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What was the first meal you ever made in
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your life?
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I remember that distinctly.
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I was about 11 years old, and
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I was making breakfast.
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I was not wearing a shirt at the time.
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So I'm frying eggs, and
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basting it with hot oil, and it's splattering, and
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it just sprayed across my whole chest.
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So I burned both my nipples.
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So what do you associate with cooking,
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you associate sexual things?
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Cooking is always sexual.
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Look at the dining room, half your tables
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are trying to get some play for the evening so
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your job as a chef is to facilitate lovemaking.
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I'm Michael Hung,
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I"m the executive chef of Faith and
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Flower in downtown Los Angeles.
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Faith and Flower is kind of a mix up of,
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you know, throwback design and
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decor that looks to the 1920s and old Hollywood.
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But we're pairing it with modern California rustic
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style of cuisine.
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I've put together a really great team of
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hardworking, talented chefs.
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Our front of house staff is totally generous and
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warm and engaged with our guests and I think that
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has really clicked with the population down here.
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The menu is really a reflection of
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Los Angeles.
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It kind of hits a lot of global notes and I think
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that kind of reflects Los Angeles because LA is
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a city that has a lot of great ethnic good and
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we're trying to draw from that culture.
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Downtown over the past four or five years
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has really started to emerge as a destination.
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I mean, we're in the Southpark
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area of downtown so we're kind of
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the front-runner of restaurants in this area.
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A lot of the food I do is a marriage
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between my formal culinary training and
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a lot of stuff that I ate when I was a kid.
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So before I became a chef I was working in IT and
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also in finance positions in New York City.
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I was really not happy
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with the work I was doing.
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And one day my brother told me he
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enrolled in culinary school.
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You know, when he told me that,
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it kind of like clicked in my brain that that's
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something I always wanted to do also.
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The day I heard that I kinda just got
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enrolled in the school and, you know,
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quit my job that day.
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I've been in San Francisco for
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nine years in coastal luxury management and,
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and Dave Bernahl brought me down here.
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Dave kind of gave me his vision about restaurants
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and, and business as a whole, so
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I think that was the major draw for me.
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You know, we received quite a few awards for
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best new restaurant, Thrillist had us as
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best new restaurant in the country.
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It's not just the kitchen that's getting accolades,
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it's the, the bar program.
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Mike Lay is an outstanding bartender,
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super creative.
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You know, I think we've worked incredibly hard
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and I think that our hard work and, and
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what we're trying to do, and trying to make our
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guests happy has really kind of shown in,
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in the rewards that we're getting.
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Last night it was myself, David Bernahl from CLM.
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Dave is one of the majority owners
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of Faith & Flower.
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Stephane Bombet who is also one of the partners
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in the restaurant.
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And a good chef friend of our Chris Oh,
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who has the Seoul Sausage company and
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numerous other restaurants so we kind of
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split for a little bit and headed over to Torein
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which was one of Stefan's other restaurants.
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We're headed on a gas-tastic journey
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tonight.
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Yeah. Because you're cooking
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front row later tonight.
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Yes. And Chris Morningstar
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is gonna to rock some front row.
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He's probably going to rock some front row.
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And- Potentially Bruce.
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Bruce is gonna rock the foie gras.
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Probably.
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Just for context.
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My toe hurts already.
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Just for context they just
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repealed the foie gras ban in California.
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So everybody is very excited to be serving it
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in mass quantities.
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Well, right now we are headed to Terrine
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restaurant right outside of Beverly Hills.
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And the chef is a good friend of ours,
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Chris Morningstar.
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And they just recently opened about a month ago.
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Oh, yeah. This is beautiful.
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The Terrine is California styled raw.
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It was very French influenced.
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Hi, thank you for coming, thank you very much.
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You missed,
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you missed the car ride over boys that's all.
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Did you guys open a bottle in the car?
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We already got a bottle of Ketel One open over
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there, what are you talking about.
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I just order the food, foie gras, foie gras, and
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foie gras.
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No, we got to get this party
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started though dude.
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We got to get some shots at least.
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We're going to be out for at least eight hours.
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Eight hours?
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Oh, I don't know if I can make until the end.
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Fuck. You just certainly
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celebrate a little in your belly now.
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I know.
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They of course, rolled out a lot of,
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you know, tureens for us, and French pates.
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One of the best chicken liver
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mousses I've ever had.
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He had a foie gras taurine,
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he had kielbasa sausage, which was awesome.
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Congratulations.
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Love you guys. Thank you,
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thanking you for joining me tonight guys.
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Yeah, Michael.
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This is good tasting.
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Bone marrow, fried beef cheeks, beets, and
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horseradish.
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This is Kris' take on salad nicoise,
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instead of being seared tuna it's veal tongue.
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Right.
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How many seats do you have out here?
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Outside 62.
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How many in there?
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I think 60. It only rains what
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15 days a year at the most?
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How do you say make it rain in french Duvon?
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That's what we need to know.
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If you translate it, it would be.
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That sounds good, that sounds good, no,
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that sounds good.
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We're gonna tonight.
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It's very, it's a very African expression.
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Yes it is.
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No, that would be a weird thing to say.
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I don't know. It's starting
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to catch already.
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Gentlemen, shall we continue?
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So, your entrees for the evening.
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Sadie's best fish and
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chips with a local house-made tartar sauce.
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A salad flam base with local trickery.
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You have the agnolotti with a truffled rice
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filling, truffle and hazelnuts, and
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wood mushrooms.
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We also have the rossini which is super classical
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dish with petite filet mignon, on top,
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spinach and just a classic bordelaise sauce.
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You know that's really the strength of Terrine
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is that you have all these great classical
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dishes that are just executed, you know, to,
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to perfection.
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From there, we went to Union Pasadena to go see
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Bruce Common who's an awesome chef.
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For most of us, it's our first time, so
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we are very excited.
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Are we close?
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How far are we?
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We're maybe 35 miles.
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Sorry Bruce.
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How are you?
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Sorry we're late.
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It's okay.
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How's your juice cleanse going?
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I think it's ending today.
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Bruce Kalman, he is doing regional Italian cuisine.
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He is really pushing the envelope of what
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good food is here in Los Angeles.
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I respect him highly as a chef and
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I respect his workmanship.
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So it made sense for
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us to go to Union last night.
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I'm excited.
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It's my first time here.
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I'm the worst person to ask for recommendations
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because I'm gonna recommend everything.
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I'm gonna start sending out a couple things while
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you guys are trying to figure out what to eat.
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Bruce asked us if
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we wanted him to take it easy on us.
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And we kind of made the mistake of saying no.
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You know, give it to us all.
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And he literally gave it to us all.
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This is a house made sriracha.
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Yeah. Boris,
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I'm gonna take so much pictures tonight.
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So this is the seared foie gras duck sausage.
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Then we have a foie tureen.
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Oh.
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And this a duck liver mousse with pickled
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huckleberries.
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David all brought some great wines.
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He brought vintage champagne as well
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as a couple white burgundy's.
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We enjoyed those over there.
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You have the munchies yet or what?
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You know his pastas were amazing.
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I mean he does all handmade pastas,
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really clean flavors so that was wonderful.
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Let me take multi pictures.
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That's so good though.
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Let's get after it, dude.
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Fucking meatballs, dude.
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Best fucking thing tonight.
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Bruce gets his own grits milled locally just
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outside of town in Pasadena which is really
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awesome.
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So, you know, to, to get that quality of product.
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And, he paired that up with some wild mushrooms
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and a Padron Jimenez sherry vinegar.
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And, that was you know, super delicious.
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The polenta fresh-tasting.
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Still tasted of corn.
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That's insane.
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That's insane.
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Potato, leek tortelli
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with a homemade walnut pesto.
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Those are our squid ink garganelli,
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lobster, braised fennel and black truffle butter.
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Oh my god.
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This is the cavatelli with wild boar sausage,
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roasted broccoli and beans.
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Here's our money maker.
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Oh, oh.
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Spaghetti alla chitarra, san marzano tomato,
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calabrian chili, a little garlic,
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parmigiano reggiano, basil.
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We had five pastas.
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We had about four appetizers.
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We had three,
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like, really large share format entrees and
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then like three or four side dishes as well.
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This is braised collard greens with black barley.
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Shit I think he's bringing us more food.
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Oh my gosh.
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This is basically the belly,
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the belly wrapped around the.
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How do you dial 911?
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Because I don't think I can eat anything anymore.
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That's the pork shank.
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Oh my God.
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That's the ten hour braised short rib.
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Damn. And
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it's stuffed with the.
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Cuz you didn't get enough food yet, so.
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I was really hoping it would be a small plate.