This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Chris Harrison coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas. One of the things I love about Austin, and one of the things I just love about the fact that I've travel around the world is food.
Food and wine.
If you know me at all, you know I love both, especially my good wines. But I love talking food, I love talking wine. The people that I really look up to and admire and follow on Instagram, on TV, you name it, are chefs. I am obsessed with chefs, the fact that they can do what they do at such a masterclass level, and those chefs that have really separated themselves gone to that next level on media, whether it's TV, magazines, podcasts,
you name it. But also they have maintained that relevance in the real culinary world, meaning their restaurant are absolutely banging. The guy that checks every box you can name in being a chef and in dominating this world is Tyler Florence. I don't know Tyler that well, obviously, he hosts a podcast with a very good friend of mine, Wells Adams, and I'm jealous that these guys have the podcast two dudes in a kitchen, and so I am going to borrow Wells Adams co host Tyler Florence, and he's going
to join me on the most dramatic podcast ever. We're diving into it right now. Joining me now is the one the only chef, Tyler Florence. Dude, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining me.
My pleasure. Good to see you too, man. How are you. I'm doing great?
Thanks for asking.
You know.
I know it's early out west, and I appreciate you getting up and doing this. I'm obviously here in Austin Central time, but I see you know, Tyler Florence up sipping his coffee as I kept I'm interested in. People probably want to know right away what's a chef?
You know?
Do you make your own coffee? You're grinding your own beans?
How's that work?
As you're sipping on your morning Joe?
Oh, well, I you know, like it or not. It's one of the horrible things about getting old, Like at five thirty in the morning. Yeah, I think you and I have the same age. How about fifty two? Yep? Same age? Nineteen seventy one yep, yep. So I don't know about you, but like five thirty in the morning, if I want to or not, my ice crack open. Yeah. Yeah,
So I'm up. I'm an early riser. And that being said, I also kind of go to bed late just because I get home with the restaurants at like ten eleven o'clock. So my average day is like fifteen hours, eighteen hours. Like it's a grinder, right. So the first part of the thing, I gotta have some great coffee, you know. I'm just I'm a huge fan nerd on coffee. And there's a great roaster called Equator here in Marin County, California, just across the bridge from San Francisco, and I just
think it's the absolute best. And so I've got a I've got a Brebel Oracle one Touch, like the really expensive one, and I've got it in truffle black.
Truffle black. That's a color.
Yeah, it's a color, truffle black. Right. So I walk in the morning in this like Darth Vader of an espresso machine is there to greet me, and I'm like, let's roll, let's do it right.
I'm gonna admit two things right away. I love food, love wine. I love to cook. But two things I cannot stand in this world.
Coffee.
I just the taste, I love the smell. I've tried to drink it, I you know, for many years, obviously when I was hosting the Bachelor bacherette and I kept ungodly hours like you up all night. I'm sure Wells has talked to you about that. I would try to drink coffee. I can't do it, man, I just can't stand it.
And listen, I can totally understand where that comes from, because it's a very like bitter taste, but like once you get into the nuance, it's like bad coffee, Like, you know, God bless Starbucks because it's not great, but it's always there, like it is so bitter, it's so discovery.
One says that Starbucks coffee just becomes addictive. But nobody really likes it.
Nobody. I don't like it, but I'm glad it's there when I'm traveling because at least it's really consistent, you know, but it's not. But there's nuances in uh, like the medium roast world. There's there's a whole new generation of coffee roasters. They're not like taking it like super dark. I remember like when I was a kid. I grew
up in restaurants. Right, there's a thing called like like a robusto Italian espresso roast, and it was dark black and it was shiny, so they would they would theoretically burn the beans and when you roast it obvious sudden there's oils. There's moisture inside the bean too, because they go from green to dark brown, the oils get extracted, the moisture of being gets extracted. And then what they would do is they would pipe that back on top of the bean to give it like a glaze, and
then it would smell really good. But it was just so incredibly better as awful. And now, like the new thought process is not a dark roast, but it's more of a medium roast, so you get so it holds on to the fat inside the bean itself a natural oil. That way, you get like a really serious golden crima on top. And then and then you're not really I mean, it's still it's still coffee, so it's still kind up like a very robust flavor, but instead of it being bitter,
it's it's actually sweet. It has more of a camel note to it. And then once you get into it. There could be a blueberry bomb, there could be a nutty note, there could be chocolate, there could be citrus, depending on exactly where they get the beans from, and and and so like to me, I'm just so into.
It and I blow it away that I we just did ten minutes on coffee. You you are deep into this. You're a lover.
Yeah, yeah, for for real. And listen, if if a push come to shove, if I had to make a hard distinction between like alcohol or coffee, alcohol is out, oh wow, right, coffe, yeah, I could. I could easily go without alcohol. But coffee to me is just kind of one of those things. It's just my little personal ceremony every morning, right, I get up first.
The kid Lauren, my fiance, Lauren z Ema, so elz when she she goes. You don't understand. When I go to bed, I'm thinking about drinking coffee in the morning. I'm already excited about having my coffee.
Yeah, and and and it's delicious, right, and there's also like really great health notes to it as well. I mean it definitely you know, the caffeine kind of gets you going, so you kind of filled that out at.
I think it's a bad rep so that it's not bad for you.
No, it's it's not bad for you. I guess it depends on it. Like listen, everything in excess is putting bad. Of course, I think it's probably bad for you, know, for anxiety, if you if you drink a lot of coffee. It's probably bad for blood pressure. If you drink a lot of coffee.
You're not hydrated and you just keep drinking six coffees all day. Of course it's not going to be great for you.
Yeah, yeah, But there's lots of really great benefits of coffee as well. And it's just kind of one of those things like I just like the aroma, the taste of flavor, Like it's just kind of one of one of the things. And so my wife when when we first met, uh, she she drank port over coffee or just bathed like coffee from like a mister coffee machine whatever. So like it's got to hopper on top, you put the grinds in in coffee filter and then it's percolated, and like to me, I just can't drink that to
save my life. If it's like if it's like pour over like diner coffee, I'll pass. I'd really have a couple of hot tea and and you can't tell you something my my my assistant books my hotel rooms based on that they have an espresso machine and a kitchener.
Wow, you are bougie. You are bougie, super bougie.
Dude, Like, like, are you going to like so you're going to this new city? Uh, here's here's this hotel I called them. I mean a couple of things. I need a cops out at eleven o'clock at night if I get there late, and then and then I need I need an espresso in the morning. If you don't have espresso, because it just slows the day down. I'm saying you like like you like if if I'm traveling, I don't casually travel. I travel for work.
And I I actually because I'm a big tea drinker, I actually travel with my own tea. So I know on airplanes, airports, hotels, I wake up and I have my tea.
What's your tea?
Uh? And it's it's not great, it's cheap. I but I love the Zen it's toatso brand. I just I love the Zen totso green tea.
That's nice. Listen, green tea is fabulous. Man. I had a cup of green tea the other day at at a restaurant and I was just sort of like an after dinner thing and he came by and I just felt like that was like a nice little cup of tea sounds great. And I had a little cup of green tea, and that's super beneficial for you.
I'm a big de mint tea at night. I love love tea, and Honey, I'm like, I think I was maybe in my prior life was British. I'm guessing because I love a good pea coat, love a good scarf, love some tea, and I love soccer as well.
Where's your ancestry from? Where are your people from?
My people are from Austria, Okay, Texas, the United States. We could only I could only track them back to like when Texas was was formed. They came from Georgia. But my other side of the family, uh Ashkenazi Jews, came out of Austria.
Yeah we are, well, there was because my last name was Florence, right, so there was this rumor family lore we were Italian and and so this say yeah Florenza Florence, like it just sense. So the family lore was that two brothers came from Tuscany and then came to the New World through Ellis Island. And then you know, if you've seen Godfather too, where Corleone we you know, couldn't speak English. So Corleoni became his last name because he
was from Corleono, Sicily. And so the rumor was that that the two brothers didn't speak English, so Florence became their last name, and that became our American last name was Florence, right, interesting, well that and that's so the story went forever, and so we just felt like, Okay, you know, that's the reason I like pasta, That's the reason I love Italian food. And when I go to Italy, there's there's a deep soulful, spiritual connection with the food
and the culture and the people. Like I just get there and just simulate really fast, like I'm here, I can live in Italy and two seconds flat, I could live in Rome, I could live in Florence. Like I just really love it speaking of Italy.
And Europe because I love I just took a huge trip for her last birthday. We went through Italy, through Tuscany, started in Florence, which, by the way, one of my favorite cities in the world. I think it is massively underrated, even though it's a huge tourist spot. I still think it's underrated. I think people kind of sleep on how great Florence is. But then we went through the countryside and went wine tasting and had cooking classes and did the whole thing. And my question is the food there.
And everybody says this, and it's very true. When you eat there, the pasta, the meats, everything, no matter what you do, you're not bloated, you don't feel sick, you don't get tired. It's just so much cleaner and better. And obviously the ingredients are very different from what we use in America. As a chef, when you're creating a kitchen and you're cooking for the masses, how do you create that in America? How are your restaurants as good as the ones in Florence or in Tuscany.
Listen, I think that's a great question, like how do you stand out, how do you be great? How do you be great and consistent? And then carve your own lane in a way, because American food is kind of hard to describe. Yeah, like, if you had to say, Okay, what is American food, it's really kind of a big mish mash of a lot of.
Things, right, yeah, because we are a massive melting pot from every culture around the world, and we're a pretty young country and culinary wise, we're very young.
Very young, so it's really hard to put your finger on exactly what American food is. Now. I grew up in the South. I grew up in South Carolina. I went to culinary school in Charleston, and to me, Southern food I think is the clearless clearest identifier of what American food truly is, because it's food that you just can't get anywhere else on planet Earth. And then you start going to like the Northeast and like the Midwest, and you can quickly trace back cultural roots to the
motherland where everything came from. Right, It's like German immigrants, Swedish immigrants, Polish immigrants, Italian immigrants, Jewish immigrants, right, African American influence and a lot of and so you kind
of see that where things come from. But then you start taking a look at the melting pot of the food in the South, and like that's very, very distinctive and it happened here, right, So it's like the melting pot started creating like this new you know, kind of culture, what food, And I am so grateful to have that experience in my life, growing up in such a cultural, rich, diversified community where I learn a lot from everybody.
Well, it's interesting you say that because so I grew up in Texas, and you know, we think we're the South as well, it's a different South you were from, the different Deep South. Texas. We are known for our barbecue. I'm in Austin, Texas, the cradle of barbecue, but people don't know that's not Southern. It's German. The Germans created barbecue. And if you drive around Texas there's a lot of German towns. New Bronze FLEs and Writes is Deli, which
is a famous barbecue place. They're the ones that started smoking meat. So we you know, we've definitely borrowed it, but it it actually bizarrely came from Germany. It did for Germans, not Germany, but actually the Germans that were here.
Yeah, because the Germans definitely know how to manipulate pork, There's no doubt about it. They're very, very, very good at it right, very traditional, deep culinary heritage, especially if you go to like Saint Louis. It's really obvious in Saint Louis, right because you know Annheuser Bush of Saint Louis, Missouri. Like, there's a very deep German, rich German population in Saint Louis. And there's a barbecue place there. I think it's called
Atoms if I'm thinking about correctly. But they season their pork with paprika and they serve it with apple sauce.
Oh interesting, Oh, very German.
Very German there. It was like wow, trip, I'm like, wow, this is like the Saint Louis barbecue scene. And I'm a huge barbecue guy, Like.
Oh my, there are the places in Austin. Do you have any go tos?
Well, yeah, for sure. So Aaron Franklin is a buddy, right, you got to give him a big.
Shout you just well, by the way, Aaron Franklin doesn't need a shout out. There is a line right now, I promise you at Franklin's Barbecue. And if you ever come to Austin, it's worth it, guys, get in line, get you some Aaron Franklin's risk it.
Yea yeah, with I doubt and I've got like a funny kind of an a whole celebrity story. At Austin, Texas, I was. I'm also I like motorcycles a lot, so I was in town for the Moto GP event at Circuit of America.
Yeah, coda out there.
This is going back about ten years. And I took two restaurant friends from San Francisco that had never been to Austin before. And I called Aaron and if you know, you know Franklin's barbecue, there's one thing they don't do. They don't do takeout. You gotta stand in line, and you gotta wait with everybody else, right. But I called him and I'm like, Aaron, bro, I've got these two guys because the race started at eleven, yeah, right then, And I'm like, we just would love to get some barbecue.
If it's okay, can we just get a couple of bikes to go? And he goes, all right, So do my favorite pull up be really low key pull up walking on the side do or I know, I'll have a couple of bags ready for right, And so we pull in and of course it's like you know, a like a uh Tahoe you know black you know, uh yeah, I've got a driver. You know. You're like, we're just rolling it and uh and everyone's like they got there.
They're they're basically camping in tents at like four o'clock in the morning to make sure because when the brisket's gone, the brisket's gone.
I know, you got to get in line. You get your lawn chairs, you bring up your cooler of Shiner black beer, and you just sit there and drink some beers and wait for the barbecue to open.
Yeah, And and so they will at some point in time, because I have waited in line for it in the past, they will start just do the calculation of how much brisket they've got. They'll go through the line and they go one, two, three, four, five, sir, you are not going to get any brisk yeah right now. And uh and they're like, well, that's just that's how the cookie crumbles.
So anyway, so we roll in and then and then I walk into the back door and as soon as I get out of the car and people like, chev hey, shove, what's up.
You're like, thanks for keeping it low key.
Dude, I know, yeah, right, And then I walk in the back door and then I grabbed two two big bags, heavy bags of barbecue, and then I walk out, and then and then and and then the people realize I've broken the cardinal rule at Aaron Franklin and they start booing. They start booming us right and start throwing beer cans in our car. Oh ship, oh no, oh my god. Yeah.
And then uh, you know, then you know, like we went to go see Valentino ROSSI uh, you know, like I don't think he won that one, but you know, he's a big motorcycle guy. But we had a big spread when we got there and it was kind of fun but a huge fan. Also Tyson Cold with Ucci.
Oh my gosh, Ucci Ucci co. And they do the uh I believe is it loro? He and Franklin uh did a fusion. They did a barbecue Asian fusion deal. That is spectacular, spectacla.
The foods.
The food scene in Austin's fantastic, it really is. I mean, I'm such a foodie that you just find something different driving down Congress or South Lamar whatever, and it's just you find a new place pasta at X. The sushi scene bizarrely is really good here. Sushi at X is wonderful. So it's been it's been fascinating for the last couple of years to dive into it. And by the way, I would throw La Barbecue on that list.
Barbecue is great.
Yeah, and I'm I'm a big Terry blackskuy.
Terry Blacks is amazing. Oh my god, that's that's such great.
Beef rib man amazing, it's you know, you mentioned so you mentioned a beef rib. So the crown jewel of Texas is brisket. You gotta cook a good brisket. And then you would say the pork rib baby back ribs, even though that's more of a Carolina thing and you start getting to Kansas City and Saint Louis and stuff for ribs, but ribs are still a big deal. The beef rib is something that really has come on in the last decade. That's a big deal.
Now. Yeah, that's like that's like the big flintstone thing that knocks the car over. They're huge, so good. So we we have an Australian wagu beef rib on I have a steakhouse in San Francisco, right, and and that like when you get to that level of like flavor and blubber. You know, when it's like cooked really really well, it's just spectacular. It's just so good, Like I love it.
What are your favorite things? What do you love to dive into? You know, I obviously when you're creating a restaurant, you would think, oh, I'm just going to do my favorite things. You don't really necessarily get to do that because you have a concept at a restaurant. If you could cook for me, for anybody, what's your go to?
Well, I gotta tell you, I really love beef. I'm a big beef guy. I really do. I would say that's probably my favorite thing in the world. Because you know, we have a steakhouse and it's like this uh real deep passion mine. We just got voted best steakhouse in the San Francisco Bay Area by San Francisco magazine. Miller and Locks is the name of the restaurant.
So let me ask you this. So because I'm a steak guy too, Yeah, what do you order? What's your cut?
Well? I got to say I really like a ribbi. I think a rib is great and if you take it to the one step further, it's the tomahawk. Right, So it's fy with the extended bone right.
Because I always want to know, like because I know, like you know, I'm not a file at guy, and I know chefs are Sometimes waiters look at you like, oh, you're ordering a file at. So I'm like, Okay, how can I also have a great meal but also look cool at the restaurant to the chef and to the waiter. Is it because I like New York's. I feel like New York's kind of a good medium, got some marbling in there, but it's also pretty lean.
Good flavor. I always go if they've got dry age on there, go for that. If they got go for that. If they've got Kobe, go for that. I mean, I always try to get the most interesting thing for the table. And I also like to try to get a steak that other people can grab a slice of. So like at the restaurant, are like slam Dunk Dinner is our forty five day dry age tomahawk that comes from our Ranchi partner in South Dakota. Like, so it's blacking as prime and it's it's grass fed and then grain finished
on barley, which is what we call California corn. So has a lower glycemic index, so it's actually healthier for the cows and then better for the environment because has less admissions. But the marbling, oh my god, market.
Just chop that up and share it, because that is the other thing I want to ask is you see all the fancy words on the menu, dry, aged, wagu, kobe, uh, prime and all this stuff, and like it's a lot for someone who doesn't understand. Can you break some of those words and names and definitions down for us of what's worth it what's not?
Yeah, so, so prime is going to be the best quality could be looking for prime? Prime is great, And then there's then there's choice, right, and choice is okay. You know it's a it's like a different uh. The marbling is a little different, but you always want to look for the word prime. Now there's a difference between kobe and wagu, right and and wagu is definitely a word that has been used so often and almost to the point where they may not be telling the truth
if it's real. Wag so so wagu is is a specific Uh breed of cattle from Uh from uh kobe so kobe traditionally right so so Wagu is a Japanese term and and it's a traditional uh beef ranching process uh in raising process from Japan. Right now around World War two that someone's had successfully uh smuggled u wagou semen from from Japan to Australia and now they're they're
successfully breeding Australian wago, which is spectacular. And that's what we have on our restaurant because you kind of get this like it's a little more meaty and not quite so fatty, like it's a little more beefy, I think, which I think is really delicious. So it's a company called west Home that we use, ranching company out of
Australia that that I just absolutely love. So so uh A one through five is a grading process for Japanese wagar kobe right and and so uh a A five is the absolute best is almost kind of what they call snow beef. Right, It's just it's almost pure fat.
It melts in your mouth, melts in your mouth.
You have really really really good right. And then when Australian instead of A one through five, it's f one through five, right, and so so it say absolute absolute best quality. Right, So we have a we have a fifty two ounce wagu tomahawk on the on the menu and we call it the e Rex, which is really great. And again it's kind of pricey, but you put it on the table and everybody gets a chance to split it. It's just fun. It's just delicious. So that's my thing.
Answer your question. I really really love beef, and I kind of eat beef most days, you know what I mean, Like like i'll i'll my go to kind of keto thing because I try to try to stay in shape. Is just a burger on a plate with a little bit of olive oil and a piece of Like there's my favorite cheese in the world is Mount tam Triple
Cream bree from County, California. So and that that's basically the one of the construction elements over burger, which the Michelin Guide said was one of the five best burgers in the state of California. By the way, really it's banging, banging, and so to me, like that's kind of my dinner.
Just a burger rare with a big slap and melt the cheese on top of that, salt pepper and Ali Wiel and I just kind of smashed that in the line, like right at five o'clock four service starts, and I think and for some crazy reason it really works for me, like, well, it fills you up, and it's also it doesn't spoke your blood sugar, and you know, I don't feel like but to kind of go back where you're talking earlier as far as like like how healthy Italian food is
because it's so clean, it's and and the pasta specifically,
it's so it's so much better for you. It's because it's not genetically modified, Like the EU has very strict rules about genetically modified ingredients in anything where in in America, like Canadian hard red wheat is is what goes in most bread and and goes the most pasta here in America, and and it is very very manipulated to have a super high level of gluten and and so like people will will that question will have more of an allergic reaction because it's it's the it's the wheat, or it's
the peanuts. It's not the kid, right. So I think that's probably one of the big things that's a difference between Italian food and American Italian food. So when when we do pasta, we only use Italian wheat, we have Italian wheat imported, and that's the only thing that we use because of the glycinemc condex of spike. Because you want to feel good once you eat like really really good food, you want to feel good, right, So that's that's one thing that I think kind of makes that
really different. So, and it's just so clean, like it's like super really good fats, right, it's like animal fats, olive oil, really great vegetables, you know, wood fired, not fried's grilled or whatever, and so you get like really just really delicious flavor. Profile.
Who are you a fan of? You know when you when you talk to other athletes, they follow other athletes, you know, they you know, the old line game recognizes game. Whose restaurants do you like to go to? Who do you love?
Oh gosh, this restaurant called Bastia and Los Angeles in downtown LA which I think is really great. I'm blank on the chef's name, but he's got that place, and he's got a place called Safie's and he's just doing such real Like it's more it's like it's like it's like Jewish Italian but it's like but it's so incredibly good, really Mediterranean fabulous out of this food. And then I kind of, you know, because I'm fifty two, right, so I grew up in the eighties and my flavor of
restaurants happened to be a little fancier than most. Right. I always think I'm like first of the new and last of the old. Right, Yeah, you know what I mean, I'm a last of the old guys, and I'm the first of the new guys. And so I'm old enough to know what like really good, high quality, beautiful services like in fancy restaurants in Paris and New York and London, and and so there's I think there's an oversimplification and
over casualization of a lot of restaurants. Not that this food is not great and it's not fun, it just feels like they're not trying really hard, right, I mean, it's just kind of it doesn't feel it doesn't feel like you're being taken care of. It feels sometimes you
can feel like pretty but a little sloppy. Right. And so we really at Miller Unlocks our restaurant, we really want to bring bring glamour back and and you know, really kind of focus on like the old school stuff, right where not it's just a tablecloth covered table, but the table's padded with a tablecloth on top of it, so you touch it feel soft, right, And then really, yeah, it's little things like like it makes all the difference in the world. You know, fresh flowers in the table,
like really beautiful stemware. You know, spectacular service, just unbelievable service. And then but then you you kind of make it feel comfortable because we're just going steak, Like I've got fried chicken on the menu. You know, it's like because I'm from the South and and it really kind of fits my flavor profile. But people are very very well taken care of. We have a table side caesar salad that Forbes magazine said was the best season salad in America.
Like like, we're and so and it's just a caesar, but it's it's like it's a deconstructed process that gets made right in front of you, and the flavor profile is just amazing.
There was a what was that steakhouse in l It's still there. Actually, the one word, Oh god, that's that's going to drive me crazy. Anyway, they did it. They did a table side caesar back in the day. It was so good. It was like a game changer. It was actually a little spicy, a little you know, the horse radish in there. The whole it was anchovies. All of it was just spectacular.
Yeah, and like like there's there's a level of glamour that that I have a clear recollection of that I get to add to our our profile with our restaurants that a lot of people, like younger chefs have no understanding of that just because they weren't around so so that they're all kind of like doing the same thing and chasing each other on Instagram and they kind of like copying each other's food style. And for me, I don't do any of that, Like, I don't I never
chase styles. I never copy anybody. What we do is our thing, you know. And uh, and we we keep it simple, We keep it thematic at Steak right, so people walk on the door of the but then it's best in category, best in class, like the reviews are in and and so we're we're super excited. Love love love my restaurant team, Love love basketball, love working with
the Warriors. It's it's such an amazing opportunity because I am a big basketball fan, but just kind of be a part of this one point four billion dollar arena, which is like a new part of the city in San Francisco.
Yeah, and arguably you know, the best dynasty in the last ten years. I mean you've hit it a a great time.
Yeah, and I've seen it all man, you know, and all the basketball players come in, you know, Draymond comes in, stuff comes in, like Clay comes in, all these and then so our restaurant's their hangout spot after after the game. Clay had his birthday party there last year, and like and so it just feels like we're just so you like SYNCD up with a heartbeat of the city of
San Francisco with this restaurant. I mean like post game, like we even like tonight, Yeah, Drake's buying a third these these buying the restaurant out with a thirty top scene.
My friend, dude, that that's that That is a baller move. That is It's what I would expect from Drake. I mean just a ball or move.
Yeah, totally, and even last year year doing not last year before last when went to the finals, like the restaurant after like during the game, before the game, after the game, like like you just start looking around, like the net worth of everybody in the room is like our tech billionaires. Those are our celebrities in San Francisco, the billionaires and uh and then like you look at these, like the VC folks and the hip hop community and the NBA team. But I like, look at these, it's
got to be cool for you. That's got to be even for you who's done it all and seen it all. It's got to be cool to look around your dining room and like, damn it, dude, I'm I'm killing it right now, yelling it, you know, and and but but then but then also delivering too right. I mean, like it's like it's one thing to to get famous, it's really hard to stay there. This is my twenty seventh year on television of Food Network. I just finished my
seventeenth cookbook. You have to stay relevant by providing the best quality food and the best quality service. And you you're only as good as your last play to food.
You just said something very brilliant, and it is so true. It's it's somewhat easy to become famous, very very difficult to stay famous for very difficult. Whether it's sports, rock and roll, the off more slump, restaurants, all of it. It's you name it. It is a difficult thing to do, and food is it a really I want to get to some dating questions here in a second two about food. But food has become and you mentioned your young chefs
if they get caught up in this. You know, we've all heard of Noma now we all watched the show Chef and Food Network has really exploded, and so I think that's a great thing, but it's also probably a dangerous thing as well. There's probably a yan and a yang to this.
Well. I mean, I mean, like the the idea that anybody you know there was. There's about twenty five people on planet Earth that have shared my life experience, right, I like being on Food Network for as long as I have about twenty five people, and the only person's been on the network longer than me is Bobby. And so the Great Food Truck Race Season sixteen just wrapped and it was the number one show on the network
here in the summer. We always we always are, if not number one, a real close second, but this year we smashed out of the park because now we're on with Warner Brothers, which means we're on HBO and always other things so they've crossed Polly of the show and a couple of different outlets where more people can find it,
and we just crushed it. I was so excited about the show and then and then you know, and every season we have, you know, just just just like on The Bachelor, man this, you know, it's like you get a whole group of people, they get that little nibble of fame because they're on television, and then they really think the second they walk out of that, it's like, where's my limo, where's my gino, where's sunglasses, where's my agent,
where's my publicist, where's my all this stuff? And then you'll have it for five minutes walking out of there, but then it'll go away unless there's some there there with you as a person. And then the only thing that I can really attribute to my longevity is that I like to help people and I like to teach people how to cook. And I think that if you're going to do something to be famous, you need to do something that's going to help somebody, and that's how
you get there and you stay there. So like if you if you happen to find your way and to success with like The Bachelor or you know, one of the guest spots on Food Network or whatever. You walking out of there, you better have a really, really good solid plan on how you want to contribute to society and not just sort of be famous to be famous, but but to really you know, to but to to do do a great job and feel like people can people can utilize your talent right, people can realize it.
I just finished my seventeenth cookbook. Like all of our content is free on food Network and and and people uh for free and generations of people almost like three generations now of Food Network fans going back to like the early nineties, you know, like they'll download my content,
they'll use it. We put so much work into testing all of our recipes down to the grain of salt, and and so to me, that is my currency, that that's our trust level that if you're going to download our recipes, if you're going to use them, they're going to work right. And then all of a sudden, it's like if I'm make you look good because you, you know, took a chance and cooked one of our recipes, then
we've got this long term relationship. And people walk up from the airport like, oh my god, I download that thing, and that's the secret for long term success. That's the secret. How not how can you consume my goods? How can I help you? That's the secret. And if you can figure that one out, then you'll get famous and you'll stay there.
With Tyler Florence, there's a lot of there there. As we just said, Okay, you're on a date. You gotta maybe you have a date coming over, or you're going to a restaurant. What should you order? What should you avoid?
Well, I think it's really important to like know who you're going out with. Right, Let's let's just say it's like an early day. Let's say it's early in the relationship exact. Yeah, well, yeah, we're like second third date, second third date. It's really good to know if the person you're going out with hates oysters. It's really good to know if someone that you're going out with likes their steak medium, rare. It's really good to know that if you're going out with somebody, they they they really
like French white wine and not California white wine. Right, And so I think when you kind of roll in and and also and women love this, I think the table loves it too. Especially with me, because people just like hand me, hand me the the menu, Like I don't think there's anything wrong with just like ordering for the table.
I love that. I love someone that takes control. It just says, you walk into a sushi restaurant like we got it. We're just gonna throw a stub like I love that.
Yeah, and that's what I normally do too, So like I just kind of like, and I don't mean to muscle in, but like people, especially because I'm the chef who were like, you got it right, I'm like, yeah, I always announced it. I'm gonna order for the tables that okay with you guys are like, yeah, I wed love it. Okay, we'll take two of these, we'll take three of those. We'll take one of those medium rare boom. Let's get a sou fle in the oven and then
you kind of sit down and you relax. So I think you know, knowing who your uh, your date is on a personal level, so you're not gonna make any any like faux pause things that they're not going to find sort of yummy, right like if you order a dozen oysters and they don't eat oysters right after they're allergic or they're allergic, or they're there, or they there they have, you know, a gluten tolerance or whatever. So anyway, I think it's like, you know, take a little.
Know your audience. I I love oysters, so does LZ. Are they actually an aphrodisiac as we've heard for many, many years or is that complete and utter bullshit?
I don't know, man, I wish I had a real soft answer for you. I know they're they're very iron rich. I know it's good for your blood. I don't know, I don't know. I know, I definitely. I mean, I eat a lot of oysters. I don't feel particularly amorous.
I don't remember ever feeling any different either after although I do love them.
I love them. I love oysters.
I think a great bottle of wine definitely an afridisiac for sure.
Oh that's that's so the social lubricant. I love one.
Okay, you're you're cooking at home, and you know, I think spaghetti. I think pasta definitely a difficult thing to eat. And I always think of that, what's hard to eat? What are you going to look really horrible.
Eating it's hard to eat? What do you what do you mean? Well?
I think it's a hard thing to look good in front.
Of a date.
I mean, it's easy to eat, but it's I'm just saying, like, you don't particularly look sexy eating certain foods. I also know that, you know, do you do you stay away from like heavy garlics, things onions, things that are gonna make your breast stink? You know?
So, so pasta to me depends on the pasta and the restaurant, right, because, like I'm a foodie obviously, and like hardcore foodie. Right, So if I'm going to go to restaurants specifically, it's because they make great pasta, like Evan Funky and Los Angeles, like his his new restaurant Mother Wolf in downtown O MG, run don't walk. Really. Pasta is fabulous, right.
A downtown scene in LA. It's really interesting how much that's There's several michelinerrated restaurants down there. It is an absolute pain in the asked to get to downtown Los Angeles from anywhere in Los Angeles because nobody lives down there. But man, it's worth it if you can get down there.
It's popping. It's it's so much fun. And then so I think the like the if it's really really great. It kind of goes from like this thing, like there's a difference between a business dinner, right with like agents and directors. You kind of you want things that are kind of coming small. You don't want to like talk with your mouth full. You don't want to have anything
that's gonna get red sauce on your shirt. You really don't want to take any of those chances because you want to walk out of that that launch of that dinner and close that deal. Right. I think that's a very different circumstances then going out with somebody who the two of you are crushing over. This chef it is to come from sam Razano and they're just delicious. And if you get a little sauce on your cheek, that's the cutest thing in the world. To take a napkin
and kind of wipe it off or whatever. You can have that that that what's the what's the Disney cartoon with the two dogs eth apasa together at the same time.
Oh lady in the tramp tramp you can like maybe this piece of spaghetti, right exactly.
I think it could be kind of funny. So I don't know. I think there's like if if if it's such a stressful situation where I need to look good and I don't want to look like a pig. I always think it's really important to also to not clean your plate, right, I interested to leave a couple of bytes on your plate because I just think it just kind of it just looks a little piggish if you
just eat everything, you know what I mean. So it's like it's just it's sort of a it's sort of a polite thing, right like you kind of you you have. I think it says you have discipline, self discipline. You're not gonna like, oh, you're good. I think that that's a really good strategic business dinner move.
And it leaves her like a bite left if she would like a bite.
Sure.
And I'm a big share I you know what, I judge people. If you don't share your food, if you're not about family style, you're you're you're dead. To me, it just it says everything I need to know about you. People that are like no, it's like I'm ordering my own. It's like no, man, it's like I like everybody ordering different stuff and we pass it around.
Yeah, I mean because like if not, like what, what's the there's joy in sharing this joint experience of going to a great restaurant and just having so much fun and having that moment where you all take the forty five day dry age wagu and you dip it in the burnet sauce. At the same time it both it pops your mouth and you all go, oh, my god, or the bone arrow or the black truffle or the cacho pepe or like those. To me, like we have
those shared experience. Everybody loves it. I think it's great, and it's also it could be like a weird dating red flag too if somebody doesn't want you to eat to play the food.
And by the way, you just mentioned my other thing off the top of the show, and I said, there's two things that I'm embarrassed about that I can't stand. One is coffee. The real one that bothers me that I cannot eat to save my life is truffles. And I know, I know, I hate saying that to chefs. I you know, I've been in Paris, I've been all around France during truffle season.
This is the most dramatic Podcas.
I feel like such an a hole Tyler. I mean they'll come out with the silk napkin and they'll be unveiling this truffle that they just dug up this morning in the forest. And I look at him and I say, I respect you. I respect that truffle. I understand how incredible this white truffle is. You're about to shave, Please don't, or I will gag.
Oh my god, that will be the new Variety headline that you do not like trusting. Now.
I feel like such a dick. I feel like I might as well be yelling at a great restaurant. Hey, bring me some ice and some ketchup. I feel like that American, you know. I feel like such a jerk that I don't love truffles. But man, the smell is so pungent, the taste, I just there is a gagg reflex. I just can't do it.
It's weird. I've got a really good friend of mine, Don Miggs. If he's listening, shout out. He's a producer, music producer, and he lives in Nashville and Los Angeleson, and he's just one of my best friends. And we always goof because he hates truffles and he hates Yeah. Other than that, he's actually a really big foodie and he loves restaurants and he loves chefs. Ye there's two things, right, listen, you know there's more for me. I'm totally and.
I know people look the cilantro thing I get because I'm fine with cilantro, but I know some people have this weird DNA where it tastes like soap to you and it's just horrible. So there are Look, there's just certain things. But that is the one I'm most embarrassed about because I've been to some of the best restaurants in the world and I just feel like an a hole.
It's okay, it's okay, Thank you. I needed.
That's the reassurance I needed from you.
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a pass on that. No big deal. And it's hard to live in Austin, Texas and I like cilantro.
Yeah no, It's in everything, every taco, every salsa, every but I needed, you know, the great master chef Tyler Florence to tell me I'm actually okay.
I need that you're telling.
You with that debt, you know, one of the best things. I don't know if Wells has talked about this, he didn't get to travel as much, but you know, hosting the Bachelor and Bacherette for twenty years, I traveled the world and I would have, you know, a week in Copenhagen, a week in Paris, a week in Australia, a week in you know, South Africa. And so I got to go to the greatest restaurants in the cuisine and the Vietnam and going into some of these villages and Thailand
and eating the street food. And you know, I'm not Anthony Bourdain, but I got to enjoy his life. I mean, I really got to kind of live that and try all these different cuisines around the world, and that I am so grateful. It's made me such a better connoisseur of food and a lover of culture and cuisine around the world. That was one of the best parts, you know, going to Peru. Lima, it's one of the hot spots of food right now. It's it's incredible.
I got a speech and Lima is amazing, and I'm I'm super super grateful for that too, right because a lot of the big travel opportunities I've had to go really explore and you know, get a first person recount of like what that, yeah is you know, to not have a habit at a restaurant in New York, actually go to the location have it is from Food Network, is from travel right, And I'm just super grateful, you know, we get a chance to I know, most major cities
in America intimately, so I've got favorite restaurants in every every city and so it's all from you know, just working on television.
It's a blessing for sure.
Blessing that's one of the greatest things in the world.
Speaking of television, speaking of The Bachelor, this is something that there's a rumor and I don't even know if this is true, believe it or not being the host and producer on the show for twenty years, yeah, did we come after you to be the Bachelor?
Yeah, at two thousand, you know, it's it's a long time ago. And I actually brought this up on our podcast because of Wells and we talked about that, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks because having thought about it for I'm like, dude, this is going to be crazy. But I turned The Bachelor down and it must have been in like two thousand and three, so I was the Sexiest Chef Alive in People magazine
back in two thousand. I remember that, and it was either two thousand and two, two thousand and three, but it was something that it was a real long time ago. So I was with William Morris and the offer came through and we took a meeting, and then I really thought about it because I was going through a divorce at the time and I had a young son who's now twenty seven years old. Yeah, I'm with you, and I didn't want to have that that image or that energy out there that I was making up with girls
in the hots up. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it was just it was just it wasn't It wasn't my message at that time. And listen, I passed on a bunch of shows. I passed on The Apprentice. I passed on Dancing with the Stars. The Apprentice came out to me hard.
I bet you would have been great, actually, and I've done the same. I got, you know, I got approached by I've been approached by Dancing and a million of these. But I had heard about this and I wasn't sure if it was true, and that's probably why I didn't know is it would have been two thousand. You we premiered in two thousand and two, so it probably would have been the end of two thousand and two, two thousand and three. That would have been one of our
maybe number two, three or four bachelors. So you would have been you know, Bob Guinea season, Andrew Firestone season. You would have been right in there and that maybe you know, maybe even number two. But that would have been phenomenal. And I remember now maybe them talking about getting a celebrity chef, But I wasn't that involved back in the day when I first started. I was just the host. I really, you know, they didn't come to me for producing stuff.
Yeah, and I was. I was. I had a you know, a very serious girlfriend the time who lived together in New York. It was just like, how am I going to How am I going to do this good call?
I think I think you chose wisely.
There's just no yeah, there's no way. There's just no way. And listen, a lot of those guys, you know, a lot of those people, you know, it's hard to and this is this is the churn of of reality television. Like you're going to get hyper famous, You're gonna be on the cover of every magazine and every grocery store around the world. And then the next season they're going to have somebody else. Ye. Then and then you start to become this like distant memory, and so I think
it's I don't know. It was just kind of like one of those decisions. I'm like, do I want to do this? I don't know, Like I'm a chef, like like a shut up and cook.
Stay in your lane, man, stay in lane.
I'm gonna stay in my lane, you know, I mean, let everybody else find love.
You know, this is the new book, Tyler Florence. Stay out of the hot tub, Stay in the kitchen.
Yeah, exactly exactly. I have the hot tub and into the kitchen. I think it's a cover.
Tyler Man, thank you so much for taking the time and talking. I could talk food, cooking, all of this for forever, and hopefully we will do this again because I will have a thousand more questions and things to talk about. I appreciate it. The only thing I'm sorry about is I'm sorry you have to host a show with Wells Adams. I know that is heavy lifting.
He's he is so good. He is the best like all of it. And he's got a really interesting sort of background with like his his radio uh work Sphil. I mean, he's a great uh in you know, the the the all the Powers would be at iHeartRadio said you two should work together, and then we justiked from the first episode, we just clicked and and so like
and he's uh and so I met him. He was on Worst Cooks in America on Food Network and and he won, yeah, against Johnny Bananas from MTV and he was on my team and Wells was on with Am Morell and and the two of them won. So and and so we've been friends ever since. He's a big hardcore foodie and he just loves us. We're pals and we're good counterbalance with each other too.
Yeah. So the podcast, by the way, we're talking about with Tyler Florence and Wells Adams. Two dudes in the kitchen talking all things cooking, culinary food, wine, whiskey, you name it. They get into it. It's an awesome podcast. And Yeah, to know Wells Adams is to love him. He has a dear friend and a really good guy.
He's the best.
You're the best man. I appreciate it. Tyler Florence, thanks for joining me on the most dramatic podcast ever ever. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the Most Dramatic Pod Ever, and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.