Pod Insights The Sporkful Modern Family’s Ty Burrell Cases Hollywood Parties For Free Food (Reheat) About this episode 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.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:17 Dan 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.
1:59 Dan 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?
2:35 Speaker 01 Should I turn them up?
2:35 Dan Pashman? Well, you should do whatever's comfortable for you. I can deal with the echo. It's more important.
2:38 Speaker 01 How's that?
2:39 Dan 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.
2:46 Speaker 01 Oh, no, that's the kind of conversation I love. Oh, man.
2:50 Dan Pashman? Yeah. Alright, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, Ty. Go.
2:53 Speaker 01 Alright, alright. So, let's, let me take you back a little bit. I was born in 1967.
3:07 Dan Pashman? Today on The Sporkful, I talk with actor Ty Burrell. He plays dad Phil Dunphy on the hit sitcom Modern Family.
3:14 Speaker 01 Was that mom's apron? It's an apron. It's unisex. Some of the world's greatest chefs are men.
3:20 Dan 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.
3:31 Speaker 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.
3:46 Dan 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.
4:07 Dan 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.
4:31 Speaker 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.
4:45 Speaker 02 What's a juice bar?
4:46 Speaker 01 Okay, a malt shop, whatever.
4:48 Dan 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.
5:00 Speaker 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.
5:21 Speaker 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?
5:32 Speaker 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.
5:48 Dan 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.
6:00 Speaker 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.
6:19 Dan 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.
6:25 Speaker 01 Oh, right.
6:26 Dan Pashman? There you go.
6:27 Speaker 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.
6:44 Dan 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?
6:54 Speaker 01 Well, I cook outside.
7:00 Speaker 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.
7:17 Dan Pashman? Is that why you like outside cooking? Because it's sort of like that's your separate area, separate from her area?
7:21 Speaker 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.
7:50 Dan 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.
8:10 Speaker 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.
8:29 Dan Pashman? Well, but you say that, but I feel like your relationship to masculinity in your work
8:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:36 Dan 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?
8:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:48 Dan 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.
9:04 Speaker 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.
9:45 Speaker 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.
9:55 Speaker 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.
10:19 Dan Pashman? Yeah, that, that's like second base.
10:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's second base, exactly.
10:26 Speaker 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?
10:53 Speaker 01 Tell me what you're feeling about this.
10:56 Dan Pashman? I know your dad passed away when you were pretty young.
10:59 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
10:59 Dan Pashman? Is there a food that you associate with him?
11:03 Speaker 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.
11:42 Dan Pashman? When you eat those kinds of foods today, what kinds of, what kinds of memories does it bring up?
11:48 Speaker 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.
12:33 Speaker 01 I hope I'm, you know, a tenth of what he was for my kids.
12:49 Speaker 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.
13:12 Dan Pashman? Right. Cause it doesn't take about three seconds for them to throw it back in your face.
13:15 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So basically every meal, my daughters watched me like a hawk.
13:23 Speaker 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.
13:35 Dan Pashman? There are some actors or performers who say that they feel that they blackout when they're onstage or when they're improvising.
13:41 Speaker 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.
13:54 Speaker 01 I'm riffing on a chicken bone.
13:58 Dan Pashman? But I wonder, has your daughter's desires to bust you for eating too fast caused them to eat slower?
14:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think so. I think we're all involved in sort of a guilt agreement.
14:11 Speaker 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.
14:25 Dan Pashman? A lot of unspoken tensions.
14:27 Speaker 01 A lot of unspoken tension. It's very Remains of the Day at my dinner table.
14:33 Speaker 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.
14:48 Speaker 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.
15:03 Dan Pashman? Right, right. So it's like, kids, you need to stop drinking a whole bottle of whiskey every night.
15:12 Dan Pashman? That's great parenting advice, Ty.
15:14 Speaker 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.
15:25 Dan Pashman? Yeah, well, it sounds like a real parenting win for you, Ty.
15:31 Dan Pashman? When you have little kids, a lot of food is liable to be wasted.
15:36 Speaker 01 Yes.
15:37 Dan Pashman? And I, it's funny, when I was growing up, we nicknamed my father the human garbage disposal.
15:42 Speaker 01 Yep.
15:42 Dan 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?
15:52 Speaker 01 Five and seven, yeah.
15:53 Dan 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?
16:00 Speaker 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.
16:11 Dan Pashman? Now, what about food that they've dropped on the floor?
16:15 Speaker 01 Um, I've never eaten it.
16:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
16:23 Dan 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.
16:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
16:46 Dan Pashman? Well, it might have just been allergies.
16:51 Speaker 01 Yeah, ultimately, it's good for my immune system.
17:01 Dan 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.
17:12 Speaker 01 We found out that if you essentially cut a hole in the wall, the place next to you gets your liquor license.
17:18 Dan Pashman? Plus, I'll give Ty a tip for enjoying yourself when you take your kids out to a restaurant.
17:22 Speaker 01 Oh, oh, this is a life hack.
17:26 Dan Pashman? That's all coming up, stick around.
17:45 Speaker 03 It's time to open up a can of advertisements.
17:50 Dan 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. Start the day strong with Quaker Protein Products. Quaker makes it easy and delicious to get a good source of protein. No matter what the day has in store, Quaker Protein
18:33 Dan Pashman? Products give you a variety of ways to reach your protein goals. Oatmeal, granola, bars, and rice snacks in flavors you already love, like maple and brown sugar, and blueberries and cream. Quaker Protein helps fuel you to start whatever's next. Get your protein with Quaker, available at a store near you. I grew up on Lando Lakes cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lakes American cheese. And now, Lando Lakes cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lakes cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your table. From chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad thai, Lando Lakes has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/reцепes/collection for easy weeknight dinners.
19:27 Dan 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.
20:13 Dan 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.
20:57 Dan 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.
21:10 Speaker 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.
21:44 Dan Pashman? Right.
21:45 Speaker 01 So we actually in Bar X, we actually have some of those old vintage airline bottles that they used to use.
21:52 Dan 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.
21:57 Speaker 01 Right.
21:58 Dan Pashman? Who make people make their own drinks because it's like a throwback to artisanal Utah.
22:03 Speaker 01 Oh, we should, we should. I love that. I think that's such a.
22:08 Dan Pashman? I want you to make a drink like that, Ty, and call it the Zion Curtain.
22:11 Speaker 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.
22:44 Dan Pashman? That's what you call a loophole.
22:46 Speaker 01 It is a true loophole. It's a true loophole.
22:49 Dan Pashman? Connect the whole city.
22:50 Speaker 01 I know.
22:54 Speaker 01 We're just, people are just getting like the wall being drilled by their head.
22:59 Dan Pashman? Sitting in your apartment.
22:59 Speaker 01 You're welcome.
23:00 Dan 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.
23:09 Speaker 01 Goes from miles and miles.
23:11 Dan 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.
23:17 Speaker 01 Nothing but empty glasses come back, by the way.
23:22 Dan 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.
23:32 Speaker 01 It's true.
23:33 Dan Pashman? Tell me about your past hors d'oeuvre strategy.
23:36 Speaker 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.
24:13 Speaker 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.
24:34 Dan Pashman? Don't worry, no one's listening, Ty.
24:35 Speaker 01 Yeah, no one's listening.
24:38 Speaker 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.
24:59 Dan Pashman? Right. And for folks who don't know, craft service is like
25:02 Speaker 01 Oh, sorry, yeah.
25:02 Dan Pashman? the table of food at a TV shoot that like is always piled high with snacks and treats and all sorts of things.
25:10 Speaker 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.
25:31 Dan Pashman? You can't turn down free food, right?
25:32 Speaker 01 I can't, I can't turn down free food.
25:34 Dan 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.
25:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:48 Dan 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?
25:58 Speaker 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.
26:22 Dan Pashman? And, and do you pig out there at the event?
26:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, generally.
26:28 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
26:29 Speaker 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.
26:37 Dan Pashman? One tip I've identified, which I'll share with you and you should feel free to
26:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, please do.
26:40 Dan Pashman? take, take back to Hollywood is, um,
26:42 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:42 Dan Pashman? in, in a past order situation, you want to figure out where the orders are coming from.
26:49 Speaker 01 Okay, find the source.
26:50 Dan 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.
27:01 Speaker 01 This is great.
27:03 Dan Pashman? So you always want to be-
27:04 Speaker 01 This is so useful.
27:05 Dan 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.
27:13 Speaker 01 You're like a bear in a trout stream.
27:18 Speaker 01 You're just hanging over a rock.
27:20 Dan Pashman? Exactly, exactly.
27:22 Speaker 01 Just taking huge swaths, swipes at mushroom-filled tidbits.
27:30 Dan Pashman? You'll know you've done your job well when the servers start trying to find alternate routes out of the kitchen.
27:37 Dan Pashman? So they don't have to pass you.
27:39 Speaker 01 Coming out back first.
27:41 Dan Pashman? Yeah. Hey, where'd that guy with all the lamb shanks go?
27:48 Dan 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.
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30:42 Dan 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?
30:51 Speaker 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.
31:07 Dan Pashman? Oh, I've heard of that. It's in LA, right?
31:09 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's an incredible campus.
31:12 Dan Pashman? I've been, I've been thinking about doing a Sporkful show there.
31:15 Speaker 01 Oh, really?
31:16 Dan Pashman? Like go and interview a lot of the actors and the writers and all that.
31:20 Speaker 01 I think that's a great idea.
31:21 Dan 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?
31:30 Speaker 01 Yes, and I actually opt for the food.
31:34 Speaker 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.
31:49 Dan Pashman? What fancy Hollywood event that you've been to has the worst food?
31:52 Speaker 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.
32:02 Dan Pashman? Right, right. Let the suckers worry about getting on TV, being near the cameras.
32:09 Dan Pashman? You're already on TV, Ty. Go sit by the kitchen.
32:12 Speaker 01 People have seen enough of my weird, weird mug. I think I could go sit by the catering.
32:16 Dan Pashman? Right. But at least, isn't the Golden Globes the one where you get to drink throughout the ceremony?
32:22 Speaker 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.
32:43 Dan 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.
32:48 Speaker 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.
33:28 Dan 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-
33:50 Speaker 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.
34:09 Dan Pashman? And being on.
34:11 Speaker 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.
34:28 Dan Pashman? Right. Has that affected the way you eat?
34:31 Speaker 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?
34:48 Dan 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.
35:22 Speaker 01 How, how much do you love a, a server who brings out the kids' food first?
35:27 Dan Pashman? Right, right. Totally.
35:28 Speaker 01 Who understands that.
35:29 Dan 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.
35:40 Speaker 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.
35:48 Dan Pashman? What I've actually taken to doing sometimes, Ty, here's a little life hack for you.
35:52 Speaker 01 Oh yeah, give me another one.
35:53 Dan 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.
36:08 Speaker 01 Oh, oh, this is a life hack.
36:12 Dan 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.
36:20 Speaker 01 And just sob, just sob uncontrollably.
36:27 Speaker 01 Just hold each other. You just hold each other and slob.
36:30 Dan 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.
36:38 Dan Pashman? We've all been there, am I right, people?
36:42 Speaker 01 Dan's clinically depressive life hacks.
36:59 Dan 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.
37:40 Speaker 04 And I'm Nora from Taylor, Texas, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.
38:06 Dan 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
38:14 Speaker 05 Andres O'Hara.
38:15 Dan 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.
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