Modern Family’s Ty Burrell Cases Hollywood Parties For Free Food (Reheat)

As a struggling young actor, Ty Burrell pretended to be a guest at hotels to get the free breakfast buffet. Now he fights the urge to pocket food at the Emmys. He talks about his hors d'oeuvres strategy at fancy Hollywood events, getting his kids to eat slower, and how Utah's arcane liquor laws actually benefitted the two Salt Lake City bars he owns.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Pashman?

  As we turn to fall and the weather starts to cool down, I think of things like crunching leaves. I think of sharing from the sidelines of a soccer game, walking the dog in the woods. And when I think of doing all those things, I'm usually wearing something from LL Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from LL Bean, whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. LL Bean, be an outsider. As someone who has been lucky enough to go to Napa Valley, I can tell you, it's everything people say it is. Beautiful scenery, quaint, beautiful towns, and phenomenal food and

• 0:44Dan Pashman?

  drink everywhere you go. I don't even know that much about wine, but I know that every glass of wine I had in Napa Valley was excellent. I mean, there's no bad glass of wine and no bad meal. Choose between hundreds of wineries, tasting rooms, and chef-led restaurants from a low-key lunch on a vineyard terrace to a full tasting menu paired by the winemaker. Plan your trip at visitnapavalley.com.

• 1:17Dan Pashman?

  Hey, everyone. It's Dan here with a very special reheat for you because this one comes by request from my very own family. So I was a fan of the TV show Modern Family many years ago, but as my kids have gotten older, it's become a family show for us. And when I told my kids that I had interviewed beloved TV dad Ty Burrell, who plays Phil Dunphy on Modern Family, they were like, what? You never told us this? It was like a huge deal for them. So I said, listen, for Father's Day this year, we're going to reheat the Ty Burrell episode because Ty's also a dad in real life. And in our conversation, he shares the struggles of trying to get his kids to eat slower, why he prefers to cook outside for his family, and his strategies for eating on set and at Hollywood parties.

• 1:59Dan Pashman?

  After our conversation, I was pretty sure that Ty and I were kind of kindred spirits. Now, remember, you don't have to be a member of my family to submit requests for future reheat episodes. If there's one you want us to take out of the deep freezer and defrost, drop me a line. Send me a voice note or email to [email protected]. Tell me your first name, location, what episode you want to hear, and why. Thanks so much. Happy Father's Day and enjoy my conversation with Ty Burrell. I think, I think we're good to get started here. We're rolling, Paul. Cool, alright. I'm hearing my voice come back to me in my headphones. Does that matter? Is that okay?

• 2:35Speaker 01

  Should I turn them up?

• 2:35Dan Pashman?

  Well, you should do whatever's comfortable for you. I can deal with the echo. It's more important.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  How's that?

• 2:39Dan Pashman?

  It's more important that you be able to hear me. If you can't hear me, it won't be a great conversation, just as if I couldn't hear you.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Oh, no, that's the kind of conversation I love. Oh, man.

• 2:50Dan Pashman?

  Yeah. Alright, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, Ty. Go.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Alright, alright. So, let's, let me take you back a little bit. I was born in 1967.

• 3:07Dan Pashman?

  Today on The Sporkful, I talk with actor Ty Burrell. He plays dad Phil Dunphy on the hit sitcom Modern Family.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Was that mom's apron? It's an apron. It's unisex. Some of the world's greatest chefs are men.

• 3:20Dan Pashman?

  Ty will explain how his days as a starving actor affect his hors d'oeuvre strategy at fancy Hollywood parties today. Plus, he'll talk about getting his kids to eat slower and his own struggle to do the same.

• 3:31Speaker 01

  Every meal, my daughters watch me like a hawk and just jump at the chance to tell me how fast I'm eating. And I do, I just, I kind of blackout and wake up and there's, there's an empty plate.

• 3:46Dan Pashman?

  Also, Ty owns several bars in Utah. He'll tell us about navigating the state's famously tough liquor laws, which involve something called a Zion Curtain. That's all coming up. Stick around.

• 4:07Dan Pashman?

  This is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. Ty Burrell has been in movies from Black Hawk Down to Muppets Most Wanted. He's also voiced characters in a lot of animated films, most notably Bailey the Beluga Whale and Finding Dory. But Ty is best known as the lovable, clueless dad Phil Dunphy on Modern Family.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Act like a parent. Talk like a peer. I call it parenting. I learned it from my own dad. He used to walk into my room and say, what's up, sweat hog? Come on, pretend I'm not your dad. We're just a couple of friends kicking it in a juice bar.

• 4:45Speaker 02

  What's a juice bar?

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Okay, a malt shop, whatever.

• 4:48Dan Pashman?

  That whole question of how to be a dad has been a big theme in Ty Burrell's life, as you'll hear later in this episode. When he won the first of his two Emmys for Modern Family, he talked about his own father and his acceptance speech.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  I actually got kind of a late start in acting and my dad actually passed away before he ever saw me perform. And I can't help but wonder what he would think about all of this. And that I have a job where every day I go to work in full makeup.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  And in the end, I think he'd feel like, couldn't you just wear a little powder? Like, why do you have to look like a harlot?

• 5:32Speaker 01

  And I would say, Dad, just think of me as a very masculine lady. And he would say, I do, son. I do. Thank you very much.

• 5:48Dan Pashman?

  Now, Ty himself is a father. He and his wife Holly have two daughters who are five and seven. And as he told me, in their home, food is a big deal. Mostly because of Holly, who's a trained chef.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  I used to think that I was a foodie, you know? There was a time when that word was really getting thrown around. And I think I pretty pretentiously threw it around about myself. And at a certain point, my wife corrected me, you know? My wife is actually a foodie. And she's like, you just like to eat a lot. Like, that's not really a foodie.

• 6:19Dan Pashman?

  Well, then, this podcast is a safe space for you, Ty, because our motto is it's not for foodies, it's for eaters.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Oh, right.

• 6:26Dan Pashman?

  There you go.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm home. I'm home. But yeah, she is truly somebody who really dedicates the bulk of her day to something food-related. If it's not growing food, it's making food or reading about food. You know, she's just that kind of passionate about it. Yeah.

• 6:44Dan Pashman?

  And I know you said that you love to cook, but you're not great at it. Your wife obviously is a great cook. How does that dynamic play out in the kitchen when you're cooking?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Well, I cook outside.

• 7:00Speaker 01

  I I used to sort of say I was I like to grill, but actually I think my wife loves it. Just if whatever I'm cooking, I'll even use the pressure cooker, you know, out outside, out on the grill. I just I just don't go anywhere near her mise en place.

• 7:17Dan Pashman?

  Is that why you like outside cooking? Because it's sort of like that's your separate area, separate from her area?

• 7:21Speaker 01

  I actually, no, I I genuinely love that. I prefer it. I actually just came came off of a long, like, four, four day camping trip, and I'm really right at home. I mean, this may be, I may be putting myself into a sort of gender, you know, block, but I really love anything outside in particular over open fire. So I really, I would prefer, I actually prefer to be out there so it works for for both she and I.

• 7:50Dan Pashman?

  Well, it's interesting because there is this this perception or this attitude in so many homes that that the grill or the outdoor cooking or the cooking over the open fire is the man's job, even in a house where the man doesn't cook, doesn't know how to cook the first thing. Somehow when it's time to grill, it's the man's job.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  And I hate, I hate, I've actually resisted that cliche. Like, I, I don't like that that we fit so perfectly into this, like, 50s, 50s way of cooking, but it is genuinely where I would prefer to be is outside for some reason. I guess I'm mostly caveman.

• 8:29Dan Pashman?

  Well, but you say that, but I feel like your relationship to masculinity in your work

• 8:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:36Dan Pashman?

  is sort of noteworthy and kind of compelling. I mean, you know, when you won the Emmy, you gave that speech about how if your father were here, his first question would be, why do you have to wear so much makeup?

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:48Dan Pashman?

  And and I know you said that, like, your modern, your character in Modern Family, Phil Dunphy, who's sort of like, in some ways, sort of stereotypical dad guy, but you kind of in some ways identify more with Bailey, your Finding Dory character, who was more sort of neurotic and insecure.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, it's funny you bring up my dad because my dad was actually not a traditional male. He was a family therapist and a social worker. And my dad was very sensitive guy, very thoughtful. And actually did not like to cook outside. This is not, you know, it's funny because I, I didn't get that from him. He's, he is somebody, I would come home and there would be, you know, homemade noodles draped over the furniture. Uh, he loved making long meals in the hearth. And he, he did that regularly. He was a very passionate cook.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  I played most sports in high school and he would show up and I would look up in the stands and he'd be reading the art section from the New York Times.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  So it was like, the other, uh, like we, we, like on senior day out in the middle of this, I lived way out in the woods in Oregon. Senior day, you walk out with your parents and he kissed, we, we've always kissed on the lips. Never, we never even thought twice about it. It was just, that was in my household. And you could hear 5,000 people gasp. Because, you know, a firm handshake, if you live out in logging country is, is.

• 10:19Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, that, that's like second base.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's second base, exactly.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  But I think that might be, the cooking might be one of those places where I actually have found a way to, to being sort of more traditional, traditionally male. And I, I probably craved on some level because most of the time, you know, I'm in a house full of gals, my two daughters and my wife and, and I was raised by my incredible dad, who, I mean, both my parents, but my dad, who was always like, what are you feeling?

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Tell me what you're feeling about this.

• 10:56Dan Pashman?

  I know your dad passed away when you were pretty young.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:59Dan Pashman?

  Is there a food that you associate with him?

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it would be Italian food. He loved Italy. He was obsessed with Italy and actually never made it to Italy, unfortunately. But he loved to read about Italian architecture. He, he would listen to opera while he was making handmade noodles. And at the time, too, in the eighties, we actually couldn't find really great Italian food. This would be in rural Oregon. So he got pretty obsessed with trying to make truly al dente pasta and, and doing sort of elaborate gnocchi and all kinds of really cool stuff.

• 11:42Dan Pashman?

  When you eat those kinds of foods today, what kinds of, what kinds of memories does it bring up?

• 11:48Speaker 01

  He grew up around a dairy farmer dad and everybody around him were very, very traditional. And he was, he was a guy who was a painter and was an artist from when he was very young, but was never really allowed to, to be that, but found a way to kind of express his creativity and, and just his compassion to his family. He was a really special man. And I, I, I really realize the further I get away from him being in my life, how, how lucky I was.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  I hope I'm, you know, a tenth of what he was for my kids.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  I made the mistake at some point of correcting them on how fast they were eating. And of course, anybody who has kids knows that, um, that's flying way too close to the sun. The hubris in telling your kids, any, you know, behavior modification that you're not entirely on sure footing with, uh, is just incredibly dangerous.

• 13:12Dan Pashman?

  Right. Cause it doesn't take about three seconds for them to throw it back in your face.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So basically every meal, my daughters watched me like a hawk.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  And just jump at the chance to tell me how fast I'm eating. And I do, I just, I kind of blackout and wake up and there's, there's an empty plate.

• 13:35Dan Pashman?

  There are some actors or performers who say that they feel that they blackout when they're onstage or when they're improvising.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  No, no, I'm cruelly self-conscious when I'm performing. When I'm eating, I'm really in the pocket. When I'm eating, I'm really in that jazz pocket.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  I'm riffing on a chicken bone.

• 13:58Dan Pashman?

  But I wonder, has your daughter's desires to bust you for eating too fast caused them to eat slower?

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. I think we're all involved in sort of a guilt agreement.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Where nobody's going to kind of give in to their primal, primal instincts. Now we're all, we're all, it's sort of like, it's very sort of Victorian now around the table. Where we're all, we're all looking at each other.

• 14:25Dan Pashman?

  A lot of unspoken tensions.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  A lot of unspoken tension. It's very Remains of the Day at my dinner table.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  There's a whole lot of just sideways glances. The sound of silverware slowly moving across the plate. And then 40 to 80 chews of a piece of food.

• 14:48Speaker 01

  But it actually, I have to say, it actually has helped. I've kind of made, I've set this, this bar for myself and I actually am eating slower. So that's my, that's my advice to parents. Tell your kids something that then makes you slow down.

• 15:03Dan Pashman?

  Right, right. So it's like, kids, you need to stop drinking a whole bottle of whiskey every night.

• 15:12Dan Pashman?

  That's great parenting advice, Ty.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  You need to stop bedding the ponies as much as you do. It's just, it's just not, not a good thing at your age.

• 15:25Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, well, it sounds like a real parenting win for you, Ty.

• 15:31Dan Pashman?

  When you have little kids, a lot of food is liable to be wasted.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:37Dan Pashman?

  And I, it's funny, when I was growing up, we nicknamed my father the human garbage disposal.

• 15:42Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 15:42Dan Pashman?

  And now I've essentially taken on that role in my family. How do you deal with, with it when your kids, how old are they now, five and seven?

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Five and seven, yeah.

• 15:53Dan Pashman?

  They're, when they leave the table and they each have a half a plate of foods left on the table, what do you do? What happens to that food, Ty?

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Oh, I'll tell you, this, this will, this will give you the answer. When one of my daughters has a cold, I'm crestfallen.

• 16:11Dan Pashman?

  Now, what about food that they've dropped on the floor?

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Um, I've never eaten it.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.

• 16:23Dan Pashman?

  There is, I mean, don't you feel there's a certain hierarchy of your kids left over food? Like, the best is the stuff that's been left on the plate untouched. But then there's the stuff that was kind of like handled, but never put in the mouth. There's the stuff that was dropped on the floor, there was the stuff that was in the mouth and then fell out. Sometimes I'll like pick up something off one of my kids' plates after they've left the table and I'm about to eat it. And then I'll remember like, oh, but she kind of had sniffles this morning.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:46Dan Pashman?

  Well, it might have just been allergies.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, ultimately, it's good for my immune system.

• 17:01Dan Pashman?

  Coming up, more with Ty Burrell. He owns a couple of bars in Utah. We'll talk about the state's complicated liquor laws, which includes something called a Zion Curtain, and a few loopholes.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  We found out that if you essentially cut a hole in the wall, the place next to you gets your liquor license.

• 17:18Dan Pashman?

  Plus, I'll give Ty a tip for enjoying yourself when you take your kids out to a restaurant.

• 17:22Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, this is a life hack.

• 17:26Dan Pashman?

  That's all coming up, stick around.

• 17:45Speaker 03

  It's time to open up a can of advertisements.

• 17:50Dan Pashman?

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• 18:33Dan Pashman?

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• 19:27Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman, and Father's Day is just around the corner. Need a gift suggestion? I'm glad you asked, because I have one for you. It's my cookbook, Anything's Pasta-able: 81 inventive pasta recipes for saucy people. It made the list of best cookbooks of the year in Food & Wine, Epicurious, Esquire, and Wired. And it has Traditional pasta sauce recipes, you don't need another recipe for meat sauce. Instead, it has things like shakshuka and shells, smoked cheddar and chicken manicotti, done like enchiladas, linguine with miso clam sauce, shrimp and andouille mac and cheese, and of course, spaghetti alla assassina, which is a spicy pasta that's pan fried until charred and crispy crunchy. Get anything's pasta-able today wherever books are sold.

• 20:13Dan Pashman?

  Now, let's get back to Ty Burrell. Ty and his family split their time between LA and Salt Lake City. They love the mountains and his wife Holly is from Utah originally. Ty and some partners own several bars and restaurants in the Salt Lake area, including a craft cocktail place called Bar X and a beer garden next door called Beer Bar. Now, running a bar in Utah comes with some unique challenges. As you may know, the state has a large Mormon population and observant Mormons don't drink. So Utah has long had some of the strictest liquor laws in the country. For years, there were partitions put up around the bars themselves. So you couldn't see the liquor bottles behind the bar or the drinks being made. If you sat down at a bar stool, you'd have a wall in your face that often looked kind of like a shower door.

• 20:57Dan Pashman?

  These barriers were supposed to make sure young people who came in with their families to eat wouldn't be tempted. The partitions were nicknamed Zion curtains. And after years of debate, the Zion curtains were finally removed two months ago.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  Back in the day, you know, you had to pay to be a member of any bar you walked into. They were all clubs. So you would have to have somebody sponsor you as a member just to go in to have a drink. Even further back in the day, I may be getting this wrong, but this was the one that always kind of really like blew my mind. You weren't allowed to have a drink made for you. So the bartender would hand you the mix and the glass and like an airline bottle of liquor. So that you would pour in, so you were making your own drink.

• 21:44Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  So we actually in Bar X, we actually have some of those old vintage airline bottles that they used to use.

• 21:52Dan Pashman?

  It's funny though, that's what really become full circle is when you guys have like people with handlebar mustaches and hipster vests.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:58Dan Pashman?

  Who make people make their own drinks because it's like a throwback to artisanal Utah.

• 22:03Speaker 01

  Oh, we should, we should. I love that. I think that's such a.

• 22:08Dan Pashman?

  I want you to make a drink like that, Ty, and call it the Zion Curtain.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  Oh, I love it. That is so good. That's so good. You can actually make a proper drink though now. It's in some ways, you know, some of these arcane laws, you know, end up, you know, being sort of semi beneficial like we actually opened beer bar next door, our beer garden. We opened because of one of these arcane laws, which we found out that if you essentially cut a hole in the wall that placed next to you gets your liquor license. So we.

• 22:44Dan Pashman?

  That's what you call a loophole.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  It is a true loophole. It's a true loophole.

• 22:49Dan Pashman?

  Connect the whole city.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  I know.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  We're just, people are just getting like the wall being drilled by their head.

• 22:59Dan Pashman?

  Sitting in your apartment.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  You're welcome.

• 23:00Dan Pashman?

  Right. Like you're just sitting in your apartment shouting to the hole like, I'll take a gin and tonic. And they're like, Ty down in 1A wants a gin and tonic. And it gets like handed from one apartment to the next.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  Goes from miles and miles.

• 23:11Dan Pashman?

  Exactly. Like when you order a drink at a ballgame and you gotta like pass the money all the way down. And the beer comes all the way back.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  Nothing but empty glasses come back, by the way.

• 23:22Dan Pashman?

  Uh, you once said, I'll never lose the unemployed actor complex of not being sure where my next meal is coming from. When I go to events, I still case the joint for free food.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 23:33Dan Pashman?

  Tell me about your past hors d'oeuvre strategy.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  Oh, man. I get made fun of it all the time. I, I mean, on a slightly like barely serious note, I, I have a real thing with food waste. Like I always have for years and years. I was raised in a house where we, you know, my mom was adamant that we don't, we don't waste food. And some of these events, it really get, uh, no pun intended, just leaves me with a really bad taste in my mouth about how much goes to waste. But that is also just a small excuse for what really is, um, a personality disorder.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  Which, uh, which, uh, is that I, I really did go for a long time, uh, as an unemployed actor and, and also in grad school. It was very much hand to mouth. I lived in my van for a while and, and I would, you know, go, I hope my daughters never hear this, but I would go.

• 24:34Dan Pashman?

  Don't worry, no one's listening, Ty.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, no one's listening.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  I would go into the hotel and act like I was staying in the hotel to go, you know, eat the buffet in the morning because I had literally no money. I was living on a tiny, tiny stipend. So now, when I am at work and there's just this bounty of food, literally, I mean, craft service people go out of their way to sort of make it look like there's a food fountain.

• 24:59Dan Pashman?

  Right. And for folks who don't know, craft service is like

• 25:02Speaker 01

  Oh, sorry, yeah.

• 25:02Dan Pashman?

  the table of food at a TV shoot that like is always piled high with snacks and treats and all sorts of things.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  It's just crazy amounts of stacks of food and it's very hard for me to get out of there every day without taking something and like putting it in either my trailer or taking it home and, and putting it in the fridge. Part of it is, is sort of not, not liking food waste and part of it is just this thing that I can't fight.

• 25:31Dan Pashman?

  You can't turn down free food, right?

• 25:32Speaker 01

  I can't, I can't turn down free food.

• 25:34Dan Pashman?

  And what about, what about when you're at, you're at a black tie Emmys after-party? All, all the, all the Hollywood folks are there and there's fine food being passed on trays, there's past orders left and right.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:48Dan Pashman?

  You're socializing, people are coming up to congratulate you on this or that award that you won. And yet there's free food being carried on trays past you. What do you do? How do you handle that?

• 25:58Speaker 01

  You're, you'd be surprised how much satay you can get in your pocket. Kebabs fit incredibly nicely in that cellphone pocket at the bottom of your food code. It is a little bit torture. Like, big name chefs will sort of have those, these huge spreads and I, I have no way of getting it home.

• 26:22Dan Pashman?

  And, and do you pig out there at the event?

• 26:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, generally.

• 26:28Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 26:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. I, I'm not somebody with a ton of, uh, self-discipline in those situations. So, yeah. I usually, uh, will sample everything.

• 26:37Dan Pashman?

  One tip I've identified, which I'll share with you and you should feel free to

• 26:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, please do.

• 26:40Dan Pashman?

  take, take back to Hollywood is, um,

• 26:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:42Dan Pashman?

  in, in a past order situation, you want to figure out where the orders are coming from.

• 26:49Speaker 01

  Okay, find the source.

• 26:50Dan Pashman?

  Find the source, right. Because i- if you end up socializing at the far end of the banquet hall from where the orders are coming from, many of them may never reach you.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  This is great.

• 27:03Dan Pashman?

  So you always want to be-

• 27:04Speaker 01

  This is so useful.

• 27:05Dan Pashman?

  Yes, hang out by the kitchen or wherever they're coming out of. And that way, every single tray that comes out, you get first dibs.

• 27:13Speaker 01

  You're like a bear in a trout stream.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  You're just hanging over a rock.

• 27:20Dan Pashman?

  Exactly, exactly.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Just taking huge swaths, swipes at mushroom-filled tidbits.

• 27:30Dan Pashman?

  You'll know you've done your job well when the servers start trying to find alternate routes out of the kitchen.

• 27:37Dan Pashman?

  So they don't have to pass you.

• 27:39Speaker 01

  Coming out back first.

• 27:41Dan Pashman?

  Yeah. Hey, where'd that guy with all the lamb shanks go?

• 27:48Dan Pashman?

  Coming up, Ty tells me which major Hollywood event has the best food. That's after the break. Stick around. And now, a delicious word from our sponsors. It's very good. When you're cooking, ingredients matter, right? You use higher quality ingredients, you usually get better results. And if you're listening to this show, you're probably the kind of person who puts some thought and effort into your ingredients. But ingredients don't just matter with food, they also matter with laundry detergent. Of course, the cleaning job needs to get done. The odors and stains have to be tackled, and I want to feel good about the detergent and the ingredients in it. Because remember, whatever's in your laundry detergent is essentially in your clothes. And then you're putting those clothes on, you want good stuff in there. And All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients.

• 28:31Dan Pashman?

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• 29:15Dan Pashman?

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• 29:58Dan Pashman?

  If you love restaurants, chefs, and the stories behind the food you eat, I got a great podcast for you to check out. It's called The Hospitality Hangout, hosted by Michael Schatzberg, who's a restaurant guy, and Jimmy Frischling, who's a finance guy. And it really gives you an inside look into the restaurant business. The hosts bring their own points of view as restaurant owners and operators. They're not just asking questions, they've actually been in the weeds, built brands, and lived through all the ups and downs. Each episode is a mix of laughs and lessons learned with real conversations from the CEOs and founders behind some of your favorite restaurant brands. Search The Hospitality Hangout wherever you get your podcasts, or go to thehospitalityhangout.com.

• 30:42Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back. Let's return now to my conversation with actor Ty Burrell. What fancy Hollywood event that you've been to has the best food?

• 30:51Speaker 01

  The evening before and the night before, which are Jeffrey Katzenberg's. They're one of the few events that are really charity-driven, and he does it for the home that all of us actors are gonna end up in at the end, you know.

• 31:07Dan Pashman?

  Oh, I've heard of that. It's in LA, right?

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's an incredible campus.

• 31:12Dan Pashman?

  I've been, I've been thinking about doing a Sporkful show there.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 31:16Dan Pashman?

  Like go and interview a lot of the actors and the writers and all that.

• 31:20Speaker 01

  I think that's a great idea.

• 31:21Dan Pashman?

  And at an event like that, do you ever feel torn between focusing on eating as much as possible and the best food possible and socializing?

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Yes, and I actually opt for the food.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  We do. We really do. My wife and I, that is an event where we do some of the fundraising at the beginning, and then when the food comes out, we sit quietly and eat.

• 31:49Dan Pashman?

  What fancy Hollywood event that you've been to has the worst food?

• 31:52Speaker 01

  It's a toss up. I'll, I'll, I'll say the Golden Globes. Because oftentimes, sometimes the food never gets to you. And this goes back to your idea, get a table by the door.

• 32:02Dan Pashman?

  Right, right. Let the suckers worry about getting on TV, being near the cameras.

• 32:09Dan Pashman?

  You're already on TV, Ty. Go sit by the kitchen.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  People have seen enough of my weird, weird mug. I think I could go sit by the catering.

• 32:16Dan Pashman?

  Right. But at least, isn't the Golden Globes the one where you get to drink throughout the ceremony?

• 32:22Speaker 01

  You do, yeah. I don't know. I'm, I, gosh, this is gonna sound so terrible because it's, I got, I have to just, even to the gods, say out loud how grateful I am to have ever been invited to any of them. But after a few years of them, they, they do feel a little bit like work. And, and also people are bored of you.

• 32:43Dan Pashman?

  And when you say it feels like work, you mean like, like you're sort of, you're on. You, you have to be on.

• 32:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. And you are. You're there, you're there on behalf of the show. And I think that it does feel like, a little bit like a work night because, I think because the experience is kind of lost some of its luster. And I also think that, to me, anyway, part of what I'm experiencing is that as I get older, I become, and I don't know if this is just the natural course of things, but I'm becoming more introverted, you know? I think the extroverted part of my life was part of, you know, is, and I don't know if this is true of everybody, but especially as a performer, is sort of like earning your stripes. And, and I'm really happy to be at home.

• 33:28Dan Pashman?

  Right. Now, I, it's interesting you say that because I, I actually feel very much the same way. Nowadays, like if I get invited to some event, or, or to some, even just like, uh, it could be a backyard barbecue. If it's, if I, if there aren't like close friends that I know who are gonna be there, and it's like schmoozy. Like the people there may be lovely, but I just like, don't feel the need to make any new friends. Maybe now I sound like a jerk. Just like-

• 33:50Speaker 01

  No, no, I think it's, it's sometimes, I've, I've, I've said this many times, and, and it's hard not to sound a little calloused when you're saying it. But, but I do think that that's, that might be the natural order of things. And I think maybe also in particular because of our course of work. Just so much of the job is making small talk and.

• 34:09Dan Pashman?

  And being on.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  And being on and being when you're out in public being on and especially if you're lucky enough to have good friends, really good friends, where there's just really no effort in, in, in the, in the hangout. That, that kind of, I don't know, that, that tends to be my favorite place to be.

• 34:28Dan Pashman?

  Right. Has that affected the way you eat?

• 34:31Speaker 01

  Well, we don't go out as much. Yeah, I think we cook more than we ever have. I say we, my wife is really doing more of the cooking. I, I need to, so yeah, I think the option to be in and also to have people over. Is that true? Do you find that too?

• 34:48Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, I mean, I, I have little, you know, my kids are about the same age as your kids. So I think that's a big part of it is like going out to eat is kind of, you know, it's, it's such a double edged sword because it is in some ways, it's nicer than having to cook and then clean up. Uh, on the, on the other hand, like, you know, policing your kids in a, like, we, we try not to have the kids. I'm not judging anyone else here, but we try not to have the kids staring at an iPad the whole time we're in a restaurant. And it just becomes challenging and it's stressful. The food doesn't come, it's like you have to order. The second that you sit down, you're on the clock. You know, and.

• 35:22Speaker 01

  How, how much do you love a, a server who brings out the kids' food first?

• 35:27Dan Pashman?

  Right, right. Totally.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  Who understands that.

• 35:29Dan Pashman?

  Right. It's like, you're like, yeah, a table for four and two orders of mac and cheese. Can you just put that order in the kitchen right now, please? Because we've been here for eight seconds and if you're not cooking already, we're in big trouble.

• 35:40Speaker 01

  Totally, totally. We, I mean, it's just like, we, I'm just spinning so many plates, trying to distract them until the food comes.

• 35:48Dan Pashman?

  What I've actually taken to doing sometimes, Ty, here's a little life hack for you.

• 35:52Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, give me another one.

• 35:53Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, is, uh, you know, as soon as possible, you order the kids' food and order something light for yourself. And a nice stiff drink, but then order either an entree and or dessert to go.

• 36:08Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, this is a life hack.

• 36:12Dan Pashman?

  And then after the kids are asleep, you open up your to go container and you sit at the table with your wife and you pour yourself another drink and.

• 36:20Speaker 01

  And just sob, just sob uncontrollably.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  Just hold each other. You just hold each other and slob.

• 36:30Dan Pashman?

  That's right. Yeah. Sometimes it's just, sometimes it's nice to have dinner just sitting on the floor in the corner of the basement, rocking back and forth.

• 36:38Dan Pashman?

  We've all been there, am I right, people?

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Dan's clinically depressive life hacks.

• 36:59Dan Pashman?

  That's actor Ty Burrell from Modern Family. And Ty has his own food podcast coming out. It's called Mouth Feelings. Ty and his friends talk about the things you put in your mouth and the feelings that come out of it. Maybe it's the bourbon that made you feel sophisticated when you were first drinking in a bar, or the hot dog that brings you back to the pool club snack bar. Ty and his friends explore the connection between food and memory, and I'm sure they're gonna have a blast doing it. That podcast is called Mouth Feelings. It launches soon. This show is produced by Anne Sanney and me. Dan Charles is our editor. We got engineering help from Paul Ruest, music help from Black Label Music. The Spork was a production of Stitcher. Our executive producers are Chris Bannon and Jenny Rattlin. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 37:40Speaker 04

  And I'm Nora from Taylor, Texas, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.

• 38:06Dan Pashman?

  This reheat was produced by Gianna Palmer. The team that produces The Sporkful today includes me, along with managing producer Emma Morgenstern. And senior producer

• 38:14Speaker 05

  Andres O'Hara.

• 38:15Dan Pashman?

  Our engineer is Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of SiriusXM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the SiriusXM app? Yes, the SiriusXM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one. And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 38:59Speaker 06

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• 39:29Speaker 07

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