Elvis Duran: 30 Years of the Morning Show, What's Next & NYC Food Favorites + Bobby Flay's Pantry Tour

It was until I left school and I started working in a restaurant and working with my hands that, you know, my life came alive. I take those things that I learn and see and experience and I make them part of my life's work. And I also think that if you work in a restaurant, like it teaches you about life. You saw this man who worked around the clock and he still does. I mean he's such a great role model. He leads with kindness, he leads with work ethic. Bobby, we were talking one day, he's like, you keep doing that and you keep being your authentic self, you're gonna win. This is what he said. So 100% what I did and I ended up winning. First of all, I love Bobby Flavio very much. I've loved him on The Today Show. I love him here and now. Bobby Flavio, everybody, check out Bobby's triple threat. Bobby, you're not filming a show with him. You're like being coming friends with him. Food business and the restaurant business has been great to me, right? It's been such an important part of my life. I'm in a really good place right this second. For lots of reasons. It gives me that momentum to keep striving to be better, to learn and to look for the next adventure. But I feel like I'm now directing my own life. Bobby Flavio has been a great mentor for me. Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby Flavio! Bobby on the beat. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Bobby on the Beat and we have a great guest today, Elvis Durand. We'll get to Elvis in a couple of minutes. I was in Tokyo last week, which was so fun. Brooke and I went. Obviously, we ate tons of food. Tempura, sushi, tonkatsu. It just went on and on and on and on. It's just such a great eating town. The people in Tokyo was so incredibly nice. I hadn't been to Tokyo since I did Iron Chef America in the year 2000. It's been 25 years and so, you know, Brooke said to me, I really want to go to Tokyo. So we packed our bags and we went. We had a great week there. So actually next week, Brooke is going to come on and we're going to talk about Tokyo together. So make sure that you tune in and we'll give you an update on what's going on with us. And then also this week, I did Eli Manning, the former Corey back of the New York Giants. Won a couple of Super Bowls. Great guy. I love the Manning family. He's got this podcast now that he does. It's like a video podcast. So we did some cooking. We made some burgers together and stuff like that. It was really fun. Make sure you're being on the lookout for that. But this week, we have my man Elvis Durran from Elvis Durran in the morning. This guy is a radio legend. I have done this show with Elvis many, many times, dozens of times over the last, I don't know, 10 to 15 years. You know, you talk about like radio legends, right? There's a handful of people that you can talk, you know, think about at the top of the heap. And Elvis Durran is definitely one of them. We're going to invite Elvis in in a second. If you're liking the podcast, we're getting so much great feedback. Thank you so much for tuning in, whether it's on YouTube or, you know, you're listening to it in your car. If you love it, like it, don't like it, please hit subscribe. No matter what, if you have a chance to like just click that button. It just makes a big difference to us. Just tells us that you want to see more of these. So let's welcome in Elvis. I'm so glad you're here. I'm happy to be here. You and I have a long history together. Do you want to talk about that here now? I do. Like you go first. The first time I did your show, you were in a studio that is like three studios ago. It was in Tribeca. It was down the hall. Down the hall. A different studio. On my show here, I feed people. I always make them a snack or something to eat. We started talking about your love of chicken parm. Chicken parm, let me tell you, when I was a kid and I needed discipline from my mom, I wish she'd spank me with a chicken parm. But you love chicken parm. And then I later fly it as a flag over my house. It was the very first thing you talked to me about. When you and I first met, I came on your show. I remember sitting down. You were on the other side of the desk, obviously, with the microphone. And I was very, very nervous because you're like a big deal or something. And I sat down and you started talking to me about chicken parm. So I was like, when you come on this show, I'm going to make you chicken parm. This is it. But this is a different version of, this isn't chicken parm is on. This is chicken parmigiano. And let me tell you what I mean by that. So we really make it about the cheese. So this is a barata? Are you at the top? No, it's buffalo mozzarella. But this is the one that I do at Amalfi in Vegas, which is it's a crispy chicken breast that's not totally swimming in sauce and cheese. The sauce is on the bottom. So you still have the crispiness and you have some of the melted cheese. So we don't put it, we don't cover the entire thing. So you have that contrast of texture and we make it about the parmigiano even more so than the mozzarella. Are we getting a close up of this because this is really gold? You can eat this whenever you want. Well, it's weird. It's kind of uncomfortable talking and chewing. Well, I'm eating. I'll go with you. Let me show you how I made it. Bobby on the beat. All right, let's make some chicken parmigiano. First things first, we're going to pound out some skinless and boneless chicken breast. Make sure it's nice and even and thin and then set up a dredging station. Flour, scrambled eggs, panko breadcrumbs, each layer has salt and pepper in it. So you go flour, egg and then get those breadcrumbs really that may be part of the chicken. Put it in 350 degree oil. Make sure it's nice and golden brown and crispy. Let it rest so it gets nice and juicy. Now we're going to start on our tomato sauce. So some aromatics, onions, garlic. And I really like to crush my garlic so it kind of just melts away in the pan. So we're just going to take the onions and the garlic and we're going to put it in a pan with some olive oil and just let it sweat. Achieve no color. We'll get back to that in a second. Slice some thin pieces of buffalo mozzarella. Put it on top of the chicken and lots of parmigiano. This is where the parmigiano comes in. Put it in the oven and let those cheeses melt. Back to the sauce. Add some San Marzano tomatoes over the onions and garlic. Let it cook for a while. We're also going to make a basil oil to go on top. So olive oil, arugula, basil, salt and pepper. And we're going to blend it until it's nice and green. And then we're going to strain it out so it's got no impurities in there. Just beautiful green, delicious basil oil. Okay, if you notice, I put my tomato sauce on the bottom of the plate. Then I add the chicken with the mozzarella cheese and the parmigiano, a little fresh arugula on top, some of that beautiful basil oil and there you go. Chicken parmigiano. Don't call me chicken parmigiano. Bobby on the beat. You were nervous? Here's the thing. I'm nervous now and I'll tell you why. I'm usually the one interviewing. No, I know. This is your podcast. So I have to submit. I have to let you drive the show. I only ask you a question. Okay, please do. You have been so successful in the radio business. It's really phenomenal. First of all, I do want to commend you because you inspire me to do things in a positive way. What do you mean? On this podcast, we talk about it being like a no-hater zone. We're not interested in being negative just for the sake of being negative. What do you get from that? People get a lot of attention for it. And people get headlines if they interview a controversial celebrity and get them to say something to trip on. If you have a guest on your show and they've been through something that has maybe, let's say, a little bit embarrassing like currently, usually if they're on a radio show, they go after them for it so that they get the clickbait of people wanting to listen into what they're talking about. And you always look for the positive in everybody. Well, see, having a guest like you makes that easy. I'll tell you why. Because first of all, you got into food because of the love of food and the love what food does with families and friends, right? And then you turned into a business, a massive business, gargantuan, worth billions and billions of dollars. But the thing is, is you always have something positive going on with you in your career. You have new openings, new ideas, new shows. And so what is there to dwell on? I mean, I could talk about your personal life. Yeah, yeah. I mean, should we do that now? You do like to talk about my personal life. But I don't get nasty with it. But you do it in jest. And like you do it like, I mean, listen, there's no secret. I've had a handful of divorces in my life. But and see, you brought it up. I know. But listen, I'm not, I'm not embarrassed about being divorced as part of my life. I mean, it's a part of your story. It is a part of my story, but it's a part of everybody's story. Like in terms of like, you know, what you do in your life and this and that. For some reason, I don't know why this is. Maybe you can tell me. OK, let me tell you why I'm interested in sharing your personal life. OK. It's because you could be just a talking head on TV and go into a kitchen and fry up some chicken and put some sauce on it and hand it to someone. And hey, America, here's something you should cook tonight. Or if I know your story, I know that you've been through a life of maybe sometimes struggle, sometimes tears, sometimes positives. I know you're a real human that breathes and lives and as blood flowing through his veins and you're a guy who was living his life. That makes your food taste different. That makes everything you do in public different because I know you as a human being and not as just some computer, some robot. OK, I never thought of it that way. Because you are. It's like, you know, if an interview, a musician, the songs they write have a totally different meaning if I know where they're coming from in their life. As opposed to just like what you knew song. Exactly. So your music is your food. That's true. Your art is what you write the music on these plates. That's true. I do tell people that the way that I show my adoration to my friends and my family and people I care about is through cooking. That's what you do. And I feed them. So it is literally my instrument. No question about it. But I like to me, I'm always like, why do people care about who I'm dating? I mean, seriously, like it's not that interesting. But for some reason, it's always a topic in the media. And I'm just like, OK, fine. So but actually, I don't think that I don't think most people who like to write about it or talk about it, think about it as thoughtful as you just talked about it. You actually, I didn't know that you thought about it that way. And it's really kind of cool to hear because I'm always curious. I always joke around with my friends and I was like, why do people care about who I'm dating? And no one ever has the answer. Look, you know, you are a guy who's not perfect at all times. You live a life like the rest of us with imperfections that makes everything on this plate taste different. That makes everything you show and every show you do, every competition show that you had all 45,000 of them. It makes them different because you're not just a talking head. You're a person. I appreciate that. I brought you a gift. Open it up. You should smell it as soon as you open it. There you go. Give it a sniff. You brought truffles? It's the end of black truffle season, I guess. Is it sort of? These are expensive. I'm a very wealthy man. This is a low budget show. I don't spend money on clothes, as you can tell. I'm those nice black truffles. So nice of you. So have you ever gone truffle hunting in Italy? No, we were in the Chianti district. We were awakened at 4.30 one morning by our friends who we had been drinking a lot of wine with the entire day before. They said 4.30 a.m. we're up. We were going on a truffle hunt. Right. I'm like, dear God, no. I 4.30. Well, we got to drive an hour and a half. So we get there. The truffle dogs are cool. We hang out with them. It was the most fun I've ever had in my life. These dogs went wild. They would find the truffles under these trees and dig them up. And then you have to save the truffle from the dog's mouth. Like they would find them immediately? Pretty fast. Right. And at the end of the truffle hunt, we had a basket with market value in the United States would have been several thousand dollars, right? And so we went back to their house and the husband and wife shaved them up, cooked them up. It was the best day ever. Were there white or black truffles? All black, except for two whites that they found. And then they said it was kind of a weird thing. Funny enough, he says in New York City, Central Park is loaded with truffles under those oak trees, but it would be just a free for all madhouse if people started digging up Central Park. Here in New York City, we're living on a treasure trove of crock-o-peas. Do you cook at home? Yeah, I do. Because I know you love food so much. Look at me. Like I know that you have some quiet investments in restaurants every once in a while. You like to support your friends, which is really nice. Like investing in the restaurant business, man. It's the dumbest idea ever. Well, you're laughing. I mean, you've had some duds, haven't you? Me? Sure. You've lost some money on something. I mean, yes. I mean, it's, but an outside investor, it's very hard for them to make money in the restaurant business. Well, I do it because I can get a reservation. No, you like it because you like to be supportive of people. You're so good about that. I really like to know about how people do their jobs. You guys have this controlled chaos basically all morning long. Is there any conversation before you guys turn the mics on, like do you guys pre-produce anything? No. You just roll. No. I mean, the program director, the quote unquote boss would say, look, it's great for you to have a plan for tomorrow's show. So during the day, the rest of the radio station can promote what you're doing the next day. So we would come up with things to do the next day, but when you wake up the next day, those things don't look good anymore. It's like, I don't want to serve leftovers. These are leftovers from my mind. The next day is a fresh new day. I totally agree with that. So we come up with new things every morning. And you just kind of roll with it. Yeah. The thing I love about your show is that every single person has a job there besides being a character on the show. Right? Pretty much. Like what does Skiri do? He's a technical producer. Everything that's on computer that has to be fed into my computer to push buttons that play sound, he puts it all in there. So without him, the ten-headed monster can't operate. What does Nate do? Does he keep you on time? Nate is more of an executive producer who tries to keep me on time. And as you've seen, that fails miserably. But we're not like a network TV show where we have marks and cues we have to meet at the top of the hour and crap like that. We just have to fit in a lot of stuff in four hours. And it's up to him to get that done. So he's also in charge of guesting and communicating with iHeartMedia who owns us, who I never talked to. Right. I don't know. I just come in and do my thing. And thanks to Nate, I can leave. So Nate talks to the corporate office. Yeah. And sales and things like that. And you just come in and do your thing. Yeah. Very important part of the machine. I love doing your show so much. It's literally, I tell people this all the time, it's one of the funnest things I do in my life. Why do you say that? I like the medium. I know that I'm going to laugh a lot. Like being able to laugh out loud in a real way is one of life's great joys. I mean, let's face it. It doesn't happen all the time. And I know when I come there that you guys are going to give me a hard time. I'm going to be, you guys are okay with me giving you a hard time back. And it turns into like very funny moments. We have fun. When I go there, I don't want to leave. You do overstay your welcome. Do I? Are you like, but wait, behind the scenes, you say Bobby stays way too long? No, never. First and foremost, we love being with you because you're becoming a brother to me in a weird way. Yeah. But the listeners love you. They love it. They love seeing and actually hearing a side of you. They don't hear. Exactly. In a somewhat scripted world on TV. You know, with this show, like I'm getting a lot of comments with people saying like, you know, we don't see this side of you, which is really, I mean, it's who I am. But you know, those shows on the Food Network, they're so polished in a way. They are. And that's been my only complaint about you on these shows. But I understand in the production of those shows, you have. It's a format. It's a format. It's all formatic. But that's why when you say to me, what do you like about being on your show? It's because it's freewheeling. I know you guys have, you know, you have some agenda and there's some, I don't want to say a storyline, but there's like, you know, Nate has a couple of ideas that he wants to get through like in the hour that I'm there. When Greg T was around, he'd play the, you know, the French, the French chef, which was ridiculous. He called you Bobby McFlay. Bobby McFlay. Exactly. I mean, I mean, that was like, it was insane. Are you enjoying being yourself on the show? Just doing this? There's no teleprompter. There's no one saying nothing like people like me are doing this with a microphone. It's like they're creating their own radio shows. Let's face it. How has that changed what you guys do? Do you do anything differently? We just do what we do and thank God people listen to it. You know, we throw it against the wall. If it sticks, it works, you know? And so the ratings are our report card. You know, a lot of people are going, well, I want to listen to music. I don't want to hear commercials. Okay. Yeah. We are still following a format that was developed in the 1950s. 1950s, where we will play four minutes of commercials, a song, and then we'll talk and then four minutes of commercials. That hasn't changed. And so holding onto an audience with this commercial free content world around us, it's challenging, but we still have them because we're offering something you can't get off a Spotify or whatever. Just music. We don't, the music is just what we play when we have to go to the bathroom. We're playing what we're going to mess up next. So what is it that you're offering that's different in your mind? It's conversations, friendship. We're in the friendship business. And I've said this a million times, but I never get tired of saying this. If someone hops in their car for 30 minutes to get to work, they're either leaving a house that makes them very sad or they're going to a job to work for a boss that bust their balls every day or they're living some life of problems here and there. I get them for 30 minutes, maybe, maybe 45 minutes. If I could just bend their mind for a minute and make them happy, make them laugh. When you come on, we just laugh about stupid stuff we don't even plan. People know it's spontaneous. They know that we actually have a bond with each other. They feel the love and I think that's what we do better than a lot of people do. Yeah. You always say to me, come back more. I do. I know you're busy. Now you know why I'm intrigued with you doing this because this is basically what we do. What guest have you had on Bobby on the beat so far that you really, really had a great time with? Actually, we had Alice Gwanshele on who you've had on. Love her. You actually, you got her to open up a lot. She's a very quiet person sometimes. She is quiet, but she's one of the smartest people out there. She's lovely. I love her. I think that's really enough. Getting back to like how we started this conversation, the most sort of watched episodes have been the two times that Brooke, my girlfriend had been on because they want to hear like about our relationship. Well, let's talk about that. Okay. Let's talk about it. What do you want to know? Well, okay. In the circles that you guys move in business wise, everyone talks about what a positive energy the two of you together really emit. Yes. You're radiating positivity. You're talking to people in my business, you mean? Yeah. Maybe the truth is the two of you together have a great energy. So it works here. Plus, you know, there's the, let's check this gal out. Right. Who's taking over my Bobby. She's awesome, by the way. She is amazing. I'm really enjoying being with her. She's been a great light in my life. You ever have SoFa on? Sophie? Oh yeah. I know. People like to hear about from Sophie as well. She's awesome. I mean, I think it's one of those things where like when you had Sophie on the show when I was there the other day, I thought that was totally fun. And she kind of held her own, didn't she? Didn't kind of. She held her own. Yeah. She crumbled you. You crumbled. I got nervous. You did. See, when you see your name on the Page Sixes of the World a lot, do you find yourself kind of guarded in conversations? Do you actually edit in your mind quickly before you say something, answer a question, or go down any road of conversation with anyone? I think everybody has to do that in the world these days because you don't. Oops. Maybe I should start doing that. If you say something that's going to, you know, kind of light a fire in somebody. You're a very best friend. You can, you don't have to look around and see who's listening. You can go, okay, between us. Yeah. I got to, I want to talk to you about something. Where you know, on your second level, third level of friends, you're a little more guarded. You're a little more, you know, on the surface. Yeah. I have a very tight core crew. It's been the same people for a very, very long time. And you know, there is a handful of people and they know who they are and everybody's protective of each other. I think trust takes time. You know? And it takes, it has to prove itself. It takes battle scars too sometimes. I would think, because I know you have a, I don't know who he is, but I know you have a business partner that you, Lawrence. Okay. I've never, you've never met Lawrence. Don't yell at me. Wow. I've never met Lawrence. But you and Lawrence, I'm assuming being in business all these years in this very competitive race of business, you have battle scars together. You've learned things. We've been part of this for 35 years. But in doing in 35 years, you've learned how to do things and how not to do things sometimes, things fail sometimes, things, but you have proven history with that. And I think of that way with friends as well. Do you talk about your marriage a lot? On the show I do. We'll call him. Just live. Hey, Alex, what's up? He hates it. Of course he does. It's pretty awesome. Because he's probably doing something at home and you call him. Yeah. Plus, you know, it's your Staten Island. He's got that, you've met him. He's got that tough Al-Yadon kind of thing. And so if people find that entertaining, I don't know why. Have you ever married anybody? No. I know I'd be awful. I'm awful at public speaking. I'm awful at being interviewed, to be honest. You're not? Well, I'm just following your lead, Mr. Flay. First of all, I've seen you do so many things in public. I get nervous. You're very, very, very well spoken in speaking. Surprisingly. I, sometimes I'm on, sometimes I'm not. Did you go to college? I started college, but radio took over. My dad said, hey man, go be a radio guy and get out of my ass pocket. I know I'm tired of paying for you. So I never had a reason to go back. And you've been doing this for how long? Well, this is our 30th year just doing mornings at Z100. So I, but I started when I was 14 years old and I'm 61 now. I remember you guys yelled at me the first time I was on the show. About what? Because I said Z100 and you're like, no, it's Elvis in the morning show. Because we're syndicated. Right. Yeah, you can say Z100. How many markets are you in? 70, maybe? 60? 50? 40? It's going down as we speak. I don't know. The thing is, is as we see radio stations moving on to different formats, we see our digital numbers replacing those people. So it's a whole different world. I mean, now we're actually rated, rated at top, we're a top morning show in Chicago in Los Angeles. But in Los Angeles at four in the morning when we're on, you know. Really? Yeah. So it's, it's, it's weird how the digital thing works. How could you not be in LA? I was this close to going to LA once. Really? And I just didn't go. I just ended up staying here. They kept offering me a great reason to stay here. So I stayed here. You've never wanted to do anything else? What else would I do? What do you mean? Well, no, I'm not asking to be a jackass about it. I don't know what else I would do. I could retire. The price is right. What? No, but you'd be good on the price is right. You're gonna be the new Pat Sajak. Oh God. They have one of those already. First of all, TV makes me nervous. I don't want to get dressed and put makeup on every day. Yeah, but now you have to, right? Cause you guys do a lot of video. Yeah, I don't care about it. I don't care. Look, I dress like this. I don't care. But what about like when you have to go do the, like the I heart, like the awards and those are easy. Those are fun. You challenged me once early on after I'd been on the show about five or six times. You're like, I'm, we're going to leave the studio and we're going to let you have the microphone. It's really hard. It's not, you're doing it right now. You're running five people at a time, like keeping them engaged, making sure like you're hitting all the marks that you have to hit. I mean, you are doing business there. I know you say you don't think about it, but like, like it's inherent to what you're doing. You have, I mean, you are paying bills there in some way, shape or form. You have all these characters, this cast of characters that you keep like energized and activated. It's not easy to do. It's easy for you. It is. Cause you show up in the morning in these clothes and you turn the mic on and then you, and you activate these people every, every day and you constantly do it. You can do that. It's very hard. Let me take a week off. All expenses paid. Done. I'll talk, I'll talk to your boss. Who's your boss now? I don't, I don't have a boss. Do we have bosses? I don't think we do. Yeah. My boss is David Zaslaw. Who's that? He runs Warner Brothers. I had to go have a meeting with him. I saw him yesterday. So, but is he really your boss? I mean, do you answer to him? I mean, does he ever say, Bobby, we got to work on this? No, he, but no, he'll say, I want you to show up at this event. It's a really important to me. And of course I'd be like, of course. That's not a boss thing. But like when I have to renegotiate my contract, he's, he's been very involved. It involves money, of course. So yes, he's my boss. To me, a boss is someone who is on you, you know, at least once a week saying, hey, yeah, list of things I want you to work on. We're looking for this. You got to get this done. I don't, they don't do that to me. No, I, that's me. Well, here's the thing, Bobby, you, you have been doing this for a while. You've sort of invented the medium a little bit in certain, certain ways. Some would argue at some point is like, you're going to do it your way. And if they ever give you crap, you're going to go, well, I'll see you later. Thanks. This is my time to get off this island. I think I have the same syndrome that a lot of people have. We're like, you have a success in a certain place or area or category, but you're really pining a way to do something else, even though you're successful at doing something that you've been doing for a long time. Like I always wanted to be a newscaster. I always wanted, I always wanted to be telling people the news of the world and they would never let me do it. Well, you know what? Why do you want to do that? I don't know. You're reading something someone else wrote on a teleprompter. I wanted to be like the host of the Today Show. That was like one of my dreams when I was much younger. The Today Show is different than a newscaster. You actually can sit down and have conversations with people. Well, when I say a newscaster, I mean being in the news world. But now my daughter is going to, is doing that. So I can live vicariously through her and watch her do it. You must be so proud of her. Sophie is like, the one thing I love about Sophie is that she is so kind and inclusive I always use the word inclusive when I talk about Sophie because she is never going to be that mean girl. You know, she's a very cool, very savvy person. So she, you know, she can run in any crowd she wants to, but she never makes anybody feel left out. Do you ever get advice from her? Always. I'll say to her, do you think this is a good idea? And she'll say either yes or no based on the fact that she really actually knows. She does a serious understanding of the world and how it works. She pays very close attention to entertainment news, world news, local news. She's always paying attention to what's around her. So she's very opinionated. Sophie offers her opinion when she feels like she can be helpful. She doesn't do it all the time. She's got her own life. And we have this really nice relationship where most of the time we're just enjoying each other's company as, you know, father and daughter and friends, so to speak, because she hangs out with my friend group too. I mean, she's, she's part of my, my whole crew. This relationship turned out to be pretty special. Well, I got lucky. I had one kid and I got Sophie. And so it's been, it's been amazing. What would you be like if you didn't have Sophie in your life? For instance, what has she brought into your life? What has she snuck into your life? She's soft on my edges for sure. Talk about that. In general, I think, I mean, I talked to a lot of my friends who, you know, guys who have daughters and we all sort of talk about them in the same way where like, you know, it's a very special relationship and it just makes you think about the world differently because you have a daughter. I was kind of just processing that. What do you mean? Because I always wanted a child. And so having a relationship like that with a daughter or a son, whatever, how different than having that with a boyfriend or girlfriend or just a good friend or a nephew or a niece, you know? Why haven't you done it? I always wanted to. My last partner didn't want anything to do with it. Alex, my current husband, we actually, when we were in Italy at this villa with our friends, we went truffle hunting. It was Christmas time and they brought some of them brought their kids and watching them have that special time around this massive Christmas tree and enjoying each other's company. We went into Florence, all about gifts for each other and opened them Christmas morning, this and that. And Alex said to her, God, this is great. Let's talk to them about what it would be like to begin to think about contemplating, about commencing to like maybe think about it. Really? And so we had these conversations with them and the good, the bad, you know, over red wine for several days. And we said, OK, when we got home to New York, I have a few people I can call. Maybe we can figure out how we can have a kid in our life. We're sitting on the airplane and this little brat behind us started kicking my seat. And that ended it? I said, you know, we're not having a kid. Here's the thing though. I'm now 61 years old. OK, when this kid is 10, I'm 71. See what I'm saying? I think that ship has definitely sailed with me. But I hear about this relationship between you and Sophie and I'm like, wow, I'll never have that. Yeah. In my life, my life will never have that. And it makes me sad. But you can't have everything in the world, right? Where would you put it? People say to me all the time, like, you're such a great parent. Sophie turned out to be amazing. And I'm like, well, actually 90% of it is her. It's just the way it is. I mean, you know, you hope to shape your child in a way that is, you know, a positive outcome. But ultimately, these kids are their own person. I think about when is she going to turn me into a grandfather? Are you putting that pressure on? Me? Yeah. Absolutely not. I bet you'd have a lot of fun being a grandfather. What do you have to do? Grandfathers have to do nothing but spoil the kid and leave him. I'm not ready to be a grandfather. This isn't about you, though. Being a grandfather is such a third level down thing. What does that mean? She's top level. There's responsibilities. My father passed away last year. But my father and Sophie had the most incredible relationship. Was it taxing on your father? No. So what is there to be ready for? I'm just saying, I don't want to have the moniker. I'm not ready for the moniker yet. It's about you. Yes, it's totally about me. I admit that. Come on. I'm vain. I'm as vain as you are. Where are you spending your off time now? Everywhere, Bobby. You're not telling us. You know what? I live here in the city, not far from you. It's only a few days a week. I have a farm out in New Jersey. You have a farm in New Jersey? I have a farm. What kind of farm? We raise schnauzers. What? I tell you what it is. No, I've got two schnauzers. I'm okay. We raise schnauzers. It's like 80 acres and a lot of it is being farmed for me. I don't farm it. I mean, last year was soybeans. This past year was feed corn. Everything out of my control. So you're growing stuff? Yeah. I mean, I bought the land adjacent to my current area so no one would buy it and put a mansion on it. So you can see yourself a farmer now? No, not at all. But I live on a farm. Okay. And I love it out there. And now we have a house that we bought in Florida, which I swear I would never, ever buy a house in Florida. Now I have a house in Florida because damn it. It's blizzard life we live every winter in New York. So now I'm kind of into that. Down there, coconut grove. I love that town. And how much time can you spend there? Well, I've got a studio. We've got studios there. So I can spend all the time in the world. I'm building a studio in the house. Do you eat sushi? Yeah, I love sushi. Okay. But do you ever like go for omakase and stuff like that? Yeah. But you know what? Ever since I had my, I started doing the, you know, my shots. What shots? The GLP ones or whatever they were called. You do that? Yeah. Really? Yeah. I'm maintaining. I've had a lot of people doing it now and it's been very successful. Does it just quell your appetite? Yeah. You sit down to eat and you eat a few bites and then you're, I can't do it anymore. Really? And it makes me mad sometimes because of the love of food. I have many friends who are chefs who were doing it and then they stopped, especially during the holidays because they wanted to eat. As a person who owns a restaurant, how has it changed the restaurant scene? Oh, I don't think it's that. Well, you know, because I've had a few friends who are chefs wondering why all of their best dishes are coming back to the kitchen. Really? Yes. Like what are you doing? And then he goes to his line. It should cook better. Well, he goes to the, well, okay. He would go to his chefs on the line, his cooks on the line and go, what are you doing? People were having them boxed up to go because they could not eat as much. In your house, do you cook, do you guys cook a lot? What's your pantry like? Oh, it's full of everything. I want to show you my pantry. Bobby on the beat. All right. Time for a pantry tour. Come on in. So this is my pantry in my apartment. Pretty well stocked, I would say. It's kind of crazy how much stuff like I actually really need because I'm cooking in my house all the time, whether I'm just cooking, you know, dinner or lunch or breakfast or a snack or a game time meal or we're shooting some videos. I need a significant pantry. These are all the dry goods and stuff like that. All kinds of rice from long grain rice to short grain rice. We have light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, coarse cornmeal, fine cornmeal, wonderflower, stone ground polenta, basmati rice. We have some couscous here. Arborio rice for risotto. And then, you know, this is like the Italian section up here. We have all these beautiful canned tomatoes. My man, Crispianco's Denabeli roasted chopped tomatoes. I love those. You know, sauce, lots of San Marzano. Up here we have, you know, rice flour and almond flour, you know, cane sugar, oatmeal, semolina flour, you know, all these things to make pasta. Some of the hot ones, hot sauces that I had on the show. Capt that. Here's the very famous one, the bomb. This is the one that they try to crush you on. As you can see, I have not opened this one. And then, you know, things like, you know, molasses and pomegranate molasses and tamari, balsamic vinegar and harissa, pink salt. We have capers, olives. When I don't want to make barbecue sauce, I want to just open the jar. Bone-sucking sauce is like my favorite one. Chipotle peppers, you know, everywhere. Mustards, chopped calabrian chiles, red curry, green curry to make like a Thai curry, of course. Up here is the baking section. Sweet and condensed milk. We have vanilla extract, coconut oil, fig preserves, almond extract. I mean, it just kind of goes on and on. Sicilian cherries, things like that. Down here we have a bunch of like chili powders from Chipotle to New Mexico, Ajay Amarillo, Ancho Chili, an adobo spice rub, and of course like, you know, baking soda and baking powder. Cornstarch to make that amazing fried chicken. Cosmiri chilies, which has kind of been the thing that I've been going towards lately. We have some pastas and dried pastas down here, you know, different shapes, different sizes, some rigatoni, we have spaghetti, we have linguine. Come on over here. This is like the blue corn masa, red corn masa to make tortillas and soapas and things like that. Yellow cornmeal, senolina to make cavatelli, different kinds of sugars, and then olive oils and avocado oils and flavored oils and vinegars. Espresso, I use Ili, whole beans, and for my drip coffee, cafe pastello. I make very strong coffee in a percolator. And up here is made by Nacho. This is my cat food company. Dry food, wet food, cans, pouches, treats for Canelo. He loves these so much. Canelo's attention, all I have to do is just grab one of these treats. This one is salmon tuna. This one is the ahi tuna recipe. Let's see if we can get him to pay attention. He knows where the pantry is. Nacho treats. Canelo Flay, the next generation. Just a baby. All right, there's my pantry. Everybody always wants to know what's in my pantry. There you go. Bobby on the beat. You guys do cook a lot. Not enough. Really? Yeah. When I'm in the city, it's always delivery. Do you have a favorite pizza place in New York? Several. If you have like six of them, where do you start? Lucali. Lucali's good. What's your favorite? Riverosa I love. Do you like Lindestry? Lindestry, I love Lindestry. I love Emmets for the bar pie. Emmets are a great guy by the way. Do you know Emmet? I've met him. Great pie? That's more like a Midwestern pizza. It is. It's a bar pie. And Scars is good for bar pie. Scars is very good. What about Mom is too? I haven't been. You know, because every time I walk by, you can't get near it. Joe's is the classic now. So what is it about this city that we love food-wise more than any other city? The best food in the world is in New York. I agree. Do we say that because we live here? No. I travel, I travel to eat, right? And I've been to lots of places in the world. I think it's very hard to beat. Do you miss having a restaurant here? I do. You think I should open another one? You ask me this question every time we're together. I know. I always think you're teasing me. I'm not teasing you. I'm sure you've been thinking about it. I think about it more and more every single day because we closed Gato when COVID struck. And we kind of never looked back. And the restaurant business is had, I'm not going to go through it again because I've done it a lot, but the restaurant business has had a lot of challenges, especially in New York City. I mean, you see it when you go out to restaurants. How expensive is it? Yeah. And by the way, it's not even enough for the restaurants to survive. It's very hard. And so, you know, that's the financial side of it. What do you think? If you're my friend... Open something. But you know, it's like getting married again. You know what's waiting for you. You know it's a lot of work. You know it's a different stage here than anywhere else in the United States. Of course. And you know that you're dealing with employee issues and the state and, you know, attorney general. I don't know why. I know there's a lot to deal with here. There's three buckets, right? There's occupancy costs, labor and cost of goods. That's the restaurant business right there. And they're all high. And then I take it back. I do not want you to open a restaurant. Gato was a very special restaurant. Thank you. Mesa Grill was fantastic, but Bar American I always loved. I always loved going to that restaurant. Let me ask you this, Bobby. If someone asked you right now what you do for a living, what's the headline? You are a chef. The evolution of the TV network. All the TV shows that are about food has totally shifted. I miss the old how to cook shows. Now it's the competition. Yeah. A lot of people say that, but here's the problem. They don't rate. Well, I don't care what rates. I'm telling you what I like. No, I'm just telling you why they don't exist. Because there's no money to be made. Exactly right. Well, it sucks. We live in the world of entertainment. The food network at some point decided that they were going to use food as a tool to entertain. That's why you see all these competition shows and things like that. Listen, it's the same thing in your business. Certain parts of our business, whether it's radio or television, are moving to a digital platform. YouTube. Exactly. Okay. People are learning how to cook on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram. They're not learning how to cook on linear television. They're being entertained on linear television. It's very different. One time, I was at the food festival, I hear in New York, New York City Wine and Food Festival. A friend of ours was doing a demonstration with a huge studio, a temporary studio built. She had the stove going and the mirrors and the cameras. She made this dish and I went to taste it. It was the saltiest thing I've ever tasted in my life. Overly salted. Then I had to make a decision right then and there, ooh, this is way too salty. Or I could let it go. And what'd you do? I said, this is way over salty. This person was a little embarrassed and then I felt like a total. I felt like a really, I shouldn't have done that. I have to judge your Thanksgiving dishes every once in a while. You always like mine. Yes, you do a good job. I do a good job. Do you actually cook it or just like cook it? Absolutely, I cook it. Absolutely. Because Danielle, she gets people to cook for her. Right. She's cheating. I think she got Boston Market to bring in some stuffing. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. And thank you for the truffles. Do more of these shows. This is the Bobby we all like to see. All right, Elvis, thank you so much for being here. That was as fun as ever. Always have great conversation with you. Thank you for having me on your show for all these years. And thanks for coming up on it. I really appreciate it. And just make sure that you hit like and subscribe. Really means a lot to us and we really appreciate it. Next week, we have my girlfriend, Brooke Williamson. We're going to talk about Tokyo and all the things that are going on in our world. So be sure you tune in. Bobby on the beat.