as much food as
you wanted. And for a big family, that's a big deal.
And I remember getting the corn thinking what is this
because there's no foam, it's boiled, there's no salt, it's wet.
My mother canned corn to this. I just closed my

(54:46):
eyes and eat it. I poured over her mashed potatoes,
which God knows what's in, and then working together and
eat it. That's kind of yeah. I like, I like
corner mashed potatoes. Then they're always the dripping from the pan.
Do you want the drippy Now where else in my
life would I eat the dripping from the pan? But

(55:07):
I get over there at my parents house and it
is the concorde back to youth and bad eating. Okay,
So I love that. I love that my wife makes
a really great corn. She calls it shoe peg corn.
I think it's like, you know, because her mother, they're
like they have roots. They go back to wyoming, right,
it's like a pioneering kind of thing. But literally, uh
corn out of the can, make no mistake, it is

(55:30):
what it is, right and it's literally slow fried in butter,
like really as low of a flame as you could
possibly get, and then and then it just starts to
caramelize and get really really nice and delicious and it
is so good with like turkey and gravy and it's
the best. So that's why I'm such a hardy person,
thank god. I mean, I just you know, we were

(55:52):
raised on food exactly, exactly real quick, Can you tell
us about your YouTube channel because I know you do
a lot of cooking on that as well. I haven't
done it, and you know so much so funny said,
because everyone keeps asking me do my YouTube channel? Do
you know, I'm just I mean, I do a lot
of cooking on my reels, right, and I do a
lot of try to do my cooking out on TikTok,

(56:14):
And there's just so many platforms. It's like a full
time job. But people love when you know, my Instagram's
at DURINGDA medally and then my TikTok's during the medal
the NYC. What amazes me about cooking is how many
people don't know how to do the simplest things, and
how much they enjoy to participate in cooking the simplest things.

(56:35):
I did a recipe the other night, and my friends
who's not a cook, I made it for it because
we came home late to Blue Stone Manor, like at
nine at night. That's what I'm saying too. I also
have another theory that you could always cook something out
of your kitchen. You know, I challenge anybody or challenge me.
I don't have to shop for a week, so I
could still cook a whole complete meal somehow, you know,

(56:56):
cook out of your kitchen. Don't feel like you have
to always run out and get something. Someone I said,
oh my god, there's no food, you know. I said,
oh no, I'll make you something. And I made it
this pasta and this broth with just hand mushrooms and
lots of cheese and lots of pepper and and you know,
you'd be surprised what a simple dish it is, but
how delicious it is. But people just don't know how

(57:18):
to cook, and an amazes me. It's it's it's a
lost dying art. Like food is so easy to get,
Like my kids right now, Like like when they're hungry,
they have the door dash button on their phone and
they literally get My daughter's fourteen, like she and my
wife and I were talking about this this morning of
her coffee. But she'll get like a Starbucks delivered to

(57:39):
the house. Like they'll get a they'll get a breathe.
It's so easy to get somebody to cook food and
deliver to your house. And these are my kids, and
they're like the children of the chef. Yeah, I'm with you,
you know what I mean. It's it's like I can't
even look at my bill when Hannah's bill because I'll
just lose my mind. I postmate post smete, you know,

(58:01):
or food uber foore. I'm like, what do you what
do you do? I could not leave this house for
a week and cook every night. Me too. And it's
it's like a it's like a party trick or well,
you know, my wife will like, oh, there's there's no
food in house. Let's go to dinner, Let's get take
out or whatever. I'm like, hang on, hang on, and
like you'll go on. There's always kind of something. There's
like really really lovely being just great pasta, you know,

(58:22):
there's there's there's really there's always something kind of fun.
You can turn something into like really amazing this egg. Yeah,
froth stuff. You can fool anyone. It's a little bit
of the of the froth based. Top up the garlic
and it add some pie nuts, toss some pasta, let
some braccoia cheese, Hello, lemon dress on top. It's so good. Yeah,

(58:43):
I love that, Yeah, totally. The rule in my family is,
or my house is you can only postmates when you're hungover,
because that's when I don't want to move or do
anything and I want I need food brought to me immediately.
Other than that, I can do anything in the kitchen
that we need done. But don't you find I always

(59:03):
I always am so disappointed when I'm in the in
New York and you know, you go on those things
like whatever that is seamless or postbates that they make
it look so good, but it's never very good. It's
just that it never just is quite there. Yeah, because
I feel like it's gets soggy and cold on the
way over, there's not enough dressing, or it's just a

(59:27):
big disappointment. You know, she's warm, Yeah, and they're stealing
French fries. You know they are. They're always stealing French fries.
They're always stealing French fries. Got in my French fries? Man,
what's the condiment you can't live without? Oh? Mayonnaise? Me too,
Helmon's mayonnaise. I if I Island, I would have Halmon's mayonnaise.
I don't think there's nothing you can't deal with Halman's mayonnaise.

(59:50):
I make a box chocolate cake with Helmon's mayonnaise. That would,
Oh my gosh. That's what's kind of what I mean. Oil.
There's oil and cake and fat. There's oil and yeah,
I I can makeberry. Growing up in the South, it
was Dukes mayonnaise, right, So any any of our listeners
or in the southeastern part of the United States, you'll
know what I'm talking about. But Dukes make the best.

(01:00:11):
I think that Kraft makes the best mayonnaise over Helman's
and Dukes. And I know that's crazy, but if you
haven't tried it, it's really really good. Are we gonna
have a mayo smack down here? Man, have a mayo
make You can wrap it around a little Helma's mayonnaise
with something. I make a crazy dish that no one

(01:00:34):
should If I told them what was in it, they
would wouldn't eat it. It's really bad. It's like a
Sunday bad food dish. I take helmets, mayonnaise and lipped
in soup pix and some sticks in it, right, and
then I bake them like like chicken wing drumstick. That
sounds great? Are you kidding me? I love that? Like

(01:00:54):
what is time? Though? What permed on? I'm like, oh,
I cannot tell. Yeah, Oh my gosh, I think we
have to have a mayonnaise SmackDown, three mayos, enter one
mayo leaves. Yeah, let's do it. We'll do it a
bluestone manner. Yeah it's some bourbon. If it's some bourbon,
why not drink some bourbon? Eat mayonnaise might rob the

(01:01:16):
box of rich crack Is Dunket and Hellman's mayonnaise. And
I used to just watch it and think, I just
don't know how you do that? Can you imagine that combination?
I grew up in the South. That's like sweet tea
to me, that's exactly what we have every Sunday. Oh
my gosh, Well, they're gonna thank you so much for
coming on. Two dudes, in a kitchen. You're an absolute
light and joy to speak to and come to bluester

(01:01:40):
manner and cook with me. I always invite. I have
a beautiful kitchen. It's I call it the Beauty and
the Beast kitchen. You can drag in the dead animal
and chop it up. It's that kind of crazy. It's
that a feminine right on, like a big huge chopping
boards and everything. Because I did not want a feminine kitchen.
I wanted to work being kitchen. That's cool. I'm into that.
Up to have you and we can have a great

(01:02:02):
dinner party. This is what we'll do. Tyler will cook,
I'll make the drinks, You make the playlist and it'd
be epic and then we'll cameras all the cameras. Yeah,
ye forward to this. I really appreciate it. Before we
let you go, where can you will find you on
social media? And where can they find your bourbon and

(01:02:22):
your syrup? Yes, so you can find me at Duranda
Medley on Instagram and on a tik tak Duranda Redley NYC.
I actually don't have Twitter anymore because they got to
they just got too scary. And you can get my
bourbon and at Duranda Medley dot com you can get
my bourbon and my maple syrup and yeah, try it,
you'll like it, and follow me and we can cook

(01:02:45):
with you know, maple syrup and learn of kinds of
different things. I always say I always cook a little
bit and get then give a life lesson. Mhm. I
love that. Well, Duranda, thank you so much. It's wonderful
talking with you. And have a wonderful day and we'll
be at blue stonel Manner shortly. Yay, nice, make it nice,
make it nice, make it nice, to make it twice.

(01:03:06):
That's what they say. That was fun. Wow, that was
a good show. That was That was fun. Man. She's awesome. Yeah.
I mean I thought both of our guests today we're
super special when it comes to, you know, throwing a
dinner party. Um. And I was talking to my twenty

(01:03:26):
six year old son and his girlfriend and we were
talking to them about in the world of the post
COVID pandemic, what it means to have friends, and that
means you got to water the garden and that you
have to like can't wait for people to invite you
to go do something. You have to you know, initiate
the invitation and you got through a dinner party. Have

(01:03:47):
some people over it, right, I'm just kind of like
plug it back on the wall. I think a lot
of people, like you know, are missing their friends or
trying to figure out what to do. It's so just
plug it back in the wall. Call them come over
this weekend. I'm making a thing. You bring your thing.
Let's you know, well, well you have some nice wine,
you know, grill some steaks, whatever, and I just have
a good time. Yeah, I miss it. It comes down

(01:04:08):
to wording a lot, like a dinner party seems very
very daunting for the person hosting it, and then also
for people coming in terms of like get dressed up.
I'm we got to bring wine, wet. We used to
do a thing before the pandemic which I want to
bring back, which was just our supper club and it
was just like a couple of people every week would
jump around from other people's houses and it was just
kind of grilling and chill and like really low key

(01:04:30):
and it was still so much fun whatever you want
to call it. But we all need to get back together, cooking, drinking,
having a good time. I remembering life's all about. Yeah,
that's the most important thing, and that's each other. Right.
We had a supper club right before the pandemic. We
we there was gosh, it was like twelve of us.
We got together once a month somebody else's house, right,

(01:04:51):
or somebody else's restaurant. I usually host everybody in my restaurant.
And and god did we have a great time. And
I just missed that so much. Man, invite some friends over.
Talked about a bunch of fun stuff today, like lots
of great recipes, lots of good opportunities, and let's cook
and share some share some good times. Yep, yep, thanks
so much for listening to everybody. Please go rate and
review at the Apple and play stores five stars. That

(01:05:11):
will be awesome. And we'll be back again next week
with two Dudes in a Kitchen. We'll see you guys,
all right, guys, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram
at two Dudes in a Kitchen. Make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars. We'll take
that and we'll see you guys next time. See you
next time.