Pardon My Take - Chef Tom Colicchio, Duke Wins, Arkansas Upsets Gonzaga And More March Madness

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

March Madness turns into March Sadness as Duke rips PFT and Big Cats hearts out and Hank gets to gloat. We recap all the games form Thursday night as well(00:02:08-00:24:51) as Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins and other NFL news.(00:24:52-00:33:27) Chef Tom Colicchio joins the show to talk about food, nft’s, top chef and tons more.(00:35:36-01:21:25) We finish the show with Fyre Fest of the Week(01:23:21-01:44:24)You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we have Chef Tom Colicchio in studio. We're gonna break down some March Madness, Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins.

The NFL free agency just won't stop. They basically have hijacked the entire month of March. NFL is king. NFL is king. We got a great Friday show for you and we're brought to you by our friends at Venmo. Whether it's tickets to the games or wings for the viewing party,

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Thank you to Venmo for hooking people up this March. Okay, let's go. Welcome to part of my take presented by Venmo. Go right now and do any transaction on Venmo in the month of March, use hashtag PMT and you can win up to $500 for free with Venmo. Today is Friday, March 25th, and the Arkansas Razorbacks are going to the Elite Eight.

Woo! Who are they playing? I'm telling you, I'm telling you what, right now. The Cougars are in. Absolutely. John Daly is fucking hammered or than usual tonight, celebrating Arkansas. Big news.

And then there was, of course, we should probably bring up, like, yeah, there was a gigantic loss tonight for us as a podcast. Yeah. Billy football could not finish the cheeseburger bet. He got bodied by food yet again. You got down like eight and a quarter cheeseburgers, Billy. From McDonald's.

Food has three wins now. Billy is still with the Goose egg and I saw a tweet. Did you retire from eating? You can't. I retired. No, you can't retire. What the tweet said? I retired.

You can't retire. I said I'm retired. No, Billy football versus food challenges is my favorite rivalry. It's the Harlem Proctors and the Washington Generals. My body simply cannot do this. You know, Billy, now part of your job description is you doing as many competitive eating challenges

as possible, just losing all of them. Here's the official statement from my agency. OK. I retire from competitive eating. After these past three Ls, I just want to eat regular-sized portions. Please respect my decision. Yeah.

That's kind of a wimp move, Billy. No, no, I've got to get back on that horse. Look, I've seen my body. No, no. It's gotten banged up by the food. Billy, Billy, no. Please. I will not permit you to retire.

The answer is no. The sodium intake. You cannot. The people demand more food challenges until you complete one, an official one. That is your freedom. By the way, I got a text from Erica while you were doing the challenge.

She's not impressed with your behavior and your ability. She said that she will not be renewing your contract until you can complete the food challenge. Because I got a text from Dave, and he's like, this Billy losing to every food challenge ever is genius. How can we monetize it? And I was like, and then he said, PS, all the money that we could get out of it

will go directly to Billy football. Oh, wow. Well. Yeah. Both those things really happen. I'm going to go talk to my family. You know, they're the number one on my list when I make decisions.

My dog feels very strongly about the time I started in the toilet. You're not allowed to retire. Whitey would kick your ass in a food challenge. You're not allowed to retire. By the way, we should say McDonald's delicious. And we got a little extra special sponsor from McDonald's because it's March.

The big tournament is here, and we're tuning in to catch all the action across the games this month. And Billy, we're also tuning into the McDonald's All-American Games, where hype becomes legacy. I actually would like a complete blog after both of these games from you. And then I'll reconsider your retirement

because the McDonald's All-American Game is awesome. These players are high school athletes today, but there'll be household names tomorrow. 2022 is a big year. The games are back on for the first time since 2019 and returning to their many-time host city of Chicago, celebrating 45 years of legacy and commitment to high school basketball.

Tune into the game. Tuesday, March 29th, the girls' game starts at 6.30, and the boys' game begins at 9 PM. Catch the games live on March 29th at Wind Trust Arena in Chicago, beautiful arena, where DePaul plays. Go check it out. Watch the games. Billy's going to do a full recap of the games.

Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning, it will be live. So tune in. March 29th, girls' game starts at 6.30 PM. Boys at 9 PM watch a bunch of young women and men before they become household names. So you can say, I knew them before they became big-time and were playing in March in the future.

So tune in. McDonald's All-American Game. March 29th, girls' game starts at 6.30 PM. Boys at 9 PM. You know which school had a lot of All-Americans? So Villanova, who played great tonight, and they were amazing. They should get some. We should definitely pat them on the back.

Colin Glasbia, when you need him, he comes up big. Of all John Rostin's sayings, J. Wright, being a Fortune 500 company, fits the most. It does. But he also says that Villanova, a Fortune 500 company, it just runs itself. I don't think he knows how Fortune 500 companies work, run by all the shareholders, like the Green Bay Packers.

But he is like, every time you watch a Villanova game, there'll be a moment where you're like, uh-oh, is Villanova in trouble? Nope, they're just going to hit shots. They're going to make free throws. They got a big test against Houston. Elite 8's going to be quite something. But I'm excited for our Razorbacks.

We've always been Razorbacks. And NFL News. Well, big choke job. There was a heartbreak in the tournament tonight. Gonzaga losing. Oh, yeah. They're never going to get to a final four. That's tough.

Mark Few, at least he doesn't have to have a podcast host bring up his DUI with his giant German trepids. Yes, facts. And Musk's great game plan by Musk. Stopped him in transition, attacked the rim, poor Chet Holmgren, didn't know what to do. Is there anything we missed? Day of the year?

Oh, yeah. The lads got a result on the road. Yes. Neil Mill in Mexico. So, and then there was another tie out there. Draw, excuse me, tonight, in our concha-calf table. Yeah. So we're in the cat bird seat right now.

Looks like the boys are going dancing in Qatar. Go ahead, Hank. Go ahead. Wait, wait, wait, the spreadsheet. Oh, yeah. The spreadsheet did an amazing job. Look, there we go. Gonzaga went down.

That was a big L, freaking Arizona. We needed Arizona. Arizona went down, another big L, Houston's big. We're about to make money. I'm going to need that money, by the way. Yeah. Yes. We're going to flip it.

Yeah, I'm going to need that. So was Texas Tech losing to, I forget who they played, but was their loss, is that good for the spreadsheet? Texas Tech would have been a huge L, comparatively. Sounds good. So it's good. Well, Duke is also a big L. Oh, OK, well, yeah.

So it doesn't matter. That's an L that's going to be eliminated by Arkansas, which is a W. Big Dump, got it. I got a future on Arkansas. I would make my money back if they wanted all. I got a huge. Tonight was one of the most contentious nights on the podcast.

I was on big on Duke. You two, we were huge, huge on Texas Tech. Go ahead, have your moment. It was a lot. No, I mean, we haven't really talked afterwards. I've been avoiding you. I'm very scared of you right now. I was happy that you showed up to work today at 9 p.m.

Yeah, I'm sick. I came I came for the show. I came to perform. Listen, I and I performed here's here's here's me and my alums. Here's my blue devils. Listen, I took a shot. I don't regret taking a shot. Gambling is about taking shots.

Life is about taking shots. It is. You can laugh. It was thrilling to take a big shot to tweet all those tweets today and as much as I want to complain about the rest, I don't think they decided the game. Duke just didn't miss in the last seven and a half minutes. They made every single field goal attempt in the last seven

and a half minutes. It was a great game, like an actually a great game to watch. Every possession felt intense. And yeah, that's gambling, baby. That's life. I think I put my nuts on the table and I got them smashed like a fucking Gallagher watermelon. I think the two things are Mike McCarthy watermelon.

Yeah. Well, no, if I had smashed a watermelon, we probably would have won. That's true. Yeah. So there are a couple of things that stand out to me in this game. Big Cat's not going to complain about the rest. I will. Thank you.

Coach K, we were actually dumb for thinking that they were going to let him lose on his 99th career victory in the NCAA tournament. No, of course, he's going to get to 100. He's probably going to lose in the next game so he can walk away with exactly 100 clean wins. Just straight up three figures. OK, you get it. Great job, Coach K.

100, everyone's going to remember that for all time. It will look back on it 50 years from now if we're still alive and be like, oh, yeah, Coach K had 100 wins in the tournament. Of course, he wasn't going to lose at 99. That was dumb as shit on our part to think that maybe he was going to. The refs were going to let him lose that inbound play at the end where they trapped him 90 feet from the basket and they called the foul on what was a clear turn up.

That was the game right there. The kids fought back hard from Texas Tech. That was a big moment of the game. Also, I will give some credit to Coach K. He switched up to zone in the second half like a coward. He told his boys to play zone like a bunch of scaredy cats. Called in the rain. And he called in the rain.

The rain. The zone cheated. Jim Bayheim got on the phone and he's like, I know exactly what you've got to do here tonight, Coach. You've got to go to the zone. And he did it and it worked. Credit to him. They didn't have an answer for the zone.

Then when they switched back to man to man, it was like they realized how to play basketball again. So the rain, we're in New York. We have direct TV because we have the NFL package. The rain hit. Duke went, we lost all service. We couldn't watch the game. Duke went on a 9-1 run.

I freaked out after. I stood up for my seat. I went in the hallway. I was losing my mind watching the game. All of a sudden, I hear fucking robot noises behind me. Billy's trying to do a TikTok. That also, that was a pivot point in the entire game. OK, can I give you just a little bit of caution?

I don't know, because here's what Billy's hearing right now. Yeah, I know. That gets mad when I'm doing my job. I better, I have a built an excuse for it from now on. When we say in two months, when I'm like, when we're like, Billy, the TikTok hasn't grown. He's going to be like, remember that time? The Texas Duke game.

And I tried to do it and you didn't like it. He's filing that away for later. Billy, I don't blame you. Duke made every shot down the stretch. Like I really would love to blame the refs. And I would really love to say that Texas Tech. Like should have won, but they Duke made every shot. There's nothing I can do.

Like, like I said, that's gambling. The thrill of putting your nuts on the line is the best. And when it doesn't happen, it's the worst and that's just life. And guess what? This is actually for Hank. You can't listen to this part. You can't go out of the room, leave the room, leave the room, leave the room, Hank's leaving the room.

I'm making him leave the room. BFT, Bubba, Billy. Thanks, Fard. I'm legitimately nervous that Duke might win the national championship. All right, so it does make sense with the storyline. If you're in tune with the narrative right now, I mean, I've been saying all year that they have the most talent in NCAA basketball right now. They have a great, great team.

I'm counting on Coach K to blow it for him. And so next year, Shire takes over and then Shire wins championship with Coach K's players. That's the narrative that I want to build. That's all that we have left right now. I can't. This was the first time that I was legitimately like, OK, this might happen. And like.

Musk is going to have the best game plan possible. I believe in the Razorbacks. I'm basically just going to every single game for the rest of the tournament is going to be a personal game of the year. I won't release it as a game of the year because I have to take a break, even though I love, love, love Miami on Friday night. And I think they're going to win. And that would be a game of the year.

And I might even still make it a game of the year. But every game now till the end against Duke will be full effort, full hate. Because I can't. I don't know what I. This is like my nightmare. This it's this it's Coach K winning a national title on the way out. And Aaron Rodgers winning another Super Bowl with the Packers. Those are the two moments in my life that I have contemplated being like,

I might have to quit sports. I might have to just walk away. You're on everything until I might have to say no more sports. It's not worth it. You live your life. Go go like move to Montana. Raise your note. No, Hank. Raise your kids have a beautiful life.

Read a book. Pike like, I don't know, kill a fucking deer once a year. I don't know all this shit. It's not worth it. If this is going to be ending in such gut wrenching pain. And I know there's a bunch of Duke perverts right now who are listening to this and they're smiling ear to ear and I don't know if I can stop them. I'm going to do everything I can, PFT, but I'm only one man.

I don't know if I can stop what's going to happen and what's going to be an absolute nightmare for me. Billy, make me feel better. I have good news and bad news. This feels like it's going to be bad news and bad news. The bad news is is that there's a possibility that they play UNC in the final four, right, which goes right with the narrative. No, that would be great if they lost to UNC.

Right. I don't know the good news. The bad news was the narrative goes to the final four. The good news is that they could lose that to UNC. Listen, if you told me that Duke went to the final four and they 100% lost, I would take that and say, no, no, no, stay out and they lost. I would 100% take that because then like it it's very much similar to when you guys root for Wisconsin to get deep into a tournament just so that it gets even worse, like a Duke loss in the final four would be so delicious.

We would be there. But I'm also thinking that I'm playing. It's I'm like a lenda just on a fucking like line walking over, you know, these buildings. And it's like if we get to the final four, they're two games away. They're 80 minutes away and then I'm dead. I'm telling you, Big Cat, the fact that he's at exactly 100 wins right now, that to me, it makes all the sense in the world.

If you see Coach K with 100 next to his name, you that's that's the ticket right there. That's what they want. That's what the storyline is going to be. I know came walks out with 100 wins in the NCAA tournament and everybody remembers. Oh, yeah, the big 100. They hang another banner up at Coach K court at Coach K stadium right next to all the other banners that aren't about individual accomplishments.

That says Coach K personally won 100 games. I'm just that's what that's how this story is going to end. I'm terrified. I I'm terrified. Like, honestly, I want you to hold me. I want you to hold me right now. Listen, you will never see a podcast in the entire country root as hard as we will root for the rest of the season, and you'll never see someone push the rest of the teams as hard as we will push all the teams

the rest of the season. You'll never see a podcast play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless. Yeah, that's I like that felt that felt a little bit better. But I'm just I'm in the trustee right now. No Duke fans are allowed to listen to this part. This was the first time that I was I legitimately was like, oh, my God, it might happen and I might have to quit sports. I might have to just be a guy who when you see me at the bar or like you see me

like we're in an elevator together, you see me on the street and they're like, what do you think about the game last night? And I'm like, I don't watch sports, you know, I don't watch sports. This is like you're a highly talented football player getting to the league and you've got all the expectations of the world. Everyone's like, oh, yeah, this this guy's going to be a star. And then you blow out your knee in like your first game. And then for the rest of your life, they're like, that guy used to be a hell

of a football player back in the day. They're going to be like that guy, Big Cat right there. Yeah, he used to watch so many sports. He used to be a great sports podcaster. And then what happened? Coach K won it all. So and he just quit. And I do I have a confession, though, about how the rest of the season is going to play out for Coach K. OK, if they do get to the finals.

I'm going to be rooting for Duke because no, no, I'll pay for it back in December. I'll pay for it. It's going to pay. I'll personally pay for it. If they win at all, that pays for my game of the year. I will personally pay for your future before they even win at all. I'm just I'm just saying. I'm saying I will do that. I'm now I want. I want. I'm willing to do that. If Arkansas wins, then I make way more money. I know, but I'm willing to do that.

No, I'm willing to pay. I'm willing to pay for the future because I can't I can't have you doing that. I can't. We we already have to deal with Hank, who, by the way, for the listeners at home, Hank pretended that he was sick all day. So they didn't have to come in and face the fire because the office was high tension all day. He got to just stroll in at nine o'clock and sit in the chair and be like, oh, ballgame on. Well, because it was bullshit.

What he did. Corporate Hank sits upstairs. Yeah, Lex's paycheck takes his sick days. Yeah. That's kind of you've seen a notable shift in Hank recently. If you've watched entourage, fuck the suits. That's Hank. That's we're still we're still the fucking independent guys just trying to say fuck you to the system. Hank is literally he's corporate Kane. You know what he is?

He's pig vomit from private parts. WNBC. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's who he is. Here's how I miss says it, guys. Yep. So but yeah, I am for the first time this year because they've had so many. They've had like different moments where I'm like, oh, they're flawed. Oh, their defense.

Oh, you know, Virginia Tech beats in the ACC tournament. UNC beats in the last game. This is now this is now threat level midnight at my house. Well, reality check is that Duke has the most talent of any team that's left. So if they do lose, then it's all in coach K must is going to coach the fuck out of this game on Saturday. All right, Hank, you come back. Hank. Hank went home.

He probably did. He got the car service. He's probably laying down like, oh, I'm so sick. Hank's in the town. Hey, there he is. All right, Hank. Oh, yeah, stop recording. Hank, hello. Welcome back. How you doing? I'm great. Yeah, I feel much better. I know, I know. You have the floor, Hank. Yeah. Go ahead.

You can say whatever you want. I just spilled. I'm just you're not having to listen to that. By the way, I feel really lucky. You're not allowed to listen to that every day. I think thank God that I'm able to work with such great guys. You guys are amazing people to work with. And I don't look really when you're saying that because then we know you're lying. No, I love Billy. I think Billy is a great, great guy.

Funny, smart. Hank's winking right good at eating strong. Billy, we've got to stick together. We can't. He's evil. He's an evil, evil person in our show. He's a suit. I don't want to be involved in this. No, you are. Billy, I just try to bring light.

I would try to bring a shining beacon of light. Bro, I'm Swiss as fuck. No. Oh, you want to use 65% Swiss? Yeah, give it to me. Although Billy does know how to stay out of fights. He does. True. We're just we're just one big happy family. And I'm just I feel really lucky to be a part of it.

All right. You're not allowed to listen to what I said. I won't. OK, cool. So Hank, you're rooting against our friend naturally. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it really dates. Great. I'm good for him. He beat Gonzaga number one seed winning season.

Gray for recruiting. Gonzaga is like does. I don't. They'll be back. I'm sure they have great recruits and everything. But damn, that's a I'm going to say it right now. Drew Timmy doesn't have the killer instinct. He's going to be an awesome, awesome player in Latvia.

And that's an I'm not saying that is a mean thing. Like those guys make good money. He does have like sick Euro moves. It's just you know, they were 5050 balls where it was like Arkansas was like, nope, that's ours. He's got the drop step. He's got a really good drop step on it. I love that move.

But yeah, and I like I'm still mad. I like to too. I think that Chetza, he's a fine player. He got in foul trouble and they kept just going right at him. Didn't really know what to do with himself at that point. But he's a young kid. Also, we won Houston too. So I had a double big night.

That was thanks to you, big cat. So thank you. Yeah, that's true. I did. You texted me. I should have. I should have made that my game of the year. Yeah, game of the year is going to be retired for a while,

though Miami would have been so. Do you at any point regret betting with your heart and no. No, I mean, you can't say that. You're the foot. You're you you you pushed me. I just used your suit. You use your suit. You came.

Dude, you're going to pretend like you didn't come to my desk with a spreadsheet and you're like, we crunched the numbers upstairs on the third floor and it'd be great if you did game of the year for the for the eyeballs. No, I said I said what I said in the park. I said, do it, do it, do it. But but didn't you also bet with your heart? No, I bet with my head.

Oh, no. And that's if big cat makes it a big bet bet against it. Oh, really? So you bet against all my. So you're one in three against my big bets. No. But eventually, if you're three, no, it's like it's going to happen. Eventually, I do feel very rude of what you what you did.

You already taken like you already won. You don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. I'm trying to I'm trying to post late. If if what you just said about me, I figure out if it was good or not. I feel like I can't tell if that's an appropriate level comment. What I feel like it is saying what what I just said. No, that was very mean.

That was very true. I was for any line came out. I feel like I feel like for any line just came out when I left the room. But maybe I'm wrong. I'll never know. What I feel like I share some of the responsibility in this because I did join the game of the year phenomenon. So it was me and Big Cat against Hank.

And I took a shot. I believe, though, that every time that the two of us are rooting on an opposite side to Hank, Hank wins 100 percent of those bets. Yeah, 100 percent of them. I can't recall a single time. I I one of us has to be the best game. We're on the podcast. I if it was one of you guys, I would be happy if you if you were you were

the best I would be happy for you. I know I love being the second best game on the podcast. That's why I got the road trip. I gave you Houston. How did Chad Nougat do? You did give me Houston. Should have taken the points to Chad Nougat. I should. That's mean.

Big Cat. Well, he hurt me. I also I also lost. I basically did the collecting like I fade every pick of yours, which is not true. Now Bubba's my only friend. One in three. It's true. But yeah, friendship ended with Hank and Big Cat.

Now Bubba, new best friend. Miami's the game of the year. Miami's another game of the year. Miami is another game of the year. I'm in. I'm in. Minus two. Make sure it's minus two. Miami, if you have to buy, I think it's minus one 18.

Miami's the game of the year. Fuck it. I'm in. Fuck. I might just flip my winnings from tonight. Responsibly, Miami's the game of the year. I'm going to be going just like I did this morning, going to a gas station in New Jersey and hot fries at 10 a.m. Making another game of the year.

Fuck it. I was my original game of the year. You know, what's really exciting to do is you take the train over to New Jersey and then you try to get the bed in before the train leaves the station to come back to New York, where you can just live in Jersey. Miami's the home of the peacocks. No, thanks.

You see the send off. The city of Jersey City gave the peacocks. It was incredible. Yeah. It's basically like Mardi Gras. Should we talk about NFL? Yeah. Real quick, Tyree Kill to the Dolphins. Crazy.

My big takeaway is just how awesome he's going to look catching deep balls in that teal uniform. Yeah. And now the thing is, yeah, like, Tua doesn't have any more excuses. I'm sure that we'll think of some. But for right now, he doesn't have any more excuses. Fastest two wide receivers.

Yes. Jalen Waddle and Tyree Kill. And I also this is one of those trades that I actually agree with what the Chiefs are doing because you have the young quarterback. You have to pay a ton of money to and they're basically making a bet that Patrick Holmes is so good that if you have

Tyree Kill is obviously an incredible, incredible wide receiver. I mean, it's probably Devonte Adams and Tyree Kill is like the fact that both of them got traded within two weeks of each other. But they're making the bet that with like a B or B plus wide receiver, Patrick Holmes can make him an A. Yeah.

Kind of like what Aaron Rodgers does. You know what I mean? Yes. It makes sense. When I first saw the trade, I was like, why are they getting rid of maybe the best receiver in the NFL and a guy that teams up perfectly with Patrick Holmes, big arm.

And then actually, Aaron Foster told me yesterday. He was like, well, the thing is, like, Tyree Kill has got great speed. But as you get older, that's like, you know, if you rely only on your speed, that's something that's going to diminish as the years go by. And so yeah, they're selling high. He's probably at the peak of his abilities right now.

Correct. He's going to be awesome for a couple more years. He's going to be awesome for a couple more years. But if you're going to give him like a five or six year contract or whatever, if you're going to give him a big extension, if you're the chiefs, it probably doesn't make as much sense. And I really do think the chiefs can get guys in the draft and maybe like they already got juju.

And I feel like Patrick Holmes is good enough that he will make like keep investing in the offensive line, put some more money into the defense. And now Valdez scaling has an actual quarterback. Yeah. That will practice with him and throw him the ball. Exactly. So I it made sense to me both sides.

I don't the dolphins are going to be a very, very fun team to watch now because that is such crazy speed that they have. And they also got it would have been awesome to see the Jets get him, though. Well, that was the funniest part was Tyree Kill. The word leaked out there that he was going back and forth between the dolphins and the Jets as his two options. And then after he signed with the dolphins, he said,

yeah, I was never going to sign with the Jets. That was never that was never a serious consideration. Who's Tyree? Why do we care about Tyree Hill? That's true. You should just be like bad guy, bad guy. You know, who's the character guys on the Jets? Bill is going to stop ruining for the Jets, actually, if they got Tyree Kill. Exactly. No, I honestly think Patrick Mahomes is productive.

He's going to go way down without Tyree Kill. And Tyree Kill would have done way better with Zach Wilson. I disagree with the first one, the ball downhill. Well, think about how many times Tyree Kill bailed out a bad pass by Patrick Mahomes. So I would I would I would take the alternate approach on that that that's actually going to help the chiefs because the chief's offense when they would like fall apart,

it's basically because it was like backyard football. More structure will probably help Patrick Mahomes where they like actually try to get, you know what I mean? They stop doing these fucking special things. And like what would happen in that Bengals game where they're doing weird RPOs that don't work, that aren't real RPOs like I actually think this will be better for Patrick Mahomes. I know that's true, like sure.

Yeah, right. They'll have guys in more specific roles. They still have a speed guy. Don't they still have me, me, Cole Hartman. They do. And actually, you can make the argument, too, that if Tyree Kill was a bigger receiver, he doesn't get tackled on the one yard line at halftime against the Bengals. That's true. I mean, obviously, it's not a knock on Tyree Kill.

No, he's clearly a game changer. I'll say it right now. Tyree Kill is not a good short yardage wide receiver. Yeah, I just think that like the chiefs will like they'll basically pivot off of what they've been, which isn't the worst thing when it comes to the NFL and how teams guard them and everything. So I don't know. We'll see.

Yeah, it'll be fun to watch. Jake, we just did most everything, but do you want to give us any recaps from your point of view? Yeah, I mean, it was a pretty solid slate. I'm sorry about the game of the year. Sorry, we've we've we kicked Hank out for a while. And we kind of we hashed everything out. I feel you out. Oh, also, I made Miami the game of the year.

OK, tomorrow night. So you. How about that wedgie tonight, huh? Free throw wedgie was crazy. The physics of that. How does that happen? I don't know. Jake got so excited when the free throw hit the wedgie and everybody else in the room was shut up shut up.

But we love we love the passion. Yeah, did you guys talk about I'll bring it up? My redemption bracket. We have not brought it up to the show. Yeah, Jake, Jake. It started the show. Oh, really? Redemption bracket just basically said, OK, now let's pretend

let's pretend I got everything correct thus far. And I got it right. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, that's. But like, it's fine. I never wanted a team to win a game more than Arkansas over Duke on Saturday. Wow. I really, really need the most all these guys. Playing with their hearts, not with their heads.

You're supposed to be a college basketball analyst. Not an analyst. I don't break down the X's and O's. Still, I think with your mind, not with your heart. So I mean, on paper, Duke's the better team. I want Arkansas to win. Hank's wearing Duke underwear right now. My redemption bracket.

I thought Gonzaga was better, but I still wanted the must boss. I'm happy for him. So who do you have in the finals of your of your redemption bracket? Should I say Arizona Gonzaga? Oh, no, it was Villanova. OK, all right. So you should. You should do another redemption every round next round. Yes, every day.

Yep. And until the championship game and you will have like one opportunity to be like, yep, I had I had the Natty. Yep. Volume seven point now. Yeah. No, it was it was a good day. I want. Providence to be Kansas. I want the must bust to win. I want St. Peter's because why not?

I don't know how realistic. I do want St. Peter's. So I'm here to be. I bet the money line before I left Illinois. And so that's a dumb thing. You know what, John, you still have one last Hail Mary chance for it to be really bad for Duke. Yeah, we were. Yeah.

UNC. Yeah, we talked about that. That we talked about. It would be perfect if Coach K is the most memorable last losses. Listen, would that make this game of your loss worth it? If UNC. No, no. Listen, Jake, you missed some of the show, but I'm not even worried about Duke winning at all. OK, like I'm not.

It hasn't even come in my mind. It hasn't even you think I was saying like this is not. Some people are saying it's like a team of destiny thing. But this team is so flawed. I'm fine. Coaching and on the floor that it's just not realistic to think that Duke's going to win this. It's it's I like haven't even thought. Like I'll tell you when I think about it and I'm worried.

It's not even close right now. OK, that's they're only halfway. They still they're halfway there. They're not good point. Like it's not even dude. Yeah, if this was a marathon, they'd be at like the 12 mile pole. Yeah, it's like I'll let you know when I'm worried. It's a long way.

It's probably going to be like if they're in the national under the second half, like second half, right? Like then I'd be like, oh, maybe they're going to win it all, but probably not. That would be when I would freak out. I'll tell you who I actually like to win it all. And this could be a jinx. I think Villanova has been really impressive.

Yeah, well, Houston and Houston is that's going to be in. I kind of think they've been the two most impressive teams so far and they have to play each other. Incredible matchup. You think if Villanova makes the championship game that Jay Wright's going to put on a suit. He should write. He's got he has to respect the tournament.

Yeah, respect the bracket. But no, it's it's crazy. I could Arkansas be Gonzaga. It's awesome. If it wasn't this year or last year for Gonzaga, I truly don't know when now back to back years. And the number one over and number recruit and chat. They don't and Jalen sucks.

I was looking at the SPN 100. They don't have a top 100 guy next year. It is going to be it does feel like this was their moment. Like this four or five year run that they had was going to be like they're over the top moment. And yeah, whoo. But maybe they'll thrive under pressure. Maybe we'll be the four or five seed next year

and go to the final four. I don't know. No, I don't think so. Yeah, I think it's this year. This year was a window close. I'm officially announcing that until they move to a real conference, Gonzaga's window has officially closed. Tough break.

So Jake, how do you feel about rooting for Tyreek Hill now? Tyreek Hill, the football player. Yeah, it's great. It is. Tyreek Hill, the football player in between the lines in between the lines on the field. Yes, got it. OK, just making sure you're OK with that conscious wise.

All right. It's one in the morning. Let's get to chef Tom Colicchio. And then we have firefest on the other side. Tom Colicchio is brought to you by our new spots or new spots or alert, Hank. Me, me, me, me, me, me, game time. That's right.

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Go watch on Twitter, on Instagram. Go check out the video that we did. We went up to the top of the Empire State Building. Big Cat did a great job doing the ad read. I freaked out. I couldn't be out on the ledge. I hope I never have to be out there again. But I did it because game time is that good of a partner to us.

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You know him from Top Chef. You know him from being in the, you know, basically one of the most famous chefs in the last two decades. I do want to start you. I want to talk about your NFT project, but we have a lot of football coaches on. We always call them coach. Yeah, sure. Should we always call you chef?

No. Do you like that? No, I have a name Tom. Tom's good. You don't like that? No, I don't. I don't. Really? If it's another chef. What's that? If another chef calls you chef, do you appreciate that?

Or you're like, no, I'm Tom. I don't. You know, I don't typically correct them, but in my restaurant, I don't allow my cooks to call me chef. Really? Yeah, they call me Tom. Now I want to call you chef. Chef just means boss. Yeah. And it's like, hey boss, not, you know.

I do like it when they in Top Chef when they're like, yes, chef, sure, chef. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like an army rank. Yeah, producers kind of make that happen. I just like the term chef testing. Chef testing, yeah. Did you come up with that?

No, I did not. So you're going to the metaverse? We are. We're there. We launched a couple minutes ago, actually. About a half an hour ago. Yeah, our slice list, which is what we call our whitelist, went live about at 2 o'clock. Explain it to two idiots how this works,

because we really do not know. Oh, OK. Which parts don't you know? So how do I get an NFT slice of pizza? You don't. OK. It's a virtual pizza. No, what we're doing.

So Spike Mendelssohn and I, Spike, who was contestant on Top Chef and Buddy of Mine, now he is, he wasn't then. You know, I go back to where I got involved. So during the pandemic, I had some free time. Restaurants were closed and I'm a bit of a news junkie. And, you know, started spending a little more time looking at financial news.

And NFTs became popular, you know, and, you know, I started messing around with crypto a little bit. And, you know, the original, when I first started buying NFTs, partly it's because if you have crypto, all right, it's just, it's there and it can go up and down. Well, you can actually hedge that as well by buying some NFTs.

And you can flip them or you can keep them, whatever it is. And, but I also wanted to get more involved with the, with the NFT community before I dropped a project. And at this point, I didn't know what I was going to do at all. And so Spike reached out to me and he had been working on something. I, you know, just kind of lurking around in some of those Twitter spaces and things like that, just to try to understand what was really happening

with NFTs, what they were all about. And obviously, you know, when people sold, you know, an art project for $69 million, whatever it was, I mean, that caught everybody's attention. Yes, big time. But since then, the NFT sort of, the universe is really shifted away from those art projects. And there are some of those, but it's shifted away to,

you know, in real life utility. So if you own this NFT, what do you get? You know, it's not the piece of art. It's, it's, it's, it's like a past. What do you get with that? And so for us, we dropped it, we did a pizza project because pizza is so universally loved. We figured, you know, that's a good way to get in there.

And we were kind of having fun with it. And again, originally when we've been, you know, working on this for nine months, and originally it was going to be just a piece of art and that was it. And then we realized that we've got to add utility to this. So, so Spike and I will do like virtual cooking classes and things like that.

So if you, if you hold an NFT, you can get into these classes. We're actually doing our first in real life event, DC Central Kitchen, which is a organization that Jose Andres works with. We're doing a fundraiser with the after party. If you're an NFT holder, you can come to the after party. So there's things like that.

So it's, it's just a pass that gets you really cool stuff. Yeah. And that's really it. It should get you one slice of pizza every day for the rest of your life. It could, it could, but no, it wouldn't. It wouldn't. That's the next slide.

It's only like $200 for, for, for our, our, our kind of membership. Okay. I like that. Because when it's, when the NFTs come out and it's like $25,000 for this, you know, JPEG, you're like, okay, this doesn't deal. Yeah. See, it's not, it's not just the JPEG though. You got to understand.

I know that that's something you say and people are very upset about it. Well, it's what I love is like, oh, I have one too. It's like, yeah, try to sell it. Right. Like it's not on the blockchain. It's got to be on the blockchain. But also a lot of these things have turned out

to be pretty good investments. I mean, if you got into board Ape, you know, Yacht Club early on, you made a ton of money. Yeah. A ton. Yeah. I had a guy just stopped me in the street and he knew our podcast and he was like,

you got to buy an Ape. And I was like, what language are we talking right now? I liked that guy that was like, all my Apes gone. Yeah. Remember that Apes gone? Yeah. That's good. It's like, it's a membership into a club.

It's kind of, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you actually get a real life experience if you are a holder. That's the idea. Now, you throw around Metaverse. Metaverse is, it's not a thing yet.

We're, you know, web 3.0 is not a thing yet. We're like web, maybe 2.2, 2.3. But web 3.0, just on a basic level. I mean, think about this. 20 years ago, you opened a business, maybe you had a website, probably not. Now you have to have one, right? Well, what's the website going to look like in 3.0?

It's going to be three-dimensional. You're going to put on VR glasses and you're going to be able to walk through. So I have a restaurant. You'll be able to walk through it. I mean, think about the music application to web 3.0. You're a Jay-Z. You decide to mint an NFT project.

That NFT project will get you into the concert. Every seat's first row. Right? Yeah. So there's a lot of cool things that are going to happen. I mean, I'll take it a step further in, you know, kind of extreme. So during the pandemic, we were shipping boxes

around the country, food, you know, partially cooked, everything from a six-pound prime rib to tacos for the soup bowl, right? Now, there's going to come a time when I'm going to ship you a box of food and you're going to get it in your restaurant. I mean, you're going to get it at home. And then maybe if you have my NFT, right,

you're going to be able to go and see a video of me actually make preparing that dish. When you're eating it, if I have a restaurant on the Metaverse, you can put on some VR glasses and you'll be sitting in that restaurant eating my food at your home, but you'll be in the restaurant, right? So, but, you know, again, I equate this to, you know, you remember the first cell phone, what it looked like?

Right. You guys are too young for that part. No, no, we're running around that, yeah. It looked like a brick, right? Yeah. And it was next to worthless. Now look at it, our smartphones have more computing power than the computers that sent the first man of the moon.

Right. And so anybody envision that? I mean, when Bill Gates sat down with, I forget what nighttime host and talks about the internet, he was laughed at. Yeah, yeah, I remember, I love going back and watching those videos and those interviews where they say exactly what's about to happen.

And everyone's like, oh, so you're gonna sit on a computer and order a pizza and it'll get delivered, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll get delivered online. Oh, it's gonna come right through the terminal. Did you ever see that movie, The Net, with Sandra Bullock way back in the day? There was like the start of the movie was her in her house.

I was trying to portray what a loser she was because she sat in her home and she was obsessed with technology and she was ordering pizza on the internet that would get delivered to her home. And it was like we're supposed to laugh at her because she lacks all sorts of social interaction, capabilities, and it's exactly what ended up happening. But yeah, we're excited to have you here.

I'm a big fan of you from Top Chef. I've watched just about every single episode of the show since probably 2006, 2007 is when I got into it. So I'm a little bit familiar with your work, but we're pretty much simple food guys, the two of us. We love chicken wings. Actually, that's a good place to start. We're looking for a great chicken wing place.

What's your favorite chicken wing? I have no idea. You're not a chicken wing guy? No, I don't go out for chicken wings. I have no idea. I don't go out that often for a lot of restaurants. Cook yourself? Well, especially the last two years.

I mean, I've been home cooking pretty much breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a long time. Yeah. So what would be like your last meal then? Let's just say you were arrested for murder. You didn't actually do it, but you got arrested for murder. You're in jail. You're about to be electrocuted the night before fall.

Yeah, so the night before, what do you order? Sunday gravy at home. I don't order, man. I grew up Italian-American in New Jersey, and Sunday was Sunday gravy. Sunday gravy was red sausage, meatball sausage, brazzol, and all that. Do you still do it?

I still do it. Not every Sunday, but I still do it. Yeah, I love those type of traditions with food. And it's funny because like PFT said, we've been fans since the beginning of Top Chef. It feels like that was kind of the big wave. You were at the start of it of food television. Have you looked around the landscape now

and been like, I saw last night I was on Netflix looking just scrolling around. There's a show now on Netflix called Is It Cake? And it literally is, they're cooking, like they'll cook a shoe that looks like cake, and they'll have the shoe, and then the celebrity panelists have to decide whether it's the shoe or the cake. By looking at it.

That's it. That's the whole show. That's the whole show. Yeah. Netflix spent money on that. Yeah, and if you know what, people are gonna watch it. You should get a credit of that. Yeah, have you seen those things?

You're like, wow, this is crazy. I don't watch a whole lot of food TV. Okay. I really don't, and I watch a lot of TV. I don't watch food TV. Why is that, just because you do it, or do you know how it works? I don't find it that interesting.

Really? It's true. But probably because like. You know it. You know the world, yeah. But I don't find, I don't, a lot of the stuff I just don't see, it's not that appealing to me. But also I'm in the food world.

It's, I guess, a lot of people who are in the business watch it, obviously, but I don't know. I just don't spend a whole lot of time watching food TV. Yeah, it has become quite a boom. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, but going back to the Food Network really was to start it, but you know, they predated Top Chef.

And Top Chef was, it was interesting because there was a reality show, and I always tell the chef who's a friend of mine that I won't mention his name in association with this, but there was a restaurant reality show that was pretty, it wasn't great for the chef for his restaurant. And so I was like, I'll never do that.

And I got a phone call from a producer just out of the blue saying, we're doing this show, this competition reality show, we think it'd be great as a judge. I was like, no. And they called back again and they said, can we come and at least get you on camera? I was like, yeah, fine.

So this woman shows up with a little camcorder and records me, they call back and they said, can you come to LA for a screen test? I was like, no. And they said, well, we think it'd be great. We really, but you got to come into a screen test. I said, well, I'm not flying out to LA and I really don't want to do this,

but there was a documentary done on the opening of Kraft when we opened the restaurant and 21 years ago. And so I sent them the documentary and they were like, we want to make you an offer. I was like, I really don't want to do this. Right. But then I decided, well, let me take a look at it. And I knew, they did Project Runway and Project Greenlight.

And they sent me Runway. I actually watched Greenlight and they sent me Runway and I was like, all right. And then there was just, I just had to request, one was this isn't about me. And number two, I'm not going to sit there and just play monkey to the networks making decisions on who stays and who goes.

Some of these reality shows before they start shooting and who's winning. Right, right. I'm like, we're not doing that. It's going to be real. And they were like, absolutely. And I think that speaks to, you go through the list of winners and some incredible chefs

have come out of the show. Well, that's what we're most proud of, the amount of chefs that have come out of our show and are doing multiple restaurants, earning awards and things like that. But that's partly because we cast chefs. We don't cast a bunch of wannabes who are like, kind of has been actors and want to be cooks.

Right. What's the best meal that you've been served on that show? I would say Melissa King's finale meal in Italy was as good as it got. It was absolutely fantastic. She grew up Chinese-American. She's just a really, really good cook, but she has a really good sensibility.

And she did a great job of just taking, fusing Italian food and we were in Italy and then working that with Chinese food. And it was just really spectacular. What's the one thing that makes a great chef a great chef? Like, is there a certain skill they have that's unlike anyone else? You know, yes.

And it's not what you'd expect. You know, when you think about what a chef does, and this is how I'll explain it. So, during the, you know, if you're a chef, it's your recipes, it's your menu. You set up the kitchen. It's your, you manage the kitchen a certain way. But during service, you know,

think about a chef like a conductor, right? If you're going to go watch a piece of classical music, right, the symphony, who gets top billing? The conductor, right? Now, not the person who wrote the music was probably dead, you know, for 300 years. And when you're watching that conductor, like, you don't expect that conductor to jump in the pit

and, you know, pick up a cello. They probably can, but oh, hell will break loose, right? So, as a chef in a kitchen, your job during service is to coordinate. All right, you're conducting. You're making sure that, depending on how your kitchen set up your hot foods, going out with cold food for appetizers, making sure that, you know,

if you, our restaurants, we separate the fish and meat, making sure the fish and meat dishes are coming up at the same time, and creating a system by which you can actually produce your food. So, like, you know, anyone that's, you know, somewhat talented could pick up, you know, French laundry cookbook and master some of those dishes.

Good luck putting that into a restaurant environment where you can produce that consistently every night for like 300, you know, 200 people. Yeah. That's the hard part. That's the challenge, not the dish. Everybody thinks it's the dish. If that's, you know, certain chefs are better than others,

certain chefs, you know, just may have better technique and things like that, but you can learn that. The skill of actually learning how to manage a team. And replicate it. That's the hard part. Counterpoint, I'm not going to pay $1,000 at Salt Bay's restaurant to have a random person come out

and with like the gold-plated sirloin, and then do this thing. I'm paying for this thing at Salt Bay. Have you watched this? I don't know why you'd pay for that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the guy's just a ridiculous human being. I watched this some early on because it was like,

you gotta watch this video, and it's pretty hysterical. Yeah, he just dumps just like a shit load of kosher salt on top of it, and then that's boom. Okay, 700 bucks off the top. But apparently he's a real butcher. Yeah. Apparently he's actually like a real guy. He has restaurants, I think he's Turkish or,

but he has like the butcher shop, and he's like a real, but it became like this internet thing. And all the restaurants, I think that you see here are just licensed from him. Right. And he like parachutes in once a year. Yeah, it's good. Like there's a Salt Bay night.

He's got a good gig. He's actually like, I think he's sexually attracted to meat. Yeah. Are you like in love with food? No. You know, I... No. I enjoy food, but when you say, you know,

I'm not gonna replicate, what was the scene in a... American Pie. American Pie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're not going there. I was just gonna say, I've had a recipe I've been working on recently, or just really a concept. Guy Fieri shot it down.

This is usually when a guy goes, oh, I'm at a real shop, but I have a walk. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Fire? Oh boy, yeah, yeah. Well, I did air fry it on crustable earlier. That's, by the way, on crustables. On crustables.

I don't think you can find a better food in America than on crustables. All right. It checks all the boxes, but I'm dumb. I'm not a good cook. I'm more of an ideas guy. I'm just gonna toss this out here. Alcoholic soup.

I love soup. I love alcohol. Sometimes I just, I wanna have it all in one. Well, you know, there are some soups like, you know, the old turtle soup. It was a shot of sherry in that. Okay. And not cooked out.

It was a shot of raw sherry in that. Yeah, it would be like something that's added in at the end. Obviously, you can't cook it with the alcohol in there. So if you go and get like a, you know, you can experiment yourself. Go to a good Mexican restaurant. Get a pozole, you know, pozole soup,

and get a shot of tequila and put it in there and, you know. See how it goes. I tried doing a cheddar potato rice soup with Old Bay and then like five shots of vodka in it. I may have been a bit heavy. Five maybe excessive, maybe excessive. Yeah, I was a little heavy handed. Yeah, a little bit.

You gotta find balance there. Yeah, I think it's got some legs to it though. And then, I don't know if I'd go with vodka, because vodka really doesn't have much of a flavor. I mean, there's an old Italian-American thing. I don't think they do this in Italy, but the vodka sauce, tomato sauce, vodka sauce. I never understood, but anyway.

But no, I would find something that has a little more flavor, like rum or, you know, something that's a little, you know, can add a little punch. Okay, I'll put some notes in my pocket. Vodka. But I've seen things like marinated in gin and juniper berry, like a venison especially. Venison, lamb, marinated in a little gin and juniper.

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or you can order it on Amazon. Now, more Chef Tom Calico. You mentioned with your NFTs, pizza is universal. What's your favorite pizza place? Well, not here in Phoenix, Cris Bianco. Okay. It's like awesome. What about here?

Here, I like Bodorino. I like Una Pizzeria Napolitano. I like Neapolitan style pizza. Got it, got it. This is gonna be a very dumb question, but how does the Michelin stuff work? I don't know. Are you saying that because you don't have any?

Is that like a, could someone like walk away and be like, hey, I love Chef Tom, but no Michelin stuff. Yeah, I had one until. Oh, you did? I did. Did they take it away? Well, I gave an interview the day of,

and this is a true story. So I did, one star when I was at, I'm trying to think, was I still the Gramercy or was Kraft? No Kraft, I think, I don't remember. Anyway, I got a star and go to the event and there's a journalist who's stuck in a microphone and they said, what do you think about Michelin stars? And I said, this is great,

but as an American chef, I dreamed of New York time stars. You know, that's what I grew up in. So I said, and if Michelin stays here, this is their first year. And so if they stay here for 10 or 20 years, then it might mean as much next year, done. No way. Sweet, so they give it to chefs and restaurants?

Or is it just? Restaurant, yeah. Okay, restaurant, that's crazy. Yeah, but so that was it and, you know. You've been blacklisted from Michelin. Who knows, but here's what I love. So how many restaurants we have in New York and let's just say there's a couple of thousand

that are gonna get reviewed. And apparently there's only like one or two reviewers. How do they do that? Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense to eat it, it doesn't add up. And then some of the stuff, like when we had colloquial and sons, three years in a row was the same exact write up. They were writing about food

that we didn't have on the menu anymore. And when I questioned it, I got a, oh well, we don't make it every year. It's like, okay. Then you answered the question. Yeah, that's the question. Right, exactly. All right, so I am no longer gonna respect

the Michelin star ratings. You can. No, I refuse. All right, well. It's French anyway, right? Well, it's a tire company. Yeah, right. You got a tire company reviewing restaurants.

I know, that is the best part because everyone thinks like, that can't be the tire company. No, no, it is. It is. Well, originally when it started, the tire company, what they were doing, they were reviewing restaurants out of Paris. So it was like this idea where you'd get in your car

on your Michelin tires and you would go for this ride and go find a great meal. That's really just how it started. It's great marketing on their part, to be able to tie that in and to have everybody think about how prestigious this award is. What did they do? I'll stick to Pirelli's nowadays.

Yeah, what did they do to make people think like, this is, we should respect this award? Because back again, when it was only in France, the best restaurants got Michelin stars. Back then it was a little more regimented. You had to open a restaurant and before you got three, you had to get one. You couldn't just open and get three or two.

You got one star when you opened. And then the next year, if they saw progress, you may get a second. And then the difference between two and three, usually you'd have to spend a ton of money in your restaurant, meaning you'd have to, up the art program, the tabletops, you know, all this. Not even about food.

Well, all of the, it still was about food, but you had to have all those other trappings, especially in France. And, you know, a lot of chefs are French chefs are giving their stars back because they can't, they can't continue to, I mean, there was the one chef Bernard Oiseau who killed himself because he thought he was going to lose a star.

Damn. And so, yeah, it's just like real, you know, real serious chefs. Yes, we're New York time stars, guys. I like New York time stars. Yeah, and you have a James Beard award, five more. Six, seven, eight, seven, no flex, no flex, just a little. It sounds like they're almost challenging restaurants

towards to make their restaurants worse almost because if you get one and you get two and then you obviously have a good, high quality restaurant, they're like, well, if you want to get that third, you really have to overhaul everything else. And it really leads probably a lot of chefs to getting away from what made the restaurant get in the first place.

Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure about that, but what it does, it makes you spend a lot of money. And that just adds so much pressure on what you're trying to do. But, you know, it's quite frankly, I would rather not see stars anymore at all and part of the reasons.

So, you know, Michelin, think about it. When Michelin first started, they were viewing French restaurants. So there was a baseline. I understood what that was. And going back 40 years ago, New York Times only reviewed French restaurants, maybe Italian restaurants and new American restaurants

that were aspiring to be, you know, great restaurants. That was it. They didn't review pizzerias. They didn't review like the local Thai joint. And so there was a baseline for understanding what those reviews are about. Nowadays, it's just, how do you compare? I think there's a pizzeria in Jersey City that is great,

but it got three stars. How do you compare that with three stars that, you know, John George got or something? Right, right. So there's no baseline for understanding what that review even means anymore. That's why I think they should just get rid of the stars. And if you get a write up, listen,

New York Times, they do 52 a year. That's it, right? So if you're in there, it should be because this is something that they've realized that the readers should know about, right? And they should write about it. Forget about the stars. We go here by the balls metrics.

So we have a guy named Glennie Balls. Glennie Balls. He reviews every burger place out of a five ball scale. Okay. He gave your burger place 4.2 balls. That's pretty good. Oh, that's pretty good. What burger do you have?

Hold on, hold on. Was the Kraft Burger, but where was it, probably? I'm gonna pull up the review right now. That's 4.2 is a pretty good score. You should actually, I like that. That's probably more prestigious than, you know. I like this guy. I'm not gonna bad math because I'll lose some balls

next year. Yo, you don't want to lose balls. You don't want that. So people will be pox on your house. What he does is he sits down, he drinks a beer, and then he eats a burger, and then he just kind of rates how he feels while he's doing it.

He doesn't even like, he doesn't diagnose anything about the food. He's just like, this burger makes me feel good. But that's interesting. To me, that's what food, that's how you should review food. Yeah, he's on to something. There's a technical side of it and all that stuff

to make sure things are cooked perfectly, blah, blah, blah. But how does it make you feel? Yeah, yeah. That's legit, yeah, yeah. So in your opinion, just going based off feel, what is the best food city in America? I think New York is, but I just spent some time in Chicago.

I gotta say, Chicago's really great. There's some really cool stuff happening there. So, I mean, for me, New York is home, and New York has great food, and especially like, people think of New York and the thinking of Manhattan. You go to Flushing Queens, you walk down the street, and you can get like a hundred different things.

So yeah, New York's it. I don't think 20 cities go as deep as we go, from the high end to the low end. I'm looking, do you recognize, it looks like he did the review in a parking lot. Is that near one of your restaurants? And I have no idea. Okay.

I have no idea where that came from. Yeah, he's literally doing it. That's probably most likely in Garden City, Long Island. I think that's, he's a Long Island guy. Yeah, it's Garden City, so we have- He's doing it on the hood of his car. Right. I like it, so we have a restaurant in Garden City,

called Small Batch, and so that's what he's, yeah. I love it, yeah, that's the ball system. Comes off a wood burning grill, so it's got some smoky flavor to it. I'm looking at it right now, I'm gonna try to get him in here and see if we can confirm it. He'll definitely remember.

If it's in a parking lot, that's the only restaurant we have that has a parking lot attached to it, so. Yeah. It loves it. That's new reviews in the parking lot. The imperfect, perfect thing is like plenty ball, put up a plaque inside,

plenty balls gave us 4.2 balls. Yes, yes, I mean that's, people would be flocking to it. So I got a question for you, like a sports question. I don't watch a whole lot of sports, college basketball, I'm a Carolina fan. How bad was that call?

Which one? The medic? Yeah. How bad was that call? It wasn't, it wasn't. Here's the problem with college basketball is they make the rules, it's very similar to college football. We're like targeting rules.

Right. By the letter of the law, if you go elbow to face, they're gonna have to review it no matter what. Okay. So that, so it's like one of those things that it's the system, not exactly. The refs on the court are making that call

and I don't think it's. But then they're reviewing the call. Yeah, they're reviewing the call. But to me, see it's me, that was a basketball move. Yeah. And so he went to box out, it was high. But also look at his reaction

when he turned around and saw the guy on the ground. Right. He went there, he was shocked that he hit him. It's very similar to targeting in college football where if a guy moves at the last second he hit him with your helmet. And it's like, there was no intention of it. Right.

But by the letter of the law, elbow to head. Yeah. That's what it is. I see flagrant one. I see flagrant two there. I agree with you. And it almost cost them what they're, they survived. They did.

So that's where those ones that like thank God that UNC ended up winning. Cause otherwise it would have been a shit story. That would have been what we talk about. Yeah. We actually, we actually have Glinnie Balls. He's here. In the flesh right now.

Glinnie Balls, what's up man? How you doing bro? Do you know Chef? Chef Tom Colicchio? Oh yeah, Chef Tom Colicchio. Yes. You were talking about your score of his burger joint. Yeah, he was well filled.

Well he was well filled. Yeah. That was a small batch. So you gave it a 4.2. You think maybe we could go, maybe get it up a little? Sure. I mean, there's always ways to improve. I mean, I like friggin, I like classly smashed burgers

like Big Macs or whatnot. Like I like elevated Big Macs. That's what I always say. It's like Vera Burger. Like an elevated Big Mac. All right, so maybe not, that's not you. Small batch is a very nice place. Yeah.

But it's no McDonald's. But it's pretty good. It's pretty good. We don't have the golden arches, but you know. Has anyone gotten a five balls? The highest I go is like 4.8, I think. 4.8. So 4.2 is not bad.

No, no, small batch was very good from what I remember. That was probably two years ago. What kind of 4.8? Around here, Pizza Loves Emily, the era of that. No, I haven't. So Pizza Loves Emily is probably a top five burger in the city. Everyone loves it.

But they also have their sister restaurant in Brooklyn. It's called Emmy Squared. And they have on the menu. That's a pizza place. I know that place. It's called Lay Big Matt. And it's like their elevated Big Mac. It's a 26 dollar burger.

It's awesome. So that's probably one of my favorites. What could chef do to elevate his burger? So yeah, maybe like 4.3, 4.4. You guys are like, did we tell Tom Coquillo how to make a burger? Yeah, I mean, you're the guy, Glennie Balls? I'm well aware of who Tom Coquillo is. I should be telling Tom Coquillo how to make a burger.

Maybe put some special sauce. Oh, I need special sauce. If I were to make my dream burger, it would be a little nice sesame seed bun, two smashed patties, American cheese, shredded lettuce, some sort of special sauce. Yeah, you just did a big Mac. What's your special sauce? It's literally a Big Mac.

My special sauce, I would do like some yellow mustard. What's like fast time to make a yellow mustard relish? Yeah. What's your special sauce? Yellow mustard relish. That's what we're saying, like elevated Big Mac. OK. No, what you just described was just a Big Mac.

Yeah, Big Mac. Thank you, Balls. Big Mac with better ingredients. Appreciate it, Paul. Awesome. Thank you, Balls. Yes. That's our food reviewer right there.

Well, Glennie Balls. Why not? Yeah. Why not? Five ball system. It's the only way to go. We have a producer who now has become corporate and he goes upstairs and does meetings all day.

He hates Calamari as an appetizer. What are your thoughts? He Calamari. Yeah, we've been telling him he's stupid. And we did have a bad experience with Calamari. Clearly, it made him feel really bad. Yeah, he grew up on the ocean, too. That's the craziest part.

Did he grow up fishing? I don't know. I would guess no. Yeah. I think he just doesn't like the fact that it's squid. Yeah. That kind of like he has an ick from the squid. Well, that's nothing you could do for him.

So that's on him. Yeah, he's done. OK. That's just more for us, that's all. Yeah, all right. I order it every time we go out. I like squid. Fried, fine.

But there's a lot you can do with it. Yeah. Yeah. I like squid a lot. Yeah. It's good. I like it for bait, too. Yeah.

You're a fisherman? Yes. I do. Yeah. Would you like to catch tuna? And you fly fish, too? I like it, I'm sure. I do, I do.

How, I mean, I've always wanted to fly fish. It seems like the most peaceful thing in the world. But it does seem also very difficult, is that fair? Again, most people would look at fly fishing and think that the motion of doing that is a difficult part. That's the easy part. The hard part is reading the water. And then the other hard part is, and I'll try this quickly.

If you're in a stream, and you see a fish rising, so a fish is feeding, you actually will see them feed. So they're eating mayflies or cataslies, usually off the surface if you see them. So these are bugs that are hatching from under the water. They're coming up. They get to the surface before they fly away. There's a moment of time where they sit there,

drying their wings off, and the trout will sip them. And the trout's not going to move, because they kind of know how much nutrition they're taking in, and they're not going to expend that much nutrition if they have to swim after something like a fly. So they'll just sit there, and the river's a conveyor belt, and just bring food to them, and they just sit there and eat. So now, in that river, there could be a couple rocks

or different, just the way the water is just coming down the stream, it can create pockets and things like that, either behind rocks or trees and boulders and stuff like that. So when you put that fly, now you're gonna, if you see them taking flies off the surface, you're gonna know what fly that is. You're gonna have the right size fly in your fly box,

the right color. Now the hard part is, if it looks like it's attached to anything, or dragging across the surface, a trout won't eat it, a wild trout, they won't eat it. So you have to now figure out a way to manipulate your line once it's out of the water, to throw slack in it, so those different currents aren't gonna drag your line. That's the hard part, this part-

It's easy. Yeah, I'm moving my arm back and forth. That's the easy part, you learn that in a couple hours. It comes like an art, you become one with the water. Well, you have to be water. No, what you have to do is, you're in an environment, and now you're in the fish's environment, and you've got to understand that environment

if you want to catch that fish. Think like a fish. And you need to know what they're eating, what cycle they're eating too, because that little nymph that's coming off the bottom, there's a period of time before the wings come out where it's called an emerger, and they may be keying onto that one.

So you have to have a fly that makes that. And you have to just understand what the fish are doing to catch the fish. So that's what's neat about it. It's a puzzle that you're constantly trying to solve. That sounds fascinating. What's the best fish to eat? Your favorite?

On the East Coast, I would say like a smaller finfish, Black Sea Bass, is I think as good as it gets. Yeah, fluke, I like fluke a lot as well, but Black Sea Bass, I do like swordfish, especially the belly part. It's like really fatty and really good. I've got a very important question here.

We've been having this debate on this podcast for probably five years, maybe six years now. Well, I'm not gonna say any indication as to who is on what side of this, but if you go to a nice steakhouse, maybe to your steakhouse, medium rare plus, is that an actual temperature that you can order a steak cooked?

And if so, is the medium rare plus honored by the kitchen? I've waded into this debate on social media, because there are some people think there's no such. I think you can. Thank you. Like, I think there is something between rare. Thank you. But again, knowing.

By the way, your answer, he's still not gonna listen. No. We've been having this debate for five years. Every time we go to a steakhouse, I say medium rare plus and they say, okay, great. But no, that doesn't make sense. I have a question for you, what do you consider rare? Like fully red.

But there's more to it than that. Seared on the edge, like. Really rare, the center's cool. The center is not hot. Yeah. So, for the center to be cool, it's gotta be about 94 degrees. Anything body temperature gonna register is warm, right?

So it's gotta be right below body temperature. It's gotta be cool. So if you wanna have something that is pretty rare, if medium rare plus, where it's between medium rare and rare, I think you can do that. So you can order it, but will it be honored by the kitchen? It depends on the kitchen. Depends on the kitchen.

Depends on the kitchen. Depends on the kitchen. No, no, no, he's saying. Depends on the kitchen. It exists. It exists. Yeah. I would take that consideration.

So are you good with this now? I would, I accept the fact, no, I'm telling you, I accept the fact that there is a degree between medium rare and medium rare plus. I just, I think that 90% of the time, if you go to a steakhouse and you order it, the chef is not gonna pay close enough attention to each kind of meat.

Depends on the restaurant. Every time I've ordered it, they've honored it. I do it in nice restaurants, because to me it's like, if I go to a steakhouse, it's maybe not a great steakhouse. I know that it's not, you know, like, it's maybe they're cooking the steaks really quickly. When I go to a nice steakhouse, I don't like the, I always assume that a really nice steakhouse,

they always air on the side of, like, if you ask for medium rare, it's gonna be closer to rare, because they don't wanna come out and be like, oh, this is overcooked. So I like it, like, a little bit more than medium rare. And every time I've asked, they've been like, no problem. Never said anything. Usually it comes out perfect.

He has not acknowledged this for five years. We've ordered many steaks together, and he'll, I'll say it, they'll acknowledge it, bring it out perfectly-cooked steak, and he still doesn't acknowledge it. So next time you're in a steakhouse together, and he does that, ask if you can go in the kitchen and talk to the chef.

Okay. And talk to the chef. We're talking to the chef right now, he still won't take it. No, no, no, no, no. But they don't take my word for it, but just go in the kitchen and just say, hey, my buddy just ordered medium rare plus. What does that mean to you?

And see what he says. He may throw you out. He may say, yeah, we'd do that, or he may say, yeah, whatever. We're gonna probably just search for one chef who says it's bullshit, and then he'll say one, yeah. You'll find one, yeah. I just personally wouldn't order it,

because I've worked in kitchens before, and I know how things go in the kitchen where it's like, in the middle of a rush, then people are like, the chef's gonna be like, medium rare plus, yeah, okay, sure. Where did you work? I worked in a bunch of, like back in North Carolina, I worked at the Outer Banks in a few places.

So I've been around a grill before. So wait, the argument now is I'm an asshole for it? Was it one of those Calabash restaurants? What? No, no, it's a Calabash restaurant. Maybe that's further, like South Carolina. There's like buffets, these big buffet things, like shonies, I guess, they call it a Calabash style,

I guess. Oh, yeah, there was one of those down there, and I started out actually working as a server. Yeah, so it would be on the breakfast buffet. Yeah, when you put the steak on the steam table, there's no medium rare plus. Yeah. No, it's a decent place.

Right, I'm not saying, like places that aren't nice steak, houses I don't order it. I don't say it if I'm going to, like an Outback, I'm not like medium rare plus, I don't say it there. I say it when I go into a nice $70 plus steakhouse. And I'm like, yeah. Did you do the steakhouse lately? Well, more than that.

Prices are crazy right now. Yeah. Meat and fish are through the roof. Yeah. I appreciate you having my back though, because this will never end. He'll say this, I'm not an asshole for ordering it that way. That may have been like in the back of my head,

like ordering it to a server having worked in a restaurant on both sides. If I hear medium rare plus, I'm just like, oh, okay. I tell you, what are the best moves I've ever seen in a steakhouse? It's real. It's a real thing. We've confirmed it a thousand times.

No, it's real. It's real. Yeah. I was in the steakhouse in Miami. What's that one famous one down there? I'm forgetting what it was. Anyway, it was like during the Food and Wine Festival, I'm with my policies.

We're having this, the order of steak is like a porter house. And place was mobbed. It took a long time for the steak to come out. I'm fine. We're drinking wine, whatever. And the steak comes out, it's medium well. I ordered medium rare. I'm like, I can't be that guy.

I can't be that dick to send it back. Like, he knows I'm in the restaurant. Don't say anything. Waiter comes by, he looks down, he goes, he just looked, he just took a step back, came back in and goes, you ordered this medium rare? So yeah, he goes, it's like medium well. I'm like, yeah, I know.

He goes, let me take it back. I'm like, no, he goes, and he just took it. That's great service. Yeah, it was great service. Yeah. I didn't have to be that guy. Right. And yeah, that was great.

I would imagine that when you go to a restaurant, you usually get like the red carpet rolled out for you. If they notice you in there, they're like, we can't serve this guy a bad dish. Yeah, you're just like, you know, taking care of him. That's nice. It is nice. How weird are chefs in general?

Weird? In terms of people? Because I feel like, I know a couple of chefs, I have friends, they live on like a different world because you know, they're working nights, they're working weekends, holidays, all those things. Do you think you have to be wired differently to be a chef? I think if you actually, to really just study,

you'd find that it's probably a greater percentage than the regular population as ADHD. Really? Yeah. I would think so. And is that almost an asset when you're a chef? I think it is when you're, because the part of ADHD is being hyper-focused too.

Right. And so I think sometimes when you're hyper-focused, that actually can be an advantage. But also, if you need to be in a situation where there's constant stuff coming at you and you need that stimulus, working in a kitchen's that, especially during service. Yeah, I mean, I could, when I was coming up as a cook,

I could cook 20 things at a time because it just felt right. I mean, it just felt comfortable. I was in my zone, that was it. And I wasn't diagnosed back then, but my children have all been clinically diagnosed and I see a lot of what they do. Yeah.

It's a rush that I had. When you get, when you're in that zone where it's like a two-hour rush for dinner, everything's happening at once. It's almost like you don't even feel the time passing by. No, and when it's a good service, it's a good service. If it's a bad service point, you know it happens. And when that happens, like a bad service,

is it a very deflating feeling or is there like something afterwards where you get together with everyone, like, hey, we fuck this up? Usually it's one person on the team that's just, they're not ready, they're not prepped up and things just go bad. Or sometimes what happens is again,

if the kitchen's set up the way my kitchen's set up where there's a meat side and a fish side and one night just meat, like 90% of the orders are meat orders. Right. Things get bad. Yeah, it gets off balance. But that's where you need a good wait staff

when you start to see that happen. So you gotta start selling some fish. You have to. Stop selling meat. That's interesting. So when you ask, yeah, what do you recommend? It's, if you're at a really nice restaurant, it's probably because they want to even it out.

Well, no, a lot of times it's what the waiters like. Yeah. Or both expensive, I always assume that. No, it's not that. No, waiters will recommend what they like. Because our waiters taste our food. In fact, we have a program where our staff can come in, we give vouchers, so it's highly discounted,

they can come in, but they have to write a review. And so they eat our food, they know what they like. What about like if the halibut is just, you know, like a day away from being no longer usable? Do you tell people, hey, push the halibut tonight? Let's get rid of it. The way we purchase food is so tight that we are typically not in that position.

I've always heard don't eat seafood on Mondays. Is that no longer true? No, that was never true. That was a whole board-aid thing that was in his book. Oh, was that's where it started? That's where it started. Okay. You know, I love Anthony to death,

but you know, the restaurant that he worked in wasn't the, you know, and he admitted, I mean, when he was living, he would admit to that. Yeah. This is what I did. And in fact, in that book at the very end, he said, these are the chefs that are getting it right, that aren't doing these things,

that he was talking about in the book, and I was one of them. Oh, okay. But that's not a universal thing. No, I think it depends on the restaurant. Yes, there are plenty of restaurants that do that. Yeah, I mean, that's a special. Yeah, yeah.

Where, you know, but, you know, we, number one, the stuff that we're buying is typically more expensive than it, than, you could buy tuna for $4 a pound or tuna for $20 a pound. You know, I'll buy this stuff for $20 a pound and it's not because I don't own the difference. I know the difference.

That's why I'm spending more for it. Right. But that's why food in one restaurant is more expensive than in another restaurant. They're just buying higher quality ingredients. Yeah. What about the hats? They're weird, right?

Yeah, we don't, yeah. Well, the Board of Health makes you wear a hat. Really? You can wear baseball caps. So was there ever a time where you wore the traditional chef hat? No. Okay.

No. Cause that always seemed a little weird to me. Well, again, it was a way to keep, originally what it was in the scoffier when he, you know, created the Brigade System, the taller the hat, the better position you had. I mean, there was a reason for it. I like that.

Yeah. Okay, so maybe I'm down with the hats coming back. I can change that quickly. Yeah, we don't like hats. Especially like, they were like paper. They're horrible. You've got a nice assortment of vacation hats though. Whenever you show up somewhere remotely on Top Chef,

I know that you always have like a fun hat on. Yeah, I don't get them though. I don't, I think I have one. Oh really? So you don't buy those yourself? They're just like, we're in Italy, we're gonna put this hat on top. No production, oh those hats.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, oh those, no, those are my, those, well those are mine now. I have a stylist on the show and she just does great work. Yeah, I just always laugh at that because I'm kind of the same way if I go on a vacation, I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna buy a fun hat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so I had one last question. It's a rowback question. Go to rowback.com, use code TAKE. You get 20% off. We have some rowback gear for you. If you'd like it, R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com. And a reminder, chefs, I'm gonna say chefs, sorry.

Chef's NFT project is out now. So by the time this comes out, it will be out. It is, you go www.chftypizzas.com. So do that and check it out. Sounds like a very cool answer. Or you can go to open seas. Open seas. Open seas and just, you know, go right to open seas.

Yeah, so that's perfect. So people should check that out. Seems like a very, very cool project that's not trying to, you know, make you spend thousands and thousands of dollars. My last question is, what is the best, in your opinion, the best leftover food? Oh, God, either like, you know,

Thai, Chinese, like cold in front of the refrigerator in the morning, it doesn't get any better than that, right? Our cold pizza, yeah. I guess a lot of these questions are like, do you know stuff we don't know? But that is a very like, yeah, everyone knows that. I can see you doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, okay, all right.

No, that's it. I'm a chef. That's it, yeah. No, I, I, yeah. Thai and Chinese is the correct answer. Yeah, Thai, Chinese, cold, you know, don't heat it up either. Yeah, I agree.

What about the Thanksgiving sandwich the day after? Oh, that's great, it's a great thing. But why wait till the day after? It's usually nighttime. Yeah, you can do it, yep. So I like, I like taking my stuffing, leftover stuffing and putting it in a waffle machine. Oh, no matter, just straight stuffing,

press it in waffle, and then the turkey over the top of that. Holy shit. And the gravy on top of that, and now we're, now we're talking. Well, there it is. That's the, that is the game changer. That's it. We both love stuffing here.

And it's something that should be eaten, I think, more frequently than just on Thanksgiving. Absolutely, I agree with that. Yeah, I should, I look up my stuffing recipe and use that. Okay. It's a good one. The stuffing waffle. It's a good one.

Done. The stuffing waffle, you make the stuffing first, and the stuffing waffle, you take the stuffing, you just put it in the waffle maker, and just, I mean, that sounds crazy. Give it a good press. I think you just changed my life. It heats it up, and it's also great like that,

and you know, a fried egg over the top for breakfast. There it is. It's pretty good stuff. That's good leftover. We appreciate you coming by, we are big fans, and we'll try to get Glenny to come back out, maybe up that balls. I don't know, it sounds like, you know,

it sounds like we're balling there. 4-2 sounds like it's good. 4-2's good. Let's see more at a 4-5. Yeah, maybe just ditch the fancy cheese, and just put a slice of craft on there. I think that's what it sounds like. We should actually just, yeah,

we should like get you there when he's going, and you can just serve him literally a Big Mac, and he will be like, blown away. Five balls, easy. This is not what we can, we can recreate it. Down to the Sesame Seed bun. Is that a Big Mac? Yeah, he described exactly a Big Mac.

Yeah. But thanks so much, Chef. Cool, thanks. Chef Tom Flicky was brought to you by HelloFresh. HelloFresh delivers pre-portioned ingredients to your door, so you get convenience without skimping on quality. Skip the trip to the grocery store, and don't waste money on excess food.

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We got FireFest. We are taping this in the afternoon. So whatever you heard at the beginning of the show, we don't know. We don't know the future as of right now. But Hank, what is your FireFest as of three o'clock on Thursday afternoon? Well, I was gonna say my FireFest is,

Big Cat hates me because he lost the game of the year, but. Oh, my FireFest is you quit your job because I embarrassed you so much. Coach K, fucked you in the face, you suit. My FireFest is that I'm the only one in the studio right now because Hank and Big Cat have killed each other. I think we all know what your FireFest is, PFT. But my real FireFest is that I left my fucking fridge,

speaking of hellofresh, I'm a big fan. I use them all the time, cook up great meals. They do great stuff. I left my fridge a crack open when I left for Chicago. So I came home and my apartment's held like shit and all the food that was in there was ruined and I had to start from fresh. Didn't get anything else yet.

Like I haven't gone grocery shopping and I'm like sick today and I just have like no food. So that's my FireFest. The spoiled food. Yeah, the spoiled food smell. When we went to LA for the Super Bowl, like someone sent me some stuff to the office and I don't know why no one on the box read

like perishable, must refrigerate. But when I got back, it was just like a box of meat next to my desk. This smelled so bad. So yeah, that's a terrible FireFest. This is a terrible FireFest. There's nothing grosser than picking up just a spoiled thing of meat

and feeling how like room temperature the meat feels. It's like chicken, chicken, chicken is the best food but it smells so bad and it's like raw. Yeah. What did you have in your fridge? No offense, but if I were to like picture Hank's fridge, it would be like baking powder, ketchup and you probably keep like peanut butter in the fridge. Maybe some little cocktail wieners.

It's like, my fridge is literally like Coors Light and then like six Hello Fresh. Like I just make Hello Fresh meals and eggs and milk. Love it. No hot sauce. No, I actually, I use hot sauce for eggs because I don't really like eating eggs. I don't like eating eggs, but it masks the flavor

which is the only time you should use hot sauce. To mask the flavor. Hank's growing up. His little taste buds are rejuvenating. All right, PFT, your FireFest. Hank, what were you thinking? I don't know why my camera was not focusing. It's pissing me off.

It's focused. Your face is just really blurry. Naturally. Because you've been crying so much after Duke lost. It is a little weird that Hank just didn't show up to the office on Coach K retirement day. I texted you. Yeah, you did.

And I'll be at the office. This is gonna, I will be there for the beginning of the show. I just didn't want, I don't feel good. I didn't want to be there for 12 hours because the game starts at 9.45. Hank, what were you saying that my FireFest was gonna be? Well, what is your FireFest? I mean, you were so sure.

I would assume it's the Empire State Building. Is it the Empire State Building? Yeah, that's my FireFest. So as Hank put it in the group chat right after we went to the Empire State Building to film our brand new ad read unveiling our partnership with Game Time. There are very few things that we don't know about each other

after working together for six years on this podcast. I feel like I know everything about you guys. Yes. And I have managed to keep a very big part of my life secret from you all. And that is that I'm deathly afraid of heights when I'm either on like a tall roller coaster or when I'm outdoors or if I'm in a situation

where I happen to find myself on a tiny fucking platform on the top of the Empire State Building on a windy day. It was tiny. It was like this 20, 30 wide. It was like the size of a half court basketball court. And it was swaying in the wind on a blustery day. March was coming in like a lion

and it was fucking me over. And I'm sweating thinking about it right now. And I'm panicking. You can notice at the pace of my talking speeds up. I get, I honestly panic when I am in a high place out in the open and that was terrifying for me. And I hope that we never have to do a thing like that again because that's, there's certain things

that just get under your skin. Heights for me, it literally makes me panic. I was truly shocked. I just didn't know. Like, yeah, I thought you were joking and doing a bit and I was just shocked. I, look, I mean, I know it's obviously a real thing. There's a lot of people who are scared of heights.

I just, I couldn't believe it. And then, I mean, I love, I love standing like on a high building. I think I said in the camera, like, I am not suicidal not to, not to do the, the Justy Smollett. I'm not suicidal. But sometimes when you stand in a building that tall, you're just like, what if I just jumped?

That'd be so fucking sick. Just cause it's like such a rush to feel. I follow all those Instagrams of like Russian dudes hanging off cranes. I love that. Sometimes I do watch those videos just to make myself like uncomfortable. Oh, it's the best.

The Russian bridge walking and they love climbing up like cell phone towers and shit. And they're 16 years old and they're insane. But no, whenever I get up there, my body, I get dizzy. My body starts to shut down. And then when I looked up at the top of the antenna, even when I look up at that height, I start to get dizzy. And then that makes me panic more because I'm like,

oh my God, I'm gonna fall over the edge. What's going on? And it just, it fucks me up. Heights fuck me up. Hand up. Everyone has, everyone's got these little things about them. That happens to be mine. So let's just, let's just stay like a ground podcast

from now on. The official podcast of Earth. I'm scared of snakes. He also definitely tried to keep it a secret because you didn't say anything until like the second we walked outside and then you were like, what the fuck? You're like, wait, we're gonna be on,

we're at the empire street building? I thought we were all very well aware. I thought that we were gonna be indoors in like the top floor observation area because I've gone to the Willis Tower before in Chicago and I've looked out over and that's like a little scary to me, but I'm fine if we're indoors.

I walked out on that Plexiglas ledge that they had. I put like one foot on it and I kept my hands on the other side, like pulling myself back. Meanwhile, they're four year olds, like dancing on it all around me, making me look like a chump because I was so afraid of it. I was just shocked, but I didn't know we were gonna be outside.

It was kind of a sketchy. It wasn't like a normal, like a regular person couldn't get to that part of the empire state building. It was a little bit, we had to climb up like a construction ladder and we were like on like a great basically. Shout out Tyler O'Day for hooking it up. But yeah, I mean, look, I'm not,

I know it's a normal thing where there's a lot of people who are scared of heights. I just didn't, I was shocked that you were because I never heard that. Because it's like such an alpha. Right, and usually, you know, you're doing bits. So I was like, is he doing a bit here where he's like faking it?

I don't understand. Well, I'm five foot nine. I'm not used to any sort of tall arrangement. You guys are on a higher spot than the regular place with the huge fence. Oh my God. But if you, but it wasn't, if you had fallen off where we were,

you would have fallen like five feet. So like a ledge that was just sitting there. I don't think that's true. I looked. I got right up there. What if you hit a strong wing? Yeah, exactly Billy. Oh yeah, if there was a strong wind

then another five feet down was actually the entire observations deck with the high fence. Was there a fence? So there was literally no way. I almost died, no, I almost died. It was impossible for you to die from where we were standing.

I don't think that's true. You couldn't jump far enough out to get out there. I'm a pretty good leaper. Jesus. It was, it was not that. I looked right over. It was like there was a bunch of ledges below. My hands are tumbled into.

My hands are fucking sweating. It's a swamp right now, just thinking about it. So yeah, that sucked. That was a bad time for me, but I was willing to do it for the team. But I guess, I guess I'm on, I'm on team Portnoy and fuck the Empire State Building.

I hate that place. All tall buildings. Great video. Also great, great, it's a great sweepstakes. Yeah. You missed the ad. It's a great sweepstakes. Yeah.

Why don't you say it real quick Hank? Download the app. All you have to do is tweet us a screenshot in the app, showing us your, or who you think is going to win the championship. And then game time is going to pick one winner who will win four tickets, hotel,

airfare for the final four. So you get to bring, you get to bring three friends, all expense paid. New Orleans. Awesome. Awesome deal. The lowest city. That's, that's a place for me.

Yes. My fire fest is my co-host has been trying to gaslight me for six years about how I ordered my steak. And now he's switched up his argument to, he always knew it existed, but I'm just an asshole for it. So I'm just going to have to deal with this

for the rest of my life. I've never had a situation where someone just refuses to say that they might be wrong, but you heard it in the Tom Cliqueo episode. So yeah, that's my fire fest. Are you talking about Hank? Yeah. No, I'm talking about you.

It's, I don't, at this point, I don't know what to say. You will ask every waitress and waiter for the rest of our lives, whether medium rare plus is a thing. And all of them have said yes. And you still, you asked a chef, a Michelin star chef. Former, former Michelin star chef.

And you still don't accept this fact. It's a wild thing. I think your plan is just like, wait me out and gaslight me to the point where I think it's not a thing. And it's kind of working because at this point I can't, I don't understand how someone could be wrong and refuse to admit that they're wrong for this long. Okay.

Here's where I am. Here's where I am on it right now. Okay. I officially accept that medium rare plus is a thing. Okay. At the same time, it's kind of a Karen move to order. That's not how it's a real, everyone we've talked to has said it's a real thing.

So you're, how is that a Karen? It's kind of a Karen. Explain how it's a Karen. You know what you sound like? Who do I sound like? I mean, who moves the goalposts? Yeah. And calls people Karen's.

Who's that? Oh. Oh. Nice. I like that. Okay. I am. Yeah.

I guess I'm seal team clay right now. Yes, you are. I'm, I'm veal team play when it comes. When it comes to all these things. It's, it's insanity. Okay. Honestly, it is a thing. It's just not.

I like medium rare. How about that? Right. That's fine. That's totally fine. There we go. There we go. I like medium rare plus.

You just, there we go. Six years not allowing me. I'm not trying, I'm not trying to yuck your yum. Oh, you have been for a very long time. But I'm not anymore. Hank, you missed it. He like, during the Tom Clico interview,

PFT tried to like claim that he never said it wasn't a real thing. Liam caught him when he was walked into the studio. PFT was Googling is medium rare plus a real thing and being like, see the first result says it's not. Well, Google says that it's not. We talked about it at St. Elmo's. We talked about it at every steakhouse we've ever gone to

and every waiter in waitress says, yes, it's a real thing. And he just won't accept it. Now you're gaslighting me. Now you're, now you've turned the tables on me where now I get to play the victim because I just a second ago said it is a real thing. But you tried to then flip it to a care. And I know I like to order it that way.

I will keep ordering it that way. Hank has even ordered it that way. It's very nice way to order steak. I don't sometimes medium rare gets a little too rare for my liking. And yeah, let me live, man. Let me live. You can order it however you like.

I was on PFTs. I was kind of with them for a while. Like it's, it's a ridiculous order, but over the course of time, so many people have said it. I have acknowledged. I've acknowledged its existence. We've pulled every steakhouse we've ever been to.

I acknowledge its existence. I acknowledge its existence as well. I personally prefer medium rare steak. That's totally fine. I have never, you should order your steak however you want to order it. I'll order it how I want to order it. Rare plus.

Now, does it go like rare plus? See here is he doesn't actually believe it. No, I do believe it. I know. I'm just curious. I know. I'm curious to know. Because I know the question.

Minus? No, no, I'm not saying that. Is there a, is there a medium plus? Is there a medium? Well, sure. I don't care how anyone orders their steak. Yeah. It's a spectrum.

It's, it's totally fine by me. Okay. Well, then we're all in agreement. You can order your steak however. You still think I'm a Karen, so no. You can, you can order it however you like it. I'm not going to yuck anyone's yum. Oh man.

I can't wait till we go to the next place and be like, Hey, just as an aside, is it really a thing? I'm going to, you know what I'm going to do. Yes, it is. Okay. Well, I, this place, I can't trust them. I'm going to bribe the waiter before we sit down. So I'm going to say, yes, it's a real thing. And PFT is still being like, well,

guys spent his whole life in a kitchen. Well, he did say, if you notice how he answered, he goes, yes, it is, but he had like a, and then you jumped on, you're like, see? Yeah. We didn't let him get his butt out. I never, I never, I never do it at, at bad steak restaurants.

And I will, I'll say that to the, I've said that from the first time, if you go to a shitty steak place, I don't order it that way because they probably won't order it that way. They won't acknowledge it. A nice steak restaurant always acknowledges that. You, okay.

You can order yours, medium rare plus. I'll get mine, medium rare and we'll both be happy. I think I'll be happier than you. No, I'm, no, I'm, I'm happier than you're. I'm happy. You know, because in the back of your head, when big cat says medium rare plus, he's going to be thinking that I'm angry at him.

No. And you're going to get pre mad before I say, you're already pre mad about me not saying anything. I've known you've judged me every time. And what have I done? I've ordered it the same way every time. I'm not, not judging, but you're already, but you're already pre mad about it.

No, no, no, no. Again, you're pre mad. I've been ordering it the same way for six years and every time you get upset about it. And I keep ordering it that way. So it's clearly one sided. Who's happy, who's not. I'm fine with it now.

Right. We talked to Tom Calichia. Of course you are. We talked to Chef. Chef said everything was fine. You're definitely fine with it. I am fine with it. Billy, go ahead.

You don't sound like you're fine. I'm going to keep ordering it the same way forever. You have been literally not being able to say you've been wrong for six years. Who are you arguing with? I'm saying that's fine. I'm going to order it the same way. Good.

I've been ordering it my entire life. Good. I hope you, I hope, I hope you order it that way for the rest of your life. I will. Every time you eat a steak. I literally will. And I will.

I literally will. And I will say nice order, big cat. Yep. And you'll be upset. No. It's going to be great. I'm not upset. Yes.

Good order. Go ahead, Billy. The real question is, is does the chef in his brain make a conscious difference between medium rare plus and medium rare when he's cooking the steak? Good question, Billy. At a nice steakhouse, they will. If you go to a good place, they're going to make

they're going to make a choice because if you go to like, you know, like, like an outback or something like that and you order a ribeye, medium rare plus, the cooks probably not trained to be able to handle all those steaks and to take, you know, the 30 to 45 seconds necessary to make sure this one's medium rare plus. But at a nice steakhouse, like a prime 47,

or if you go to St. Elmo's or Ruth's Chris, order it medium rare plus because they're going to be able to cook it perfectly for you just the way that you like it. PFT is so not mad. He just spent that last minute mocking me. I'm. That was a. You, yeah.

I said exactly what chef said. Yes. He's so not mad. I'm mocking it. I'm not mad. Just all you had to do is admit you were wrong the hundred times that we've asked someone and they've affirmed my side.

I admit that there is a thing as medium rare plus. There it is. Wow. We did it. I said that. We did it. Five minutes ago. We did it.

Billy, go ahead. I lost my whole key chain. It's really a terrible predicament. There's so many parts of your life where you need your whole key chain. I'm pretty sure it's in my buddy's couch, but he wouldn't let me cut open the couch to get the keys. Why would it be?

Like, you know, when it gets in the couch. David Blaine. Wait, what? Or to get in there. Sometimes it gets in there. It has to be able to get. Like it slips in and then it gets into the body of the couch, like the cushion.

But you should be able to get the keys out without cutting it if you didn't cut the couch to put your keys in. Just trust me, there's a lot of couches. It just gets lost. And unless you cut it open, you can't find it. If you have an old couch and you want to find some treasure, cut open the bottom of an old couch.

You'll find change. You'll find all sorts of stuff. Can't you just take the cushions off the couch? Right, but when you take the cushions off the couch, sometimes there's like parts in the couch, like underneath the, trust me, there's people out there who know what I'm talking about. I think you just want to cut open.

How many keys do you have on a key chain, Billy? Good amount. It's like a janitor. Yeah, like for what? I hoard keys. So if I ever get a key to a place, I keep it just in case I need to go back to that place. Anyway, if you find a blue raging mammoth

with an F word car key on it. You have a gay slur on it? A slur? F word, F. I don't know if you're ever going to put the headset on again, Billy. Whoa. F word car.

Please help me. Anyway, so I got locked out of my apartment, shout out Ben Julio. I called him. Piquette, do you know what he's talking about? I don't. I do, I do. I do know that.

Yes, I do know that. That one makes sense. Oh, I had another firefress I totally forgot about. Friend of the program, Duncan Robinson, when the Miami Heat were like all fighting each other, he like backed off and didn't do anything, kind of like a little bit of a pussy. I don't know if that's maybe like his schooling or what,

but I think like when there's a fight going on, you should probably get involved in some way. No, that's the podcast. And if you're a podcaster, you're taught at a young age. If there's a fight nearby, just kind of stand back and then look away from the fight as it's happening. Just finish at Guinness, right, exactly. Live to see another day.

Anyway, shout out to Ben DeGiulio. I had to break into my apartment and it totally looked like I was climbing up the fire escape and like breaking into a window. And I didn't get arrested. So shout out to Ben DeGiulio for watching. Wait, why would you, because you're breaking into another house?

To my house. Got it. But if you see someone like opening up a window, climbing up the fire escape, that's not a good look. Is that some of your privilege showing that you were able to do that? Well, no, I called Ben DeGiulio to just stand outside to explain the situation.

Is that what you called me? Yes. Oh my God. Okay, Jake, your fire fest. Yeah, so Thursday night, I went over to Jersey City to the St. Peter's send-off party, bus to Philadelphia. And I was filming the team, walking to the bus,

and I got Doug, Doug Eddart, Mustache, Merch Available, Barstool Store. Yeah, and I was like, good luck, Doug. And he just ignored me. I tweeted out the video, because I thought he truly ignored me. And it turned out he had headphones on, and then he responded saying,

I'm very humble, like I had headphones on, I'm sorry. So I feel bad that he feels bad. Got it. Yeah, yeah. You put him in a bad spot. I put him in a bad spot unintentionally, when this is the biggest moment of my life so far. So he says, yeah, he was wearing a hoodie.

Do you think he did? I believe him. I'll take him for his word. Do you think that it was inappropriate from a journalistic integrity standpoint to wish a player good luck, like you're rooting for them? Like I said, I self suspended myself until 7 p.m. tonight. Okay, because there was a big bru-ha-ha

down in Baton Rouge earlier this week. Did you see that? Yes, I did see that. With the big J, it's telling students that it's inappropriate to say thank you for a fun season to the players after they lose. That to me, it made me nauseous seeing you wish a team good luck. I'm sorry to let you down.

You gotta be impartial, Jake. I can wish both teams good luck. Well, did you? If I saw Zach Eadie, cool luck. If I saw Zach Eadie, I'd say good luck. Okay, right now, tell Zach Eadie, good luck. Good luck, Zach. Okay.

All right, now we're even. Not the walk-on, though, that you've gotten a little- No, fuck that kid. Yeah, war with, in Wisconsin. Yeah, fuck that kid. Yeah. Bubba, you got anything? No.

Okay, memes. You good? Memes just happy. Make your free throws. All right. Numbers? 100. Hank, 57.

Coach K's done. 100. Oh, that's, that's a- Why don't you go 99 for a 25? Yeah, I'll go 99, yeah. This is, this could be an all-time backfire in my face. 57. Meme says three.

There's a hundred in the number. 72. Is that how old he is? It actually might be. Oh. Fourth time. Also, it's a good sign for the Dolphins. Tyree Kill.

Yep. 72 undefeated. If you can live with yourself rooting for Tyree Kill. 75. Oh, shit. That old fart. We'll find some sign. You can buy a fertilized ostrich egg online

for $110, including shipping. And in most states, they count as livestock, so you don't have to get a permit for it. So are you gonna get one? Thinking about it. Nice. Love you guys. Burke Kreischer, Monday.

Love you guys. This is how it works. I'm gonna give you a little bit of a break. Let's do it. Alright. Good luck. Love you guys. Love you guys.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Take on me, take me on I'll be gone in a day or two

Needless to say, I ought to say this But I'll be stolen away Slowly learning that life is okay Say out to me, it's no better to be saved than sorry Say out to me, it's no better to be saved than sorry Take on me, take me on I'll be gone in a day or two All the things that you say is delightful

Just to play my worries away You're all the things I've got to remember Are you shying away? Well, I'll be coming for you anyway Are you shying away? Well, I'll be coming for you anyway Take on me, take me on I'll be gone in a day

I'll be gone in a day Take on me, take me on I'll be gone in a day