01x20 - The Summer Menu

[bunniefuu]

All right, we have two great guests today.
Kate Berlant, Mandy Moore.

It's hot outside. Summer is, uh, here.

I wanna make a light menu, cold.

It'll be some dishes
that I would not normally make,

which is why
I'll call it the Summer of Dave.

-The Summer of Dave.
-[Dave] That's right.

Things I never make. White gazpacho,
spaghetti vongole, things like that.

Uh, upside-down plum cake.

[woman] Yum.

-A nice light change from last week.
-Yes.

It's gonna be good. Stay tuned.

Um, good conversation.
I hope I don't burn myself.

And we'll be good.

-Let's do this.
-Summer of Dave.

[all laugh]

[theme music playing]

[Kate] Laughing, but it's real.

Looks like we're fake laughing.
We're real laughing.

The laughter is real. It looked fake.

Welcome to Dinner Time Live.
I'm Dave Chang. That's Chris Ying.

We are joined
with Kate Berlant, Mandy Moore.

Thank you so much for joining us.

A lot of big fans of you
are here in the audience.

-Thank you. Thank you.
-Thank you.

-My heart is pounding out of my chest.
-Same.

-Can you feel it?
-But you guys do live stuff.

You do live stuff all the time too, right?

[Kate] Not like this.

I'm starstruck.

I look over here. I'm starstruck.

Well, listen, I'm just going to make you
some light summer delicious meals.

We've been joking that the menu
is titled the Summer of Dave.

-Summertime Dave is here.
-I don't normally cook light things.

I mean, yes, I do, but I always eat
and cook hot soups and braises and stuff.

But you guys are coming on,
I needed to change it up.

-The actress menu.
-[Dave] I know.

[laughs] The actress menu. Hardly.

It's also peak farmer's market,

and, uh, wanted to highlight a lot
of the fruits and vegetables there.

So, uh, you guys started off
with a white gazpacho, um...

but we made it with pine nuts
instead of almonds.

[Mandy] It's delicious.

We're gonna roll into a lobster salad,

but I'm gonna work
on a couple other things.

Uh, this is gonna be
a rockfish in papillote.

I have not made this since cooking school.

[gasps] Ooh.

It's gonna be
with sort of a ratatouille underneath,

but both of you don't love eggplants,
so we removed the eggplant.

I don't wanna throw this one.
I do love eggplant.

But I support you not loving it.
Why didn't I just go with it?

I made the executive decision
of no eggplants.

I feel like you threw her under the bus.

You should've just said,
"I also don't like it."

[Kate] It's worse than that.

I blocked connection between us,
which is connecting over hating eggplant.

Instead, I... Why would I have done that?
I hate eggplant. Ugh.

-Great.
-Yeah.

-We're on the same page.
-Well, we don't love eggplant either here.

-[Kate] Look at that.
-[Chris laughs]

-[Dave laughs]
-[Kate] Thanks.

[Chris] I also had to pry it out of...

Mandy was so accommodating
when we were talking about the menu,

and I insisted you tell me
one thing that you don't love,

and I forced it out.

Kate and I were talking,
we both love food.

We love planning our travels
around eating and restaurants

and all of that, and huge fan of Dave's.

And so when approached
with this opportunity,

"What do you like and not like?"

I'm like, I'll eat anything
that you wanna cook.

Like, I'm not picky.

-But that weirdly makes it more difficult.
-[Kate] Right.

Because you need some parameters, I think.

-Restriction is freedom. Famously.
-[Dave] Yes. There you go.

And that's why I just decided
to do summer menu too, ultimately.

Um, because it sort of
makes sense right now.

[Kate] Okay, is that the papillote?

-[Dave] It is. Um...
-[Kate] Okay.

And I am shingling
some of the zucchini and squash.

-[Mandy] Wow.
-[Kate] Hm.

[Chris] We found out a couple of things
right before we started.

First, that Kate has
a deep personal relationship

to this white gazpacho.

-[Kate] Yes.
-[Chris] Right?

[laughs]

[Chris] Was I not supposed to reveal that?

Don't talk about my family.

Before we aired,
you whipped out some Spanish

that was so perfect in its pronunciation.

-I was blown away.
-[Kate] That's all you're gonna get.

It's true, my mom,
who's watching, I love you.

Uh, my family is Spanish.

And, yeah, I think I said...

-[speaks in Spanish]
-[crew member whoops]

That's all you're getting
because I fell off.

Now I'm ashamed, you know,
but I'm getting it back.

But yeah, gazpacho, of course,
but a white gazpacho.

-[Chris] From Andalusia, you were saying?
-[Kate] Andalusia, yeah.

[Kate speaks in Spanish]

[Chris]
We found something else out, too, Dave.

Yeah, and I'm also going to, uh...

I don't know why I associate it
with summer, but again, it is.

-I'm gonna make spaghetti vongole. Um...
-[Kate gasps]

But we just found out that Kate
loves carbonara pasta as well.

-And she's got a birthday coming up.
-[Dave] July 16th, everybody.

-[Mandy] Yeah.
-It's not about me.

I'm not one of those people
who, weeks ahead, makes it about them.

-But I did organically mention carbonara.
-Yeah.

And then... What do you do?

[Chris]
So the question is, are you gonna pivot?

Uh... we'll see. This is why
we're doing a live show, folks.

[Chris]
Because let's peel back the curtain.

We don't have any guanciale,
which is traditionally used in carbonara.

[Chris] You know who does?

Chris Bianco is literally down the street,

and he has, I believe, guanciale,
so we'll see, but...

Listen, we support a pivot
if it can happen.

-Of course.
-It's up to you, chef.

No pressure. It'd be a birthday wish.
No pressure, though. Birthday.

Huge pressure. My birthday.
It's been a hard year. Yeah.

Um, someone might have to text Uncle Ted
to give us more time on this show.

[all laugh]

[Kate] the clams would be a dream as well.

-[Mandy] Either way.
-[Dave] We'll see. We'll see.

Depends on how well you guys do.
All right?

-All right?
-[Kate] Interesting.

Last week it was a bit
of a competition with Sam and Tony.

I don't wanna make this a competition.

-[Mandy] Wait, a competition in what way?
-[Dave] Who is the best diner.

[Chris] I'm so sorry to do this, but...

-[Dave laughs]
-[Chris] Sorry, guys.

-Come here.
-[Dave] This is real live television.

Come here, my friend.
This is great television.

-I got you.
-[all cheering]

This is amazing.

[Dave] Hey, folks,

if you haven't seen the Chef's Table
episode with the GOAT himself,

the reason why
the pizza is delicious in America,

it's because of this man right here.
Changed the game.

One of my close friends.

-I brought you some stuff.
-We needed this.

Kate's favorite pasta dish.

-Hi.
-Hi, I'm Kate.

-Hi, I'm Chris.
-So nice to meet you. Big fan.

-How are you?
-Doing really good.

You're on Dave Chang,
so some nice guanciale.

We trimmed it for you nice,
so that's for you. Beautiful.

-This seems canned, I just wanna say.
-It's really not.

Dave's our neighbor.
Dave's our beautiful neighbor.

-[Dave] Do you wanna make carbonara?
-[stammers]

I'd love to. I gotta run back.

-I got that thing I told you about.
-Oh, right.

-Oh, that thing.
-It's actually a thing.

It's a funny thing. If I was drinking,
I'd tell you more about it.

And some nice, we just grated that,
Parmigiano Reggiano.

Well, now I have to make it.
Thanks a lot, Chris.

-You have to. It's gonna be beautiful.
-[Chris] You know how...?

-[Kate] Thank you.
-Love you.

See you, guys.

-Okay. Love you already.
-[Mandy] Thank you.

Okay. All right.

-You need it, you get it.
-See you soon.

-[Bianco] Bye.
-Thank you, Chris.

I don't know if the audience knows
that this was not scripted.

Literally just happened.

You know how you know this is real
and not staged is we didn't mic him up.

-[Kate] Yeah, exactly.
-There's nothing. You hear him.

-[Kate] This is punk. This is truly...
-Now the pressure's on.

[Chris] I'm so sorry, Dave. I'm so sorry.

-[Mandy] That's...
-[Kate] That was crazy.

-I am flipping out.
-[Dave] What a jerk you are.

I'm experiencing community.

All I know,
I remember from cooking school,

is if you have to use a stapler to seal
your papillote, you haven't done it right.

You talk about papillote.
What is the benefit?

[Dave] I love it.

You know, it's something you rarely see,

and I think
it'll be coming back more often

because it's a very experiential thing
where they cut it open,

you get this aromatic presentation,

and basically you're steaming the fish
in this parchment paper,

and you have ratatouille
sans that horrible eggplant, right?

-Nobody likes eggplant.
-[Kate] Yeah. Gross.

You have rockfish, which is local.

You have some thyme, olive oil,

and it's on the bed
of zucchini and squash.

Gonna pop them in the oven
about 20 minutes, and, uh...

in between that,
I'm gonna try to figure out

how I'm gonna have time
to make everything else.

-[Mandy] Oh, my God.
-[Chris] He was so well-organized.

I was so well-organized.

I once experimented
with papillote at home.

-Dave.
-How did it go?

-Very well.
-Ooh.

Well, I did, like, a crude rendering
of the edges there.

But it's not... You know, it does steam it.

It's steaming it, right?

-It is steamed.
-[Kate] Yeah.

It is steamed, correct. Yeah.

Steaming fish. It's fun.

Someone say...

Dave has to use another stove now

because we've added another dish
to this menu.

Okay, I gotta recalibrate here
for a second. Okay.

[Kate] Unbelievable.

This is happening in real time.

This is really happening in real time.

So, um...

this dish has this tool,

that's this little thing
called a Parisian baller, melon baller.

-Parisian?
-[Dave] Parisian because it's...

Actually, it comes
a little bit smaller as well.

-This is the bane of many cooks.
-[Chris laughs]

That's... The labor of that, that's wild.

And you're just scooping things out,
and, uh, you're constantly in the weeds.

The weeds
is when you're always behind time,

much like I am right now,
to fulfill all of the mise en place.

And I just thought, I had
this really rustic looking lobster salad

sort of influenced by Southeast Asia.

This is sort of something
I cooked way back when.

But I was like, you know what?
You guys are coming. Let's elevate this.

Let's make it miserable for myself.
and I just...

[Dave and Chris laugh]

...made Parisian melon ba*ls
all over the place for you guys.

-Wow.
-Unbelievable. Parisian melon ba*ls.

They're... It's beautiful.

[Kate]
I've only seen the American big ones.

-We get at Vons.
-Yeah, the big old ba*ls.

[Dave and crew laugh]

-Never the tiny ba*ls, delicate.
-[Chris laughs]

And there's nothing special about them.
They're just, you know, tiny, tiny ba*ls.

But this is sweet corn,
and I didn't do anything.

Um...

I'm gonna put that, this is gonna be
the base for the whole salad.

I've already roasted off the lobster
in lobster oil here.

Um, and I put kefir lime
and I basted that.

[Kate whispers] Lobster oil.

You did nothing to the corn,
that is raw, right-off-the-cob corn.

[Dave] Correct.

-[Kate] Hm.
-Dump that.

This is...
Cantaloupe is the yellow one, right?

-[Mandy] Yes, and that's honeydew.
-No, cantaloupe is green.

-Honeydew...
-Honeydew's green.

I always mix it up.

-I should say I'm colorblind.
-[Kate] I wanted you to be right.

[Chris laughs]

[Kate] The yellow's cheddar.

-[Dave] And this is some watermelon.
-[Kate] Oh, my... Wow.

-[Mandy] What a delightful summer salad.
-[Dave] Right?

That's what they have at Pinkberry,
the spheres of flavor.

That's what that looks like.

-[Chris] Those look like Dippin' Dots.
-[Kate] Pinkberry, huge comeback for me.

Me too. We've been eating
a lot of frozen yogurt at home.

[Kate] Pinkberry is unbelievable.

-Have fun.
-[Mandy] Hm.

Go and have fun.

I'm gonna go with
a regular ice cream over yoghurt.

-But it has the tartness.
-Ah, sure, sure.

Talking about Pinkberry
as you cook in front of us...

[laughs] Weird?

...is this incredible kind of high-low.

[Dave] Um...

So I mentioned
I put some kaffir lime, which...

-What's the proper name?
-[Chris] Makrut lime.

Makrut lime.
And there's some Thai basil and mint.

All these flavors
work extremely well together.

Very colorful.

-[Kate] I can smell it from here.
-[Mandy] Yeah.

Do you think balling the melons
into tiny little Dippin' Dots is...?

[Dave] No, I... It's...

One of the reasons I wanna do it
is to show how intensely stupid it is.

[Dave and Chris laugh]

-[Kate] Time-intensive.
-Time-intensive and it's so dumb, but...

-Yeah.
-[Chris] In a restaurant, how much more...?

You'd have to make what, 20 times that?

-Fifty times that?
-[Dave] Yeah.

This would probably be
enough for, you know...

four orders, I think.

-[Kate] Wow.
-Wow.

-Too much.
-And this is...

After you melt it,
it's riddled with holes, the melons.

I just pureed it, strained it
and I added some fish sauce,

a little bit of Thai bird chili.

I know...

Spice level here is not gonna be crazy.
Just a tiny, tiny bit spicy.

And some sugar.
And some, uh, rice wine vinegar.

-[Kate] Ooh.
-[Mandy] Oh, my goodness.

This is what I wanna have
every single day when it's hot like this.

I know. This really is a summer menu.

-You wanna taste that before I serve it?
-[Kate] Oh, yeah.

-And you have utensils below.
-Mandy.

-Oh, that's right. The secret pocket.
-The secret pocket.

[gasps] Wow.

How's that?

-Oh!
-Mmm.

-[Mandy] Perfect.
-[Kate] Mmm!

Not bad.

I'm suddenly aware of how weird
it is to eat food on camera,

because it feels like I'm faking it.

-Mmm! But it's real, yeah.
-[laughs]

They can't taste it, but they can tell.

-[Dave] All right.
-Wow.

Wow. Delightful.

So when I roasted off the lobster,

I trimmed it off
and I just minced up the trim.

I'll put that in the salad.

-I do not like throwing things away.
-[Mandy] Right.

[Kate] Oh, my God, it is ladies' night.
Look at those.

-[laughs] It's like a salad parfait?
-So fancy. I know.

[Dave] All right.

I mean, truthfully,
I don't think you need the lobster.

-This is just a nice...
-[Kate] Totally.

...thing to eat it on its own.

-And this is the trimmed lobster.
-[Mandy gasps]

-[Kate] Yeah.
-[Mandy] Wow.

[Dave] That was not planned on.

Everyone watching was like,
"What is he doing?"

-[Chris laughs]
-Um...

Not a surprise here.

[Kate] Oh...

"Lobster with Mandy Moore."

-I've made it.
-[laughs]

-This is just a...
-Yum.

-[Mandy] Extra lobster, if we want.
-[Kate] Yeah.

[Dave] I'm gonna put some of that
lobster oil that I made earlier.

-[Kate] Lobster oil, wow.
-[Mandy] What is the lobster oil?

So I pulverized the lobster shells
and I just roasted them in olive oil.

-[Mandy] Wow.
-[Kate] Damn.

-Ooh.
-[Chris] Dave, the Internet seems...

Your watermelon salad here
has sparked a conversation about

the classic watermelon,
feta and mint combination.

What are your feelings
on the watermelon feta salad?

-Uh, am I cooking that today?
-[Kate] If you're a nerd.

-I have no thoughts.
-Yeah. Yeah.

-I mean, it's not my cup of tea.
-[Chris laughing]

-[Kate] Yeah.
-[Dave] It's not to say that you're wrong.

[Kate] Sure.

-[Dave] But we're not cooking it today.
-[Kate] A little pedestrian compared...

There's nothing wrong with it.
I just don't like... I love feta cheese.

-I don't like it with fruits. Yes.
-[Mandy] The combo.

-Yeah.
-Completely fair.

I hear that.

-Thank you, Dave.
-Thank you.

I'm gonna put salt on them.

I feel like it's a little under-seasoned.

-Okay.
-[Mandy] Thank you.

-Oh, our utensil drawer?
-Oh, what are you gonna use?

-[Chris and crew laughing]
-[Kate] Mmm, mmm, mmm.

-All right, how am...?
-So many options.

[Dave] All right, 17 minutes have gone by.

I was hoping that it was like 40 minutes
so I wouldn't have to make the carbonara.

[all laugh]

I try to buy time, I'm like,

"Okay, what are the steps
to make it again?"

-It's egg yolks.
-[Chris] Yeah.

-Cheese.
-[Chris] Render the...

Render the... I should be
rendering that out now

-Damn it.
-[Chris] I'm so sorry, Dave. I'm so sorry.

-[Kate] Mmm!
-This is incredible.

-[Dave] Right?
-Mmm!

And the red onion there.

[Dave] It's shallot.

I was trying... [groans]

Shallot is the one time I feel like...

-[Kate] I love shallots.
-...eating a raw onion.

Something in that family is okay.

I love raw onion, I gotta say.

-Same.
-Yeah.

Same. I wouldn't...

-Chris, I could've used this information.
-[Kate] I only go to a...

-We could've done a raw onion salad.
-[Kate] This is so good.

When I spoke to them,
neither one of them was like,

"We love raw onion."

-[Dave] I think it's really hard...
-[Kate] Sorry, should've mentioned that.

It's really hard to answer questions
about what you like to eat on the spot.

It's really, to me,
when you're in the moment right now.

-Like...
-[Kate] I'm like, "Pinkberry."

[all laugh]

-This is really, really good.
-So good.

And the mint. Ah!

-Mint is, again, to me, summertime.
-[Kate] Mm-hm.

-[Chris chuckles]
-Wow.

Are you a fast eater?

-Mm-hm.
-Me too.

-Isn't it amazing?
-Yeah.

I feel like we're on a blind date.

-I know.
-I love it.

-How are you?
-[Dave] You don't realize it.

This is the new game show for Netflix.

-[laughs]
-[Kate] Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Hey, if they're smart at corporate,
they're gonna hear that.

[laughs] Exactly.

[Chris] This is Dinner Time Live Is Blind.

-[laughs]
-[Kate] Yeah.

-Dinner Time Blind.
-[Kate] Just the combo.

I can't believe this is happening.
This is unbelievable.

I'm very excited.

-[Kate sighs]
-[Mandy] Mmm.

-Guanciale is from where, Chris Yang?
-The cured pork jowl.

[Dave] I feel like, uh...

that is the traditional way of making it,
not bacon, not pancetta.

-[Chris] Yes.
-[Kate] Mm-hm.

[Dave] So this part, the chubby cheeks.

Sign me up.

[Kate] Beautiful.

All right.

[Mandy] I love the pivot.

-This is exciting.
-I gotta get this started.

Incredible.

To have sparked a pivot
in you was a huge honor.

[Dave] I just hope...

What I hope is that
the audience watching realizes that

this is not some WWE staged stuff.

That really happened.

-[Kate] It really happened.
-Truly.

Uh, are you still...? Just so I'm aware.

Are you still planning on making both?

I can't... What?

[Chris]
Are you gonna make both pastas now?

I think so.

[Mandy] What?

A pasta tasting, it's happening.

-[Dave] I think so.
-Really?

-I think so. We're gonna see.
-[Kate] Wow.

And if it doesn't come out,
we gave it a shot.

-[Mandy] Yeah.
-[Kate] I could have this and be happy.

-Yeah, I could leave right now.
-Yeah.

-This is plenty.
-So nice.

[Dave] Please don't.

-[Mandy] Delightful.
-[Chris and crew laugh]

No one's done it before.

-[Chris laughs]
-[Kate] Mm-hm.

[Dave] All right.

-Can you tell me when I should pull out...
-[Chris] Yeah.

-...the papillote?
-[Chris] Yeah, you want 20 minutes?

[Dave] Probably 15 now.

Okay. You've got about five minutes left.

I have five minutes?

You put it in at 50, I believe.

Fifty-one.

Uh... Oh, yes, clams.

Cooking is hard.

-Yeah.
-[laughs]

I just wanna say that. [laughs]

-It should be, uh, not hard.
-[Kate] Yeah.

It should be fun.

I think this is...

It doesn't look fun for me, but it is fun.
Because I like the...

-It's like diffusing a b*mb.
-[Kate] Yeah. No, I think it's...

That doesn't sound fun at all.
What are you talking about?

[laughing]

[Mandy] It sounds painstaking.

-[Kate] I've always...
-I have a different sense of fun.

Hey, it's definitely...

[Kate]
I've always been intimidated by this,

'cause you have to like...

They have to steam open, right?

And then, if one doesn't,
then you have to...

It's most likely dead, and that's okay,
'cause that happens all the time.

Even if you plucked it out of the ocean,
it might be dead.

Um, but what I'm gonna do is, I like to...

Once they start to open,
I start to take them out immediately.

-[Mandy] One by one?
-Yeah.

-Okay.
-Because when they open, you wanna...

I like to pull them, because there's
gonna be carryover cooking time.

And, uh, there's nothing...

One of my great pet peeves
when it comes to like clams

or this genre of shellfish
is when it's overcooked

and it has the texture of biting
a number two pencil eraser.

-I don't like that. Yeah.
-Pure rubber. Yeah.

[Chris] The blind date conversation
has sparked some Internet chatter.

Have any of you actually been
on a purely blind date?

-[Mandy] I have not.
-[Kate] No.

We're too young
to have participated in that culture.

-[all laughing]
-Yeah. I don't know what that means.

-Yeah.
-Do people go on blind dates?

-Have you been on one, Dave?
-Or is that just a construct of TV shows?

[Kate] Everything's transformed now,
and it's not even...

The blind date? No.

-No. It can't exist anymore.
-Yeah.

Not with social media.

So if it did happen,
it'd be pretty weird, right?

Why is this person not...
You know, exist online?

How does it even...?
How did that used to happen?

-"Hey, I have a friend. Go meet them."
-[Mandy] Yeah.

"They'll be holding..." Um...

-They'll be in a red shirt.
-Yeah. "They'll be in a..."

Is this too weird? Like when I...

I just become Weird Al when I wear...
It's like, I... This is almost like...

This is a risk,
and I wanna say I know it's a risk.

-Not a risk.
-Okay.

-It's perfect.
-Yeah.

I don't look like him.

-Love him to death. An angel on Earth.
-[laughs]

Some of these
are starting to open up right away.

-[Kate] Oh, wow.
-Which, uh, I was not anticipating.

-[Kate] Super alive.
-[laughs] Super alive.

And the smaller ones are Manila clams,
and the other ones are Littleneck.

-[Kate] Oh, cute.
-Littleneck are gonna take more to cook.

When they open up,
you know that they're done?

-Correct.
-Wow.

-But, I mean...
-[Mandy] Still, I would be terrified.

But this needs to cook a little bit more,

but I'm gonna reintroduce it back
into the pasta when I start to glaze it.

-[Mandy] Okay.
-Do people go like this, like a child?

'Cause I started to rise up,
and it makes me feel like a child.

-That happens, right?
-[Chris] Yeah.

-Do they peek in like a little child...?
-[Kate] Like a little child on Christmas.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

-[Kate] Yeah. Oh, thank you.
-Sorry.

Goodbye.

[Dave] So, um...

Production was like,
"You should cook this ahead of time."

-I was like, "I do this in the moment."
-[Kate] Yeah.

And now I'm like,
"I should've cooked this ahead."

[all laughing]

-[Kate] Yeah.
-Yeah.

Look how multi-colored they are.

We've added a dish,
we've thrown some pivots in here.

You are currently working
on the spaghetti and clams.

[Dave] Oui, chef.

You've got your water boiling
behind you for possible carbonara.

-Yep.
-[Chris] We're rendering here.

Fish is ready to come out soon.

-We've thrown a lot of curveballs at you.
-You've thrown a lot of curveballs.

I was not anticipating Chris Bianco
to walk through the door.

I was not anticipating you saying, like,
"I wish I was having carbonara."

I didn't say that.

I was very respectful of the menu
and very excited for the menu.

I was asked what I would be
eating on my birthday.

-I said carbonara, I think.
-That is true.

-[Dave] It's true.
-You generously offered to pivot.

-Yes.
-Yeah.

-Literally.
-Yeah. No, it's true.

-Right before...
-A text went out,

-and the Bat-Signal is... Yeah.
-It's unbelievable.

It's...

-So cool.
-This is live.

-I love it.
-Birthday...

What would you eat on your birthday?
What's everyone's birthday dream?

-Birthday meal?
-Yeah.

That's tough.

What did I have on my birthday?
I can't even remember. Um...

I am a big pescatarian.
I love fish, I love salmon.

Salmon is somehow incorporated
into something I eat

in some way every day.

I can tell by your skin,
you're incorporating the omegas.

-Thanks, Kate.
-[Dave and crew laugh]

I'm not just saying this
to be a good little student.

I've had a birthday meal...

-Ssam Bar was a major, major place for me.
-Oh!

-I lived in New York.
-[Dave] When did you live in New York?

I was there for almost ten years.

-Like, ages 19 to 27, or something.
-Oh, wow.

Uh, and I'm 62 next Wednesday, so...

But I was right by Noodle Bar,
I'd go to Ssam Bar...

-In the hood.
-Yeah.

-I went to Mad for Chicken because of you.
-[Dave] Ah!

I was watching the old Munchies videos,
that rule by the way.

Uh, I think we were the first ones
to actually have the munchies.

-[Kate] Yeah.
-[laughs]

-Different era.
-[Dave] Different era.

Of journalism and content
as we call it now.

So as you can see most of these
are the Manila clams

and these are the Littleneck
and I'm gonna...

-[Kate] Look at the color of the Manilas.
-[Dave] Let these cool down.

And, uh... All I did, I put some white wine.

I had some onion and garlic scraps,
so I put that in there as well.

I don't know if you were looking,
I put a whole stick of butter into this.

-[Mandy] Oh, wow.
-[Chris laughs]

Uh, that's 15 minutes on your fish.

And, Kate and Mandy,
the Internet is asking me.

-Did you say Peyton Manning?
-Peyton Manning.

-[Mandy] He's not here.
-Oh, God, this is the wrong episode.

What are your respective
best and worst birthday presents

you've ever received?

-[Mandy exhales]
-[Kate sighs] Uh...

-Being put on the spot, I don't know.
-I know.

Gift-giving is not my love language.
I will just put that out there.

Like, I appreciate a gift,
but, um, quality time is more my speed.

Yeah.

So, like, an incredible dining experience...

Absolutely.

...that to me would be like top of the list

for how I would want
to celebrate my birthday.

But I don't know.

I'm experiential.
I love gifts. I can't lie.

I'm a materialist.
I live on the earthly plane.

Best gift, worst gift. I don't, uh...

-[Dave] Do you want to let the world know?
-I know, I know.

-Someone's like, "I got that for her."
-[Chris] What are you hiding?

I once sent Dave a singing telegram,
a California Raisin.

-I think that was his worst gift ever.
-[Dave] It's not.

He really did do that on my birthday.
Yeah. It was so thoughtful.

You know, I did get sent
the Tom Cruise cake, as it's referred to.

-You know what I'm talking about?
-[Dave] Yes.

We spoke about this
last time we saw each other.

This is so devastating.
You think this is my party trick.

-It's Tom Cruise's birthday cake.
-[all laughing]

-Did we really? Oh my God, yes.
-This is when I learned about this cake.

-From this bakery in Hollywood.
-[Kate] Yeah, yeah.

Is it a coconut cake?

It's a coconut cake and I got...
It really hit, I have to say.

-From Tom?
-Apparently. From Tom, can you imagine?

Apparently, Tom sends it
to everyone he's ever met.

On their birthday, forever.

This is the juiciest gossip
ever told on Netflix.

-[laughs]
-It can't be real.

But it's very publicly known
as the Tom Cruise coconut cake.

-And...?
-And it's fabulous.

-It's fabulous?
-What a gift to give.

-It's a good gift.
-And receive.

Good to know. I'll make a mental note.

-Tom Cruise coconut cake.
-Yeah. You can get it.

-[Dave laughs]
-I'm trying to think of a bad gift.

-Does it exist? Of course it does.
-Ay-yai-yai.

-[Kate] What kind of pasta are you using?
-[Dave laughs] This is spaghetti.

[Mandy] Are we having spaghetti?

Um...

I don't know why, but I've never cooked
pasta in this pot before.

It's one of my favorite pans,
but we're doing it now. [laughs]

Way to go, Dave.
Just try it on live TV for the first time.

-[Mandy] I love all of this.
-[Kate] This is real.

Unbelievable.

[Chris] Are you employing
the minimal water technique again?

Of course.

-Minimal water?
-Yeah.

We try to never take measurements
in any recipe we make here,

and we try to never use a strainer,

unless it's something like this.

Conservationist extreme.

-It's just sheer laziness.
-Really?

So this one is not opening up.
I'm not going to use it.

-[Kate] Return it to the earth?
-[Mandy] It's dead?

[Kate] Pop that one right in here.

Make a wish on it.

[Dave] Let that cool down.

Bring this one in here.

[Mandy] Do you like to cook?

-[Kate] I do.
-[Mandy] Yeah?

-I am so intimidated in the kitchen.
-Yeah.

-Completely intimidated.
-It's scary. A lot can go wrong.

Just the simple fact of you innovating
and not following recipes,

obviously, you have the experience
to back it up,

but I feel like...
I like baking because I feel like,

oh, the precision and
following a recipe to the T...

-It's surgery.
-...more surgical.

Is surgery intuitive?
Do you think surgeons are like...

Not quite.

There must be a little bit of that,
more than we'd like to admit.

I would love to be an intuitive cook
who can just...

-Same.
-But don't you do that in how you work?

[Kate] Thank you. Yeah.

-Isn't it a lot of improv?
-[Kate] Totally.

-Yeah.
-Spontaneity.

We've had a lot of comedians on this.
You have to work to do improv.

It's not... Practice.
It's not just like, I'll just do it.

Or maybe that is how you do it.
I don't know.

Were you asking
if there's improv surgeons?

I was asking if there's
an improvisational element to surgery,

and if surgeons, although very trained,
if there's an intuitive,

put the knife here,
I don't know, or, like...

But I don't think so.

-I hope not.
-[Dave] I hope not.

I hope not, but they are people.

[Dave and crew laugh]

And that's what's hard.

-I bet you it happens. Right?
-[Kate] They've got to go through it.

They have to be open
to certain possibilities and...

Yeah.

-Options if things are going wrong.
-Oh. It's upsetting.

Ooh, wow.

-That smells incredible.
-[Kate] Oh, my God. Wow.

-Mmm!
-All right.

So if this was, like,
a "restaurant" restaurant,

we'd be opening it up behind you.

[Kate] No, this is more rustic.
This is what the kids love.

[Mandy] My God.

[Kate]
I just invested in some kitchen scissors,

and it's changed my life.

-[Dave] People don't use it enough.
-[Mandy] Mmm!

[Kate] Unbelievable, the freedom.

-[Mandy] Yeah.
-[Kate] Yeah.

I love a kitchen scissor.

-Herbs. Yeah.
-[Dave] I like it to cut steaks too.

So this is a piquillo pepper.

So these are peppers that we just puréed
with some garlic, a little agave.

[Kate] Ooh!

[Dave] And I did not heat this up

because I want this
to cool down the dish just a little bit.

-[Mandy] Wow, brilliant.
-[Kate] Mm.

We've been saving our appetite
all day in preparation for this meal.

-I was a monk.
-Thank you.

-I had steel-cut oats in preparation.
-[crew laughs]

[Dave] What is steel-cut oats?

-I don't know.
-I asked this. Yeah.

So picture an oat. It's not that.

But it has to be like an oat.
I don't know.

-How would you describe it?
-Unctuous.

-Unctuous.
-The texture. Yeah.

Interesting. [chuckles]

So what I'm thinking is
I might just split this pasta into two.

[Chris] Mm-hm?

And that's all I've come up to right now,
is splitting the pasta.

[Chris] You're just opening
an Olive Garden over here.

-Whatever pasta you want.
-[Kate] That pepper on top is so good.

[Chris] And the whole en papillote
you've got basically like ratatouille

because that screams summer to you?

Ratatouille is, um,
not only a great, great movie...

No, it's one of the dishes you learn,
if you go to French cooking school,

pretty much the first week.

-[Mandy] Really?
-It's super easy.

It's one of those dishes
if you make it in advance,

it's more delicious the next day.

There's a lot of varieties of it. Uh...

Not varieties, but this is
a bit more like the byaldi.

And the one that you see in the movie
is actually Turkish, not French, byaldi.

-[Kate] Uh-oh. Shots fired.
-No, it's not. It's true, right?

[laughing]

And, uh, honestly,
I was a little bit more inspired.

One of Gordon Ramsay's signature dishes
is a fish with the scales,

with the zucchini, and squash,
so this is a little bit of a hodgepodge.

This is so... Here's a word people use,
and you go...

-Kind of sound... but, it's "lovely."
-Mm-hm.

-Isn't it lovely?
-[Chris and crew laugh]

-It's like...
-Delightful.

It's exactly what you wanna eat...

Go to commercial, I know we're live,
but I'm tanking us.

It's what you wanna eat
on a balmy summer evening.

Wow.

Your preparation was so refined.
I guess that French... Is that French?

It hearkens to French cooking to me.
That like, very...

What you did.

I'm trying to say,
could I make this at home?

[Dave] You could make this at home.

You could do this.
Tell me the sauce again, you puréed...

It's piquillo peppers, but you could use
just regular red bell peppers

and you can just sauté them
and add a little garlic, olive oil,

a little lemon juice or
some kind of acidity and some sugar.

I cook with agave quite a bit

because it's easier to sort of
just like distribute while cooking.

[Chris] Dave was also joking earlier

that en papillote
is great gender reveal mechanism.

[Dave laughs] No, you...

-[all laughing]
-We were joking beforehand. I was like...

-This would be Mandy's gender reveal.
-[all laughing]

-Oh, Lord.
-Or the steam is either the color.

-Yeah. It's blue or pink.
-Yeah, yeah.

The Internet is wondering if there's
a difference between kitchen shears

and your regular,
run-of-the-mill office scissors.

I don't know what that answer is,
but I think that kitchen shears

look like they're not
just to cut paper, you know?

-These are kitchen shears.
-[Mandy] Yeah.

But, um, I'm a big fan of cutting meat.

If you go to a Korean barbecue restaurant,
you'll see that quite a bit.

-Cutting noodles, cutting steaks.
-[Kate] Mm-hm.

[Dave] Um, it's very utilitarian, I think.

Practical.

So the reason I am, um,
picking out all the clam meat is...

I'm going to purée it
into the cooking liquid.

And this is a technique that was sort of...

I saw Alain Ducasse, a great chef.

He used to make a chowder,
and he'd purée a whole oyster in it,

and it gives it some body and thickness.

Uh, I'm gonna do this with the clams,

and I think it's a nice way
of adding a lot of clam flavor.

-Ooh!
-Um...

Thickening the sauce just a little bit.

-[Kate] The brininess of the clams.
-Correct.

-Mmm-mmm! Mmm!
-This is... Yeah, this is unbelievable.

-I'm so happy.
-[Mandy] I could eat this every day.

Nothing's worse than if I make something
and nobody's eating it.

But you guys are also actors.

-You guys could also be not enjoying it.
-[all laughing]

[Mandy] Not when it comes to food.

Wow! Yeah, no, no.

What would that look like
if you act like you hate it?

What would that look like?

-Kate, I'll lean on you here.
-Act like I hate it?

Yeah.

It's really good.

[all laughing]

I bought it.

-[Dave laughs]
-[Kate] Mmm!

-Yeah.
-So good.

You guys are good.

It is scary.

If somebody cooks for you

and you don't like what they're making,
that's a really...

-[Dave] It sucks.
-That's an upsetting encounter.

-Yeah.
-It really sucks.

-[Mandy] I wasn't worried here.
-Of course. Yeah.

Knew we would be in good hands.

Do people... Are you able to enjoy
people cooking for you in their homes,

or do you feel that they're so terrified
and wanting to impress you

that you have to...?

I can't imagine
the show you have to give people

when you're at their house.

Or do you feel that pressure?

I love it when someone else cooks for me.

-[Mandy] Really?
-Yeah. I love it.

I genuinely... People may not believe it.

Uh, I have a good friend of mine,
Magnus Nilsson,

when he would come to New York,

we'd try to find
the best worst restaurant.

What we mean by that is,

we're trying to find the restaurant
that has the best intentions,

and has one, two,
or three dishes that are great.

But I would rather have meal
with the right sort of vibe.

And it's one of the reasons why people

have so much nostalgia
for their family's cooking,

their grandma's,
their aunt's, uncle's cooking.

I don't know if it's actually super,
super amazing, if you think about it,

but it's the reason why they're cooking,
and I think that's why.

So if anybody's cooking for me,
even if it doesn't taste amazing...

-[Kate] Totally.
-I'm...

-Like, the intention behind it, the love.
-[Dave] Correct.

I know that sounds cliché and cheesy,
but it's the truth.

Totally.

Similarly, if the vibes are bad
and the food's bad...

-Yeah. All bets are off. Forget it.
-Yeah.

-But I didn't really know that until...
-Someone really cruel making food.

...my wife became pregnant,
and I had to cook.

And then it changed my understanding
of, like, cooking for somebody

versus, you know...

Restaurant cooking is different
than trying to feed somebody, like...

[Mandy] Yeah.

I was like, "This is...
I have to give delicious nutrients."

-[Mandy] Nourishment.
-Exactly.

Was there anything wild
that she really wanted

while she was pregnant?

[Dave laughs]

She didn't want any of my...
Like, mac and cheese.

I'd made her mac and cheese,
she never wanted that.

She wanted rice and beans, I'd make it,
but she wanted stuff from El Pollo Loco.

Yeah.

-[Dave] But like... [laughs]
-What?!

Yeah.

-[Mandy] Did she not know what she had?
-So, Grace, I'm not sure.

No, but like, the cravings are real,
and there are things that...

And I'm not one to say,
like, "You gotta eat this."

My cravings with my fourth
were through the roof.

[laughs]

I don't have cravings.

You guys were very kind asking:

"Is there anything that sounds good
or doesn't sound good,"

and I can never...

I feel like the way I've eaten...

-Normal? Yeah.
-Yeah.

Pre-pregnancy is the way
I've always eaten pregnant.

-Um, what is that machine, Dave?
-[Dave] That is...

-You know...
-[Chris and crew laughing]

I'm so reluctant because I would think,

of all the things that have ever happened
in the 20 shows we've done,

this has been mentioned
almost every episode.

-[Kate] Oh, no.
-They should cut us a big fat check.

-Yes, they should.
-[Dave] Seriously.

"By the way..."

We should make up
a different name until they pay us.

-[Dave] This is the...
-[Kate] The Shark Ninja...

The Morty Mix.

-[Chris and crew laugh]
-[Dave laughs] I don't know.

-No, I agree.
-No, it's a Thermomix.

It's quite expensive,

but a lot of professional kitchens
have them, um...

A lot of times, you see home appliances
that have a lot of computer stuff.

I'm not the biggest fan of that

because you just need something simple.

But it's a great tool
because you can cook in it, um...

and you usually can't blend things,
in a normal blender, hot.

Got it.

Oh, thank you so much.

-You guys wanna taste what's in there?
-Yeah.

Now I have to make the sauce.

Wow!

-She's really steaming.
-Oh, thank you so much.

She's steaming.

Since I put Dave in the weeds here,
I'll make you guys do some more talking.

-Mandy...
-[Mandy] Okay, great.

-Uh, you're doing a podcast, This Was Us.
-[Kate] Mmm!

[Mandy] Mm-hm.

-This Is Us is now streaming.
-[Dave] Good, right?

-So nice.
-[laughs]

What has that been like,
sort of revisiting

not only those episodes,
but that time in your life?

Yeah. I mean, our show ended,
like, two years ago.

So I'm doing this podcast, That Was Us,

with Sterling and Chris,
two of our cast members.

And it's just, it's wild to go back

and, like, relive things
that we were doing eight years ago,

and just sort of like
looking at the breadth

of, like, what the show said
and what it meant to people.

And it's so...
And we're family, like, forever,

so it's so nice to kind of reunite

under the guise of being able
to bring the show into the world.

[Chris] Do the episodes feel fresh to you?

[Mandy] We're going ep by ep.

Do they feel fresh to you,
like, you remember them?

No, 'cause we're rewatching it.

My husband and I
are rewatching the show together

from, you know,
the first episode, and it's...

It's also crazy now, like, being a parent
and watching the show through that lens.

'Cause I didn't have kids then,
and I was like, wow.

Some things,
I feel like I got really, really wrong.

[all laugh]

So that's kind of fun to watch again.

Um...

People love that show.

[Mandy] Oh, that's very sweet.

It's also, what...
When's it coming on Netflix?

It's on Netflix now.
Let me get my Netflix account real quick.

[Mandy] Funny enough.

-I get it. It's all rigged.
-[all laughing]

This whole thing is rigged.

And no mention of my podcast.
That's interesting.

You've been doing Poog.

-[Kate] Very good. Yeah.
-Right?

-[Mandy] We love Poog.
-I've got a question for you too, Kate.

-[Kate] No. No.
-But first, an update from Dave.

First, a quick update on what's happening.

Um...

-[Kate] What's happening? Oh, gosh.
-[Dave] I mixed the guanciale fat.

And I'm just trying to imagine,
like channel an Italian nonna now that...

um, won't get mad at me
because I'm not making things authentic.

That looks insane. That's unbelievable.

I have some of this pasta water that...

-[Mandy gasps]
-Oh, wow.

-No strainer, no strainer.
-[Dave] I'm not straining.

-[Kate] My hands can be the strainer.
-[Dave] The reason I'm not is because...

I have to split this pasta.

Oh, okay.

-Half clam, half carbonara.
-Yeah.

-Kate, your podcast, Poog...
-[Kate] Yeah?

...explores the trillion-dollar business
of health and wellness.

Any specific wellness trends
that have surprised you

that were like, "Oh, I thought
this was gonna be a joke,

but, man, does my skin ever look...?"

You know, we... Uh...

I mean, the whole, like,
wellness industry is so...

It'd be like gilding the lily.

Like, it's already so absurd
that it's like, it's kind of...

There just... I think the belief
that anything can help at all.

Things help,
but I just mean the kind of like...

-Like a miraculous...
-Mandy was putting on lipstick,

and I go, "What lipstick does she have?
If I have it, my life will be perfect."

-That's really potent still.
-[Chris] Right.

-For all of us.
-I'm getting the lipstick you got.

-Our little secret, it's girls' night.
-[Mandy and Chris laughing]

[crew laughs]

-Yeah.
-I love it.

I'm always surprised that Koreans
have such a stranglehold

on the beauty products.

[Kate] Oh, my God, the best.

-The best.
-The absolute best.

-No idea how that happened.
-[Kate] My God.

-But is it really the best?
-[Kate] It happened.

-[Mandy] Oh, yeah.
-[Kate] It's the best.

The most innovative
without a shadow of a doubt.

-It's...
-They just take it to a whole new level.

-Um, wow.
-This is... I'm gonna start crying.

Oh, my God.

[Mandy] I feel like...

[Kate] How are you gonna have this
on your birthday now, after this?

-Oh, boy. And there it goes.
-[Mandy] It'll all be a letdown.

[crew laughs]

[Kate] Honestly, the great comedian
and actor, Claudia O'Doherty,

is the one who makes this carbonara
so insanely delicious.

-[Dave] Well...
-[Mandy] Good luck, Claudia.

-Good luck.
-Now this is a challenge.

I have to beat her.

[Chris laughs]

Oh, my God.

[Chris] I mean, for fully improvised,
not intended carbonara,

-it looks pretty epic.
-Completely.

[Mandy] What do you think?

[Kate]
3 a.m. We're in the back of the kitchen.

I'm not upset.

[Kate] Oh, my God.
That means something huge.

I mean, look at it.
Oh, my God. It's a birthday dream.

[Mandy]
Dave, this is the coolest thing ever.

-[Mandy gasps]
-[Dave] I'm gonna...

-[Kate] Look at how glossy.
-[Dave] Oh, no, I spilled cheese on you.

-[Mandy] No, please.
-[Dave] I put cheese on Mandy Moore.

-This is terrible.
-[all laugh]

[Kate] If some boiling water
were to scald my eye,

permanent blindness from you,
it'd be fine.

Don't worry, just wait.
That can still happen.

-That can still happen.
-[Kate] Look at the glossiness.

[Chris] That's our first merch,
"I put cheese on Mandy Moore" T-shirt.

[all laugh]

-[Mandy] Wow! [gasps]
-[Kate] Oh, wow. Mmm!

[Dave] All right.

Dig in there, guys.

-Thank you.
-Thank you so much.

-[Dave] Thank you, Chris Bianco.
-Thanks, Chris Bianco.

[Kate] That was crazy. That was crazy.

-Happy early birthday, girl.
-[Kate] Thank you.

-Cheers.
-Cheers. Wow.

Wow. This is not the way to eat.

[Dave] I can't believe this will work out.

-[Chris] That's so crazy.
-[Mandy] On television. [gasps]

[Kate] Mmm!

Does it taste like Rome?
Does it taste like Romania?

It's better than Rome.

It's downtown L.A.

-Tastes like downtown Los Angeles.
-[Chris and crew laughing]

Tastes like the Row.

This is so... I mean, this is so good.

-Mmm. Wow.
-[Dave] Is it okay?

Really?

[Chris and crew laugh]

Oh, my goodness.

Well, my nonna did love making this dish.

[Mandy and crew laugh]

-[Mandy] This is incredible.
-This is so amazing.

The guanciale is psychotic.

Mandy, your facial expressions
are taking the Internet by storm.

What's going through your mind right now?

-[Mandy] Taking the Internet by storm?
-[all laugh]

I'm just floored.

I'm in the moment.

I'm trying to be present
and just appreciate the food.

-It's hitting my palate.
-Would you let her eat, Chris? Jesus!

[Chris] I'm just trying to give
the Internet what they want.

-Eating on camera, it's...
-It's very... Yeah!

Like, if I were alone with this,
I'd be elevated, just like:

Totally.

-Just like scarfing it down.
-Trying to be like, "Hire me."

[laughs]

[Dave]
So let me just explain what I did on that.

-Again, the guanciale, I rendered it out.
-[Kate] Please.

I was a little worried
that I cut it too big,

but that's why I'm rendering it
a little bit more than normal.

-Um... delicious.
-[Mandy] Mmm!

And, um, I did four egg yolks.

I took some of the pasta water,
about half a quart of the Parmesan.

Um, probably need to do this.

[Kate] Mm, mm!

-[Mandy] Wow.
-Um...

-[Mandy] Thank you.
-[Dave] What else did I do? Some pepper.

[Chris] The yolks, the pasta water.

-A little...
-[Mandy] A whole stick of butter.

-No, the stick of butter is in here.
-[Mandy] Oh, sorry.

So here, again,
it was the liquid from the clams.

So wine... White wine, garlic,
a little onions, and shallots,

puréed that with about three quarters
of the clams that I cooked.

And again,
I just reduced that with the water.

I like cooking this way, especially here,
because it saves me some time,

and it has a lot of starchy viscosity
that gives it that lusciousness.

And, uh, I added parsley.

[Kate] Beautiful.

I'll give it a taste,
and hopefully we're good to go.

[Kate] It's like gristle.

I had to say it because imagine...
You know what I mean?

-God, I got it.
-I had to call it out,

because it'd look like something
that wasn't happening.

This is crazy.

Do we get a doggie bag
to take all this home?

Yes. It makes me so happy when...

[Kate] Look at the color of this.

I'll just say that without anyone knowing.

-This can't go to waste.
-[Dave] No. We'll send you home with this.

My husband is definitely watching
right now, going like, "I want it."

Mmm! Mmm!

-It's so hot.
-[all laughing]

If it's hot for you, then it's scalding.

It's so hot.

I'm eating like an animal.

I can imagine my mother being like,
"What you did to yourself there..."

"I didn't teach her to eat like that."

It's in my hair. That's how good it is.

Wow.

Okay, I think we're good to go.

[Chris] I love what you were saying
about this pasta,

when I was asking you why you were
doing spaghetti instead of linguine,

just the universality of this dish.

I guess the traditional pasta for this
is linguine. Linguine and clams.

The reason I'm partial
to cooking it with spaghetti...

And this is something
I used to cook a lot more,

but we have shellfish allergies
in my home now so, uh...

Is...

If I didn't add the parsley,
I didn't add the butter,

I could make this taste Chinese.

-[Mandy] Really?
-Yeah.

Or a lot of different sort of foods
that I've had around the world.

There's something universal
about this dish.

But, you know,

I got to give it to my Italian friends
that this might be the best.

One of the best. I'm taking it back.

[Chris laughs]

-It's a spectacular pasta.
-It's a spectacular pasta.

-[Mandy gasps] Oh, my goodness.
-[Kate laughs] Okay, I have to...

I know, and, like,
I want to pace myself. I...

[Dave] Oh!

-[sighs]
-Wow. This is incredible.

[Kate] That really did a lot for me.

Knowing that this is coming is shocking.

-To dismount onto that is really shocking.
-Here you go.

-Just like a pasta tasting. Here we go.
-Yeah, a pasta flight. My favorite.

Wow.

So this was what was originally intended
to make it the summer of Dave.

[all laugh]

But I'm glad we made the detour.

I'm glad Bianco was right here
to save the day.

-That was...
-Unbelievable.

You think I can pop in the kitchen,
remember me?

-Yeah. Yeah.
-Can I get a table? Yeah.

Can I get a pizza?

-Oh, thank you. Bowl for the clams.
-Oh, yeah.

Please don't throw that away.

-Proper burial.
-Thank you.

I heard that it's very de classe
to go, like... In Italy, this is...

-[Dave] Is it?
-Apparently, this is what peasants do.

[Chris] You're not supposed to do that?

I heard that.
I did this and someone said...

An Italian said to me, "Don't do that."

I'm like absolutely
cutting my pasta like a...

Mmm!

...old American.

-Oh, this is so good.
-So good.

Is the carbonara better
than your friend's?

I'm a highly competitive person.

-[all laughing]
-I was waiting to reveal toward the end.

-What do you think, Dave?
-[Dave laughs]

She's not watching.

I don't care how wonderful this person is
or if she's an amateur. I have to win.

-Yeah, yeah. You won.
-[Dave] Thank you.

So how did, um,
your last, um, friends compete

to be the best diner?

Like, what does that entail?

-Yeah, what does it entail?
-[Chris] Oh, interesting.

-Mandy's competitive too.
-I am competitive.

The best diner, number one,
is, um, I found...

[Kate] Tony and Sam.

-Yeah, what did they do?
-Tony and Sam.

In general, I feel like if you have
a dietary restriction or whatever,

and it's not something that will k*ll you,
you just eat it.

-[Mandy] Yeah.
-You know?

-Yeah.
-I'm sorry.

Eggplant is that... I got a knock for that.

You got a knock, I know.
You know what I told myself?

Because we love you so much,
you're definitely allergic to eggplant.

[all laugh]

I think, just in general, like,
being nice to everybody,

good conversation,
not doing sauce on the side.

It's really how you order too.

If you are the pain in the a*s

and those that are watching be like,
"That's not me",

it's definitely you, right?

[Dave laughs]

If you think that you have to explain,

like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally
is giving the order,

that's a server's worst nightmare.

Right? Right, Mandy?
We have another Mandy.

Um, not fun. Not fun.

[Chris] What are you cutting into?

-This is plums.
-[Kate] Beautiful.

This is one of the...
It's stone fruit season here.

There's pluots, there's apricots,
there's plums in the market right now.

I think in Southern California, this is
arguably my favorite fruit of the year.

[Mandy] Really?

-[Kate] A plum?
-Plums. Anything that has that flavor.

-Pluots.
-[Dave] Pluots.

Used to work at the farmer's market,
Frog Hollow Farm, my cousin's farm.

-That's your cousin's farm?
-Yeah, see, this is a huge moment.

Cut this for social.
Bring this out for social.

-[Dave] You could have told us this.
-Frog Hollow Farm. Yeah.

And I worked
at the farmer's market stand. Yeah.

-[Dave] Whoa.
-What do they grow?

This endears me. It's an organic farm.
They do everything.

-[Dave] Peaches.
-Peaches are huge.

-Avocados.
-Amazing, crazy avocados.

Wow, this is huge.

But truly, the pluots,
their stone fruit is crazy.

So that's why I wanted to do it.

And originally, shout out to Andrew
who helped perfect this,

because I still refuse to
write down a recipe or follow a recipe.

We just threw this together
and it's come out pretty well.

[Kate] It's beautiful.

Again, I love
a pineapple upside-down cake.

-[Kate] Is it really cooked upside-down?
-Yeah, it is cooked upside-down.

-[Kate] It's beautiful.
-[Mandy] You learn something every day.

[Dave]
And this is some whipped mascarpone.

-[Kate] Oh, my God.
-[Chris] Eat your heart out, Tom Cruise.

-[Mandy] Ultimate cake.
-[Chris] On this.

-Take your coconut cake.
-I'll be laughing.

-You can't Goldbelly this.
-[Chris and crew laughing]

Wow, thank you. Wait, are we already...?

-No, no. How much time?
-Stop. It's over?

Two minutes and 40 seconds.

-Can you believe that?
-[Chris] You gotta get out of here.

-[Dave] It goes like that.
-This is astonishing.

That's insane. We haven't even
talked about this dish, though.

I know. I went so hard into the carbonara
that now I'm... This is so...

Truly, like, the brininess that this has
is... It's so delicious.

-The parsley.
-The clams are to die for.

-[Dave] This tastes good.
-[Kate] It's delicious.

And by the way,
I like that it's spaghetti.

-I really do.
-I'm sure people are upset. No disrespect.

I almost said that it is
the best clam pasta dish in the world.

-There. Happy?
-[Chris] Nobody's upset. Nobody's upset.

So far.

[Chris and crew laugh]

-Wow.
-So, so good.

Well, guys, thank you guys for coming.

-[Mandy] Thank you.
-[Kate] A huge honor.

-[Mandy] Honor of a lifetime.
-[Kate] So much fun. Fun.

-Couldn't even say fun.
-It was fun.

[all laugh]

I can't believe it.

-We made two... This is...
-Spectacular.

I can't believe you did all that.
It's dawned on me.

The magnitude of it all.
And you did two pastas at once. Crazy.

-Ah.
-[Dave] Thanks, guys.

[theme music playing]