February 8, 2022 • 47 mins
Friends of the show celebrity cook Rachael Ray and her husband John Cusimano drop by to discuss everything going on in their lives. They describe the ultimate pre-game and Super Bowl meal, what cocktails should be paired with them, and how Jets became such a big part of their lives. Jets head coach Robert Saleh also stops by to say hi and chat with Cusimano and Ray, too.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome back to the Exchange on Mark Sanchez along with
Nick Mangold, and we'll jump into the first snap immediately. Nick,
I want to talk food. I want to talk pregame meals.
What was it that got you to your all pro
status on the field, big dog? How did you what
did you do? What did you eat before games? I
could barely eat. I waited for the game and just
(00:27):
eight on the sidelines. But feat your hot dogs during
the game. Um, I just tricked a lot of people.
That's why I became. UM. You know, I got through
a few Pro bowls. Um. So I actually I have
another show. You probably don't watch it because you don't
like me. Um Grilled. No, it's not grilled. It's tailgates anything.
And a couple of shows and kind of a big deal. Um.
(00:52):
And so we had um the current nutritionists on Nikki
and so we're whipping it up, we're talking, we're yacking
it up. And she I asked her. I was like,
can you rate my pregame meal? And so, like, you know,
it was it good? Was it bad? You know, what
would you do differently? So I told her, in my
pregame meal was always it was the same thing every
(01:12):
every week, no matter what time the game was, like,
it did not matter. Um it was steak, um and
a little bit of eggs and um I think oh
and then pasta usually um it was a RIGATONI some
circle shape pasta like that was my that was my
(01:32):
pregame meal. And she just looks at me and she goes,
I would not recommend that she gave it two of
them down, was like that is terrible. It was like, well,
I think it worked, Like it couldn't have been that bad. Yeah,
I mean other than the dude, it's hard. Like some
games that would be real nervous for and couldn't eat.
(01:54):
Some games I'd be starving. Um, But I preferred earlier
aime so I wouldn't have to worry about eating throughout
the day. So when we had a one o'clock start,
that was easy because he basically like breakfast and then
like a quick little bar or something before the game.
But I prefer breakfast like hash Browns, eggs, like a
scramble something, um, you know, even like um, like one
(02:17):
of those berry shakes that they make us in the hotel.
Something something basic like that. But I mean nowadays these
guys in their nutritionists and counting all the carbs and
and everything they need, you know, to feel their their engine,
so to speak. It's uh, it's incredible what these guys
can do nowadays. But whatever works, you know, as long
as you play well, you just keep eating the same
(02:38):
thing until you lose and then find something new, you
switch it up, you know, that's how it goes. And
so we obviously never made it. Um and it's very disappointing.
But super Bowl, right, do you do you do a
big party? Do you do something quiet? Um? What is
your Super Bowl routine ritual? Yeah? So I've done. I've
(03:03):
had a couple, you know things at my house where
you invite you know, fifty people or something and you
have the big Super Bowl party and get somebody to
cook and do the whole deal. But I just found
that you're hosting the whole time, you miss the entire game.
And it's not that I don't enjoy the interaction, but
there's all the clean up. I mean, there's a lot
that goes into party planning and that's not my favorite
thing to do. Um. I enjoy the entertaining part, but
(03:26):
I just, you know, I don't want to do all
the clean up and stuff. So, UM, I kind of like,
you know, going somewhere. I can watch it at somebody
else's house and maybe help them clean up a little
bit without feeling like a jerk and just showing up
eating making a massive leaving. But it's hard to watch
it with that many people. And then, just like if
I was going to watch a movie with an actor
(03:46):
or somebody who's been in movies, I would just naturally
start asking him questions. So you know, people are like, oh,
why did they throw that ball? Or oh, that guy's
wide open, and then you got to get into like
the full discussion about like yeah, like he's not that
open or it's actually not that easy or whatever. So UM,
I don't know, I kind of prefer to watch it,
I guess on my own. Now. I took my The
(04:08):
coolest thing I did was I got to do this
deal with Verizon and we got to, um go to
the game in Miami chiefs uh forty Niners and uh
DJ was there. My son dude, he was like three
and a half at the time, and he was just
like blown away at the pageantry of the whole thing,
the fireworks, the crowd going crazy, and it was a
(04:31):
great ball game. He's got a blue tongue from all
the snacks or whatever they let him eat in the
dang sweet So he was just he had a ball
and he thought, like, that's the way football is. And
I'm like, dude, it's not really like that. Like that
was a really nice version of things. So you're welcome,
uh and you're awfully spoiled. So um, but that was
(04:51):
that was one of the coolest super Bowls. What about you? Uh,
So I watched Super Bowl. I don't do a big party, UM,
never have. UM. I always watch super Bowl at home. UM.
I make my chili. Um. And uh, Matthew makes a
chili and we watched super Bowl together. Um. We do it.
He's been making his own chili. He's been doing it
(05:12):
for six years now or so. Um. And it's cool
that that's our ritual. UM. I try to do something
for like a championship game, where it might be a
little bit bigger and everything. Um, but for Super Bowl Sunday,
it is. It's my chili, which is my segue to
our guest. So let me tell you about my my
(05:33):
chili and then we'll get into it. My chili. It
came in second place on a cooking show. That cooking
show this was back in like two thousand eight. That
cooking show is hosted by our guest Rachel Ray and
her husband John. Um, we have them for a lovely
interview coming up. Um, so let's get right to that
(05:55):
and welcome back to our interview. We have our very
special guest friends family Rache and John. Welcome into the
exchange with me and Mark Sanchez. Thank you so much
for taking the time to come join us. Thank you
for having us. We're so excited. Well, we're not only
we're good friends with you, Nick for a long time,
and Mark we're now new friends with you, but we
(06:16):
both are long time Jets fans, so we're cold to
be here. I was actually I was a little tiny,
like eleven or twelve year old kid because my my
best friend growing up was my cousin rich Right. I
grew up in Long Island. He lived like a town
(06:36):
over from me. His name was Richard Todd Dolce. Hence,
even though we're both Yankee fans, so we should have
been Giants fans, Richard Todd was happening to be the
quarterback of the Jets at the time, so we became
Jets fans forever, and here we are years later, decades
(06:56):
I've paid well. But my, my, my, my year of
birth was the last lucky year for the Chets. Well
the last year they want a Super Bowl. But we'll
get there. Yes year, we want a super Bowl. You
you both of you almost got us there. I remember
it like yesterday. So uh we're hanging in. We got
(07:23):
there and rage, how did you? Uh? Where did you
come from? Like your Jet fandom? Is it family? Is it?
You know? Similar? You did you know Richard Todd at
the same time, I didn't you know what Ken O'Brien perhaps,
who was the year I was born? You know, those
were the champs, And I guess that's where it comes from.
(07:43):
Just I've always loved to watch football. I was a
football cheerleader, which sounds so name, but I mean I
actually just was a cheerleader so I could watch football. Um.
I just have always been a fan of football, and
I guess I chose that team because of the where
I was born. I am also, which is really hard
(08:04):
in my home. I'm also a Boston Red Sox fan
and I have fan Yankee fan, So I'm a really
weird split ticket. But it's not so weird and upstate
New York. You know, we live on very close in
New England's right here in New England is right here.
So there's a lot of people that are both fans
(08:27):
of like the Patriots versus the Jets or the Giants.
I've just always been a Jets fan since I was
a baby, and that's that. And well I got a
couple of crushes over the years when it came to
the Red Sox, so I guess that's what kept me
in in that ballpark, so to speak. Understandable, and you know,
(08:48):
I find it interesting, um, you know when you we've
been doing this for so long and talking to different
people and all their fandom and everything and how they've
grown into it. So it being you know, almost lifelong fan.
What is your favorite uh Jets memory? Like is it
a game, is it a season? What? Right? You know.
(09:08):
I I love going back to like the early eighties
with sack exchange. That was such an exciting time and
al tune and I always for me when I was
a kid, like you know, the Giants were the the
big fish in the pond, but the Jets were always
the more exciting team to me. That you know, they
(09:29):
just they threw the ballar um. I just they were
just more exciting to watch. So, you know, I think
about those days. You know, I was alive, but I
was only one year old when Broadway Joe was was
the quarterback. That's it. That's the sexy factor. Like for
her chicks, it's the sexy factor. You always want the underdog,
(09:52):
and you want the guy who wears fur coats, and
you want you want Broadway like you one. It's just
such a day dream. Were the lakes Lakes. It's so
cool and sexy, and it's cool to be on the
(10:13):
side of the underdog and to always be scrapping and fighting.
And again it was the year I was born, they
were the champs, you know, so for me it was
always a kind of a legacy thing. And then just
the sexy factor of it. It's it's it's always cool
to be in that club, a little bit of an outsider,
(10:35):
but always in the game, you know. And yeah, Joe
Namath was like you made and a bag of ships
and some piannios and both of you, guys, that's how
the saying goes. You guys, both of you games really
exciting years. You know, the early two. Um, you know
(10:58):
it was that was exciting for us. But you know
that you guys were a dynasty backman, and and yeah,
and when you're you're in, you gotta stay in, you know,
but you gotta green. You gotta stay green. You know
what they say, You're only as good as your center. Okay,
(11:20):
I learned that one I learned today. I learned you're
all that bag of chips and a pair of pantyhose.
That's a winner. But it just sounds like when you
talk about us, it's just we weren't sexy enough. Is
that our issue? Nick and I? No, you're both very
sexy in your own way. I mean Nick's family in
(11:41):
your own way. Hold on twenty second time out. Wait
that's like that's like, is she pretty? You know, she's
got a great personality. I felled his children, I know
his wife, like he's like my brothers. So I can't
think about him like that. And of course you're sexy
and but you know that, right, I mean Q and covers.
(12:04):
I was just fishing for compliments, all right. You had, um,
you know his hand between your legs for many years?
Did he ever? Yeah? It was very nice? Okay, D
(12:31):
My chest is getting hot. This is going same same
usually where we're comfortable. Um, okay, so go back to No,
it's at the cleaners. Okay, no, Mark, you know those
warm hands help. That's right, that's right. But my fur
(12:54):
coat is at the dry cleaners with my pantyhose. So
I'm gonna get to the next question in and I
gotta know we're talking about sexy. I'm gonna say the name.
It's almost like Lord Voldemort for Jets fans. But Tom Brady,
don't get mad, Nick Man, goold. My co host went
(13:16):
on your show, Miss Rachel Ray and said, I kind
of like Tom Brady. Now, how did that make you feel?
I agreed with him? Um, and I still do. It's
it's it's tough for John. It really is. Well, you
know what, now that he's I have a tremendous amount
(13:37):
of respect for him, now that he's in the NFC.
You know, he doesn't bother me anymore. He's you know,
unless it's a super Bowl. But other than that, I'd
rather him be a book than a patriot, that's for sure.
That's fair that it's hard to argue with, and you
(13:59):
can't argue with talent reality, you know, I mean anymore
than I argue with science. I don't argue with um statistics,
you know, I mean in anything. And that's just that
he deserves everyone's respect, you know, whether you agree with
every part of his philosophy or his private life or whatever,
(14:21):
who cares. He is what he is. He is a
singular talent, and he seems to be very devoted and
loving dad and husband and very dedicated player. And that's it.
John is a little harder sell, but but at least
(14:44):
at least he's not, you know, just absolutely shredding the
a f C. So that's good. I kind of agree
with you once you anymore. Right now, he's gonna worry
about mac Jill, that's right. So the I would just
like arify a little bit. I still hate Patriots tom Brady.
It's just buccaneers, tom Brady. I kind of like like
(15:06):
that's it's two different like it's two two completely separate things. Here. Well,
he was your he was your augeneity. I mean, that's
just what it was, right, So I hate Patriots tom
Brady kind of like Berners. It was Darth Vader. I
love how Nick. That's pretty much it for us. That's
(15:28):
exactly where we landed, and that's exactly when we came
to that distinction in our own house and very well
said neck, thank you now, Rachel, um, you are obviously
so well known for cooking food everything. Um. You know,
we have just about every one of your cookbooks at home. UM.
I think most of our meals are Rachel Ray meals. UM.
(15:50):
So what would be your like if you were let's
say you were playing um for the Jets, you know,
and you wanted you were going in before game and
having a pregame meal. What would be your perfect pregame meal?
If you were playing on the Jets pre game you
need a big pasta and car yeah, you want to
(16:11):
carve up a bit, so a big pregame pasta. I
just wrote a nice pasta today for Howard Stern and
his wife Beth. Um pasta tossed with herberkata, mafalda or
um uh. This little shortcut square pasta. It looks like
baby lasagna tossed with lots of fresh blanche spinach and
(16:36):
tons of herbs and ricotta cheese and then fresh tomato
basil sauce all over the top. So very light but
very filling and very flavorful. And lots of carbs without
being heavy. There's no like cheese melted on top. It's
not lasagna, but it it hits all those great notes.
It's really herbaceous. It's vivacious. I think that would be
(17:00):
pregame post game just slice roast and charred bread like
a pork catta, rolled pork belly around their pork loin
with the rosemary and the zest and the gardlet and
the herbs in between. Um, just with tons of lemon
juice and broccoli rob and slams and rolls um or
(17:21):
some sliced pork loin with apples and pears and shallots.
You could slam on some bread after. I think a
roast after um or tenderloin with horseradish cream and some
watercrests on that dead also nice. So like pregame apasta
(17:44):
that's flavorful but not too heavy, and post game bread
and meat nice one. I'm hungry. Oh, by the way,
I just the show we just finished. Well, I was
a Friday show. So John made a cocktail, he made
(18:05):
a Sicilian n girl on me, and I made a
Sicilian Sammy night. It was sandwich night, Friday's or sandwich
or casual free night. It was Ville Marsala and chicken
Marsala on chivada with melted fontina. VLDL said they were
melts served open face, and he slammed it shut John
Scarf down the entire vill Mark salad like seven minutes
(18:28):
the chicken Marcella awaiting me. So there you go, the
meat and the bread every day. I'm very lucky John.
I know, Um, you know you you do the drinks
and you're the cocktail mixologist. So if if the pregame
meal is pasta and postgame meal is meat and bread, Um,
(18:49):
what is our post because we're not gonna do a
pregame cocktail, what's our post game cocktail? After you get
done playing sixty minute? What's your what? What would be
your go to? Like, all right, this is what I
gotta have in the parking lot before we head out,
hopefully a big thing at Gatorade, bowed over your head, champagne,
(19:10):
something with champagne, because we're assuming we won the game,
and I don't think you know, if it's a post game,
you're gonna go home, maybe you're driving. You don't want
to overdo it, so maybe like having an apparel sprits
with champagne. Honey, it's for girls. It's for girls, Honny.
(19:30):
You gotta man it up. All right, we're gonna do uh.
Maybe you gotta get a roadie with some balls. Baby. Yeah, okay,
now we're speaking my language. Let's um, let's continue this. Yo.
(19:57):
We've got a special guest. Whoa Jets fans? Are you Rachel? Yes?
I can't hear anything. How you doing, Hi, baby, I'm
doing great. We were just talking about him, Michelana with
balls maybe a little shot at skeeling. Well, either way,
I heard your unbelievable Jets fans. We gotta get you
(20:18):
out here and uhbout. I was like, get get them
out here. So Sanchez, what's up? Man? What's up? I'm
always I am always ready in the midil wow, and
I come with food, as Nick will tell you, I
need some I gott getting some weight. All right, we'll
take care of gus stress. It's too much stress. So
(20:43):
that's awesome. That its amazing. I thought he was talking
to me like, hey, we gotta get you out. We
know you're big Jets fan. I was like, cool, man,
I'm there with pasta. Yeah, I know I got it.
Um let's see, I was gonna ask to fill his stomach. Man, Nick,
(21:04):
any time you want I travel with food? You know me?
Oh yes, yes, you're doing It's delicious. I have to
the stadium, haven't I? H I got it to the stadium.
I would like to I would like to do that.
Also like that, explain I got chills? Cool? How do
(21:32):
we know why the studio? Oh no, we have somebody else.
We got you. You're still just stuck with me. Stuck. Okay,
so I gotta know you're going pregame, post game. We
got the drink style. Then we got all the food
taken care of. But what about when you guys watch
a game or even the Super Bowl? Is it a
(21:54):
little weird because people are just kind of looking at
Rachel like, Hey, what are you gonna make us? Like?
Do you hate doing that stuff? Or do you like
cooking for super Bowls? Or what's what's super Bowl like
in your home? I haven't cooked for super Bowl in
a few years for obvious reasons because of the pandemic.
But sometimes it's it's awesome and it goes perfect, and
(22:15):
sometimes it breaks my heart. One year, we had some
friends over and no one ate anything. I had even
made potato skins to make them healthier for everybody. Stuff
three different ways. I made two different chilis and different
wings and all sorts of stuff. And the only thing
anyone ate was like a bunch of little fun sized
(22:37):
Snickers bar. Yeah, and they all ate like handy. I mean,
there was actors and people that are on TV a lot,
and they didn't eat anything because they were worried about
their appearance the next day. And I'm like, wow, oh,
(22:58):
I got a lot of questions. And I have been
I have been, uh grace enough to have gone to
a couple of super Bowls because I was cooking, you know,
a pregame show for a network or something, doing it
something in in in part of the programming. Um. The
last one I think we went to was that the
(23:19):
one where Beyonce burned out the lights to the Super
Bowl in New Orleans when they had the blackout, when
they had we had to walk back to the hotel
in a blackout. We watched this and we're like, let's
just oh, we watched the super Bowl with Joe Montana
when we went back to the hotel and tedder right
(23:42):
and watched the Super Bowl from the lobby on Joe
Montana was there, so we're like, okay, I think this
is yeah. And Ryan Tedder from the One Republic and
his whole band was there time. Ultimately we ended up
in the bar watching it on TV for the second
half and it was awesome. It was it was great.
But what we maybe we should just watch from home
(24:05):
from now on, and that's what we do. I always
make John a stuffed bread or sub or phillies of
one sort or another and make a bengelion different types
of phillies. Then um. John likes the Chicago style with
the works and homemade drive in yett of the best
I think, but I make a different a bunch of
different ones. But we we usually just keep it putting
(24:28):
child and it's just us and the dog. Used to
be is Abo. She passed away of course during the pandemic,
got rest assul and now it's Bella. She's the size
of a donkey. She can at a year and for
five months. Is She's huge, huge girl. So do you
(24:48):
meals for the dog or do give it? Whoa intense
do you? Guys on the football team though, wouldn't she
any she'd be a great receiver. She beats the hell
out of me every night, and she's great at catching
stuff and she uses both of her hoofs. I mean home.
(25:12):
She's a she's a she's something. She's strong girl, strong girl. So, UM,
I know that you guys just finished your your dream
home in Italy has to be amazing. So can you
tell me what da before yesterday? Can you tell me
a little bit about, um, you know, why that's your
(25:32):
dream home and how that all came to be and
then what it's like. I don't know if you have
been over there in the fall, but what it's like
trying to watch a football game in Italy, which with
the time difference and everything, Okay, it's really complicated, you know.
They it's it's not like I can just turn on
the TV and watch football game. It's a nightmare. You know.
I've tried apps. I've tried we don't you know a
(25:55):
direct TV app or this app or that appen. I
don't know. Nothing seems to work. There's something over there,
cold Denson or something which I haven't quite figured out yet.
Watched the games, but I think they're you can't watch them.
It's the past tense, right, It's it's after it's over.
And that's that's the saddest part. We just came back
(26:18):
and it was a really long I mean we were
only gone ten days, but it's it's the you know,
it was during the peak and the crescendo of of
regularly man had maternally hard for. I have a hard
time watching jet games in Upstate New York. They don't
tell they don't televise them anymore here, so then I'm
watching the red zone of everything. Red zone makes me
(26:41):
feel so schizophrenic. I feel like I'm in the movie Split.
But the reason, right, the reason I wanted a home
in Italy was when I was a little girl and
my grandfather lived with us and he was my um my. No, no,
was my handy. My grandpa was my caretaker when I
was very little, and uh, I was with him always,
(27:05):
like around the clock, and for me, my fairy tales
were his stories of growing up in Italy. My grandfather
was one of fourteen, the four youngest came to America.
My mother was the firstborn of twelve. Ten survived. She's
the firstborn of the ten that survived. She's the eldest child.
He lived with us from the time I was born
(27:25):
until he died when I was around eight and a half,
and he was my first and best friend. He taught
me everything everything. He taught me how to read, he
taught me how to think, he taught me how to be.
But all of my bedtime stories were stories of his
life when he was a boy in Italy, And so
(27:48):
all of my life, I always thought, one day I
want to have that. I never thought about who I
would marry, or what job I would have, or what
my life would be, or profession I would partaken. I
just dreamed of one day having a place in Italy.
(28:09):
And when I saw the land that we bought, my
husband said, this looks like a war zone. He actually
called it Aleppo, and I said, honey, always too soon
and not appropriate. Um. But there was no running water,
it was filled with animal carcasses, there's no electricity, there
was nothing. It wasn't a house. It was a stable
(28:30):
and a barn keep hut the stable, and it was
filled with dead animals and just refuse and chance like
and you want this. But it was surrounded by sixty
six sectors of amazing grapes and olive trees and rosemary
(28:51):
bushes and beautiful vistas. It's beautiful and that's what I wanted.
I could see something different in my head, and so
we bought the land I think was a very fair price.
And then the pandemic happened and turned down and our
apartment flooded three times in New York City and it's
(29:13):
still under construction and we have no roof, and we
were trying to build out this land that we bought
just before the pandemic happened. So and our job died
and we lived. So we lived in our guest house
for about a year, uh and almost two years. It
was a weird time. Man, very well, we got you
(29:34):
in a wild time. Unbelievable. Well there was. I can
appreciate that. That is incredible, Kirsten blessed. At the same time,
the week my house burned down, I taught from the
guesthouse in borrowed sweats with no makeup all over the
(29:55):
world for our children's cooking class. We did a free
kids cooking Yeah, and it was it was. The last
class was six days after our house burned and we
made meatless spaghetti and meatballs with impossible It's amazing. I
love it. Um. So we're almost done here. We won't
(30:18):
take up too much more of your time. We always
do a rapid fire question segment to finish because I
talked too much. So this is These are great stories though,
these are the ones that you know comes to your mind.
We obviously, um, we already talked about baseball, so we're
not gonna do the metsic Yankees, but we got to
(30:39):
start off still sports Nick's or Nets. I'm Nicks because
I go back to the nineties and you know Patrick
you yeah, I love it. Okay, what about steakhouse just
so I think of them as Jersey still. I don't
know why, but based off this girl throughout a ball
(31:03):
from the mound at Fenway, thank you, right over the plate,
not a heater, but never chopped the ground baritech caught
crouched proper did it practice for months? For months I did,
(31:23):
and I religiously I was not gonna be from the
mound right over the plate. Just say that's good, that's impressive. Um,
if you're gonna go to a steakhouse, I'm sure you
probably cooked better steaks anyway. But Peter Lugers or Delmonico's, yea,
Peter Lugers my favorite. Let's go in Brooklyn. Peter Luger is,
(31:49):
I don't know something about it. It's been there for
hundreds of years, and it's like really old school New York.
You know. The waiters are really like grumpy and mean,
and he I love it. I love everything about it.
And the Steaks just has every couple of months for
stakes with men night and then they all like has
a drink Scotch on the buddies and uh, I think
(32:13):
that's your all time favorite is yeah, and you gotta
you never you never get a menu there. You You
always get the bacon appetizer, the tomato onion salad. Um.
The john puts the bacon on the tomato onion salad,
and then the poor why not with the hash browns
and the cream spinach. See he sucks it rapid fire too, Yeah,
(32:40):
slow fire that slow fire. Let you see the problem
is we keep doing all this food talk and I
just keep getting hungry and hungry. Um. All right, this
one transportation subway or taxi, oh both, Well, it depends
what subways actually depends, depending up where you're going. If
you're going uptown or downtown, subways just a lot quicker.
(33:01):
It's just more efficient. If I'm going to Yankee Stadium.
I can be there and you know, like twenty five
minutes on the six train or the four or five six. Uh,
taking a cab, it's gonna take me an hour hour
and a half depending on traffic. Well, now it's all uber.
It's not even cabs right, right, and you get rated,
for God's sake, You're not gonna get rated on a subway.
Don't think not last time I was on it. But
(33:24):
generally speaking, we walk or drive ourselves or take a subway. Okay, fair,
what about we'll keep the travel theme. Will you go
JFK or LaGuardia. We can't go either. We have to
fly private because we have an eighty two pound dog
with us. Well, it also depends where we're going. I mean,
(33:45):
if we're flying internationally, you have to go to JFK
because Lagarty doesn't have international flights. But if we're a
private we we go to Peterborough. We don't own a
private plane, by the body, that's just Nicola. The Gordy
is a lot closer to our apartment in Manhattan. Uh. Like,
(34:10):
if I'm going on a press thing or a book thing, right, yeah,
La Guardian is absolutely If we're final, like Chicago or
Atlanta or something. But I don't like the smell of this.
If you guys, but if so for Nick's gonna ask
you the next one. If you guys just want to
pick one, that's fine, But it's totally up to you.
(34:35):
I'll just messing with you, guys. You guys are odd.
This is awesome, so much better than just one word
answers keep going. I apologize. I love it because but
if we're going to Chicago, maybe yeah, but I don't
like the smell. It's awesome. Probably terminal one. And how
(35:03):
did you ask for this? Guy? Al right? Next one? Um?
I feel like I know the answer, but I have
to ask anyway, the best Burrow best Borrow? Yep. Well,
we live in Manhattan, so I'm gonna say that. I'm
gonna say Brooklyn because all of my favorite restaurants are
(35:24):
in um Brooklyn. So many there's there's just so many.
I love. I love the food in Brooklyn. I love
the food in New York too, The but near the Bridge,
the the Fulton is amazing. Also. I act love every
part of New York, I really do. I used to
live in Queens. I was mugged twice. There, so I
have about it. Um, but I love the I think
(35:50):
of the Burrows as the great food you can get
in each of them. In Staten Island is where the
Italian grandma's run their own restaurant UM. And I love
the Bronx too. I think that the Hello, I mean
the Bronx is us Oh my God, and Arthur Revenue.
I've spent so many beautiful happy hours there with so
(36:13):
many great people. I have lived in Upstate New York
and New York City all of my adult life. I
have split my time between both. I'm fifty three years
old and I have spent my time for thirty years
and more between the two. I know all of our boroughs,
(36:36):
and I truly have come to know the people and them,
and I love and value all of them. I really do,
John and I over the years. This is not a joke.
We take staycations in our own city. We'll rent a
room at the one in Brooklyn so we can roller
skate by the water, you know, you know, at the
(36:59):
park which is right next to the one. Like we
we are people that vacation in our own city. And
no joke, no joke, as long as they take a
job we go and spend a night in a different borough,
in a different neighborhood, to have the experience of being
in that community because we love it so much. We
(37:20):
really are true New Yorkers, and that we love our
state and our city, and we love going to the stadium,
We love going to ballparks, we love going to every borough,
every neighborhood. We eat high, we eat low. We do
have to go to Jersey. We're very adventurous. Yes, we
do technically go to You guys, have you thought about
(37:45):
a career in political office, maybe running for office in
New York? No? Do you watch the news ever? No?
I mean that was just a really good speech. You
don't have to answer any questions. You can just talk
about how great New York was. Awesome career. Mark doesn't
watch the news or read the newspapers. He doesn't club
(38:07):
and we talked once a week every week for about
an hour, group of friends that are conservative and liberal,
and we talked. We may be the I hope we're
not the only, but we may be one of the
few small pockets of people that still talk to each
other from each side. And every week we talked to
each other about politics and the one thing we all
(38:29):
agree upon is what a horrible time to be a politician.
And there's just no win for anybody right now because
the country is just so divided. But we keep trying
in our little conversations. Certainly make me feel better. Sometimes
John joins into but it's it's really so important that
(38:49):
we keep the lines of communication open. Can you guys
here that there's a piano tuner in the house and
he's tuning the piano in the background, they've probably just
done something weird going on in there, spooky music like
he's going, um no, you guys are awesome for the
basement for Christmas. It was when it was Christmas. It
(39:11):
was his big Christmas kid. It's an upright and every
time you move a piano, especially in the cold, it
has to be retuned. So the piano tuatter could only
come today. It is the only day it was available.
It's all good. He's welcome on the show. But then
we we moved our time, so now you're here while
(39:32):
he's doing the piano. It's all good. We can handle it.
I loved what you said about talking with your friends.
I love the open lines of communication. I love keeping
it positive, and I loved your message about New York.
I think that's uplifting. And we have one more for
you about New York. Um Broadway show or a movie theater.
I think this one's a slam dunk, but go ahead, Okay,
(39:55):
it depends, It depends on the show. The last thing
we saw on Broadway was The American Utopia, which is incredible,
life changing and I am an enormous My my three
favorite single, my four favorite single artists, Well, the top
two are probably David and David, David Byrne and David Bowie. Yeah,
(40:19):
David Byrne and David Bowie. Um and Prince and Stephen
win So. Um. The most important band to me was Beatles.
You didn't ask any of that, but that was the
last show we saw on Broadway, and we loved it,
and we were jumping and cheering in the aisles. And
it was, uh, the day before they shut down the
world in New York. It was March. It was it
(40:42):
was seriously the day before they closed our lives, everything,
the studio. We snuck in there in the last day.
And then um movies, we love Alamo Drafthouse. We fell
in love with it. In Austin, Texas, home away from
home for us, and now they have to in New York.
(41:03):
We love because they make their own trailers and their
own pre show game and you get to eat and
you have really good food, and they have a full bar,
and they make real popcorn and a giant bowl and
get a nice oh you get a recliner. I love
it so much. So we love Alamo in New York
(41:23):
and Brooklyn, and we love Broadway depending on the show.
And thank you David Burn for giving us our favorite
last Broadway. That was awesome. I love it. I mean,
you did explain it perfectly, so I understand why there's both,
so we'll accept that answer. Um, racheon, John, thank you
so much for joining us. This has been a blast.
(41:44):
I know, Mark and Mark and I really appreciate it. Um,
and you know, it was awesome being we'll talk to you. No,
you're fine. That was good. Most people we can't get
to talk. Nobody says in the thing. They just say yes, no,
sometimes maybe, and then they don't talking over here. Great,
(42:09):
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
What an incredible interview. Thank you to Rachel and John.
Such great stories. I mean, what a heck. Of a ride.
This is the last couple of years in their house. Um.
Impressive stuff. And God, that made me really hungry, and
it made me excited for a little off season. So
(42:30):
I guess I'll ask you, Nick, what was your favorite
off season adventure? Um? Oh, off season adventure? Um does
the night we were in Vegas count I don't know
what you're talking about, Nick, thing doesn't work anymore here,
(42:53):
I lost all comps. But I'll go. Um, let's see
when the guys come out and we worked on football
in the off season. Jets, Jets West, Jets West. There
is baby. I still got the me now, I think, Um,
I think my my favorite off season, which happened to
be the weirdest offseason, was the lockout year two thousand
(43:17):
and eleven. Right, I just had my first son, so
while while technically goes off season, and we didn't have
like O T A s or mini camps or anything.
So he was born in February Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, Um, yeah,
that's a little fun fact I had. I had the
(43:38):
ability to be with him from the time he was
born all the way up to training camp, which was
you know, not expected because usually you know, we'd have
o t as, we'd have offseason workouts, we'd have mandatory
mini camps, so um to have that time. You know,
it was weird and stunt because we would rather be
doing football stuff obviously, but it was also like, well,
(43:59):
but also had this newborn and I get to hang
out with him for like six straight months, So that
was it was probably my favorite. I would say, I
love that yours. It was just right. I'm a big
old softie. Last football, that's all you did. You never
(44:19):
went to a beach never once. Never never went anywhere
tropical once almost say, Mark Burnell saved my life scuba
diving one time. How does that not the listen? I
was still alive because Mark Burne. So they tried to
(44:40):
get the crash course. They tried to give me like
a twenty minute crash course on how to scuba dive.
I wasn't certified, which is like really dangerous. Looking back,
it was completely idiotic. However, we all felt good. I
was like, yeah, dude, I can figure it out. I
reassured them that I was ready to go, had no
clue what was going on, and um, as soon as
(45:02):
we went down, we were probably you know, sixty ft
below the surface, which once you get to a certain depth,
you can't just go up super fast and like bail.
Even though you probably hold your breath and be fine.
You probably live and be okay, but you can really
mess yourself up. You can get the bends. You can
just basically jack yourself up. So we go down. There's
(45:23):
like four of us, and what you don't think about,
which is silly, is you can't communicate underwater. Obviously, you
can't yell to your partner. It's like hand signals, so
it's like shark and like you know, turtle and like
stupid stuff like that, but you can't talk. So there's
these hand signals and stuff that we really didn't rehearse well.
And so instead of giving the okay, which means I'm good,
(45:45):
I kept going like this which means go up. And
so they're like, what's wrong. You can't breathe, like checking
all my stuff multiple times. And then finally I was
like I'm out of here and was ready to just
go to the surface, which is super dangerous. So Brunel's
is grabbed me, waves everybody away and keeps me below
the surface and like calms me down to breathe. Because
(46:06):
I was starting to panic, which is the worst thing
to do. Then everybody's gone, I don't see anything. I
hear like a ferry going over us because we're in
this channel and I just see these like giant propellers
in this huge boat and they're like right above us,
and I'm kind of freaking out, and Brunel just kind
of calms me down and he teaches me how to
breathe and go up and down, adjusting your air and
(46:28):
all that stuff underwater and like the next half hour,
and I went through my air so fast because I
was breathing way too fast, totally hyperventilating. Um. But yeah,
long story longer. It was a rough one and probably
the worst decision I made. And if I told my Jano,
Bob and Rex that they might have cut me on
the spot because it was bad. It was really bad.
(46:50):
There's definitely a real possibility that they have done that,
but they didn't, so and I'm glad they didn't because
it now gives us the opportunity to do this podcast, um,
which was I think our best episode yet. It was
a ton of fun. UM. So thank you everybody for listening.
I really appreciate it. And stay tuned for the next one,
so don't forget to rate, review, follow, and listen and
(47:12):
of course share on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Mark Sanchez
and this is Nick Mangolds for the Exchange
Welcome back to the Exchange on Mark Sanchez along with
Nick Mangold, and we'll jump into the first snap immediately. Nick,
I want to talk food. I want to talk pregame meals.
What was it that got you to your all pro
status on the field, big dog? How did you what
did you do? What did you eat before games? I
could barely eat. I waited for the game and just
(00:27):
eight on the sidelines. But feat your hot dogs during
the game. Um, I just tricked a lot of people.
That's why I became. UM. You know, I got through
a few Pro bowls. Um. So I actually I have
another show. You probably don't watch it because you don't
like me. Um Grilled. No, it's not grilled. It's tailgates anything.
And a couple of shows and kind of a big deal. Um.
(00:52):
And so we had um the current nutritionists on Nikki
and so we're whipping it up, we're talking, we're yacking
it up. And she I asked her. I was like,
can you rate my pregame meal? And so, like, you know,
it was it good? Was it bad? You know, what
would you do differently? So I told her, in my
pregame meal was always it was the same thing every
(01:12):
every week, no matter what time the game was, like,
it did not matter. Um it was steak, um and
a little bit of eggs and um I think oh
and then pasta usually um it was a RIGATONI some
circle shape pasta like that was my that was my
(01:32):
pregame meal. And she just looks at me and she goes,
I would not recommend that she gave it two of
them down, was like that is terrible. It was like, well,
I think it worked, Like it couldn't have been that bad. Yeah,
I mean other than the dude, it's hard. Like some
games that would be real nervous for and couldn't eat.
(01:54):
Some games I'd be starving. Um, But I preferred earlier
aime so I wouldn't have to worry about eating throughout
the day. So when we had a one o'clock start,
that was easy because he basically like breakfast and then
like a quick little bar or something before the game.
But I prefer breakfast like hash Browns, eggs, like a
scramble something, um, you know, even like um, like one
(02:17):
of those berry shakes that they make us in the hotel.
Something something basic like that. But I mean nowadays these
guys in their nutritionists and counting all the carbs and
and everything they need, you know, to feel their their engine,
so to speak. It's uh, it's incredible what these guys
can do nowadays. But whatever works, you know, as long
as you play well, you just keep eating the same
(02:38):
thing until you lose and then find something new, you
switch it up, you know, that's how it goes. And
so we obviously never made it. Um and it's very disappointing.
But super Bowl, right, do you do you do a
big party? Do you do something quiet? Um? What is
your Super Bowl routine ritual? Yeah? So I've done. I've
(03:03):
had a couple, you know things at my house where
you invite you know, fifty people or something and you
have the big Super Bowl party and get somebody to
cook and do the whole deal. But I just found
that you're hosting the whole time, you miss the entire game.
And it's not that I don't enjoy the interaction, but
there's all the clean up. I mean, there's a lot
that goes into party planning and that's not my favorite
thing to do. Um. I enjoy the entertaining part, but
(03:26):
I just, you know, I don't want to do all
the clean up and stuff. So, UM, I kind of like,
you know, going somewhere. I can watch it at somebody
else's house and maybe help them clean up a little
bit without feeling like a jerk and just showing up
eating making a massive leaving. But it's hard to watch
it with that many people. And then, just like if
I was going to watch a movie with an actor
(03:46):
or somebody who's been in movies, I would just naturally
start asking him questions. So you know, people are like, oh,
why did they throw that ball? Or oh, that guy's
wide open, and then you got to get into like
the full discussion about like yeah, like he's not that
open or it's actually not that easy or whatever. So UM,
I don't know, I kind of prefer to watch it,
I guess on my own. Now. I took my The
(04:08):
coolest thing I did was I got to do this
deal with Verizon and we got to, um go to
the game in Miami chiefs uh forty Niners and uh
DJ was there. My son dude, he was like three
and a half at the time, and he was just
like blown away at the pageantry of the whole thing,
the fireworks, the crowd going crazy, and it was a
(04:31):
great ball game. He's got a blue tongue from all
the snacks or whatever they let him eat in the
dang sweet So he was just he had a ball
and he thought, like, that's the way football is. And
I'm like, dude, it's not really like that. Like that
was a really nice version of things. So you're welcome,
uh and you're awfully spoiled. So um, but that was
(04:51):
that was one of the coolest super Bowls. What about you? Uh,
So I watched Super Bowl. I don't do a big party, UM,
never have. UM. I always watch super Bowl at home. UM.
I make my chili. Um. And uh, Matthew makes a
chili and we watched super Bowl together. Um. We do it.
He's been making his own chili. He's been doing it
(05:12):
for six years now or so. Um. And it's cool
that that's our ritual. UM. I try to do something
for like a championship game, where it might be a
little bit bigger and everything. Um, but for Super Bowl Sunday,
it is. It's my chili, which is my segue to
our guest. So let me tell you about my my
(05:33):
chili and then we'll get into it. My chili. It
came in second place on a cooking show. That cooking
show this was back in like two thousand eight. That
cooking show is hosted by our guest Rachel Ray and
her husband John. Um, we have them for a lovely
interview coming up. Um, so let's get right to that
(05:55):
and welcome back to our interview. We have our very
special guest friends family Rache and John. Welcome into the
exchange with me and Mark Sanchez. Thank you so much
for taking the time to come join us. Thank you
for having us. We're so excited. Well, we're not only
we're good friends with you, Nick for a long time,
and Mark we're now new friends with you, but we
(06:16):
both are long time Jets fans, so we're cold to
be here. I was actually I was a little tiny,
like eleven or twelve year old kid because my my
best friend growing up was my cousin rich Right. I
grew up in Long Island. He lived like a town
(06:36):
over from me. His name was Richard Todd Dolce. Hence,
even though we're both Yankee fans, so we should have
been Giants fans, Richard Todd was happening to be the
quarterback of the Jets at the time, so we became
Jets fans forever, and here we are years later, decades
(06:56):
I've paid well. But my, my, my, my year of
birth was the last lucky year for the Chets. Well
the last year they want a Super Bowl. But we'll
get there. Yes year, we want a super Bowl. You
you both of you almost got us there. I remember
it like yesterday. So uh we're hanging in. We got
(07:23):
there and rage, how did you? Uh? Where did you
come from? Like your Jet fandom? Is it family? Is it?
You know? Similar? You did you know Richard Todd at
the same time, I didn't you know what Ken O'Brien perhaps,
who was the year I was born? You know, those
were the champs, And I guess that's where it comes from.
(07:43):
Just I've always loved to watch football. I was a
football cheerleader, which sounds so name, but I mean I
actually just was a cheerleader so I could watch football. Um.
I just have always been a fan of football, and
I guess I chose that team because of the where
I was born. I am also, which is really hard
(08:04):
in my home. I'm also a Boston Red Sox fan
and I have fan Yankee fan, So I'm a really
weird split ticket. But it's not so weird and upstate
New York. You know, we live on very close in
New England's right here in New England is right here.
So there's a lot of people that are both fans
(08:27):
of like the Patriots versus the Jets or the Giants.
I've just always been a Jets fan since I was
a baby, and that's that. And well I got a
couple of crushes over the years when it came to
the Red Sox, so I guess that's what kept me
in in that ballpark, so to speak. Understandable, and you know,
(08:48):
I find it interesting, um, you know when you we've
been doing this for so long and talking to different
people and all their fandom and everything and how they've
grown into it. So it being you know, almost lifelong fan.
What is your favorite uh Jets memory? Like is it
a game, is it a season? What? Right? You know.
(09:08):
I I love going back to like the early eighties
with sack exchange. That was such an exciting time and
al tune and I always for me when I was
a kid, like you know, the Giants were the the
big fish in the pond, but the Jets were always
the more exciting team to me. That you know, they
(09:29):
just they threw the ballar um. I just they were
just more exciting to watch. So, you know, I think
about those days. You know, I was alive, but I
was only one year old when Broadway Joe was was
the quarterback. That's it. That's the sexy factor. Like for
her chicks, it's the sexy factor. You always want the underdog,
(09:52):
and you want the guy who wears fur coats, and
you want you want Broadway like you one. It's just
such a day dream. Were the lakes Lakes. It's so
cool and sexy, and it's cool to be on the
(10:13):
side of the underdog and to always be scrapping and fighting.
And again it was the year I was born, they
were the champs, you know, so for me it was
always a kind of a legacy thing. And then just
the sexy factor of it. It's it's it's always cool
to be in that club, a little bit of an outsider,
(10:35):
but always in the game, you know. And yeah, Joe
Namath was like you made and a bag of ships
and some piannios and both of you, guys, that's how
the saying goes. You guys, both of you games really
exciting years. You know, the early two. Um, you know
(10:58):
it was that was exciting for us. But you know
that you guys were a dynasty backman, and and yeah,
and when you're you're in, you gotta stay in, you know,
but you gotta green. You gotta stay green. You know
what they say, You're only as good as your center. Okay,
(11:20):
I learned that one I learned today. I learned you're
all that bag of chips and a pair of pantyhose.
That's a winner. But it just sounds like when you
talk about us, it's just we weren't sexy enough. Is
that our issue? Nick and I? No, you're both very
sexy in your own way. I mean Nick's family in
(11:41):
your own way. Hold on twenty second time out. Wait
that's like that's like, is she pretty? You know, she's
got a great personality. I felled his children, I know
his wife, like he's like my brothers. So I can't
think about him like that. And of course you're sexy
and but you know that, right, I mean Q and covers.
(12:04):
I was just fishing for compliments, all right. You had, um,
you know his hand between your legs for many years?
Did he ever? Yeah? It was very nice? Okay, D
(12:31):
My chest is getting hot. This is going same same
usually where we're comfortable. Um, okay, so go back to No,
it's at the cleaners. Okay, no, Mark, you know those
warm hands help. That's right, that's right. But my fur
(12:54):
coat is at the dry cleaners with my pantyhose. So
I'm gonna get to the next question in and I
gotta know we're talking about sexy. I'm gonna say the name.
It's almost like Lord Voldemort for Jets fans. But Tom Brady,
don't get mad, Nick Man, goold. My co host went
(13:16):
on your show, Miss Rachel Ray and said, I kind
of like Tom Brady. Now, how did that make you feel?
I agreed with him? Um, and I still do. It's
it's it's tough for John. It really is. Well, you
know what, now that he's I have a tremendous amount
(13:37):
of respect for him, now that he's in the NFC.
You know, he doesn't bother me anymore. He's you know,
unless it's a super Bowl. But other than that, I'd
rather him be a book than a patriot, that's for sure.
That's fair that it's hard to argue with, and you
(13:59):
can't argue with talent reality, you know, I mean anymore
than I argue with science. I don't argue with um statistics,
you know, I mean in anything. And that's just that
he deserves everyone's respect, you know, whether you agree with
every part of his philosophy or his private life or whatever,
(14:21):
who cares. He is what he is. He is a
singular talent, and he seems to be very devoted and
loving dad and husband and very dedicated player. And that's it.
John is a little harder sell, but but at least
(14:44):
at least he's not, you know, just absolutely shredding the
a f C. So that's good. I kind of agree
with you once you anymore. Right now, he's gonna worry
about mac Jill, that's right. So the I would just
like arify a little bit. I still hate Patriots tom Brady.
It's just buccaneers, tom Brady. I kind of like like
(15:06):
that's it's two different like it's two two completely separate things. Here. Well,
he was your he was your augeneity. I mean, that's
just what it was, right, So I hate Patriots tom
Brady kind of like Berners. It was Darth Vader. I
love how Nick. That's pretty much it for us. That's
(15:28):
exactly where we landed, and that's exactly when we came
to that distinction in our own house and very well
said neck, thank you now, Rachel, um, you are obviously
so well known for cooking food everything. Um. You know,
we have just about every one of your cookbooks at home. UM.
I think most of our meals are Rachel Ray meals. UM.
(15:50):
So what would be your like if you were let's
say you were playing um for the Jets, you know,
and you wanted you were going in before game and
having a pregame meal. What would be your perfect pregame meal?
If you were playing on the Jets pre game you
need a big pasta and car yeah, you want to
(16:11):
carve up a bit, so a big pregame pasta. I
just wrote a nice pasta today for Howard Stern and
his wife Beth. Um pasta tossed with herberkata, mafalda or
um uh. This little shortcut square pasta. It looks like
baby lasagna tossed with lots of fresh blanche spinach and
(16:36):
tons of herbs and ricotta cheese and then fresh tomato
basil sauce all over the top. So very light but
very filling and very flavorful. And lots of carbs without
being heavy. There's no like cheese melted on top. It's
not lasagna, but it it hits all those great notes.
It's really herbaceous. It's vivacious. I think that would be
(17:00):
pregame post game just slice roast and charred bread like
a pork catta, rolled pork belly around their pork loin
with the rosemary and the zest and the gardlet and
the herbs in between. Um, just with tons of lemon
juice and broccoli rob and slams and rolls um or
(17:21):
some sliced pork loin with apples and pears and shallots.
You could slam on some bread after. I think a
roast after um or tenderloin with horseradish cream and some
watercrests on that dead also nice. So like pregame apasta
(17:44):
that's flavorful but not too heavy, and post game bread
and meat nice one. I'm hungry. Oh, by the way,
I just the show we just finished. Well, I was
a Friday show. So John made a cocktail, he made
(18:05):
a Sicilian n girl on me, and I made a
Sicilian Sammy night. It was sandwich night, Friday's or sandwich
or casual free night. It was Ville Marsala and chicken
Marsala on chivada with melted fontina. VLDL said they were
melts served open face, and he slammed it shut John
Scarf down the entire vill Mark salad like seven minutes
(18:28):
the chicken Marcella awaiting me. So there you go, the
meat and the bread every day. I'm very lucky John.
I know, Um, you know you you do the drinks
and you're the cocktail mixologist. So if if the pregame
meal is pasta and postgame meal is meat and bread, Um,
(18:49):
what is our post because we're not gonna do a
pregame cocktail, what's our post game cocktail? After you get
done playing sixty minute? What's your what? What would be
your go to? Like, all right, this is what I
gotta have in the parking lot before we head out,
hopefully a big thing at Gatorade, bowed over your head, champagne,
(19:10):
something with champagne, because we're assuming we won the game,
and I don't think you know, if it's a post game,
you're gonna go home, maybe you're driving. You don't want
to overdo it, so maybe like having an apparel sprits
with champagne. Honey, it's for girls. It's for girls, Honny.
(19:30):
You gotta man it up. All right, we're gonna do uh.
Maybe you gotta get a roadie with some balls. Baby. Yeah, okay,
now we're speaking my language. Let's um, let's continue this. Yo.
(19:57):
We've got a special guest. Whoa Jets fans? Are you Rachel? Yes?
I can't hear anything. How you doing, Hi, baby, I'm
doing great. We were just talking about him, Michelana with
balls maybe a little shot at skeeling. Well, either way,
I heard your unbelievable Jets fans. We gotta get you
(20:18):
out here and uhbout. I was like, get get them
out here. So Sanchez, what's up? Man? What's up? I'm
always I am always ready in the midil wow, and
I come with food, as Nick will tell you, I
need some I gott getting some weight. All right, we'll
take care of gus stress. It's too much stress. So
(20:43):
that's awesome. That its amazing. I thought he was talking
to me like, hey, we gotta get you out. We
know you're big Jets fan. I was like, cool, man,
I'm there with pasta. Yeah, I know I got it.
Um let's see, I was gonna ask to fill his stomach. Man, Nick,
(21:04):
any time you want I travel with food? You know me?
Oh yes, yes, you're doing It's delicious. I have to
the stadium, haven't I? H I got it to the stadium.
I would like to I would like to do that.
Also like that, explain I got chills? Cool? How do
(21:32):
we know why the studio? Oh no, we have somebody else.
We got you. You're still just stuck with me. Stuck. Okay,
so I gotta know you're going pregame, post game. We
got the drink style. Then we got all the food
taken care of. But what about when you guys watch
a game or even the Super Bowl? Is it a
(21:54):
little weird because people are just kind of looking at
Rachel like, Hey, what are you gonna make us? Like?
Do you hate doing that stuff? Or do you like
cooking for super Bowls? Or what's what's super Bowl like
in your home? I haven't cooked for super Bowl in
a few years for obvious reasons because of the pandemic.
But sometimes it's it's awesome and it goes perfect, and
(22:15):
sometimes it breaks my heart. One year, we had some
friends over and no one ate anything. I had even
made potato skins to make them healthier for everybody. Stuff
three different ways. I made two different chilis and different
wings and all sorts of stuff. And the only thing
anyone ate was like a bunch of little fun sized
(22:37):
Snickers bar. Yeah, and they all ate like handy. I mean,
there was actors and people that are on TV a lot,
and they didn't eat anything because they were worried about
their appearance the next day. And I'm like, wow, oh,
(22:58):
I got a lot of questions. And I have been
I have been, uh grace enough to have gone to
a couple of super Bowls because I was cooking, you know,
a pregame show for a network or something, doing it
something in in in part of the programming. Um. The
last one I think we went to was that the
(23:19):
one where Beyonce burned out the lights to the Super
Bowl in New Orleans when they had the blackout, when
they had we had to walk back to the hotel
in a blackout. We watched this and we're like, let's
just oh, we watched the super Bowl with Joe Montana
when we went back to the hotel and tedder right
(23:42):
and watched the Super Bowl from the lobby on Joe
Montana was there, so we're like, okay, I think this
is yeah. And Ryan Tedder from the One Republic and
his whole band was there time. Ultimately we ended up
in the bar watching it on TV for the second
half and it was awesome. It was it was great.
But what we maybe we should just watch from home
(24:05):
from now on, and that's what we do. I always
make John a stuffed bread or sub or phillies of
one sort or another and make a bengelion different types
of phillies. Then um. John likes the Chicago style with
the works and homemade drive in yett of the best
I think, but I make a different a bunch of
different ones. But we we usually just keep it putting
(24:28):
child and it's just us and the dog. Used to
be is Abo. She passed away of course during the pandemic,
got rest assul and now it's Bella. She's the size
of a donkey. She can at a year and for
five months. Is She's huge, huge girl. So do you
(24:48):
meals for the dog or do give it? Whoa intense
do you? Guys on the football team though, wouldn't she
any she'd be a great receiver. She beats the hell
out of me every night, and she's great at catching
stuff and she uses both of her hoofs. I mean home.
(25:12):
She's a she's a she's something. She's strong girl, strong girl. So, UM,
I know that you guys just finished your your dream
home in Italy has to be amazing. So can you
tell me what da before yesterday? Can you tell me
a little bit about, um, you know, why that's your
(25:32):
dream home and how that all came to be and
then what it's like. I don't know if you have
been over there in the fall, but what it's like
trying to watch a football game in Italy, which with
the time difference and everything, Okay, it's really complicated, you know.
They it's it's not like I can just turn on
the TV and watch football game. It's a nightmare. You know.
I've tried apps. I've tried we don't you know a
(25:55):
direct TV app or this app or that appen. I
don't know. Nothing seems to work. There's something over there,
cold Denson or something which I haven't quite figured out yet.
Watched the games, but I think they're you can't watch them.
It's the past tense, right, It's it's after it's over.
And that's that's the saddest part. We just came back
(26:18):
and it was a really long I mean we were
only gone ten days, but it's it's the you know,
it was during the peak and the crescendo of of
regularly man had maternally hard for. I have a hard
time watching jet games in Upstate New York. They don't
tell they don't televise them anymore here, so then I'm
watching the red zone of everything. Red zone makes me
(26:41):
feel so schizophrenic. I feel like I'm in the movie Split.
But the reason, right, the reason I wanted a home
in Italy was when I was a little girl and
my grandfather lived with us and he was my um my. No, no,
was my handy. My grandpa was my caretaker when I
was very little, and uh, I was with him always,
(27:05):
like around the clock, and for me, my fairy tales
were his stories of growing up in Italy. My grandfather
was one of fourteen, the four youngest came to America.
My mother was the firstborn of twelve. Ten survived. She's
the firstborn of the ten that survived. She's the eldest child.
He lived with us from the time I was born
(27:25):
until he died when I was around eight and a half,
and he was my first and best friend. He taught
me everything everything. He taught me how to read, he
taught me how to think, he taught me how to be.
But all of my bedtime stories were stories of his
life when he was a boy in Italy, And so
(27:48):
all of my life, I always thought, one day I
want to have that. I never thought about who I
would marry, or what job I would have, or what
my life would be, or profession I would partaken. I
just dreamed of one day having a place in Italy.
(28:09):
And when I saw the land that we bought, my
husband said, this looks like a war zone. He actually
called it Aleppo, and I said, honey, always too soon
and not appropriate. Um. But there was no running water,
it was filled with animal carcasses, there's no electricity, there
was nothing. It wasn't a house. It was a stable
(28:30):
and a barn keep hut the stable, and it was
filled with dead animals and just refuse and chance like
and you want this. But it was surrounded by sixty
six sectors of amazing grapes and olive trees and rosemary
(28:51):
bushes and beautiful vistas. It's beautiful and that's what I wanted.
I could see something different in my head, and so
we bought the land I think was a very fair price.
And then the pandemic happened and turned down and our
apartment flooded three times in New York City and it's
(29:13):
still under construction and we have no roof, and we
were trying to build out this land that we bought
just before the pandemic happened. So and our job died
and we lived. So we lived in our guest house
for about a year, uh and almost two years. It
was a weird time. Man, very well, we got you
(29:34):
in a wild time. Unbelievable. Well there was. I can
appreciate that. That is incredible, Kirsten blessed. At the same time,
the week my house burned down, I taught from the
guesthouse in borrowed sweats with no makeup all over the
(29:55):
world for our children's cooking class. We did a free
kids cooking Yeah, and it was it was. The last
class was six days after our house burned and we
made meatless spaghetti and meatballs with impossible It's amazing. I
love it. Um. So we're almost done here. We won't
(30:18):
take up too much more of your time. We always
do a rapid fire question segment to finish because I
talked too much. So this is These are great stories though,
these are the ones that you know comes to your mind.
We obviously, um, we already talked about baseball, so we're
not gonna do the metsic Yankees, but we got to
(30:39):
start off still sports Nick's or Nets. I'm Nicks because
I go back to the nineties and you know Patrick
you yeah, I love it. Okay, what about steakhouse just
so I think of them as Jersey still. I don't
know why, but based off this girl throughout a ball
(31:03):
from the mound at Fenway, thank you, right over the plate,
not a heater, but never chopped the ground baritech caught
crouched proper did it practice for months? For months I did,
(31:23):
and I religiously I was not gonna be from the
mound right over the plate. Just say that's good, that's impressive. Um,
if you're gonna go to a steakhouse, I'm sure you
probably cooked better steaks anyway. But Peter Lugers or Delmonico's, yea,
Peter Lugers my favorite. Let's go in Brooklyn. Peter Luger is,
(31:49):
I don't know something about it. It's been there for
hundreds of years, and it's like really old school New York.
You know. The waiters are really like grumpy and mean,
and he I love it. I love everything about it.
And the Steaks just has every couple of months for
stakes with men night and then they all like has
a drink Scotch on the buddies and uh, I think
(32:13):
that's your all time favorite is yeah, and you gotta
you never you never get a menu there. You You
always get the bacon appetizer, the tomato onion salad. Um.
The john puts the bacon on the tomato onion salad,
and then the poor why not with the hash browns
and the cream spinach. See he sucks it rapid fire too, Yeah,
(32:40):
slow fire that slow fire. Let you see the problem
is we keep doing all this food talk and I
just keep getting hungry and hungry. Um. All right, this
one transportation subway or taxi, oh both, Well, it depends
what subways actually depends, depending up where you're going. If
you're going uptown or downtown, subways just a lot quicker.
(33:01):
It's just more efficient. If I'm going to Yankee Stadium.
I can be there and you know, like twenty five
minutes on the six train or the four or five six. Uh,
taking a cab, it's gonna take me an hour hour
and a half depending on traffic. Well, now it's all uber.
It's not even cabs right, right, and you get rated,
for God's sake, You're not gonna get rated on a subway.
Don't think not last time I was on it. But
(33:24):
generally speaking, we walk or drive ourselves or take a subway. Okay, fair,
what about we'll keep the travel theme. Will you go
JFK or LaGuardia. We can't go either. We have to
fly private because we have an eighty two pound dog
with us. Well, it also depends where we're going. I mean,
(33:45):
if we're flying internationally, you have to go to JFK
because Lagarty doesn't have international flights. But if we're a
private we we go to Peterborough. We don't own a
private plane, by the body, that's just Nicola. The Gordy
is a lot closer to our apartment in Manhattan. Uh. Like,
(34:10):
if I'm going on a press thing or a book thing, right, yeah,
La Guardian is absolutely If we're final, like Chicago or
Atlanta or something. But I don't like the smell of this.
If you guys, but if so for Nick's gonna ask
you the next one. If you guys just want to
pick one, that's fine, But it's totally up to you.
(34:35):
I'll just messing with you, guys. You guys are odd.
This is awesome, so much better than just one word
answers keep going. I apologize. I love it because but
if we're going to Chicago, maybe yeah, but I don't
like the smell. It's awesome. Probably terminal one. And how
(35:03):
did you ask for this? Guy? Al right? Next one? Um?
I feel like I know the answer, but I have
to ask anyway, the best Burrow best Borrow? Yep. Well,
we live in Manhattan, so I'm gonna say that. I'm
gonna say Brooklyn because all of my favorite restaurants are
(35:24):
in um Brooklyn. So many there's there's just so many.
I love. I love the food in Brooklyn. I love
the food in New York too, The but near the Bridge,
the the Fulton is amazing. Also. I act love every
part of New York, I really do. I used to
live in Queens. I was mugged twice. There, so I
have about it. Um, but I love the I think
(35:50):
of the Burrows as the great food you can get
in each of them. In Staten Island is where the
Italian grandma's run their own restaurant UM. And I love
the Bronx too. I think that the Hello, I mean
the Bronx is us Oh my God, and Arthur Revenue.
I've spent so many beautiful happy hours there with so
(36:13):
many great people. I have lived in Upstate New York
and New York City all of my adult life. I
have split my time between both. I'm fifty three years
old and I have spent my time for thirty years
and more between the two. I know all of our boroughs,
(36:36):
and I truly have come to know the people and them,
and I love and value all of them. I really do,
John and I over the years. This is not a joke.
We take staycations in our own city. We'll rent a
room at the one in Brooklyn so we can roller
skate by the water, you know, you know, at the
(36:59):
park which is right next to the one. Like we
we are people that vacation in our own city. And
no joke, no joke, as long as they take a
job we go and spend a night in a different borough,
in a different neighborhood, to have the experience of being
in that community because we love it so much. We
(37:20):
really are true New Yorkers, and that we love our
state and our city, and we love going to the stadium,
We love going to ballparks, we love going to every borough,
every neighborhood. We eat high, we eat low. We do
have to go to Jersey. We're very adventurous. Yes, we
do technically go to You guys, have you thought about
(37:45):
a career in political office, maybe running for office in
New York? No? Do you watch the news ever? No?
I mean that was just a really good speech. You
don't have to answer any questions. You can just talk
about how great New York was. Awesome career. Mark doesn't
watch the news or read the newspapers. He doesn't club
(38:07):
and we talked once a week every week for about
an hour, group of friends that are conservative and liberal,
and we talked. We may be the I hope we're
not the only, but we may be one of the
few small pockets of people that still talk to each
other from each side. And every week we talked to
each other about politics and the one thing we all
(38:29):
agree upon is what a horrible time to be a politician.
And there's just no win for anybody right now because
the country is just so divided. But we keep trying
in our little conversations. Certainly make me feel better. Sometimes
John joins into but it's it's really so important that
(38:49):
we keep the lines of communication open. Can you guys
here that there's a piano tuner in the house and
he's tuning the piano in the background, they've probably just
done something weird going on in there, spooky music like
he's going, um no, you guys are awesome for the
basement for Christmas. It was when it was Christmas. It
(39:11):
was his big Christmas kid. It's an upright and every
time you move a piano, especially in the cold, it
has to be retuned. So the piano tuatter could only
come today. It is the only day it was available.
It's all good. He's welcome on the show. But then
we we moved our time, so now you're here while
(39:32):
he's doing the piano. It's all good. We can handle it.
I loved what you said about talking with your friends.
I love the open lines of communication. I love keeping
it positive, and I loved your message about New York.
I think that's uplifting. And we have one more for
you about New York. Um Broadway show or a movie theater.
I think this one's a slam dunk, but go ahead, Okay,
(39:55):
it depends, It depends on the show. The last thing
we saw on Broadway was The American Utopia, which is incredible,
life changing and I am an enormous My my three
favorite single, my four favorite single artists, Well, the top
two are probably David and David, David Byrne and David Bowie. Yeah,
(40:19):
David Byrne and David Bowie. Um and Prince and Stephen
win So. Um. The most important band to me was Beatles.
You didn't ask any of that, but that was the
last show we saw on Broadway, and we loved it,
and we were jumping and cheering in the aisles. And
it was, uh, the day before they shut down the
world in New York. It was March. It was it
(40:42):
was seriously the day before they closed our lives, everything,
the studio. We snuck in there in the last day.
And then um movies, we love Alamo Drafthouse. We fell
in love with it. In Austin, Texas, home away from
home for us, and now they have to in New York.
(41:03):
We love because they make their own trailers and their
own pre show game and you get to eat and
you have really good food, and they have a full bar,
and they make real popcorn and a giant bowl and
get a nice oh you get a recliner. I love
it so much. So we love Alamo in New York
(41:23):
and Brooklyn, and we love Broadway depending on the show.
And thank you David Burn for giving us our favorite
last Broadway. That was awesome. I love it. I mean,
you did explain it perfectly, so I understand why there's both,
so we'll accept that answer. Um, racheon, John, thank you
so much for joining us. This has been a blast.
(41:44):
I know, Mark and Mark and I really appreciate it. Um,
and you know, it was awesome being we'll talk to you. No,
you're fine. That was good. Most people we can't get
to talk. Nobody says in the thing. They just say yes, no,
sometimes maybe, and then they don't talking over here. Great,
(42:09):
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
What an incredible interview. Thank you to Rachel and John.
Such great stories. I mean, what a heck. Of a ride.
This is the last couple of years in their house. Um.
Impressive stuff. And God, that made me really hungry, and
it made me excited for a little off season. So
(42:30):
I guess I'll ask you, Nick, what was your favorite
off season adventure? Um? Oh, off season adventure? Um does
the night we were in Vegas count I don't know
what you're talking about, Nick, thing doesn't work anymore here,
(42:53):
I lost all comps. But I'll go. Um, let's see
when the guys come out and we worked on football
in the off season. Jets, Jets West, Jets West. There
is baby. I still got the me now, I think, Um,
I think my my favorite off season, which happened to
be the weirdest offseason, was the lockout year two thousand
(43:17):
and eleven. Right, I just had my first son, so
while while technically goes off season, and we didn't have
like O T A s or mini camps or anything.
So he was born in February Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, Um, yeah,
that's a little fun fact I had. I had the
(43:38):
ability to be with him from the time he was
born all the way up to training camp, which was
you know, not expected because usually you know, we'd have
o t as, we'd have offseason workouts, we'd have mandatory
mini camps, so um to have that time. You know,
it was weird and stunt because we would rather be
doing football stuff obviously, but it was also like, well,
(43:59):
but also had this newborn and I get to hang
out with him for like six straight months, So that
was it was probably my favorite. I would say, I
love that yours. It was just right. I'm a big
old softie. Last football, that's all you did. You never
(44:19):
went to a beach never once. Never never went anywhere
tropical once almost say, Mark Burnell saved my life scuba
diving one time. How does that not the listen? I
was still alive because Mark Burne. So they tried to
(44:40):
get the crash course. They tried to give me like
a twenty minute crash course on how to scuba dive.
I wasn't certified, which is like really dangerous. Looking back,
it was completely idiotic. However, we all felt good. I
was like, yeah, dude, I can figure it out. I
reassured them that I was ready to go, had no
clue what was going on, and um, as soon as
(45:02):
we went down, we were probably you know, sixty ft
below the surface, which once you get to a certain depth,
you can't just go up super fast and like bail.
Even though you probably hold your breath and be fine.
You probably live and be okay, but you can really
mess yourself up. You can get the bends. You can
just basically jack yourself up. So we go down. There's
(45:23):
like four of us, and what you don't think about,
which is silly, is you can't communicate underwater. Obviously, you
can't yell to your partner. It's like hand signals, so
it's like shark and like you know, turtle and like
stupid stuff like that, but you can't talk. So there's
these hand signals and stuff that we really didn't rehearse well.
And so instead of giving the okay, which means I'm good,
(45:45):
I kept going like this which means go up. And
so they're like, what's wrong. You can't breathe, like checking
all my stuff multiple times. And then finally I was
like I'm out of here and was ready to just
go to the surface, which is super dangerous. So Brunel's
is grabbed me, waves everybody away and keeps me below
the surface and like calms me down to breathe. Because
(46:06):
I was starting to panic, which is the worst thing
to do. Then everybody's gone, I don't see anything. I
hear like a ferry going over us because we're in
this channel and I just see these like giant propellers
in this huge boat and they're like right above us,
and I'm kind of freaking out, and Brunel just kind
of calms me down and he teaches me how to
breathe and go up and down, adjusting your air and
(46:28):
all that stuff underwater and like the next half hour,
and I went through my air so fast because I
was breathing way too fast, totally hyperventilating. Um. But yeah,
long story longer. It was a rough one and probably
the worst decision I made. And if I told my Jano,
Bob and Rex that they might have cut me on
the spot because it was bad. It was really bad.
(46:50):
There's definitely a real possibility that they have done that,
but they didn't, so and I'm glad they didn't because
it now gives us the opportunity to do this podcast, um,
which was I think our best episode yet. It was
a ton of fun. UM. So thank you everybody for listening.
I really appreciate it. And stay tuned for the next one,
so don't forget to rate, review, follow, and listen and
(47:12):
of course share on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Mark Sanchez
and this is Nick Mangolds for the Exchange
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