Francis 0:51

Good morning, mark.

Mark (2) 0:51

Hey Francis. How are you?

Francis (2) 0:52

I'm well. Yeah, I'm well indeed. Um, but I had an experience.

Mark (2) 0:58

You had an experience. Imagine that that happens once

Francis 1:00

in a while. I had a Brandy new restaurant experience for me.

Mark (2) 1:02

Yeah.

Francis 1:03

And I know you call me a snob, but.

Mark (2) 1:05

Uh, you know why I call you a snob?

Francis 1:06

I think I'm a little bit of a snob,

Mark (2) 1:08

some of that,

Francis 1:09

but I have never, that's

Mark (2) 1:09

definitely some of the reason

Francis 1:11

there, there's, there's a guy named Oliver that worked for us many years ago.

Mark (2) 1:14

I remember Oliver,

Francis 1:16

who was really, he had come from the Cheesecake Factory.

Mark (2) 1:18

He did indeed.

Francis 1:19

And you know, by the way, we hire people with chain experience a lot. They have great training programs and they teach you a lot. Good stuff

Mark (2) 1:25

and a lot of speed. They teach you a lot of bad stuff too, and they

Francis 1:27

teach you a lot of bad stuff, but they do teach you speed and efficiency

Mark (2) 1:30

and cleaning. Do you, I it actually, you probably don't even remember this, but do you remember what one of Oliver's pride and Joys was?

Francis 1:36

I do. Well, tell me

Mark (2) 1:37

Oliver, when he came in for his first interview, said, and, and I, and I quote, so Oliver, uh, what are your skills? Yeah. Well, I'm a trained barista.

Francis 1:48

He was trained by the Cheesecake Factory, and he made a darn good cup of coffee, as I recall. But he kept, he kept, uh, referring to the Cheesecake Factory in our, well, the way we did it at the Cheesecake Factory was this, and, and the captains were like, yeah, but that's not how we do it here. So to cut that out. But I had never been to the Cheesecake Factory. And they do a lot of stuff really well. What they do, best of all is make money.

Mark (2) 2:10

Yes, it's a skill like anything

Francis 2:12

else. Um, but I have to say, I, there was some good and some bad. I went, um, with my, future in-laws on Father's Day. And the good was, the company was great. We had a great time, but I think everyone was a little disappointed in their meal. None of us had tried it before.

Mark (2) 2:23

Mm-hmm.

Francis 2:24

And uh, so we all went into it together. We had a lovely time that day. That's'cause we're a great company.

Mark (2) 2:29

Right. That's'cause that's'cause I'm funny

Francis 2:31

and there too. We had a great dinner, but the, the, the food was, it was, it was very interesting. First of all, I have to give credit where credit to it was spotless. It really, it was spotless clean the

Mark (2) 2:42

place itself.

Francis 2:43

Yeah. Yeah. And the design was actually kind of nice. It was nice restaurant design. It flowed well, I felt comfortable until the food started coming. Um, but

Mark (2) 2:52

you know what, and, and I just wanna interrupt you for a second though.

Francis 2:55

Mm-hmm.

Mark (2) 2:56

What. And I guess some people take comfort in this, but every Cheesecake Factory you walk into has that same design. I

Francis 3:03

knew that.

Mark (2) 3:04

Uh, and on purpose, I, uh, you know, I'm, I'm sorry, I'm speculating because I actually, I've never eaten a Cheesecake Factory, so I can't say, but, but I'm talking about chain restaurants in general. They all are designed to have. Even if the buildings are shaped differently to make you feel like you're in the same place as you were in your hometown in Dubuque in Santa Cruz.

Francis 3:24

Well,

Mark (2) 3:24

they're all designed to make you feel like you're in the same place.

Francis 3:26

Well, I think that, I guess a lot of people are, are familiar with Cheesecake Factory.'cause a lot of people go there. But I want to talk about. What my problem is with cheesecake.

Mark (2) 3:35

Mm-hmm.

Francis 3:35

Uh, factory. Um,

Mark (2) 3:36

I like cheesecake.

Francis 3:37

That's right. Exactly. And, and my, and my, my problem is that the food's not good and

Mark (2) 3:45

that's a minor problem. No, no. It's one of those little things that, you know, just don't, most people overlook,

Francis 3:50

but it's more than that. Is, is it? The food's not good. And they pretend like it is. Mm-hmm. And, and, and it, and in some cases I would say the food's not food and they pretend like it is. Um, and occasion probably. Are

Mark (2) 4:02

they serving plastics? Is that what's going on?

Francis 4:04

Apparently, no. I mean, I can't accuse them of that directly, but I mean, if we got the cheesecake, let's start with the end of the meal. Let's start with dessert first, we got the cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, and it's topped with as, as much the whipped cream is as high as the cheesecake itself, except. I've seen whipped cream, and at the outset it looks vaguely like whipped cream, like a very firm whipped cream, and it was cold. Mm-hmm. And it was somewhat creamy, but you know, I left a bunch of it on the plate in the little floret that they had put it in as it came out of the whipped cream quote unquote machine. and we talked for about 40, 45 minutes in a 70 degree room, and it never changed shape.

Mark (2) 4:41

And you think that's bad?

Francis 4:42

Well, it's not cream. I've seen whipped cream, and so when you taste it, you, you,

Mark (2) 4:46

well, it's probably whipped

Francis 4:48

something

Mark (2) 4:48

and it's, there's probably cream in it,

Francis 4:50

maybe.

Mark (2) 4:52

But it's probably not just those two things,

Francis 4:55

but it's, so we had the whiffed dessert topping, um, which, you know, when you taste it, if you pay attention, there's a greasiness in there that is the emulsifier that keeps

Mark (2) 5:03

it from Mel. That's exactly what it's, there's a, there's some, and, and the problem with that, when you're eating something like that, and I know exactly what you're talking about, is that. I'll call it slime stays on your tongue. Yep. It doesn't taste right. It doesn't feel right in your mouth. And there's a different, and there's a reason why whipped cream became popular

Francis 5:25

because it's creamy and it's creamy light, and it goes and it's, well anyway, so I just want to deal a little bit more with, with what I found there. It's fake food. We're in the middle of, uh, strawberry season my future brother-in-law's cheesecake came with a strawberry on top.

Mark (2) 5:36

Mm-hmm.

Francis 5:37

It was a lovely California strawberry. All right. Strike one. But it's a big, they gotta buy a lot of strawberries. Maybe they can't adjust for the six week New Jersey strawberry season, but they took this fresh strawberry. So they would have a fresh strawberry on there, not canned. And they, they dumped it in like the strawberry pie filling loo, like, oh. So that it would stabilize. And so you took what was a fresh strawberry.

Mark (2) 5:59

And a lot of bakeries in the seventies used to use that stuff on like, like tarts and things like that. The, the gl like, so the strawberry shortcake would stay pristine on top of the cake,

Francis 6:08

right? And so, and so they g grouped their strawberries even though it was a California strawberry. I would've accepted that. Uh, um, and what I thought was interesting was that. And what, what, here's what I mean by, they pretend like it's good food. We work hard every day. Mm-hmm. Lots of people in this industry work hard every day to make good food for you to, to, to, to be seasonal. And I, and I thought it was really interesting when they said the waiter came out and he said, uh, and our um, uh, our summer cheesecake special. Is the pistachio chocolate cheesecake, because it must be chocolate season in South Jersey, or is it pistachio season? I didn't have that quite straight, but, but then, and they, they present things as if they're good food and there's. There's a cost to that because there are people who don't get to out, eat out very well and people, you know, chefs have a great responsibility and restaurateur have a great responsibility now. I think in our society. It's been thrust upon people in the last generation, and that's why when people source locally, source of sustainably source healthfully, and we talk about things like seasonality. There's something really there, and people take that lesson and they bring it home and they, and they cook for themselves hopefully. And they go to the local green market, hopefully. Um, and so when you tell me that, oh, our seasonal cheesecake is the pistachio chocolate cheesecake, what you're saying, it's all, it's all, it's all horse hockey,

Mark (2) 7:29

right?

Francis 7:30

It's all bs. You know, it's all BS. And it's not all bs. It's all BS at the Cheesecake Factory, I assure you. But it's not all BS and it's important. My other favorite thing was, this was the only thing, and I was like, this just isn't right. I had something that didn't actually taste disgusting.

Mark (2) 7:43

Okay.

Francis 7:43

It was okay tasting, but it was jarring. I ordered the tacos. I ordered the chicken tacos, and the chicken tacos came with something on top of it that could have been sour cream, which is a con. Something I don't really like on my tacos is anybody, but it's okay. I don't

Mark (2) 7:57

have a problem with

Francis 7:57

that. It's okay. It's okay. That's

Mark (2) 7:58

fine.

Francis 7:59

Um, and then when I began to eat my tacos, I realized. It was mayonnaise. Oh, it was aioli. It was, it was, uh, Chipotle mayonnaise. And I thought, there's mayonnaise on my taco.

Mark (2) 8:11

Oh, that's all

Francis 8:11

wrong. I said, where is this from Iowa.

Mark (2) 8:14

It's all

Francis 8:14

wrong. So, so anyway, so I called the wait over and I said, excuse me, what is this on my taco? And he said. Oh, that's a Chipotle aioli. I'm like, oh, so it's sort of Fusion, Iowa, Italy, Mexico garbage cuisine. So that was, that was really disturbing.

Mark (2) 8:30

You know what your big problem was?

Francis 8:32

The mac and cheese balls, not the meatballs. Get this. It's macaroni and cheese. Breaded and fried into a ball like a meatball. And if that weren't enough of an insult, put over marinara yet. Another little piece of Middle America Italian cheese. Oh,

Mark (2) 8:45

marinara in the

Francis 8:46

mac and cheese. No, yeah, on it. Sit on a better,

Mark (2) 8:49

oh, like you're grossing me out. I gotta tell you.

Francis 8:50

It was, uh, it was interesting. But my point is, look, it's inexpensive. That's fine. It's just that it pretends to be something it's not. And there are a lot of people that do work that we think. Is very important. And so, so my, my experience with the cheesecake factor was, it's not great. And if you wanna stop in and say it's cheap, but it's not great, let's go. That's one thing, but it's,

Mark (2) 9:11

it's welcome here. Okay. There's a reason to go. But,

Francis 9:13

but it's the pretending like it's something that not that really sticks in my cr

Mark (2) 9:16

you know what the problem is?

Francis 9:17

What's that?

Mark (2) 9:17

You broke my rule.

Francis 9:18

What's the rule?

Mark (2) 9:19

My rule is never eat anything. From a place that has factory in its name. Okay.

Francis 9:25

I think we'll all live by that

Mark (2) 9:26

rule. Never eat, never put anything in your mouth that comes from a place with factory

Francis 9:30

in it. We, we are going to come back, uh, after the break with, uh, top Chef season four winners. Stephanie Izard. She is the top chef right now, and you'll hear in just a moment,/And our guest today is Stephanie Izard. She owned Sila Restaurant in Chicago and she is America's top chef.

Mark (2) 9:46

Stephanie, welcome to the show and congratulations.

Stephanie 9:48

Hi. Thank you. How are you?

Mark (2) 9:50

We're doing great.

Francis 9:51

We're great. But you won? You won. You won.

Mark (2) 9:52

I did,

Stephanie 9:53

I did. I did. Very exciting. Um, it's been, things have been crazy. It's been great just being around Chicago and I was just this green city market and everybody's really excited. So it's been fun.

Mark (2) 10:03

You know, Stephanie, we're breaking our rule. Usually we have the winner of, of the show on the morning after the finale airs, but we decided that the winners were too hungover when we did that. So, have you recovered?

Stephanie 10:15

Yeah, I've, uh, slightly recovered, but the celebrating. Still keeps, uh, keeps going on. It seems so trying to be good, but

Francis 10:22

that's really tremendous. I'll tell you, for those of our viewers who don't watch the Bravo TV reality series, top Chef, uh, who listen to our show, they know that it's, it's, uh, our favorite, uh, uh, TV reality show. Um, and, and how real did you find the experience, or how relevant did you find the experience? You've owned your own restaurant, you've been a chef, you are an established chef. How relevant do you find the experience of Top Chef to be to an actual restaurant experience? Um, you know,

Stephanie 10:47

I think some of the challenges are obviously restaurant wars or, um, some of the group challenges. Obviously you have to demonstrate your leadership skills as well as your cooking skills. But, you know, I mean, I think a lot of us agreed it was a little bit too much of tough catering this year. Um, which, you know, I, I'm sure it's hard for them to have challenges that really reflect what happens in a real restaurant, but, you know, all of the pressure and things like that are definitely reflective. So, um, yeah, I just, you know, I would like to do a little less catering on the show, but I think. In general, definitely you had to demonstrate, demonstrate all the different skills of a chef. So fun.

Mark (2) 11:18

So the catering, the catering shows, the, the, the wedding shows were not the ones that you loved, but what were the shows? What were the shows that you had a problem with?

Stephanie 11:26

know, I think it's just, you know, on the children's challenge where I didn't do that well, I think I just got so excited to be hanging out with kids and I was just chatting it up with my little girl and I just sort of. Um, wasn't concentrating on the food. So things like that where I just sort of let the, let the challenges or let what was going on around me, um, get ahead of the food. And so I just had to sort of refocus and, um, concentrate on cooking

Mark (2) 11:45

just in case our listeners didn't see the show. That was a show where basically you had a 10 or 11-year-old come in and, and work with you and, and create a menu for kids

Francis 11:53

on the I

Stephanie 11:53

did.

Francis 11:54

On the opposite side of the spectrum in the finale, uh, you got to pick your sous chef. The, the contestants got to pick their sous chefs from among some of the best chefs in the country. And you got to have Eric Repair, who is one of the top chefs and, and certainly the top fish chef in the country. Be your sous chef. What was that like?

Stephanie 12:11

It was crazy. You know, I actually, I was very starstruck when I saw Eric Repair, so I just sort of snapped him up right away. Um, and it was weird, you know, I was standing over him like telling him how to cut the fish and he is like, Stephanie, I think I know how to cut. I, you know, I said to Tom the next day, I was like, well, I actually had to recut the fish the next day because they weren't the right size.

Francis 12:32

Well, I mean, there, there comes a point where there, there's a certain level of expertise that is being tested in any chef, but there's also, you know, one, the reason you need to have a chef in a kitchen. Is because there may be two or three right ways of doing things. And when in your challenge, you had to make sure that it was your reflective of your style, not your

Mark (2) 12:50

voice. You, you wanted it to speak of your voice, not something, not Eric Repair's voice.

Stephanie 12:54

Exactly. Exactly. You know, they asked us, didn't show this on the show, but they asked us, you know, how we felt about not getting to have any, um, influence from our sous chefs as far as, you know, flavors and things like that. And I was like, well. You know, of course Erica p and April and um, Dan Barber are amazing chefs not even gonna compare, but I was like, you know, we're really good chefs too. You just don't know us yet. You know, like we have our own style and we can do good flavors too. So I think we were really happy to have all of their help, but at the same time, yeah, like you said, we just wanted to be reflective of our own style.

Mark (2) 13:24

So obviously having Eric repair as, as your sous chef can be a nerve wracking experience. but at the same time, one of, in a show, a few episodes before that you had one of the ex-con contestants be your sous chef Dale, that didn't work out that great either in, in certain aspect.

Stephanie 13:41

Yeah. You know, as soon as I saw Dale there, we've been friends for a long time. We used to work together, so I picked him right away. Um. And then, you know, he ended up leaving the port belly out, which I think, you know, in the end it was like a blessing in disguise. We ended up putting together a. The Cherone dish, which the judges loved and all the guests loved, and

Mark (2) 13:57

yeah.

Stephanie 13:58

Um, you know, I love pork belly, but you know, at the end of the day, we came up with something great. So,

Mark (2) 14:01

okay, first of all, pork belly, what's not to love?

Stephanie 14:04

Yeah.

Mark (2) 14:05

Second of all, I

Stephanie 14:06

use the word pork and it makes me pretty happy.

Mark (2) 14:07

Second of all, just again for people who might not have seen the show, what happened is you guys had, were preparing for your menu for the next day, and. And Dale, this guy who was there, there to help you, ended up leaving one of your, your prime ingredients, the pork belly out overnight.

Francis 14:25

That was, that was a heartbreaker. That was really a heartbreaker, I have to say, for those of us. And I think that, you know, one of the things about Top Chef is for people who aren't in the restaurant business, you do restaurant business, there's a certain way to watch it. But I, in the industry folks, a lot of people watch that show, and you watched the seasons prior to when you were on, and there's a real, I mean, if you're in the industry. There are real heartbreaks that people who aren't in the industry are sitting next to me don't get

Stephanie 14:47

Right. Do you find that? Yeah. Because they don't really know what goes. People not in the industry don't know exactly what goes into, you know, our every day in the industry. Um, and I think the show at least demonstrates a little bit of the difficulty and things like that. But even, you know, even still, it's hard to tell watching on the TV exactly what we. Let's read up Tuesdays Meals.

Francis 15:05

Well, absolutely, but sitting, sitting as an industry person next with some industry people in the room and non-industry, people in the room, the the industry. People go, oh, a lot, a lot more often than the others. Hey, we'll be back in just a moment, talking with Stephanie Isard, America's top chef. You're listening to the restaurant guys. Uh, Stephanie, a topic that has come up with a lot of the folks we've had on the show and friends of ours in the industry. like Tom Colicchio or, or Charlie Trotter, or Charlie Palmer They talk about how, you know, there's a club that you're in when you reach a certain level of being a chef. and what it means is that, you know, whenever you go to whatever city you go to, you sort of call up other chefs there and you go and visit and maybe have dinner with them or hang out with them. And, you're in that club now. do you think that, winning Top Chef has, has sort of cemented your place in that club and changed your life, your professional life, your social life in that way?

Stephanie 15:53

Um, I mean, I think it's definitely a good starting off point to get, you know, to reach, become part of that little fraternity of chefs or what have you. But, um, you know, I think it, I still have to from this point, I really need to prove that I do belong being in the club, um, and just sort of show my stuff at my new restaurant and things like that. But it's been great. I was hanging out with Daniel Ballu know, that's definitely never happened to me before. So it's been exciting.

Mark (2) 16:15

Some, a little bit of bad news, Stephanie. Yes. All those guys in the club have to keep proving that they belong in the club. Of course, of course. It's just, it's, that is just the, the life we've chosen. You every day is a new test. Every day is a new opportunity to shine or to smell.

Stephanie 16:31

Oh, of course. Yeah. I, uh, definitely know that. Um, but yeah, that's what makes it all exciting. It's, it's a tough business, but it's what we love to do, so. It makes it fun.

Francis 16:42

And so you have plans for, uh, a new restaurant or you are searching for plans for a new restaurant?

Stephanie 16:47

I, you know, I have some ideas in my head. I'm just, uh, starting to search for the perfect space. Um, you know, I wanna get it open sooner than later, but at the same time not gonna rush it. So just starting to look around Chicago and try to pick what neighborhood I wanna be in and, um, we'll sort of see what happens.

Francis 17:01

And Chicago's a real food Mecca. Your first restaurant was in Chicago. You definitely want your second place to be in Chicago as well.

Stephanie 17:06

Yeah, you know, I mean, I toed with the idea of leaving, there's New York, which is. Huge. And there's other great cities, but Chicago is really, I think, becoming, um, you know, almost the top, uh, food city. I think in the country. A lot of chefs are moving here to open places and they just have a lot to offer. So, um, I just wanna, you know, stay and be part of that.

Francis 17:25

Well, I mean, it's pretty exciting out in Chicago and I think one of the reasons is that the costs of, of operating out there are, are a little lower to get yourself started. And it seems to be a little less cutthroat than New York, but it, and it's one heck of a food city. And I'm sure that your restaurant will add to that. We'll talk more after the news with Stephanie Isard, America's Top Chef. You're listening to the restaurant guys. Stephanie Isard is America's top Chef. She won the top honors at the Bravo, TV reality series, top Chef, and she's here talking with us about her, her newfound fame. Um, Stephanie, I, I read, I read in your bio. Uh, that you, one of your favorite dishes is, uh, crab Rangoon, and your comment was, there's something about fried cream cheese that's irresistible. Now, I have to be honest with you, I've been in the restaurant business for about 20 years. I don't know what crab Rangoon is, but from their follow-up sentence, it sounds disgusting. Can you, can you share with us what, what is

Stephanie 19:43

crab? Rangoon is just a, it's a fried wonton that's filled with crab and cream cheese, and, you know, sometimes there's scallions and other things in there. I'm a big fan of cream cheese, so

Mark (2) 19:53

I, I'm against Francis Crab. Ranon is delicious and he's an idiot.

Francis 19:56

I, I don't know, I just, I've never had it. I thought that was really interesting. I do know that. Did not make an appearance in any of your dishes on, uh, top Chef.

Stephanie 20:04

No. You know, I don't usually, I don't make fried cream cheese there to people. I just, I just like to keep it for myself to,

Francis 20:09

to make it for home that brings us to another point. Your style is you're pretty mellow, laid back, you get things done, you're no nonsense. Uh, as a chef, you've operated your own place. As I mentioned before, you know, we've been in the restaurant business a long time. There are lots of different styles, but I would say that more often than not, uh, we find. And this isn't the, the, the in, in either of our kitchens. This isn't the way it works, but it, it's very hard to find, I don't wanna say it's a hostile environment, but the kitchen is a, is a, is a very rough and tumble. And, uh, let's say it's usually an aggressive environment. you seem to have a different style. would you say that's an accurate assessment of your style?

Stephanie 20:47

Yeah, definitely. I mean, if you walked into the kitchen at Silla, we're all just sort of. You know, hanging out, singing along with the music, having a good time, and we're still getting things done. And, you know, I'm still keeping an eye and people definitely respect me and wanna do things the right way, but I don't, when you scream at people, it's not gonna make them do any better. It's gonna make them, you know, like you less and not really care about, you know, helping you out. Whereas if you show respect for your cooks and don't scream at everybody all the time and try to keep the kitchen, um, a little more mellow, I think that everybody just gets the job. Done better.

Mark (2) 21:17

always try and express to my chefs and the cooks and the front of house people in my restaurant that it, that it's so much more powerful to sit down and talk to somebody and say, here's where you're letting the organization down. Here's where you're not getting the job done, and here's the way you can improve yourself. And to do that behind closed doors in a civil discussion and, and talk directly to people. It just works better than screaming and berating and you know, Gordon Ramsey ing people.

Stephanie 21:48

Yeah. You know, I worked at a restaurant in Arizona and the chef, you know, just screamed at us all the time saying we were trying to sabotage his restaurant and just, you know, it was so uncomfortable that when he was actually not there, everybody was just talking about how much they dislike him and, you know. You don't wanna put your best foot forward for someone that you don't have any respect for.'cause they're yelling at you all the time. Um, I think it's definitely a good idea. You know, whenever I had to talk to one of my employees, I definitely just pulled them down in the office and. Just have a civil conversation. You know, we're, we're all adults.

Francis 22:15

Mm-hmm. but don't you find that that's still more than other workplaces, though? I think it is changing, and especially it's changing in the best places. I mean, you know, in Thomas Keller's Kitchen, you're not gonna hear the volume go very high. Um, but I, I still find in, you know, in good restaurants, in, in restaurants that you think would be more professional. I, I find there to be, you know, as I go to my friends' restaurants and there, there is a level of aggressiveness and volume and, you know, hostility. in competition. That's, that's sort of there in the kitchen environment that's not there in other workplaces. I mean, do you, and I'm not talking about your place, but in other places you've worked, have you, have you seen that? Do you agree with my, did you see

Mark (2) 22:51

it on top shelf?

Stephanie 22:52

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I definitely agree. You know, I think most places I've worked, there's definitely, of course, it's the stress that's involved and then it's all the, the egos that are involved, to be honest, you know, I think that, um, a lot of, you know. Mainly the males, I must say in industry, just have a little bit of the ego thing going on. And so when you put them all in a kitchen together under the stress situations, people are gonna start, you know, the volume's gonna rise a little bit. But, uh, yeah, I hope to, you know, I never wanna have one of those environments for myself.

Mark (2) 23:19

And it, and it, you know, I don't mean to say that pulling somebody aside and talking to them is always gonna work because different things work for different people. But of

Stephanie 23:27

course,

Mark (2) 23:28

When that doesn't work, you, you need to move that person out of your organization to move a new person in.

Stephanie 23:33

Exactly.

Francis 23:33

And you brought it up. I, we weren't gonna bring it up unless you did, but you know, you are the first woman, top chef.

Stephanie 23:39

I am. I am. Which is, um, very exciting. You know, I mean, through my career, um, I've never really thought of myself as, you know, woman or male chef, you know, I just try to be the best that I can be. But, you know, I think it's great to just show that women, you know, do represent, um, some great people in this industry and I hope that. There just starts to be more and more, you know, um, I don't know why there aren't many women chefs as men, but, um, I think this season we just proved that there's a lot of great female chefs out there. So,

Mark (2) 24:05

I, I wanna say something, and I, and I don't mean this disparaging in any way, to me, it wasn't that important that you were a woman winning top chef. It seemed like, you know, I'm reading the blogs and I'm looking at what people are saying and people are, are really hyped up on the fact that you're a female chef winning this competition. I, I guess I've seen enough really highly skilled women chefs now that I, that I don't think it's such an anomaly that I didn't think it was that outrageous to begin with.

Stephanie 24:33

Right. No, I agree. I mean, there are definitely some strong women throughout the industry and I think that, you know, maybe it's just people are saying that finally a woman, you know, one top chef, which is its own little world, But yeah, you know, I just, I just wanted to win as being, you know, the best contestant there. Not necessarily, you know, male or female.

Mark (2) 24:48

Yeah. But let's face it, even in the first season, even the women weren't rooting for Tiffany,

Stephanie 24:53

which I feel, you know, I've actually, I've talked to Tom and, you know, supposedly she's a, a great, a great person, so I hope to get to meet her someday, but she definitely. Didn't, uh, didn't come across as the nicest.

Mark (2) 25:02

She was obviously super talented and obviously she, they wanted her to look, you know, in a certain light. And, and that takes me to my next question. What part of this was TV and what parts of this were reality?

Stephanie 25:16

Um, you know, I think that definitely, you know, they have to do some editing. It's, um, they tape, you know, thousands and thousands of hours of, of footage and they decide what they wanna show. And I think that, you know, in that sense, they get to sort of. Make characters out of people. Um, but you know, I think they were all based on, you know, real characteristics of the people. They're just really magnified. But you know, they just sort of magnified the interesting characteristics in people. So I think that's the only thing that, you know, a little bit less than reality. But, um, what's great is, I mean, as far as the challenges go, you know, when they say We have 20 minutes, we really. Did have 20 minutes and when we only have this much money to spend, we really did have that. So at least they, you know, all of that part's realistic, which is great.

Francis 25:56

I have to say, you couldn't, and we, we had Tom Colicchio on the show. We've had him a couple times. We had him right before the first season aired. And you know when you have somebody like Colicchio involved and he laid down some. Uh, significant conditions, uh, preconditions for his participation and, you know, he's got a lot of integrity, that guy. And I think that, that really shines through in the tenor of the show. I think it's one of the reasons it's different than the other TV reality shows.

Stephanie 26:21

Yeah, I think Top Chef is really lucky to get someone, you know, like Tom to participate and it just shows that there is, you know, it is about the food. And if Tomio is gonna sit there and judge and put his name on it, then, you know, even though through the TV you can't taste the food, you have to sort of believe that. That he's, um, you know, judging

Francis 26:38

fairly, yeah, no, he is like the most trusted chef in America now I think probably because of this.

Mark (2) 26:41

You know, Stephanie, when we come back, I'm gonna give you a chance to judge the judges.

Francis 26:45

Ooh. We'll be back in just a moment with Stephanie eis and you have all the commercial break to think about it. Uh, we'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the restaurant guys. we're talking with Stephanie Isard. She is America's top chef. Winner of the most recent, uh, season of the. Bravo TV reality series and, uh, Mark's question that he cooked up has been waiting. All, all show to ask you is you spent weeks and weeks, uh, having the judges, the panel of judges or rotating judges, judge your food and, every time. You know, it's funny, every time we do a job interview. We realize that we're being interviewed by the candidate, and every time you're being judged, you know, all the contestants and all the audience are judging the judges and judging their ability to judge. Every time a restaurant critic writes a review, if that restaurant critic stays at that venue, that paper for a long time, the readers sort of go to those restaurants and we, we judge the critics. Here's, here's your chance. Will you give us some insight into, to the various judges and their different styles and who you think might be better or not so good?

Stephanie 27:40

Sure. You know, I think, um, you know Gail Simmons, she's actually, she's a sweetheart, but she's just very honest and she, you know, tries to always point out a little bit of the positive, you know, but then she'll also just be completely honest with you. But I think she has a nice approach where she's not just, you know, making you feel really bad about, you know, a bad decision you made. She'll point out, you know, that maybe you're on the right track, but you sort of made some missteps. So

Mark (2) 28:02

it's not all about the slam.

Stephanie 28:03

Yes, of course. Um, and then, you know, Tom, of course, he has a style where. He really just wants to know what your reason was for doing something. He'll always ask, you know, what were you thinking when you did this? Or what were you trying to go for? Um, which to him, that's just a very important part of, of everything, not necessarily, you know, of course. Um. The flavors and things like that, but he wants to see if you reached your goal

Mark (2) 28:25

well.

Stephanie 28:25

So that was really interesting to me that that's so important to him.

Mark (2) 28:28

Well, you know what? I think that when, when you're in this business, you realize that it's not, that results obviously are everything. Okay? Results are, are what's most important and really the only thing that's important. But when you're in this business, you realize that there are steps that take you to those results. And if you, if you make a misstep at, on one of those steps. Your result's not gonna be what you want it to be.

Stephanie 28:52

Right, right. you know, other than that does Padma, you know, a lot of people ask me, what in the world does Padma have to do with food or anything? Um, and, you know, she does like to eat and she does have some, some insightful things to say. But I would say, you know, all in all, she'd probably be, I would think by all of us, you know, her, her opinion is probably, um, you know, we didn't listen to her quite as much. You know, I think she's, she does know a little bit about what she's talking about, but when you've got Gail Simmons and Tom Clicko and. You know, rich and all these great guest judges, you know, we definitely. Sort of gear more towards what they're um, well,

Francis 29:24

she's hot and she's dramatic when she does the knife thing.

Mark (2) 29:26

She's very pretty

Francis 29:27

and she does the knife. She's very pretty.

Mark (2) 29:28

Um,

Stephanie 29:29

we got to look at her at judges table

Francis 29:33

and she's very dramatic

Mark (2) 29:34

with the knife. You know what I, I, and I, again, I'm, I'm probably. Being kinder than a lot of people have been to her. But I, but I don't find her saying things that are dumb or things that are, no,

29:44

I think she's very intelligent that are, that are out of place. I, you know, maybe her, we show though. That's all, you know. You know, it's funny,

Francis 29:51

You know. You know, it's funny, I have to say the, the thing about, I think, I think that's a very kind show and I think Tom is a kind man and you know, when we had him on the show, he said, you know, one of the things that's the, the hardest thing for me to do with this show is I'll be in the kitchen and I'll be asking people questions when they're doing things and all. I'll see that they're doing things wrong and sometimes I'll ask them questions that if they listen to my question, they might reexamine what they're doing and think about it and answer that question themselves and and come up with it. But he said the hardest thing for me is I always viewed my role as a teacher, and you think he's a kind man who wants to see everyone do well. Right. Yeah. Um, and, and that's the tenor the show has taken on, uh, for the most part, but except the whole Pack your knives and go thing. When they say, when you're dismissing the show, they say, pack your knives and go. I'm like, oh, that's so cold.

Stephanie 30:33

Yeah. It's like, ouch. Couldn't you just

Francis 30:35

say, I'm sorry, you know, wouldn't that be nicer?

Stephanie 30:39

Yeah, that would be nicer. But you know, people really wanna see the drama and they

Mark (2) 30:43

mm-hmm.

Stephanie 30:43

Like, people tune in I'm sure a little bit from week to week, see the people also that drama. So

Mark (2) 30:47

I guess there's gotta be a little drama, but I'll tell you, for me, I enjoyed, uh, and it seemed like you guys enjoyed when Tom was expediting for you guys. When Tom was working in the kitchen with you guys and he was the expeditor while you guys each cooked your, your dishes.

Stephanie 31:03

It was fun. You know, at first he has, you know, every chef has their own way of sort of calling out and picking up. And he confused me for a second there. But, um, it was cool'cause it was almost, he was our colleague rather than our judge. Mm-hmm. And, um, it was just, you know, a lot of fun to sort of see. Tom, not that he was cooking, but he was sort of like in action, you know? It's like we actually were working with Tom, so it was pretty cool.

Francis 31:23

Well, and now you filmed the show and then you're bound by, you're contractually bound upon forfeit of like a limb and all the prize money or something to, to not tell anybody how it turned out, right?

Stephanie 31:33

That's right.

Francis 31:34

And so you went to watch the final episode with your family and even your family didn't know if you'd won or not, right?

Stephanie 31:39

Yeah, it was, you know, and it was, it was definitely a hard thing not to tell my parents, but. In the end it was, it was so priceless to see their face when they,

Francis 31:46

well, actually it wasn't priceless. It was, it was a hundred thousand dollars. Was it?

Stephanie 31:49

Yeah, that's true.

Francis 31:50

It was. It was precisely$100,000 and quite worth it. I think

Stephanie 31:54

that's true. That's true. But you know, it just made it all worth it. I, the whole time I just kept saying to them, you know, I tried my best, which, you know, isn't a lie, but it definitely made it sound like things didn't turn out so well. Um, you know, it was just a fun little game I got to play.

Francis 32:06

And so, and so, and so you, it must have had been like, you know, you won the Miss America pageant or something at the moment, uh, that it was announced and your family was there and you were watching the, the whole thing. Was that, was that a hell of a moment?

Stephanie 32:17

Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, it was sort of like. Um, you know, I don't really wanna win Miss America, so I'd say it was more like winning the Olympics for like the Super Bowl or something. But people were just really excited and I had a bunch of friends around in my family and, uh, it was a lot of fun.

Mark (2) 32:30

Kind of like you won the Luge gold medal, huh?

Stephanie 32:32

Yeah.

Mark (2) 32:33

So how long do you have to wait from the time the show ends?

Francis 32:38

Till it's aired?

Mark (2) 32:39

Till it's aired? Um, the

Stephanie 32:41

Puerto Rico part was filmed about a month ago.

Mark (2) 32:43

Oh.

Stephanie 32:43

Um, the rest of it was way back in, uh, October.

Mark (2) 32:46

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 32:46

So we had a little, a long break there, but had to keep a secret for about a month.

Francis 32:50

Well, Stephanie, I have to say it was great to watch you over the season of Top Chef. Great job. And, and I, and I look forward to having you on the show when you open your next restaurant and all the great things you're gonna do in your career.

Stephanie 32:59

Thank you. Yeah, I'll keep you guys posted. Cool.

Francis 33:01

Alright, thanks Stephanie. Isard, America's top chef. You can find out more about the series through our website, restaurant guys radio.com or go to Bravo tv. We'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the restaurant guys. Hey everybody, welcome back. It's Mark and Francis, the restaurant guys.

Mark (2) 33:13

So just like that. Another season of Top Chef is gone, season four. We'll just have to wait. So first season five to come. We've

Francis 33:19

been doing this show a long time.

Mark (2) 33:20

A long time.

Francis 33:21

We had them on, we had Tom K, we had the casting director of Top Chef on before the show ever went on the air.

Mark (2) 33:27

Yeah, I think it was like first week or second week. They were right. That they had just started.

Francis 33:31

That's wild.

Mark (2) 33:31

Yeah. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. Hey, I want to. Talk to our listeners. I wanna talk to everybody out there, both in podcast and in radio. And Francis and I thought that it, it was time to let everybody give us a call and from wherever you may be,

Francis 33:44

and we wanna talk to local listeners, but if you listen from far away, we get a real kick out of, uh, and I know a lot of our far away listeners listen on podcast, we get a real kick outta hearing from you.

Mark (2) 33:52

It, it's gonna be a fun, fun show and you can talk to us and ask us whatever you want.

Francis 33:56

It's like the restaurant guy's carnival.

Mark (2) 33:58

It's uh.

Francis 34:00

Carnival on the air.

Mark (2) 34:00

We'll be serving Zaes. There's gonna be some funnel cake. Yeah, but

Francis 34:04

I can't shove those through the microphone. So mark

34:05

some

Mark (2) 34:05

corn dogs.

Francis 34:06

Mark and I be eating all that stuff ourselves in the booth. Little

Mark (2) 34:08

man on stilts.

Francis 34:09

Hey, listen, We hope you've enjoyed hearing from us today. I I'm Francis Shot.

Mark (2) 34:12

And I'm Mark Pascal.

Francis 34:13

We are the restaurant guys.