A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Why Does Restaurant Food ACTUALLY Taste Better? ft. Joshua Weissman

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

Today, Josh and Nicole are joined by Joshua Weissman to discuss why restaurant food is better than what we can cook at home! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: https://www.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. Why does food taste so much better at restaurants? Because it's seasoned with the tears of underpaid line cooks. Tears? I thought it was sweat. It's tears. 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 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 Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi.

And Nicole, today we have a very special guest. We got chef number one, New York Times bestselling author, ooh, that sounds good, and sworn enemy of all fast food restaurants everywhere, Joshua Weissman. Welcome to the show, man. Hi, Joshua. Oh, thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure. Josh and I go way back. So happy to see him

again. Happy to meet Nicole. We were just talking about how I'm going to soon miss Nicole as much as I miss Josh, you know? It's natural. Probably more. Yeah. We don't always have to compete with each other, but I love that we do. It keeps things fresh in our relationship. I think it's healthy and I think it's natural. All right. So Josh, you have a long

restaurant background. You didn't go to culinary school. You started cooking when you were really young. You worked in some of the best restaurant groups in Austin. You worked at the Uchi group. Yeah. High hospitality at Uchiko in Austin. Hell yeah, man. So you have a deep restaurant background. Nicole, you briefly worked in restaurants. I think I was a line cook for about two weeks. And then I said F it. I said F it. I worked only one official restaurant shift and I was paid under the table. It was during a triple booked friends and family opening

of Tareen on Beverly from Chef Chris Morningstar. He took me under his wing and I was working at his catering company before it opened. And then I had decided to go into media full time. And I was literally at the end of my nine to five. And I got a call from him freaking out going, I need someone to hop on Garnemarge stack, get your ass down here. And I was like, dude, I don't work for you. And instead I just drove from my, you know, media job, uh, to work Garnemarge and basically dress salads as fast as I could for about seven hours. So that is my restaurant experience, but I also used to write about restaurants.

And so today we all have a unique perspective on the question, why does food actually taste better in restaurants? Because there's a lot of home cooks who have this pervasive idea that it is an excess of fat and salt and possibly MSG that they couldn't possibly fathom. And I think sometimes people use that as like an excuse for their food not tasting as good as it could. I think it's part of the equation. Sure. Yeah, I think learning how to season your food is something that all of us learn by trial and error.

And I think a lot of home cooks just kind of throw caution to the wind and put some iodized salt in it and call it a day. You know what I mean? No, fair enough. Yeah. Fair enough. Josh, what do you think? I mean, you know, I definitely think having extra of everything is always going to be a good thing, right?

Extra salt, extra fat, extra spices. Ultimately, I think, look, let's be real. I mean, we're talking about professionals versus amateurs. Professionals are built to do things to the highest level of perfection. And whether it's a fine dining restaurant or just a nice restaurant. And when I say nice, I don't mean like fancy. I just mean like, you know, good line cooks, properly trained staff, people who know what the they're doing. Oh, sorry. You got to switch to them. You got to hit the Mormon button. 30 seconds in. 30 seconds in. I've already shot my first episode. New record for us. I want to clarify for everybody listening today that I was told not to say any swear words.

So I'm going to do my very best. I think everybody here who knows me, this is going to be one of the greatest challenges of my life. You got this. You got this. We started swearing on the podcast and then we started getting reviews that were like, I'm an 11-year-old child and I'm not allowed to listen to this anymore in the car. And so we felt bad. So we stopped.

And now you, Josh, have killed that 11-year-old's dreams. I get the same thing. Sometimes before I go into this, I'll make this really fast, but I get that all the time where I'll get a DM from someone's mom and they'll be like, I really just want to watch this with my son, Ricky, but I can't get over the fact that you're trying to talk about macaroni and cheese and you keep saying the F word. Why can't you just talk about macaroni and cheese and call it a day, Josh?

And I'm like, look, I can't help myself. All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I worked in restaurants. It is what it is. It's her son, Ricky Bobby. I guess. Yeah. She is Ricky Bobby. Okay. So to answer the question though, yeah, obviously fat, salt, all those different things, but really it comes down to i think generally speaking a really high attention to detail across the board from technique to seasoning to you know like when somebody sears a steak for example and they flip that steak if there's some amount of color on it most likely they're gonna go that's good that's a good looking steak but in a restaurant if there's not edge to edge crust browning from the center all the way to the outside. That's a refire, dude. That ain't no

steak. That's a refire. That's not going on anyone's plate. And so that ultimately is what it comes down to. Everything on your plate is optimized. But a lot of time when people cook at home, they just want to hammer it out, put it in their mouth and call it a day. And I think that's the real biggest, biggest difference, but I can digress on that a lot. Yeah. The answer is it's everything, right? It's literally the sum it's gestalt and it's the sum of all the parts. Yeah. It's like those people who are like, if I, okay, no, I have two analogies that I can make. I'm going to make the first one. I'm going to try out the second one. The first one is people who were like, if I was that tall, I could be in the NBA. And it's like, no.

Like, one, there's plenty of not very tall people in the NBA, dudes that are 5'10 to 6'1 that have had lovely careers. Steph Curry. Steph Curry, he's a 6'1 inch man. But even the seven footers now, they have to be able to do everything. Victor Wembenyama is going between the legs, step back, three. No one in history can do that. You would not have been in the NBA if you're tall. and the second one this is a weirder analogy it's mostly women who say i could just sell feet pics

on the internet and it's like no no no the people who actually yes no the people who actually make money doing that are marketing geniuses like they understand every single part of the equation and to me that's chefs right people are like if i just added that amount of salt and butter to my food it would be great it's no, because you're not doing those things. Like Josh, you had this excellent video. That was a 100 restaurant, 100 food hacks you learned as a restaurant chef. And like one of them is tempering your proteins, right? Sure. Something that you showed like back to back, you get a better sear, even though the center of that protein doesn't come up to room

temp, like a lot of weird recipes insist that it does. But if you are able to raise that surface temp, say five, six degrees, then that is going to be less of a shock to your pan, less steam is created, and you're going to get a better sear. It's that decision plus 100 more of those good decisions on one plate that all add up to good things happening in your mouth. Yeah. I love it compared to defeat picks too. That's awesome. Listen, everything is a skill. And I think a lot of people- Selling feet picks is a skill? Yes. Oh my God. Yes. Making money selling feet picks is a skill.

I feel like you could just like angle your camera in a right way and then just- Oh, what's your distribution strategy nicole what which platforms are you going to use are you going to do like so many are you going to do like what you're going on feet finder are you going to do like content sharing initiatives with other creators because they collab just like youtubers don't look up my feet on the you know what i'm learning is that josh should be a manager for feet pic. Thank you. If you have any clients out there who need representation, I do have like a 4.93 wiki feet rating, which

is excessively high. Mine is 4.6. Mine's lower than yours. Josh, what's your wiki feet rating? Maggie, can you look up Joshua Weissman's wiki feet rating? I'm sure he has one. There's no way. I don't have any photos of my bare feet available. Are you sure?

How? I'm pretty sure. I think my rating is only high because I've taken so many, not deliberate, but like, so this will happen when I'm cooking at home. I get great natural light. If I do a top down photo at this one particular spot.

So I'll hold a finished dish that I made. And then I take a top down photo and then my toes are always peeking out in the background. So it'll be like, here's the tart to tan I made. And then I take a top down photo and then my toes are always peeking out in the background. So it'll be like, here's a tart to tan I made. And then my little toesies are in there. I remember when Josh calls me, it's a pic. What's up? No, no, go ahead. Go ahead. Whenever Josh calls me, it's a picture of him with his feet out and with colored pencils inside. Oh yeah. No, we, we did. I don't know. Why did that happen?

I don't know. I was holding five colored pencils in between all my toes and you took a picture of it. And then now it's your caller ID. Um, yeah. Interesting. Thank you so much. All I'm saying,

I have a 4.15. Oh no, Josh. I'm so sorry. You have a 4.15 rating. I have a 4.15. Oh, no, Josh. I'm so sorry. You have a 4.15 rating. You have a 4.15. Wait, how am I on WikiFeet? I don't know.

I don't know what to tell you. The fans probably put it up somewhere. Annalise, what are the photos like? Can you just come show me the photos real quick? So what we're saying is the amount... Josh doesn't care about the photos. Let's just see my feet. Let me see.

Yeah, I think it's more a low rating because you don't have enough photos out there. So take more photos, get some good, good lighting in there. Get a bounce board, baby. Okay. Heard,

heard, heard. Listen, there is statistical evidence to say that there is a lot more fat and salt. We're back, baby. A lot more fat and salt in restaurant food. There's a study,

LA times published a report about it, that the average restaurant meal, they surveyed surveyed 3,500 meals. a study uh la times published a report about it that the average restaurant meal they survived surveyed 3 500 meals the average restaurant meal contains 150 percent of the recommended daily value of sodium so if you multiply that by three you're at 450 percent that's a lot so like but again when you are learning how to cook like chef chris morningstar dude who was very classically french trained worked at the patina group mich Michelin star pedigree, all that. He taught me the phrase like seasoned to the edge, right?

Like seasoned to the point where if you taste it and you go one grain of salt, it'd be too salty, you know? And so I was talking to my- Oh, that's so funny. Yeah. I was taught the exact same thing in a restaurant that I worked in. And they had a technique. Granted, I don't use this technique anymore because I just, I know by my palate, but when I was first learning how to season at a chef that use that as an example where he would

say, you know, keep seasoning your sauce, season it to the edge. And the way that you can tell quite literally is by dipping a spoon in your, you know, let's just say it's a, I don't know what, any kind of sauce. You dip your spoon in it, you get like a quarter of a teaspoon. And if you add, taste it and it's good. And if you add one grain of salt to it or two grains of salt to it, and it is now over seasoned,

then it is where it needs to be. I love that. So meticulous. And I understand people who have salt sensitivities out there. I don't think, I also am generally dubious of the you know health implications of excess salt I happen to think that's a little bit more correlation than causation but also follow your doctor's recommendations whatever but um there was

one time when my fiance's boss shout out below doubt if you're listening to this podcast he loves chili more than anything in the world I also love like texas a bowl of texas chili chili con carne and i made it for him for his birthday and i went all out you know hand diced the chuck to the appropriate amount rendered it effectively made like a torca with like the beef fat and the spices i went all out on this chili and as it was finished julia tasted it and went like oh that's that's good. And I went, yeah, give me a couple minutes. And I basically sat there and went teaspoon of vinegar, you know, half teaspoon of salt, stir dry vinegar, salt. And it was a pro it was, and she was going crazy. Cause she's like, it's done. It's good. And I'm like, no, I, there's so much beef fat in it that I know it can handle a ton of acid and a ton of salt. And those three things are going to sort of coalesce.

They're going to harmonize with each other. And I'm waiting to get to the breaking point. And I did. And also it's going to mellow over like half hour. But to your point, that's like how a chef seasons, right? Yes. You're seasoning every single step. And then at the end you are fine tuning. I don't know what to say to the people though, who go, I don't want that much salt in my diet because for me, I'm like, well, you should be sweating it out with an hour of crossfit every morning what are you not doing uh but that's a lifestyle it's a great you described it really wet uh really a great way which is you know taking it to the breaking point and fine-tuning at the end I mean I've done sauces and dressings and, you know, we did, I had like

this Tom Kagai inspired, uh, prawn dish that I was doing and the broth, it was a really small amount of broth that went in onto the plate. It was, you know, it's fine dining. So it's like, you know, maybe two ounces of sauce, not even like one ounce of sauce. So this sauce needs to quite literally be absolutely perfect because all they get is an ounce. And typically, whenever the prep cooks would make it, it would be like, I don't know, 15 to 20 minutes of them sitting there just seasoning it perfectly with vinegar, palm sugar, and fish sauce. Vinegar, palm sugar, fish sauce. And trying to get that sugar level to the right place, get the acidity to the right place, and then get the salt to the right place. And the way that I knew that it was there

is when you would take a spoonful and your mouth would just instantaneously water profusely. Yeah, that's where it is. So this might be a case where the things that make restaurants good, one, it's the technique, it's the expertise, it's the years and years and years of training. But two, listen, there is going to be a lot of salt. Salt and fat are great ways to harmonize

with other ingredients, right? Absolutely. With herbaceousness, with spice, with acid. But us three, like, I'm sure we all cook a fair amount at home, especially for our partners. We've all made some sort of content on that. Yeah. And we all cook somewhat healthily

you know at home yeah at home you have to how do you make that food because i will see a video of say i was watching it was best bet pizzeria new pizzeria now i haven't tried yet but they finish a pizza and then they just take olive oil and they just go over the top and i'm like damn that's a pizza and you know my fitness ass is like that's just an additional 420 calories of olive oil olive oil there's like 240 calories and again i don't count calories but i am mindful you're aware of what especially because when we're cooking on camera we're eating you know the most intense food in the world sure and so what can you do to sort of negate that excess amount of salt and fat at home to still make your food taste as good as restaurant food? Spices. That's my answer. Bam,

pow. I'm sorry. I don't know why I yelled that. I mean, spices are, spices are a great way to diversify the flavor, but like, honestly, I'm going to have to drop some hard truths. Drop them. The reality is you can add as many of your favorite spices in the world from all over the globe. Source it from Mumbai, for all I care. It doesn't matter. Wherever your spices come from, does not matter if you do not have enough salt to amplify the flavor to be detected by the human palate. So nobody wants to sit down and spoon feed themselves a tablespoon of their favorite curry spice, because to be honest, it's not going to be that good on its own. You need the fat,

you need the salt, you need the acid. That's what makes the dish. The reason why these dishes are famous and popular, the people that are making these foods from those regions, they are not thinking about the sodium content, the sugar content. They are making it the way that it was intended to be made to be delicious for their families, for their friends, for their customers. I have to ask, do either of you get offended whenever you make a beautiful dish for like dinner and then uh salt and pepper is on the table do you guys have salt and pepper on your kitchen tables you do you get offended i get i get offended i don't put salt we don't have i don't have salt and pepper shakers in any i grew up in a salt and pepper shaker on my table i'm sure we all grew up in salt and pepper shaker

homes right yes well i did and then now that i'm like an adult and like I'm married and I make meals for my family all the time, it's like, don't you dare put any salt on that. It's seasoned well. Yeah. Do you ever get a, you never get a family? Oh yeah. No, no. It happens.

Happens all the time. Julia's mom, shout out Susan. I know she listens. Hi Susan. We went to Petit Trois French Bistro, and she – and they – listen, I've had seasoning issues there. They make good food, but I have had seasoning issues. Me too.

And she straight, like, asked for salt, and the server was, like, mortified. And then, like, I'm, like, looking in the back, and I see the chef, like, arguing. And so, yeah, but this happens occasionally to me. I don't take it personally. I mean, I don't love it. It hurts me inside. I don't love it. I try not to show it.

But, yeah, me too. Whenever I – I don't even have a salt shaker, I don't love it. It hurts me inside. I don't love it. I try not to show it. Yeah, me too. Whenever I see, I don't even have a salt shaker. I have a salt well that I use. Yeah, Julia has to get up and leave the table and go to the salt well and get a little Diamond Crystal Kosher

and sprinkle it on. That's what David does. And I'm like, put the salt down. What's even worse is if they don't taste it and then they ask for it before they even taste it.

And I'm like, whenever they do that, my first thought is like, listen, sweetheart, I know you're used to unseasoned food, but you're in the wrong house for that.

Just sit down. It's going to be great. So ridiculous. I'm glad none of us have any weird complexes about cooking for our partners. It sounds like we're all super well-adjusted.

Yeah, super. Conversely, on the rare occasion that Julia cooks for me when I'm like coming home late from work or I have to go to the gym late or something,

I won't use salt. I will just grab two to three bottles of hot sauce. Oh my God. And then whatever she has cooked just gets flooded in hot sauce. Then I muddle it into a nice soup, like a chowder. And then that's enough seasoning for me. It's just a fail safe. It doesn't matter what is on the table. There will be three bottles of hot sauce. It's sriracha, which is going to be very expensive in like a month, tapatio and some random like rogue one that we found. Three hot sauce bottles, no matter what we're eating, doesn't matter if it's eggs, it doesn't matter if it's korma sabzi, it doesn't matter if it's sushi, there is always three hot sauce bottles. It's my husband, it's not me. And I'm like, can you taste the food you're eating? I'm like, let's do

an experiment. And I literally round up the hot sauce. I'm like, eat that without hot sauce. And he's like, so I just put him back. Does he ever at least try it first without the hot sauce? No, he just puts it on. He piles it on without even trying it. I respect that. I want to run through some other hypotheses of what actually makes restaurant food better than home-made food. So one of my things, and again, this is from a very privileged position as somebody who's pretty damn good at cooking. I had started using the adjective post-restaurant to describe myself. I'll get invited. I know I'm post-restaurant. So every new restaurant is they're doing rustic Italian and I don't want to pay $22 for your

spag bol or for your, you know, whatever. You're post-restaurant? I'm post-restaurant. Most restaurants, the only restaurants I want to go to are restaurants that can do something that I can't. That's, I get that. There are a couple ways that you can get there. One is through expertise.

So for instance, one cuisine that I've tried to cook a lot of and I've tried to study a lot of the techniques, shout out to Nick Sharma, who wrote some great books about it, is Indian cuisine, where to me, that is a cuisine that you can learn. But when you grow up and it's endemic to you, the techniques, everybody, there was a big wave of restaurants. I was like, we do Thai flavors with French technique. French technique to me is not the end all be all of technical cookery. I find a lot of Indian technical cookery to be just freaking beautiful.

And you have to know a lot of it. So Indian food, something that a restaurant can significantly make better than I can. And then number two is specialized equipment. Kabob. Oh, yeah. You go to mini kabob, right? Great Armenian restaurant in Los Angeles. They are using grapevines.

They're using dried grapevines on their grill, Nicole. And that's something that I can't do. So those are like really big reasons for me to go to a restaurant and things that make the food taste a lot better than I could ever do at home with my stupid little gas grill. You know? No, I totally know what you mean. I think we need to get

Josh a tandoor. Dude, I... Really get... 100%. I think he... You live in an apartment, right? Yeah, but like there's no specific

no tandoor rules in the HOA agreement. You know? The HOA doesn't even know what it is. That's what I'm saying. Oh my gosh. And then I'll say

that it's racism if they don't let me get a tandoor. Just buy a house in like, what, 85 years? Yeah. And then you can build a tandoor in your house. But no, like a tandoor is a perfect, so if you cook naan at home, right?

It's never the same. You just throw it on like an electric griddle or you have a flat top. It is not the same of taking that naan on a hook and throwing it against or slapping with your hand against the clay of a tandoor where you get josh you talk about the perfect sear on a steak all the way around oh yeah the perfect freaking caramelization on the non from being stuck to the clay i have one outside god i use it coming over it's great no way although it's it's pillow it's pillow first the so the the flatbread would go on the pillow and then you use the pillow to slap it

against the wall. And then the hook is what gets it off. That's right. That's right. I'm missing where it falls into the bottom. Yeah. I mean, I use mine more frequently than I thought I would. And genuinely, like, honestly, if you just pull a fresh, any flatbread, it could be naan, but like if you pull fresh naan out of there and immediately hit it with a little bit of ghee and garlic and eat it right then and there, seconds after it came out, it is ridiculous. It is ridiculous. There's no... I'm trying

so hard to say this without cursing right now. You got this. I believe in you. Find those SAT words, you know? Did you see my brain working? You can probably hear it through the microphone. Yes. Yes. I'm sweating not to say that word oh my gosh it's really it is really it's an otherworldly experience so there's there's nothing better than that truly and it makes great proteins outside of you know tandoori chicken you

can still do all sorts of different things i've done i've just taken cubed up steak and you know did a quick dry age uh maybe like uh i think i did a some sort of like rice salt uh dry age on a steak and then cubed it up put it on a one of the tandoor rods put it in there was one of the best steaks i've ever had it's insane damn what what are the like restaurant experiences that y'all seek out these days well i went to alinea and it like was really awesome my these days? Well, I went to Alinea and it was really awesome. My name's Nicole. I went to Alinea. That was really cool.

I ate a balloon. As a food person, I checked it off my list. And I'm like, that was really cool. I could never do that at home. I understand how they did it and I respect how they did it, but there's no way in hell I could do like 1% of what they did. And that level of fine dining is a combination of everything. It's equipment that you would never have.

It's expertise that you would never have. It's ingredients that you would never have. It's time that you would never have. And then it's seasoning. Best 30th birthday ever. You have to have like an insane amount of context on technique in order to start playing with food like that. Yeah.

You have to know, you have to have, you have to already have been a full master of many cuisines because if you don't have that baseline structure, good luck being artistic like that. Good luck. Um, but yeah, that's, man, I don't know. It's been a while since I've had like a earth shattering restaurant experience. Don't get me wrong. I do have my, you know, my go-to restaurants that I love that I think are amazing, but one that I would sit down and be like, oh yeah, that's the best meal I've had in X amount of years. That's tough. I mean, I don't know.

It doesn't have to be fine dining either. It doesn't have to be fine dining. It can be a taco truck, anything, sushi. Yeah, yeah. I have to think on that. I don't know if I have one this year that I've really just been totally blown away by. He's post-restaurant.

Are you post-restaurant now? Wait, nobody, I don't really know. What is that exactly? Explain to the man what post-restaurant is. To be post-restaurant, Josh, is to have gone completely clear of mind and to have realized that 99% of restaurants are not worth the money whatsoever.

It's like when somebody finally streampocalypse themselves and they're like, I have nine streaming services and I watch zero of them because it's all bad. I'm going to delete them all and just watch YouTube chefs, which I support everybody doing. But no, I've gone through my own sort of phase on that, but it made me realize and hone in the foods that other places can do better than I can,

which like one of my favorite restaurant experiences in the world is in Austin, Texas, uh, Valentina's Tex-Mex barbecue. Oh yeah. You told me about this. It is the most beautiful handmade flour tortillas.

And then some of the top beef rib and brisket that I've ever had up that with the best of the best in Austin. And then of course they have like all their homemade sauces. So you're just plying these tortillas that I could never make as good at home with brisket and beef rib that, again, I don't have the capabilities or time or expertise to do. And then salsas that are dating back generations that are just delicious, wrapping it up, slurping it down. That sounds so good. So those are the experiences that I find myself chasing these days because some people are right. You go to a Chili's, a Cheesecake Factory.

chasing these days because some people are right. You go to a Chili's, a cheesecake factory, that is absolutely food that you can make the chicken fettuccine bowtie Cajun pasta at cheesecake factory at home. If you have the will to throw that much butter into a dish. And I agree with those people. However, when you say stuff like restaurants are only good because of fat and salt, you're then like negating the beautiful expertise and traditions that people have been working for for so long. That was beautiful. And you're negating the marketing capabilities of these women with the feet.

Sure, are the feet beautiful? Yes, but it's the distribution methods. David has this, like David's toes. So he has like his big toe and then his little toe goes over his big toe. And he was born that way. Yeah, and then you know what he says? You make a lot of money.

He says, oh, this is like the feat of royalty. And I'm like, you're disgusting. Josh, I want to ask you a question. What are the couple tips that you have for home cooks that could get their food to be more like restaurant food? It's a good question. It doesn't start with feet. Unfortunately, I know. We're out. I know. I know. We're out. All right, guys. Really great podcast.

Show me that in Tootsies before you go out. And I'm going to end this with as many F-bombs this show has ever had. Here we go. No. So anyway, yeah, I mean, ways that people can make their food closer to restaurant quality. Honestly, and this is going to sound like a dead horse that's getting beaten, to be specific. That's not ideal. Dead horses are typically silent. Hang on, wait, rewind. I'm beating a dead horse with this one, which is ultimately you can kind of distill everything down

into technique. And if you want your food to even be remotely or even just a step closer to restaurant quality or restaurant that you love, then sit back and find something that you really enjoy making, whatever it is. Let's make it simple. Let's call it a burger, right? Mastering a great burger is not that hard. Then break it down and get really, really good at the technique from top to bottom. How you smash the patty? How hard do you smash it. What are you smashing it on? Is it a cast iron or is it a plancha? What is the plancha made out of? Is it carbon steel? What is it? How thin is it? How thick is it? How well does it retain heat? What type of

salt are you using? How much are you seasoning it? How much cheese do you put? What kind of cheese? What kind of buns? I could go on and on about this for hours. The point is dive deep onto one thing and see what it's like when you dive deep on technique and watch how it changes what you make. And I guarantee you that once you figured that one thing out, it'll be a domino effect on everything else you make. Damn. That's beautiful. That was awesome. Nicole, what you got? I don't know. I just got chills by what he said. on give me like three seconds to retain to compose myself you mean like i guess what i'm trying to say is like you need that like epiphany moment i think yeah i've noticed a big difference between people who don't cook at all and like despise

cooking and then there's this other party that like almost like it too much i like take a step back i'm like yo like you're a normal person you don't have to do all this right um and what i've realized is the difference is that one of them had an epiphany moment when they were cooking or when they were eating, that made them realize that they had the ability and the capability to do those things. And they dove deep on one thing and it just became this really cool element. And we're the only animal on the planet that cooks our food. So everyone has the capability in their own DNA to make something great. But if you never have that moment that realizes that empowers you to do so,

then you never will. So you've got to have that one. And I think that's how people will probably get it. I don't know. I'm sounding a little soapboxy here today. No, man. I mean, I love it. This is literally, we host a podcast. This is the human equivalent of an eternal soapbox and we have a great deal of shame about it um but also i made it for communicating messages like that that i couldn't agree with more uh great buy this man's book god he's a walking box of knowledge hey it's out there you know it's right it's right back there i'll tell you whatle and josh 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 that's the vaguely what the music sounds like right i think i'm eight what's it atonal tone deaf you're definitely atonal do it uh but anyways time to start kicking in time to start kicking in that budget for the music let's go listen listen i got i got the best feet in the game. One man can't have it all. Dude, that's a whole new revenue stream for you. I know, man. Yo, that's my insurance policy if I ever get fired from this place. I'm just saying. Good for you.

Thank you. So what we've done, what we've done, we have queued up a bunch of our fans to give their hot takes about restaurants. Josh, we're going to go ahead and read them off. You get first crack at taking on their hot take. That's right. Nicole, you want me to read the first one? I'll do the first one.

You do the first one. Okay. DadBodGod says, chain restaurants are better than local ones for the reason of consistency. You can go anywhere and get the same meal. Do I like that? No.

Am I wrong? No. How do you feel, Mr. Weissman? Oh, okay. Right. Reminder, no curse words. That's just dead wrong. I would argue that chain restaurants have more inconsistency than local restaurants because they're spread out by significantly more locations, more managers, which means the information that is required to execute a proper product has now been diffused by a multitude of more people, which means more inconsistency. Matter of fact, that is exactly why my older

series, But Better, exists. Well, one of the reasons, not the only reason. To prove how inconsistent they are, one of my favorite things is that I'll post a video and beat the poopy. I'm doing good. I'm doing good, guys Can I say poopy? You can say it like 15 times if you want. That was great. Awesome. You know, out of like, let's say McDonald's, I don't know, a burger. Right. And then everyone will be like, well, typically it doesn't taste like that, Josh. Cause like, you know, the McDonald's near me is a whole lot better. You know, you probably just had a bad one. I'm like, OK, cool.

So you're saying Mr. Multi-Billion Dollar Corporation can't have consistency? Bro, if they can't, ain't nobody going to have it. So anyway, that's my digression on that. Yeah, especially with the franchise model, right? Like if you I've gone to McDonald's in Europe and they tend to be more consistent. And 7-Eleven's in Japan are another great example where everybody raves about who good the food is until you understand that America though, uh, thanks Ray Kroc and unfettered capitalism. We just spread all that. So thin people are underpaid. They tend to not care when you are a mega million, mega billion dollar corporation that's underpaying

them. So I've found even at a mid-level chain restaurants, Applebee's I've gotten a steak at Applebee's that was supposed to be like a sirloin and it was just like this mangled, gristly mystery cut. And I was like, I wish that was true. And that's supposed to be the benefit of a chain restaurant that it's consistent, but they're just not. You can get an inconsistent meal anywhere, but at least if it's a mom and pop that's run well,

I think you can get people to care a little bit more about the quality of your food. Okay, I agree with you guys, but there's one caveat when you go to the airport I will only eat at a chain restaurant in an airport. I will not eat any random like like I don't know like a random restaurant I will eat I will eat panda express at like eight in the morning. That's a good Panda express 10 at night. I will eat Panda Express at like 8 in the morning. That's a good one. I will eat Panda Express 10 at night. I will eat it at any time.

I actually think out of all the chain restaurants in the world, I think Panda Express might be the most consistent in history. Which is weird. I learned this from my sister because my sister's like, oh my gosh, I've gotten food poisoning so many times whenever I eat at like small mom and pop restaurants and airports or whatever or like small little places. And I'm like, you're right. So this, I agree with you unless I'm in an airport. Shout out to Panda Express. They do good work. And they're actually cooking and walks too,

which is like, you know, they're cooking relatively fresher than a lot of people. Yeah. Um, all right. So we got at Austinin lico i want every restaurant's music playlist to be 100 employee made have everyone kitchen front of house bar any other service position work together to make a spotify blend and play it on shuffle oh absolutely not oh my god no way no way dude there's gonna be someone named there's going to be someone named Ricky that's like a busser and he's going to want to play something crazy. He's going to want to play something that's got all the wrong

things in it. Norwegian black metal. Do what? He's going to play Norwegian black metal. Bussers love Norwegian black metal. Hate American prog metal. That's true. Or it's going to be like really weird independent sound cloud rappers that like make weird noises like you know in the middle of the beat you're like

what's going on here wow is that sexy red on the podcast that's crazy sexy red what color is your ski um do you want me to answer this yeah nicole n're at the floor this is the worst thing I've ever seen music let me tell you the Chipotle music creator whatever his name is he did good work I think every restaurant at a certain point like whenever you reach that like

point where you are franchising and stuff like that if you're a chain you should have a designated playlist and it should be that designated playlist forever sorry to interrupt you josh but the other thing is branding right like they got to have brand consistency so if it's a legit like it's not just like some walk in and eat and get out but like most restaurants have a brand identity and they got to have the right music that puts the vibe. And yeah. I agree. Vespertine, for instance, I believe to Michelin star restaurant from Chef Jordan Khan, they made all of their servers wear goat skin slippers so as to not make a sound when they walk around.

And I think it was mangling all their feet kind of ended up being a bit of a situation. But they got this experimental indie ambient noise band from austin to write them a soundtrack just to play in the restaurant so i think it does come to the brand um some of my favorite restaurant music experiences are like anna jack tide justin peach at rungsi yeah 90s hip-hop head you go in there there's wu-tang blasting and you're eating grilled razor clam tostadas outside in an alley music to me can add to the ambience and i love that they want to democratically source that i just think you'd end up with a strange it'd be like democratically sourcing a menu being like everyone busser you

get to put a dish on the menu tonight it's like well let's have some consistency i think the person that wants that has no idea and is not actually thinking about what the end product would be like when they're in a restaurant. I think they would walk into a restaurant that was like that and they'd be like, this is awful. That was a terrible idea. Meanwhile, that restaurant is literally going under because of them. All right. Our next opinion.

Existential Dread Barbie says, too many restaurants have a spin on the Caesar salad and most of them are awful. Why are there tomatoes? That's a great take. Great take. Caesar salad is a very simple thing. You make your anchovy dressing. You put it on romaine lettuce. You can add croutons if you like, although I would definitely recommend it.

A little bit of extra parm on top. Call it a day. It is what it is. It's like one of my least favorite things of all time it's like when someone puts arugula all right again no cursing i'm reminding myself it's a rugelow on a burger i'm sorry if if either of you guys do this and enjoy it but respectfully no i'm so sorry no i'm so sorry you can't i'm sorry i'm sorry nicole you just can't do that or or maybe like broccoli on a broccoli on a pizza you know it's just like i love that i love

broccoli on pizza that's no idea come back come back arugula on a burger for me is gonna be like how our parents would just like put cottage cheese on it they'd be like yeah you eat this with cottage cheese and that's a breakfast it's like a moment in time that i'm stuck in because like 2011 2012 the big fancy burger farmer farmer father's office father's office was the spot but like for me arugula on a burger i don't even like it i don't like the taste taste of it. It's, it's flat. It's dense. It's like a little bit bitter and peppery,

which I like, but it to me still like signifies a time in my life where I paid at the time, like $12, $13 for burger, which was a lot. And you get like an $8 beer that was like, this is a smoked double chocolate stout IPA that has 9%, you know,

and you're there and pay with your fake ID at a freaking gastropub. So me that's a moment in time and i i refuse to apologize how do you nicole why don't you like or why do you like arugula on a burger i genuinely am curious like what do you like about um because it's yummy i mean no i'm sure i'm truly curious I just like Okay so there's this place called Father's Office That does a really delicious burger And it's like on What kind of bread is it on Josh? Like French?

It's on a French roll It's on like a bolio Like an oblong It's on like a bolio It has blue cheese Bacon Onion Jam

And arugula on it And it's a perfectly delicious Yummy burger There's another cheese It's like Taleggio Is it Taleggio? It's like Taleggio blue It's not blue cheese?

Oh, it's both. It's both. And the burger is at points, it was invented in 1999 and literally is responsible for kicking off this big, beautiful, buxom bodacious burger trend. So there'd be no Umami Burger,

you know, no Jean Georges Burger, none of this without Chef Sang Yoon at Father's Office. Yeah. And you can still go back today and it holds up in its own way. The burgers are, they're char-grilled and they're super thick and they will be like to the point of tartar. Yeah, they're raw.

Often. They're like straight up raw. No ketchup. Which, you know, they're house ground, so it's food safe. And they have signs that say no ketchup and it's dark, it's dim, the seats are uncomfortable and I love it. I love it. I love arugula on a burger.

Do I like it more than a California style In-N-Out burger? Different experience. Different experience. Yeah, I agree. Also, broccoli on pizza is so good. Yeah, dude, that just sucks. What are you talking about? Have you ever had a vegetable pizza before

in your existence of living? Of course, but broccoli is just like a weird one, dude. That's like a fart in my mouth. I'm not expecting it. You got to pay extra for that. We should go on to another sentence, but no, no, I want to talk about Caesar salad. Talk about Caesar salad.

Caesar salad. You, me? You. Me. Yeah, Caesar salad is one of those things if I see tomatoes in it, I'm like, ew, this is disgusting. I literally want to tweeze them out

because they're so disgusting. Tomato, bacon, hard-boiled egg, anything you add to it. Yeah, it's disgusting. The hard-boiled egg I've had like in a deconstructed Caesar, and it was like, okay. Caesar salads are barely constructed. You don't need to deconstruct. That's like deconstructing a sand castle.

You're just kicking it down. I had it at Tom Colicchio's restaurant in Vegas, and it was just fine. But there's nothing better than an ice- ice cold Caesar salad with a homemade anchovy dressing and those beautiful shaves of parm and a really nice, crispy, crunchy crouton. It's like the perfect salad. The way that you can play, this is like Josh was talking about learning fundamentals. So then you can play within the rules of what makes something good.

Sure. There's ways to play with the Caesar salad within the rules. Like making a Parmesan Frico is a great way to add the crunch, you know, I mean, lightly grill that, you know, see, I don't know if I love grilled lettuce all that much. But one of the best Caesar salads, you go to like John and Vinny's, they do one of my favorite things instead of croutons, it's toasted breadcrumbs that are very, very heavily seasoned. So in the lettuce is kept in really whole big pieces.

There's a little bit of Calabrian chili in the dressing and everything in that still has the flavor profile. The Caesar still eats like a Caesar salad, but everything's just optimized and crunched up. And I love that. That's the way you play. One last opinion. Salt.

No, for real. Do you, do you season your, so this is another technique that I learned, uh, working in a, well,

actually you were talking about dressing salads for Garmage. I wonder if they taught you this because they should have. A great salad dresser on Garmage, before they add any dressing, they're going to add a pretty generous handful of ideally Maldon or finishing salt, which adds crunch. But also when you add the dressing, it's going to kind of mix with the dressing and salt the greens a little bit. Because if you think about it, you season a dressing perfectly with salt. You taste it. It's nice and salty. But guess what? You now added an ingredient that's full of water, which is now going to

diffuse that perfectly salted dressing. And it's going to become immediately under salted. So you have to add more salt directly to the veg. I was taught that in culinary school when we had garbanger in culinary school. Yeah, we did a, it was like a shaved Brussels thing with like a caramelized shallot vinaigrette or something.

But yeah, it was like, especially cabbage to like definitely salt that, but not too early or else it bleeds. But then you salt it right before. Sure. Bingo. Bingo. This is a great opinion.

This is a great opinion. Last opinion. Last one. Last one. If you go to a restaurant and see a big sweaty dude wearing a bandana outside, smoking a cigarette and talking on a flip phone, that's about to be the best food you've ever had. Nothing will come close to the pure, pure joy you experience. That's at Tholo Mewks. Big sweaty dude, band dude bandana cigarette flip phone

they have to be sweaty yeah sure for sure um i couldn't agree more i think that's super true and he chain smoking cigarettes and ideally ideally he should have at least three to four cigarette butts next to him that have already been totally demolished and on top of that he should be yelling on the phone for no reason. And he can be talking about something completely normal. Like, hey, did you remember to take the dog out? He'd be like, did you remember to take the dog out? You know, that that's good.

Yeah. It's that pressure cooker situation, you know, that you really need. If this is a woman, I know it's going to be the best meal. Ah, yes. If it's a woman with a bandana like this, apron, flip phone, yelling at the top of her lungs, chain smoking cigarettes,

I know that's going to be a good deal. Yeah, classic Americana style tattoos. You could tell in high school she was a greaser and into rockabilly. Yeah, she like,

what's that thing where you go on the roller skates and you punch people? A roller derby. A roller derby player. Yeah, yeah. And then there's a line cook that comes out the door and then sees that she's out there and immediately turns around Yeah. All to alternate. There's a line cook that comes out the door and then sees that she's out there and immediately turns around and goes back.

Yeah. I will say if you see anybody in this particular position and this spans many different cultures, ethnicities and countries and continents, but if they are squatting with both feet firmly on the ground, heels raised, but almost at the same level as their heels, if they are squatting in that position while smoking a cigarette outside,

looking absolutely miserable, that to me is going to be the best. It could be Ukrainian. It could be Vietnamese. It could be Brazilian, Chile, anybody in that position. They have cooked some great food.

Milk crate, baby. No, the milk crate. Yeah. And they're squatting next to the milk crate. There's a milk crate to sit in, but no, they're sitting in the squat

because they're comfy and they've been doing it. Yeah. Yeah. God dang. Well, I'm all riled up. That's for the favorites. On that note,

thank you all for listening to a hot dog is a sandwich. We have new audio only episodes every Wednesday and a video version here on YouTube every Sunday. And if you want to be featured on opinions or like casseroles, you can hit us up at 833-DOG-POD-1.

The number again is 833-DOG-POD-1. Extremely drawn out, Nicole. Thank you. And you can purchase Joshua Weissman's new book, Joshua Weissman, Texture Over Taste right now. Josh, got anything else you want to plug? No, this is great. I really appreciate it, guys. Thank you for having me on.

This was a great chat. One of the better chats I've had. I appreciate the love and appreciation for great food and proper execution and not BSing. It's good stuff. Love you guys. Can't BS a BSer.

Can't BS a BSer. No, likewise, man. This is super fun. Matters back for everything we've been doing. Catch you soon. No, likewise, man. This is super fun. Mad respect for everything we've been doing. Catch you soon. Yeah. See you guys soon.

I'll be in LA. Let's get together. Hell yeah. Bye, guys.