Why dont I do a video?
And why just limit it to the fridge?
What do you usually eat for breakfast?
Im not hungry in the mornings.
I usually dont eat anything until 11 oclock or so when I have some fruit.
And then usually around one or two I might make a sandwich.
I love shakshukaa couple of eggs cracked into some tomato sauce.
I do the occasional grilled cheese sandwich or tuna just in a bowl.
Tuna with some chopped pickles and or even egg salad.
Thats my typical lunch.
Do you do a sweet pickle or a dill pickle?
My wife makes her own sweet pickle relish.
Were gardeners, or I should say shes the gardenershes actually studying to be a master gardener.
We have been gardening ever since we met 40-some years ago.
In the autumn, theres green tomatoes left on the vine that just dont ripen.
She made a jam out of them this year, which was really quite good.
I guess it proves that if you add enough sugar to anything, you might make a jam.
And she, by the way, is the best cook in the house.
And Im not saying thatshes not within earshot.
She is a jazz cook.
I am a symphonic cook.
I have to work from a recipe like an orchestra leader.
I have to have a musical score in front of me.
If Im trying to develop a recipe, I can improvise, but I start by writing it down.
Shes Miles Davis and Im Tchaikovsky.
What kind of cheese do you put on your grilled cheese?
Whatevers in multiples in the cheese bin.
I taste my way around the cheese department; Im always buying interesting cheeses.
I also prefer togrillmy grilled cheese.
I mean, come on now.
Its called grilled cheese, and youre talking to Meathead here.
It gets golden with a couple of good grill marks and has a little smoky character.
So its no fuss, no muss; just fling launch the door, toss it on the grill.
How many grills do you have?
Too many to count.
Its a constant rotating cast of characters.
But theres a good old fashionedWeber Kettle.
I have a gas grill, only I have the absolute coolest, bestest gas grill known to man.
And, you know, a pellet smoker, a gas smoker, charcoal smoker, aBig Green Egg.
Going back to the cheeses briefly: What do you think the best burger cheese is?
American cheese is the cheese of choice for cheeseburgers.
It has the right flavor and melting capacity.
Theres a whole science to melting cheeseswhat makes a cheese meltable?Ive written about it.
American cheese is absolutely perfectly designed for it.
And it tastes like a cheeseburger!
Its like, if youre going to make peanut butter and jelly you dont use sunflower seed butter.
You use peanut butter.
Do you like crunchy or creamy peanut butter?
And what kind of jelly?
We keep a bunch of jellies around here and we make make our own.
Its a wonderful green table grape, and we had a huge crop a couple of years ago.
I only had like six vines, but I picked almost a bushel.
And that makes a wonderful jam or jelly or spread.
The red raspberry from Smuckersthats my favorite, I think.
We were in Florida recently and we got a pineapple and orange marmalade that was lovely.
What is real balsamic?
Often there are a variety of woods like walnut and chestnut and cherry and oak.
It takes many years.
Anytime you see an age on a balsamic you know its not true balsamic.
Balsamic is made like a sherry.
Then the big barrel gets this years crop in it.
So its a blend and it goes all the way down.
Its one of these exotic rare foods like truffles and caviar.
And because were gardeners, we grow fresh tomatoes and it just makes the most extraordinary caprese.
We dont use it like crazy, but I always have a bottle of this stuff.
Its good on ice cream and on strawberries.
Its a little thinner than a syrup, but its just extraordinary.
Very sweet, but also very, very tart.
I can drink it straight from the bottle.
And you’re free to, too.
Its almost like a liqueur.
Knowing a good wine merchant is better than knowing a good stockbroker.
Do you have a wine cellar?
A small wine cellars, with a capacity of about fifteen cases or so.
The secret is, can you get a great wine for under 15?
We drink wine with dinner every night, I really cant afford to drink great Bordeaux every night.
So we hunt and peck.
Knowing a good wine merchant is better than knowing a good stockbroker.
Its right up there with knowing a good butcher.
I have an excellent wine merchant and she turns me on to the good stuff.
Do you drink a lot of cocktails?
I am mostly a wino, but not long ago I discovered Negronis.
I have become a Negroni addict.
Its just that perfect balance between bitter and sweet and tart.
I noticed that the term hedonism evangelist has been applied to you.
I put that on my business card.
I dont know why I hung that name on myself.
It has gotten some negative blowback from Christian fundamentalists.
Some philosophy for you.
Im an old man.
I can have a philosophy now: You go through life, you only have five senses.
Everything we know about the world is what we gather through these five senses.
Itscriminalif you dont use them all.
Good lord, a ripe tomato?
You put me next to a really ripe tomato and a beautiful steak, and its a tough choice.
I love them both equally.
I dont put butter or salt on my corn.
We just steam it or grill it and I eat it naked.
When our garden is in full flower, well go a week without meat or multiple days.
Once upon a time, I went 30 days without meat on a dare.
I was protestingCAFOs, the mistreatment of animals and food factories.
It was not hard.
We got zucchinis, we got tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumberstheyre all there!
Peppersoh were into the peppers.
We can and preserve them.
I smoke the peppers and make pimento.
I make smoked paprika.
I make a chipotle.
She makes pickled relish, makes tomato sauces.
Our tomato sauces are far superior to anything get in a jar.
You put me next to a really ripe tomato and a beautiful steak, and its a tough choice.
I love them both equally.
I go both ways.
We have creamy and crunchy peanut butter too.
A lot of Europeans leave the butter out.
We just dont do that.
Im married to a food safety expert.
Were fairly careful about things of that sort, but maybe a little over obsessive.
American butter is different than European butter anyhow.
How do you decide between mayonnaise and Miracle Whip?
Oh, God, I was hoping you wouldnt ask this.
My wife is the mayonnaise, and Im the miracle whip.
I have a sweet tooth.
I love Miracle Whip.
But donotput Miracle Whip on a grilled cheese sandwich.
Only mayonnaise will work.
Youre youre familiar withthat hack?
I like it better than butter.
And by the way, have you ever done mayonnaise on fish?
Its a very good anti-stick for fish, especially on a grill.
I wrote about in my book several years ago, and now its catching on.
Ahead of the curve.
We were ahead of the curve onreverse sear, too.
Way ahead of the curve on reverse.
Were interested in the science.
Is reverse sear is your favorite way to prepare a steak?
Its not a good technique for a thin steak.
A thin steak youve got a hot, fast flash.
But a thick steak, absolutely.
We call it redneck sous vide.
How do you cook a chicken?
Many of them are spatchcocked on the grill.
And some of them are done in the convection oven.
The convention oven gets the skin really crispy and I love good, crunchy, crispy chicken skin.
I am always surprised at how many chefs tell you to truss the legs.
You want the dark meat to cook more than the white meat.
Even Thomas Kellerall these guystheyre always trussing the bird, and they put it in these roasting pans.
You have toliftit up above the pan so the warm air can flow underneath it and cook the underside.
I never cook a bird in a roasting pan.
I cook it on a rackabovea roasting pan, but notina roasting pan.
And you absolutely must use digital thermometers, especially when cooking poultry.
It is the single most important tool in the kitchen.
You just cannot risk overcooking a steak at current beef prices.
The other thing is to understand the different kinds of energy.
When youre cooking on a grill, you have three kinds of energy.
Then you have airflow, and then you have radiation.
Theyre both two hundred degrees, but warm air isnt going to scald you like that warm metal.
Once you understand the three different kinds of energy, then it’s possible for you to actually cook.
