← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Introducing American Gravy: Food Lies, Fake Labels & the Politics of What’s on Your Plate
00:36:17
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- [00:04]
A
And here we are. This is our first episode of American Gravy. I'm chef Andrew Gruel.
- [00:08]
B
And I'm Lauren Gruel.
- [00:09]
A
And as many of you may know who have followed us for the years, or you're just newly tuning in, this is an episode that's gonna cover everything from food, lifestyle, politics, culture, our own personal stories, anecdotes, a little bit of everything. But consider it almost the kitchen sink. Pun intended. Har har.
- [00:27]
B
You are a funny man.
- [00:28]
A
Yes, I am. Thank you. She's the only one who doesn't laugh at my Jo. That's why we keep having so many kids, is because then I have an audience that will continuously laugh at my jokes.
- [00:36]
B
You know what, that's not true. But over the years you keep using the same jokes on me, so I don't find them funny anymore.
- [00:41]
A
Whatever. I give them new little spins and twists and garnishes. So American Gravy. We are restaurant owners, a family. We've got four kids, We've got a little bit of a media something going on. I don't know exactly what that is, but we are based out of Huntington Beach, California. We're really excited to be giving you guys the little tidbits every week on what's happening in the food world. So why don't we kick this off with a couple stories that we've seen over the past few weeks and dive right in.
- [01:11]
B
I love it. I love it. Let's start off with Walmart. They're getting rid of their synthetic dyes.
- [01:15]
A
Everybody has been announcing since RFK has taken over in this new MAHA movement. Obviously a motivation to clean up their own food system and food supply. I gotta say, I'm a bit apprehensive. Although it is good news, it's great news.
- [01:30]
B
The thing I guess I'm apprehensive about as well is that they said they're going to start implementing this in 2027.
- [01:37]
A
Yeah. And that's the thing, right? So first of all, when they made this announcement, they big press release, they're going to eliminate all the synthetic artificial dyes and 30 other controversial additives from their US private label food brands. Okay. So that's like great value, market side freshness, guaranteed. I used to hang out at Walmart a lot, so, you know, I know the brands. And one of the things in that press release that I found interesting was they said, well, 90% of our existing private label foods are already free of the synthetic dyes.
- [02:06]
B
They said 90%?
- [02:07]
A
90%. So they're making the announcement that they're removing the synthetic dyes and they're removing these ingredients. But they're also saying, well, it only applies to 10% of our supply chain. I wouldn't have even thrown that out there. I would have been like, big changes, a lot of work that needs to go into this.
- [02:20]
B
Yeah, exactly. Why would they, like, you know, kind of downplay it?
- [02:23]
A
Well, exactly. And that's the thing that I find interesting. And then furthermore, if they're pushing it off for another two years, I think that that's curious because what we've seen with a lot of these massive food manufacturers is they came out and made these huge PR announcements, but then they put their timeline past or into. Not past, but at least moving into the potential new administration.
- [02:46]
B
Question for you. Why do you think that, you know, it's going to take so long to implement these changes? Why are they saying 2027?
- [02:54]
A
Well, if you think about it, okay, so they've already produced and developed and manufactured all the products they're going to be selling into holiday 2025. All right? They've got all their ingredients already in place, probably for the next year's worth of production supply, in addition to how they automate that. So that's going to be a huge piece of it. However, what I will say is that with a little bit of energy and kind of rapid movement, you can change those ingredients, you can change the formulas, and you can change the manufacturing process. You can do it instantaneously, if you will. So that's why I'm a little bit apprehensive about this, because this is a company that's been using these products for the past 20, 30 years and has made a lot money on these products. So is it a PR stunt?
- [03:37]
B
Possibly? I don't know. I think they're. They're doing the right thing, though.
- [03:41]
A
You know, they are doing the right thing. Obviously, my bigger concern is going to be the other products, right. And the other ingredients that go into these products, because at the end of the day, and you and I have talked about this, is that even if you're removing all of these colors from the foods, the foods are still junk.
- [03:57]
B
They are. Exactly. I know. It's like, you know, even if I'm not going to say the brand, but there's a brand of, you know, chip that is, you know, promoting it being healthier for you, at the end of the day, you're still eating fried tortilla chips or whatever. Whatever it is.
- [04:11]
A
Well, they're not even tortilla chips. I think that's what's interesting and people need to realize that is like when you eat these corn chips, Doritos, Fritos, and even the Cheetos is that that's not like a natural cut product that then fried. What they actually do is they take the flour and they take the corn and the sugars and all the chemicals and they grind it up into really just kind of like a, like a mulch, almost a culinary mul. And then they process it through this machine that feeds it into the fryer oil, which is really just low quality vegetable oil, probably soybean oil. They deep fry it and they toss it in all those chemicals, which include the addictive powders and spices that make you want to eat an entire bag in one sitting.
- [04:49]
B
Sounds delicious.
- [04:50]
A
Well, you've done that. You eat the whole bag in one sitting sometimes.
- [04:52]
B
I have, yeah.
- [04:53]
A
I know Lauren's got an addiction to hot Cheetos and Takis, so I just want to throw that out there.
- [04:57]
B
Listen, No, I used to. Weird, Weird though. I used to be addicted when I was pregnant. It was like the weirdest thing. I would crave this horrible food item when I'm pregnant.
- [05:08]
A
I know. And the thing is, and then I had what's called secondary cravings when Lauren was pregnant, I felt pregnant. So I was eating pickle sandwiches and the like. And you know that they say, actually.
- [05:16]
B
Psychologists say, take this back. You felt pregnant?
- [05:19]
A
Yes, I felt pregnant.
- [05:20]
B
Okay.
- [05:21]
A
When I looked at you, I felt pregnant.
- [05:23]
B
Wow.
- [05:24]
A
Yeah, I felt it all over my body. I, you know, I almost went into bed rest for a while there.
- [05:29]
B
Yeah, I know. I think you did.
- [05:30]
A
If you could see the look on her face, she's not happy about this conversation. I'm going to move on. One of the things I wanted to mention and bring up when it comes to these changes in the food system is, is that you're seeing a lot of the retail brands, the consumer facing brands that are making these changes. But a lot of, if not the lion's share of the food that we eat, it actually comes through food service. Right. And that's everything from restaurants to institutional food service, which I should probably define like the arrow marks of the world, the concession stands, the hospitals, universities, school system, which is a huge one, and furthermore, restaurants. So when restaurants or any of these secondary food service operators need to buy their products, they've only got two or three main distributors, or what's known as purveyors in the restaurant industry that they can buy their products from. Right. I mean, it's like what?
- [06:20]
B
Cisco.
- [06:21]
A
Yes, Cisco US Foods, Performance, Food Group and then in certain markets there's like boutique distributors or even your restaurant depots of the world. You have a limited supply of ingredients that you can buy. So if I as a chef or we as restaurant owners tomorrow say, well, we go to our purveyor that drops off our plates and our straws and all the basic par stock items and we say we want you to bring in all of these healthy seed oil free products, natural foods, real ingredients. They're going to laugh at you.
- [06:49]
B
Right.
- [06:50]
A
Because they're not going to stock it for you unless there's a 20 pallets full for them to actually utilize the space in their warehouse if they're not gonna have high velocity to move the product out. So the restaurants tomorrow, if any restaurant in America said, I want to change my entire menu and I want to make these changes, it would be incumbent upon the food distributors and the purveyors to actually change the product they're carrying.
- [07:15]
B
Yes.
- [07:16]
A
Over the years people have been shifting from dining at home to eating in restaurants and food service operations.
- [07:22]
B
Yes. And I don't think people understand that too you, they come down on the restaurant, well, why aren't you serving this? Why aren't you using this? But it's like we have only so many options to buy what we buy, right?
- [07:35]
A
We only have so many options to buy what we buy. And at the end of the day, if you want to go and start buying directly from the farmer, directly from the rancher, which has really been the DNA of our business footprint, we know how much that takes. That means you've got to get vans, you've got to get a distribution driver, you've got to go out to the farms, you got to create the relationships. So you've got a ton more expense when it comes to labor. And then further, furthermore, the cost of those products are going to be a lot higher because you're not buying them in the bulk that a Cisco would buy because you're sharing in those economies to scale from 40 other restaurants in your community, which is how you get the lower price.
- [08:10]
B
Exactly. So what drives me nuts about this, I guess is that I've seen a lot of, you know, more influential people talk about, well, you know, don't go to this restaurant because they're using this product. But it's like they don't know the workings of that. They don't know how they're getting this product. They don't know that, you know, all these, we're gonna say the Cisco's of the World like we're buying it from them because it's our only option.
- [08:30]
A
Exactly. And when restaurants are surviving week to week, paycheck to paycheck, because what used to be the norm in the restaurant industry was 5% profit. So if you gross a million dollars on a restaurant and you make $50,000 a year, right? Let's say the restaurant costs $500,000 to build out, that's gonna be a 10 year return on the investment. A better restaurant, a great restaurant, typically a multi unit chain restaurant or franchise, maybe they' so on a million dollars, it's $100,000 a year. On a $500,000 investment, which is still a five year ROI, which is not a great investment proposition. So if you're now going to increase your cost of goods by 5%, which would be the minimum you're eating, the entirety of your profit.
- [09:13]
B
Exactly.
- [09:13]
A
People think that restaurants pump out money and it's hilarious because the gauge that they use, and I'm sure you've heard this so many times, it's like, well, you're selling me a cheeseburger for $15, but I can go to the store and I can buy a pound of ground beef for $4 and make two cheeseburgers for. Plus the cost of the bun, plus the vegetables, right? Lettuce, tomato, and obviously on my burgers, I like to put a little peanut butter on there.
- [09:35]
B
Oh, don't be weird.
- [09:36]
A
I know, I don't do that. That is disgusting. How many times do I hear, don't be weird. So at the end of the day, right, you're like, well, I can make that cheeseburger at home for four or five dollars.
- [09:46]
B
Yeah, but. And my answer to that is, go ahead and do it.
- [09:50]
A
Then I know who's cleaning the dishes, who's providing the wear and tear for all of your equipment, plus the labor, plus the ability to be able to have it served to you in the ambiance and the environment, et cetera, and everything that comes along with going out to eat at a restaurant. So that's how those costs. Because in a restaurant, if you're just so everyone knows the formula, the calculus, the rubric, if your product costs $4, you want your food cost to be roughly 25 to 30%. So you're going to 4x that. So a restaurant would have to charge to make 5% profit, $16 on a $4 item. So if you're buying in retail and your burger costs $4, that's how you get a $16 burger in a restaurant setting.
- [10:30]
B
Yeah. That's good. That's great. I hope people understand that.
- [10:33]
A
Well, you know, just a little bit of restaurant education, Restaurant 101 right there. And to your point, Lauren, I think that is a great point you make, is that with the Maha movement, which I think is one of the greatest things that we've seen in food service and policy and politics over the past 30 plus years, I mean, I've been railing about this for decades. And finally, people are talking about and asking questions as to where their food comes from. You've got an entire cottage of influencers who now suddenly are food experts.
- [11:00]
B
Oh, boy.
- [11:01]
A
And I'm gonna open up Pandora's box here with Lauren.
- [11:04]
B
Don't start. Don't start.
- [11:06]
A
Because they're telling you as a restaurant what you can and can't do and not to go to that restaurant. Even if they're making incremental changes, it's not enough. It's never enough.
- [11:15]
B
And you know what's funny? I wish these people then go open your own restaurant. You go open it, you tell me how easy it is to do all this.
- [11:23]
A
Well, a lot of people do think they can own their own restaurant and.
- [11:25]
B
They let them, and they can have the best restaurant in the world.
- [11:29]
A
Somebody brought something up to me the other day in an interview where they said, you know, it's amazing that business is increasing in restaurants by way of the number of restaurants that keep opening. But the sales in restaurants, and this was specific to California, is going down and restaurants are closing in cities. So it's fascinating because it's a testament to the fact that the cities, by virtue of the regulation in California, are driving restaurants out. But then people keep coming in and backfilling those spaces. So really what it is is that a restaurant will close and they'll always be somebody right there to open another restaurant in its space. And enclose again.
- [12:04]
B
To touch on this, though, don't you notice there's certain restaurants, or I wouldn't even say restaurants, just the area, the building. There's like a, you know, there's like a dark cloud over it. No matter what, every restaurant will continue closing. Do you find that weird?
- [12:18]
A
We call that the restaurant graveyard in the industry is that people will pitch you a space that's opened a year ago. They'll say, we've got this AM space, it's turnkey. You don't have to pay for all of the fittings, the infrastructure, the build out of the restaurant, it's turnkey ready. Which it never is, by the way, ever. But the only Condition is you've got to pay the monthly rent. However, you saved a half a million dollars by not having to build the restaurant out. So $25,000 a month for the lease on this restaurant. No big deal. Call it downtown Los Angeles or an inner city San Diego, San Francisco, where those rates are going to be that high. And then you go in there and you realize, wow, my sales can't meet the demand for the least price and you get out within a year. Yep, that's typically what ends up happening. We want to move on now to a local story in California, which is where we're based out of. And this is more in policy and regulations. So two years ago we passed AB 1228.
- [13:24]
B
What is that, sweetie? For those that don't know, Those that.
- [13:26]
A
Don'T know, AB 1228 is known as the Fast Act. And what that was was it was a mandatory minimum wage increase for all restaurants, fast food restaurants that had 20 or more locations. So your McDonald's of the world, your Wendy's of the world, all your multi unit restaurants, of course, Panera Breads was exempt from that.
- [13:45]
B
Why?
- [13:45]
A
Well, I mean, there's speculation that Gavin Newsom took a significant amount of money to his campaign from the founder of Panera. That's alleged. I don't want to get. I don't want to. I don't want this to be a defamation issue.
- [13:58]
B
Wait, so even though Panera has 20 plus locations, they didn't have to.
- [14:04]
A
Yes, because they say that they're a bakery because they bake their bread on site and that was carved out.
- [14:08]
B
Oh, I remember this. Everyone kept saying, oh, just start baking your own bread. So yeah, okay, I remember this.
- [14:13]
A
It's always interesting in California when there's restaurant regulations that are passed because interestingly, a lot of the lawmakers, specifically the head lawmaker or the head honcho, Lord Gavin Newsom, he has a restaurant enterprise himself, PlumpJack Winery and all of its kind of like tentacle restaurants that are associated with that. So one thing, they just passed a bill in California about a year ago, and I'm going off tangent here, but I think it's an interesting point where they were banning certain types of. It's called rodenticide. Right. Or I'm probably not even enunciating it properly, but it was an animal rights bill that was targeting the actual chemical they were using to kill rats and certain rodents, etc. Now the reason I bring this up is I spoke recently at the San Diego, California chapter of the Restaurant association and they had mentioned that There's a major issue in San Diego since the passage of this bill with restaurants getting shut down due to vermin, because the eco labs of the world and the chemical companies of the world, they have to use these lighter chemicals that actually the rats essentially are almost becoming immune to. So these rats are just running rampant everywhere, in addition to the fact that the city itself isn't upkeeping the public works. Well, guess what? Do you know that in this bill, guess who was exempt?
- [15:25]
B
Plump Jack.
- [15:26]
A
Wineries.
- [15:27]
B
No.
- [15:28]
A
Yeah, wineries were exempt from this.
- [15:29]
B
Oh, wineries, yeah. In general.
- [15:31]
A
Well, I mean, yeah, Plump Jack would fall under that. So I find that interesting. Every restaurant bill that gets piled onto restaurants in California, there's always some sort of a carve out.
- [15:39]
B
But also, why wouldn't you want. Why would you try to treat these rodents with lighter chemicals? For what purpose?
- [15:47]
A
That is horrific. Lauren, you don't think about these rats feelings. Have you not watched Ratatouille?
- [15:51]
B
I mean, I love that movie, but no.
- [15:53]
A
Could you imagine just that poor little rat from Ratatouille getting crushed by rottenticide? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I guess there was an ethical movement. In addition, I think they. Well, what I find fascinating is they tried to make it an environmental piece by saying, well, some of this can run off in the storm water and end up in the ocean and it's going to hurt kind of the marine biodiversity of the environment. But wouldn't you think it would actually be worse in wineries? Because it's going right into the soil and then that soil is going to.
- [16:20]
B
Get infected and then people are going to be drinking wine. Drinking the wine.
- [16:24]
A
So the next glass of wine you have enjoy a nice little flavor when you taste the wine. Right.
- [16:30]
B
Like when people taste wine, taste cherry.
- [16:31]
A
Taste a little cherry, a little bit of raid, some Rosenthicide.
- [16:37]
B
It's fantastic.
- [16:38]
A
I think I've killed the name.
- [16:39]
B
It's earthy.
- [16:39]
A
I think I've absolutely killed the name of it. Moving on to another restaurant story. Did you know that Ben Stiller has launched a natural soda brand?
- [16:47]
B
I did not until you told me. And I have not heard that name in so long.
- [16:52]
A
Well, in relation to food, I have, because every single time I hear the name, I think about how he can get the beans above the frank. I made her laugh. There we go. 1. We should have a ding right there. Every time.
- [17:04]
B
SHE LAUGHS. That was a good one.
- [17:05]
A
Yeah. So he launched his all natural soda brand. It actually looks pretty good. I mean, I want to try it and good for him, for jumping on the Maha movement, I think that that's really important.
- [17:13]
B
But do you think he's just doing it because it's hot right now, or do you think he really believes in this stuff?
- [17:18]
A
You know, that's an interesting question, because people ask me that when you see restaurants that are greenwashing or coming out and talking about sustainability when they were never for that. Well, so what? I mean, that's good. If that's the trendy thing and it moves the industry in the right direction, I'm all for that. Whether you're doing it for your own vanity or you're doing it for the right reasons, if it's the right thing for our health and it's the right thing for the food service industry, then more power to them.
- [17:41]
B
Good for Ben Stiller.
- [17:43]
A
Well, especially in a world in which people have politicized food and Maha. So that it's. If you're for any of the Maha thesis, which is, you know, eating better, getting rid of the seed oils, getting rid of the artificial ingredients, the food dyes, et cetera, suddenly, like, you're not just Maha, you're Maga.
- [18:01]
B
Isn't that ridiculous?
- [18:02]
A
And what we saw recently when they talked and made the announcement about the potential for Tylenol to be causing autism in kids, and I don't want to go too deep on that sub, but the insanity of people, first of all.
- [18:16]
B
The amount of people, pregnant women especially, jumping on social media and throwing back a ton of Tylenol. One, that was very odd. But, like, two, Tylenol isn't good for your liver. Like, regardless, like, even, like, the pregnancy alone, which that's just strange. Why would you do that? You know, you don't know the side effects of it, but, like, it's bad for your liver, so why would you just, like, randomly start popping Tylenol?
- [18:39]
A
Wait, so are you saying it's bad that I snorted Tylenol between the ages of 18 and 22?
- [18:45]
B
That worries me a little bit.
- [18:46]
A
If it makes sense, my mom definitely had a lot of Tylenol when she was probably pregnant with me. I wrote to her afterwards. I asked her, I said, mom, did you have any Tylenol when you were pregnant with me? And she goes, only when I was hungover.
- [19:01]
B
That's horrible.
- [19:02]
A
I know. It is.
- [19:02]
B
Your mother would never do that, by the way.
- [19:04]
A
Well, so a quick little tip, though, on the soda piece, because somebody asked me the other day, they were like, what are some everyday hacks, if you will, or tips and tricks that we can utilize in Order to eat healthier or to give our food, our kids better foods. It's so easy sometimes to just grab the soda to, you know, pop open the can of Sprite or Diet Coke or whatever it is. And don't get me wrong. Hey, I love my Diet Coke from top. Why you give me that laugh?
- [19:27]
B
I'm laughing because him and I both love Diet Coke. Give me a fountain Diet Coke, and it's all about it.
- [19:33]
A
A fountain Diet Coke is great. And I think that that's what this is about is it's like, you don't have to. You don't have to let perfect ruin good. Like you're flying on a plane. You're gonna throw back a little Diet Coke. No big deal.
- [19:44]
B
Diet. That's where I drink most of my Diet Coke, is on an airplane, which is hilarious. But I have a tip on a quick healthy soda shoot. Yeah. Anybody wants to try just a little club soda, a little splash of agave and a lime, and you have, like, a little healthy Sprite.
- [20:01]
A
What if it's not little? What if it's big?
- [20:03]
B
I mean, it'll still be healthier because it's just club soda.
- [20:05]
A
Well, you just kept saying little. How does it. You were staring at me. Well, and actually. And I was gonna say the same thing is that I was trying to explain to some people on X the other day about simple syrup. Right. Simple syrup is just one part sugar, and you can get a good sugar or even use brown sugar to one part water. You boil it or you just simmer it so that it actually dilutes or it dissolves into the liquid, and then you've got this natural organic syrup, depending on the sugar that you're using. We're not saying. In some cases, we are saying remove sugars, but. Or some people are. But if you're gonna have a little bit of sugar or honey, you do that. Do some natural flavors, muddle some fresh fruit in there and sparkling water, and Bingo.
- [20:44]
B
Or you can try monk fruit.
- [20:45]
A
Oh.
- [20:45]
B
Because that's.00 cal.
- [20:48]
A
What did you call me?
- [20:49]
B
A little monk fruit.
- [20:50]
A
Monk fruit. I don't like. I don't know if I like monk fruit.
- [20:52]
B
It tastes the exact same.
- [20:53]
A
Lauren hates stevia, too.
- [20:55]
B
I don't like stevia. It's. I can't have anything with stevia. Disgusting.
- [20:59]
A
Lauren's been. She's one of, like, I could put a packet of Stevia in 400 gallons of water, and then she would stick a straw in there and be like, who put the stevia in here?
- [21:09]
B
My 90 year old man.
- [21:10]
A
When you yell at me, you sound like a 90 year old man. Well, on that note. All right, so here's a little piece for our next segment which we can we call wtf. Okay, so wtf? What the fork? Get it?
- [21:23]
B
What the fork?
- [21:24]
A
And we took that from the California Restaurant Association's what the fork? Campaign. So I gotta give them credit, but I love the wtf? What the fork. Fork. And we see these stories every single week where I think to myself, what the fork? Give us this week's story, Lauren.
- [21:38]
B
Oh boy. All right, so this one is going to be about the taco bell 50k. So people have to eat on miles 4 and 8. I believe they have to down like, oh my gosh, a Crunchwrap supreme or what have you. I don't know what they are.
- [21:54]
A
Chalupas.
- [21:55]
B
Yeah.
- [21:55]
A
So you have this, this library of Taco Bell icons. The chalupa, the Crunchwrap supreme, the Mexican pizza. Is that still being sold? I think it came back.
- [22:08]
B
It came back.
- [22:09]
A
Yeah.
- [22:09]
B
But like you guys, they have to. There's 10 stops along this race and they have to down Taco Bell. Could you imagine pooping your pants? I would definitely poop my pants.
- [22:21]
A
Well, pooping your pants is already a problem when it comes to distance running. As it is any. Anybody who's run distances, they know about the bubble guts or the runners. The runner stomach. Which is always hilarious when you, Lauren and I ran a half marathon together. And I'm glad there was about 700 Porta John's along the way. A little extra coffee in the morning. But in any case, like Taco Bell.
- [22:45]
B
And distance running, can I just read you some of the race rules?
- [22:49]
A
Shoot.
- [22:49]
B
Okay, so eat a menu item from at least nine of the ten Taco Bell stop. By the fourth stop, all entrants must have consumed at least one Chalupa supreme or one Crunchwrap supreme. What.
- [23:04]
A
What is the purpose behind this? So obviously it's a Taco Bell marketing thing. And then people want to go extreme on the sports with the Taco Bell, but those are just not inherently connected. Taco Bell. There was a story that went around five or 10 years ago about Taco Bell's meat not being real meat. And Lauren and I dove deep into that story to get the real detail on the recipe of the meat. So I think we should throw that out there as, as part of this. You're not eating 100% meat. It's not 50. 50. I think that the urban legend that it was 50% plastic to 50% meat.
- [23:37]
B
It's not that. It was, like, 88% meat and then 12% filler.
- [23:41]
A
Right. So it's 88% meat, which. Who knows where that meat is coming from? It's not American meat. I can tell you that right now. Most fast food restaurants in that large scale, they're buying Brazilian meat. That's why we had the issue with the deforestation in Brazil 20 years ago, because McDonald's was ripping the forests apart so that they could have more cows for their meat. So those. That meat. In addition, do you know that ground beef in America, you could have, like, beef that's been ground from Brazil, beef that's been ground from Costa Rica, beef that's been ground from Lake Titicaca?
- [24:14]
B
You can have Titicaca. Yeah, but is that. So even if you buy, like, you know, grass fed, grass finished beef, you would still be getting beef from all over?
- [24:25]
A
Well, in theory, you could actually. Yes, that is true. If you buy grass finished beef, it could be from an American steer or it could be Australian.
- [24:34]
B
That's very weird. But I also have to get back to the Taco Bell thing because there's another challenge on here. It says, baja Blast Challenge. Drink in aggregate of 2 liters of Baja Blast during the run without vomiting.
- [24:45]
A
What's the point of doing it? You're killing yourself. I mean, this is so extreme. We have. This is like. We have a buddy, Boyd Myers, and he is an extreme athlete. He's an extreme person. And he did. One day, he woke up. You ready for this? He woke up and he said, I'm gonna run a marathon today, and I'm gonna drink one Coors Light for every mile I run. So he ran 26 miles and drank 26 beers. The funniest thing about Boyd is he actually ended up drinking five beers before he even hit the road. I don't know whether he needed to loosen up a little bit. So he ended up drinking 30 beers over 26 miles.
- [25:18]
B
But, like, how does your liver not fail?
- [25:21]
A
Well, he. And he did it in.
- [25:23]
B
And your stomach need to be pumped.
- [25:25]
A
He did it in, like, four hours or four and a half hours. I remember he did it twice, and I was following along on his second one. And his first mile was like, 550. His second mile was in the sixes.
- [25:34]
B
That's insane.
- [25:34]
A
He ultimately worked up to the 11s or 12s, but he never went any slower than that. And he drank 30 beers.
- [25:40]
B
Insane.
- [25:40]
A
So shout out to Boyd on that one.
- [25:42]
B
Shout out, Boyd.
- [25:42]
A
So what the fork? That's our what the fork? Story of the week. If you see anybody at Taco Bell, just know they may have just run a 50k and they're probably wearing a big old diaper.
- [26:01]
B
You're gonna give us a little quick cooking tip.
- [26:05]
A
We're gonna sharpen our skills. Yes, sharpen your skills for anybody who's listening. So this week's cooking tip, I wanted to talk about the cold sear.
- [26:14]
B
What is that?
- [26:15]
A
You've heard the reverse sear. If you've followed me for years, because I've actually got reverse sear tattooed across my. That's how serious I am about the reverse sear. But the cold sear is actually something that I picked up, and it's really a stovetop reverse sear, but it is a cold sear. So you take your meat, okay, and you put it in a cold pan and then you slowly turn the heat up. You're thinking to yourself, this goes against everything that I know. Well, it does. But the idea behind it is twofold. You're not seizing the meat up immediately through the sear, so you're allowing the meat to slowly heat up, which allows the enzymes to basically remain effective, to slowly break the meat down, number one. But number two, by slowly releasing the moisture in the pan, you're going to get a better sear at the end. So there's still a reverse sear process here, but you don't get that gray ring around your meat. When you sear meat. What you're doing is that you're releasing the moisture in order to get mallard browning, which is that deep golden brown on the exterior of the meat that tastes so good. But in the process of doing that, you're also drying the meat out. So that's kind of the counterpoint to this. With the cold sear, you don't dry the meat out as much on the exterior. You slowly bring it up to heat, and then once you bring it up to heat, about 50% of the way through the cook process, as it's slowly searing, you remove the meat from the pan and you pat it completely dry. Then you blast the heat of the pan up and you put the steak back in the pan, and you get your dark brown at the end of the cooking process. And you can do this directly in your pan. No oven needed, no smoker, you know, no convection style cooking, which is typically characteristic of the reverse sear. And you get that beautiful sear at the end. And when you cut into the meat, what you'll notice is that you've got that beautiful browned exterior on the outside, and it doesn't have the gray gradient through. Then it's just an even, nice, rosy red from edge to edge. I always talk about that beautiful color from edge to edge. So that's the cold sear. And it works particularly well on things like chicken, where you can actually put the skin side down in the pan. Start in a cold pan, and then slowly let it come up to heat and render the exterior of the chicken skin. And it gets a beautiful crispy, crusty exterior. And the chicken is moist and succulent all the way through.
- [28:34]
B
I feel like the reverse sear is a lie now.
- [28:36]
A
How is it a lie? This is a derivative of the reverse sear. And when I said the word moist, you actually looked like you were going to throw up.
- [28:43]
B
Okay. I love that tip. Great tip, honey.
- [28:47]
A
All right, so one of the things Lauren and I talk about all the time are the things that we think need to die in the food industry. And we call this, like, 86 it.
- [28:55]
B
So, yeah, food trends that need to go away forever. I will tell you mine.
- [29:00]
A
What?
- [29:01]
B
I love cottage cheese as it is, but suddenly cottage cheese is now being turned into bagels and ice cream. If you're gonna eat a bagel, just eat a frickin bagel. Why do you need to create a bagel with cottage cheese?
- [29:16]
A
That's a really good point. It's like we all glam onto a single product and then try and work that product into every single item that we lives.
- [29:25]
B
Everything.
- [29:25]
A
I've seen it recently with like, toothpaste, Right? Cottage cheese toothpaste.
- [29:29]
B
No, I haven't seen that. But it's almost like, remember the trend a couple years ago is like, cauliflower is like everything. Cauliflower crust, cauliflower rice. Like, they. They find one item and they try to turn it into everything.
- [29:41]
A
It's true. Because cauliflower crust, cauliflower rice, and then suddenly you've got MMA who's like, well, we've got cauliflower ears. See, I mean, they took it so far.
- [29:50]
B
Yeah, they took it way too far.
- [29:52]
A
We don't want. But then again, I don't think that you want cottage cheese ears.
- [29:55]
B
That would look weird. That would be. You'd need to go to a dermatologist.
- [29:58]
A
Isn't it ironic that people eat cottage cheese to get rid of the cottage cheese in their legs?
- [30:04]
B
Is that how it works?
- [30:05]
A
I don't know. Although I will say this too. I think that the cottage cheese trend is hilarious because you have, like, a younger generation that's now, like, eating cottage cheese and everything.
- [30:15]
B
The funniest part is there's certain brands of cottage cheese that are being sold out. Like they're flying off the shelves because people are trying to get this certain type of cottage cheese. I'm like, when did cottage cheese become so popular?
- [30:27]
A
I saw Lauren the other day cross body block an 85 year old lady to get the last pint container of cottage cheese. And it was, it was that it was the first time in years of us being married that I actually questioned whether she was the woman that I, that I married.
- [30:40]
B
Okay, that is not true. I don't even buy cottage cheese very rarely.
- [30:43]
A
But I was that 85 year old lady laid out on the floor of the egg and cottage cheese aisle.
- [30:48]
B
Was this a dream of yours? And might have been.
- [30:50]
A
I haven't taken some of that weird Walmart brand melatonin. So yours is cottage cheese. I'm telling you what mine is. Mine is hot Cheetos on everything. So about five years ago, everyone started with a hot Cheeto trend, right? It was hot Cheetos on Micheladas. It was like hot Cheetos studded Mac and cheese, hot Cheeto burritos, hot Cheetos. I think even Chipotle.
- [31:11]
B
Is it still a trend though?
- [31:12]
A
Yes. I just saw it the other day about the hot Cheeto Mac and cheese. And then like it's still happening all over the place. Oh, the hot Cheeto bloody Marys. That's what I saw the other day. It's like, guys, it's done. Okay? Like stop with it. It was never good to begin with.
- [31:27]
B
Excuse me. Then I must have started the first trend because in junior high our bean and cheese burritos were amazing. Right?
- [31:36]
A
During lunch hours.
- [31:36]
B
At lunch. At lunch. And we would stuff them with hot Cheetos.
- [31:40]
A
Did you have hot Cheetos at school? In the venue machine. That brings me to a bigger point. I'm gonna get serious.
- [31:45]
B
You don't start. Okay, Listen, I, I go way back with hot Cheetos. I had my first hot Cheeto when I was like seven and I've been addicted.
- [31:53]
A
So things are getting a little emotional here. We might need to take a, take a, take a break. I might be the first husband to get shiv'd by a hot Cheeto.
- [31:59]
B
Can you relax?
- [32:01]
A
Well, no, actually I can't. You're getting very serious about this. This is what happens. So just so everybody knows, when we were coming up here today, I was. We have a sinkhole in our backyard yard that came out of nowhere.
- [32:12]
B
Yes, you guys. So you. This is very Funny. And it's very true story. So we're outside in the backyard and our 4 year old says, mom, there's a big hole. And Andrew comes inside, goes, lauren, did you dig up a hole? I literally go, she does this, by the way. I go, yes. But I thought he was referring to our planter box. So I took out one of the plants, was driving me crazy, and he goes, no, in the grass. I go, why would I dig a hole in the grass? And it's like a five foot deep hole.
- [32:37]
A
Well, I took a broomstick and I stuck it in a hole and it just kept going and going and it was like a five foot broomstick. So I'm like, that whole hole goes down pretty deep. And so then I pulled back the layers a little bit and the hole just kept expanding. So now suddenly I'm online Googling. And by the way, don't Google sinkhole. You don't want to know what's gonna show up. But we are now, like freaking out about this sinkhole that suddenly it's gonna be in. Remember the movie Poltergeist when the tree goes crazy and all that? That's how far my brain went. Well, in any case, fire department comes over this morning because how did you know to call the fire department besides the fact that we know the fire department?
- [33:14]
B
Well, our neighbor. I didn't want to be dramatic. I was like, is this a big issue? But then I googled and it actually said to call the fire department. So I called. Luckily, one of our neighbors is a fireman, a local fireman. So he's like, yeah, yeah, we'll come tomorrow morning. So this is very funny.
- [33:30]
A
So fire department rolls up, right? And like now they're into this, trying to figure out what the hole is. So they're pulling it back and they're peeling it back. But end of the story. Here is the family that we bought the house from. They were preppers, right?
- [33:41]
B
Like they were doomsday preppers.
- [33:43]
A
Doomsday preppers. And they had six kids, seven kids.
- [33:46]
B
Well, at the time they had six. Now they have like 10.
- [33:48]
A
Okay, so at the time they had six kids. In any case, they were doomsday preppers. They buried underground like a mult, like thousand, two thousand. We don't know exactly the capacity gallon fresh water tank in the event that there was, you know, nuclear fallout or a civil war and there was no water. And they. It's buried under the ground. And it had been. It's been leaking. Leaking, which we haven't figured out yet because now I need to go get like an excavator to pull out a 500,000 pound tank of water that's under the foundation of our house.
- [34:19]
B
Like we can't make this up. And it was so funny. When they're digging, we can see the edge of the tank and it's like the top almost corroded or something.
- [34:28]
A
Top corroded. And I'm thinking, I'm like, oh my God, we're gonna find a big chest with like millions of dollars in there. Maybe an Onus Wagner rookie card.
- [34:36]
B
Maybe there is.
- [34:37]
A
Who knows? Nah, there's nothing in there.
- [34:39]
B
There's a freaking water tank under our eyes.
- [34:40]
A
I think I saw a tooth by the outside. That's about it.
- [34:43]
B
Not scary.
- [34:43]
A
Wasn't my tooth. But back to the original point of the story is that Lauren likes to dig holes and they're always 4 foot by 6 foot.
- [34:50]
B
I don't know why that is not true. First of all, first of all, I do not like to dig holes.
- [34:58]
A
Well, that's a great movie. Holes. The kids love that one.
- [35:01]
B
Oh, that is a good movie.
- [35:01]
A
That is a good movie. So in any case, that was our drama for the day, but we've got it resolved. So if anybody needs any fresh water with just a little bit of mud in it, swing on by our are you know this?
- [35:11]
B
We have plenty.
- [35:12]
A
Yeah, this is going to connect to the beach. Huntington Beach, California. Come by free cups of water.
- [35:17]
B
Also I would love to hear anyone else, like what your thoughts are on, like what items you would want to see. 86.
- [35:23]
A
Yeah.
- [35:24]
B
Give us your friends you want to see Go.
- [35:26]
A
Give us your 86 suggestions. What do you want to see? Go. What are some of the WTF stories that are happening in your lives? Obviously you can follow us on X Chef Gruel, Lauren Gruel and then Instagram is the same. Well, I'm at Andrew Gruel and I'm Lauren Underscore Gruel. No one's going to be able to to figure that out but you know, you know where you can find us and then just message us or drop a comment on any of these posts about what you want to see. 86 from restaurants or just trends. Trends. Yeah, kill the trend.
- [35:57]
B
Alrighty.
- [35:58]
A
Well, that's it. That's that. That's gonna be a wrap today. But we're gonna be touching on some really exciting stuff that's happening in the next week in regards to food system restaurants, food service and who knows, maybe Lauren will dig into it. Hole.
- [36:10]
B
Bye, guys.