A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Why Do People Get Angry About Italian Food? ft. QCP

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Today, Josh and Nicole are joined by Gianluca Conte to explore the visceral response society has about Italian Food. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Nicole, when I was growing up, my Nona would take me to the best hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurants. We're talking breadsticks, all-you-can-eat salads, tours of Italy. That doesn't sound very Italian. It's gotta be Olive Garden. You said breadsticks? No, no, Olive Garden. This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie.

Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwichwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer.

And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi. And today we have a very special, mostly naked guest joining us. He's known as QCP, a.k.a. Queen City Prince. And no, there is not an alternate backstory to that. He's one of the top Italian chefs on TikTok and author of the cookbook Italian American. Please welcome Gianluca Conti. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.

For saying my name right. For saying it all right. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk about what's right and what's wrong about the Italian cuisine and who's right and who's wrong. Well, I am very curious about that because as people who have been creating recipes and videos online, all of us, for many years at this point, nobody gets madder in the comments than Italian people about Italian food. Oh, yeah. And not Italian people talking about Italian – like they also care more than the Italians themselves. And you're real deal

Italian like you you got it running through my father is from Italy and that's enough

right I'm a first generation Italian people love to be like no you're not and then I'm just like who is questioning your Italian credentials

you should take a 23andme and just post it on the internet and be like I'm Italian I mean my dad is literally like how are you doing? Not shot in Italy with your dad. So many times, yeah.

So funny. But what is it specifically about Italian food that makes people want to gatekeep it? I think it must be because it was really brought from, it's one of the only, no, that's not true at all. Everything's been brought over, but most things have kind of stayed the same. A lot of authentic things you know chinese food japanese food has mostly

stayed authentic and italian food has been completely converted into its own kind as italian american food sure um and i think that's why i kind of lost its like intensity so people are mad because they're like that's not italian like that's not Italian. Like, that's not, that's Italian. That's not. So it must be that. It must be like, because it's, they have their own language in the Northeast. Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah. They, you know, they have a whole translation.

They took like a dialect of, of Southern Italy and turned it into English. So it's like, they've got so much going on. People don't really, no one's done that in any other culture. So I don't know why we're doing it. Even the term gabagool, right? Like so many people know that as a little joke from the Sopranos, but where it actually comes from in the language, I talk about this all the time, that Italy was not a country until like the 1880s. There was a bunch of

different kingdoms with different languages that were all united. But the term gabagool, it's capicola, right? But then when you go into southern dialects like Sicilian, which is a lot of people that came over here like the hard

ka sound softens to a ga and they would also drop the last vowel at the end of words because that's you know it's like pronouncing

things pecan or pecan or there's so many regional dialects where my father's from this is exactly true he has the dialect

he's from Ischia it's a small island off the coast of Naples so it's like you've got capri and then you could literally see ischia from there and the other way around and the napoli accent napolitano accent is is a complete dialect it's its own language they have different spelling they have different like it's completely different and for example mozzarella and in italian they say mozzarella and And then Napolitano, they say like mozzarella.

Infliction is in different parts. And then you get the Tony Soprano goes mozzarella. Yeah, then they say mozzarella. So it's like cappacola, cappacool, whatever the hell they say, it ends up being cappacool. Yeah. So it's just like, but it's funny. You know, I'm trying to like make things, I'm like, I want things to be civil. It's kind of like.

You're trying to unify. I'm trying to unify. Just like Garibaldi, man, trying to unify the Italian kingdoms, the great hero. And the Italian Americans are trying to do it too. You know, they're really trying their best. But like, you know, I feel like everyone else cares. I want to know, since you're here repping Italian American, what are some rules that you think should never be broken with Italian food? What are like, give me like four that you're just like, don't ever do this.

The store-bought, shelf-grabbed Parmesan cheese is the worst thing in the world. Shaky Parm? You don't like Shaky Parm? No. How do we get down with the Shaky Parm over here? What's your beef with crab Shaky Parm? You don't like shaky parm? We got down with the shaky parm over here. What's your beef with crab shaky parm? It's just bad cheese. Sawdust. Italian cuisine is so simple.

It's very easy and all it requires is quality ingredients. Yes, there is a lot of other factors. You have to know how long things and that and cooking. But then you really mess it up. You can make a whole dish and top it with store-bought sawdust and it's going to ruin the whole dish.

So that's what's important. That still goes into more things. My favorite part about that cheese, it has so much chew and so little taste. You know what I mean? Right. It's an iconic taste though, I must say. When you taste it, you know you're tasting shaky parm. I would You know what I mean? Right. It's an iconic taste, though, I must say. When you taste it, you know you're tasting shaky parm. I would never know.

I've never even. You've never tried it before? I don't think so. Do we have some in the fridge? Of course we have some in the fridge. We'll get some at the end of the five. We'll get later. I would love to show you guys, like, show you my top tier.

You definitely have had, like, parmigiano-reggiano in the top tier. And then, like, you put the two next to each other, it's just like. Oh, it's nice. It's's just like it's not even worth it but that's just one of my thoughts of things that are wrong there's plenty give me one more

give me something about pasta I feel like I've seen on the internet of course you can't break the pasta okay but sometimes the pot isn't big enough what are we supposed to do

just go buy another pot here's the thing if the water's boiling enough then the pasta technically like will get soft quick enough when you put it in. And then you can like, what I do is I like take the spider, whatever it's called, and I push it. I push the pasta and make it kind of slip up on the other end. So you even it out. So it's like, there's a strategy, but get a bigger pot.

Yeah, that works in practice. But I can't tell you how many times I've burnt the tips of my linguine because it just doesn't push down. But, you know, sometimes. You got to be quick. You got to be very quick. But let me tell you, sometimes broken pasta, like in a pinch, like it works. Also burnt pasta works. There's a whole recipe about.

Spaghetti alla assassina. Yeah, yeah. It's a burnt thing. Yeah, I'm Persian. It's burnt a little differently, but. Yeah, I'm Persian. It's a burnt thing. Yeah, I'm Persian. It's burnt a little differently, but.

Yeah, I'm Persian. So we do macaroni where we literally make a complete tadig, which is the burnt bottom, and we flip it over and it's the most delicious pasta dish ever. That's such a sick dish. And I never thought about it in terms of pasta alla sassina because you're doing the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah.

And we break the pasta in that too. But also that's, again, it's like a, it's an iteration of what Italians do. And, you know, whenever it goes through so many different things, you get something like macaroni, which is completely out of left field, but it still harkens back to Italian recipes. Yeah. Well, in my culture, white trash Pennsylvanians you see with some Mennonite cousins that might have been involved in organizing. And you're Jewish. I've never had Jewish spaghetti. I've had white trash.

You had Kugel. Olive Garden must be your only choice out there. Oh, my God. I'll tell you what. Olive Garden was absolutely, that was the fanciest restaurant I've been had Jewish spaghetti. I've had white trash. You had Kugel. Olive Garden must be your only choice out there. Oh, my God. I'll tell you what. Olive Garden was absolutely, that was the fanciest restaurant I've been to growing up. But then now, tasting it as somebody who knows anything about food, they don't salt their pasta water. You know, you got the spaghetti.

There's a lot of things. I went recently, too. Because I did a video with somebody who we compared the worst and the best Italian restaurant in New York City. Oh, cool. And we started at Olive Garden, and then we went to like a 4.9 out of 5 open table, like top tier. What's it called?

Which one? The good one? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I'm kind of, I'm blanking. I did a video. It was with Jack's Dining Room. I don't know if you've seen his. He does food reviews.

But basically, the difference in the video is one of the craziest. You pick up the ravioli at Olive Garden and it's like the bottom is, there's no sauce even on the bottom. I don't even know how they did that. Yeah, they like, they pull it one of the craziest. You pick up the ravioli at Olive Garden and it's like the bottom, there's no sauce even on the bottom. I don't even know how they did that. Yeah, they pull it out of the thing and they just put some sauce over it

and they serve it to you. That's my culture. No, for real. Like the breadsticks too. I'm like, everyone loves it, but they get solid. They get rock hard if you don't eat it in 30 seconds. They literally found that out.

An investment firm literally did an audit on the Olive Garden's practices. And they were like, hey, we noticed that you just serve six breadsticks to three people. And then after 30 seconds, they're awful. What if you just serve them one at a time? And they're like, nah. That's not how we make money. And they're like, well, we noticed you don't salt your pasta water. What if you did that?

Because 80% of people who ate it said it doesn't taste like anything. I know so well that they don't use like decent quality tomato sauce or anything. They're not in the quality business or the tonic business. Come on.

Tomato sauce is so cheap where it's like three cents more per palette. You get like 10 times better of the sauce. I don't like those margins.

Nicole's going to leave here to work for Olive Garden corporate. That'd be great. Take all the olives out of the salad we're losing money on the olives

yeah yeah we'll remove three almonds we'll save billions there are a lot of Italian American dishes so I I lived with two Italian soccer hooligans

in college and they were fantastic I learned so much about were they from the northeast they were both from Rome oh actually from Italy okay okay

oh yeah yeah yeah no full on like just came to try and get into the movie industry from Rome and so, actually from Italy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, full on just came to try and get into the movie industry from Rome. And so they would have their parents send espresso, olive oil, and tomato sauce. Cute. Because those are the three things that we can't get

anywhere here. But they had so many rules, and they were horrified by all these Italian-American dishes. Once, I made myself spaghetti and meatballs. And then they're like, the bread is already in the meat. What are rules that Italians would say that you shouldn't do with food that you think in the Italian-American context is really dank?

Like chicken parm is a huge one. There's so many weird things that don't make any sense. It's like meatballs. Meatballs are fine. Meatballs are very Italian, but not with pasta. So you cannot put spaghetti with meatballs.

That's one thing. Chicken and pasta is another rule. This is something we've talked about too. You don't put chicken anywhere near. There's no Tuscan style. That's not true. Then the biggest one is just cream at all in any pasta. So it's like there's no milk in pasta, but you can take like five balls of burrata, which

is full of milk and slap it all over your food. And it's, it's not cream. So it's like, there's a lot of different things, but like, to me, I think it's, I think it's kind of ridiculous. And I like for, for my father being like the authentic side and then be like living in theS. my whole life and seeing the other side of it was why I like wanted to even make this book to have both of them together. That was like a reason why I made a cookbook was I was like let's make this civil because they're all good. Like they're – both sides of it are really good dishes. Yeah.

And they just have different – they're just not traditional. Yeah. Carbonara with peas and ham can exist. One of my dad's Italian friends, that's how he does it. Yeah, yeah. And that's his part of Italy does it. Yeah, we shouldn't get.

But my dad's doesn't. You know, we don't have to have a war in Italy over the food. We shouldn't get mad over it. Maybe we can just be friends. Maybe that's what it's all about. Friendship. Chicken parmesan predates carbonara.

That's the thing that messes a lot of people up. Like it was invented in the U.S.? Correct. Chicken Parm, nobody actually knows the, I think the first time I've seen it in print was like 1930s. I'm Benjamin Buttoning. I've been existing for a long time. And Carbonara was after that?

1944. You're lying. The blogger and historian Luca Cesare says that carbonara was born in Rome around 1944, just after the liberation of the city. That's the thing. All these things that we associate Italy with this like ancient history, which is true in so many regards, but we almost like take out its ability to modernize because we say, this isn't authentic.

You can't put cream in that carbonara. It's like that dish is literally, there are more rules to chicken parmesan than there are carbonara, right? It's an older dish and that was an immigrant dish from, you know, southern Italian immigrants

in New York City. You know? So I think that's great. It's a diverse wealth of delicious things and nobody needs to gatekeep. It's pretty humorous how much depth there is

in this conversation, the argument of Italian food. It's just like, it's intense. And there's so much history behind it. People get mad. Yeah. People get very mad. Who's the maddest person you've encountered

about Italian food? I don't know. I don't know. A lot of the times I just, I try not to learn the full thing. Like it'll be in Italian a lot of the times and I see a couple of words in the mix and then I'm like,

don't hit translate. Yeah, that one I know is not good. but then then there's other side of it there's some people that are most of the people that are from italy like they see me post it they just laugh they're like great video you know like who cares like they there's some who care more than others and like and like i was saying a lot of the time it ends up just being like some person behind their phone who saw one video of it being done authentically then they see someone else do it and like not authentic and then they're like you're wrong and it's like yeah sure but like i didn't say authentic carbonara and uh and if i did and then i was wrong blame me but then we'll make an i'm sorry video on youtube millions of exactly i Exactly. I personally follow an Instagram reels page

because I'm not on TikTok. And it's called... You're not better than me. A little bit. It's called Italians Being Mad at Food. And it's just people... It's reaction videos.

And it is insane how much traction just this passionate, intense hatred of what someone is doing makes on the internet. It's all... What is it called?

It's like rage bait. Outrage bait, yeah. Yeah, it's like rage bait videos. But you can't stop watching them because there's something about it that's just so. Oh, yeah. Watching somebody react to somebody doing something extremely incorrect. Yeah, I love it. Shout out to Chef Reactions, man.

Yeah, he's hilarious. He's like corner of the market on it. But it's just, it's incredible to watch people just get so mad at some, like I was watching this video of someone in Italy pouring water from their water bottle into an espresso and someone behind them just looking at them like, what are you doing? And I just love those kinds of videos so much. And I think other people on the internet love watching it as well. Just that rage baby in your face. Like I'm here to make you mad. There are so many things.

In Italy, if you order a cappuccino past 12 p.m., you're considered, like, insane. And that's just like a thing. I love cappuccinos at 4 p.m.

Your digestive system doesn't, girl. You're slamming lactates. I see. Oh, no. She has a drawer full of lactates. I don't do lactates anymore. I don't really drink milk anymore.

She's built it. She's built the tolerance back. I don't drink milk anymore. No longer intolerant. I drink lactose-free milk now. I'm about the Fairlife anymore. She's built it. She's built the tolerance back. I don't drink milk anymore. No longer intolerant. I drink lactose-free milk now. I'm about the Fairlife milk. It has extra protein in it. Very fair.

Josh. I do too. Oh, you have the Fairlife milk? Wait, how do we all collectively get that sponsorship? Because the macro's on that milk. I made a video where I had like lactate in the video, like the pills. And I made like a mac and cheese like two years ago that was full of a bunch of cheese. The video had like 25 million views on TikTok

and I was just like, what have I done? I just gave them so much free promo. But, you know, it is what it is. Let's get sponsored by Fairlife and Lactaid. Two for one. Well, I tried to get a sponsorship from Sunsweet Prunes, Squatty Potty, and Tushy

Bidet's and then I was gonna... We got the Tushys. We got the Tushys. Well, thatushys Well that's why And we had a meeting With Sunset Crooms I love prunes Great simple carbs After a workout Keeps you regular Your shit looks like a prune today

Yeah this is me Trying to subliminally message Eat prunes But I wanted to call myself I have to curse once I wanted to call myself A shitfluencer Oh you're the poop guy

You're the poop guy Turn me into the poop guy All food turns into poop Eventually when I Have you guys seen The poop guy There's a poop guy On Instagram

Who's the poop guy No He's just a guy from New york who like makes a joke that people order poop at the deli oh yeah let me get two scoops of poop can i get a you know ciabatta roll with the he's like a hero with a little mortadella and just a scoop of poop he's like is that all right the bits the bits that take off man yeah and now like he literally only does poop content. And, like, he has fake slaps of poop.

He does, like, little... Oh, man. He does things where he's, like, meets somebody in public, gives them a little... He's like, you need your poop? I got your poop. He's going, yeah. I think I'm glad I didn't get the three poop infinity stones to turn myself into the poop influencer

because then I would have been really a pigeonhole and we couldn't talk about, like, the, you know, liberation of all the Italian city-states in 1889. Seriously. What is like the recipe in here that you're most proud of that like says this is the Italian American experience? The Italian Amer- like one, there's no, there's not like one that combines the both like together. Yeah, I guess because I guess. Because I have every recipe has an Italian flag or the United States flag identifying whether it's Italian or Italian-American. That's fabulous.

So I guess it's kind of harder to answer. Rather, I mean, it's pretty cool. There's kind of almost every authentic Italian, like basic. It's all, I have all the basics in this book. So I'd say my favorite, like Italian American recipe is probably, which is, which is crazy is lasagna. Like the, my lasagna, regular lasagna bolognese is just like, it's, it's, they're all easy, but time is what throws people off on anything, but it's like the experience and the result is what is great.

I mean, it's so hard for me to choose favorites, but my favorite authentic Italian, which is my father's recipe. But it's obviously, it's like, you know, you can say it's your father's recipe, but a lot of people will do it the same. And a lot of people will say that that's not from Naples and that's from Bologna. And then people fight about this stuff, like we said. All the time. And then people fight about this stuff, like we said. All the time. But it's definitely the ragu napolitana, like slow-cooked, short rib, beef chuck, and sausage.

It slow-cooks for three hours, and then once it's done, you throw in your pasta, and it's like everything melts. It creates like a brown almost like I can't even describe the color. Is it super tomatoey or no? Like rusty? Not that. It's, yeah, more rusty because you're not, you know, you use, I'll use one can of whole peel tomato. Almost like I can't even describe the color. Is it super tomatoey or no? Like rusty? Not that. It's, yeah, more rusty because you're not, you know, you use, I'll use one can of whole peel tomatoes. Just kind of crush them up, take out the stems and then let that, let that boil. And then all of a sudden you see it changing its color. And then the sauce just becomes, it's the meat and the bone broth and everything that like just melts.

And it makes just the craziest flavor. Like just such a unique intense just a but it takes three hours and that's what's scary but it's like you gotta do you have to do it to impress somebody i think that's i think that's where it matters most it's like do you really want to impress your date or whatever that night if you have someone over for dinner take the one that do the one that like you have it cooking they walk in they're like whoa what are you cooking that happened to me once

only time somebody has ever cooked because I would normally dating back to college I would like always cook for girls on dates because what an easy way to impress somebody

like lamb chops but anyways this one girl was like let me cook for you and it always would go badly because I don't know what her cooks are 19

I was also 19 to be clear but anyways but I remember walking into her apartment. She called her dad, they're Italian American and she called her dad and he told her like his Sunday gravy recipe

and it has this giant pot and it's bubbling away and I look in there and there's just like whole beef bones. Like neck. Dude, neck, straight up neck bones.

Straight up roasted, no, it was roasted pork neck and then beef and then there was veal and then there were sausages. To this day, I have never had a better like red sauce experience. Holy smokes. That was so incredible.

And the thing is, is like people don't understand that you can do like, oh my God, how simple I can, I can say how you cook it and like make it in, in 15 seconds. It's like braise the meat, take it like olive oil, braise the meat, take it out. Vegetables goes in, saute, sauce, meat goes back in or red wine, meat goes back in, let it simmer, you're done. But it's in. Saute. Sauce. Meat goes back in. Or red wine. Meat goes back in. Let it simmer. You're done. But it's just like time. Three hours.

Like there's quick, easy steps. But it's all about the time. I don't want to do that. But it won't taste as good. Yeah, exactly. Things can taste good in 30 minutes, of course. 25, sometimes 15. But it's not the same experience at all.

That's why that's like one of my favorites is the ragu. Yeah. And that's where like love comes into cooking, right? Of course. It's time. It's that effort. It's that time. I've is the ragu yeah and that's where like love comes into cooking of course it's that effort it's that time I've come to peace with that for sure

over time because at first it was very lazy lazy lazy like I gotta I'm gonna make a video make it fast I don't care what it tastes like

sure my dad calls me we've been there before too yeah Gianluca what are you doing this is embarrassing you need to make it better no way

your dad calls you out yes yeah yeah he'd be like why you use a pancetta go find guanciale oh no yeah you know the amount of times I said the phrase Hey, your dad called you out. Yeah, yeah. He'd be like, why you use a pancetta? Go find guanciale. Oh, no. Yeah, you know. The amount of times I said the phrase,

if you can't find guanciale, bacon's fine. Yeah, that one I won't say. I'm like, pancetta's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, that's funny. How about your dad, like the guardian of- Yeah, he has four restaurants. Oh, wow.

And he has forever. So since before I was born, he had his first restaurant in 1995 when my first sister was born. And then he's had a restaurant for every child that he's had like the same year, which is pretty cool. And so, yeah, I mean, that's where I have another standard is I got to keep up with him. Restaurant for father. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And I guess it's destiny to be doing the food stuff. The Queen City Prince. He's actually the king of Queen City because he's had his restaurants in Charlotte since before I was born. And he's been the best. Did you grow up like cooking with him at the restaurants? Not really. It was like I didn't start cooking until 2019. So like I'm only this many years in, but like every day.

How old were you when you realized like i'm gonna do food literally 19 so it was like same yeah so it was like 19 i i kind of made a video not like not many people know this i made a video making fun of people from new jersey like the jersey shores like if the jersey shore had a cookie show because as you can see right now i'm not talking like this but like i used to literally talk like that. And people thought that's who I was. And it's such a beyond character. It's like no way that that's a real person.

So then I made this video kind of. But the thing was, yes, it was like the first time I made it. I made like not made first time making pasta. First time I like at least filmed it. But maybe it was like my 10th time ever cooking for myself at 19 years old. But because I had seen my mom's an incredible chef, my father's an incredible chef. I've watched them. I've been walking around holding my dad's finger when I was two years old, like walking around the kitchen. Like I've been seeing

it my whole life. So when it came time to doing it, I was like, this is so easy. And it got easier and easier. And I would watch a quick little video or something to figure it out. Then it got to a point where it was enough of trying to figure it out and watch if it called dad because like he will actually tell me how to do it the right way so he's the one that helped me like make it more and care more and and actually do things correctly and grow the love that i have and um yeah i mean i've got i've got recipes from my my dad from my both my grandparents like grandmothers on both sides. From my mom, I've hit it all.

Your mom's Italian too. Yeah. So she's half Middle Eastern, half Syrian, half Italian. Very nice. So very much. Nothing Syrian in there? No. No, but my grandmother's got incredible because it was her husband, my grandpa, that was Syrian.

And they did, you know, it was either Italian night or Syrian night with her. But yeah, I've learned, I learned it all from them to be honest. So it's cool to be able to put that out there. That's beautiful. What would you have been doing if not for food? Was there something else on the horizon that you were like, this is another place I'm going to and then the food bug just bit you? Ironically, I was making music and I kind of made a TikTok to promote it.

What kind of music? EDM? No, kind of like hip-hop. Why'd you assume, Nicole? Because I love EDM. I listen to EDM music. I listen to EDM music. Continue. It was just like hip-hop. Okay, cute. It was fun. I was like the rapper in my high school, kind of.

And then I went on there to promote it and then I ended up just making a bunch of skits and like hundreds of videos later after i had like 700,000 800,000 followers before 2020 um which was before i made my first cooking video so people don't know i had a big a good following especially at the time it was a lot harder to grow following like because not that many people on the platform in 2019 yeah so i had like a pretty good following people followed me for just whatever came out of my ADHD brain was what they would see. And then the cooking video was kind of another one of those videos,

which then I ended up doing more and more and more and more until I was like, this is all I'm going to do, which was in 2020. Can you drop your SoundCloud? Ah, is it still there? I think it's QCP. I think it's, but dude, it's old music. It's old music.

Can we license some of it to make like a new theme song for this podcast? Yeah. I can, I can send you, I can send you like one song that I,

that I'm like, I think would be really, would be a good fit. Oh, hell yeah. Or I mean, I have it on my phone. I made a song called

Pasta in a Lamborghini that I didn't, I didn't release. All of it was really poorly developed. It was more for fun, but people liked it. It's so funny. I had a small following for that. Here we are. I remember

the first video that I saw of you. It was actually on Twitter of all places. It was mostly a thirst video. Yeah. You were smoking. I don't know if it was Bucatini or you were like smoking it, but it was very like

caricatress because like you said that's what it was meant to be. Yeah, that was definitely like 2020 me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The early days. Like screaming like that.

Yeah, yeah. I was like, and then as I would watch my own videos, I'd be like, settle down. But it's funny because you have like taken

the full loop now where like you can tell how much heart and how much love you have for specifically Italian-American food and Italian food in general and that you're able to

like now put family recipes into this book. So many people start online with a little bit of a caricature and then all they do is escalate the caricature. I mean,

no shade to the poop guy. This guy, you know, he's walking around with fake poop now, you know, it started off as a funny little joke

and now he's got fake poop whereas you kind of went the opposite of like, have this caricature and then now, I mean, you're like a fully flesh're like yeah it was a lot easier for me to fall in love with the idea knowing that like my it's my family it's what they do like my dad's a restaurateur like you know it's like my my life has always been about that so it's like how hard

is it to to be like this is the right thing like you're doing the right thing was is it easier to to say let's do this thing because this book is growth and maturity I love it absolutely I've got the whole I've got everything in there you know the stories the kid the photos of me when I was kid there's everything yeah Bob it up Bob it up the first the third meanwhile I'm gonna give some Italian food hot takes I think 99% of people can't make better homemade red sauce than a jar of Rayos. 99%. 99.9%.

I think a jar of Rayos is about... Oh, the Italian's getting mad about food. I'm kidding. I don't think I've ever had it. Get the hell out of here. You've never had the Rayos red sauce? No, I've had like other more homey versions. Look at it.

So cute. Drinking milk. Yeah. No, that's actually... That's homey versions. Look at it. So cute. Drinking milk. Yeah. No, that's actually like a coconut. I don't know. Some weird coconut drink. So cute.

That I liked. That's really, yeah, there's some baby stuff. Me drinking olive oil. Very nice. Oh, that is solid. Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. It's a fun book.

There's a lot of cool stuff in there. A lot of cool features. Incredible, man. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. There's a ton of love poured into this cookbook. I'm going to actually cook from it. Do we have a copy? Will you sign it?

Yeah, can I have one? Yeah. Can I have your apron? Do you want to trade aprons for like a jersey swap? Yeah, I mean, am I allowed? We should make a video of it. We should make a video of it. Oh, yeah, we'll absolutely do that.

Why not? Well, all you have to do is just make things right in the Italian cuisine and people, no, they'll always come after you. Oh, they're going to come. Yeah, if you make spaghetti, the Italians will come. Or if you scream at them loud enough like me, they just don't have a choice. They're just like, all right they'll always come after you. Oh, they're going to come. Yeah, if you make spaghetti, the Italians will come. Or if you scream at them loud enough like

me, they just don't have a choice. They're just like, all right, let him do his thing. You're right. Nicole and John Luca, we've heard

what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. Well, it's time for

a segment we call... Opinions are like casseroles! Anyways, we got a lovely music video queued up that we got to watch. A 20-second music video. I'm so excited. I created the song and edited this very quick, funny, not funny music video. Ew, it's so good. Now, don't demur, don't play coy.

We gotta watch it. Six years ago, I created a song about Parmesan called Parmesan Dreams. Please enjoy a cinematic experience about Parmesan. Parmesan Dreams, syphomethazine. Okay, Drake. Don't come close to me.

Sip inside, no leaving. Oh yeah. What do you mean? Okay, Drake. Oh my goodness. This is so dramatic. That's it. That was beautiful. Beat was fire. We can all agree on that. Yeah, yeah.

Fire beat. Who produced it? Lyrics are off the... It's six years ago. Emphasis on six years ago. How old were you six years ago? Eighteen Seventeen Eighteen

Yeah That's a banger of a first track Gotta show it Thank you Ten out of ten Thanks so much Publish on Dreams Light up that first opinion

Hey Josh and Nicole Big fan I'm a big fan of you Anyway Can I go to school? Most Italian food Almost all Italian food in, is better without any meats. The only major exception is seafood Italian dishes.

You're cowards if you don't play this on the show. Well, we're not cowards. I'm definitely not a coward. Only because you're playing it on the show. What do you think about that? I don't know. I don't get it. I think I know where they're coming from, though.

Do you mean like a tomato sauce without any meat, a cream sauce without any meat, pesto without any meat? I think they are thinking of like chicken fettuccine alfredo, if I had to guess. thinking of like chicken fettuccine alfredo if i had to guess but what i love about italian food is they tend to use meats as a way to flavor other things absolutely right other than like ravioli and tortellinis other than filled pastas depends if the quality of everything else is like great and then it could be accompanied by a great quality. If you get bad beef or something, it's not. It's going to ruin it. For sure.

For sure. I kind of get it. I kind of don't. Yeah. I feel like those are just very separate things. Italian dishes are themselves on their own and then there's a separate dish that has meat in it. Yeah. You can have a vegetarian lasagna.

It's going to taste like one thing. You'll have one with meat. It'll taste like another dish if I said the phrase meatball salad does that mean anything to you no meatball salad

I'm going to talk about meatball salad well no no no one would maybe think I believe jumbo shrimp is an oxymoron but meatball salad is not

so I went to I inexplicably had like two back to back weddings in Morristown New Jersey and my fiance grew up in Long Island but she grew up vacationing at the Jersey Shore in like Margate areato-back weddings in Morristown, New Jersey. And my fiance grew up in Long Island, but she grew up vacationing at the Jersey Shore and like Margate area.

And so we were in Jersey for 10 days and when I go to a place, I want to find the most regionally specific foods that I can. And so, you know, I got the original sloppy joe in Jersey. I had, you know, pork roll sandwiches on the shore, all this stuff. But one thing I saw was meatball salad.

And I didn't ask people like tiny no so what it is it's just a side of like a very olive garden-y looking salad and then like three meatballs on the plate just kind of plop next to it and some of the sauce gets in the lettuce but I remember asking somebody about that who was from Jersey they said it's because you know uh spaghetti meatballs very Italian American dish but a lot of the nonas, they'd be like, you don't eat meat with pasta. You eat meat with vegetables, right? And so the vegetables that they were serving that time were a very American-y salad like that. And the meat was the polpette.

Okay. And so they'd be like, yeah, I'm going to eat my vegetables with my meat. And then that became the meatball salad. It's bad. But I think, like, you just serve it separately, you know? It's like you go up and you choose whether you want a salad or if you want some meatballs. Then Nona gets to wash another dish. You know people are taking it out.

People are taking out the meatballs and then removing the pieces with the sauce on it. And then they're like, yeah, the hot and the cold. It wilts. The thing is it has to have a problem. Let me tell you, what are they using? Like an iceberg mix? Oh, big time. The hardest iceberg.

It's so good. See, if it's paired with like an arugula or something that can withstand it, I think that makes more sense because when they wilt, it's pleasant. Iceberg wilted, not that pleasant. But arugula or spinach or even like massaged kale, once it like the heat touches it, it is a more pleasant eating experience. It's like apple pie a la mode. You just gotta go quick. You know, before the ice cream melts, while the temperature difference is still there. I don't like apple pie actually.

Huh? I'm not a big apple pie person. Next opinion. Hey Josh, hey Nicole. Hey! I got something that might be a little controversial. Oh really? You don't say. What could it be? I think chicken and dumplings. It doesn't need celery.

It doesn't need carrots. It doesn't need peas. It needs leeks. Leeks are fantastic. Leeks are, you know, of the onion family, which I love. Alliums. I think more people need to do leaks in their chicken and dumplings. Oh, and by the way,

I love you guys. I'm not ready to say it yet. I pride myself on being funny, but you might be funnier than me. Anyway, love you guys. I love him. You want me to love you? Just play me one compliment. Have you had chicken and dumplings before? I have had it. I like it, but I've never made it. I cook literally

only Italian food and then like steak and like protein by itself. When you go out to eat, like what do you like to eat though? I mean,

I eat everything. Okay, cool. Sushi, Mexican food. Awesome. Like everything. Yeah, usually. So you've never had

chicken and dumplings? I have once. I've had it at Cracker Barrel only once. And they have carrots in theirs, right? I don't remember. It's very chicken pot pie-esque, right? Yeah, nice. That's so funny. And they have carrots in theirs, right? I don't remember. It's very chicken pot pie-esque, right?

Yeah, yeah. It's supposed to be kind of like chicken pot pie, like soup. Well, okay. So let's bring this back to Italian food. Have you ever had the creamy gnocchi soup from the Olive Garden? No. Oh, my God. Have you had it?

That sounds awful. No, I've only been to Olive Garden twice ever. The first time was like eight years ago, literally. And I don't think I got anything. I think I only ate the Caesar salad. Then the most recent time was when we did the food review. And the food review was, oh my gosh. Like if I showed you guys, if we pulled it up, you'd be like, wow.

Because like when you see the difference, it's like crazy. I've only been twice too. It's just chicken and dumplings. I got food poisoning last time I went, actually. I think they're hitting at a point, though. There's a lot of people that I have this big vendetta against the French.

Weird. There's still freedom fries to me. No, but I don't know if you're old enough to get that reference. No, I just was like. Oh my God.

No. We'll talk about it. I think it was Nicolas Sarkozy refused to back George Bush in the war on terror. Over fries? And so they called it.

No, no, no. But like in the White House, they refused to call it French fries. They would call it freedom fries. I don't But like in the White House They refused to call it French fries They would call it Freedom Fries I don't think it was the White House I think it was in Red States

That adds up Really? Yeah I went to a burger restaurant in Oklahoma That still had Freedom Fries Listed on the menu Wow That is so funny

But so many people Think that you need to add Mirapaw, celery, onion, carrot To any dish to quote Make it have flavor Have flavor, yeah You can add anything Dude, I'll use Swiss chard stem in there.

That's a great aromatic. Leeks, the king of the onion family, that's a great aromatic. You can do anything you want. You don't have to compulsorily add anything that you want into an aromatic that you don't want to. Not at all. I agree. So actually, I'm a huge chicken and dumplings fan. But if we're talking Italian

food, like, of course you have to because there's only one way to do everything. For chicken and dumplings, I've had multiple iterations of it. And some of the best I've had is just a pure chicken and salt broth without any vegetables. Talking about the Dolly Parton recipe. The Dolly Parton pure expression of chicken. I want to get sick just to eat that. I know, right?

It is so good. It is like the most beautiful expression of chicken and warmth and happiness that I've ever had. And then there's some people that, you know, they make it like down home country. They put everything in there. They put carrot, celery, onion, yada, yada, yada. And it's so good and thick and beautiful. I have never had it with leeks, but I do think leeks would be phenomenal in it because I freaking love leeks. Especially a lot of them a lot of leaks

I just think leaks are the unsung hero of the Allium family and more people need to be enjoying leaks I scarred my body with it. I can't get buried in Jewish cemetery now Nicole. Yeah New York Yankees You know, I'm either gonna get betch on sell it on like, you know my butt cheek The fact that you beat me to it and I don't have any tattoos. Me either. I don't have any tattoos either. I'm either going to get betch on my butt cheek or a meatball or a pasta. What do people say? Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari? On a Bentley.

On a Bentley. Kim Kardashian quote. Yeah, Kim. Yeah, if it's a really funny- Kim, do you have any tattoos? She's like, you can't put a bumper sticker on a Bentley. If it's a really funny bumper sticker, I'm doing it. It's like my other cars, something like that. Right, really funny Bumper sticker I'm doing it It's like my other cars You know something like that

Right right right Yeah I'm doing it I think I stopped adding carrots To most of my soups Made them better Carrots too sweet Carrots too sweet

Too sweet Ruins it I like peas in my soup Nice savory beef stew With red wine You're adding sugar to it Nah get the hell out of here Roast the carrots separately

If you want them Next Okay sassy Hi Nicole Hi Josh Hi This is May I'm a teacher in Omaha Thank you for being here And I wanted your opinion if you want them. Next. Okay, sassy. Hi, Nicole. Hi, Josh. Hi. This is May. I'm a teacher in Omaha.

Thank you for being here. And I wanted your opinion on the best type of gluten-free products. My partner is gluten-free and we have found the two best things that we buy all the time

are the ube pancakes from Trader Joe's and the supreme gluten-free pizza from costco looking for new suggestions so please let us know your thoughts love the pod thank you it's another one that i i'm not really a part of banzo pasta have you had a band i hate banzo pasta yeah i've had it all i can think of is all i can think of is foam. Yes. All the foam. The aquafaba. When you get into that realm of like – I've seen sort of the back-end development of like gluten-free pasta and vegetable-based pasta and stuff. It's really difficult to make like a really good product.

Oh, 100%. So hard to make. Whoever ends up really doing – I've heard there's some good ones, but I just feel like they got to do better branding or something. People need to know. Yeah. There are certain things. So when I moved in with my fiance and, you know, you combine households in all ways,

but you also combine pantries. Of course. And I'm cooking almost all the meals for us. And so she's one of those people that if she ate pasta, it was always banza pasta. She was like, there's protein and no gluten, whatever. If she ate tortillas, it was always a whole wheat tortilla. And I come in and I'm like, as like a chef, I don't want to budge on any of these things. and no gluten and whatever. If she ate tortillas, it was always a whole wheat tortilla. And I come in and I'm like, as like a chef,

I don't want to budge on any of these things. But you had to make concessions. And so I kept the whole wheat tortillas, but I instituted just normal semolina Durham flour pasta. And that was, you know, my tradeoff. That's night and day. Because for me, pasta is gluten. Like it, you know, you can get, I love rice noodles. I love stir fried, you know, chow fun. That's night and day. Because for me, pasta is gluten. Like it, you know, you can get, I love, I love rice noodles.

I love stir fried, you know, chow fun. Different story. But entirely different. I recuse myself from the gluten free debate. I can talk about this a little bit. Yeah, you're going to have to help him out. So Trader Joe's really does a great job. I would say the two best gluten free items are the gluten free chicken mini tacos. One of my girlfriends, she is very celiac and very gluten-free.

And she eats these like candy. Like she's obsessed with them. Eats them like three times a week. And then also their grainless granola is phenomenal. Delicious. Nuts, honey, seeds. Delicious. Other than that, I mean, I'm not a big banza pasta fan unless it's for pasta salad.

Is it not pronounced banza? I don't know. Banza? Banza? I don't know. I couldn't tell you. But other than that, I don't know that much about gluten-free, but those two are fantastic products, gluten-free or not. My overall opinion on this, though, is if you are gluten-free, you now just eat like a Japanese person, right?

Like a feudal Japanese warlord. You'll probably live longer anyway. 100%. You're eating rice. Do it. You're eating pickles, like real proper fermented sukemono pickles. And you're eating fish. And that's great.

Or you're eating like a pre-Hispanic Mexican. Sure. Before the conquistadors came through. You're eating like a pre-Hispanic Mexican. Sure. You know, before the conquistadors came through. You're eating nixtamalized corn. They didn't have no gluten. They weren't growing wheat there. You know, just eat like that. You know, you eat corn tortillas and delicious guisados.

Yeah. Eat before globalization came. That's a good life. No, but I'm saying like go to the cultures that did not eat gluten to figure out what to eat. When you're trying to make gluten-free pizza, it's a losing life. No, but I'm saying like go to the cultures that did not eat gluten to figure out what to eat. When you're trying to make gluten-free pizza, it's a losing battle. Yeah, you know, when I think about it all, I feel like people have asked me this question before. Like would you marry someone who's just fully gluten-free? I'm thinking about all those times I was in Italy, everywhere around the world that they just can't.

I'll tell you something. I eat like whatever. There's someone out there for you, but it might not be me. I eat everything. My husband does not. And I thought it was the biggest deal. I was like, I want me and my husband

to enjoy delicious charcuterie board. Like that's my future goal. Like we drink wine and eat charcuterie together and just enjoy life. It is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I'm just telling you

as a 30-year-old. Oh, you're going to end up with a beautiful, oh my, a princess. Italian food eating princess. No, gluten-free. She's going to be gluten-free. Oh, and you're...

Vegan, aloe, and you're going to be in Ischia. Air only. Breatharian, a breatharian. You're going to have to ask the server at this beautiful Ischian restaurant, just like, is this gluten-free? And then they're gonna have to ask the server at this beautiful Eastian restaurant just like is this gluten free

and then they're gonna judge you what is a gluten and you're gonna love each other so much oh my god beautiful large sons

cooking the gluten free raviolis nah and oh for me on that note thank you so much for tuning in to a hot dog it's a sandwich we got new episodes every Wednesday and we got new episodes out on YouTube on Sunday Oh, for me. On that note, thank you so much for tuning in to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich.

We've got new episodes every Wednesday, and we've got new episodes out on YouTube on Sunday. Hot dogs are a sandwich. Thank you. Grazie mille. If you want to be featured on Opinions or like Casseroles, hit us up at 833-DOGPOD1. Our number again is 833-DOGPOD1. And everyone make sure to check out Gianluca's brand new cookbook, Italian American. Thank you so much.

The one-stop shop for all your Italian American recipes Don't worry about it Where can the people find you? Plug your hand It's QCP, ITS, QCP, all platforms It's very hard to miss it That's including SoundCloud Make sure we're bringing it back I just removed all my music on Spotify You're a god