← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Deep-Fried Chaos: Matcha Pizza, Stolen Tequila & the Great Pan Debate
00:33:28
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- [00:00]
Lauren Gruel
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. This fall, take care of the little ones in the family with baby club Savings. Now through November 4th. Spend $25 on select Baby Club products and save $5. Shop for items like Pediasure bottles, Pedialyte powder packs, Huggies baby wipes, Huggies diapers, Gerber puffs and Gerber pouches. And save $5 when you buy $25 or more on participating products offer. Ends November 4th. Restrictions app. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [00:35]
iHeartRadio Ad Host
You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing. You are listening to me, which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering. But my point Is ads on iHeartRadio actually get heard in the car, at the gym, on the couch, while people are walking their dogs.
- [00:50]
Andrew Gruel
Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You're a good boy. That's right, dude. You're a good.
- [00:54]
iHeartRadio Ad Host
So why not make the next ad about you? Get started today. Call 844-844-IHEART or go to iheartadvertising.com that's 844-844-iheart or ihear advertising.com.
- [01:07]
Andrew Gruel
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to American Gravy. Look, this is where food meets fun family. Freedom. Lauren, Andrew. You got it. And flavor meets the absurd. So I'm chef Andrew Gruel.
- [01:17]
Lauren Gruel
And I'm Lauren Gruel.
- [01:18]
Andrew Gruel
And today we're going to be diving into some of the funniest, strangest, most mouth watering food stories. A little bit of politics, everything that's making the rounds this week. Because let's face it, food news has officially gone off the rails. We've got people deep frying ice cream machines. We got the world's most expensive grilled cheese. Heck, we've even got a chef who accidentally created a viral trend I think I saw with pickle cupcakes.
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Lauren Gruel
Ooh, that sounds horrible.
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Andrew Gruel
Have you ever noticed that food stories are getting weirder and weirder?
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Lauren Gruel
They are getting weirder and weirder and I think people are just trying to be over the top. They are trying to create that viral moment and so they're just doing the most ridiculous things.
- [01:55]
Andrew Gruel
And that's going to be a theme in a lot of our stories is the way in which people keep trying to push the limits. I mean, 10 years ago, the craziest thing we had was like the double double at In n Out. And now somebody's serving sushi in a shoe.
- [02:06]
Lauren Gruel
No, it was like the deep fried Oreo at the fair, like, that was the craziest thing.
- [02:10]
Andrew Gruel
I never liked that. That's disgusting.
- [02:12]
Lauren Gruel
Well, you don't like Oreos.
- [02:13]
Andrew Gruel
I don't like fair food.
- [02:15]
Lauren Gruel
You don't not even like the turkey leg.
- [02:17]
Andrew Gruel
The reason I don't like fair food is because at fair food, I know what the food prep situation is. Like they're prepping off site in like an RV or a food trailer in the back. It's hard enough to set the fare up. These people are on the go, on the run. They're going and picking up their food at like Restaurant Depot. Who knows how long it's sitting out. And then they prepare the food in these little cubicles and they almost look like jail cells. And nobody's actually checking the sanitation.
- [02:42]
Lauren Gruel
Let's not ruin it for the people.
- [02:44]
Andrew Gruel
But that's why they deep fry everything.
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Lauren Gruel
Oh, to kill anything.
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Andrew Gruel
I mean, theoretically, right?
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PayPal Ad Host
Just.
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Andrew Gruel
You worried about bacteria? You just kill it off?
- [02:50]
Lauren Gruel
Just fry it off.
- [02:51]
Andrew Gruel
Well, today we got a few that are gonna make you laugh. Gag. Who knows what else in between. Probably question humanity all before lunch.
- [02:58]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, boy.
- [02:58]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah. Depending on what time you're listening to this. So one of the stories that's been in the news the past, you know, week plus what have you has been. And it's funny because I went on X and then Facebook and it's just Katie Porter. Katie Porter. Katie Porter. Katie Porter.
- [03:14]
Lauren Gruel
Everything anyone is talking about is Katie.
- [03:16]
Andrew Gruel
Porter, which stems from this viral clip where she basically was incredibly rude to a reporter that was doing nothing more than trying to ask questions.
- [03:25]
Lauren Gruel
Follow up questions. There were follow up questions. She took it very personally, which was very odd. I mean, come on. They weren't even hard hitting questions.
- [03:33]
Andrew Gruel
They weren't hard hitting questions. And I bring this up because Lauren and I always make the joke that if you want to judge a person's character, you can see the way that they treat people in restaurants.
- [03:42]
Lauren Gruel
Yes. We always say this. If so, we'll go out to dinner sometimes with some friends and, you know, they'll treat the wait staff kind of mean.
- [03:50]
Andrew Gruel
Ex friends.
- [03:51]
Lauren Gruel
Ex friends, Exactly. And I'm like. And that just shows who they are deep down. Because they treat like the help, you know, exactly. Like CR crap.
- [03:59]
Andrew Gruel
And what I found is what's so funny is, is that the people in politics who are always building a platform that's so pro worker. Pro worker. Pro worker have never run a business and dealt with team members. And when they do, they're typically in their political campaigns because they're career Politicians, usually, they. Some people like Porter, work through education into politics. And then the way in which you can see how they deal with and truly think about workers. Or in her case, she thinks of herself as elite. And then the plebes underneath her is the way in which they treat their team members or other people's team members. So the first video that went viral was the way in which she was communicating and treating the reporter, who, frankly, if you go back and look at that reporter's history, is very friendly to her general party.
- [04:50]
Lauren Gruel
Just in that interview clip, you could see how nice she was. She was kind of taken aback, like, wait, wait, what is happening?
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Andrew Gruel
Because a friendly, right? Like that's the thing is that. Are you interviewing with a friendly or are you not? Why did you give me that look? I got nervous there for a second. Lauren does things with her eyes. We're not on video right now, but it makes me wonder whether either my pants are falling off or my fly is open or both.
- [05:12]
Lauren Gruel
Sometimes both.
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Andrew Gruel
But don't worry, I've got pants on. So Katie Porter trashes this person. Then another video goes viral where she's in her kitchen and she's doing some sort of a pre rehearsed interview. And the team member, staff member, I think it was like one of her.
- [05:27]
Lauren Gruel
Campaign workers or assistant or something, and she told her to get out of my effing shot.
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah, she walked into the scene in the background and this girl, stoically and with zero emotion, just takes the berating, takes the beat down and then corrects Katie Porter and says, well, the reason I was in the shot, just so you know, those numbers are wrong about electric vehicles, et cetera. And then she's like, well, you still came in my shot two or three times.
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Lauren Gruel
Yeah, I mean, she's trying to justify her bad behavior.
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Andrew Gruel
She was trying to justify it. But the thing is, is that it was the most disgusting example of how you treat someone who's ultimately working for you. And I think that that's just a bigger conversation about the way in which we treat our service workers. And I think that it's important to mention too, that Katie Porter is somebody who has pushed hard and pushed against businesses, small, medium and big business as being the bad guys, the villains. We saw it especially during the pandemic, and that we need to. And we need to treat our workers better. And she's championed all these labor bills. She's obviously, you know, kind of working hand in glove with the AFL and so many of these different unions, especially through AB 1228 the Restaurant and hospitality workers unions. But then she treats these people like absolute junk.
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Lauren Gruel
Yeah, I mean, come on, pot. What is it? What is that little phrase? Pot calling the kettle black.
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah, pot calling the kettle black. Which brings us to our next conversation. Peach, which is pans. Pots and pans. A lot of people ask me about how I what of pans I used to cook with.
- [06:58]
Lauren Gruel
So many questions about this, always about the pan or knives.
- [07:01]
Andrew Gruel
And I tell everyone that I like to have. There's like, if you wanted to go buy a set, and I think this is important because that's a question like, what type of a set should I buy typically going into the holidays? Or I want to buy a gift for somebody. There's really only four pots and pans that you need and you don't buy them as a whole set because when you buy them as a whole set, there's usually one good pot or pan in the set and then you're paying extra money for something you're either not going to use or is just junk. So they can make their money as part of the set. So buy them individually. And here is the breakdown. So first and foremost, everyone needs a cast iron pan. Okay? A 12 to 16 inch cast iron pan. Typical cast iron pan. You can go to most Goodwill's or secondhand stores and find an old cast iron pan. Because the beauty of a cast iron pan is, is that even if it's destroyed, all you need to do is reseason it. And we'll talk about that in a second. The second one, which kind of dovetails into the cast iron. If you don't want the cast iron because it's too heavy and bulky, hard to pick up, store go with a carbon steel pan. A carbon steel pan is essentially a lighter cast iron pan. You'll see me cook with those in a lot of our videos that we do on American Gravy on YouTube. Just follow that @Andrew Gruel on YouTube. Little plug there. The carbon steel pan basically has the same properties of the cast iron pan, but it's easier to move, it's got a handle, it's lighter. Now the reason why you want to use these cast iron pans is because they're so thick and they hold the heat well. The way in which you gauge a pan is based on the thickness of the whatever the pan is made up from, right? So you've got cast iron, then you've got stainless steel, and you've got aluminum. Now, aluminum are the thin pans that you're gonna buy for like $5$10 at. What's that store you like to go to? Is it Michael's? What's the story? Go to off Beach Boulevard there or off of Edinger where we get all. You get home Good.
- [08:56]
Lauren Gruel
Chotchki Home goods.
- [08:57]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah, home goods. Tchotchkes. We have a lot of tchotchkes.
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Lauren Gruel
Okay. I just want to say I'm very impressed how we went from Katie Porter to talking about the pans. That was a smooth transition there.
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Andrew Gruel
I'm a smooth operator. I'm emulsifying all of the time.
- [09:12]
Lauren Gruel
Here we go.
- [09:13]
Andrew Gruel
We just need an artificial emulsifier like xanthan gum or Dijon mustard. Got to keep the food in there. So your pans right back to the pans and then you've got the. So once again, the gauge, the thickness of these pans and what the material is. So the cheapest is gonna be aluminum. Now you might wanna use an aluminum pan if you're boiling water, right? If I'm boiling water, who cares how thick the pan is and how it holds the heat? Because all you're doing is boiling water as opposed to an aluminum pan where you're gonna sear meat. You get that pan blazing hot and then you put a cold piece of meat in there because it's not holding the heat. And the aluminum doesn't hold the heat as well as stainless steel. And then up the ladder to the cast iron. Well, then you're going to cool the pan down so quickly it's going to go from a sear to a steam. Right. And that's how you don't get that deep browning or it's going to burn. Right. If you're cooking eggs. So the first thing you want is that cast iron or carbon steel. I'll merge those into one. The second one is just a cheap pan to boil or poach things in. Right. That's the one you don't need to spend a lot of money on. The third pan that you want to use is an egg pan. Right. You just want an 8 inch egg pan. I like to go thicker on that. All clad. You can have the nonstick surface on there. I know a lot of people don't like the nonstick pan. The key with a non stick is that once it starts to degrade, throw it away and buy a new one. And what would you say for a fourth?
- [10:29]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, my God. I was daydreaming.
- [10:32]
Andrew Gruel
She was. See, we weren't gonna go into this pan talk, but then we did.
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Lauren Gruel
That's why I said, I can't believe we Went from Katie Porter to the pans.
- [10:39]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah, well, she could. She's sauteing her political career away, unfortunately.
- [10:43]
Lauren Gruel
She's burning it.
- [10:45]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah. She's using the aluminum pan. She is the aluminum pans of the political world. And then. Right, so back to. We've got the nonstick pan for eggs. Oh. And then a nice hard stainless steel, 8 to 10 inch pan for sauteing vegetables and doing basic cookery, searing scallops, et cetera, which you can also do in a cast iron. That's it. That's all you need.
- [11:05]
Lauren Gruel
That is somebody's Christmas shopping list right there.
- [11:08]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah. Now, if you want to get one thing, one item that captures all of that, it's the Dutch oven.
- [11:14]
Lauren Gruel
Love a Dutch oven.
- [11:15]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah.
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Lauren Gruel
Not what you've done to me in our bedroom.
- [11:18]
Andrew Gruel
Oh, my gosh. This just went from. This went from a daytime show to after.
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Lauren Gruel
Okay, listen, Dutch ovens are great.
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Andrew Gruel
Our kids do that all the time. The old Dutch oven. Why does it smell under the sheets? Oh, no, we trapped her under the sheets.
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Lauren Gruel
But Dutch oven is so versatile.
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah.
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Lauren Gruel
You can do anything in there.
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Andrew Gruel
We've had that Dutch oven. Who made the one?
- [11:38]
Lauren Gruel
It's. We have like the cheapest Dutch oven. It's by Cuisinart that I got at Home Goods. And we use it for everything.
- [11:45]
Andrew Gruel
We do. We do. So you can use. That's one where you can sear in it, you can braise in it, you can poach in it. So sorry, let me throw that one in there as the fourth. So we got the cast iron, you got the egg pan, you got the cheap pan just to boil stuff and you got the Dutch oven. There you go.
- [11:58]
Lauren Gruel
Some Dutch ovens are super expensive.
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah. But you don't need the super expensive one. As long as it's thick. It's got that nice enamel kind of coating on it.
- [12:06]
Lauren Gruel
So what is that one brand? La Crusade La croise. They're like $500.
- [12:10]
Andrew Gruel
That's because it's French. The French always overcharge for things just because they have an accent and they think that it's the language of romance. Frankly, I think that German is the language of romance.
- [12:19]
Lauren Gruel
Don't even. Here we go. He knows a little German and I don't. No, I don't.
- [12:30]
Andrew Gruel
I said, look out. You have a chicken on your roof.
- [12:31]
Lauren Gruel
That's all he knows.
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah, but it applies in so many.
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Jardiance Ad Host
Different areas of life.
- [12:36]
Andrew Gruel
I mean, there's many. It's a. It's a metaphor, it's figurative. It could be literal. If you're Hanging out in a farm.
- [12:43]
Lauren Gruel
Yeah, could be.
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Andrew Gruel
So what are we moving on to next? What's happening in the industry these days? What's a good food story? Politics, policy.
- [12:50]
Lauren Gruel
So good news somewhat. Schools in California are phasing out ultra processed foods by 2035. I mean, it's a step in the right direction.
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Andrew Gruel
Keep going.
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Lauren Gruel
All right, so California is implementing the Real Food healthy Kids Act, AB 1264, which bans certain ultra processed foods from school meals by 2035, with the goal of phasing out items with harmful additives, high levels of sugar, salt, or unhealthy fats. The law requires the state to define ultra processed foods of concern by 2028.
- [13:27]
Andrew Gruel
There you go. There you go. So the state is going to define what's ultra processed foods.
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Lauren Gruel
Okay, this will be interesting.
- [13:35]
Andrew Gruel
And they're going to do it by 2028. Right. Keep in mind it's 2025, towards the end of 2025. So two plus years. Here's why I have a problem with this. Newsom and the administration decided within one to two weeks that they wanted to completely upend our redistricting process, a process by which the voters voted to have an independent redistricting committee that would set the districts in California and they would revisit that every decade within a month or two. He actually created a way to flip that upside down, establish a proposition, build out the framework for a special election which is coming up here in November, by the way.
- [14:16]
Lauren Gruel
Vote no. 1.
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah. Vote no on 50.
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Lauren Gruel
Vote no. 1. 50.
- [14:19]
Andrew Gruel
And then he's spending 250, some say over $300 million to have this election rolled out so they can get that done within weeks. But when it comes to defining what ultra processed foods are, which we already know what ultra processed foods are, it's going to take two plus years. And they're holding themselves to a timeline of 20, 20, 35 to remove these from the school food system.
- [14:44]
Lauren Gruel
Yeah. 10 years.
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Andrew Gruel
This is virtue at its best. There is no appetite to get this done. They're strictly doing it because they want political points.
- [14:53]
Lauren Gruel
And who knows if this is even gonna happen by 2035.
- [14:56]
Andrew Gruel
One of the benefits of having a super majority and also one of the threats of having a super majority is the speed with which you can pass things through legislatively and get things done. You can get it done in a split second. And when it comes to some of these virtue signaling issues, they're happy to push these through the state legislature and get it done and enacted and implemented immediately. Food and our children, the Kids that this would affect haven't even been born yet.
- [15:22]
Lauren Gruel
Exactly. Or the kids that are in school. Yeah, exactly. None of them are gonna benefit from this because they're gonna be out of school by 2035.
- [15:28]
Andrew Gruel
Exactly. So, you know, I give this a one out of 10. I think that this is strictly them just trying to pat themselves on the back for saying that they're doing something, but they're not.
- [15:37]
Lauren Gruel
And all the headlines are all praising this as well, so that's interesting.
- [15:41]
Andrew Gruel
Are they praising it? I don't even know.
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Lauren Gruel
I mean, I've seen, like, California first, you know, to do this. Blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. Yeah, like, but it's. Nobody reads beyond the headlines, so they don't know this is going to take effect 10 from 10 years from now, if it even happens.
- [15:56]
Andrew Gruel
My beautiful, lovely wife hit the nail on the head there. I'm gonna repeat it. Nobody reads beyond the headlines. One bit of recommendation that I would give to anybody, especially parents who are teaching their kids how to digest the news. Read the final paragraph of the story before you read the headline. And the final paragraph of the story never matches the headline. The truth is always buried within the story. And they call that news.
- [16:20]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, yeah, yeah. All right.
- [16:21]
Andrew Gruel
But you're getting the real news here on American Gravy. So something a little bit more fun. Lifestyle. What are they rolling out these days, Lauren, when it comes to food?
- [16:30]
Lauren Gruel
All right, so Pizza Hut debuts a matcha cheese pizza. I mean, I don't personally love matcha. I know you don't, for sure.
- [16:42]
Andrew Gruel
That was my 86.
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Lauren Gruel
Yeah, that was your 86. But I don't love it either. I've tried it and I just. Something about people say it's so much better for you, the health benefits, blah, blah, blah. But I can't get past the taste. I don't like it. So I can't even imagine what a matcha cheese pizza would taste like.
- [17:00]
Andrew Gruel
Well, first of all, let's. I think probably a lot of people don't know what matcha is, and we touched on it last week, but I'll just define it. Specifically, it's a finely ground powder made from specially grown and processed green tea leaves. Okay, so it's tea. Matcha is tea.
- [17:15]
Lauren Gruel
It's green tea.
- [17:16]
Andrew Gruel
Now, so imagine taking a tea bag and grinding it up into a powder and then dusting it all over your pizza. Those are two flavors that don't go together. No, never. Traditionally, they don't go together, which is what I even find more ironic, because in Japanese culture, what do they not eat dairy cheese. Like, you're not gonna find much cheese nowadays. You'll kind of find some fusions of, like, cheese. But there's not much cheese in Japanese cuisine.
- [17:41]
Lauren Gruel
Yeah, I don't think matcha and cheese were ever supposed to go together.
- [17:43]
Andrew Gruel
Exactly. So matcha and cheese, lamb and tuna fish, anchovies and ice cream sundaes. Sometimes ingredients are great on their own, but they're not great together. Just like humans. We're not all meant to be married.
- [17:56]
Lauren Gruel
What?
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Andrew Gruel
I don't know. I felt like working love into that one. I'm feeling very deep today. Religious, spiritual, excited, excitable.
- [18:03]
Lauren Gruel
Okay, we have another interesting food take. Well, food, I guess. I don't know, Conversation. Arby's launching a viral steak nugget.
- [18:11]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah, I've seen this one.
- [18:13]
Lauren Gruel
What is it?
- [18:14]
Andrew Gruel
It's like these. These little bites. It's these little steak bites that you buy, and they're going to come in a cup of. Oh, boy.
- [18:21]
Lauren Gruel
So is it a nugget or is it just like. Like chick fil A, like chicken nuggets?
- [18:24]
Andrew Gruel
I guess. I think it's like that. I think it's the grilled chicken nuggets that chip fillets.
- [18:28]
Lauren Gruel
It's cut up steak.
- [18:30]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. But it's got this specialty seasoning on there, and it's gonna be incredibly salty and rich and full of umami and msv.
- [18:35]
Lauren Gruel
Is it battered?
- [18:36]
Andrew Gruel
Processed? No. Oh, no. Why would they batter it?
- [18:39]
Lauren Gruel
I don't know. Like to make a nugget, like a nice thing.
- [18:41]
Andrew Gruel
Why would they batter it? They would beat it up.
- [18:43]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, Andrew.
- [18:44]
Andrew Gruel
What?
- [18:45]
Lauren Gruel
Don't go there.
- [18:46]
Andrew Gruel
Battered.
- [18:47]
Lauren Gruel
Battered.
- [18:47]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah. Oh, battered. With like a. Like a crust or something. Well, I. You know, with Mark Sanchez being in the news, and then somebody said that he was battered. You know, I saw that. I just had this image of like, Mark Sanchez dipped in tempura and fried. Or his victim. Somebody was battered.
- [19:02]
Lauren Gruel
I wonder what happened there. That's another story. That's another story for another time. But interesting.
- [19:08]
Andrew Gruel
I'm still really confused about it. It hasn't come out. More will come out. But that one. Yeah, that one definitely threw me for a loop. I think the food angle there is that he was hungry and it was the doordash driver who he batter. And then.
- [19:19]
Lauren Gruel
And he was an old man.
- [19:20]
Andrew Gruel
He was an old man. And then he stabbed him.
- [19:22]
Lauren Gruel
Good. I mean, not good for him. It's just a weird story. No, I meant, like, he was protecting himself. I don't know the situation. So none of us do.
- [19:31]
Andrew Gruel
None of us know the situation. But one of the facts that is apparent is that he was ordering doordash past midnight. When you order doordash past midnight, unless you're an overnight worker, that's never good.
- [19:42]
Lauren Gruel
That's never a good sign.
- [19:43]
Andrew Gruel
It's never a good sign. You know that one time Lauren and I ordered. We, we ordered doordash past midnight. This was before we had kids and we were certainly overserved and we somehow ordered $73 worth of del Taco and.
- [19:57]
Lauren Gruel
We found it at our door the next morning. And I go, who ordered this?
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Andrew Gruel
Yeah, who? This is. Somebody pranked us. So we had a good breakfast that morning. Nothing like eight hour old. Well, six hour old Del Taco that's been sitting out that bean rice and cheese. Oh, they don't have rice. Why don't they do bean rice and cheese burritos at Del Taco?
- [20:15]
Lauren Gruel
They do. Oh no they don't.
- [20:16]
Andrew Gruel
That's El Pollo Loco.
- [20:19]
Lauren Gruel
El Pollo Loco, which. They closed the one down by us.
- [20:21]
Andrew Gruel
They did. They replaced it with a Starbucks.
- [20:23]
Lauren Gruel
With another Starbucks. Not like there's one on every corner.
- [20:26]
Andrew Gruel
I know. It's like people just cannot. They won't do a U turn to reach the Starbucks. They have to put a Starbucks on both sides of the street.
- [20:31]
Lauren Gruel
Exactly. Hilarious.
- [20:33]
Andrew Gruel
Darn coffee. So the other Arby's. I will say this about Arby's. When I was in college, I used to go and get the Arby's sandwich all the time. I didn't love it, you know, I knew that the meat was like fake and it was kind of. And the bun was horrible. But I actually liked the Arby's sauce, the horsey sauce too. So I indulged in Arby's from time to time. There is an old school Arby's right on Edinger and Beach Boulevard in Huntington beach with the original neon sign. That's really cool. Every single time I drive by, it's empty.
- [20:59]
Lauren Gruel
I don't know one single person who eats at Arby's. I'm. I'm just wondering how they're still around.
- [21:08]
Andrew Gruel
I don't know. Arby's was bought out by Roark Capital for like a billion dollars or something.
- [21:13]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, wow.
- [21:14]
Andrew Gruel
I mean, it's obviously a legacy brand that's got a lot of value, but wouldn't it just be so cool if Arby's. See, this is what I say about all the fast food brands. People are focusing on what they're eating. This is the first time in 30 years where people are actually asking, where does our food come from? Thus the genesis of this podcast. Because we think people want to hear more about food. Why wouldn't one of these major fast food brands, especially one that's got declining sales and is already at risk and going into a chapter 11 or having some sort of a bot, why wouldn't they say, you know what we're going to do? Freshly sliced roast beef in house. Like we're going to flip the system upside down. Go back to what like McDonald's was originally intended for. They were cooking the burgers fresh on site right there. Very in and out style.
- [21:51]
Lauren Gruel
Yes.
- [21:52]
Andrew Gruel
And let's Steak and shake is kind of doing that a little bit. They're leaning into the tallow thing, but they're still buying pre cut fries that are poached in seed oil and then fried in tallow. Once again, not going to trash them for that. At least they're taking a step in the right direction. But, but why isn't one of these brands, who's trying to reincarnate themselves doing it that way?
- [22:10]
Lauren Gruel
Well, maybe that's why they're coming out with the steak nuggets.
- [22:12]
Andrew Gruel
The steak nuggets that are probably like 70% steak and 30% MSG.
- [22:16]
Lauren Gruel
Okay, we should go buy these.
- [22:18]
Andrew Gruel
That's what we'll do.
- [22:19]
Lauren Gruel
We'll buy them. Not the matcha pizza. I can't. I'm not spending my money on them.
- [22:21]
Andrew Gruel
I'm gonna buy the matcha pizza.
- [22:22]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, dear. Anyway, we should buy them and see how they are.
- [22:25]
Andrew Gruel
What the fork?
- [22:26]
Lauren Gruel
What the fork? Andrew, what is the latest what the fork?
- [22:29]
Andrew Gruel
WTF crazy food stories? This one's wild. It is. So we might even have to touch on this into one of the next seg. Guy Fieri's tequila heist. Lauren, why don't you tell us about this one? This one is wild.
- [22:43]
Lauren Gruel
So there was two semi trucks full of Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar's tequila brand and they went missing.
- [22:50]
Andrew Gruel
Full trucks. Right. So this was your entire production. This took three and a half years. It was. It was. Right, so the, the tequila, they got to go in, they got to buy the farm. Not buy the farm, but they got to invest in a farm in Mexico and then they've got to make the tequila and it takes so long. So just imagine three and a half years of production filling two semi trucks that they were gonna roll this product out into the holidays in 2025. Now they go through a logistics company in order to truck it across the Mexican border.
- [23:16]
Lauren Gruel
And what happens so this is interesting. So say it was supposed to be delivered on a Friday. Right. Then the trucking company started sending more excuses about why it was late. Right.
- [23:28]
Andrew Gruel
To the CEO. To the CEO of the Sammy and Guy Fieri company.
- [23:32]
Lauren Gruel
So they start sending them pictures of the semi truck broken down on the side of the road. They're tracking them on gps, and it looks like they're on their way to, I think it was Pennsylvania, where their warehouse was, and they're still not there. And it's just the weirdest story because it involves so many layers and so many people. But why would you. Also, what are you doing with all this tequila?
- [23:54]
Andrew Gruel
That's a good question. But so people understand what happened is. Is that. So when you're. When you're bringing all these products in from another country or from another part of the country, you're using these, like, brokered logistics companies, trucking companies. Right. So then they'll. They'll be the hauler, they'll bring it across, and then they'll drop it, either with another distributor. But what happens is some of these people subcontract or sub broker. So you have, like, layers of trucking companies that. And brokerage companies that are getting subcontracted, which we've seen. Like, trucking is a very difficult industry.
- [24:23]
Lauren Gruel
I mean, you. You hear all the horror stories with even moving across the country. All the, you know, these trucks just disappear full of your belongings.
- [24:30]
Andrew Gruel
So apparently, this is like there's some true crime associated with these brokerage companies. So there are these fake companies that create fake company names, fake websites, fake.
- [24:38]
Lauren Gruel
Letters, email addresses, phone numbers, and they look legit.
- [24:42]
Andrew Gruel
So then you broker out to them, and then they basically, they abscond with whatever the goods are that are in the truck. And even. They're even so highly refined in their approach that they're creating a fake gps.
- [24:56]
Lauren Gruel
Yes. So the thieves had manipulated the GPS to make it look like the tequila was still on its way to Pennsylvania.
- [25:02]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah. So now I guess my question is, what are they doing with this tequila? Where's it going? Are they bringing it back to Mexico and then selling it there?
- [25:10]
Lauren Gruel
I mean, why would they do that? I don't know. I mean, I don't know what they're doing.
- [25:13]
Andrew Gruel
That would be the only place in which they could sell it. Because if they try and sell it anywhere in the United States, it's obviously gonna have the brand on the tequila. Unless they relabel it and sell it as something else. But then there's gonna need to be some change custody.
- [25:25]
Lauren Gruel
Well, I Think it passed the US Mexico border initially coming in.
- [25:30]
Andrew Gruel
I'm sure it'd be easier to get back into.
- [25:32]
Lauren Gruel
So then they just turn around and.
- [25:33]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah.
- [25:34]
Lauren Gruel
That's your thoughts on it?
- [25:35]
Andrew Gruel
My thoughts is they turn around, bring it to Mexico, and then sell it there, because there's. They don't. There's less requirements on that chain of custody there. This is just really weird.
- [25:43]
Lauren Gruel
Really weird. I mean, the levels in which people go to. To steal and.
- [25:47]
Andrew Gruel
But. But Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar. I mean, I. Who knows if they have enough insurance to cover this? Obviously, like, you know, this. By all measures, even though they're both very successful, this is still a small business.
- [26:00]
Lauren Gruel
Exactly. Their entire product line, which is why they're using, you know, secondary trucking. Exactly. Because they don't have their, you know, they don't have their own distribution center, you know, with all their trucks.
- [26:13]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah. So this is a weird one. I think that also, I. Lauren and I always joke about, like, there's. And this maybe should become a new segment on the show are all the restaurant scams and all the food scams or business scams in general, because we've seen it all. One of the ones that we got hit with was the. Is the utility scam.
- [26:31]
Lauren Gruel
Oh, my gosh. So we get this phone call, and I'll. I'll keep this short, but we get this phone call from SoCal Gas, and it has their number. It has, you know, the caller ID is SoCal Gas. They're telling us we didn't pay our bill. They have a guy down the street ready to shut off our gas, but they'll give us, you know, an hour to pay the bill. And I'm like, this doesn't sound right. We're on auto pay. I don't understand. And so I'm like, why are they calling me? But it looks like. Looks legitimate. It looks real. So I end up calling SoCal Gas, like I call myself, because I'm like, something is not right. And long story short, they're like, no, your bill is paid. Everything's fine. People are doing this now. They can somehow manipulate the caller ID to show the phone number and ID to show SoCal Gas. So I'm thinking, if you and I weren't, you know, on top of our stuff, you know, we would have fallen for it and then paid whoever it was, you know, the. The $3,000 or whatever they were saying we owed them.
- [27:27]
Andrew Gruel
That is. And so many restaurants have been hit hard with that utility scam. That's. That's a Tough one.
- [27:32]
Lauren Gruel
Well, they call you in the middle of service. You're thinking, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do? We have a dining room full of people like, oh, my gosh, I need to pay this. The one thing that tipped me off was, you can pay to this phone number. And they go, you can pay through Zelle. And I said, why would I pay you through Zell? That makes no sense. Give me the website. Oh, no, no, no. This is the quickest way to do it. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that.
- [27:56]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah, this is. This is a wild one. And we could go into some of these stories, and I think we should start doing that every couple weeks. But, you know, we want to keep this tight here, so let's maybe move on to the next one. Let's talk about sharpening your skills.
- [28:09]
Lauren Gruel
What do you got, baby?
- [28:10]
Andrew Gruel
What do you got?
- [28:11]
Lauren Gruel
No, what do you got?
- [28:12]
Andrew Gruel
Oh, my God, I got so many sharpening your skills ones on this. So we cook a lot of ground beef, and ground beef is relatively inexpensive compared to all the rest of the different cuts of meat, right? Now, one of the things people do with the ground beef is that they steam their meat, right? Because what happens is you put the ground beef in a small pan, and then you keep stirring and stirring and stirring, and it can never really get hot enough. And then it kind of steams. So you've got this watery mess of, like, gray ground beef, and then maybe you mix it into a sauce. The key with creating a lot of flavor in the ground beef is to actually brown the ground beef. And it should be easy to do, because if you think about it, there's actually a ton of surface area in the ground beef. So one suggestion that I'll give everybody with their ground beef is that when you put it in the pan, spread it out across the pan, blast the heat up. You can even throw a little dollop of whole butter in there because that'll help accelerate the browning process as the milk solids and the butter brown. And then don't touch it. Let it be right. Just let it sear. Almost as if that layer of beef in the pan is a piece of steak that's searing. And then stir it after about, I don't know, you want it to sear for, like, a good four or five minutes. Don't be afraid. Don't constantly stir your ground beef. Then give it a stir at the end, because then the deep flavor that you're gonna get from what's called that mallard browning, when the amino acids and the proteins actually brown on the exterior is going to be unbelievable. So that's my trick right there is with ground beef. And I also suggest what everybody do is that cook a lot of ground beef in batches, leave it in your refrigerator, and then use the ground beef to like, fold into sauces, fold into salads, fold into different dishes. It's a great way to get high quality protein without spending a ton of money.
- [29:49]
Lauren Gruel
I love it. All right, let's do 86 it. What do you got?
- [29:54]
Andrew Gruel
Well, my 86 it for this week. Things that we think need to go is the. Is low quality oil. Well, truffle oil in general, anything truffle. And I've talked about this at length, but like truffle fries. Drizzling truffle oil over the food, like everything truffle, which you'll find now at, you know, most casual restaurants, is like the truffled fries. What have you. All that is. Is basically like, it's a truffle perfume that they use by soaking whole real fresh truffles to get that perfume out. And then they emulsify it with like a really, really low quality oil, like a vegetable oil, and then you're drizzling it all over everything. If you're gonna eat truffles, you're gonna enjoy truffles. Get the real thing or like, even the canned whole truffles, and then chop it up and mix it in yourself. Black truffles, hard to find white truffles in that. In that manner. I don't like the truffle oil trend.
- [30:45]
Lauren Gruel
I don't either. It kind of smells and tastes like gasoline. Like gasoline, what I imagine gasoline.
- [30:50]
Andrew Gruel
When was the last time you smelled gasoline? Well, smell it and not smell it, but when was the last time you tasted it?
- [30:56]
Lauren Gruel
I have never tasted it.
- [30:57]
Andrew Gruel
What do you want to see go? What's your 86 it?
- [30:59]
Lauren Gruel
I cannot stand ASMR. There are certain things I like, but the clicking of the nails.
- [31:05]
Andrew Gruel
What's asmr?
- [31:06]
Lauren Gruel
It's the.
- [31:07]
Andrew Gruel
For those that don't know, it's like.
- [31:08]
Lauren Gruel
The sounds like, you know, somebody doing their get ready with me today. And then they're clicking on every. Every product with their nails and. Or ripping open a package. And I'm like, what is happening? I can't stand it for some reason. But it's so funny. There's actually something came up in the New York Post about this. This ASMR spa doesn't do massages, but will scratch your head Brush you with feathers and whisper in your ear. For a hundred and fifty dollars, just put a fork in me. I would never do that.
- [31:35]
Andrew Gruel
Put a fork in me. What the fork. Just so you guys know, ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Whatever. I don't know why meridians in there. It's that tingling, calming sensation some people feel in their scalp, neck, or spine when they hear certain softer, repetitive sounds.
- [31:52]
Lauren Gruel
That has never happened to me.
- [31:53]
Andrew Gruel
No, I've had that, like every now and then. That's like when you're like, oh, touch my back. Or what have you. Like, that's. I don't know why you give me that look. She'll say. She'll be like, touch my back.
- [32:01]
Lauren Gruel
I'll say, not touch my back. I'll be like, touch my back.
- [32:04]
Andrew Gruel
Dump. Dump some hot ground beef on my back. I think that's asmr are or that's wtf. But whispering or soft speaking, tapping, page turning, paper crinkling, all that weird stuff. And it has gone once again. People take things too far. Every single YouTube video now is like.
- [32:19]
Lauren Gruel
Some weirdo going, no, they're clicking, they're using their nails. Or there's this new thing of people are doing get, like, unready with me, like, in the morning. I forget exactly what it's called.
- [32:30]
Andrew Gruel
We've lost our collective minds.
- [32:32]
Lauren Gruel
You, like, people have. You know, they start taking off these masks. Masks. And they're wearing chin straps and mouth tape and like this crazy, like, heatless curls. And I'm like, what? Imagine if I went to bed like that.
- [32:42]
Andrew Gruel
Oh, wait. So they go to bed.
- [32:43]
Lauren Gruel
They go to bed with everything on, and then they take it off in the morning and. But it's. It's all the noises. They're using the ASMR noises. It drives me insane.
- [32:50]
Andrew Gruel
What just happened to going to bed with a couple fat pieces of cucumber on your eyelids?
- [32:54]
Lauren Gruel
Yeah, what the heck?
- [32:55]
Andrew Gruel
You used to do that. And I'd wake up. It's so funny. I've never done that. She would go to bed with cucumbers on her eyes. And by the time I rolled over on them three or four times, we woke up, we had. He had pickles in the bed.
- [33:05]
Lauren Gruel
What? Okay, first of all, none of this is true. Don't listen to him.
- [33:11]
Andrew Gruel
Asmr. So this is asmr. I'm going to finalize it. Ready?
- [33:16]
Lauren Gruel
That's not asmr. ASMR is like this.
- [33:21]
Andrew Gruel
Oh, my gosh, it's blowing my mind.
- [33:23]
Lauren Gruel
Is your head tingling?
- [33:25]
Andrew Gruel
Yeah, because I have a tension headache. Well, on that note, why don't you guys give us what your favorite or least favorite items are. Just give us more stuff to talk about. We want you to be involved in this. You can. Obviously, the best way to communicate with us is on X at Chef Gruleng. You can email us. That's. I'm actually, I'm not going to put my email out.
- [33:44]
Lauren Gruel
Email.
- [33:44]
Andrew Gruel
I don't know. People say email us, whatever. Yeah, follow us at X. But most importantly, make sure that you follow the podcast. Right? So whether you're on iHeartMedia, the iHeartMedia app, Apple iTunes, Spotify, Apple iTunes, Apple Podcast. I'm like an old man. Like, where's that itunes?
- [34:00]
Lauren Gruel
I need my ipod.
- [34:02]
Andrew Gruel
But be sure to leave us a review. That's most important. Download the episodes and just get in touch with us and let us know what you want us to talk about.
- [34:09]
Lauren Gruel
Yeah, give us your WTFs and your 86.
- [34:11]
Andrew Gruel
86 WTF. What's happening today? What do you want to saute? Deep fried sear poach?
- [34:17]
Lauren Gruel
Wow.
- [34:17]
Andrew Gruel
Peer. What do you want to pier?
- [34:19]
Lauren Gruel
I want to. I don't know.
- [34:21]
Andrew Gruel
All right, that's good. That's a wrap.
- [34:23]
Lauren Gruel
Bye.
- [34:28]
Andrew Gruel
Foreign.
- [34:33]
Ryan Seacrest
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Lauren Gruel
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- [37:03]
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Andrew Gruel
For cash and more.
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Jardiance Ad Host
Paying for subject to terms and approval.
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Andrew Gruel
PayPal Inc. And MLS 910457 this is an iHeart podcast.