NTT: Rules are Meant to Be Broken

Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold

Host Dave Arnold and his guests engage in an 'All-Tangent Tuesday' session, debating the ethics of breaking restaurant rules and sharing cul

Key takeaways

• For optimal soft pretzel gloss, use a lye bath with 1.25% to 2% sodium hydroxide at temperatures between 165°F and 190°F.
• Yeast percentages in dough can be adjusted for rise time, ranging from 0.25% for long fermentations to up to 2% for rapid-rise items like Brussels waffles.

Main topics

• Restaurant etiquette and unwritten rules
• Lobster grilling techniques

Notable quotes

Since humans have been alive, you can sear it before or you can sear it after.

Conclusion

The episode provides high-level technical culinary advice wrapped in a

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:13) Dave Arnold, your host of Cooking Issues, coming to you live from the heart of Manhattan, Rockefeller Center, New York City, Newsstand Studios. Just me and Joe in the studio today. Joe Hazen, how you doing? Hey, welcome back after Yom Kippur. Yeah, yeah. You doing anything fun? Or I guess not. Speaker 3 (0:26) I mean, no, not fun. It's like more self-inward looking and resolution. Speaker 2 (0:32) Yeah, not fun. Not fun. Not fun. Anti-fun. Any looking inward for me is a not fun time. But we do have a full house over the teleophone. Let's see. Somewhere in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, major metropolitan area, we've got John. How you doing? Speaker 4 (0:49) Doing great, thanks. Out in Lime, Connecticut. Speaker 2 (0:52) Oh, yeah. Nice. Lime fellow. Fellow Lime-liate. Yeah. You enjoying how bad this year's tick season was? Speaker 2 (1:01) Thankfully, Speaker 4 (1:02) not yet. No ticks on the hopefully keeping it that way. Speaker 2 (1:08) I'll sign up for any test of dog pills. I've said this before on the air. Anyone is running a human test with like dog pills or shots on that. I mean, come on. You know what I'm saying? Speaker 4 (1:20) Yeah, 100%. If I get that alpha gall, whatever disease, like what's the point in continuing, you know? Speaker 2 (1:28) Well, you're going to become your own favorite vegetarian chef, dude. Speaker 4 (1:32) Yeah. Speaker 2 (1:33) By the way, he's talking about this tick that's just making its way into our area where it bites you once and you're allergic to meat. Like, deathly allergic to meat. Speaker 1 (1:42) Oh, Speaker 2 (1:42) man. Yeah. Like Speaker 4 (1:43) red meat. I think it says red meat, Speaker 1 (1:45) right? Speaker 4 (1:46) Yeah, but that's like pork and duck and dairy and butter and cheese and so much delicious stuff. Speaker 2 (1:55) Pork and duck and cheese better hurry when I take you out in Missouri. Oh, God. How did Oklahoma get in my head? Okay, moving over to the left coast, starting from the top. Got Quinn over there on the Vancouver Island. How you doing? Speaker 1 (2:14) I'm good. Speaker 2 (2:15) Yeah? Nice. And then since I have no particular understanding of Los Angeles geography, I'll start with Nastassia Hammer-Lopez. How you doing? Oh, good. Yeah. And then I'll assume Jack is somewhat south of you, even though that's probably false. How you doing? Jack Inslee, Jackie Molecules. Yeah. Speaker 5 (2:31) Sort of true, I think. Speaker 2 (2:33) Yeah. All right. Sort of true. All right. So if you guys are listening on this All Tangent Tuesday, call on your questions live to 917-410-1507. That's 917-410-1507 to give us your two to ten cents. What do you think two cents would be nowadays after inflation? What does it cost now? Your two cents. Speaker 5 (2:56) No, they discontinued pennies, didn't they? Yeah. Like five bucks? Speaker 1 (3:03) It needs five cents. Speaker 2 (3:04) No, come on. Listen, this is an old phrase. My dad, he used to be, he doesn't talk like this, but he would be like, when Speaker 1 (3:10) I was a boy, we would get a whole Coca-Cola at the movie theater for a nickel. Speaker 2 (3:15) I'm like, okay, dude. You know what I mean? It's like, so like, what's two cents? Is two cents like a dollar? Seeing as how like a movie soda is now, what, like $50? How much does it cost to get a soda at a movie? Speaker 5 (3:28) Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:29) because they kind of make up for people like Nastassi and I who are sneaking every last thing in. I gain 50 pounds when I go to a movie. You know what I mean? Especially if you go in the wintertime. All right, here's a pro tip for all you people who are still doing what I used to do. So I won't tell you my old techniques for sneaking into multiple movies. Back before I had air conditioners, I would go super. I guess I am telling you. I shouldn't say this. This is not okay. But I would go super early to a movie with my sister-in-laws because my wife was, you know, studying for architecture exams. So we would go like super early and we would buy a ticket for like the 7 p.m. movie, right? But they used to be, they would never look at the time. They would just look at the theater number and tell you where to go. So you would go into the multiplex and then just walk into whatever and then you would just hop for a while, leave with your stub, go get a bite, come back. And see your 7 o'clock movie that you paid for. Not okay. Not okay. But that's how we used to do it because we didn't have enough air conditioning. What are you going to do? Die? You know what I'm saying? And they didn't have like an all-day ticket you could buy and just go. So. Also, any of you guys ever owned a hunting coat? Speaker 2 (4:45) No. No? No. Okay, okay. So I'm going to make a small pitch here for hunting coats. So a good hunting coat, and they make them in several weights. So you can have like a, Filson makes one that's like oil cloth. It's not too heavy. And Woolrich used to make one in like that very obvious Woolrich red and black, like, you know, check plaid thing. But they have what's called a duck pack, and they usually also have big side packs. And so a duck pack can hold a full half. Three quarters of a case of wine. I once stuffed a whole case of wine into my Woolrich and walked home with it just because I didn't have a backpack on me. But you can stuff so much food and whatnot into one of these Woolrich coats. And if you already started either big or very thin, you can get away with it. I think if you're like medium build, maybe they can see the lumpiness better. You know what I mean? But I used to sneak so much crap in in hunting jackets. You know what I'm saying? Speaker 2 (5:40) Duck packs. Speaker 1 (5:41) Also a good hack if you are wanting to sneak in food or drink, have a friend with a very large electric wheelchair. Nobody's here. Speaker 1 (5:53) Love the bag. Speaker 2 (5:55) That's such a good, very specific hack. So do you have like a, did you like, in your old one, do you have a special hidey hole that you could like stash stuff? No, Speaker 1 (6:05) I mean, there's like bags and bags of my own crap that are always on the chair, but no one looks in a bag on a wheelchair. Speaker 2 (6:14) Oh, because you could give them a super stink eye if they do. If they start trying to rifle through your bag, just give them the vicious stink eye. They'll feel bad for a week and you'll have your stuff. Speaker 1 (6:23) There's machines hanging off the chair. I mean, there's all sorts of... Speaker 2 (6:27) I mean, you know, I'm going to go ahead and say that's fine. I'm going to go ahead and say, like, what I was doing, you know, is wrong. What you were doing is, like, fine. That's what I'm going to go ahead and say, but I don't know. All right, so what do you fools have? What's the week in review? Speaker 3 (6:51) Nothing? Speaker 2 (6:51) All right, well, how about this? While we're waiting, John, why don't you tell them why they might want to join the Patreon, other than hearing these long pauses of silence while you guys figure out what you did last week. Speaker 4 (7:01) You can do patreon.com slash cookingissues where you can become a member and join our Patreon. We've got three different levels of memberships, all pretty affordable. You get access to our Discord where you get to talk with like-minded members. You get access to discounts by people we work with like Glassman and Grove & Vine Olive Oil and Kitchen Arts and Lovers and a whole bunch of other great things. So check it out, patreon.com slash cookingissues. Speaker 2 (7:26) I like Glass Fan. They make good glasses. I don't remember the Discord. But do you remember when he, oh yeah, Discord, a lively group of folk. But do you remember when he came on? And I was like, what are those magnet strips for that you ship in your boxes? And he goes, so that you can bring the glass in the box to the restaurant and you could drink out of the glass you like at the restaurant. And we're all like, nah. Speaker 1 (7:49) Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:51) I didn't believe that. He should also then come out. If you're going to do that, just show up with the full silverware. The full silverware. Now, listen. I have to be honest. When I go out to a pizza restaurant and I don't know if they're going to have the Crush Red, I'll bring some of my Utica Grind Double Cut in my pocket. But I'm kind of sly about it. You know what I mean? I don't rub it in the service face. There's Speaker 5 (8:14) no pizza Speaker 2 (8:14) restaurant Speaker 5 (8:14) that should not Speaker 2 (8:14) have red pepper, though. Okay, it does happen, but what I'm saying is that God's Crushed Red Pepper is Utica double cut, and nobody, but nobody has double cut. And I don't want to be like, you have double cut, so you just bring out your double cut. First of all, Nastassia would appreciate Speaker 1 (8:31) it. Speaker 2 (8:31) What, is it loose in your pocket with the pocket lint? No, I have small little flying containers, like the little things that you use for hair gel, like one of those things. And Nastassia would appreciate it as well, because... And Nastassi and I, whenever we used to go, I'm not going to say it was Roberta's, but let's say it was Roberta's. And they would have the Crush Red. They eventually changed to Slots. But if you put standard Crush Red pepper into the cheese or the garlic powder shaker with the dot holes Speaker 1 (9:01) in it, Speaker 2 (9:02) die. Like, what is wrong with you? You know what I mean? And then you get mad at me. You get mad at me when I unscrew the lid. And just dump the stuff on and then maybe don't screw the lid on all the way again. I'm the bad guy. No. You buy the pepper shaker with the slots. Am I right, Stas? Speaker 2 (9:18) Yeah. The slots. Anyway, so yeah, I'm a fan of the double cut, but I'm not going to be all nanny nanny about it. And sometimes, we've said this on the air a million times, but Nastassi and I also used to do the aggro bring where we would bring our own arugula, but that was more just a protest statement. Like, you know, we know you have arugula. You needed Speaker 5 (9:36) Quinn's bags there. You could bring so many things. Yeah, Quinn Speaker 1 (9:40) can Speaker 2 (9:41) bring arugula Speaker 1 (9:42) wherever he goes. You could have brought a whole pizza. Speaker 2 (9:47) Bring pizza to Roberta's. That would be a funny, funny trick. But that would rule. Yeah. That was still one of the weirdest things that I think ever. Ever in like just like restaurant rules for any of you guys out here that own a restaurant. This happens all the time where management or like, you know, chef side makes a rule. Right. And the rule is the arugula is only for the arugula pizza. Fine. Got it. Right. But then like everyone should be empowered to break it if there's no reason not to break it. Right. Like we know you have a salad that has arugula in it. Just like Jack Nicholson will order the salad, hold the rest of the salad and put the arugula on the pizza. No, won't do it. You know what I mean? It's like, come on. It's not like morally wrong. It's not, for instance, like like we won't alter our non-alcoholic drinks to make them alcoholic out of respect to the to the non-alcoholic drinker saying, listen, we crafted this for you. This is not just, you know, minus the liquor. Right. And so like that, I'm OK with or but like if someone's, you know. It's not the same. No one's like, you know, no one's planting a flag for the salad people. It's only for salad people, not for salad and pizza people. No. You know what I mean? So rules like that. I never considered Speaker 5 (10:59) ordering a mocktail with a float of rum on the top. That's very funny. Speaker 2 (11:05) People do it all the time because we have interesting flavors, combinations, things that don't appear in our alcoholic menu. Right. And they're like, oh, I want those. Can you, like, you know, add vodka or gin or whatever? We're like, no. But then it's not the same drink anymore. Well, you know that and I know that, but, like, the average person doesn't necessarily know that. You know, they're not necessarily concocters of drinks. They are consumers of drinks, you know? Speaker 5 (11:35) You got to do the mocktail with, like, a side of neat mezcal or something. That's the way to do it. I would do it. Look, anyone Speaker 2 (11:41) wants to order a shot. next to a non-alcoholic drink, they're welcome to do it. And much like you were saying stink eye before, I'll just post a server right next to them, giving them the stink eye and make sure they don't mix them. No, I won't really do that. You can do whatever you want. Once it's on your table, hey, that's up to you. I encourage you to taste them on their own first so that, you know, you can see what we were trying for. But then if you want to mutilate it, you want to mutilate it. Like my wife still hasn't forgiven Blue Bottle because they wouldn't put milk into their Kyoto-style coffee. They're like, no, we don't do that. If you want coffee with milk in it, cold coffee with milk in it, you can have the chicory coffee. And my wife's like, I grew up in New Orleans. I know what chicory coffee tastes like. I don't want chicory coffee. I just want regular non-chicory coffee with milk in it. They're like, no. They didn't say, why don't you try it the way we like it, and then we'll add milk to it if... If and that's what you, hey, compressed gas. Hey, listen, there's a compressed gas guy outside. I got to call him because I need a hookup. Like we're getting fishbowled by an oxygen tank, which I appreciate. Anyway, point being, what the person should have said is, taste it and then if you still want milk, I'll give it to you. Because at the end of the day, why do they care? My wife's a grown woman. If she wants milk in her coffee, she wants milk in her coffee, regardless of how you want to serve it. You know what I'm saying? Out of respect for the Kyoto, right? I mean, come on. Speaker 5 (13:11) Yeah. There was a brunch spot once that wouldn't serve me. I was asking for an Irish coffee. They're like, well, we don't have an Irish coffee. We have a full cocktail menu and you do have coffee, right? Can you just, and they're like, yeah, we don't do that. I was like, okay, I'll just have a whiskey then and the coffee. Speaker 2 (13:29) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you get to choose your whiskey then. It's not necessarily Jamo. Did you choose Jamo? Speaker 5 (13:35) I did. Speaker 2 (13:36) Yeah. So, like, but the thing about that is I could say, here's where I'm going to give them a little benefit and you see what you think. The bartender doesn't know the right ratio because they haven't done that and they didn't feel comfortable just doing it on the fly if you were an avid Irish coffee drinker. But again, that could be a warning they give, right? Be like,