Food Network stars reveal foods they love to start their day with...from Wicked & Spicy Hot Chocolate, to Peanut Butter and Banana Stuffed French Toast and more.
Food Network stars reveal foods they love to start their day with...from Wicked & Spicy Hot Chocolate, to Peanut Butter and Banana Stuffed French Toast and more.
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Find episode transcript here: https://the-best-thing-i-ever-ate.simplecast.com/episodes/wake-up-call-ft-bobby-flay-ted-allen-and-guy-fieri
[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: People ask me all the time.
SPEAKER 2: Where do you like to eat?
SPEAKER 3: What's your favorite food? What's the best thing you've ever eaten?
SPEAKER 1: That's why we're here now.
SPEAKER 2: Not only to tell you what we love to eat--
SPEAKER 1: But where you can go get it. It's the best thing in the morning.
SPEAKER 3: It just blew me away. It was just perfect.
SPEAKER 1: Breakfast is a very important meal to me.
SPEAKER 2: I started digging into them, and all of a sudden, my whole life was awakened anew.
SPEAKER 3: The best thing you could ever eat when you roll right out of bed.
SPEAKER 1: The conversation's over. It's time to eat.
SPEAKER 2: I can't think of a better way to start my day.
SPEAKER 1: Good eats. We're talking about the first meal of the day. It could be breakfast. It could be brunch. For me, it's stuffed French toast. Breakfast is a very important meal to me. It actually may be my favorite meal. And the best breakfast I've ever had is the Stuffed French Toast at Cafe 222 in San Diego.
This is not any French toast. This is not just a slice of bread thrown in some egg batter and thrown in a pan. This is stuffed French toast. Not one slice, two. And it has a filling, OK? Peanut butter and banana. It's good stuff.
Cafe 222. It's owned by this woman named Terryl. I think she Stole the idea from Elvis, you know, bananas and the peanut butter. But she made a French toast out of it.
TERRYL GAVRE: I think I was reading an article about Elvis and how he used to eat fried peanut butter pickle and banana sandwiches. And I thought, oh, that sounds really good except for the pickle. So I came up with my own version. I thought I'd make it like French toast.
SPEAKER 1: I'm not a peanut butter and banana person. However, I trust Terryl. So when she says to me, Bob, you have to try this, I eat it because she knows her game. Her game is breakfast and brunch.
TERRYL GAVRE: I'm completely flattered that Bobby Slayton likes this recipe. I'm almost embarrassed because it's so simple. Three to four fresh eggs, half a cup of half and half, about a 1/4 cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice. 3 tablespoons of nice vanilla. Add little bit of cinnamon, just a pinch of salt. And it's going to be about 2 tablespoons of rum.
We use the cheapest, crummiest rum ever. It has a much stronger flavor. And if I bought the good stuff, my cooks would be drinking it. OK. Now I'm going to start building the sandwiches.
SPEAKER 1: They really think about the bread. They think about the batter they're using for the French toast itself. The peanut butter has to be top-notch quality. The bananas have to be perfectly ripe.
The amount of time that you have it on the griddle, so it gets that golden, brown crust on the outside. It's incredibly enticing. I mean, it's just one of those things we're like, ah, let's just dive into this the conversation is over. It's time to eat.
Cafe 222 San Diego. It's peanut butter. It's banana. It's got a great crust on the outside. They know how to do it right, and I'm not going anywhere else. That's it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 3: There actually have been scientific studies that have proved that the smell of cinnamon puts people in the mood for love. The best thing you could ever eat when you roll right out of bed is a cinnamon roll from Ann Sather's in Chicago. Some places, people go and get a dozen donuts. In Chicago on the North side, what you do is you show up with Ann Sather cinnamon rolls, and everybody loves you.
SPEAKER 4: We generally serve about 3,000 to 4,000 cinnamon rolls on a daily basis. That could double or triple on Saturdays and Sundays for our weekend crowds.
SPEAKER 3: The Ann Sather cinnamon roll is not like just any cinnamon roll. And it's certainly nothing like the ones from the frozen section that you crack open the tube and bake at home. They are gooey and buttery, and absolutely delicious.
SPEAKER 4: Even our bakers don't even know the actual ingredients in the secret recipe. It's been created by Ann Sather herself, the original proprietor, in 1945. The dry mix is already prepackaged for us to keep that formula secret. Mix these dry ingredients with water.
We're going to actually put it on the work table here. Then just like grandmother, you're going to need old-fashioned butter. Pure ground cinnamon brown sugar and regular sugar. Once the cinnamon rolls are baked, we actually put this delicious frosting on top.
The first step for the frosting is melting the butter. We are going to mix this with powdered sugar and vanilla. You have to put the frosting on when the cinnamon roll is hot, so it'll coat it properly.
SPEAKER 3: The cinnamon roll is not exactly a high-tech culinary discovery. But I've never had a cinnamon roll like the one they serve at Ann Sather's. the outside has that glaze on it, and you might get some little crispy edges from where it was touching the edge of the pan.
You could smell it from two blocks away. It's really just the perfect thing to make morning better. And I don't really like mornings, so I need that kind of comfort.
SPEAKER 1: That was great, really, seriously. Cinnamon roll. Awesome. Good job, Ted. But we should talk about a breakfast with a little more huevos.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When I think of like morning food, I'm thinking huevos motuleños, Golden West Cafe in Baltimore, Maryland. It's what to wake up to. Now, most people know huevos rancheros. But come on. Hey, how's it going? Think outside the box, people.
The huevos motuleños, Thomas is the chef. Thomas is really insane about authenticity.
SPEAKER 4: The huevos motuleños, it's two corn cakes, two fried eggs with Pinto beans. We add a green chili sauce, feta cheese, banana, salsa fresca, and a warmed flour tortilla.
SPEAKER 1: It's a little bit spicy. It's a little bit sweet. It's a little bit fatty. It's the best thing in the morning. But right now, I just need to eat. Yes, thank you.
Yes, I'm hungry. I'm going to eat this. It's the absolute perfect antidote for whatever you had the night before. Green chili. It's long been known to cure hangovers because it's packed with antioxidants, vitamin C along with juice and a cup of coffee. You're all set.
It's gooey and spicy at the same time. This stuff will just light your sinuses on fire because it's got all these chilis and stuff in there. And it's really good. Oh, just got one.
I'm tearing up a little bit. A little. It's so good. Just can't take it. The best part about the Golden West is that I've stolen all of their best employees. They work for me now. Are you kicking me out?
SPEAKER 4: Jack, my peeps, man.
SPEAKER 1: Dude, I didn't come here recruiting. They came to me like, hey, can we work here? Come on. I mean, I took the good ones, but--
SPEAKER 4: Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 1: [LAUGHS]
SPEAKER 14: You can get huevos motuleños other places. But they're not Thomas' huevos motuleños, and they're really, really good at the Golden West. It just blew me away. It was just perfect.
SPEAKER 3: Oh yeah. Magic on a plate.
SPEAKER 2: For me, breakfast, waking up, there's only one thing I'm going to have. Oh, yum. These stop me in my tracks.
SPEAKER 1: We're talking about the best thing I ever ate.
SPEAKER 3: I walked in, I'm like, oh my god. I've lived in Cleveland my whole life. How did I miss this place? Because I pride myself in finding these little joints with great food. It just blew me away. It was just perfect, just perfect, perfect corned beef hash.
My absolute favorite thing to get for breakfast is corned beef hash, the best place that I've ever had it is Big Al's diner in Cleveland. I don't know when my quest for the best corned beef has really started, but I know it's my favorite thing to eat for breakfast. The thing that I love about it is you get potatoes, which give you a little bit of crunch. And then you get the sweetness from the peppers in there.
The best corned beef hashes are the ones usually at a restaurant or a diner that sells corned beef, so they have all these big chunks of corned beef left over from slicing the sandwiches. And they work it into a homemade hash. Magic on a plate. Perfect eggs, bacon.
I judge every good diner by his corned beef hash. And to me, it doesn't get any better than Big Al's Diner. Oh yeah. One of the funny things about Big Al's diners, I don't think there's really a Big Al.
We opened 16 years ago in 1993, and it was my grandfather's recipe. We put it on the menu, and it's been a big hit ever since.
Who's ever in that kitchen knows what they're doing. They know how to make corned beef hash. The first thing we do in preparing our corned beef brisket is we submerge it in a large pot, and we add our house seasonings.
Corn means it's like pickle like the acids from vinegar, the and limits of things. They pre-cook your food without even having heat on them. And what we're going to do is transfer them to our food processor and hash it down.
And the key thing to it is to leave some of the fat in. That's what's going to help you cook and transfer the flavors throughout the hash. This is crunchy on the outside, but it's nice and juicy in the center.
So when I cut through my eggs, I get that crunch of the potato. I get that buttery richness that's in the center of the corned beef hash. And they're not skimpy on the portions here in Cleveland, either. It's why diners serve breakfast for 24 hours. You could eat it all day long.
SPEAKER 2: For me, breakfast, waking up, there's only one thing I'm going to have, and it's ricotta blueberry pancakes from BLD in Los Angeles. Ricotta is definitely something that I've loved my whole life, so seeing that right away-- right away was like flashing out to me off of the menu. I had to try it. There's the golden crusty exterior.
It's maybe 70% batter, and then a whole field of blueberries. Like, a whole Bush out of Maine just got transported into that pancake. And this is the only pancake on the menu. And when you try it, you understand exactly why. Oh, yum.
One secret that we do use is we pull the whites out separately, and we whisk them, which will, in turn, be folded into the batter and help create very light and fluffy texture along with the ricotta.
So definitely, a lot of good things going on here, but ricotta is the key to these pancakes. When you hit that little nugget of ricotta that didn't get quite mixed in, its got this nice, little cheesy thing almost like a blint in a pancake kind of baby, and it's my breakfast. And there's this awesome little log cabin tin of maple syrup off to the side.
It looks cute and everything, but actually, it's Berkshire maple syrup, which anybody from New England can tell you is arguably the best maple syrup around. Sorry, Canada, but that's good stuff. They do something so simple, but they do it so right. Good butter ricotta on that.
Maybe you've had the blueberry pancake before. Maybe you've had the ricotta. Maybe you've had the Berkshire maple syrup. But all those combined, all those made as perfectly as they are at BLD, I doubt you've ever had that before unless, of course, you've been to BLD.
So I want to talk about hot chocolate. I love this wicked, spicy hot chocolate at Jacques Torres in New York. It's that pure melted chocolate flavor with the spiciness together. I can't think of a better way to start my day. The first time I ever tried the wicked hot chocolate was when I was shooting my show Everyday Italian. I had heard that his chocolate was extraordinary.
At the time, Jacques Torres only had that one shop in Brooklyn. And he said to me, I have something that you might really like. I have my wicked hot chocolate. He gave it to me in a little paper cup, and that's when I realized I'm in love with this hot chocolate.
SPEAKER 5: If you want to be surprised, this is the hot chocolate for you. If you are a little bit awakened, it's definitely your hot chocolate.
SPEAKER 2: This particular hot chocolate has cinnamon, allspice, Chipotle peppers, and ancho peppers. And the combination of all of that together, it just makes you feel so wonderful.
SPEAKER 5: We grind different percentage of chocolate with a little bit of milk powder, a little bit of cornstarch and spices. Then mix that with hot milk, make it as fluffy as we can, incorporating some air and then a little bit of whipped cream on top.
SPEAKER 2: And it's almost like the consistency of liquid pudding. That's all I can kind of say. Chocolate liquid pudding like it's very thick, so it coats your throat and your whole mouth with chocolate and the spiciness. A little cinnamon to give you a lot of warmth, makes you just feel so cozy inside.
SPEAKER 5: The weekend hot chocolate is not super spicy. It has a little bit of spice that call your throat when you drink it. The combination of the dark, rich chocolate with the spiciness of the peppers and the warmth of the allspice and the cinnamon all together, all I can say is it's just wicked good. It is wicked good.
SPEAKER 6: It's one of those things that I love after I've worked the late Saturday night because I don't go out to breakfast all that often. But when I do, I love a breakfast that's not really a breakfast. And one of the places I absolutely love to go where I have my most favorite breakfast is Hugos in West Hollywood. And I have the pasta mama. It's simple. It's pasta. The pasta mama, it's literally linguine pasta and scrambled eggs.
SPEAKER 5: Your pasta mama.
SPEAKER 6: Thank you.
SPEAKER 5: You're welcome.
SPEAKER 6: Fabulous. Of course, you'd think, oh my god. What am I eating for breakfast? It's different than getting a plate of bacon and eggs or a pancake. It's the extra virgin olive oil. It's a great Parmesan cheese.
It's homemade linguine. It's taking that scrambled egg, not overcooking it, and garlic that's extremely fresh. I mean, those are all very simple ingredients. Anybody could make it. They just happen to do that really well.
SPEAKER 2: Pasta mama was invented by our partner. His mom made it for her kids when they were little. Leftover pasta, leftover eggs, throw it together for a simple breakfast. And so it seemed like the logical dish to put on the menu.
All of the linguinis got a little bit of scrambled egg around it. It's not scrambled eggs done and then thrown into it. It's scrambled eggs that are actually done into the pasta, so it actually cooks while the pasta is hot.
SPEAKER 6: It's funny because Americans don't think about eating pasta for breakfast. So many other cultures do, and it's just like the perfect thing. I don't know. I eat it when it comes.
It's just-- I eat. I'm so excited. I can't stand it. That is so good. So excited. That is really good. This is like the perfect energy giver. That did it. Time for bed now.
You know, it could put you to sleep. But it also could give you a ton of energy to go out and spend your whole day and not have to eat again until late at night. Pasta, scrambled eggs, and Parmesan cheese. Nothing better than that.
SPEAKER 1: Here's the tough thing about me and breakfast. I don't like breakfast. I don't have time. I'm up. I want to have my coffee and a bagel, and a banana. But if you're going to go big or go home, you go to Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix, Arizona. You get to have chop and chicken.
Big mat. Small place. And he makes the pesto sauce. And then he marinated these chops, and he cooks them up. And I will tell you something. Good eats.
SPEAKER 7: It's a 8-ounce pork rib shot. It comes with two eggs, hash browns, or home fries.
SPEAKER 1: Fantastic.
SPEAKER 7: Our focus here is using the best ingredients we can find but just making simple food.
SPEAKER 1: I don't know that I've seen any pesto chops before. The pesto is pretty on point.
SPEAKER 7: We just use fresh garlic that we hand peel. Seven or eight in there. Some local organic basil. Pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, a little cracked black pepper, and some sea salt. And what is so cool about this is Matt goes to a butcher a million miles away just to get these pork chops.
These come from a friend of mine. He has a butcher shop out in Queen Creek, Arizona. It's about 45 miles from here where every now and then he delivers them for us.
We make some eggs with this. It's called the chop and chick. That's how the customers get it. But this guy is a pile of pork. He just had the chop and the potatoes.
SPEAKER 1: Oh, it was great. I mean, it was a breakfast, lunch, and dinner chop. The go for a walk chop, in bed watching Leno chop. It's a top chop. And ask him to do jazz hands.
SPEAKER 7: When Guy visited our restaurant last year, I wasn't as familiar with jazz hands as maybe I should have been. I just did jazz hands. I can't believe I just did that. I haven't been able to stop doing it ever since.
SPEAKER 1: I think that the pesto-marinated rib chopped at Match Big Breakfast, pretty legit.
The funny thing is being that I still read Dr. Seuss books, Green Eggs and Ham, I think he just was that far off. He could have had a-- it could have been chop, with a green chop. Green chop and eggs.
SPEAKER 7: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER 1: No, not so much.
SPEAKER 7: OK.
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