← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
AI Cashiers, Secret Chick-fil-A Cafés, and Thanksgiving Hacks
00:30:14
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A
All right. Welcome back to another episode of American Gravy. The only show where we mix food, family, and freedom in the same pot.
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B
And somehow we don't burn it. Mostly.
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A
Mostly. Right.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Where the grease is hot, the opinions are hotter, and somebody definitely burned the bacon.
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B
I am Lauren Gruel.
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A
I am Lauren Grohl.
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B
Oh, yeah, Wait, no, no, no. I'm Andrew Grohl.
- [03:26]
A
He's Andrew Grohl. And today we are stirring together a little food family and the occas indigestion.
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B
It is a little bit of political indigestion. Today we're gonna be covering Chick Fil A's new spin off cafe. We're gonna be covering New York City hiring workers from the Philippines. At the counter. We're gonna be talking Thanksgiving, talking stuffing, talking eggs, talking meat, doing some sharpening your skills. Potato cast iron pizza. As a little sneak peeks. Weight loss drugs. Oh, my gosh, we got a lot to talk about today.
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A
I was like, weight loss drugs. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's my 86.
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B
Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't give away the ending. But we'll start today. We kind of tossed up a little bit, but we're gonna start with our WTF segment, which is the what the fork Crazy food stories. And Lauren's got a good one for you.
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A
All right, so Chick Fil a has opened a new spinoff cafe concept called Daybright Coffee, which features coffees, fizzes, iced teas, and smoothies, along with quick bites, donuts, and more. Does Starbucks have some competition?
- [04:24]
B
There's a lot of brands that have tried to jump into this spinoff drink space. You saw that McDonald's did their version of a drink only concept, which I think it. What was it called? Cosmos. And they closed it. But I don't know if they closed it because it was just a beta and they wanted to get numbers or it didn't do well. Swig has been blowing up. Swig was that concept that started in Utah, which is Swig. Yeah. Which is the drive through soda spot.
- [04:51]
A
I remember when we opened it. Yes.
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F
Okay.
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B
I remember that was a big deal.
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A
And it was all these craft, very unique soda like combinations.
- [04:56]
B
Yeah. Like, I think you pump it right there and you get the soda fresh, which I thought was really unique. That's gotten a ton of investment, independent and private equity. So Chick Fil A doing this.
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A
Yeah. But Chick Fil A has A huge following. Yeah, right. Like they have, like, a loyal customer base.
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B
Yeah. But one thing I will say is that when I've seen brands break away from what they do and they do best and people know them for, it's not always that successful. Chipotle's tried to do this with multiple brands. They did their Southeast Asian street food concept. I forget the name of it. I think it was Hawkers, or it might have been.
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A
Clearly it wasn't memorable. I don't even know the name.
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B
No, it wasn't Hawker's. It was something else. In any case, they closed the mall. They've tried a couple different concepts, so this will be interesting. Wtf.
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A
But there's only one right now. It's in. I can't pronounce Hiram. Georgia.
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B
Yeah, it's in Georgia.
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A
So Georgia. So we'll see. Let's see how they do.
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B
So my WTF story, though, is interesting. I love this. I've seen this video going viral across social media. New York City is hiring workers from the Philippines, and they put this big computer screen up at the front counter. The person's in the Philippines, you walk in and they're like, hello, how can I help you? And they're working for $3 an hour or something. And it's over zoom. They're literally running this over zoom. And then you give the person in the Philippines your order through this computer screen, and then they put your order in and it goes back into the kitchen.
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A
But why wouldn't they just do one of those, like, mobile ordering where you do it yourself?
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B
Because people don't. So there's a lot of surveys that have shown people don't. They will not go back to restaurants where they have to place the order themselves. Because I still think the mobile ordering format or algorithm, the. It's still confusing in many cases.
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A
Yeah, but at the same time, you're talking to a computer. I mean, it's a live person, I guess. But that's such a weird. I mean, whatever. Is it working?
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B
I mean, I don't know. You should see the comments section. When people post about it, they're like, hire Americans. And they make it obviously, like a much greater.
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A
Yeah, but when you have freaking. What's his face? Trying to, you know, increase the minimum wage of 30 bucks an hour.
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B
Yeah, exactly. You're right. You're right. That's.
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A
Businesses gotta do what they gotta do.
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B
Because if you have. Think about it. If you have a restaurant, let's just say it opens 10 to 11. Right. Or 10 to 10. So 12 hours. You need two people. Well, three people every single day. Right. You need a mid shift to cover the breaks of the PM shift and the AM shift. Right. And so let's just say you have three units of labor right there. And if it gets really busy, maybe five. So five units of labor at $30 an hour, what they're mandating, minus the $3 an hour that you have to pay in the Philippines, probably less on the insurance and the payroll taxes. So 40 hours a day in labor, you know, saving 25 bucks an hour times four. That's right there. $1,000 every single day. You're saving by doing it that way.
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A
I get it, too. I mean, these are more for quick service, fast, casual spots anyway, so. I understand. Right. But at the same rate, it's like. I don't know, it's taking the. How do you say?
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B
Like, it's taking the service out of quick service.
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F
Not the.
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B
It's taking the. It's taking the. Well, first of all, you want it to be genuine. Like, that's why people love Chick Fil A. Going back to the original wtf. People love Chick Fil A because they say, thank you. They say, please come again, my pleasure. All that good stuff. Cliches, very simple, great training, and they stick to their service model. We're losing it, right? We're outsourcing it.
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A
Yeah, we're losing that. Like, I don't know that je ne sais quoi. Human touch.
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B
Well, speaking of. Your foot just touched me.
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A
Oh, my gosh.
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B
Okay, well, let's talk about Thanksgiving, because it's coming up, and I saw a study recently that said stuffing remains America's favorite dish at Thanksgiving. Not the turkey. Stuffing.
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F
Yeah.
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A
Because turkey, unless you make it, is horrible. It's dry.
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B
That is a funny. That is a funny thing. People hate the turkey, but it's the.
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A
Centerpiece because it's pretty.
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B
I don't want to mix a. I don't want to mix a sharpen your skills segment into this segment. But I will say this just quickly. If you are going to cook your turkey, I know you want that big, round centerpiece. Separate the legs, the thighs, and the breasts, and cook the breasts separately than the legs and the thighs, because that's how you're gonna get the perfect meat every single time. It's impossible to cook your breasts and your thighs perfectly, even when you're doing it just straight in the oven as a roast.
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A
But you've also done it where you kind of. You keep the bird together and you're flipping it Around.
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B
Yeah, that's the French roast. So if you cook it. If you roast it and you basically turn the bird every 15 minutes on different sides, and you are circulating the heat in a much more even manner, so you are gonna get a better cook on that. I mean, the ultimate way is to spatchcock your bird is where you spl. Backbone out and you flatten the bird, because then you're gonna cook. The breasts, which are on the inside of the pan, are gonna take longer to heat up and the X. So your legs need to cook to, let's just say, 165 degrees. Your breasts cook to 155 degrees. So you can overcook your legs because they're on the exterior of the pan. By the time you're in, the interior of the bird or the interior of the pan where the breasts are will cook to 155. So they actually cook perfectly that way. But, whoa, I went completely off topic there.
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A
That's okay.
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B
You like the sides more than a turkey?
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A
Yes, absolutely. Like, I could eat sides all day long. I.
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B
She could eat sides all day long because I. I've done that. I've left it in the fridge. And then she will have breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides.
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A
Like, I'll just throw something. Like, I'll make eggs and then, like, throw some stuffing in them. I'll make eggs and throw some cranberry sauce, anything.
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B
You know, generally speaking with foods, I think I just like sides overall anyways.
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A
Well, because they're fun.
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B
That's what was great about Boston Market, right? You get your burden and you pick, like, 13 sides.
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A
Thirteen. But that's so 66% of Americans would rather cook sides anyway than turkey, and 47% would rather eat only sides. That's huge.
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B
Well, so 20% difference in that number is because 60% of Americans are afraid to cook the turkey.
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A
Well, yeah, I think there needs to be, like, one large zoom class. You should, like, host it in the Philippines. Yeah, exactly. You should host it and show everybody how to properly cook a turkey. Oh, my gosh. People actually enjoy eating turkey.
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B
Well, you can find out on American Gravy on YouTube or any of our channels. Go to www.americangravy.com and you can get all of those links. And we'll be giving you all of the Thanksgiving cooking tips. Little plug there. Shameless plug. Shameless plug. Are you ready to blow your biscuits?
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A
Absolutely.
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B
You love this segment about blowing your biscuits. So here's some food facts that you probably didn't know about, and this one is really interesting, especially when it comes to the MAHA space, did you know that the modern diet is brand engineered? By that I mean 80%. This is a fascinating stat. 80% of grocery store products are owned by 10 companies.
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A
10 companies?
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B
Yeah, like your PepsiCo's of the world, et cetera. 10 companies own 80% of what you're offered at the grocery store using the same chemicals, using the same products, using the same ingredients.
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A
Well, it's funny too because, you know, people buy all these, you know, name brand items, but they don't want to buy the store bought. But it's like probably the same thing and a lot cheaper.
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B
That is 100% true. And another one that I found interesting is that, and I knew this number was high, but I didn't know it was this high. 99% of the meat that you buy comes from basically meat operations that utilize CAFOs. Right. So CAFOs is an acronym, C A F O and it stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding operations. It's a type of an industrial agricultural facility. They confine these large number of animals in a dense space and this is specifically for food production. They basically mass feed them junk. And they don't let the animals walk, they don't let them leave these spaces. They're packed together undercover. And that's why so many animals get sick. And then you have to use antibiotics on the animals. And that's why there's the issue of having antibiotics or antibiotic residue in the meats that we eat. So it's all about the feeding piece of it. If you let these animals naturally kind of pasture walk around. Right? Free reign, free range, it's really regenerative agriculture. It's gonna cost a lot more, but it's gonna be a lot healthier for you. It's a much better quality meat. I think in the long run it will cost a lot less. I think we have enough land where we can actually allow the cattle to rain free. I think that these CAFO operations are really, you know, kind of disgusting.
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A
Just sad. Yeah, like really sad for the animal.
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B
And I know we're eating the animal ultimately, but still, like you want that animal to only have one bad day and that's the day that we slaughter it to eat it and the rest of its life to be wonderful.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So I think that that's, that's an interesting number and kind of weaves back into our food conversation that we had a couple episodes ago in regards to the meat industry. But don't mean to depress you on that. How about this one? This one's Less depressing blowing your biscuits. Do you know why we refrigerate eggs?
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A
I do. I don't think many people do. So when you wash and sanitize an egg. Right. Why we have to refrigerate it is because when you wash it, you remove the egg's natural cuticle, which is a thin protective coating that seals the pores in the shell. So when you remove all of that, you have to refrigerate it because there's nothing protecting.
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B
But that's why in Europe, in Europe, you see eggs on the shelves everywhere. It's because they don't wash that coating off.
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A
Yeah. And do you know that if that was the case, like, if we didn't wash the cuticle off, that they can be safely stored at room temperature for up to two to three weeks?
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B
Two to three weeks?
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A
Yes.
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B
Two to three weeks.
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A
That's a long time. We leave our eggs on the counter for, like, 20 minutes and I'm freaking out.
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B
I've actually. Sometimes our kids go two to three weeks without taking a shower.
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F
What?
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A
That is not true. They're boys.
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B
I was reading along the lines of a blow your biscuit. I was saying the other day I read this. I don't know whether it was, like, an article or something on Instagram. And it was like, taking a shower every single day removes your natural bacteria. And I just kind of said it out loud. I think I was saying it to you.
- [15:06]
A
Yeah. So now our boys are taking a shower as normal.
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B
You weren't listening to me. And, yeah. The other night, we're like, okay, boys, time to take a bath. And they're like, well, did you know that?
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A
They're like, dad said it's not good for us to shower every day.
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B
I'm like, oh, my gosh, we're never showering ever again.
- [15:21]
A
Yeah. Thanks, Andrew.
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B
That's right. So our house smells like a French cheese. Speaking of cheese and eggs, let's talk Denny's.
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A
Denny's.
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B
Moon's over Miami.
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A
You worked at Denny's.
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B
I did work at Denny's. I went to Denny's. I love Denny's. Actually. I remember growing up in New Jersey in, like, the early 80s, and my aunt would take me to Denny's in the morning. I remember I went to Denny's a lot.
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A
You did.
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B
I did.
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A
But especially you went to Denny's even though you had all those, like, unique diners in New Jersey.
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B
You know, when I started going to Denny's a lot was when I went to. I went to college up in Maine and go on the east coast, it was like the late night thing, right? I started going to Denny's when I started working in restaurants and when my insomnia kicked in, which is around the age of 18.
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A
Oh, that's sad. I used to go to Denny's a lot with my grammy.
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B
Really?
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A
Yeah.
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B
What'd you get? Did you get the All American Grand Slam? The Della Dinger? The Moon?
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A
No, I got the Grand Slam. I think my grandma also got the Grand Slam, and she would always get a cup of decaf black coffee.
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B
Do you know that they don't have, like, nobody knows the Della Dinger. The Della Dinger?
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A
I don't even know the Della Dinger. What the heck is that?
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B
It's not a move. The Della Dinger sounds like a move. Like, you're gonna get the Della Dinger tonight.
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A
Ew.
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B
Della Dinger.
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A
I don't know what I deny.
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B
Della Dinger. Right. So what is it? Break the word up. Deli Dinger.
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A
Oh, it's deli.
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B
Deli dinger. Three slices.
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A
He's saying Della.
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B
Deli Dinger. Deli Dinger.
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A
No, you're like, Della Dinger. Della Dinger. So that's why it didn't make any sense.
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B
Well, it's a discontinued sandwich that originally from Denny's was grilled sandwich with turkey, ham, bacon, cheddar cheese, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise on buttered sourdough.
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A
Should we bring our version of the Deli Dinger to Calico?
- [17:00]
B
Maybe. Maybe we should.
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A
Sounds actually delicious.
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B
You know what's funny? I actually thought there was always an egg on that. Oh, what's this? I looked it up, the Del Dinger, and it says Deledinger, New Jersey style. That is with Jewish rye bread, corned beef, roast beef, and pastrami, Swiss cheese, deli mustard. Leave it to the D. Those from New Jersey to always change up a sandwich. It's like the Jersey Sloppy Joe, which is my favorite.
- [17:24]
A
I'll tell a quick story. Speaking of sandwiches. So my first time going back east with Andrew to meet his family, this was forever ago. Andrew was like, you have to get the sandwich. We stop off at this little, tiny, tiny deli that's, like, in a strip mall, and he orders me the Jersey Joe. And for some reason in my head, I'm like, why is he getting me a sloppy joe? Like, what the heck? And. But then it was like, the most amazing sandwich I've ever had in my life. Even when we go back to Jersey, like, no one can replicate that sandwich. Like, where did we get it from.
- [17:54]
B
No one can ever replicate the first time. The.
- [17:57]
A
So good.
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B
The Sloppy Joe.
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A
Jersey Joe.
- [18:00]
B
When I'm saying Sloppy Joe right now, people are probably remembering the Adam Sandler scene where it's like Sloppy Joe, Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Which is just like Manwich, right? It's. It's ground. It's Bolognese sauce with more ground beef on a soft seeded bun. The Jersey Sloppy Joe is a triple layer sandwich, typically with white rye, Russian or Thousand island dressing, depending on what your political preference is. Swiss cheese, coleslaw, turkey, ham, triple decker. Just. Oh, my gosh, it drips. The coleslaw juice just drips down your arm with the Thousand island dressing. And then that sharp cheddar cheese takes over and takes you on a walk. I like going there. That is the Jersey Joe.
- [18:46]
A
But let's go back to our Denny's story. Why did we bring up Denny's in the first place?
- [18:50]
B
Oh, yeah, we brought up Denny's because that's. Man, you can tell we're hungry because we're allowing the stories to drive our stomachs and not the news. The food news. So the struggling breakfast chain actually was purchased in a $620 million deal. Denny sold. Denny said Monday that it's being acquired by a group of investors in a deal that will take the breakfast chain private. Denny's board unanimously approved the deal, which values Denny's at 620 million, including debt. Denny's will be purchased by private Equity Investment Co. TRI Artisan Capital Advisors, an investment firm, Travel Capital, and Yadav Enterprises, which is one of Denny's largest franchises. Is it.
- [19:28]
A
Where did Yadav.
- [19:29]
B
I think they're here.
- [19:30]
A
No, but we just talked about them.
- [19:32]
B
Yeah, they bought. Weren't they part of. Was it Del Taco acquisition? Yeah. There's really only a handful of these private equity firms and investment groups that trade in food and fast calories.
- [19:42]
A
Did you know Denny's was founded in 1953 in Lakewood, California?
- [19:46]
B
Yeah. Did you know that it was founded as Danny's Donuts?
- [19:49]
A
I did not.
- [19:50]
B
Yeah, the name was changed to Denny's coffee shops in 1959.
- [19:53]
A
That makes sense why my grandma loved Denny's so much. Cause she lived. Well, not in Lake. She lived in Torrance, which is.
- [19:59]
B
There you go. And Denny's began trading on the New York stock exchange in 1969. Normally I'd be like 69, but now it'd be six, seven. Okay. And like many casual chains, Denny saw its sales plummet during the COVID pandemic. I don't know why. They included that in the article like that.
- [20:18]
A
Okay, that's like a no brainer. Everybody, everybody's.
- [20:21]
B
But they never followed up with. And then the government overprinted billions of dollars worth of money and gave them all that money back because they were a large multi unit chain and not an independent that we were trying to crush because the government hates entrepreneurs.
- [20:36]
A
They really do.
- [20:37]
B
That just got crazy. But, but last fall, Denny said it planned to close 150 of its lowest performing locations. At the end of the second quarter, Denny's had 1,558 restaurants worldwide. Do you know that?
- [20:50]
A
1,558?
- [20:52]
B
Yeah.
- [20:53]
A
That's a lot.
- [20:53]
B
Yeah. 1500 Denny's. But in any case, Denny's is selling. So Denny's isn't going under. They're going private. Right. So basically they're not going to be a public company anymore. Which I actually think is good for the trajectory because when a company goes from public to private, then they can actually make bigger changes. They're not affected by the obviously rules and regulations, but the effect that any of the moves that they make would have on their share price because then ultimately the share price drives operations and not the other way around. So maybe a good thing, maybe they're gonna bring back the Della Dinger.
- [21:24]
A
All right, Delladinger.
- [21:25]
B
So I'm excited about this one.
- [21:27]
A
What is your sharpen your skills.
- [21:30]
B
So I saw this the other day and I'm actually gonna give it a try. I have not tried this myself, but I wanted to talk about it. So really the skill that we're sharpening is just your cast iron cooking and your quick foods. So this was a skillet pizza st, but it was with a baked potato. So you take potato, that's baked potato, perhaps you put it in a refrigerator, was wrapped in foil. So it's a cold baked potato. Right. Just grease up maybe a little beef tallow on a cast iron in a cast iron pan, 10 inch, 12 inch. And then smash the baked potato into the pan. Like smash it all around as if it's dough and it surrounds the bottom of the pan. Then they put tomato sauce on top of it, mozzarella cheese, a little bit of parmesan cheese, pepperoni. And they baked it at like 500 and 550 degrees. And it actually slipped right out of the pan and it cut and ate like a pizza. Like a pan pizza.
- [22:19]
A
That sounds fabulous. Ooh, we should try it tonight.
- [22:22]
B
We got a lot going on tonight.
- [22:25]
A
We really are hungry. And that's why everything that we're talking about my stomach is growling.
- [22:30]
B
I know. I'm like, so you take the tree and then you grate the wood chips off the tree, and you put it in a bowl with some glue and eat it. And you're like, that is absolutely delicious. I could eat that right now. So what do you think needs to go? Like, let's get to our 86 segment food trends that need to end because.
- [22:48]
A
I'm almost getting suckered into this. Every other ad of mine is a weight loss drug. Like, whether it's the GLP1s, the triazepatide, the peptides. And I'm like, oh, should I take this, by the way?
- [23:03]
B
I have no idea what you just said. I don't know what any of those things are.
- [23:05]
A
The GLP1, it's like Ozempic.
- [23:07]
B
I mean, I know what GLP1, I'm.
- [23:08]
A
Not gonna take Ozempic. But there's all these, like, you know, capsules now where you don't need injections, and there's all this stuff. And I'm like, I just feel like we've come so far as, like, a society to kind of accept, like, what you look like. And now I feel like we're going back, right? And, like, this has nothing to do with the weight loss drug. But Kim Kardashian, her brand skims, which is, like, her shapewear and things. They just came out with, like, basically a bodysuit to enhance curves. Butt pads, hip pads, like, all these. So your body shape looks like the Kardashian body, which is, by the way, not natural at all. Like, it looks fake. Like, that's not how a normal human being looks. And people are getting insecure about how, you know, God made them, and I just hate it so much.
- [23:55]
B
Can men wear this?
- [23:57]
A
You could probably use some butt pads.
- [23:59]
B
That's what I was thinking. Like, can you break it up? Like, I don't need the Kardashian chest, but I could. I could certainly use the hips.
- [24:04]
A
You don't want the hips.
- [24:05]
B
A little bit of rump in the trunk.
- [24:06]
A
I'm gonna buy you the butt pads.
- [24:08]
B
I need to get bigger.
- [24:08]
A
No, but seriously, like, I don't like that that's become such a thing. Like the weight loss drugs or enhancing curves, and it's just so unrealistic, unnatural. I don't like it. And for me, I'm getting, like, you know, I almost got, like, duped and boxed.
- [24:24]
B
You're not gonna get duped. I'm not gonna allow that to happen, number one, because that's just silly. Number Two, get off your phone number. Three, what I will say is this. You said we've come to accept our bodies, which I think is good. Like, like body positivity is huge. But I think that then there's a difference between superficiality and health. So some of the things that we're eating and the exercises or the lack of exercise, but in which we engage are not healthy for our bodies either. So I do think that we need to be a lot more active and eat a lot healthier. And that in and of itself is gonna make you feel healthier on the inside. If it's about looking better.
- [24:58]
A
These are, like, quick. Like, I lost ten pounds and two weeks. And so people, you know, they're incentivized to, like, buy this because they're like, oh, well, I haven't been able to lose this weight on my own. Well, why don't I just try this, you know?
- [25:12]
B
Yeah. I mean, so I'm with you on that. So 86 that. What I think we need to 86 is the word natural. Poor K. Because I see it on absolutely everything. All natural. This natural that people don't realize that there is natural is an unregulated marketing term. There is no definition of natural.
- [25:29]
A
Well, you see, like, you know, natural flavors.
- [25:32]
B
You can say it on anything. The FDA does not regulate the word natural. You can say it on anything. I could take a bag of drugs and I could. Well, no, you couldn't do that because the FDA would regulate that. But I could take the most unnatural chemically laid in synthetic food ever and write natural across the front and be like natural pretzels. But it's made with powdered cellulose and wood pulp. But you can say natural. You can say natural on anything. I guess in theory, everything is natural to some degree, right?
- [26:04]
A
Well, I just don't like when they say, like, with natural flavors. Like, if they're so natural, why aren't you listening them? You know what I mean? It's like. It's like it's duping the consumer.
- [26:14]
B
Well, you don't have to list all the ingredients. That's the other thing. Like, a lot of times it's just. You can have a certain amount of an ingredient in your product, but if you. If it falls below a certain threshold of like 0.5%, then you don't have to list it. So like, MSG free foods can still have MSG in it. Vice versa, with so many other ingredients in which people are sensitive to, that is a problem. One other thing that I wanted to talk about was this. We talked about the food allergen bill, but, like, that goes back to that natural piece of it, right? So in the state of California, they passed a bill recently that you have to list up to these 10 food allergens on your menu. I recently wrote an op ed on this and how it's actually gonna create more problems than it solves. And it's gonna cost restaurants collectively millions of dollars to change their menus, to go through the analysis to post this on their menus. And you know darn well it's gonna start a cottage industry for lawsuits for people who say that they had a reaction and it wasn't listed on the menu by virtue of the legislation. That's why trial attorneys in California donate so much money to the supermajority is because the more laws there are and the more, you know, kind of ambiguity on these laws, then the easier it is for them to start a cottage industry, basically suing people and creating frivolous lawsuits. So I think that's going to be another issue. And ultimately it's going to drive people out. And that's my point, is that in the food manufacturing world, you can have ingredients in your food and you are not even required to list them because they're below a certain threshold. But if you have a food allergy, you can have a reaction.
- [27:51]
A
Yeah, it's very scary.
- [27:53]
B
And the other thing. Let's get to the 86 it is. I keep seeing these images going viral on social media where they're like, this is why in Europe, they don't have the same problems we do. And they'll list an ingredient or they'll list a. They'll put a picture of a product on the left with the US Ingredients, and they'll put the picture of the same product on the right with the European ingredients, and there'll be like six ingredients versus in the US there's like 20. That's because in Europe, once again, it's even more vague. The labeling requirement laws are even more vague. So you actually don't have to list all the chemicals that you do on the US Product. So in many cases, not only are they the exact same product, so the point you're making isn't real. And, and, and I support these accounts who are trying to make these points in breads. It's a little bit different. Like, that's one where I will, I will say it's different because they don't use glyphosate on all the wheat in Europe. So our breads are gonna be A lot different in our bread, like, products, but in the, like, bagged products. They're. They're exactly the same.
- [28:47]
A
Yeah, that's what you always say. But you know what? That's, I don't know, interesting as people say they go to Europe or whatever and, you know, they came back and they actually lost weight. But I think it's just because there's so much walking. Like they're. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like Americans are so stationary. They don't move as much as people in Europe because everyone's walking everywhere.
- [29:05]
B
I think walking has a lot to do with it. I think also, like, the wheat in Europe is different than the wheat in the United States. And I think that has a lot to do with it. So, like, our food is junk, but. Yeah, but it depends on where you are in Europe, because if you go to Italy and you eat some of the like, like the European potato chip brands, I mean, those are caked in seed oils. Those have just as much chemicals on them. Those are just as disgusting. It's just a matter of whether you're eating at breakfast, lunch and dinner or whether you're not.
- [29:30]
A
Yeah.
- [29:31]
B
Well, I think it's also the timing of when you eat. I think they eat differently and they.
- [29:36]
A
Eat for longer periods of time. Like, nothing's rushed. I feel like here it's so rushed. What do they call it? Oh, my gosh, Siesta. Right. Where they. They enjoy themselves. You know, they're all drinking wine and like they have like a three hour lunch break. It's like they get to enjoy themselves. And then they move around and they walk and. Which helps aid in digestion. Like it's all the things.
- [30:00]
B
Yep, exactly. So we'll see. But I think somebody does need to do like a more. A deeper study on that because I do think that's an interesting conversation. Pete's. That we always go, why don't you.
- [30:10]
A
And I go to Europe?
- [30:11]
B
That'd be anecdotal. And who knows where we'd end up. When Lauren and I were working in 2019, we were traveling around with the US army teaching young soldiers how to cook through a program called Boss Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers. And I remember one of the. One of the bases was in Venice and we would. It was about an hour.
- [30:30]
A
It wasn't in Venice. It was in Vicenza.
- [30:33]
B
Vicenza, yeah. Which is Venice. No, I'm joking. And it was about an hour and a half away from. Well, it was away from Verona, so it was an hour.
- [30:41]
A
Romeo and Juliet.
- [30:42]
B
Yeah. Which is where the Montagues and the Capulets fought that horrible war. It was so horrible. And so I took Lorna Verona and stood under a window while she went upstairs in the window. And I read a poem to her. And then she almost got arrested because it was somebody's house. And we had pasta by the square. It was beautiful. Then after a couple glasses of wine, she's like, let's go to Venice.
- [31:07]
A
Okay. Why do you make me sound like that? That's not what I sound like. But we went to Venice, and it was so cool. But we ended up, like, going to this random bar, and we had shots.
- [31:17]
B
Of grappa, and we got a hotel in Venice that night. And then we were supposed to be doing a presentation on the army base. The next morning, we got a hotel, which we checked into and never went back to.
- [31:30]
A
Never went back to.
- [31:32]
B
We got lost walking around Venice, and we could not figure out where we.
- [31:36]
A
Literally. I had pictures on my phone. It was like 5:30 in the morning, which is crazy because I didn't even remember taking those pictures.
- [31:46]
B
Because you have to walk, Edward. There's no cars. It's just the. Just the water.
- [31:50]
A
Yeah. Anyway, where is this going?
- [31:52]
B
It's going to the point that we were in Europe and we were walking everywhere and we were eating, but we were eating at completely different times. And we ended up losing five pounds each.
- [32:05]
A
Yeah, we did. We should go back to Europe.
- [32:07]
B
Yeah.
- [32:07]
A
This time we won't have, you know, shots of Grappa at 3am though.
- [32:11]
B
Yeah, that is true. But it was a great program. So go U.S. army.
- [32:14]
A
Yay.
- [32:14]
B
And wow. We covered a lot on this one. So, guys, thank you so much for listening, and we really want you to communicate with us and let us know what topics you would like us to cover, whether it's food stories, food topics, sharpen your skills. Cooking tips, the best sandwiches, anything. So make sure that you follow us on social media. Efgruel on X, Drew Gruel on Instagram.
- [32:38]
A
And I'm laurengruel on X and Aurengruel on Instagram.
- [32:43]
B
We hope that you laughed and hopefully you learned a lot. Maybe got a little hungry a little bit.
- [32:46]
A
You know who's hungry? Me.
- [32:48]
B
We know you're hungry. I am, too. And we're gonna be back with more stories that feed the soul next week and probably clog an artery or two. Be sure to also catch our videos on americangravy.com. that's www.americangravy.com and you can message us through there, too.
- [33:05]
A
All right, till next time, Keep it saucy.
- [33:16]
E
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G
What a matchup we got, y'.
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A
All.
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You know what a girl's best friend is?
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A
Not diamonds.
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B
Her lawyers.
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D
From executive producer Ryan Murphy comes a fiery new legal drama.
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Make it rain Showtime lately, ladies, stand up straight and breeze into that room like a storm no one saw coming.
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D
Hulu Original Series All's Fair now streaming.
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B
On Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers terms apply.
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F
This is an iHeart podcast.