Are there any foods left that you still want to try?
Its mostly versions of things in other countries and cultures.
I was in Surinamenot very many people go to SurinameI was hundreds of miles down the Marowijne River.
You really are at the end of the earth, in a way.
And they hunted a lot of different animals there that we ate that night around the campfire.
But theres a species of turtle that you didnt know existed.
They translated it into chicken, but it looked like a Dr. Seuss bird.
You could look it up, taxonomically, based on the pictures that we took.
Its delicious, right?
You just dont know until you get out there.
Lets talk about your usual day in regards to food.
Do you eat breakfast?
Im a cup of coffee person, and then I venture to eat 90 minutes after Ive gotten up.
I have to force myself.
Im not really hungry until lunch.
I can do coffee until lunch.
How do you take your coffee?
Just drip coffee?
Im a complete and total food geek.
I have the really expensive espresso machine, and I have the pour over thing.
I get different types of peaberry from different parts of the world.
Im really into the coffees of Rwanda.
I love some Jamaican and Mexican coffeesa lot of it has to do with the roaster.
Im pretty persnickety about it.
I mean, I dont do drugs or alcohol anymore.
Im 29 years sober, so I take my coffee really seriously.
Im 29 years sober, so I take my coffee really seriously.
When you do force yourself to eat breakfast, what are you usually forcing yourself to eat?
I make a piece of toast, I do two fried eggs.
I dont do a lot of take-out, but I do a lot of food ordering.
I have a standing order at Russ and Daughters in New York City.
The American breakfast is toxic for people.
Its all that sugar, and carbohydrates.
Its French toast and maple syrup, and cereal with sugarI mean, its just fucking awful for people.
Its almost like child abuse to feed your kid the American Breakfast.
And what do you usually do for lunch?
I keepFeltmans hotdogshere at the office.
How often do you cook your own recipes and do you have any favorites?
And theyll say to me, Wheres the recipe?
We dont have this onthe website.
And then I write out the recipe.
It was a very typical dinner in my familys house growing up, throughout my whole life.
Were going to put that out on my social.
I do look at my old recipes because theyre the theyre all the foods I like to eat.
But it works both ways.
Its a combination of Poppy Tookers recipe and Leah Chases recipe.
I just made it work for myself and we posted about it.
But I look on my website to remember What were the ratios again?
and How was I dealing with my tomato product?
I could have guessed at it pretty well, but its a very precise recipe.
I do look at my old recipes because theyre the theyre all the foods I like to eat.
Do you have any new favorite recipes or cookbooks that youre excited about right now?
I cooked a lot out of that.
Theres another book thats Indonesian food that Lara Lee wrote calledCoconut and Sambal.
Nik Sharmas book,The Flavor EquationIve been cooking out of that a lot.
Do you stock up on any instant or frozen foods?
Yes, Totinos Pizza Rolls.
Theres never sauce in the pizza rolls, so I like to get the pizza rolls in sauce.
Im obsessive about ice cream.
I love hot dogs lately.
Im a Feltmans guy with the original Coney Island dog.
Helados Mexico, the Mexican paleta company thats now in most supermarkets, I love those.
I cook a lot of Chinese food and a lot of different Asian cuisines.
Thats my favorite thing to cook at home.
We have some really remarkable markets here in this part of the world and in the Twin Cities.
I like a bowl of instant ramen.
Its just so simple.
And you might doctor it up.
Im really into some of the Korean companies that are doing these instant noodle bowls.
What condiments do you keep around?
Oh, its absurd.
I love to go shopping and I believe food waste is a crisis issue in our country.
I have 15 different kinds of soy sauce at my house.
I have a hundred types of olive oil and vinegar.
I have at least a dozen mustards.
What about ketchup?
I have two kinds of ketchup in my house, Heinz ketchup and Sir Kensingtons.
I use them for different things.
In the hot sauce departmentIll just go hot condiment because I have a jar of Walkers jerk paste.
Ill use that to season if Im not doing a jerk blend on my own.
Thats a really great product.
I have 100 products like that.
I have eight different types of Korean gochujang in my house.
I have eight different types of Sichuan dou banthe fermented chili-bean paste.
One of them is very precious to me.
Its 25 years old.
That family has been making tahini in that shop for a thousand years.
These are the things that I collect and bring home.
I have a mustard that my family keeps wanting me to throw out.
Im the only one that eats it.
Its a Russian mustard.
The label is in Cyrillic.
If you dont read Russian, you cant understand it.
But its called mother-in-law mustard because its so strong.
But this mustard has horseradish oil added to it, and its that wasabi explosion mustard.
I only use it on liverwurst sandwiches.
I tell everyone, Im not going to throw it out.
The struggle is that we need more patience, tolerance, and understanding in the world.
If we can do that by eating each others food, I bless it.
Im staring at a bottle of olive oil that I dont have room for at home.
Its sitting on my desk.
Its remarkable becauseagain, I have no business relationship with any of these peoplebut itsPalestinian extra virgin olive oil.
I may never be able to take it home because I may be done with it.
I want people to eat food.
And Im a religious Jew, you know, this is the struggle.
The struggle is that we need more patience, tolerance, and understanding in the world.
If we can do that by eating each others food, I bless it.
Thats been my mantra.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
