April 18, 2025 • 22 mins
Legendary Today Show weatherman and host, Al Roker is cooking up something special with Scott.
Al loves diner food - so we had to ask, what would he order at Luke’s Diner?
Plus, a simple Thanksgiving tip he learned from four star Michelin rated chef Daniel Boulud.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, let's just do.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast. One
of them productions. iHeart Radio Media. iHeart Podcast. This is
Luke's Diner with the one and only, Yes, Ladies and gentlemen,
Al Roker. You know him, you love him, the longest
(00:40):
tenured host on the Today Show almost thirty years now.
Right al.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Uh yeah, I guess so, yeah, wow, weird. Yes, what
a career.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So we're going to talk about all things Diane her
food after amelook proud over of Luke Stanners. You know,
I understand you have a cookbook coming out. I think
with your daughter.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's actually already out.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's already out. Let's talk about that little what's it called.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's called Al Roker's Recipes to Live by a national bestseller,
and we are just really proud of it. I've written
a couple of cookbooks back in the late nineties and
it's it's a lot of work. Uh. And and my
daughter Courtney, who is a professional chef and recipe developer, said,
(01:38):
oh yeah, I was I was sick a few you know,
almost three years ago now two and a half years. Anyway,
she said, in an effort to rally me, you know
it would be great if we will a cookbook together.
And I said, no, not really, it's not no, I
don't I don't think so. Uh And if you've got kids,
you know, they just keep coming back at you. So okay,
(01:59):
here's you write the recipe, pies. You develpted the recipes.
I think it should be some sort of a family cookbook.
You know, your your grandmother. My mom never wrote down recipes.
My grandmother never did, her mother never did. Courtney's mom.
So I said, you know, I think it's about people's
(02:20):
family recipes, but you're going to have to probably reverse
engineer all of them and figure them out. And you know,
you got like over one hundred recipes. And she did
a bang up job doing finding, you know, interviewing people
talking about the flavors, they remember the taste, the textures,
and she did a spot on job. So I was
(02:41):
I was really proud of her. And she did it
while she was pregnant. I mean the best part that
came out of this was that I've got my first grandchild,
a little little girl named Sky. But you know, it was.
It's it's very much like a diner in a sense,
and that it's it's mostly all comfort food, you know,
I mean, I mean, I always love when you go
(03:03):
to the diners, especially you know, the Greek diner and
the leather menu, and it's got one hundred and seventy
items on it. You know, at the end of the day,
I pretty much end up ordering the same thing as
a diner, which is grilled che grilled cheese and bacon
sandwich with fries, right, and on what part of the
(03:23):
country is of vanilla egg cream? Right?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So you would rate the recipes in your book as simple,
fairly simple.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, there's only there are only four recipes that probably
take more than thirty minutes, yeah, or maybe forty minutes.
There's an oxtail stew which takes some time, and that
was my mother's recipe, and a raised short rib that's
(03:54):
from Danielle Blute, adapted from a Daniel Blue and those
take time. But other than that, most of them are
pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
M what's your favorite recipe in the book. What's the
one that you prepare the most.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Well, I don't prepare the most, as I said, just
because but my mother's oxtail stew that that reminds me
of home cooking of you know, it's got a little
bit you know, it's kind of a my mother was
family was from Jamaica, my father's family is from the Bahamas,
so it's got a little bit of a Caribbean flair.
(04:27):
And it was oxtail stew and dumplings, you know, had
cooked dough in it. It was just it was everything
you wanted, you know, nothing you didn't need, you know,
it was just fantastic.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Where do you get an ox tail?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Well, you know, you go to the butcher. Yeah, it's funny,
you So, oxtails. A lot of food today I have
found is rooted in what you would call, depending on
where you grew up, peasant cooking, whether poor people cooking.
Folks didn't have a lot of money, so they had
(05:01):
to take the cuts that most people wouldn't eat and
braise them, cook them slow to tenderize them. And oxtail
or beef tails have a tremendous amount of cartilage, and
so when you slow cook that that renders into the meal,
(05:24):
into the meat, into the sauce that stew, and it's
just silky and rich and just really wonderful. But I
always remember my mom, who's been gone now, gosh, almost
twenty years. But I remember one day and I was
working at the Food Network. I would do specials for
the Food Network, and I remember coming home, you know,
(05:45):
our houses and queens, and just out of the blue, Hi, Mom,
you know, don't gone that Food Network. I hate those
people any particular reason. I'm almost afraid to ask. And
she said, well, you know, they're doing these recipes with oxtail,
and you know, I used to be able to get
oxtail for thirty nine cents a pound, and it's now
(06:06):
up to two dollars a pound, and it's all because
of those rich chefs cooking with oxtail cooking. I'm going
to only get right on that.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
You've traveled so much with today show Detroit's Famous hot Dogs,
California Avocado's Myrtle Beach. You know that that culinary scene.
Of all the places you've explored, which towns food history
fascinated you the most?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know each one. It's like almost like who's your
favorite kid. You know, each one is different and special
in its own way. And that's not a cop out.
It's just it's like your kids each one has a
specific talent that you love. There's something about each one
(06:57):
of them that drives you nuts, you know, but you
wouldn't change a thing about them. I would I would say, yeah,
And and it also depends on the season, but I'd say,
like summertime, I love Charleston. Yeah, Uh, it's just fantastic.
You know, New Orleans seafood is unbelievable. I love Chicago,
(07:19):
you know, it's it's a great food town. Uh. Portland, Oregon,
you know, is really come on very strong, you know.
So Austin, Texas, I mean, come on so so yeah,
and of course you know live here in New York City.
Uh right, so you know there's it's hard. I mean,
(07:41):
you go almost anywhere in this country and you're gonna
find Look, you're gonna find both ends of the spectrum.
You're going to find some really crappy food that could
tries to pass itself off as good. You're going to
find some really simple cooking that is terrific as to
what it is is. And then you're going to find
(08:01):
some really great fine dining. Yeah. And I don't care
where you are, you're going to find that.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Is there a region or a particular cuisine that you're
eager to dive into next pretty much covered it all.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I think I've covered it all, although I will say
probably yeah. If there's one cuisine I don't eat as
much of as I would necessarily like to, just haven't
you know done? It is Indian cuisine. You know, I
(08:35):
mean the spices, the flavors that they get that you
can get out of, you know, a fair number of
vegetarian dishes is really fascinating. I think so would I
would say, you know, if I had a cuisine that
I'd like to try to get into a little bit more,
(08:55):
it would be Indian cuisine.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So you've hosted Roker on the Road, yes, and you
wrote the cookbook with your daughter, who's a trained chef.
What has she taught you in the kitchen?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
If there's any one thing is that? And by the way,
if you've got grown kids, there's there are a few
greater pleasures than realizing that your kid is actually good
at what they do, they know what they're doing. It's like,
oh wow, look at that. And if it's something that
you don't do, it's even more pleasing. And I can cook,
(09:33):
But I think that the one thing that I've learned
from my daughter is a mizenplus is to prep everything
out ahead, have measured all your ingredients out. Because I
don't know about you, but I can't count the number
of times I'm in the middle of a recipe and
(09:54):
realize I don't have something, And it's usually something small,
whether it's human or papprika or or baking powder or
calls for baking soda, and I've got baking powder, you
know what I mean. That's if you've got everything laid out,
measured out, you know what you've got, it's already there,
(10:18):
and you're not fumbling around while you're in the middle
of cooking.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Prap is huge. Prap is everything all right? When your
family gathers for the holidays, who takes the lead in
the kitchen?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Generally I do there you go. You know, it's yeah,
you know, because it's almost tradition, you know. Growing up,
my mother was in charge, and I've kind of, I
guess inherited that man and I enjoy it, I really,
you know, although I will say the one meal I've
(11:03):
kind of given up is a Thanksgiving because you know,
I do the Thanksgiving Day parade every year, and what
I had been doing was. I would prep stuff as
much as I could the night before. My wife, Deborah
Roberts on ABC News, would prep like her mother, a
couple of dishes from her mother, like collared greens and
(11:25):
things like that, and and then I had a schedule
for what to put in the oven and win. Then
we'd get home. I'd get home, we'd have friends over,
her family, we cook this, we'd have this meal. Then
we had to clean up. And yeah, you're just dead,
I mean literally dead time eleven years ago, you know.
(11:47):
And there's not the name drop, but you know. I've
become friends with Danielle Balute. I did a piece with
him when we were both young and up and coming.
I was at w NBC and he had just started
at Le Cirque and I did a live shot from
his apartment. Was holding his six month old baby daughter.
(12:08):
Our girls are about a year apart. Anyway, I was
at We were at his restaurant having lunch, and he
asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving. I said, I'm
making dinner. No, please be my guests, Please come to
Danielle and I thought, And then the next day I
called him. I said, okay, sure, and I thought, oh,
my god, Why have I not done this before? Yeah?
(12:31):
It just you show up, they do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,
You have dinner, they even give you a little doggy
bag with leftovers, and you go home and you're not
exhausted and your kitchen is clean and freak fantastic.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Right right, Well, you've had your own quite incredible health journey.
How do you balance enjoying the foods that you love
while prioritizing wellness.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Well, you know, I think it's all about which is
taking me. You know, out of seventy years on the planet,
probably fifty eight of those of learning finally that it's
about moderation. I mean, you know, you can have what
(13:20):
you want, you just don't have to have as much
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You know, my daughter lives in Paris, and my middle girl,
and you know, we go over and visit. We eat
really well and invariably I've almost never gained weight, if
not anything. I maybe lost a pound or two, but
it's because the portions are smaller. You're not snacking in between,
(13:49):
You're walking a lot. And I think you know, there's
a and this is not to knock anybody else, but
I think the quality of the food is really good,
you know, and I'm certainly not holding back, but you know,
but I'm not going hotwile. So you know it's if
(14:12):
you and I think that goes to in a sense
you know in this country where about quantity not quality.
And I get it, you know, people want to you
got to stretch your your dollars. And but you know,
like you go to a restaurant it's a you know,
a twenty eight ounce barterhouse or tomahawk steak. Who can
(14:36):
eat that? Yeah? In my old days, I could put
a hurting on that, right, Ooh is good? I mean
that's that could literally feed a family of four easily. Yeah, easily.
And so I tell people I would rather have less
of a really good cut of beef than a lot
(14:59):
of a average cut of beef. You know, ebe four
rounces all you need. Really. What's funny is you know
half the times I leave half of what's on my plate,
you know, And I'm up the generation where your mother
said they're starving children in Africa who would love a
meal like this, Well, why don't we box that up
(15:19):
and ship it to them? You know? And who was
not appreciated. But that said, you know, We come from
a culture that's clean your plate, clean your plight, and
so a lot of times I leave half what I've eaten,
and of course the waiter is everything all right. And
I cannot tell you the number of times I've had
a chef come out and it was everything all right. Yeah,
(15:41):
everything was fine. This is just all I can eat.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Any food trends you see today that you think are overrated.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I'm not crazy about the restaurants where it's like a
twelve course like almost like tasting meal, because it starts
getting into two hours, two and a half hours. You know,
your butt's going dumb. You know, I remember what the
first course was. You could stop.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So let's talk a little bit about diner food. What's
your go to diner? Order your pancakes, guy, bacon and eggs.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I listen, when I was a kid, we thought, and
we didn't know that my mother was trying to stretch
a buck. But when we would have, you know, breakfast
for dinner, you know, a couple of eggs and pancakes
and a couple of slices of bacon, and we thought,
oh my gosh, this is the greatest thing. Mom's a genius,
you know, I'm really more of a traditional you know,
(16:49):
breakfast kind of almost like I hop you know, short
stack two over easy eggs, a couple of slices of bacon,
you know, real butter, real, real maple syrr. That's my
diner go to for the morning after. And I don't
I'm gonna be honest, I don't necessarily go to a
diner at dinner time, but you know, lunch, late lunch
(17:12):
said the grilled cheese, bacon, and fries. Also, I do
like a good euro, uh, you know, which was part
of my my my claim to fame in Seinfeld stealing
in a Euro out of Jerry's hand at the Subway
(17:33):
Union Turnpike. But uh, and I like so I like
a Euro and fries. That's a that's a good alternative.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Is there anything on a like, let's say, a typical
diner menue that you would never order?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Tongue? How do you know where? Do you know where
one shots from the other begins? Yeah, I'm good tongue.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You know, sweet bread, and.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I stand away from the sweet bread. It's like I
can't exactly remember what it is, but I know it's
not sweet and I know it's not bread, right all right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So if you Al Roger wherever to find your way
into Luke Steiner, what would your order? Where would you sit?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I'd like it. I like the window booth. I like
a window. That's that's that's nice. And uh I think
I might get a I might get a good cheeseburger
and fries and a vanilla shak.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
We do a good one there. That's a good order.
All right? What's next for you? Any any upcoming projects? No?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Well, you know, I am very I'm very excited. I
have debuting June seventh. I'm sorry, debuting July seventh on
PBS Kids. I've got an animated kids show called the weather,
called weather Hunters, and it's about a family. The dad
is a TV weather man. His name is Al Hunter.
His wife Dot is his producer. And there are three children, Corky, Lily,
(19:06):
and Benny explore weather phenomenal and it's a fun show.
I do the voice of Al Hunter. Holly Robinson Pete
plays Dot, my wife. There are three terrific young actors
playing my kids. Our next door neighbor ms Joyce is
Shery Lee Ralph oh wow, We've got LeVar Burton plays.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
My grandfather studied cast.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And we've got Nicole, You've got Brown. You've got Nicole Brown,
who does the theme song.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Oh that's fun.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
That sounds very excited. It starts July seventh at seven
thirty am Monday through Friday. Actually it's seven days a
week on PBS.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Kids seven days a week. That's fantastic. But he must
be busy.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
My first love is television, is animation. I want my
I wanted to be an animator for Walt Disney. That
was my Oh really kind of interesting. Got way late
a bit, but you know, and part in part because
I'm not really that good, but I've always got the animation.
And this is this control. This combines my three passions,
(20:19):
my family, although it's a family by proxy, my love
of animation, and my love of weather. So it's it's
this perfect nexus of everything I care about.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You know, I'm going to ask you this question. What's
your favorite season? You're the weather guy, what's your favorite season?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You know, I think early summer, you know, it's not
too hot, it's you know, my ideal weather is like
eighty eighty three, eighty four, sunny, lower humidity, nice little breeze.
You know, we have a house up state or awful lake,
(20:57):
and you know, like you just either take the kayak
or a pontoon boat out and sit out on the
lake and just kind of bed.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Nice listen.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I like a brisk, cold winter day as much, and
I love watching snowfall. You know, if only you know
you had like the cat in the hat where you
could make it all like instantly shoveled. It doesn't quite
work that way.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Absolutely, al, pleasure talking to you. Thank you for your time.
You've good luck on the new series on PBS, and
the cookbook with your daughter sounds amazing. I'm gonna run
out and get it all. The best to you. Uh
Al Roker icon cultural hero, one of the most respected
(21:46):
people in our business and a real honor to get
a chance to talk to you. Thank you, sir for
your times. Everybody tell again. Follow us on Instagram at
(22:25):
I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, let's just do.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast. One
of them productions. iHeart Radio Media. iHeart Podcast. This is
Luke's Diner with the one and only, Yes, Ladies and gentlemen,
Al Roker. You know him, you love him, the longest
(00:40):
tenured host on the Today Show almost thirty years now.
Right al.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Uh yeah, I guess so, yeah, wow, weird. Yes, what
a career.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So we're going to talk about all things Diane her
food after amelook proud over of Luke Stanners. You know,
I understand you have a cookbook coming out. I think
with your daughter.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's actually already out.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's already out. Let's talk about that little what's it called.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's called Al Roker's Recipes to Live by a national bestseller,
and we are just really proud of it. I've written
a couple of cookbooks back in the late nineties and
it's it's a lot of work. Uh. And and my
daughter Courtney, who is a professional chef and recipe developer, said,
(01:38):
oh yeah, I was I was sick a few you know,
almost three years ago now two and a half years. Anyway,
she said, in an effort to rally me, you know
it would be great if we will a cookbook together.
And I said, no, not really, it's not no, I
don't I don't think so. Uh And if you've got kids,
you know, they just keep coming back at you. So okay,
(01:59):
here's you write the recipe, pies. You develpted the recipes.
I think it should be some sort of a family cookbook.
You know, your your grandmother. My mom never wrote down recipes.
My grandmother never did, her mother never did. Courtney's mom.
So I said, you know, I think it's about people's
(02:20):
family recipes, but you're going to have to probably reverse
engineer all of them and figure them out. And you know,
you got like over one hundred recipes. And she did
a bang up job doing finding, you know, interviewing people
talking about the flavors, they remember the taste, the textures,
and she did a spot on job. So I was
(02:41):
I was really proud of her. And she did it
while she was pregnant. I mean the best part that
came out of this was that I've got my first grandchild,
a little little girl named Sky. But you know, it was.
It's it's very much like a diner in a sense,
and that it's it's mostly all comfort food, you know,
I mean, I mean, I always love when you go
(03:03):
to the diners, especially you know, the Greek diner and
the leather menu, and it's got one hundred and seventy
items on it. You know, at the end of the day,
I pretty much end up ordering the same thing as
a diner, which is grilled che grilled cheese and bacon
sandwich with fries, right, and on what part of the
(03:23):
country is of vanilla egg cream? Right?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So you would rate the recipes in your book as simple,
fairly simple.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, there's only there are only four recipes that probably
take more than thirty minutes, yeah, or maybe forty minutes.
There's an oxtail stew which takes some time, and that
was my mother's recipe, and a raised short rib that's
(03:54):
from Danielle Blute, adapted from a Daniel Blue and those
take time. But other than that, most of them are
pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
M what's your favorite recipe in the book. What's the
one that you prepare the most.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Well, I don't prepare the most, as I said, just
because but my mother's oxtail stew that that reminds me
of home cooking of you know, it's got a little
bit you know, it's kind of a my mother was
family was from Jamaica, my father's family is from the Bahamas,
so it's got a little bit of a Caribbean flair.
(04:27):
And it was oxtail stew and dumplings, you know, had
cooked dough in it. It was just it was everything
you wanted, you know, nothing you didn't need, you know,
it was just fantastic.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Where do you get an ox tail?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Well, you know, you go to the butcher. Yeah, it's funny,
you So, oxtails. A lot of food today I have
found is rooted in what you would call, depending on
where you grew up, peasant cooking, whether poor people cooking.
Folks didn't have a lot of money, so they had
(05:01):
to take the cuts that most people wouldn't eat and
braise them, cook them slow to tenderize them. And oxtail
or beef tails have a tremendous amount of cartilage, and
so when you slow cook that that renders into the meal,
(05:24):
into the meat, into the sauce that stew, and it's
just silky and rich and just really wonderful. But I
always remember my mom, who's been gone now, gosh, almost
twenty years. But I remember one day and I was
working at the Food Network. I would do specials for
the Food Network, and I remember coming home, you know,
(05:45):
our houses and queens, and just out of the blue, Hi, Mom,
you know, don't gone that Food Network. I hate those
people any particular reason. I'm almost afraid to ask. And
she said, well, you know, they're doing these recipes with oxtail,
and you know, I used to be able to get
oxtail for thirty nine cents a pound, and it's now
(06:06):
up to two dollars a pound, and it's all because
of those rich chefs cooking with oxtail cooking. I'm going
to only get right on that.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
You've traveled so much with today show Detroit's Famous hot Dogs,
California Avocado's Myrtle Beach. You know that that culinary scene.
Of all the places you've explored, which towns food history
fascinated you the most?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know each one. It's like almost like who's your
favorite kid. You know, each one is different and special
in its own way. And that's not a cop out.
It's just it's like your kids each one has a
specific talent that you love. There's something about each one
(06:57):
of them that drives you nuts, you know, but you
wouldn't change a thing about them. I would I would say, yeah,
And and it also depends on the season, but I'd say,
like summertime, I love Charleston. Yeah, Uh, it's just fantastic.
You know, New Orleans seafood is unbelievable. I love Chicago,
(07:19):
you know, it's it's a great food town. Uh. Portland, Oregon,
you know, is really come on very strong, you know.
So Austin, Texas, I mean, come on so so yeah,
and of course you know live here in New York City.
Uh right, so you know there's it's hard. I mean,
(07:41):
you go almost anywhere in this country and you're gonna
find Look, you're gonna find both ends of the spectrum.
You're going to find some really crappy food that could
tries to pass itself off as good. You're going to
find some really simple cooking that is terrific as to
what it is is. And then you're going to find
(08:01):
some really great fine dining. Yeah. And I don't care
where you are, you're going to find that.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Is there a region or a particular cuisine that you're
eager to dive into next pretty much covered it all.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I think I've covered it all, although I will say
probably yeah. If there's one cuisine I don't eat as
much of as I would necessarily like to, just haven't
you know done? It is Indian cuisine. You know, I
(08:35):
mean the spices, the flavors that they get that you
can get out of, you know, a fair number of
vegetarian dishes is really fascinating. I think so would I
would say, you know, if I had a cuisine that
I'd like to try to get into a little bit more,
(08:55):
it would be Indian cuisine.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So you've hosted Roker on the Road, yes, and you
wrote the cookbook with your daughter, who's a trained chef.
What has she taught you in the kitchen?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
If there's any one thing is that? And by the way,
if you've got grown kids, there's there are a few
greater pleasures than realizing that your kid is actually good
at what they do, they know what they're doing. It's like,
oh wow, look at that. And if it's something that
you don't do, it's even more pleasing. And I can cook,
(09:33):
But I think that the one thing that I've learned
from my daughter is a mizenplus is to prep everything
out ahead, have measured all your ingredients out. Because I
don't know about you, but I can't count the number
of times I'm in the middle of a recipe and
(09:54):
realize I don't have something, And it's usually something small,
whether it's human or papprika or or baking powder or
calls for baking soda, and I've got baking powder, you
know what I mean. That's if you've got everything laid out,
measured out, you know what you've got, it's already there,
(10:18):
and you're not fumbling around while you're in the middle
of cooking.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Prap is huge. Prap is everything all right? When your
family gathers for the holidays, who takes the lead in
the kitchen?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Generally I do there you go. You know, it's yeah,
you know, because it's almost tradition, you know. Growing up,
my mother was in charge, and I've kind of, I
guess inherited that man and I enjoy it, I really,
you know, although I will say the one meal I've
(11:03):
kind of given up is a Thanksgiving because you know,
I do the Thanksgiving Day parade every year, and what
I had been doing was. I would prep stuff as
much as I could the night before. My wife, Deborah
Roberts on ABC News, would prep like her mother, a
couple of dishes from her mother, like collared greens and
(11:25):
things like that, and and then I had a schedule
for what to put in the oven and win. Then
we'd get home. I'd get home, we'd have friends over,
her family, we cook this, we'd have this meal. Then
we had to clean up. And yeah, you're just dead,
I mean literally dead time eleven years ago, you know.
(11:47):
And there's not the name drop, but you know. I've
become friends with Danielle Balute. I did a piece with
him when we were both young and up and coming.
I was at w NBC and he had just started
at Le Cirque and I did a live shot from
his apartment. Was holding his six month old baby daughter.
(12:08):
Our girls are about a year apart. Anyway, I was
at We were at his restaurant having lunch, and he
asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving. I said, I'm
making dinner. No, please be my guests, Please come to
Danielle and I thought, And then the next day I
called him. I said, okay, sure, and I thought, oh,
my god, Why have I not done this before? Yeah?
(12:31):
It just you show up, they do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,
You have dinner, they even give you a little doggy
bag with leftovers, and you go home and you're not
exhausted and your kitchen is clean and freak fantastic.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Right right, Well, you've had your own quite incredible health journey.
How do you balance enjoying the foods that you love
while prioritizing wellness.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Well, you know, I think it's all about which is
taking me. You know, out of seventy years on the planet,
probably fifty eight of those of learning finally that it's
about moderation. I mean, you know, you can have what
(13:20):
you want, you just don't have to have as much
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You know, my daughter lives in Paris, and my middle girl,
and you know, we go over and visit. We eat
really well and invariably I've almost never gained weight, if
not anything. I maybe lost a pound or two, but
it's because the portions are smaller. You're not snacking in between,
(13:49):
You're walking a lot. And I think you know, there's
a and this is not to knock anybody else, but
I think the quality of the food is really good,
you know, and I'm certainly not holding back, but you know,
but I'm not going hotwile. So you know it's if
(14:12):
you and I think that goes to in a sense
you know in this country where about quantity not quality.
And I get it, you know, people want to you
got to stretch your your dollars. And but you know,
like you go to a restaurant it's a you know,
a twenty eight ounce barterhouse or tomahawk steak. Who can
(14:36):
eat that? Yeah? In my old days, I could put
a hurting on that, right, Ooh is good? I mean
that's that could literally feed a family of four easily. Yeah, easily.
And so I tell people I would rather have less
of a really good cut of beef than a lot
(14:59):
of a average cut of beef. You know, ebe four
rounces all you need. Really. What's funny is you know
half the times I leave half of what's on my plate,
you know, And I'm up the generation where your mother
said they're starving children in Africa who would love a
meal like this, Well, why don't we box that up
(15:19):
and ship it to them? You know? And who was
not appreciated. But that said, you know, We come from
a culture that's clean your plate, clean your plight, and
so a lot of times I leave half what I've eaten,
and of course the waiter is everything all right. And
I cannot tell you the number of times I've had
a chef come out and it was everything all right. Yeah,
(15:41):
everything was fine. This is just all I can eat.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Any food trends you see today that you think are overrated.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I'm not crazy about the restaurants where it's like a
twelve course like almost like tasting meal, because it starts
getting into two hours, two and a half hours. You know,
your butt's going dumb. You know, I remember what the
first course was. You could stop.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So let's talk a little bit about diner food. What's
your go to diner? Order your pancakes, guy, bacon and eggs.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I listen, when I was a kid, we thought, and
we didn't know that my mother was trying to stretch
a buck. But when we would have, you know, breakfast
for dinner, you know, a couple of eggs and pancakes
and a couple of slices of bacon, and we thought,
oh my gosh, this is the greatest thing. Mom's a genius,
you know, I'm really more of a traditional you know,
(16:49):
breakfast kind of almost like I hop you know, short
stack two over easy eggs, a couple of slices of bacon,
you know, real butter, real, real maple syrr. That's my
diner go to for the morning after. And I don't
I'm gonna be honest, I don't necessarily go to a
diner at dinner time, but you know, lunch, late lunch
(17:12):
said the grilled cheese, bacon, and fries. Also, I do
like a good euro, uh, you know, which was part
of my my my claim to fame in Seinfeld stealing
in a Euro out of Jerry's hand at the Subway
(17:33):
Union Turnpike. But uh, and I like so I like
a Euro and fries. That's a that's a good alternative.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Is there anything on a like, let's say, a typical
diner menue that you would never order?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Tongue? How do you know where? Do you know where
one shots from the other begins? Yeah, I'm good tongue.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You know, sweet bread, and.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I stand away from the sweet bread. It's like I
can't exactly remember what it is, but I know it's
not sweet and I know it's not bread, right all right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So if you Al Roger wherever to find your way
into Luke Steiner, what would your order? Where would you sit?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I'd like it. I like the window booth. I like
a window. That's that's that's nice. And uh I think
I might get a I might get a good cheeseburger
and fries and a vanilla shak.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
We do a good one there. That's a good order.
All right? What's next for you? Any any upcoming projects? No?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Well, you know, I am very I'm very excited. I
have debuting June seventh. I'm sorry, debuting July seventh on
PBS Kids. I've got an animated kids show called the weather,
called weather Hunters, and it's about a family. The dad
is a TV weather man. His name is Al Hunter.
His wife Dot is his producer. And there are three children, Corky, Lily,
(19:06):
and Benny explore weather phenomenal and it's a fun show.
I do the voice of Al Hunter. Holly Robinson Pete
plays Dot, my wife. There are three terrific young actors
playing my kids. Our next door neighbor ms Joyce is
Shery Lee Ralph oh wow, We've got LeVar Burton plays.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
My grandfather studied cast.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And we've got Nicole, You've got Brown. You've got Nicole Brown,
who does the theme song.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Oh that's fun.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
That sounds very excited. It starts July seventh at seven
thirty am Monday through Friday. Actually it's seven days a
week on PBS.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Kids seven days a week. That's fantastic. But he must
be busy.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
My first love is television, is animation. I want my
I wanted to be an animator for Walt Disney. That
was my Oh really kind of interesting. Got way late
a bit, but you know, and part in part because
I'm not really that good, but I've always got the animation.
And this is this control. This combines my three passions,
(20:19):
my family, although it's a family by proxy, my love
of animation, and my love of weather. So it's it's
this perfect nexus of everything I care about.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You know, I'm going to ask you this question. What's
your favorite season? You're the weather guy, what's your favorite season?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You know, I think early summer, you know, it's not
too hot, it's you know, my ideal weather is like
eighty eighty three, eighty four, sunny, lower humidity, nice little breeze.
You know, we have a house up state or awful lake,
(20:57):
and you know, like you just either take the kayak
or a pontoon boat out and sit out on the
lake and just kind of bed.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Nice listen.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I like a brisk, cold winter day as much, and
I love watching snowfall. You know, if only you know
you had like the cat in the hat where you
could make it all like instantly shoveled. It doesn't quite
work that way.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Absolutely, al, pleasure talking to you. Thank you for your time.
You've good luck on the new series on PBS, and
the cookbook with your daughter sounds amazing. I'm gonna run
out and get it all. The best to you. Uh
Al Roker icon cultural hero, one of the most respected
(21:46):
people in our business and a real honor to get
a chance to talk to you. Thank you, sir for
your times. Everybody tell again. Follow us on Instagram at
(22:25):
I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.
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