Bobby on the Beat. Welcome back, everybody, to Bobby on the Beat. This week, we're in Miami. We're actually at the One Hotel South Beach, and we're going to be talking to Sofia Vergara and checking out the Food and Wine Festival, which is, it's the 25th year, so let's go. Go, South Beach, give it up for the one and only Bobby. Bobby! Hey, hey, hey. Let me ask you, do you ever watch B-Bobby play? Yes. Okay. Our baby loves it. Your baby loves it? How old is your baby? He's nine months. Nine months? He's so excited. Oh my God. Do you like to beat Bobby Flay? Yes. What would be your signature dish? Red wine braids, short ribs over a truffle, mashed potatoes with some crispy pancetta and some chives. I lost. Meatloaf. Meatloaf? Yeah. Tell me about it. I just, the way I do it, it's better than anybody else does it. You think you can beat my meatloaf? I didn't say that. Oh. We won't have you on for your meatloaf then. Okay. What would be your signature dish? I can't answer. You bring in something to chef? Ever watch Beat Bobby Flay? All the time. What would be your signature dish? I think I make a pretty mean shrimp and grits. It's dirty. I make the sauce, it's got a lot of stuff in it, and it's dark. Her husband is obsessed with Brooke. Is she here? She's right there. Brooke's right here. You're adorable, but she is smoking. I'm sorry. Guys, I'm here. I got brooked. I would do a Florentine steak and a pasta with Chianti Guiana sauce that I learned from Trattoria 13 Gobi. Really? I love that. That's my son's favorite dish. Let's cook it together. No, no, I want you to come on and challenge me because I want to cook that. I would love it. You think you can beat me? I do not. But I would love it. Which one is the best cook between the two of you? I grill better, she bakes better. What's your signature dish that you challenge me to? I would be best at an outside skirt steak, but I don't think I could beat you at a steak at home. Really? What about you, dessert? Um, oatmeal cream pies. I'd crush you on the chimichurri steak situation, but who knows? But then she'd kill me on the other, and then you'd go home victorious. Are you a good cook? Hell no, he is. What's your best dish? Pork butt, you know, ribs. You know, that's my kind of stuff. Put it on a smoker and sit all day and drink and enjoy. You guys have a lot of drinks in your hand. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? I guess so. I'm doing it all wrong. Well, we couldn't find the food. Oh, they didn't tell you? There's no food at the food and wine festival. You ever watch B-Bobby Flay? Yes, I do. Okay, what would be your signature dish? Oh, my God, I don't know. Tresco steak? Is your game strong? I'm really good at eating it, but I don't know if I'm really good at it. Well, you have to cook it. So this is Sofia Vergara's empanadas. Brooke has the chicken. I got the beef. Love the pastry on it. It's so good. It took us three years to get it just right. Really? Yeah. It's delicious. I love this chicken. You want a bite of chicken? Yeah. Bobby on the beat. All right, welcome Sofia. Thank you so much for doing this. I'm thrilled to be able to talk to you. No, thank you. Yeah, obviously, like many people around the world, I've been a huge admirer of yours. And it's so nice to see somebody like you do one thing for such a long time and then be able to do so many other things at the same time. It's one of the things that, one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is because I kind of go through the same thing myself sometimes. You do one thing and then people always want to think of you as that particular thing. So Griselda was amazing. And so obviously that was a huge departure from like, you know, obviously Modern Family. Like, was that a struggle to find a role like that? Yes. After Modern Family? It actually took me 15 years. And I had to produce it myself with my manager, Luis, because we couldn't find anything that would feed me. And that wasn't comedy. Because of course everybody wanted me to do comedy. but I don't know, I got crazy and I said, I want to do this. But it wasn't ever to show that, oh, I can do something else. It was mainly because the character was so interesting for me. Right. And it was an amazing performance. Thank you Obviously you got so many great accolades from it but it was just incredible I want to talk to you about food because obviously as a chef to me that the first thing I think about And I love when people are really into their own culture You know, obviously, you're from Colombia, and, you know, you're now making empanadas and Colombian coffee, which, you know, some would argue is the best coffee in the world, right? Yes. Why is it that, you know, you have, obviously, this amazing acting career, and you want to also be in lifestyle as well? Is that an easy thing for you to just kind of fall into? Well, it's been easy for me because I've always liked business. And I always liked, you know. You like the business part of it. I love it. I actually feel like I always was acting or presenting to be able to do businesses. Right. It was more for that, you know, the exposure that you get. And then I got lucky. And then I, you know, I was able to be part of shows like Modern Family that were watched all over the world, like in 80 countries. And then now I'm doing AGT, which is huge also. But I always liked, you know, business and I like making money. But I only do things that I really believe in. That's my number one thing because I've been, you know, doing this for, I don't know, I'm 53. so I think I've been working for more than 30 years. So it has to be things that I believe in. And also I started realizing that I could do this because of how many women or people would come to me like, what are you wearing? What are you, how do you exercise? What is that lipstick? What is this? So it was always like that. People asking me, asking me. You're inspiring people without even knowing it. You're just being out there and then people see what you're doing and they want to do what you do. You said you like business. Are you a tough negotiator? No. You're not? No, no, no. That's why I have my money. I'm the good guy. He plays the bad guy. That's incredibly smart to do. I know. I've always obviously been a chef my entire life. I dropped out of high school when I was 16, so I started working right away. And so I've been cooking my entire life, and people know me because of television as a chef. And I always wanted to be like a newscaster. and I would work for news stations like the Today Show and CBS and all those. Why a newscaster? Because I don't know, I just wanted to be an anchor. I mean, because you know how it is. It's like you want to do something that you're not doing. Totally, yes. But nobody would ever give me a chance. They'd be like, just stay in your corner. You're a chef, you're a good chef, leave it alone. You know what I mean? So it's always nice to see that you're able to transition. But I want to ask you a little bit about like fame because obviously you're a very famous person. My daughter, who actually is a newscaster. Yes. I'm weird. Yeah, I know. She's 29. She always says to me, she's like, Dad, you're the right amount of famous. Meaning people know who you are, but you can do whatever you want. Like I live in New York. I take the subway twice a day. I can stand in the lobby in the one hotel. People might come up and say hello to me in this net. But you're like this other kind of famous where it's like it's hard for you to just be amongst everybody without being mobbed. How do you feel about that? I mean, would you rather be a little bit less famous so you can do more things? You know, it's funny because one of the things that I've always had in my head, my head always since I started working, I never wanted to feel the freedom to do everything. Like, I do everything. Like, I go everywhere. You do whatever you want to do. I do everything. I drive myself. I'm like, I don't need, like, I don't like the drama of the entourage and all of that. and also I can get away if I'm like dressed normally without my, you know, and if I'm like, and if I don't open my mouth, the problem is if I open my mouth, they know who I am. But if I am, you know, just walking in New York, yes, like I'm just minding my own business. I mean, unless I do eye contact with someone, but if I can, I can get away with it because I love doing things. Normal things. Yeah, exactly. I mean to me that the thing You want to experience life the way that you want to experience it for sure Let talk about your empanadas Obviously Colombia is such a cool country when it comes to cuisine Have you been to Colombia I haven't been. You have to go Cartagena? Cartagena, yeah, I made a hand. Depending where you are in Colombia, the food is very different. There's soups and stews in one place, and then there's Caribbean kinds of flavors, like the plantains and the coconuts and things like that. So empanadas, arepas, to me, those are the things I think about first when it comes to Colombia food. So how long has this, how long have the Empanada been on? Well, there's been like a project that I have been very, very excited about. It's one of the things that I'm doing right now that it's really like I'm passionate about. Also because I'm working with my son Manolo who's like helping me with all of it because he's the one that really knows about food and cooks and everything. I am like the tester. Like I can taste and say, yes, this no, yes, but he's in charge of everything that is happening with it. So it's great because I'm working with him. But we decided together that we needed to do something with empanadas or with Latin food because that's what we're about. Like, for example, I'm here in Miami now, and for two days I'm working. But I do need to see my family. And what are we going to do? We're going to eat. Right. Right. And when you say we're going to eat, are you going to eat at home or are you going to go out to a restaurant? Well, we could eat at home, but the problem is, right now, the list for tonight is already 25 people. Oh, my God. And it's just family and maybe one extra person that is not family or two persons that are not family. So you go out. So we go out because I only told them two days ago that I was coming to Miami. So they would kill me if they have to cook for 20-something people in one day. So it's crazy because we always gather around food, and that's our plan. It's not that we go anywhere. We don't go to museums together. We go to eat. We go to eat. And so it's something that is very organic. It's very Latin. They're very good, no? The pastry is amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. And every time that people try them, they're hooked. They don't eat one. They keep eating. And so I'm very proud of this. And Manolo has done such a great job because, you know, I don't really know what it takes to make an empanada. I know when they taste good or they don't. But he has made, you know, all the ingredients, the menus work. And I think we have a very, very special product here. So there's beef, then there's chicken, and then there's French onion. Is it all for you? I can help. Yeah, of course. There's beef, there's chicken. There's like a million flavors. French onion. Yeah, French onion. There's even one that is like a dessert with a chocolate inside. It's Nutella. And then this is cassava, right? No? That's up in the corner, but it got flat. I don't know what happened. It's not supposed to look like this. I don't know. What did you do to it? No, no, you're supposed to be cooking for me. Don't blame me. This is your cooking. I brought them here. I don't know what you did with them back there. Yeah. It's so good. This is a pan de bono. This is like a cheese bread. Oh, it's cheese bread. But it's supposed to be puffed up. I don't know what happened. They got flat. Okay. But they're really good. It's the humidity in Miami. I went to SoulCycle this morning downstairs. They have the one hotel. This hotel is great. It's amazing. It's so beautiful. I went to SoulCycle downstairs in the lobby this morning. So I'm okay. I can work this out for a little bit. What do you do to work out? I started working out very late in my life, unfortunately. I hate it. I know, for me it's like a torture and I thought I was gonna get away my whole life with being young and thin and sexy, but now things are starting to change so now I have to work out And I also had a knee problem so I been doing physical therapy for two years But I workout at least four times a week I started doing Pilates because It amazing As a chef, you stand over a cutting board like this. Oh my God. My whole career. Your neck. Exactly, and your posture was completely. And guys don't stretch no matter what. We never want to stretch, right? And so Pilates has been great for me because it just kind of elongates your body and it helps you stretch. I'm sure it was super difficult the first time you went, right? Because guys say, oh, it's whatever. But it's difficult. It's very hard. You have to, like, train for it. What about the coffee? It's so good. I've been drinking it. We were hanging out here. It's so good. It's amazing. The coffee, it's like real Colombian coffee. Like, I was super frustrated. Like, you know, I'm an actress, so mainly I live on a set. And there's nothing more horrible than the coffee on the set. Craft services. It's horrible. And I don't like also the coffee, the famous coffee that everybody drinks all over the United States. Yeah. I don't like it. For me, it tastes like it's burnt. When you're drinking coffee, you want something strong? Yes. You want something that's going to... I like something strong. But I grew up in Colombia and I grew up drinking coffee. Like, I drink coffee without sugar. To me, you don't need to put sugar or milk or anything in the coffee because then you don't taste the real coffee. That's me. That's how I grew up. So for me, it's hard to go to any coffee shop where, yes, they put all sorts of things just to cover that they don't have good beans, good coffee. Yeah, of course. And so this was a project that I wanted to do for a long time. And it came all together like the perfect time because we found a way to buy the coffee from, how do you say, coffee growers that are women. Direct. Oh, they're women. They're all women. Wow. Yeah, they're coffee growers, and there's a huge amount of women coffee growers in Colombia. So it's beautiful because we're helping them. We're paying like a premium price for their grains, and they're doing an amazing job, you know, giving us this amazing coffee. And also, you know, we're helping them. We're just not having this delicious coffee, but we're also helping these women in Colombia. That's amazing. I love that story. And then you can get the coffee like in Amazon and Walmart and stuff like that. I think Costco now, Walmart. This is your first South Beach Wine and Food Festival that you're coming to? Yes. I've been coming here for almost 25 years. Are you going to be there? I'm here. I mean, yes. Oh, that's why you're here. I do events all weekend long. We always have to do like three or four events or something like that. But you're going to be showing off your empanadas and stuff. Yes, my empanadas. And you're going to be there? It sounds weird that I'm going to be showing off my empanadas. No? I think that's why people are coming, right? They want, you know, there's beef, there's chicken. It's like, yes, come to South Beach. I'm going to be showing off my empanadas. The place will be full. Don't worry. But you're going to be there and talking to people and meeting people. Yes, we're going to be there. I mean, that's amazing. I mean, obviously it shows that you're, like, totally behind the product. No, no, I love the product. It's like, you know, it's been such a, it's been fast. We've only, you know, came out with empanadas a year and a half ago or something. And it's been growing like crazy. It's like once people try them, they get hooked. So it's very exciting, you know, when you come out with a product and to see the reaction immediately of people. It's super cool. Yeah. Well, all right. I'm going to let you go because I know you have a busy weekend. Okay. Thanks so much, Sofia. I have to say I love a guest who brings their own empanadas and amazing Colombian coffee. That was amazing. So thanks so much. That was great. Everybody, if you like what you're watching, make sure you hit like and subscribe, of course. This was such another fantastic week of Bobby on the Beat podcast. And we got a little sunshine this week. See you next week. Bobby on the Beat.
