@ForkReporter | Hour 1

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Niel Savedri. You'relistening to kf I Am six forty the
four Report on demand on the iHeartRadioapp. Thanks for hanging out. We
got a lot to get to today. We've got some great guests from local
restaurants. You know, everybody's stillstruggling trying to make ends, meet,
find staff, find crew. Welove to shine a light on them.

(00:22):
We'll do that coming up in justa little bit. Also find out about
just great food. How about that? And four Technique of the Week.
Let's get into butter, shall we? But Uh, there was a story
in the Wall Street Journal and Imust have been set this story by at

(00:42):
least five people. I don't know, but people love butter and that the
headline read, this is better thanbutter whether you're cooking steaks or roasting vegetables.
And we've talked about this actually manymany times on the show, but

(01:03):
I thought it'd be nice to getback into butter and explain what people refer
to as culinary gold. It's somethingoften referred to as gee or clarified butter,
small differences depending on you know.GE comes from India and their process

(01:25):
I think is really one of thebest for clarified butter, it gets a
little extra nuttiness. So what endsup happening is you cook out certain parts
of the butter and then you sivethem out. So you cook it down,
separate it and sive them out,and in that process you end up

(01:49):
having something that is just pure butterfat m You don't have the milk solids,
you don't have those things and willthat will be part of our discussion
today. But I thought instead ofjust focusing on ghee or clarified butter,
I'd go through all the different typesof butter. So I'll get into this

(02:13):
and I'll explain how to make itcoming up in a moment, but let's
start with the basics. Unsalted butter. Often you'll see it labeled sweet cream
butter, saying saying, and superversatile. It's used a lot in cooking
and baking. The reason why itis used often in cooking and baking so

(02:34):
that the person baking or cooking cancontrol the level of salt in baking.
I understand there's a lot of controlthere. I've always thought this notion was
silly. You're talking about like aquarter quarter teaspoon of salt that's what's in

(03:02):
a stick of butter. I thinka lot of this. I've read article
after article after article that some peoplethat there was kind of a conversion problem
when some of the old old recipeswere kind of brought into modern day but

(03:23):
forever, for whatever reason, peopleswear by this, and that's because different
makers might put different amounts of saltin it. And I get all of
that, but if you're using thesame brand from the same location all the
time, I think you know howto compensate. There's salt in all kinds

(03:44):
of things. There's salt and cheese, so I don't I always thought it
was a little I hear people swearingby it all the time, and Baker's
would probably come at me, butthey're the pros. I'm not. But
I always thought that's it's just oneof those weird culinary things get passed down.
So I have both here and really, unsalted is used for cooking and

(04:06):
baking for the most part, andthen salted butter is used for as a
spread when you're putting it on topof something like a piece of great bread,
or even if you're topping off Idon't know, rice or something.
I will use it salted butter isexactly like sweet cream butter. It just
has that quarter teaspoon of salt init. That's the reality. So those

(04:31):
are the type of things that youhave the most in the house. Those
are probably what you have most.You could do one or the other.
If you have unsalted, you justput a little salt on it. I
had some wonderful, wonderful butter theother day and some bread, and the
way it was served is with thisgorgeous chunk of butter and with a side

(04:55):
of salt. It's finishing salt beautifuland you could literally take that, put
it onto your bread and then sprinka little salt on it if you wish.
Not a problem, Easy peasy.So let's get into the clarified butter
part. This is what people referto as culinary gold. And I'll tell

(05:15):
you why. So the milk fatis rendered from the butter. You separate
the milk solids and the water fromthe butter fat, so you're cooking it
at a low temperature. And asyou're cooking it, when you put butter
in a pan, you know howbubbles and kind of sizzles a little bit.
Well, the reason that is isthat the fat is starting to heat

(05:39):
up. And what doesn't mix oiland water. So when you melt the
butter down from a solid, thewater in there starts to evaporate because the
oil is heating up. That's whythings make noise when you deep fry them.
And that's why you don't want toput a frozen turkey deep deep fry

(06:00):
of frozen turkey. For people whohave done that, I am not,
but I've seen the pictures. Becauseoil and water don't mix. They mix
even they have even less good timeswhen the oil is hot, so that
part of sizzling wants it starts tostop sizzling. Then then the water's gone,

(06:23):
it's evaporated. Next you're going tosee these little bits of the milk
fat start separating, and that's theprocess. Then you take it and you
put it through a sieve and acheese cloth that will catch all that milk
fat, and what you'll have isclarified butter, no water in it,

(06:45):
and the milk solids removed. Whatdoes that do It gives it a nutty
flavor because that milk fat in theprocess of rendering, starts to caramelize and
get get that nutty flavor to it, which is one wonderful, but really
what it does is it changes thesmoke point. Smoke point is important in
oils and fats because that meant thesmoke point is when they start to break

(07:11):
down. That's when they lose someof their properties. That's when they start
to get nasty smelling and things likethat and end up bringing a foul odor
and taste to something rather than theloveliness that they're supposed to. Butter comes
in at about three twenty five threeseventy five. That's when it starts to
break down. That's when it startsas smoke really heavily, and that's why

(07:35):
sauteing and butter usually you'll cut itwith some olive oil or something like that.
The olive oil has a higher smokepoint kind of takes care of that
and buffers the butter. But whatyou can do is saute when you're doing
steaks, if you're going to searthem off, you're roasting vegetables, you
can use clarified butter or ghee andthat'll boost that smoke point up to around

(07:59):
forty five. Get about one hundreddegree higher heat out of clarified butter.
That doesn't have that milk fat.Also, a lot of it has the
lactose the case in that is thelactose at all of that kind of wicked
out. And so those that areintolerant or have a milk allergy usually can

(08:20):
handle clarified butter even better. Soyou melt that butter, allow the things
to separate, water evaporate, solidsfloat to the surface, You skim them
off, put them through a sieveand a cheese cloth, and what's left
out is leftover is this beautiful purebutter fat with a higher smoke point,

(08:43):
still has a great flavor of butter, has a little nuttiness, great on
popcorn, all of these things.It's a great thing to do. But
every once in a while everybody startspraising it again. And it's been around
forever. So we'll get back tobutter more different types of butter, organic
whip butter, European style, allthese things. When we return with Technique
of the Week, it is theFork Report on Neil Sevadra. You're listening

(09:05):
to the Fork Report with Neil Savedraon demand from KFI AM six forty.
We focus on checking off the heavinessof the week and getting into stuff we
love, and that's good food,good conversation, a lot to get to.
Today, we're gonna introduce you tosome folks that have restaurants and some
food. You're gonna want to putyour mouth all that great stuff. Right

(09:28):
now, we're in the middle oftechnique of the week. The technique we're
looking at is butter using butter,what kinds of butter? Knowing your butter,
butter, butter, butter, butterbutter. Yum, yum yum.
They go back and forth. AndI know that we have people that don't
eat animal products of any kind andwe respect them. We respect everybody in
their dietary limitations or dietary needs ordietary beliefs. We're all it's all welcome.

(09:58):
But I will tell you that Iam not somebody who will demonize something
over something else because I just hatethat. I think it causes problems with
eating. I think it causes disorders. I think it causes all kinds of
problems. We have learned over theyears that animal fats are good, they

(10:20):
can be nutritious, and they canbe valuable in cooking. We've also learned
that when we've trying to mess withfats and margarine and things like that growing
up was very popular with us.That it didn't have the benefits that once
were thought and actually caused some problems. So I will say that I absolutely

(10:41):
use animal fats. I eat animalstoo, so it doesn't go against the
way I live, but I wantto recognize that out of respect to those
that might have issues with it.Moving on from clarified butter to organic butter
comes from cattle raised without antibiotics,which really, you know, the way

(11:05):
the way we've moved through farming andhaving to use things like antibiotic antibiotics and
growth hormones and all those things,I'm equally as down upon as I am
four proper raising and the proper careof these animals. I know that might

(11:28):
seem contradictory to some, but Ijust tell you the antibiotics and there the
growth hormones. All that stuff ismore garbage than we need. So organic
butter is raised without those things antibiotics, growth hormones. They're given given one
percent organic feed, grown without toxicpesticides, synthetic fertilizer, all of that,

(11:50):
and you could find it in unsaltedand salted and you use it just
like conventional butter. The whipped butter, this has air or other gas like
nitrogen, and it's attitude to makeit less dense than standard butter. So
kind of a little goes a longway. This increased volume is you know,

(12:13):
less calories per tablespoon, it caneven be half, and it's got
a lighter texture. But to keepin mind, it's got less calories because
it's got more air in it.Best for spreading on toast, finishing dishes.
It's not recommended for baking or cookingat all. It's just a spread.
It's spread easier to spread because it'sgot the air in it, and

(12:35):
it's lighter and whipped and all thatEuropean style butter, which a lot of
people love. I do too.This is you know why French croissants are
so lovely and airy and delicious.It's got extra milk fat eighty two to
eighty five for most brands. Soyour European style butter has less moistures,

(12:56):
got less of that water in therethan standard butter, and it's got all
that milk fat in it. Sothis is like the oppositely clarified butter makes
pastries tender, fluffy cakes it's oftenit's made with fermented or cultured cream,
so it has a little bit oftang to it, and it could be
used for any sort of cooking task. Spreadable butter is regular butter and some

(13:24):
vegetable oil added in so it spreadseasier. Not recommended for baking or cooking.
Again, light butter it has lessthan forty percent forty percent or less
of milk fat. Not recommended forbaking or cooking. Also, butter like
spread, keep that in mind,not recommended for baking or cooking either.

(13:46):
It's just like a buttery flavored spread. So that's the basic breakdown of your
butters to use but enjoy. Justbutter is one of those wonderful, wonderful
things in the world. All right, we'll be back with more, So
go nowhere. It is The ForkReport on Nil Savadra kf IM six forty.
You're listening to the Fork Report withNil Savedra on demand from KFI AM

(14:09):
sixty live everywhere on that their iHeartRadioapp. Hey, everybody to the Fork
Report all things food, beverage andbeyond. I am your well fed host,
Nil Savadra. How do you do? Thanks for hanging out? Of
course three hours every Saturday from twoto five, kind of cleanse the palate
of the week, right, heavynews, whatever's going on in life,

(14:30):
coming together and celebrating food, thepeople that make it, the culture behind
it, going out to eat,cooking at home, grilling, drinking,
if you and vibe and all ofthe above. You know, I'm a
big fan of Moronco Casino resorting spot, as you know, been down there
many many times, and we hadthe pleasure of being there after the opening

(14:52):
of the marketplace by Fabio Viviani,so we had an opportunity to day to
get him on the show and chatwith his perspective of what's going on.
Chef, how are you very good, buddy, old audio excellent. I
gotta tell you, I love whatyou did. I love I think it
is the future. I think peoplewill be following you. This to me

(15:15):
is way better than some sort ofstandard buffet. So I applaud you for
the execution. It's just fabulous.I appreciate it. You know, it's
a it's a first one in NorthAmerica. There is not many places that
did what we did. Basically whatwe did. There's a hybrid between a
foot hall and the old concept ofthe one prize fits all buffet, which

(15:39):
she's still there. You pay oneprice to get in, but then once
you're in, it's not a bunchof you know said the station lifeless,
It's it's a you know, it'sa busy place, everything made to order
that creates really a hulinary journey.That's what we're trying to create here.

(16:00):
You know, the quality of thefood offering from Spanish to Mexican to Asian
to steak gus light to barbecue Italianand everything in between is the is the
quality that you would find in anystandalone restaurant in any busy downtown. And
you did not skip a beat.And of course I'm a fan of your

(16:23):
executive chef, Stephen Agosto, becausehe's a great guy and that he's that
passion that you have that obviously canbe heard right now is passed on to
your team, and he's got thatsame passion when he walked me around and
Damien and just seeing everything that youhave there, the excitement, the fact

(16:45):
that you've got these two big,beautiful flat cast iron Evo grills out front.
When you come in the way,it's you're not dealing with Okay,
here's some crap food under warming lightsand there's a cutting station for beef.
It's like you've got like a butchershop in there. With the cuts you
can see everything. It really isspectacular, and I think that you have

(17:10):
started something that will be stolen mostcertainly as always is you know, there
is everything works from the business modelto the economics, so the quality of
the food. You know, ofcourse, just like everyone else in the
United States, labor is always achallenge. We are always hiring. Actually,
if you listen to these and youwant to be part of the team,

(17:33):
we will look forward with you.But the reality is that we have
an extensive experience in food and beverage. We operate hotel, we operate food
and beveraging gaming facility, we operatemany standalone restaurants. So we couldn't do
something that was like halfway there,right. We had to do the things
that was made the most sense forthe time in history and the customer needs,

(17:57):
and honestly everybody else will eventually follow. This is truly trial trial blazing
in the industry because again it's ahybrid model there has never really been seen
yet. Few have tried, notso successfully, i will say, but
with a team of Morongo, likeyou said, Damien Stephen and everybody else,

(18:22):
they made They made these very easyand very possible. You know.
It's something that I've noticed there.And although I've been a spokesperson for Morongo,
it's it really is. I don'tsay this because of that I am
a spokesperson because I believe these things. But I always see people that are
working in any part of the casino, resort and spa having a good time,

(18:48):
enjoying what they do. And Isaw in the marketplace there before they
had opened, all the chefs andthe support staff and they were dance,
singing, laughing as they're prepping foodand all of those things in the background
before they even opened. And thatspeaks to the excitement of not putting out

(19:10):
crap and saying okay, well,you know you think about it. I
always look at it this way.You gotta have a good water place,
and you gotta have a good matressat your house. Because chef, I
think we caught that. I thinkwe got when we come back, I
want to hear about your choice.Is why you chose these different styles or
genres or cultures of food. Whatexcites you about them and those when we

(19:37):
come back. Hang tight. Awardwinning author and celebrity chef Fabio Viviani is
with us talking about the marketplace thathe curated and put together there at Moronco
Casino Resort and Spa. We'll beback with him in just a moment to
talk about the variety that they havethere. So go nowhere. You're listening

(20:03):
to The Fork Report with Nil Savedraon demand from KFI AM six forty.
Hey, everybody, it's the ForkReport, all Things Food, beverage,
jobs beyond. I am your wellfed host, Niel Savedra. How do
you do? Happy Saturday to you? We have three hours on a Saturday,
kind of shake off the heaviness ofthe week, come together and celebrate

(20:26):
food, and we still got sometime to do it. Right now,
I'm chatting with my guest, FabioViviani, chef is a world renowned celebrity
chef, of course, best sellingcookbook author, and I love the fact
that he has partnered to curate withour friends at Morongo Casino Resort and Spa

(20:52):
to put together an experience that you'veprobably never experienced before, certainly not out
here, and in this way,it's the Marketplace by Fabio Viviani there at
Morongo, and the cool thing isit's no more of those crazy ass lines
of just waiting and waiting. You'vegot a kiosk, you walk up to

(21:12):
their outside of the marketplace, youget your reservation, they'll text you can
go out and enjoy the gaming andall of that, and then when they're
ready for you, you come andthey bring it in and you get to
enjoy it. I've been there andhad the food. It's fantastic chef when
you came to the amount of thisfood hall experience, when it came to

(21:36):
it's like a mini mall of differentchef driven restaurants. Everything's made fresh.
When you had to pick how manystorefronts or restaurant fronts for the lack of
a better term, how many didyou expect to put in there? How'd

(21:57):
you know which ones you wanted todo, whether it's barbecue, whether it's
Mexican food. How did you goabout curating that part of it? Well,
you know, the size of thespace, of course matter, because
you can't put ten concept in atwo thousand square feet room, and it's
too big to put one or twoconcept in the twenty thousand square feet room.

(22:19):
Right, So these case we haveusually you have your four three four
mainstream agent, Mexican, Italian,and some sort of stakes. Then we
have the seafood station, we havethe oyster bar, we have the dessert
station, we have the bar,and we have a concept called pork and

(22:42):
Waffle, a lot of Southern barbecuekind of flavor, you know. And
again you you're you're figured out whoyour clientele is because that plays a big
role in the in the decision makingof the concept profile. Right, So
we work with other venue, otherregion of the United States, they have,

(23:02):
you know, a higher influence ofa certain ethnicity, so we tend
to gravitate some of the choice aroundthose geography and those preference Southern California of
course very high percent of Hispanic population, Italian population. So you know,
we try to combine in flavor thatare familiar to the crowds while we're also

(23:26):
bringing our own, our own perspectiveinto into the creation of the food.
How many it goes and depend onthe space, depend on the budget,
depend on on how many you wantto do. In this case, like
I said, we the all sixseven session, seven session, and we
feel that the size. It's bigenough that you're don't have to wait in

(23:48):
line, you know, thirty deepto get anything. And and it's not
too big that you don't have youdon't have enough enough of a selection of
it. I love the kind ofartistry of the open kitchen. So even
as I said with al Komal,the minute you walk in you see those
big thirty inch cast iron evokmals thatare just the chefs are going at it.

(24:14):
You've got that, you know,the heat that's generated off of those
sixty thousand plus BTU units right there, and that's a show. You get
dinner in a show. You know. We were trying to combine traditions with
visibility, right you know, ifyou're familiar with the Spanish and Mexican culture,
South American culture, the komal isa big reverse half circle basically on

(24:42):
a on a fire and you cooka bunch of things in and the fuck
runs off from the side and increasethe flavor and the smokiness and all that's
well, that's not quite possible ina in this typo environment, those fire
department and ventilation and all that.But we created the same feeling with this

(25:02):
big round, the kind of almostlike half Moon kind of flaptops and that's
kind of the epicenter of backyard Mexicanand traditional Spanish cooking. Right, so
we kind of create and then theItalian station you got the open, you
got the rotissa in the you gotthe rotissa in the stake, the prime

(25:26):
cut session, you got to walkinto the Asian station and so on.
Right, we, like I said, we try to make it as original
as possible. We needn't set thisup with the buffet in mind. We
set this up with restaurant quality inmoney. Yeah, And so to me,
I think the thing I want toleave with people to get the idea

(25:51):
of what the marketplace is at MorongoCasino Resorting Spot is this not only do
you have multiple bowl genres, cultures, and types, but the kitchens are
designed for that type too. It'snot like you've just got a kitchen that's
pumping out different types of food.That's what I noticed. The getting those

(26:12):
high heat for the komal, gettingthe high heat for the ovens to be
able to make the crusts that youthat you want on a pizza, to
get that leopardine, to get thatflavor. Virtually seven different kitchen under one
roof. I love it. Soto me, that's different buffet. It's
like the same kitchen cooking different stuff. These all had the vibe and the

(26:33):
persona to me of what a kitchenwould look like if it was just a
one off restaurant. So I applaudyou. I really enjoyed the food.
Of course. The chefs are great, and you know, Steven and Damien
have become friends, and they're justreally good guys and incredibly talented guys,
and all of the chefs there doa great job. So I applaud you,

(26:55):
sir, and I thank you fortaking the time to come on today.
Thank you, appreciate you man,Thank you so much for having me.
And I'll to meet you in person. Yeah, I'm looking forward to
it. We'll come to a broadcastor something out there when you're around in
town and hang out and go overthe food. I'd love to hear it
described with that damn accent of yours. I love to all right, my
friend, thanks so much, chef, have a wonderful, wonderful rest of

(27:17):
your day. All right, itis the fork Port. I'm Neil Surveytor.
This is KFI and KOSTHD two LosAngeles you've been listening to The Fork
Report. You can always hear uslive on kf I am six forty two
to five pm on Saturday, andanytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.