Thanksgiving Special: Ultimate Fast Food Orders, Butter Dipped Ice Cream?, and Thanksgiving Favorites

Thanksgiving is finally upon us, so Adrienne and Joe share some of their favorite holiday memories from the kitchen and at home. Even when you become a professional chef, can you ever escape the scrutiny of grandma’s kitchen? They offer up some of their favorite Thanksgiving staples (which cranberries are best?) and some deep cuts that only family would understand (we’re looking at you Jello salad). Plus, we discuss: Favorite fast food orders including the iconic Apple Pie from McDonalds and their top fountain coke Fork It or Forget It: Butter-Dipped Soft Serve from Dominique Ansel Chefsgiving story-time: What’s it like spending the holiday in a restaurant setting? Joe’s enormous family gathering that takes days (and hundreds of ravioli) to prepare for Adrienne’s walk-in confession involving too many turkeys and an ill-received meal offer Turn-and-Burn: Thanksgiving edition… traditional or experimental? Follow the show: @chefscutpod Follow Adrienne: @chefadriennecheatham Follow Joe: @insta.flamm

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

• 0:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  Welcome back to the chef's cut. I'm Adrian Cheatham.

• 0:05Joe Flamm?

  And I am Joe Flamm. It's so good to be back. We're getting into some fun stuff today. Where are we starting off?

• 0:12Adrienne Cheatham?

  First, we're talking about our ultimate fast food orders. Ooh, I forgot about Taco Bell.

• 0:17Joe Flamm?

  Then we're getting into some butter and soft serve.

• 0:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  So you have that beautiful swirled soft serve vanilla cone. Dip it in a vat of melted frickin' delicious French butter. And then about how chefs spend Thanksgiving. What in the 1952 good housekeeping was this?

• 0:35Joe Flamm?

  And we'll wrap it up with a little special Thanksgiving style walk in confession.

• 0:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  Hurls it at me as I'm running down the subway platform to get away from them.

• 0:46Joe Flamm?

  Happy Thanksgiving! From our very own birthday girl today. Miss Adrian Cheatham.

• 0:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes, yes. The birthday, the Thanksgiving, you know, all rolled into one.

• 0:58Joe Flamm?

  Let's get into it.

• 0:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Let's do this.

• 1:00Joe Flamm?

  First thing we're getting into today. We're chefs. You know, people always think we like fine dining and all that. You know, it's like you like to say, we were all dirty little line cooks once. And those dirty little line cooks still live deep, deep in our hearts.

• 1:12Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:13Joe Flamm?

  So what is your dirty little line cook fast food order?

• 1:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  My ultimate order for fast food. It doesn't all have to come from one place, right? We can pick our faves?

• 1:25Joe Flamm?

  You can pick your faves. I think I'm going one place.

• 1:28Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, okay. So for me, I love the junior bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's with McDonald's fries, a McDonald's fountain Coke, because their Coke is always better than everybody else's, I think. And McDonald's apple pie. That's my ultimate fast food order.

• 1:48Joe Flamm?

  The apple pie thrown in there, huh?

• 1:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Uh huh.

• 1:52Joe Flamm?

  A little sweet on the end of that savory adventure.

• 1:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes, yes. Like that is a superior apple pie. I'm sorry. I've loved that thing since I was a kid. My sister would get soft serve. I would get apple pie. We'd cut them in half and like do all a mode. Oh, man, that is, it's a thing of joy.

• 2:11Joe Flamm?

  The McDonald's Diet Coke is a, is a top tier just thing in general. I will drive through to just get one of those on like a summer day. Just like a whipping cold one. Like, oh man, for like the drive to work.

• 2:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Their ice is like the right size that it doesn't melt too fast, but it, oh, it just balances out the, like it hits you in the back of the throat. A little bit. Oh.

• 2:30Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. Yeah, it hits. It hits.

• 2:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  What's your fast food, Joe?

• 2:35Joe Flamm?

  So I'm going to tell you, I don't, I don't eat a lot of fast food. Um, but when I want it, there's one thing that I would say once every six months, like almost religiously, I will go get a Burger King Whopper. No cheese, no pickles, but like a Whopper, like once every six months, like I just like gotta have it like, and I don't know. And it's weird like, and I don't like it with cheese. Cause I'm like a cheeseburger guy normally. If I get a burger anywhere else, I'm getting a cheeseburger, but I think Burger King cheese is weird and I nothing, no scientific proof to this, but it's just like, I don't like it, but like a plain Whopper. It just slaps.

• 3:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 3:18Joe Flamm?

  And their fries are terrible. Their fries are trash.

• 3:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Do you remember when they changed their fries?

• 3:24Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 3:25Adrienne Cheatham?

  I, people were up in arms and I was one of them. I was protesting.

• 3:28Joe Flamm?

  Garbage. Like it's just, it blows my mind. Like, you know, for a company that big, I think it's like, I run small restaurants. And if my fries tasted like that, I'd be like, dudes, we gotta, we gotta fuck this shit.

• 3:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Who approved that?

• 3:40Joe Flamm?

  No, they're trash. So it's like only a Whopper. It's like a Whopper and like, you know, the fountain Diet Coke there, it's not McDonald's level. It's pretty good.

• 3:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's something about Burger King Whoppers. They are delicious. And I used to go to Burger King and get a burger and then go to McDonald's and get fries. But now I kind of like to do the Wendy's Junior Bacon Cheeseburger because it's a little smaller, you know? It was on the 99 cent menu. I'm a, I'm a chief skate at heart. So I just.

• 4:09Joe Flamm?

  We used to, this is some like real Southside shit. Like, uh, we used to drink in the cemetery in high school that was across the street from a Wendy's. So we used to always go, we used to just go to the Wendy's after, uh, uh, late night, a pound of Bush lights in the, in the cemetery on 111 in Cicero. So that's what Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers always make me think of.

• 4:28Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Now that you said that, I'm not gonna love them as much now that I'm gonna associate drinking in cemeteries with that. Thanks, Joe, for ruining my Junior Bacon Cheeseburger.

• 4:39Joe Flamm?

  That's what I'm here for. There are things for you.

• 4:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  One fast food thing we didn't talk about that is superior to everything else, which I just remembered? Popeyes.

• 4:49Joe Flamm?

  I like, don't even consider that fast food.

• 4:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, exactly. That's why I didn't even think about it in terms of this conversation, but it just popped into my mind. I was like, it's just-

• 4:58Joe Flamm?

  Especially in Chicago, it's like, there's like fast food places and there's chicken places. And I think that's,

• 5:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  that's true.

• 5:04Joe Flamm?

  That to me is a different category. You know what I mean? Cause it's like, like, yeah, I guess they're fast food, but if you're talking like Harold's, you're talking Uncle Remus, you're, you know, you meet some wild out East person who's talking about Heine's. Like, those are chicken places. Those aren't-

• 5:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 5:19Joe Flamm?

  Places necessarily.

• 5:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 5:21Joe Flamm?

  That's a different category to me.

• 5:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Pan fried, Popeyes, Kennedy fried on every block. Yeah. You're right. It's like, that's, to me, I don't consider them fast food in the same category as like McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell. Ooh, I forgot about Taco Bell. Nah, I'm sticking with my, my go-to. Nope.

• 5:39Joe Flamm?

  A Crunchwrap Supreme from Taco Bell is-

• 5:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my God. Every New Year's Day, my husband and I get Taco Bell. That is our New Year's Day tradition. Whatever city we're in, we are, we are going to Taco Bell or having it delivered if we're too hungover. But that is, that's going down.

• 5:58Joe Flamm?

  We tried to, one night after service, order, uh, like 20 Crunchwrap Supremes for all the cooks at Rosemary one night. And I sent my chef over there with my credit card and he walked in. He goes, I'll take 20 Crunchwrap Supremes. And the woman behind me kind of looked at him. She goes, no, order a normal amount of food.

• 6:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  You're like, you don't know how many people I'm feeding like.

• 6:23Joe Flamm?

  He's like, that's how many I need. She's like, she just goes, no, I'm not making it. Like, I'm not doing it. She's like, we've been getting crushed all day. I'm not making it. She's like, you have to leave through about.

• 6:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is wild. I didn't know they could do that, but I guess so. It makes sense.

• 6:39Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 6:39Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my God. So, you know, that's the thing about fast food is like, you know, there's different things at different places that are superior to the others. And, you know, speaking of like, you know, fast food, usually the dessert, which I love the apple pie because one time when I was little, one of my uncles was supposed to bring dessert and bring like apple pie. He didn't stop at like the normal pie shop. He stopped in McDonald's and got like 20 apple pies.

• 7:10Joe Flamm?

  That's such an incredible like uncle move. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know this uncle, but I bet he was single.

• 7:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Sure was.

• 7:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  But those apple pies are so fricking good. They're like lava on the inside. The crust stays crisp. It's got that little sugar that browns on the outside. I love it. It's so good.

• 7:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  Speaking of like soft serve, because that's also a fast food staple, let's take it into our fork it or forget it. Are you ready, Joe?

• 7:45Joe Flamm?

  I'm ready. What do you got for me today?

• 7:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay. So, speaking of soft serve, this week I have seen something that is blowing my mind. And I want to get your opinion on it. So fork it, you like it, forget it, kick it to the curb. From Dominique Ansel, the creative, the creative mind behind the cronut. This is the guy who went viral for creating the cronut and had lines stretching for hours in New York for like several years, people trying to get this cronut. His new thing at his new bakery that he has is a soft serve dipped in melted butter sprinkled with flaky salt. And it's like good French butter, too. So you have that beautiful swirled soft serve vanilla cone.

• 8:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  Dip it in a vat of melted fricking delicious French butter. It's probably like 88% fat. And then sprinkle it with some salt. Fork it or forget it, Joe.

• 8:47Joe Flamm?

  You know, like, it's like reminiscent of, you know, like, where I grew up, like, we didn't have, like Dairy Queens, we only had Tasty Freeze. And like, you'd go to Tasty Freeze and they would do, you could do a dip cone, and they would dip it in the chocolate, and then it would be covered in like, an amount of sprinkles that seems, you know, physically impossible to put on anything.

• 9:10Joe Flamm?

  And I was a fan of those. I like those.

• 9:15Joe Flamm?

  I want to forget it. I really do. And you know what I mean? It goes against all my midwestern core values of, you know, putting butter on things that don't need them whatsoever.

• 9:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  Everything needs butter.

• 9:28Joe Flamm?

  But this is, this is the thing that's drawn me back in where it's like, I would try it. Like, I don't want to have anyone like, watch me try it. You know what I mean? Like, I just, like, I don't want someone to watch me eat a butter ice cream cone and just be like, oh my god, like, you're a piece of shit. Like, it's like, no.

• 9:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  It feels shameful, like, you should put a curtain over your head.

• 9:50Joe Flamm?

  Right, right. Like, I would rather smoke a cigarette in church than eat that in front of, like, you know, to be in a group of people, like, a group of 14-year-old girls just, like, destroying me for eating a fucking butter ice cream cone.

• 10:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, like, oh, look at him.

• 10:04Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. But this is the thing that's drawn me. So, our friend, Missy Robbins, she does the soft serve at Lilia. She calls the Italian job. And it's soft serve with a good glug of really good olive oil.

• 10:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  Olive oil, yes.

• 10:21Joe Flamm?

  Flaky sea salt, a little bit of honey and fennel pollen. And it's like, it's crazy good.

• 10:28Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 10:28Joe Flamm?

  So it's like, in that vein, in that vein, I'm like, it makes sense. But like, the olive oil has that little bit, that green, that green that, that like, cuts through. So it's just like, I have a hard time not thinking that it's gonna be like, super one note. And it's just gonna be like rich and rich and rich.

• 10:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  But French butter does have like a little more dimension to it. It's got that kind of like, it's not as grassy as olive oil, but it does have like a little, it's not just like fat. It's got a little flavor behind it.

• 11:00Joe Flamm?

  Stop it. Stop trying to compare French butter to olive oil.

• 11:05Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm not. I'm just saying that it's not as flat as like, we're not dipping it in country crock here. You know, it's like we're dipping it in a butter that has like a little bit of like, hey, you know, it's got a little bit of flavor to it. It's not just like.

• 11:19Joe Flamm?

  It's got a little bit of flavor to it, but it's still butter. It's not olive oil. There's not depth there.

• 11:24Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm gonna go downtown and try this bad boy one day.

• 11:26Joe Flamm?

  You know what? It's your birthday. Go down. I want you to go down there today. Tell Dominique Ansel to put a candle in it for you. And I want you to eat one of those. I want you to eat one of those in public and tell me how you feel.

• 11:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  My only concern with that is that when butter, you know, when it, that it's gonna get grainy after it's melted and then sets on the cold soft serve. And then you're eating it like, will the butter texture be grainy or does it stay smooth? Cause you know, sometimes when you melt butter and it starts to separate, you get some of that like graininess when the butter, you know, is like the butter's fat.

• 12:02Joe Flamm?

  I would assume it's clarified.

• 12:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  And the milk solids are separating. I would, I would hope so, but I couldn't tell from the video I saw. It looked like it was still, you know, milk fat and, or sorry, yeah, the fat and like the milk solids still in there. It looked like that. It didn't have that clarified look. It still looked emulsified.

• 12:19Joe Flamm?

  I think I'm out. I think I'm forgetting it. And I don't know if it's just part of me where it's like, maybe I'm just afraid to try it. Like, you know what I mean? I feel the way about this. I feel about cocaine. Like I've never done it because I'm like scared I would like it too much. And you know what I mean? Like this would be another thing that would just kill me.

• 12:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's a valid concern. Yeah, I don't know. I'm, I think it's a great idea and I'm here for it. I'm forking it.

• 12:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  But let's get into line check and this is a chef's giving addition. You know, it's the Thanksgiving holiday is coming up. We've got a different perspective than a lot of people because we cook for a living. And Thanksgiving is about cooking and eating. So it's kind of like taking your work home with you, but it's kind of not because you're with family. It's a different vibe, but I have rarely ever had a Thanksgiving off. And I'm curious, Joe, are your restaurants open on Thanksgiving? Do you work Thanksgiving? What are your Thanksgivings like?

• 13:24Joe Flamm?

  No. So yeah, you told me this the other day that you, you have it. You're like, oh, you probably work Thanksgiving. And I was like, I've worked, I've worked one Thanksgiving in the last 20 years of cooking. Like my restaurants are all closed for Thanksgiving. The only time I worked it is I worked at a private club. I worked at the university club and we did Thanksgiving for like 800 people. And I remember filling up a million of those, you know, the foil ramekins or like a four ounce ramekin. And like having to spray like, like my prep list was like make 1,200 portions of stuffing. And it was like mixing the stuffing and then jamming them in all the little ramekins and baking them.

• 14:05Joe Flamm?

  And it was like, I was, and it was like one task where it was like four and a half hours of work.

• 14:10Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. Cause you have to do 800 of them. First you have to spray each individual little tin.

• 14:15Joe Flamm?

  How long it takes to just stack all the tins on sheet trays? It's like, that was like an hour. It was like an hour and then you'd like knock five off of them. And you're like, I hate everything about life. Um, but typically what we do in my family is we go to, uh, we go to my grandma's house. For us, it was always, you know, our Thanksgiving tradition is always ravioli. Like we, we have turkey and like all the normal stuff, but we always have ravioli too. So like when we were little, you know, we'd always have ravioli day, which would be like a month before. And we'd all go to my grandma's house and we'd make all the ravioli for ravioli day. And so, you know, when I was little, it used to be Columbus day was always the day off. So we all had it off and you know, we do it on that Monday.

• 14:59Joe Flamm?

  We still do it, you know, ravioli day is actually Sunday. Uh, so I just ordered all the stuff for it. So it's like, it's still, you know, a thing and it's, you know, One of my favorite things about it is my grandma keeps really great notes and she has these books where she writes that go back to the eighties and even before that and it's notes for all the holidays of like, okay, we started at this time. This is everybody who showed up. Like if you show up late, it would be like, Adrian said she was

• 15:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  Grandma Mary's taking attendance.

• 15:36Joe Flamm?

  It would be Adrian said she was gonna be here at ten. She did not arrive until ten fifteen, you know, and like if it was like, like, let's say it was the first year you brought Steven around, like, it would be like she brought, you know, and it wouldn't even be like her boyfriend. It would be like, he wouldn't even get that like connotation yet. It would be like she brought her friend Steven, who helped out and there'd probably be notes on what kind of helper he was.

• 16:00Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? It's like, oh, he was a good helper, whatever. But it's, it's super helpful because like my aunt just sent me the ones from last year because we put notes in at the end of like, oh, we should have got five more pounds of flour. We needed more parsley. We ran out of wax paper and like all these things, right? And then it also notes, you know, okay, last year we made two hundred and fifty five cheese. We made two hundred and fifty meat because we had, I think last year was like a smaller Thanksgiving. So I think we only had like forty of us. Yeah, this year's, this year's a pretty small Thanksgiving too. I think we're like forty.

• 16:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  What in the world?

• 16:37Joe Flamm?

  The big Thanksgiving.

• 16:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  You guys are like a small village.

• 16:39Joe Flamm?

  I mean, we had, we had big, we had big Christmas Eve last year. There was seventy two people there, I think.

• 16:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Damn, in one house?

• 16:47Joe Flamm?

  In one room.

• 16:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, dear, sweet baby Jesus.

• 16:51Joe Flamm?

  In one room. I don't know if you've ever seen the video I've posted of the table at my grandma's house and it goes around in the square around this crazy fireplace. And it's like,

• 16:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh.

• 17:00Joe Flamm?

  My grandma's kitchen is about the size of a desk, but her living room is, you could seat, you could seat, we could sit, I would bet ninety in there.

• 17:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  Wow.

• 17:11Joe Flamm?

  Because it's like that old school, like mid-century, like they built it to entertain. Like that was like the whole, you know, I mean, that era of like you entertained at your home. So it's like, it's a crazy weird setup, like in Oak Lawn, you know what I mean? On the southwest suburbs, we have the long. Buffet and everybody lines up and when you have that many people, there's obviously rules. So it was always was that like when I was a kid, how it worked was the men went up first. Then the women, it comes around, it comes around.

• 17:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 17:43Joe Flamm?

  Everybody always has that same response. And this is why the men went, then the women went, then the kids went in age order.

• 17:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  Ah.

• 17:55Joe Flamm?

  And that's first or youngest first. Oldest first. And so, you know, and then the youngest ate last. Now, as dinner was over, the men would get up, clear the plates and the men would do the dishes. So that's why they ate first.

• 18:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  Ah, I see. Okay.

• 18:11Joe Flamm?

  So they got to eat first because they were going to be the ones washing dishes at the end of the meal. Like everybody had a rule. But you know, I think it's one of those things, you know, as a chef, people are always like, oh, do you have to cook for Thanksgiving? It's like, yeah, but that's not like, it's not work cooking. And it's also like, I love it because one, it's like, I get to cook now, it's like being, you know, the age I am. It's like, I get to cook with my cousins who are mostly younger than me. And that's super fun. None of them cook professionally. You know what I mean? They're, you know, a bunch of 30 year olds, they're lawyers and engineers. And you know what I mean? They do all sorts of things. And then, you know, for two days a year, they're my sous chefs.

• 18:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Ah, that is so cool.

• 18:52Joe Flamm?

  And it's really fun because it's kind of the same ones usually who help me out. And so like, I really look forward to it. And it's like, I also like doing the cooking because like, I have fun with it and it doesn't stress me out. And when like I watch, you know, like my aunts do it over the years and stuff. It's like, they'd be like all stressed out and like freaking out. It's like, no, it shouldn't be this. Like if I do it, it's not stressful. It's fun. So I think like, that's why you'll be like, oh, it stinks. You gotta cook on your day off. It's like, no, I love it.

• 19:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 19:18Joe Flamm?

  I love it. It's like, it's so different.

• 19:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  I've probably had two Thanksgivings, maybe three off in the past 20 years in restaurants. Like, I don't know, maybe it's because New York rents are so damn high that restaurants are not gonna forego making money on a holiday because Thanksgivings in New York tend to be pretty busy at restaurants, too.

• 19:39Joe Flamm?

  Really? Like, a lot of people go out?

• 19:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, surprisingly. It's crazy. You have a lot of tourists who are in town randomly, like from other countries where Thanksgiving isn't a thing.

• 19:50Joe Flamm?

  Oh, yeah, sure.

• 19:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  And then you have people.

• 19:51Joe Flamm?

  I guess I never thought about that. If you're just like in town.

• 19:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, New York is a transient kind of town. It's so weird, and especially doing private work. I'm cooking for my client on Thanksgiving.

• 20:01Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 20:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  So it's not a day that I typically have off. But the few holidays I have had off, one time I did go home. And, well, actually, I went to my mom. She lives in Orlando, so we went to her place. And, you know, we'll do like a prime rib roast, butterfly it, put this like mixture of garlic and parsley and herbs and stuff inside, roll it back up, roast it on the bone, do a ton of sides. And it's just fun to cook like with my mom because she always did a ton of cooking growing up. So it's so cool to like, it doesn't feel like work cooking. And I always tell people, I'm like, you're probably a better cook, Mom. Like, you're amazing. So like, I'll cut all of your ingredients. I'll do all the knife

• 20:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  work. I'm your sous chef. Like, I will do all your knife work. I will gather all your ingredients and set you up for success, but you're executing all of this. And I'll also pour wine as we're going along. I'll make coffee. But like, you're cooking. I'm just setting you up. And then another Thanksgiving that I had off one year, one of the Psalms from La Bernardin hosted, and it was incredible. His rule, though, was the cooks and the chefs bring wine, and the Psalms have to bring food.

• 21:14Joe Flamm?

  Oh, I love that.

• 21:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  So everybody in their little New York apartment, all you had to do was cook one dish. That's fine. You've got space for that. Bring it to the Psalms' house. And we got to like, get a crash course in wine, because obviously you don't want to bring a shitty bottle of wine to like.

• 21:30Joe Flamm?

  Right, right. You're not showing up with a, with a, yeah, yeah, with a, with a big ass bottle of Barefoot, like, yo.

• 21:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Exactly.

• 21:35Joe Flamm?

  Kitchen's here.

• 21:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. You know, exactly. Not a knock on Barefoot, but I am not bringing that to a party that Aldo Psalm is going to be at.

• 21:44Joe Flamm?

  I have a hot take on that is that I think as far as front of the house people go, Psalms and bartenders are the best cooks on the front of the house.

• 21:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh.

• 21:53Joe Flamm?

  And that's gonna make some people upset.

• 21:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  I agree with that.

• 21:56Joe Flamm?

  But like, I think they are, especially like, I've met a lot of Psalms who are really good cooks. They're really good cooks. They stress out about it because they're Psalms and it's like, that's, you know what I mean? They stress out about taking a cork out of a bottle. But like, you know, it's a, they like really stress out of, but they like, like the process and like the whole thing.

• 22:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  And they're so in tune with the like, the aromas and the textures and the, the flavor profiles and balancing. They're, they're naturally tuned into that stuff.

• 22:25Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, but I've met a lot of the Psalms I've worked with over the years have been really, really good cooks. And so like Psalm, we, I remember at Spiaja, I pitched it in her one time that we never got together, but it's like, I wanted Psalms because I had said this and I was like, I wanted Psalms to each do a course. And it was like, basically like your Thanksgiving. And it's like, you know, like we would execute it for them, but like they would each come up with a dish and, and then having their corresponding chefs from those restaurants come in.

• 22:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, cool.

• 22:54Joe Flamm?

  And, and do a pairing.

• 22:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, that would be really dope.

• 22:58Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, but we never pulled it off. But yeah, so I'm, I'm, I'm in with that. But yeah, you know, for us, it's, you know, like, it, it is still really traditional. And it's funny, you know, because it's like, running my grandma's kitchen. And it's like, I've been cooking with my grandma forever. But like, really when I was in like college, I started kind of taking it over. You know what I mean? Cause at that time, I felt like I was like, oh, my grandma's getting older. Like, you know, she needs my help. And this was 20 years ago and my grandma's still cooking. You know what I mean? Like, but now she just kind of, you know, she'll put her apron on and she'll like sit down and, you know, have a glass of wine and, you know, check a chicken with her, tell her what's going on. But it's funny because it's like, you know, I still got all my aunts there. And it's still every year, no matter what.

• 23:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 23:41Joe Flamm?

  I do this professionally. I'm not saying I'm the best chef in the world. I'm not saying I'm a three Michelin star chef or any of that. I'm saying, this is the thing I know most about of all the things I know about in my life. Right?

• 23:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep. I will streamline the fuck out of this process.

• 23:58Joe Flamm?

  Without fail, every year, at least. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you 10 times on Sunday, Adrian.

• 24:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep.

• 24:04Joe Flamm?

  They're gonna be like, are you sure this is the way we do it? And I'm gonna be like, yes, yes, I am sure. I don't think we do it this way.

• 24:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  Been running it for 20 years.

• 24:12Joe Flamm?

  I, I don't think we do it this way. I think we cut the spinach, then we cook it. It's like, there's no fucking way we do that. That's an insane way to do that. Nobody does it. We're not gonna shift a nod, three cases of spinach to wilt it down to make ravioli filling. Like, I don't know. I think maybe we should ask grandma. And it's like, I don't need to ask grandma. You know what I mean? Like, I, I know what, how this should work, like.

• 24:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  Like, trust me, I got it.

• 24:39Joe Flamm?

  As much as I might feel like, you know, it's like, I run kitchens and I do these things. It's like, that all goes out the window the second I back in my grandmother's kitchen. I got my aunts, you know, to be giving me the business.

• 24:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  They're like, I don't know, little Joe.

• 24:51Joe Flamm?

  They're like, I don't know. I don't know if you know what you're talking about. Like, this is, uh, well, let's see if it works out. It's like, it's gonna work out.

• 24:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  I kind of miss that. Like, my mom's family, so my mom and dad both come from very big families. And my mom comes from 12, six boys, six girls. She grew up in Rogers Park and they had these like great Thanksgiving traditions that I loved. And I miss it so much because now that my grandfather's passed away, like, we don't have that home base in the same kind of way as when we were growing up. Like, you know, we'll get together at like an aunt's house or an uncle's house, but everybody's kind of spread out now. And when I was little, there were two things that I've realized, not everybody does, but I thought were totally normal growing up. One was the hors d'oeuvre that my mom's family does called hanky pankies.

• 25:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  And this is a true example of like processed food at its finest. And this was pumpernickel party bread, like those little pumpernickel squares that you buy.

• 25:52Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, oh yeah. I'm familiar.

• 25:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  Cut them into triangles, lay them out on a tray. In a big saute pan, you brown off like spicy Italian sausage or like spicy Jimmy Dean sausage. And then you hit it with about a half a block of Velveeta cheese.

• 26:08Joe Flamm?

  All right, I just want to throw this out there. Those are wildly fucking different things that you just mentioned of an either or.

• 26:16Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, the sausage?

• 26:17Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 26:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 26:19Joe Flamm?

  Italian sausage or breakfast sausage is like, I'm sorry.

• 26:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Well, Jimmy Dean had a spicy, it's less breakfasty. They had this other

• 26:25Joe Flamm?

  Oh, okay.

• 26:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  sausage that you squeeze out. So it's not the like sage and, and kind of breakfast flavor profile. They made a spicy sausage. So it was, it wasn't like breakfast sausage in that way.

• 26:36Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 26:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  But it was, it was delicious. And then you, you cook it, you get the Velveeta melted in and then you scoop it and put it on top of the party bread. And toast them in the oven. When I tell you that hors d'oeuvre is something that I have, I miss so much. One of my cousins finally remade it a few years ago around Christmas. And everybody like lost their fricking minds. She brought this tray. Oh, my God. My cousin Melissa was like, hey, guys, I made hanky panky's. We were all like, what?

• 27:05Joe Flamm?

  You're the greatest chef in the family.

• 27:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  And then the other thing that my mom's family would do, which I loved, was everybody would be sitting around the table. There was, you know, 12 brothers and sisters, plus their spouses. And then the kids would be at like the kids table that was set up in the living room. And all the food is out, kind of family style. You have to like reach over people and fight for what you want because it's, you know, it's like pure savagery at the dinner table there. And then one of my uncles would pull the popovers out of the oven in the kitchen. After we said grace, then he would go get the popovers out of the ovens while they're super fresh, super hot. And he would stand in the doorway and just throw them at you. And

• 27:48Joe Flamm?

  That's awesome.

• 27:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  You, you would have to catch it and it would be so hot. You're like, hot potato, hot potato. You're playing.

• 27:55Joe Flamm?

  That's awesome.

• 27:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Man, I miss that. That was like, that's, to me, that is like the ideal Thanksgiving. But yeah, since I've been an adult, I've just been working for Thanksgiving.

• 28:04Joe Flamm?

  Yep. For us, it was like, you know, we have always had ravioli at Thanksgiving. You know, when I was little, I just assumed everyone had ravioli at Thanksgiving. And then I realized that that was, that was a really unique thing that we were, you know, making pasta and getting together and doing that. And I just assumed that's what everyone was doing. Then realized they weren't. But then the other one on my Irish side, my dad's mom. Used to make this absolutely unhinged thing. That's like one of those things where you like, you see those old cookbooks and you're like, nobody made this.

• 28:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 28:32Joe Flamm?

  But it was, it was orange Jell-O.

• 28:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, the Jell-O molds.

• 28:37Joe Flamm?

  That would go in a bowl. It was a bowl of Jell-O. She had a special bowl for it. It was like a glass bowl.

• 28:42Adrienne Cheatham?

  Was it porcelain?

• 28:44Joe Flamm?

  No, it was like a weird, like brown glass press bowl, right? And then it had a separate little bowl attached to the top of it, but it was orange Jell-O and I'm a Jell-O fan. However, she would cut cabbage and carrots and those would go inside of the Jell-O. So the Jell-O would be set with carrots and cabbage in it.

• 29:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Orange flavored Jell-O.

• 29:08Joe Flamm?

  Yes, that's correct.

• 29:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  Citrus, sweet.

• 29:11Joe Flamm?

  Yes.

• 29:12Adrienne Cheatham?

  Was the cabbage cooked?

• 29:14Joe Flamm?

  No, no, no, no, no, no. It's just, it's only cooked by the

• 29:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  By the heat of the hot Jell-O.

• 29:21Joe Flamm?

  Process, if you will. So the pour over, so

• 29:28Joe Flamm?

  so this would set in the Jell-O and then here's the kicker. The little dish that I mentioned on top of the bowl, that was for you would take mayonnaise and put a bunch of sugar into it.

• 29:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  No.

• 29:41Joe Flamm?

  And with

• 29:42Adrienne Cheatham?

  No.

• 29:42Joe Flamm?

  Whip that together, you'd sweeten that bad boy up. You'd put that in the little bowl and so you'd have a scoop of Jell-O and you'd throw sweet mayonnaise on top of it.

• 29:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  What in the 1952 good housekeeping was this?

• 29:55Joe Flamm?

  And it's like, I can picture it like viscerally and like in my grandma's old kitchen, um, you know, like, like 80th and Central Park where it's like

• 30:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my God.

• 30:05Joe Flamm?

  And she had this tiny kitchen where it's like the washer and dryer were also in her kitchen. So like when she had parties, like stuff would go on top of the washer or dryer. So I could just like picture this Jell-O bowl in my head, sitting on top of her dryer.

• 30:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Did you ever try it?

• 30:20Joe Flamm?

  Um, I would try to like eat just the Jell-O without the vegetables in it.

• 30:24Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 30:25Joe Flamm?

  Which would always lead to me getting yelled at. So like, oh, if you're not gonna eat it, don't eat it. And like my dad and all his, my dad's, you know, he's one of six and him and all his siblings loved it. They would eat it.

• 30:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my God.

• 30:37Joe Flamm?

  They were like, you know, and I remember my dad at one point being like, I can't believe nobody makes it anymore. And I was like, no one should make that ever again. Like it should be illegal.

• 30:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Nobody should have ever made it.

• 30:46Joe Flamm?

  Should be illegal.

• 30:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  So wait, wait, wait. This is the same side of the family that did the Graham crackers and country crock also, right?

• 30:54Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 30:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  We talked about on another episode.

• 30:55Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 30:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 30:57Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 30:57Adrienne Cheatham?

  Just, just, that tracks.

• 30:58Joe Flamm?

  That's, that's, that's how, that's how we roll in Ashburn, baby.

• 31:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is hilarious. And I do love to talk to chefs and find out like Thanksgiving traditions that we have with our families, but also like work traditions. A lot of us work Thanksgiving, but a lot of us don't. And I forget that some people are actually off on Thanksgiving. I will, um, most likely be working this Thanksgiving.

• 31:20Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. I mean, we always do like a cooks giving for our crew. We usually do that, um, like the day before or a couple of days before where for staff meal, my chefs and my sous chefs will all break it up and they'll all do a dish. And it's been really great. We did it back at Spiaja at the day. And, um, you know, now we do it at all the restaurants, but it's like, and my chefs go like super hard on it. Like they like really want to make the best turkey. They really want to make the best stuffing, cookies, all of it. You know, we usually open a couple of bottles of wine. So everybody has like a glass of wine at, you know, staff meal if they want one. And it's like, people come in, even if they're not working, uh, and they'll come sit. And it's just like, it's one of my favorite traditions we do because I'm like,

• 32:04Joe Flamm?

  you know, some of these people, you know, they aren't going home. You know what I mean? It's only one day. So if like you're not from Chicago, you know what I mean? Like you might not go back to Iowa. You might not go back to Minnesota or Ohio or wherever. So it's nice to be like, hey, like, at least you like sit and have that Thanksgiving meal.

• 32:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. And it's like, that's your adopted family. That's like your chosen family. So it's still like, you know, the chef's giving, but it's, it is still like a family holiday and you're still spending it with family.

• 32:33Joe Flamm?

  And the foods, I mean, like, oh, these chefs go so hard. It's so good.

• 32:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 32:38Joe Flamm?

  It's so.

• 32:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Cause you really want to like impress each other.

• 32:41Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 32:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Like you want to show people like, I did this for you and it's fucking good.

• 32:46Joe Flamm?

  Well, especially like at Rosemary, we've been doing it for four and a half years. It's like every year, it's like the chef trying to top the turkey from last year, especially if there's a different chef the year before them who cooked the turkey. They're like, oh no, this has to be the best one. So it was like, it's, it's like a turkey arms race and it's fucking awesome.

• 33:05Adrienne Cheatham?

  I love that. My husband usually cooks the turkey and I'm mad I'm gonna miss it this year. When he does turkey, like he tries to, like you said, like improve on it every year. And since he's from New Orleans, there's like a ton of trinity around the turkey. So it's like super aromatic.

• 33:19Joe Flamm?

  Little Tony sachets all over the bird.

• 33:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Little Tony sachets inside, outside, under the skin. Start it breast down, flip it so it gets color. Oh my God. Man does a good turkey.

• 33:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  You know what, Joe? Let's take it to walk in confession. And I think I'm up this week. Is that right?

• 33:40Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. And I feel like we all know, working holidays and restaurants, it arises for the greatest potential for things to go absolutely tits up. There's something about holiday, it doesn't matter the holiday, it could be Flag Day. And it is like, things are gonna be weird. Things are gonna be weird because it's, you know, Arbor Day. You know what I mean? Like, like something, it just, there's something about holidays and restaurants where it's like, this is either gonna be one of those services that was the most fun, or one of those services where you're like, I'm not gonna be ready to talk about this for a while.

• 34:16Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, yeah. And I've had a few of those. And the most memorable one, I think, was when I was at Red Rooster. We're projecting sales for Thanksgiving based on the last couple of years. So how much we're ordering, how much collard greens we're making, how much mac and cheese. And those are things that are normally on the menu anyway. So we're just bulking up on what we're already doing. But there are some things like cranberry sauce, and dressing, and turkey, that are not typically on the menu. So we're bringing those things in just for Thanksgiving. And then after Thanksgiving, we're not really gonna run Thanksgiving plates through the whole weekend, because people are like, oh,

• 34:57Adrienne Cheatham?

  you're feeding me leftovers now. It doesn't go over too well with customers. So this one year, we're like, okay, last year, we did 300, 375 portions of Thanksgiving plates and sold like 90% of it. Great. Okay, so this year, I don't know, should we project for 400 and order and prep for that? Or should we, you know, play it a little safe and prep for 300? And then if we run out, we run out. But at least we've sold all of it that we spent money on, and we're not losing. I want to say we maybe sold 150. When I tell you it was, it was, it was a bloodbath.

• 35:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Like it was not as busy as it had been for previous Thanksgivings. So we way overprepped, we way overordered. And a lot of this stuff again, isn't normally on the menu. So what are we gonna do?

• 35:51Joe Flamm?

  You have 150 orders of turkey extra.

• 35:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  Exactly. And it's like the braised legs, like, okay, fine. We can use it for staff meal for a couple of days or we can run a special. But turkey breast, after they've been roasted and then carved and sliced. And we've got all the gravy and all like, we can't do too much with it. So I would get a couple of, of sous chefs and I'd be like, hey, you know, help me pack up a bunch of to go boxes. And then after work on Friday, I would always take the leftovers to Penn Station and pass them out to homeless people in Penn Station because it's indoors. A lot of people, when it's cold in New York, will sleep in train stations. So I'm like, great, I can even hit the subway lines that connect to Penn.

• 36:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  I've got my big cart with, I mean, I had no less than like 80 boxes full too. Like good, good sized portions. So I'm passing them out.

• 36:43Joe Flamm?

  Just out there doing, doing the good work.

• 36:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, right. You know, my mom used to make us volunteer on Thanksgiving sometimes. So I'm like, you know, I'm, I'm keeping Susan's tradition alive. I'm passing them out, leaving them next to people who are sleeping. This one guy, I passed him, I was like, hey, sir, do you want, you know, some, some Thanksgiving dinner? He was like, what the fuck are you doing?

• 37:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  I was like, I have some food. Do you want some food for Thanksgiving? He was like, if you don't get that fucking box out of my face. And then I'm like, oh, okay, sir, I can just leave it. I can just leave it right here next to you on the bench. And he picked up the box and he was about to like throw it at me and he was like, shove it up your ass. And like hurled it at me as I'm running down the subway platform to get away from him.

• 37:30Joe Flamm?

  Happy Thanksgiving.

• 37:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. I'm like trying not to lose my cart.

• 37:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm like, happy Thanksgiving to you too, sir.

• 37:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  I was like, uh, okay, let me rethink my strategy for next year.

• 37:45Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, that's awesome.

• 37:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, yeah, that was my, uh, my, my walk in confession Thanksgiving story. I don't even tell people.

• 37:54Joe Flamm?

  No, no, no, no good deed. And that's one of those ones too, where it's like you come back from that and then it was like, oh, that was so nice. You did that. And you're like, yeah.

• 38:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 38:03Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, yeah, it was kind of.

• 38:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Until I got a box thrown at me and got cursed out.

• 38:12Joe Flamm?

  I saw a guy throw a bagel at a girl one time and I was like, like on Michigan Avenue. He was like, asking for stuff and she's like, oh, I have a bagel. I have a bagel. And I remember this guy goes, he looked at it. He just goes, a fucking bagel? It turns around and threw the bagel at the girl. I was like, holy shit.

• 38:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh my God, that is hilarious. Well, you know what, Joe? We got a couple of minutes left. So how about we do a little Thanksgiving turn and burn?

• 38:40Joe Flamm?

  Ooh, a little teasy and beasy? Let's go.

• 38:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  I like it. You up for it?

• 38:46Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. You want to go a little, little, little back and forth, a little one, one V one?

• 38:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Let's do a little tit for tat on this one. You go, I go. How about that?

• 38:54Joe Flamm?

  All right. Well, you're a birthday girl, so I think you can go first.

• 38:57Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay, okay. So for your Thanksgiving, when it comes to like certain dishes, are you traditional or are you experimenting on Thanksgiving?

• 39:08Joe Flamm?

  Uh, traditional.

• 39:10Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 39:11Joe Flamm?

  It's, it's grandma's house, grandma's rules.

• 39:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  I agree. Good call. Don't want to mess that up.

• 39:18Joe Flamm?

  We do not, we do not stray from the right hand of the Lord on Thanksgiving.

• 39:24Joe Flamm?

  All right. So my number one for you, H, green bean casserole or roasted Brussels?

• 39:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, green bean casserole.

• 39:33Joe Flamm?

  Crispy French onions on top?

• 39:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. And are we using the Campbell's cream of mushroom soup in this?

• 39:41Joe Flamm?

  I don't know any other way to make it.

• 39:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay, good.

• 39:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  Perfect. All right, Joe. When it comes to the turkey, are you going turkey breast or leg or thigh?

• 39:55Joe Flamm?

  Oh, dark meat all day thigh.

• 39:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 39:58Joe Flamm?

  And I'm always the one carving the turkeys. So it's like, I'm picking that oyster. I'm taking, I'm taking the chef's cuts, if you will.

• 40:09Joe Flamm?

  I got my little picks in and out of there, you know?

• 40:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  Hell, yeah.

• 40:13Joe Flamm?

  All right. Number two for you.

• 40:16Joe Flamm?

  When it comes to cranberry sauce, are you a canned jelly cranberry girl? Or like a fresh homemade whole cranberries in the sauce?

• 40:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  I always make my cranberry sauce, but I always have the can. You can't not have the can.

• 40:33Joe Flamm?

  Can't not have the can.

• 40:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  But yes, I always make it.

• 40:35Joe Flamm?

  I love them both. I love them both. Like my one aunt makes like four different fresh cranberry sauces and they're all awesome. Like she makes one with horseradish, one with orange. They're all so good.

• 40:47Joe Flamm?

  But then I'm, I'm loading up the, the jelly too. Like

• 40:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep.

• 40:50Joe Flamm?

  Still the shape, still the shape of the can, like

• 40:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  You still got the ridges from the can? I want a slice of that and then I'll put my homemade on top.

• 40:58Joe Flamm?

  I could eat a can of that with a spoon. Like I'm not proud of it, but

• 41:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  It's no shame.

• 41:06Joe Flamm?

  But that's my truth. That's my truth.

• 41:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm here for it. I'm with you on that. Okay. My last question for you, Joe Flamm. Are you team stuffing or dressing? And for anybody who's not familiar with this, stuffing is when you put the same bread, cubed toasted mixture with your aromatics, maybe sausage in it, inside the turkey and cook the turkey with the stuffing in the cavity. Dressing is when you put that on the side and bake it in the oven separately from the turkey.

• 41:38Joe Flamm?

  Is that true?

• 41:39Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah. Yeah. Stuffing versus dressing.

• 41:41Joe Flamm?

  I just thought it was like dressing was like a weird like southern thing. It was like, oh, we make dressing.

• 41:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  No, it's

• 41:46Joe Flamm?

  You know, like

• 41:49Joe Flamm?

  I've today years old learned that.

• 41:52Adrienne Cheatham?

  What?

• 41:53Joe Flamm?

  Never heard that before. I just thought it was just like two different ways of saying it like, you know, it's like so we're like stuffing. We're not saying dressing.

• 42:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  No, dressing is when you bake it separately from the turkey.

• 42:04Joe Flamm?

  Hmm. I don't know. I will say

• 42:10Joe Flamm?

  the the separate, the the the dressing then I suppose because it's like I like the the combo of like that soft squishing interior, but I like the crunchy. So it's like, I like that crunchy top you get when you bake it in the oven. It's the one on the side like I like the idea of it in the turkey. But it's like, it's all mush.

• 42:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  Exactly. And you've got to overcook the turkey breast to get it hot.

• 42:35Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. So I

• 42:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  I've never understood that.

• 42:37Joe Flamm?

  I I don't stuff my turkeys. I just stuff it with aromatics. I

• 42:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  Exactly.

• 42:41Joe Flamm?

  Lemons, thyme, garlic, onion.

• 42:45Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean?

• 42:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Bailey's.

• 42:46Joe Flamm?

  That kind of stuff. Yeah, Bailey, of course.

• 42:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 42:50Joe Flamm?

  Um, but yeah, no, it's it's I like the one on the side because then it's like you got the textures to it. You know what I mean? You always got that one cousin who's a fucking vegetarian. So, you know, you got to deal with that.

• 43:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right?

• 43:04Joe Flamm?

  Okay, so my last one for you.

• 43:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Mm hmm.

• 43:08Joe Flamm?

  And you can only choose one on this one.

• 43:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  Uh oh.

• 43:11Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. Mashed potato or sweet potato?

• 43:16Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh.

• 43:17Joe Flamm?

  Any to any anyway.

• 43:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Cooked.

• 43:18Joe Flamm?

  Anyway, you want, anyway, you want, you give candy candy yam type situation. You could have the marshmallows ripping over the top. You could have mashed sweet potato even.

• 43:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, man. Oh, that's hard, Joe, because I love mashed potato. I'm a mashed potato fiend. I always have been a mashed potato sandwich. As my second go round after my first plate is a is a classic move of mine, even at La Verena Den, I would put mashed potatoes on a Parker House roll, and it reminded me of Thanksgiving. There's just something about mashed potatoes. Oh, it just, oh, that's like my ultimate comfort food, but sweet potatoes I love also. Why are you? It's like Sophie's Choice here. Ah.

• 44:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  How can you put me in this position?

• 44:08Joe Flamm?

  I gotta say, I gotta say for me, it's, it's easy and it's not close, honestly. But it's an unpopular, no.

• 44:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, sweet potatoes?

• 44:17Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, mashed potatoes, like honestly, do nothing for me.

• 44:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my God.

• 44:21Joe Flamm?

  I eat them because they're there, you know what I mean? And I like, I make the gravy, so the gravy's pretty good, I think.

• 44:28Joe Flamm?

  But I, sweet potatoes all day. Like, I like a little, so like my, my like leftover sandwich, like turkey, cranberry, the jelly cranberries are superior for the leftover sandwich. I like a little bit of stuffing on there, a little bit of sweet potato smear on there.

• 44:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh.

• 44:46Joe Flamm?

  Little Duke's mayonnaise.

• 44:48Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, nice. Duke's mayonnaise with sugar stirred into it?

• 44:52Joe Flamm?

  No, I do not.

• 45:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  To go with your orange and cabbage?

• 45:02Joe Flamm?

  No, I do not, I do not, I do not put sugar in my mayonnaise for my sandwich.

• 45:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, man, you know what? I might, I might go, oh, fuck my life. I might, I don't know.

• 45:14Joe Flamm?

  You want to go mashed potatoes, but you're afraid.

• 45:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  I do, I do want to go mashed potatoes.

• 45:17Joe Flamm?

  Just say it.

• 45:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  But I can't have Thanksgiving without candied yams.

• 45:20Joe Flamm?

  Person choices ever.

• 45:25Joe Flamm?

  I'll take a raisin roll, some mashed potatoes and our.

• 45:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  Extra hot coffee. Thank you, sweetheart.

• 45:34Joe Flamm?

  Where's my Paul Malls?

• 45:39Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yep, yep, you know, okay, yeah, I'm going, I'm mashed potato. I'm, I can't, I can't deny it. I love mashed potatoes.

• 45:46Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I could not have them. If, if, if nobody else wanted them, I, I just wouldn't have them. It's something, it's like a food I don't even think about.

• 45:52Adrienne Cheatham?

  You think you know somebody.

• 45:54Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, it's just.

• 45:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, with like a good amount of butter. Oh, a little like, oh.

• 45:59Joe Flamm?

  I'll make a mean one, but it's just one of those things where it's like, there's no.

• 46:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  Especially when they're made with Yukon Golds.

• 46:06Joe Flamm?

  Right, but I'm like.

• 46:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Not Idaho potatoes, not Russet.

• 46:09Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. And I'll be like, oh, this is good. Like, I won't, you know, one bite, that's it. Just to be like, oh, this is good. And then I'm good on that. I don't want them.

• 46:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Give me a dinner roll or a pop over. I'm cracking it open. I'm filling it with mashed potatoes. I might even put a little extra pad of butter on it and a sprinkle of salt and that is a sandwich for me.

• 46:27Joe Flamm?

  I literally, the only reason I ever eat mashed potatoes is just to have some gravy.

• 46:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  It's a vessel for gravy.

• 46:35Joe Flamm?

  It's just a gravy, gravy vessel. Also, I will say the combination of raviolis, when they're on the plate, they get a little gravy on them, a little cranberry on them. Delicious.

• 46:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  Mmm.

• 46:47Joe Flamm?

  Super slapdown combo because not a lot of people are doing it, but like a beef pork and veal filled ravioli in tomato sauce.

• 46:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  With a little gravy.

• 46:56Joe Flamm?

  With a little gravy.

• 46:57Adrienne Cheatham?

  You should put that on the menu.

• 46:58Joe Flamm?

  And a little bit of cranberry. Kind of slap.

• 47:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. Start a new genre of sauces. No more tomato based or egg yolk based sauces. Just go gravy.

• 47:06Joe Flamm?

  Gravy based sauces.

• 47:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  I love it. A demi gloss sauce, if you will.

• 47:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  Joe, this has been a true blast and I am so happy to know all of your Thanksgiving traditions now with your family and good for you for being off of work.

• 47:25Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I, I look forward to it. You know, I get to go over to my wife's parents' house first and then I go over to my grandma's and it's just, it's an awesome day. I love, you know, seeing all the family. I love being in my grandma's kitchen. It's just a special place for me, special day. And I love that I got to spend your birthday with you, A.C. Even if I can't be in New York with you and Jackie, at least I got to see your smiling face and you know, be the first one to welcome you into your 50s. So I'm really happy for you.

• 47:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  Not that. I'm old, but I'm not that old.

• 47:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Thank you, Joe. It is always a blast to hang out with you, whether it's my birthday or not. You'll be old soon enough. You'll know what it's like. And then, then we can have mashed potatoes and raisin rolls together.

• 48:11Joe Flamm?

  This rye toast is just hitting.

• 48:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  You're right. You're like, wow, did I miss this for so long?

• 48:17Joe Flamm?

  Wow.

• 48:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  Buttered rye toast with a smear of mashed potato.

• 48:22Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 48:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  Well, everybody, don't forget to subscribe here on YouTube, on Spotify, on Apple, so you don't miss a new drop of The Chef's Cut, which happens every Tuesday. And don't forget to leave a review while you're at it. Helps a lot.

• 48:37Joe Flamm?

  And don't forget to follow us on IG at The Chef's Cut Pod. You can always find me on there at Insta Flam and Adrian on there is Chef Adrian Cheatham as well. Thank you all so much for coming by. For Adrian Cheatham, this is Joe Flamm and this has been The Chef's Cut.

• 48:52Adrienne Cheatham?

  Life beyond the past.