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learning program out there at the

1:03

best price. Nicole, when I

1:05

was growing up, my nono would

1:08

take me to the best hole-in-the-wall

1:10

Italian restaurants. We're talking breadsticks, all-you-can-eat

1:12

salads, tours of Italy. That doesn't

1:14

sound very Italian. It's got to be Olive

1:16

Garden. You said breadsticks? No, no. Olive

1:18

Garden. This is a hot dog, is a sandwich.

1:20

Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in

1:23

my cereal. So what? That makes

1:25

no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog

1:27

is a sandwich. What? Welcome

1:33

to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show

1:35

we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm

1:37

your host, Josh Scharrer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi.

1:39

And today we have a very special, mostly

1:42

naked guest joining us. He's known as QCP,

1:44

aka Queen City Prince. And no, there is

1:46

not an alternate backstory to that. He's one

1:48

of the top Italian chefs on TikTok and

1:51

author of the cookbook Italian American. Please

1:53

welcome John Luca Conte. Thank you so much. Thank you

1:55

so much for saying my name right. For

1:58

saying it all right. Thanks for having me. I decided

2:00

to talk about what's right and

2:02

what's wrong about the Italian cuisine and who's right

2:04

and who's wrong Well, I'm I am very curious

2:06

about that because as people who have been creating

2:09

recipes in videos online all of us for you

2:11

Know many years at this point. Nobody

2:13

gets matter in the comments than Italian

2:15

people about Italian food. Oh, yeah, and Not

2:19

Italian people talking about it like

2:21

they also care more than

2:23

the Italians themselves and your real-deal Italian

2:25

like you you got it through My

2:29

father is from Italy and That's

2:32

enough right? I'm a first generation Italian people love

2:35

to be like no you're not And then I'm

2:37

just like who is questioning your Italian credentials you

2:39

should take a 23 and me and just post it on

2:41

the internet I'd be like I'm Italian my dad is

2:43

literally like Not

2:46

not like shot in Italy with your dad like in a

2:48

20 time, right? But

2:51

what is it what is it specifically about

2:53

Italian food that makes people want to gatekeep

2:55

it? I think it must be because it

2:57

like was really brought from it's one of

2:59

the only No, that's not true

3:01

at all. Everything's been brought over but most things have kind of

3:03

stayed The same like a lot

3:06

of authentic thing, you know, Chinese food Japanese

3:08

food has mostly stayed Authentic

3:10

in Italian food has been completely converted

3:12

into its own kind as it's how

3:14

American food and I

3:16

think that's why I kind of lost its like Intensity

3:19

some people are mad because they're like that's

3:21

not Italian like that's not it's a that's

3:23

Italian That's not so I must be that

3:25

it must be like because it's they have

3:28

their own language in the Northeast Yeah,

3:30

like yeah, yeah, they you know, they have a

3:32

whole translation. They took like a dialect of Southern

3:35

Italy and turned it into English. So

3:37

it's like They've got so much

3:39

going on people don't really no one's done that in

3:41

any other culture Yeah, I don't know why we're doing

3:43

the term gobble goole, right? Like so many people know

3:45

that is a little joke from the Sopranos But where

3:48

it actually comes from in the language I talked about

3:50

this all the time that Italy was not a country

3:52

until like the 1880s There's a

3:54

different kingdoms with different languages that were

3:56

all united but the

3:58

term goblegul. It's capital right? But

4:01

then when you go into southern dialects

4:03

like Sicilian, which a lot of people

4:05

came over here, the hard c sound

4:07

softens to a guh. And they would

4:09

also drop the last vowel at

4:12

the end of words because it's like

4:14

pronouncing things pecan or pecan. There's so

4:16

many regional dialects. Where

4:18

my father's from, this is exactly true,

4:20

he has the dialect. He's from Iskia.

4:22

It's a small island off the coast

4:24

of Naples. So it's like you've got

4:26

Capri and then you can literally see

4:28

Iskia from there and the

4:31

other way around. And the Napoli accent,

4:33

Napolitano accent is a complete dialect. It's

4:35

its own language. They have different spelling.

4:37

They have different, like it's completely different.

4:40

And for example, Mozzarella

4:42

in Italian, they say Mozzarella

4:44

and then Napolitano they say

4:46

like Mozzarella. It's like,

4:48

it's like, Capacola, Capa, like, Capa who, Capa who,

4:50

whatever the hell they say,

4:58

it ends up being gabagool. Yeah.

5:00

So it's just like, but

5:02

it's funny, you know, I'm trying to like make

5:05

things, I'm like, I want things to be civil.

5:07

It's kind of like, you're trying to unify. You're

5:09

trying to unify. It's like Garibaldi, man, trying to

5:11

unify the Italian kingdoms, the great hero. And the

5:13

Italian Americans are trying to do it too. You

5:15

know, they're really trying their best, but like, you

5:17

know, they're, I feel everyone else cares. I

5:19

want to know, since you're here repping

5:22

Italian American, what are some rules that

5:24

you think should never be broken with

5:26

Italian food? What are like, give me

5:28

like four that you're

5:30

just like, don't ever do

5:33

this. The store bought shelf

5:35

grabbed Parmesan cheese.

5:39

Oh, the worst thing is like in

5:41

the world. You know, like shaky parm?

5:43

No, we got down with the shaky

5:45

parm over here. It's just, it's

5:48

just bad cheese. Like there's

5:50

a lot of like Italian cuisine

5:53

is so simple. It's so it's,

5:55

it's very easy. And all it

5:57

requires is quality ingredients. Yes,

6:00

there is a lot of other factors like you

6:02

have to know how long things in that

6:05

and cooking But then you you really mess it up.

6:07

You can make a whole dish and top it with

6:10

Store-bought sawdust and it's gonna ruin the whole

6:12

dish. So that's what's important.

6:14

That's a very important my favorite part

6:17

about that cheese It has so much

6:19

chew and so little taste You

6:22

know what I mean, right? It's right. It's an iconic

6:24

taste though I must say when you taste it, you know,

6:26

you're tasting shaky parms So I would never know

6:28

I've never even you've never tried it before Okay,

6:35

I would love to show you guys like to show

6:38

you my top tier you definitely have had

6:40

like parmesan or a John and then like

6:42

you put the two next to each other.

6:45

It's just like it's not comparable Yeah, it's

6:47

not even worth it. But that's just one

6:49

of my thoughts. Okay, there's plenty. Give

6:52

me one more Give me what give me something about pasta. I

6:54

feel like I've seen on the Internet of course you can't

6:56

break the pot Sometimes

6:59

the pot isn't big enough. What are we supposed to do?

7:01

Just go buy another thing if the water is boiling

7:03

enough Okay, and the pasta technically like

7:05

we'll get soft quick enough yeah, put it in

7:07

and then you can like what

7:09

I do is I like take the the Spider

7:12

whatever it's called and I push it I push

7:14

the pasta and make it kind of slip up

7:16

on the other end so you even it out

7:18

So it's like like a little years a strategy

7:20

but get a bigger pot Yeah, that works in

7:22

practice But yeah, I can't tell you how

7:25

many times I've burnt the tips of my linguine

7:27

because it just doesn't push down But

7:29

you know, you gotta be quick and you gotta be very quick Let

7:31

me tell you sometimes broken pasta like in

7:33

a pinch like it works, you

7:35

know burnt pasta works There's a

7:37

whole recipe about Yeah,

7:41

I'm burning a little differently but yeah, I'm

7:43

purging so we do mokaroni where we literally

7:45

make a Complete tag which is

7:47

the burnt bottom and we flip it over and

7:49

it's the most delicious pasta dish That's such a

7:52

sick dish. I never thought about it in terms like

7:54

pasta. I'll ask that's you know, because you're doing the

7:56

same Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and we break the pasta

7:58

in that too, but also that again It's

8:00

like a it's an iteration of what Italians do

8:02

and you know whenever it goes through so many

8:04

different things You get something

8:07

like macaroni which is completely out of

8:09

left field, but it still harkens back

8:11

to Italian recipes Yeah, well in

8:13

my culture white trash, Pennsylvanians, you see

8:15

with some Mennonite cousins that might have

8:17

been involved I've

8:20

never had Jewish spaghetti. I thought It

8:23

must be your only choice out there. Oh my god

8:25

I'll tell you what olive garden was absolutely that was

8:27

the fanciest restaurant I've been to growing up, but then

8:29

now tasting it as somebody knows anything about food They

8:31

don't salt their pasta water You know they you

8:34

got the spaghetti a lot of things I went

8:36

very so much I do because I did a

8:38

video with somebody who we compared the worst and

8:40

the best Italian restaurant in New York City Oh

8:42

started out Olive Garden and then we went to like

8:44

a 4.9 out of 5 open table like where was

8:46

it up here? Which one the

8:48

good one? Yeah, I don't know.

8:50

I'm kind of I'm blinking I did

8:53

a video is with Jack's dining room I know if you've

8:55

seen his yeah, yeah But

8:58

basically The difference in the video

9:00

is one of the craziest you we pick up you pick

9:02

up the ravioli at Olive Garden And it's like the bottom

9:04

is there's no sauce even on the bottom I don't even

9:06

know how they did that yeah They like they pull it

9:08

out of the thing and it's they just put some sauce

9:10

over it and they serve it to you and That's

9:13

my culture. Yeah, then no for real like a

9:15

breadsticks to I'm like everyone loves it, but like

9:17

it's they get solid Yeah, they get rock hard

9:19

You know you need it in 30 seconds and

9:21

like they literally found that out like an investment

9:24

firm Literally didn't audit on the Olive Garden's practices,

9:26

and they're like hey We noticed

9:28

that you just serve six breadsticks to three

9:30

people and then after 30 seconds. They're awful

9:33

What if you just serve them one at a time and they're

9:35

like nah? Maybe how we make money

9:37

they're like well. We noticed you don't salt your pasta water

9:39

What if you did that because 80% of

9:42

people who ate it said it doesn't taste like anything I know I

9:44

know so well that they don't use

9:46

like decent quality tomato sauce or Tomato

9:52

sauce is so cheap where it's like

9:54

three cents more per pallet you get

9:56

like ten times better of I don't

9:58

like margins She

10:01

must be allowed here to work for Olive Garden

10:03

corporate. I'd just bring it. Pick all the olives

10:05

out of the salad. We're losing money on the

10:07

olives. Yeah, we'll remove three almonds. We'll save billions.

10:09

There are a lot of Italian-American dishes. So

10:12

I lived with two

10:14

Italian soccer hooligans in college. And

10:16

they were fantastic. I learned so much about... Were

10:18

they from the Northeast? They were both from Rome.

10:20

Oh, actually from Italy. Okay, that's right. Yeah, oh

10:23

yeah, yeah, yeah. No, full-on, like, just came to

10:25

try and get into the movie industry from Rome.

10:27

And so they would have their parents send

10:30

espresso, olive oil, and

10:32

tomato sauce. Cute. Because those are

10:35

the three things that, like, we can't get anywhere here. But they

10:37

had so many rules, and they were horrified by

10:39

all these Italian-American dishes. Once I made myself

10:41

spaghetti and meatballs. And then they're like,

10:43

the bread is already in the meat. What

10:46

are rules that Italians would

10:48

say that you shouldn't do with food that

10:51

you think, in the Italian-American context, is really dank?

10:53

Like chicken parm is a huge word they hate.

10:55

So many weird things that don't make any sense.

10:58

It's like meatballs, meatballs are fine.

11:00

Meatballs are very Italian, but

11:02

not with pasta. So you

11:04

cannot put spaghetti with meatballs. That's

11:07

one thing. Chicken

11:09

and pasta is another rule. This

11:12

is something we've talked about, too. There's no chicken

11:14

if you don't put chicken anywhere near... There's no

11:16

Tuscan style. That's not true. Then

11:19

the biggest one is just cream

11:21

at all in any pasta. So

11:24

there's no milk in pasta, but you can

11:26

take five balls of burrata, which is full

11:28

of milk, and slap it all over your

11:31

food, and it's not cream.

11:34

So there's a lot of different things. But

11:36

to me, I think it's kind of

11:39

ridiculous. For

11:41

my father being the authentic

11:44

side, and then me living in the US

11:46

my whole life and seeing the other side

11:48

of it, was why I wanted to even

11:50

make this book to have both of them

11:52

together. A reason why I made

11:54

a cookbook was I was like, let's make this

11:56

civil, because they're all good. really

12:00

good dishes. And they just have

12:02

different, they're not traditional. Yeah,

12:04

carbonara with peas and ham can

12:06

exist. One of my dad's

12:09

Italian friends, that's how he does it. Yeah, yeah.

12:11

That's his part of Italy does it. Yeah, we

12:13

shouldn't get... But my dad's doesn't. We don't have

12:15

to have a war in Italy over the food.

12:17

We shouldn't get mad over it. Maybe we

12:19

can just be friends. Chicken

12:22

Parmesan predates carbonara.

12:25

That's the thing that messes a lot of people up.

12:27

Like it was invented in the US?

12:30

Correct. Chicken Parm, nobody actually knows the... I

12:32

think the first time I've seen it in

12:35

print was like 1930s. I'm venturing buttoning. I've

12:37

been existing for a long time. And cover

12:39

was before... You're

12:42

lying. A new blogger and historian, Luca Cesari, says that

12:44

carbonara was born in Rome around 1944,

12:47

just after the liberation of the city. That's the

12:49

thing. All these things that we associate Italy

12:51

with this like ancient history, which is

12:53

true in so many regards. Yeah. And

12:56

that's like take out its ability to modernize because

12:58

we say, this is an authentic. You can't put

13:00

cream in that carbonara. It's like that

13:02

dish is literally... There are more rules

13:04

to chicken Parmesan than there are carbonara,

13:06

right? It's an older dish. And that

13:08

was an immigrant dish from Southern

13:11

Italian immigrants in New York City. Of

13:13

course. It's a diverse wealth

13:15

of delicious things and nobody needs to

13:18

gatekeep. How does humorous, how

13:20

much depth there is in this conversation,

13:22

the argument of Italian food, it's just

13:24

like, it's intense. And there's so much

13:27

history behind it. People get mad. Yeah.

13:30

People get very mad. Who's the maddest person you've

13:32

encountered about Italian food? Because I'm

13:34

in my... Oh. I don't

13:36

know. A lot of the times I just try not

13:38

to learn the full thing. Like

13:40

it'll be in Italian a lot of the times and I see a couple

13:42

of words in the mix and then I'm like, I'm not going to play

13:44

it. Yeah. That one I know

13:46

is not good. But then

13:48

there's other side of it. There's some people that are... Most

13:51

of the people that are from Italy, like they see me

13:53

post it, they just laugh. They're like, great video. Who cares?

13:55

There's some who care more than

13:57

that. and

14:00

others and like I was saying a lot of the time it

14:02

ends up just being like some person behind their phone who saw

14:04

one video of it being done authentically and they see someone else

14:06

do it and not like not authentic and then they're like you're

14:09

wrong and it's like yeah sure

14:11

but like I didn't say

14:13

authentic carbonara and if I did and then

14:15

I was wrong flame me but

14:17

then we'll make an I'm sorry video

14:20

on YouTube millions of exactly I

14:22

personally follow a

14:25

Instagram reels page because I'm not on TikTok

14:28

and it's called you're not better

14:30

than me a little bit it's

14:32

called Italians being mad at food and

14:35

it's just people it's reaction videos and

14:37

it is insane how much traction just

14:39

this passionate intense hatred of what someone

14:41

is doing makes on it it's all

14:43

what is it called it's like rage

14:46

outrage they it's like rage bait

14:48

videos but you can't stop watching them

14:50

because there's something about it that's just oh

14:52

yeah watching somebody react to somebody doing

14:55

something extremely incorrect yeah I love it

14:57

shout out to chef reactions man yeah

14:59

he's hilarious he like cornered the market

15:02

on it but it's just it's incredible to

15:04

watch people just get so mad at some

15:06

like I was watching this video of someone

15:08

in Italy pouring water from their

15:11

water bottle into an espresso and someone behind them

15:13

just looking at them like what are you doing

15:16

and I just love those kinds of videos so

15:18

much and I think other people on the internet

15:20

love watching it as well just that rage baby

15:23

in your face like I'm here to make you

15:25

mad there are so many things in

15:27

Italy if you order a cappuccino past

15:29

12 p.m. you're considered like insane and

15:32

that's just like a thing your

15:34

digestive system doesn't grow your slamming

15:36

lactate that's a you got a

15:38

lawful elect I don't know if

15:40

it's any more built

15:43

it she built it more no

15:45

longer no free milk now I'm about the

15:47

fair life milk has extra protein in it Josh

15:49

I do too oh yeah the fair life milk wait

15:51

how do we get how do we all collectively get

15:53

that sponsorship because the macros on that I

15:56

made a video where I had like

15:58

lactate in the video Pills

16:00

and I made like a mac and cheese like two

16:02

years ago They're full of a bunch of cheese the

16:04

video had like 25 million views on tiktok and I

16:06

was like what have I done? I just gave them

16:08

so much free promo But

16:10

you know I just what it is. That's been sponsored

16:13

by fair life and lactate Two

16:16

for one. Well I tried to get a

16:18

sponsorship from Sunsweet prunes You

16:20

body body and Toshi bidets and then I was gonna

16:23

We got the tissues well, that's why and we had

16:25

a meeting with something wrong, but I love prunes great

16:27

simple carbs after a workout Regular looks like a prune

16:30

today. Yeah, that's this is me trying to subliminally message

16:32

eat prunes But I wanted to call myself. I have

16:34

to curse once I wanted to call myself a shit

16:36

fluencer All

16:40

food turns into poop eventually when I have you guys seen the

16:42

poop guy No,

16:45

he's just a guy from New York who like makes a

16:47

joke that people order poop at the deli Oh Bottom

16:54

roll with the like a hero with a little

16:56

more to down scoop a poop That

16:59

all right The vista take off

17:01

man yeah, and now like he literally only does

17:03

poop content and like and he has fake slaps

17:05

of poop He does like oh man. He's like

17:08

meet somebody in public gives them a little he's

17:10

like you need you poop. I got you I

17:15

Think I'm glad I didn't get the three poop infinity

17:17

stones to turn myself into the poop influencer because then

17:19

I would have been really Pigeonal and we couldn't talk

17:21

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17:23

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your 50% off at rosettastone.com What

18:31

is the recipe in here that you're most proud

18:33

of that says this is the Italian-American experience? There's

18:36

not one that combines

18:39

the both together. I have every recipe that has an

18:44

Italian flag or the

18:46

United States flag identifying

18:48

whether it's Italian or

18:50

Italian-American. I guess it's

18:52

kind of harder to answer. It's pretty cool.

18:58

There's almost every authentic

19:01

Italian. I have all the

19:03

basics in this book. I'd say my favorite

19:07

Italian-American recipe, which is crazy,

19:09

is lasagna. My

19:13

lasagna, regular lasagna bolognese. They're all easy,

19:18

but time throws people

19:20

off on anything. The experience and the result

19:23

is what is great. It's so hard for

19:25

me to choose favorites, but my favorite authentic

19:27

Italian, which is my father's recipe.

19:30

You can say it's your

19:32

father's recipe, but a lot of people will do it

19:34

the same. A lot of people say that that's not

19:36

from Naples and that's from Bologna. People fight about

19:40

this stuff, like we said. It's

19:42

definitely the ragu Napolitana, slow-cooked, short

19:45

rib, beef chuck, and

19:48

sausage. It slow cooks for three hours and

19:51

then once it's done, you throw in

19:53

your pasta and everything melts. It

19:55

creates a brown, almost like I can't

19:57

even describe the color. away

20:00

or no? Not that. Yeah, more rusty

20:02

because you're not, you know, you use,

20:05

I'll use one can of whole peeled tomatoes, just kind

20:07

of crush them up, take out the stems and then

20:09

let that, let that boil and then all of a

20:12

sudden you see it changing its color

20:14

and then the sauce just becomes, it's the

20:16

meat and the bone broth and everything that

20:18

like just melts and it makes just the

20:20

craziest flavor. Like just such a unique,

20:23

intense, just a, but it

20:25

takes three hours and that's what's good, but it's

20:27

like you gotta do it to impress somebody.

20:30

I think that's, I think that's where it matters most. It's

20:32

like, do you really want to impress your date or whatever

20:34

that night? If you have someone over for dinner, take the

20:36

one that do the one that like you have it cooking.

20:38

They walk in there like, whoa, what

20:41

are you cooking? And that happened to me

20:43

once only time somebody has ever cooked

20:45

for cause I would normally eat dating back to college.

20:47

I would like always cook for girls on dates cause

20:49

that wasn't easy way to impress somebody like lamb chops.

20:52

But anyways, this one girl was like, let me

20:54

cook for you and it always would go badly

20:56

because I don't know what her cooks are 19.

20:58

I was also 19 to be clear. Um, but

21:00

anyways, but I remember walking to

21:02

her apartment. She called her dad, they're Italian

21:04

American and she called her dad and he

21:06

told her like his Sunday gravy recipe and

21:08

then it has this giant pot and it's

21:10

bubbling away and I look in there and

21:12

there's just like whole beef bones. Like neck,

21:15

dude, neck and straight up neck bones, roasted,

21:17

no, it was roasted pork neck and then

21:19

beef and then there was veal and then

21:21

there were sausages. Yeah. To this day I've never

21:23

had a better like red sauce experience. Holy smokes. That

21:25

was so incredible. And the thing is, is like people

21:27

don't understand that you can do it. Like, oh my

21:29

God, how simple I can, I can say how you

21:31

cook it in like, make it in,

21:33

in 15 seconds. It's like raise the meat, take

21:35

it like olive oil, raise the meat, take it

21:37

out. Vegetables goes in, saute sauce, meat goes back

21:40

in or red wine, meat goes back in, let

21:42

it simmer. You're done. But it's just like time

21:44

three hours. Like there's quick, easy steps,

21:46

but it's all about the time. I don't want

21:48

to do that. But it won't taste as good.

21:51

Yeah, exactly. Things can taste good in 30 minutes, of course,

21:53

25, sometimes 15, but

21:55

it's not the same experience at all. That's

21:58

why that's like one of my favorites, is the red goo. Yeah,

22:00

and that's where like love comes into cooking. It's that

22:02

effort. It's that time I've

22:04

come to peace with that for sure over time

22:06

because that first was very lazy lazy lazy like

22:08

I got him I'm gonna make a video make

22:10

it fast We've

22:13

been there before to yeah John Luca. What are you

22:15

doing? This is embarrassing you need to make it better

22:19

Yeah, he'd be like why you use a punch yet to go find

22:21

one child Yeah,

22:23

you know the amount of time to

22:25

set the phrase that they can't find going to LA bacon's

22:27

fine Yeah, that one I won't

22:30

say I'm like five pancetta's fine Yeah, but no,

22:32

that's that's funny. How about your dad like the

22:34

guardian of his before restaurants?

22:36

So So

22:39

since before I was born you said he had his first restaurant in

22:41

1995 When my

22:43

first sister was born and then he's had

22:45

a restaurant for every child that he's had

22:47

like the same year Which is pretty cool.

22:49

And So yeah,

22:51

I mean that's where I have another standard is I

22:54

gotta keep up with him Our

22:56

father yeah, yeah, and and I

22:58

guess it's destiny to be doing the food

23:01

stuff Queen City Prince

23:04

He's actually the king of Queen City because he's

23:07

but he's had his restaurants in Charlotte since before

23:09

I was born Yeah, and he's been the best. Did you

23:11

grow up like cooking with him at the restaurants or we're

23:14

not really it was like I didn't start cooking until 2019

23:18

so like I'm only this many years

23:20

in but like every day How old

23:22

were you when you realize like I'm gonna do food? Literally

23:25

19. So it was like same. Yeah, it

23:27

was like 19 I kind

23:29

of made a video not like not many people

23:31

know this I made a video Making

23:34

fun of people from New Jersey like the Jersey Shore.

23:36

The Jersey Shore had a cookie show Right

23:39

now I'm not talking like this. I like

23:41

I used to literally talk like that and people thought

23:43

that's who I was And it's such a beyond character.

23:45

It's like no way that I'm a real person So

23:48

that I made this video kind of but the thing was yes

23:50

It was like the first time I made it I

23:53

made like but not made first time making pasta

23:55

first time I like at least filmed it, but

23:57

maybe it was like my tenth time ever looking

23:59

for my myself at 19 years old. But because

24:01

I had seen my mom's an incredible chef, my father's

24:03

an incredible chef, I've watched him, I've been walking around

24:05

holding my dad's finger when I was two years old,

24:08

like walking around the kitchen, like I've been seeing it

24:10

my whole life. So when it came time to doing

24:12

it, I was like, this is so easy. And it

24:14

got easier and easier. And I would watch a quick

24:16

little video or something to figure it out. Then

24:18

it got to a point where it was enough of

24:21

trying to figure it out and watch it called that

24:23

because like he will actually tell me how to do

24:25

it the right way. So he's

24:27

the one that helped me like, make

24:30

it more and care more and actually

24:32

do things correctly and grow the love that

24:35

I have. And yeah,

24:38

I mean, I've got I've got recipes from

24:40

my my dad from my great both my

24:42

grandparents, like grandmothers on both sides from my

24:44

mom, I've hit it all like from your

24:46

mom's Italian too. Yeah, so he's half Middle

24:48

Eastern half. She's half Syrian

24:50

half Italian. Very nice. So nothing

24:53

she's from no, no, but my my

24:55

grandmother's got incredible because it was her

24:57

husband. Sure. My grandpa that was Syrian

24:59

and they did you know, it was

25:01

either Italian night or Syrian night with

25:04

her. But yeah,

25:06

I've learned it all from them, to be honest. So it's

25:08

cool to be able to put that out there.

25:10

Beautiful. What would you have been doing if

25:13

not for food? Was there something else on the horizon

25:15

that you were like, this is another place and then

25:17

the food bug just bitches. Ironically, I was making music.

25:19

And I kind of made a tik tok to

25:21

like promote it. And then I was kind of

25:24

like music EDM. No, like kind of like hip

25:26

hop. Why'd you assume Nicole? Because I love the

25:29

EDM music. I was a EDM music.

25:31

Continue. Just it was just like hip

25:33

hop. Okay, just just it was fun.

25:35

I was like the rapper my high

25:37

school kind of like, and

25:39

then I went on there to promote it. And then I ended

25:41

up just like making a bunch of skits and then like

25:43

hundreds of videos later after I had like 700,800,000 followers before

25:45

2020, which was

25:51

before I made my first cooking video. So people don't

25:53

know what a good following, especially at the time, it

25:55

was a lot harder to grow following like, because not

25:57

that many people on the platform. Yeah. I

26:00

had a pretty good following. People followed me for

26:02

just whatever came out of my ADHD brain was

26:04

what they would see. And then

26:06

the cooking video was kind of another one of those videos, which

26:08

then I ended up doing more and more and more and more

26:10

until I was like, this is all I'm going to do, which

26:13

was in 2020. Can you drop your soundcloud? I think

26:15

it's QCP. I think it's, but it's old

26:17

music. It's old music. Can we license some

26:19

of it to make a new theme song for this

26:21

podcast? Yeah.

26:27

I can, I can send you like one song that

26:30

I'm like, I think would be really, would be a good

26:35

fit. Oh hell yeah. Or I

26:37

mean, I have it on my phone. I made a

26:39

song called pasta and a Lamborghini that I didn't, I

26:42

didn't release. All of it was really like poorly developed

26:44

and it was just, it was more for fun, but

26:46

people liked it. So funny. You know,

26:48

had a small following for that, but here we are. I

26:50

remember, I remember the first video that I saw of you

26:52

was actually on Twitter of all places, but I

26:54

mean, it was, it was mostly like a thirst video. You

26:57

know, but you were like

26:59

smoking, you know, I don't know if it was like

27:01

bucatini or you were like smoking it, but it was

27:04

very like character dress. Cause like, that was definitely like

27:06

2020 me. Yeah. The

27:08

early days like screaming like that. Like I

27:10

was like, and then as I would watch

27:13

my own videos, I'd be like, settle down.

27:15

But it's funny because you have like taken the full

27:17

loop now where like you can tell how much heart

27:19

and how much love you have for specifically Italian American

27:21

food and Italian food in general and that you're able

27:23

to like now put family recipes into this book.

27:26

So many people start online with

27:28

a little bit of a caricature and then all

27:30

they do is escalate the caricature. I mean, not

27:32

to no shade to the poop guy. This

27:35

guy is walking around with fake poop now, you know, it started

27:37

off as a funny little joke and now he's got fake poop.

27:39

Whereas you kind of want the opposite of like has this caricature.

27:42

And then now you're, I mean, you're like, yeah, it

27:44

was a lot easier for me to fall in

27:46

love with the idea of knowing that like my,

27:48

it's my family. So they do like my dad's

27:50

a restaurateur. Like, you know, it's like my, my

27:52

life has always been about that. So it's like,

27:55

how hard is it to be like, this is

27:57

the right thing? Like you're doing the right thing

27:59

was the easier. to say let's

28:01

do this thing because this book

28:03

is gross and maturity I love it absolutely I've

28:05

got everything in there you know the stories the kit

28:07

the photos of me when I was a kid there's

28:09

baby pictures in here okay I'm gonna pop it out

28:11

yeah Bob it up Bob it up at first the

28:14

first thing meanwhile I'm get some Italian

28:16

food hot I think 99%

28:19

of people can't make better homemade red sauce

28:21

than our jar of reos 99% 99.9%

28:25

I think a jar of reo oh

28:29

the Italian getting mad about food I'm kidding

28:31

I um I don't think

28:34

I've ever had it get the hell out of

28:36

you've never had the right no I've had like

28:38

other more homey versions yeah

28:42

no that's actually that's

28:44

a like a coconut I don't know

28:46

some weird coconut that I liked that's

28:48

really other some baby stuff me drinking

28:50

olive oil very solid yeah yeah it's

28:52

it's a fun book there's a lot

28:54

of cool stuff in there a lot

28:57

of cool features incredible

28:59

man well thank you so

29:01

much for taking the time there's a ton of love for

29:03

this cookbook I'm gonna actually cook from it do we have

29:05

a copy we sign it yeah can I have one yeah

29:07

I have your apron you know trade aprons like a Jersey

29:09

swap yeah I mean in my life we should make a

29:11

video of it oh yeah well absolutely why not well

29:14

all you have to do is just make

29:16

things right in the Italian cuisine and people

29:19

now they'll always come after you oh they're gonna come yeah if

29:21

you make it if you make spaghetti these times ago or you

29:23

scream at them loud enough like me they just don't have a

29:25

voice they're just like all right let him do his thing little

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31:27

Nicole

31:32

and John Luca, we've heard what you and I had to say.

31:34

Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling

31:36

out there in the universe. Well, it's time for a segment we

31:38

call, opinions are

31:40

what possible. Anyways,

31:47

we got a lovely music video queued up

31:49

that we got a lot. A 20-second music

31:52

video. I'm so excited. I created the song

31:54

and edited this very quick,

31:56

funny, not funny music video. Don't

32:00

play boy. We got to watch

32:02

it six years ago. I created

32:04

a song about parmesan called parmesan

32:06

dream Please enjoy cinematic experience about

32:08

parmesan My

32:22

goodness, this is so dramatic I mean

32:24

that was

32:27

beautiful beat the man experience be with fire we

32:29

get we can all agree on that. Yeah. Yeah

32:31

I know who pretty rich it Lyrics

32:34

are off the you know, it's six years ago emphasis

32:36

on sick. How old are you six years ago? 18

32:40

17 18. Yeah. Hey, that's a banger of a

32:42

first track. Gotta show it. Thank you Thanks

32:45

so much. I'm dreams light

32:48

up that first opinion. Hey Josh and Nicole big

32:51

fan Fanny of

32:53

anyway, can I go to school Italian

32:55

food? Almost all Italian food

32:58

in fact is better without

33:00

any meat. Huh? The only Major

33:04

exception is seafood Italian dishes.

33:06

Mmm. Your cowards if you

33:08

don't play this on the show Well,

33:12

we're not cowards I'm definitely not a cow only

33:14

because you're playing it on the show What

33:17

do you think about that I don't know I don't

33:20

get it I think I know where they're coming from though do

33:23

you mean like Look a

33:25

tomato sauce without any meat a cream

33:27

sauce without any meat pesto without any

33:29

meat I think there's

33:31

there I think they are thinking of like

33:34

chicken fettuccine alfredo if I had to guess

33:37

But what I love about Italian food

33:39

is they tend to use

33:41

meats as a way to flavor

33:43

other things Absolutely, right other

33:45

than like raviolo Any's

33:47

and tortellini's other than field passes

33:50

depends if the quality of everything else is

33:52

like great Hmm, and then it could be

33:54

accompanied by a great quality But if you

33:56

get bad beef or something like this not

33:58

it's gonna ruin it like Sure, for

34:00

sure. I kind of get it. I kind

34:02

of don't. Yeah. I feel like those

34:04

are just very separate things. Like Italian dishes

34:06

are themselves like on their own and

34:08

then there's a separate dish that has meat in

34:10

it, you know? Yeah. You can have a

34:13

vegetarian lasagna. It's going to taste like one thing. You'll have one

34:15

with meat. It'll taste like... Another meat.

34:17

Yeah, another dish. If I said the phrase meatball salad,

34:19

does that mean anything to you? No.

34:22

I'm not meatball salad. So I'm going to talk about meatball

34:24

salad. Well, no, no, no. One

34:26

would maybe think... I believe jumbo shrimp is

34:28

an oxymoron, but meatball salad is not. So

34:31

I went to... I inexplicably had like

34:33

two back-to-back weddings in Morristown,

34:36

New Jersey. And my fiance grew up

34:38

in Long Island, but she grew up vacationing at the Jersey Shore

34:40

and like Margate area. And so we were in Jersey for 10

34:42

days. And when I go to a

34:44

place, I want to find the most regionally

34:46

specific foods that I can. And so, you

34:48

know, I got the original sloppy Joe in

34:50

Jersey. I had, you know, a pork roll,

34:52

sandwiches on the shore, all this stuff. But

34:54

one thing I saw was meatball salad. And

34:56

I didn't ask people... Was it tiny? No.

34:59

So what it is, it's just a side of

35:01

like a very olive garden-y looking salad. And then like

35:03

three meatballs on the plate just kind of plop next

35:05

to it. And some of the sauce gets in the

35:07

lettuce. But I remember asking somebody about that who was

35:10

from Jersey. They said it's because,

35:12

you know, spaghetti and meatballs,

35:14

very Italian-American dish. But a lot of

35:16

the Nona's, they'd be like, you don't

35:18

eat meat with pasta, you

35:20

eat meat with vegetables. Right? And

35:23

so the vegetables that they were serving

35:25

that time were a very American-y salad

35:27

like that. And the meat was the

35:29

pulpette. And so they'd be like, yeah, I'm

35:31

going to eat my vegetables with my meat. And then that became

35:33

the meatball salad. But I think like you

35:35

just serve it separately, you know, it's like you

35:37

go up and you choose whether you want a

35:39

salad or if you want the meatball. Then Nona

35:41

got to wash another dish. You know, people are

35:44

taking it out. Like people are taking out the

35:46

meatballs and then removing the pieces with the sauce

35:48

on it. And then they're like, yeah, the hot

35:50

and the cold. It wilts. The thing is, it

35:52

has to have a problem. I love it. Let me

35:54

tell you, what are they using like an iceberg mix? Oh,

35:56

big time. The hardest iceberg. It's so

35:58

good. It's like an

36:01

arugula or something that can

36:03

withstand it. I think

36:05

that makes more sense because when they

36:07

wilt, it's pleasant. I for

36:10

wilted, not that pleasant, but arugula

36:12

or spinach or even like massaged

36:14

kale, once it like

36:16

the heat touches it, it is a more

36:19

pleasant eating experience. It's like apple pie a la

36:21

mode. You just got to go quick, you know, but

36:23

with ice cream melts, all the temperature is still there.

36:25

I don't like apple pie actually. I'm

36:28

not a big apple pie person. Next

36:30

opinion. Hey Josh, hey Nicole. Hey.

36:34

I got something that might be a little controversial. Oh

36:36

really? What could it be? I

36:38

think chicken and dumplings. It

36:40

doesn't need celery. It doesn't

36:42

need carrots. It doesn't need peas. It

36:45

needs leeks. Leeks are

36:47

fantastic. Leeks are,

36:50

you know, of the onion family, which I

36:52

love. I think

36:55

more people need to do leeks in their chicken and

36:57

dumplings. Oh, and by the way, I love

37:00

you guys. You guys

37:02

are both hilarious and Josh. I pride myself on

37:04

being funny, but you might be funnier than me. Anyway,

37:06

love you guys. Get to hell with him. Love your

37:08

show. You want me to love you. Just play me

37:10

one compliment. Have you had chicken and dumplings before?

37:13

I have had it. I like it, but like I've

37:15

never made it. I

37:17

cook literally only Italian food

37:19

and then like steak and

37:21

protein by itself. When you go out to eat, like

37:24

what do you like to eat though? I mean

37:26

I eat everything. I eat everything.

37:28

Okay, cool. Sushi, Mexican food. Awesome.

37:30

Like everything. Yeah. So you've

37:32

never had chicken and dumplings? I have once. I've had

37:34

it at our cracker barrel. And they have carrots in

37:36

theirs, right? I don't know how to remember. Very

37:39

chicken pot pie-esque, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's supposed to be

37:41

kind of like chicken pot pie, like soup. Well,

37:44

okay. So let's bring this back to Italian food. Have

37:46

you ever had the creamy gnocchi soup from the Olive

37:48

Garden? Oh my God. Have you had it? That sounds

37:50

awful. No, I've only been to Olive Garden twice ever.

37:52

The first time was like eight years

37:54

ago, literally. And I don't think I got anything. I think

37:56

I only ate the Caesar salad. Then the most recent time

37:58

was when we did the food review. and the food review

38:01

was, oh my gosh, if I showed you

38:03

guys, if we pulled it up, you'd be like, wow.

38:06

Because when you see the difference, it's

38:08

like crazy. I've only been quite

38:10

still. It's just chicken and dumpling. I got food

38:12

poisoning last time I went and actually killed a chicken. I think

38:14

they're hitting at a point though, there's a lot of people

38:16

that, I have this big

38:18

vendetta against the French. Weird. They're

38:21

so freedom fries to me. No, but

38:24

I don't know if you're old enough to get that

38:26

reference. No, I just was like, oh my god. We'll

38:28

talk about it. Nicholas Sarkozy refused to

38:30

back George Bush in the war in terror. Over fries.

38:33

And so they called it, no, no, no, but in

38:35

the White House, they refused to call it French fries.

38:37

They would call it freedom fries. I don't think it

38:39

was the White House. I think it was in red states.

38:42

That adds up. I went to a burger

38:44

restaurant in Oklahoma that still had freedom fries on

38:46

the menu. Wow. Incredible. That

38:49

is so funny. But so many people think that

38:51

you need to add MiraPaw Celery Onion Carrot to

38:53

any dish to quote, make it half flavor. Half

38:55

flavor, yeah. You can add anything. Dude, I'll use

38:57

Swiss chard stem in there. That's a great aromatic.

38:59

Leeks. The king of the onion family.

39:02

That's a great aromatic. You can do anything you

39:04

want. You don't have to compulsorily add anything

39:07

that you want into an aromatic that you don't want to. Not

39:09

at all. I agree. So actually,

39:11

I'm a huge chicken and dumplings fan. But

39:14

if we're talking Italian food, like of course you have

39:16

to, because there's only one way to do everything. Yeah,

39:18

so. For chicken and dumplings,

39:20

I've had multiple iterations of it,

39:22

and some of the best I've

39:24

had is just a pure chicken

39:26

and salt broth without any vegetables.

39:28

Talk about the Dolly Parton that's made. The Dolly Parton, pure

39:30

expression of chicken. I want to get sick just

39:32

to eat that. I know, right? It is

39:34

so good. It is like the most beautiful

39:37

expression of chicken and warmth and happiness that

39:39

I've ever had. And then there's some people

39:41

that, you know, they make it like down

39:43

home country. They put everything in there. They

39:45

put carrots, celery, onion, yada, yada, yada. And

39:48

it's so good and sick and beautiful. I

39:51

have never had it with leeks, but

39:53

I do think leeks would be phenomenal in

39:55

it because I frickin' love leeks. Especially a

39:57

lot of them. A lot of leeks. I just think. Leaks

40:00

are the unsung hero of the Allium

40:02

family and more people need to be enjoying leaks.

40:05

I scarred my body with it. I can't get buried

40:07

in Jewish cemetery now, Nicole. Yeah, it l- Oh,

40:10

that's unbelievable. New York Yankees. The

40:13

fact that you beat me through it and I

40:15

don't have any- I don't have like, no tattoos.

40:17

Me either. I don't have any tattoos either. You

40:19

know, I'm either gonna get betched on- Fell it.

40:21

On like, you know, my butt cheek or like

40:23

a meatball or like a pasta. What if people

40:25

say, why would you put a bumper sticker on a

40:27

Ferrari? On a Bentley. Kim Kardashian quote. Yeah,

40:30

Kim. Yeah, if it's like a really funny-

40:32

Kim, do you have any tattoos? She's like,

40:34

you can't put a bumper sticker on a Bentley. If it's like

40:36

a really funny bumper sticker, I'm doing it. It's like my

40:38

other cars, you know, something like that. Right, right, right, right.

40:40

Yeah, I'm doing it. I- I think- I

40:42

stopped adding carrots to most of my soups. Made them

40:44

better. Carrots too sweet. Carrots too sweet. Too sweet. Really

40:47

good. I like peas in my soup. Nice savory beef stew with

40:49

red wine. You're adding sugar through it? Nah, get the hell out

40:51

of here. Roast the carrots separately if you want them. Next. What's

40:54

this, Dassie? Hi, Nicole.

40:56

Hi, John. Hi. I'm May.

40:59

I'm a teacher in Omaha. Thank

41:01

you for having me. And I

41:03

wanted your opinion on the best

41:05

types of gluten-free products.

41:08

My partner is gluten-free, and we have found

41:11

the two best things that we buy all the time are

41:14

the Ube Pancakes from Trader

41:16

Joe's and the Supreme Gluten-Free

41:18

Pizza from Costco. Looking for

41:20

new suggestions, so please let

41:22

us know your thoughts. Love the pod. Thank

41:25

you. It's another one that I'm not really

41:27

a part of. Banza pasta. Have you had a banza

41:29

pasta? I hate banza pasta. Yeah, I've

41:31

had it. All I can think of is foam.

41:34

Yes. All the

41:36

foam. The aquafaba. When you get into

41:38

that realm of like, I've seen sort

41:40

of the back-end development of gluten-free pasta

41:42

and vegetable-based pasta and stuff, it's really

41:44

difficult to make a really good product.

41:46

Oh, 100%. So hard

41:49

to make. Whoever ends up really doing it. I've

41:52

heard there's some good ones, but I just feel like

41:54

they've got to do better branding or something. People need to know.

41:56

Yeah, there are certain things. So when I moved in with my... fiance

42:00

and you combine households and always,

42:02

but you also combine pantries and I'm cooking

42:04

almost all the meals for us. And

42:07

so she's one of those people that

42:09

if she ate pasta, it was always bands of

42:11

pasta. She was like, there's protein and no gluten,

42:13

whatever. If she ate

42:16

tortillas, it was always a whole wheat tortilla.

42:18

And I come in and I'm like, as

42:20

a chef, I don't want to budge on

42:22

any of these things, but you had to

42:24

make concessions. And so I kept the whole

42:26

wheat tortillas, but I instituted just normal semolina

42:29

durham flour pasta. And that was, you know,

42:31

my trade off. That's night and day. For

42:34

me, pasta is gluten like it, you know,

42:36

you can get, I love, I love rice

42:38

noodles. I love stir fried, you know,

42:40

but entirely different. I

42:43

refuse myself from the gluten free debate. I can talk

42:45

about this a little bit. You're going to have

42:47

to help them out. So Trader Joe's really does

42:49

a great job. I would say that two

42:51

best gluten free items are the gluten free

42:54

chicken mini tacos. One of my girlfriends, she

42:56

is very celiac and very gluten free. And

42:59

she eats these like candy, like she's obsessed with

43:01

them, eats them like three times a

43:03

week. And then also their

43:05

grainless granola is phenomenal.

43:09

Delicious. Nuts, honey,

43:11

seeds, delicious. Other than

43:14

that, I mean, I'm not a big

43:16

Bonsa pasta fan unless it's a pasta

43:18

salad because it's not pronounced Bonsa. I

43:20

don't know. Bonsa Bonsa. I

43:22

don't know. I couldn't tell you. But other than that,

43:24

I don't know that much about gluten free, but those

43:26

two are fantastic products.

43:29

Gluten free or not? My overall opinion on this

43:31

though is if you are gluten

43:33

free, you now

43:36

just just eat like a Japanese person,

43:38

right? Like a for like a for

43:40

like a feudal Japanese warlord, you'll probably

43:42

live longer anyway. You're

43:45

eating rice. Do it. Pickles,

43:47

like real proper fermented Sukemono

43:50

pickles and you're eating fish and

43:53

that's great. Or you're eating

43:55

like a pre-Hispanic Mexican, you

43:57

know, Before the conquistador thing.

44:00

In food stores, you're eating nixtamalized corn.

44:02

They ain't have no gluten. They weren't growing wheat

44:05

there. Just eat like that. You

44:07

eat corn tortillas and delicious gizados. That's

44:10

a good life. Eat before globalization came.

44:12

That's a good life. No, but I'm saying

44:14

go to the cultures that did not eat gluten

44:16

to figure out what to eat. When you're trying

44:18

to make gluten-free pizza, it's a losing battle. Yeah.

44:22

You're right. When I think about it all, I feel

44:24

like people have asked me this question before, like, would

44:26

you marry someone who's just

44:28

fully gluten-free? I'm

44:31

thinking about all those times in Italy, everywhere

44:33

around the world, that they just can't. I'll

44:36

tell you something. I eat

44:38

like whatever. There's someone out there for you, but

44:40

it might not be me. I eat

44:43

everything. My husband does not. And I

44:45

thought it was the biggest deal. I was like, I want me and

44:47

my husband to enjoy delicious charcuterie board. That's

44:49

my future goal. Drink wine

44:52

and eat charcuterie together and just enjoy life.

44:54

It is so insignificant in the grand scheme

44:57

of things. I'm just telling you, as

44:59

a 30-year-old man. You're going to end up with a beautiful, oh my,

45:02

a princess. Alleluia food eating princess. No,

45:04

gluten-free. She's going to be gluten-free. Oh,

45:06

you're... Alleluia. Alleluia. You're

45:08

going to be in Ixia, an

45:11

air-only concert. Like, you

45:13

just... Mm-hmm. You're

45:15

going to have to ask the server at the People

45:17

Ischian restaurant, just like, is this gluten-free? And then they're

45:19

going to judge you. What is a gluten? Cuts you

45:22

out. And you're going

45:24

to love each other so much. So much. Oh

45:26

my God. Beautiful, large sun cooking

45:28

the gluten-free ravioles. No.

45:32

No, for me. On

45:35

that note, thank you so much for tuning into

45:37

A Hot Dog is the Sandwiches. You got new

45:39

episodes every Wednesday. We got new episodes out on

45:41

YouTube on Sunday. Hot dogs are a sandwich. Thank

45:44

you. Gracie mille. If you

45:47

want to be featured on opinions on casseroles, hit

45:49

us up at 833-DOG-POD-1. And

45:52

if you want to make sure to check out John

45:54

Lucas' brand new cookbook, Italian-American. Thanks so much. Thank

45:57

you so much for coming. One-Stop Shop for all

45:59

your Italian-American recipes. Don't worry about it. Where can

46:01

the people find you? Plug your hands. It's

46:04

QCP, ITS, QCP, all platforms.

46:06

It's very hard to miss it. That's including SoundCloud.

46:10

Make sure we're bringing it back. I'm bored. I

46:12

just removed all my music on Spotify. You're

46:14

that guy.