As a small business owner, you call the shots and check the boxes.
You're also who gets called when there's a workplace accident.
Luckily, there's an easy way to keep your employees covered.
As easy as Pi. Talk to your agent about workers' comp coverage from Pi.
Or go to PiInsurance .com.
Safety first, then Pi Insurance.
Policies underwritten by the Pi Insurance Company or an affiliate.
Pi Insurance Services, Inc.
is a licensed agent.
Offers may vary. Not available in all states.
Subject to all policy terms and conditions.
Serious XM Podcasts to be a chef.
Okay. You get to ask each of them five questions.
Then you have to try to guess who are the chefs and who is the liar.
Okay. You ready? I think so.
I say that I'm not competitive, but I feel very strongly that I want to win today.
Now, okay, so I got to do the show open now.
I'm going to turn on my 1970s, 80s era game show announcer voice for this part.
All right, you ready?
Tell me how I do. Here we go.
Cue the cheesy game show music 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 And if it's summertime on the Sporkful That means it's time to play our annual game show Two Chefs'd a Lie Insert raucous audience applause here Rachel, oh wait, tell me three things that you enjoy Right now I'm really enjoying the lemon Talenti sorbet I've been eating a lot of that I enjoy my cat Oliver, he's orange Lemon Talenti sorbet, your cat Oliver, and?
I really enjoy a good pair of Birkenstocks Good pair of Birkenstocks, all right Now let's meet our contestant She enjoys lemon Talenti sorbet Her cat Oliver, and a great pair of Birkenstocks She's also the host of the hit podcast Normal Gossip.
Please welcome Rachel Hampton.
Hello, I'm so excited to be here.
Big audience applause.
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
All right, I'm going to go back to my normal voice now.
That felt like a lot of effort.
I might need to take five.
All right, so we're going to start the game up in just a minute, but first of all, Rachel, let's just get acquainted here.
You host the podcast Normal Gossip, which as we hang out We're right down here today in the middle of July.
Just as of today, Time magazine put out its list of the 100 best podcasts of all time.
And we both made the list. I think that's iconic that we're both here today.
It's great timing. It feels meant to be.
So congratulations to you.
Congratulations to you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Congratulations to us all.
It is, that is pretty cool.
Oh, I sent it to everyone I know immediately.
Normal gossip. For folks who haven't heard it, how would you describe it?
Well, it was started by one of my great friends, Kelsey McKinney, and I took it over over the last season.
So I just finished my first season.
And the premise is that we get gossip submitted to us by listeners and we anonymize it and then I tell it to a guest. And it's kind of a choose your own adventure where at critical parts during the story, I ask the guests, what would you do here?
Or do you agree with what our friend of our friend is doing here?
Or sometimes I just ask random questions like, how do you feel about twins?
spins. Right. I think that the great thing about your show is that you tapped into something that I don't know if I totally realized, which is that even if you don't know the people involved in a juicy piece of gossip, it's still really fun to hear about it.
Yes, that is the best gossip where you don't need to know anybody involved.
Right, right. Like, sometimes you'll be hanging out with a friend and they'll be like, oh my God, this crazy thing happened to my coworker.
And I don't know who any of these people are, but I'm still like, I'm here for this story.
I almost want it even more because i'm like i don't have any personal affiliation with these people i don't have to think they're good people i'm never going to see them again right yeah or at all yeah and you can also talk as much exactly as you want and and don't worry about who's going to get back to exactly i can psychoanalyze as much as my heart wants that's um is there one episode from this past season that especially stuck out to you and especially juicy one oh i really love our season finale our guest was shea coulee who is the winner of a of season nine of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.
So they are a legend among legends.
And we told the story of a polycule happening on a bee farm, which was just, I am fascinated by ethical non -monogamy and polyamory because seemingly everyone is doing it.
And so I always want to hear how people are doing it badly.
All right. Well, I'm really excited to have you here, Rachel.
And we wanted to have you here because we played this game before.
So I was always the contestant.
I was trying to figure out who the liar was.
The first couple of times we did it, I failed.
Then I felt like I started to get better at it.
And the last two years we did it, I got it right both times.
And we said, you know what, let's mix it up.
It's going to be more fun if I'm sort of the MC and we bring in a guest contestant.
I feel very flattered.
Now I feel like I have to get it right.
Well, whatever. I interview people too, and I got it wrong the first couple of times.
That does make me feel better.
So don't feel bad, whatever happens.
So Rachel, as I said, this game is like Two Truths and a Lie, but it's Two Chefs and a Lie.
We have three people on Zoom.
Each one's going to come on and give you like a brief bio.
And then you get to ask each of them five questions after hearing the bio.
Then you get to spot who is not a real chef, aka the liar.
And while you are our in -studio contestant, I want to remind listeners that you too can play at home, okay?
This is an audience participation game.
You're encouraged to play along.
along, you are all contestants.
Couple more quick rules.
The guests we're going to talk to are joining us by Zoom, but their cameras are off.
So Rachel is not going to be able to see them.
She's not going to have any information that you, the listeners, don't have. You're all on equal footing.
No Google, no AI. Obviously, that makes it too easy.
And I do want to also say that while I am in the role of MC here today, I do not know who the liar is.
Because I didn't want to give anything away by accident.
So I don't know either.
OK, producer Andres has put this all together and I'm going to do it as blind as you are.
Before we get started, Rachel, as my 14 year old would say, what's the strat?
Oh, I've actually been thinking about this.
OK, the strategy coming in.
I'm translating for our older listeners.
That means strategy.
I'm going to be taking that from your 14 year old, by the way.
That's great. I've been thinking of questions.
I've been thinking Speaking of which questions feel the most revealing, I've been like, OK, what pan do you cook on at home?
Like, what's your worst kitchen injury?
I feel like it's going to be both prepared questions that I have and on the fly momentary of picking up on what people are saying.
OK. Yeah. All right.
All right. That sounds that sounds good.
I'm going to try. All right.
You ready, Rachel? As ready as I'll ever be.
All right. It's time to play Two Chefs Set Away.
All right, let's meet our first guest. We have Sarah.
Hey, Sarah. Hi, super excited to be here.
Thanks for joining us.
You're on with Rachel here, our contestant in this year's edition of the show.
Hello. Why don't you start off and give us your bio?
Who are you? I'll just start off.
I was raised in New Jersey, and I live out in L .A.
And I work here as a chef.
I'm the CDC of the restaurant Amelia, which is like a glassful park.
you know, classic. Everyone down the street coming through, it's, we're doing like locally inspired dishes and like with Greek influence.
And, you know, I run it with my pastry chef.
He was actually a classmate of mine from the CIA. His name is Michael Tang.
And we've, you know, been on Eater LA, you know, we've been on very, like a lot of young TikTok pages of where to try on the East side.
And I guess we're best known for our spanakopita crab dip.
And we have a a babka ice cream that's like pretty out of this world.
And I just think that like salt and you know, good attitude is everything you need in a restaurant.
All right, Rachel, that's Sarah's bio.
There's a lot of information in there already.
But of course, a liar could prepare a bio.
So I'm going to turn it to you.
You have five questions.
Ooh, okay. Hello, Sarah.
Hi. That spanakopita crab dip sounds incredible.
Did you come up with that recipe yourself?
Yeah you know like I'm half Greek and like when you grow up just eating spanakopita you just like you know it it tastes such a specific way but when I came out to LA there's just so much like seafood out here and there's so much influence like there's a restaurant called Queen's there's like found oyster and so just from like that experience I just was like how do I combine this and we ended up finding it me Me and Michael, actually, he was helpful because we like use phyllo dough trying to make the dip, like the kind of like the cracker situation.
So it, yeah, it was kind of like my brainchild, I guess.
I love that. Do you have a recipe, a brainchild that hasn't quite made its way into the world yet?
Like something that you've been testing that doesn't quite work yet?
It's so funny you say that.
I was just, I was at the Atwater Farmer's Market on Sunday, and there were these Jimmy Nardello peppers, and they looked like so good.
I saw them there and they were so pretty and I was like, I want to make a hummus dip situation with them and just find a way to bring that heat into the hummus So that's kind of what I'm working on right now for a seasonal dish Okay, okay, if I come to LA and you turn out not to be a liar I will be coming to your restaurant No, you really do have to come I mean, who would set you up We have the Spritz, that's like out of this world Alright, so that's two questions down, Rachel Okay.
It sounds like you went to culinary school.
When did you start cooking?
Like what was the what was the moment you were like, this is going to be my career path?
I grew up in the kitchen with like my family for sure.
I'm half Jewish, half Greek.
So it's just a lot of like mix of that type of thing.
I actually was going to school to be a lawyer.
I was like pre -law, all that stuff.
And then I realized that I was actually happier just like cooking with my family.
And so from there I was like, I actually want to do this right.
Right. So I went and I got a degree from the CIA and then I moved out to L .A.
and I worked at Republic as a line cook for a while and got like the basic, you know, fine dining skills in that way.
And then I took that and like my love for fresh produce and just kind of ran with it.
And you learn so much just like by doing and watching.
That makes a lot of sense.
I mean, speaking of doing, what is the worst kitchen injury you've ever had?
Oh, my God. That's question four.
Question four. All right.
That's a good one. god what's the kitchen injury that made me like sea stars um like oh man there's so many you just forget you look at your hand and you're like I'm covered and just you know battle battle wounds um god the worst one I was oh my god I was I was learning how to um cut lamb basically like I was learning how to like butcher I was holding the knife and I'm a lefty and so I went to cut And I like sliced like a decent chunk of like my pointer finger.
I'm looking at it right now and I'm like seeing the scar.
And I had to get stitches like immediately like evacuate from the kitchen.
Rachel has a look on her face like she's sorry she asked this question.
And I'll stop there.
But I want you to know that like I did take a moment.
I was like, I'm going to peel vegetables for a couple of weeks and I'll come back to this.
Well, if you turn out to be telling the truth, Sarah, we're going to need to see a picture of that finger.
Yeah. Oh. Oh, I've got it.
although she could be a liar who cut off her finger some other way no it's so true last question for sarah okay a lot riding here on the last question final question feeling so much pressure don't waste it rachel and now the pressure has increased do you have a favorite food network chef chef oh my god that's such a good question I feel like I'm honestly I feel like I'm more of like a top chef aficionado and I feel like I just have seen so many of them in the circuit which is just so cool to see them win I guess like right now like I'm just obsessed with Tristan Epps who just won top chef and I
just think he's just like such a talent I'm really excited to see what he does next I mean the flavors that he brings out of his food it's just like really and like the story he tells through his food is unbelievable so I would recommend if you're looking for a binge this past season of Top Chef.
I love reality television, so that is a great recommendation.
Honestly, the same.
Alright, Sarah, thank you so much for answering those questions.
We're going to put you on hold.
You're going to go into our green room, our virtual green room, and stand by as we move on through the show, alright?
Alright, Hurd, thank you guys so much. This was so fun.
Big fan. Thanks. Sarah said, Hurd, like we're in the bear.
Yeah. I was just noticing that, too.
All right, Rachel, that was Sarah.
Thoughts? Sarah, to me, sounds like a real chef.
There were a lot of details in there that felt very off the cuff.
Maybe I am very led astray by actors, but Sarah felt real to me.
And also, she promised to hook me up with the Spritz.
So I really hope that she's real.
Right, there were a lot of details in there.
she offered more information than she had to, which could mean she's got nothing to hide.
Yeah. It could also mean that she's overcompensating for something.
You're so right. Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Now you're leading me astray.
A lot to think about here.
I'm thinking. The thoughts, they are churning.
Well, keep them churning, Rachel.
show we're gonna take a quick break when we come back we will meet our other two guests and then rachel you and our listeners at home will have to decide who are the chefs and who is the liar stick around time to cook up some advertisements Heisman.
If you heard our recent episode in which I ate my way across Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, then you know how much fun I had.
You know how delicious it was.
The soul food at Big Mike's, the coffee and incredible brunch at Croissant's Bistro and Bakery, and the fish and quail and duck at Rivertown Bistro.
And when you go to Myrtle Beach, you can soak in the sunshine along along 60 miles of beaches.
You can take a dip in the ocean, dine on fresh seafood, get post beach ice cream, sip colorful cocktails by the pool, and then listen to live music outside Myrtle Beach's many beach bars.
Now I know what you're thinking, but Dan, I've already planned my summer.
I already have my summer trips all worked out.
How can I squeeze in Myrtle Beach?
Well, I'll tell you how.
Make your summer longer.
That's the beauty of Myrtle Beach. Air and water temps stay nice and warm, well -passed Labor Day so you can hold on to that sweet summer vacation feeling without the bustle of peak travel season.
Not ready to let go of summer just yet?
Get some more at The Beach, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Start planning at visitmyrtlebeach .com.
As a small business owner, you call the shots and check the boxes.
You're also who gets called when there's a workplace accident.
Luckily, there's an easy way to keep your employees covered, as easy as pie.
Talk to Ask your agent about workers' comp coverage from P .I.
or go to pieinsurance .com.
Safety first, then P .I.
Insurance. Policies underwritten by the P .I.
Insurance Company or an affiliate.
P .I. Insurance Services, Inc.
is a licensed agent.
Offers may vary, not available in all states.
Subject to all policy terms and conditions.
Do you like sports but in a chill, no stats required kind of way?
Maybe remember the mascot from the Pop -Tart Bowl being toasted in a giant toaster more than the score of the actual game.
Well, if that sounds like you, then you're going to love the podcast Casuals with Katie Nolan.
You heard Katie right here on The Sporkful.
We had a great time a couple months back.
Well, guess what? Now she's here to make sports podcasts more fun.
On her show, Casuals, she breaks down the sports stories you care about and the ones you didn't know you needed.
Casuals is a podcast for anyone who loves sports a regular amount.
Listen to Casuals with Katie Nolan wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back to The Sporkful.
I'm Dan Pashman, and I got something to tell you.
I love ice cream. It's probably my number one favorite sweet, and I have always dreamed of designing my own ice cream flavor or ice cream sandwich. And now I am so happy to tell you that over the past few weeks, that dream has become a reality.
I'm teaming up with my friends at Heaps Ice Cream in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to launch a limited run ice cream sandwich. Now, I'm not going to tell you what's in it, We will have the whole story of its creation in next week's show.
And then I will be at Heaps when the sandwich goes on sale next Thursday, August 14th at 7 p .m. Come on down, hang out and eat some ice cream with me while supplies last. One more quick note.
Make sure you stick around at the end of this episode so you can hear a special bonus segment brought to you by Samsung.
all right now let's return to our annual game show episode two chefs and a lie my guest is rachel hampton host of the podcast normal gossip racially ready to meet guest number two i am okay say hello to grace hey guys how's it going hello hey grace this is rachel hi rachel now grace why why don't you give us your bio and then Rachel can begin to ask her questions.
Yeah, totally. So, I'm a private chef in LA.
I started my food career on the line and some greasy spoons, but I fell into butchery and I loved everything about that.
So, during COVID, I decided to make the jump to cooking privately and it's kind of like being a freelance chef.
I run a meal prep business.
I do catering and I love cooking with my friends for their pop -ups, like one is Chainsaw LA.
I do live fire cooking there.
I've cooked in alleys, on ranches, in restaurants and in billionaires' homes, being a private chef is kind of like being a fly on the wall.
Oh. There's some gossip there, I'll bet.
This is a guest for your show, Rachel.
That was actually going to be my first question, which is if you can share, what is the craziest piece of gossip that you've either witnessed or heard in your private chef career?
So I work over in, you know, the Brentwood area and over in the hills and stuff.
And one time I was cooking dinner Or kind of within earshot of the table And I heard somebody name drop Diddy While everything was going on So that was kind of crazy to me While everything was going on Meaning like all the charges and everything Exactly yeah They name dropped him And didn't call him Diddy Called him Sean On a first name basis so Not the government name I know How did you know that was the Sean they were talking about They clarified of course Oh.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That doesn't count as one of the questions.
That's just host prerogative to a follow -up.
Thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate that. All right, so that's one question down, Rachel.
Okay. I have follow -up questions about that, but I don't think they'll help.
We'll connect you with Grace afterwards for a possible segment on Normal Guy.
If you turn out to not be a liar, do you want to hear more about that?
Absolutely. I got stories.
Okay. Okay. As a private chef, what is the meal that your clients request the most?
So I actually do meal prep mostly.
And so I really like to give my clients as much diversity as possible.
I would say right now, most of my clients are on like a soup binge, which is weird because it's so hot.
That makes me sad on multiple levels.
I like a nice soup but like you asked I'm just answering it's I'm not I'm not about to binge it no exactly it's giving broth diet I understand bone broth has a lot of protein but I get it I know it's kind of the vibes over in Brentwood okay you mentioned that you started in butchery which means I'm going to repeat a question that did cause me some distress earlier but I do I I would like to know what has been your worst kitchen injury?
Well, funny enough, with my background being in butchery, none of my injuries came from cutting up meat.
My worst injury of all time is from a vegetable peeler.
Just took a big chunk out of my palm, peeling like a potato or something.
Brand new, brand new peeler.
Those things come sharp.
Does that mean you no longer have fingerprints?
I mean, those were burned off a while ago.
I do a lot of live fire cooking, so those have been gone.
You're like a supervillain.
This is not one of my questions, but can you commit crimes now that you don't have fingerprints?
Right, you're basically invisible.
You're like off the grid.
I'll let you know. Three questions down, two to go, Rachel.
Okay, you mentioned that you do some of your friends' pop -ups.
What was the last pop -up that you did?
Yeah, the last one that I did was with Karla Subro -Pittall of Chainsaw LA.
It's like a live fire situation.
we set up like a big dome typically out in her backyard and we just hang like whole chickens or whole fish or pineapples or whatever and smoke them all day that sounds really lovely yeah you should come by if you turn out not to be a liar I will be there final question for grace make it count all right if you were to come home 2 a .m after a night out what are you making what's what's What's the easy meal that you just immediately go to?
Oh, well, OK, I love this question, first and foremost, because this is also like a hangover cure.
You know, stop it, but it's proactive.
Do ceviche. Make ceviche.
Go make something with a lot of citrus in there.
Save yourself. Save your life.
Wow. That's fancy for 2 a .m. Hey, a kitchen sink ceviche is the best. You're saying that's what you like to make when you come home after drinking so you don't get a hangover?
You have ceviche? Precisely.
All right, I'm not going to comment on that.
All right, Grace, please stand by.
You can go into our virtual green room hangout, and we'll come back at the end.
Yes, chef, sounds good.
Appreciate you. Rachel, thoughts on Grace?
The ceviche at 2 a .m. is giving me pause, and in contrast to Sarah's answers, I feel like Grace's answers were shorter, and I can't tell if that's just like, I don't know, imagine if you're a line cook then you're not talking a whole lot so maybe you're just used to not talking very verbosely but i'm i have some suspicions about grace although i think the ceviche at 2 a .m you could read either way exactly because on one hand it's like you know citrus on a drunk stomach seems like a bad idea on the other hand like grace's system may function differently from yours and mine that is true the fact
that she's coming home at 2 a .m and making Making and eating ceviche could be like the chefiest thing I ever heard. And I'm like, is it so chefy that it has to be true or is it so chefy that it's fake?
Rachel, before we turn to our third and final guest, just general impressions.
How are you feeling about how things are going?
What are your thoughts on the game?
I'm feeling good. The questions that I'm asking are not necessarily the ones that I came in with, which can either be a good thing or a bad thing.
We'll find out at the end.
time to turn now to our third and final guest Rachel say hello to Danielle hello Rachel hi all right well I'll turn it over to you Danielle please give us your brief bio okay I'm from Louisville Kentucky I currently work as a private chef but also do catering and pop -ups I started cooking in college actually making pound cakes out of my dorm room and then I started started cooking for the college coffee shop, began professionally cooking.
Many years ago in Brooklyn with my then partner, we did pop -ups.
He's from Lima. I'm from Louisville.
So we would do Peruvian savories and then Southern desserts.
We then brought the show to LA.
Didn't really know too many people.
I had to do a struggle job.
I started working as as a bra fitter at a place that specialized in bras for, you know, well -endowed ladies.
It was owned by a character actor who has a cult following.
So I'm one of the few people in town that could guess your bra size within like three tries and make you like the best biscuits of your life.
Wow. Wow. I currently am working as a private chef on the West Side for a lady whose list of restrictions is pretty incredible.
Something to behold, even for West LA.
It's pretty nuts. It's really crazy.
That's all you really need to know about me for now.
All right. Well, I feel like this could be another guest for you here, Rachel.
Danielle probably has some good bra fitting stories.
Oh, there were so many potential avenues of gossip in your bio, Danielle.
I'm very excited to get into it.
I guess you mentioned your clients crazy list of restrictions.
What what are they?
Oh, if you can share.
No, no, it's fine. She's she's old.
She doesn't listen to the podcast. She's not listening to this show.
No, let me see where to begin.
OK, so some of it is pretty normal.
Like she doesn't do any of the nightshades with the exception of pepper.
So no potatoes, no tomatoes, no eggplant, no rice.
She likes her meats boneless, skinless, as much fat cut off as possible.
This is sadder than the soup, people.
Yeah. At first I was able to do duck, but now that's too fatty.
She doesn't eat green beans.
She doesn't eat chocolate.
Only low -fat dairy for boiling vegetables, making stocks.
Only mountain valley spring water.
Wait wait you're Yeah you heard me right You're making chicken stock with bottled water Yeah well I mean In her very meager defense I will say she has it delivered In big glass bottles So they are reusable but yeah it's pretty It's pretty something It sounds crazy and it is But I do cook more than you would think I cook for her I just want to point out it's funny to me Rachel She's like you know the normal stuff like no nightshades Like no potatoes no like one of the bedrock Foods of most of the planet I also immediately had the same thought.
I was like, what is a nightshade?
And then you expounded and I said, oh, I couldn't do that.
I wouldn't be able to do that.
So that was question number one.
That was question number one.
Okay. You mentioned pound cake.
Tell me about your pound cake recipe.
This might be for personal use, but this is also for informational.
My pound cake is from my mom.
It's my mom's recipe.
Though, though my mom had more of a Southern palate and I had to adjust that a little bit.
So there's a little less sugar in it, but it's still, if she were alive, she would taste it and tell you it's still her cake.
And I do various variations of it.
Like I have an elderflower lemon pound cake recipe based on her lemon pound cake, passion fruit pound cake.
I mean, it's over the top.
It's what I like. It's decadent.
It's something my client would not touch. You know, it's perfect.
It's my mom's. It's my mama's.
That sounds absolutely delicious.
So, you moved from Louisville to Brooklyn, then to L .A.?
Sort of. I moved from Louisville to Bronxville, where I went to college, to New York City proper, or Brooklyn specifically, then L .A.
Okay. I'm going to say this is part B of that question, so this counts as one question.
Okay. I'll allow it.
What is your favorite city to eat in of the ones that you've lived in?
I'm going to take the host prerogative and add why to that question.
This is still the same question.
Well, I mean, if it was just to eat, I would say Louisville because, you know, family's there.
My favorite restaurant in America is there.
But if we're talking about eating with friends, most of my closest friends are in New York.
I like how people eat in New York.
You get to go later.
It's more decadent.
People drink more New York, for sure.
And also the restaurants in New York are much better than in L .A.
They all hate me for it, but it's true.
Oh, okay. It feels controversial.
Yeah. Quick aside, Danielle.
What's the best restaurant in America that's in Louisville?
Jack Fry's. It's been around for ages, and it's just southern decadence.
I mean, it's what I want.
If I'm in Louisville for 10 days, I'm at Jack Fry's twice.
I'm eating oysters and grits and all that stuff.
They do a lot of French stuff with it.
It's the best restaurant in America.
Was that three questions, Rachel?
That was three questions.
One of them was multiple parts.
Right, right. Okay.
Two questions left. You have a palate that sounds very similar to mine, which is Southern -inflected and kind of decadent, which makes me want to ask, if you were to come home at 2 a .m., hungover, after a long night, what are you making for yourself?
Spaghetti carbonara.
Can you elaborate on that, Danielle?
Like, why is that the dish?
How do you make it?
I tend to have guanciale in the freezer.
It's easy enough to do.
Guanciale, egg. I actually do garlic.
I like chili pepper flakes.
My ex -boyfriend now, he would add a little lemon to make it brighter, and I picked that up from him, a lot of pepper.
I mean, if I come home drunk, I don't want to wake up too hungover, so I want something heavy, so I would just have that and hopefully a cup of tea.
Okay, okay, and last question?
Last question of the game here, Rachel.
This is your last chance to suss out the liar.
What do you got? Okay.
what do you think is your best recipe my biscuit recipe it took me a long time to get it right I mean it's still very traditional but it it's it's really decadent like I use more cream than buttermilk I use like European style butter white lily flower that's only sold in one place in LA had to track it down I think it's where I can say like this is probably one of the better biscuits you're gonna have okay that sounds incredible I love a good biscuit Danielle thank you so much please enter our virtual green room and we'll be back with you shortly Rachel we're we're quickly approaching the moment
of truth here first off what were your thoughts Thoughts on Danielle in particular, our third guest. Danielle, if she is real, sounds like a woman after my own heart.
All of her food choices just hit right close to home.
Spaghetti carbonara at 2 a .m. sounds impeccable.
And that biscuit recipe, I want to try it.
So our first guest was Sarah, who claims to be from a restaurant called Amelia.
She's from New Jersey, was going to go to law school, then decided to get into restaurants.
and she has this greek inflected place with the spanakopita crab dip right and the and the babka what was there babka ice cream oh mercy i know what are your thoughts on sarah like what's in favor of saying she's a real chef what's in favor of saying she's a liar in favor i feel like when i asked her her worst kitchen injury she said she was literally looking at her pointer finger and i feel like that kind of detail feels very real and everything she she described on her menu just sounded so good.
And so I hope that she's not lying because I wish to go to this restaurant and get the spanakopita crab dip and the babka ice cream.
And what about a con for Sarah?
What suggests to you that she might be lying?
I feel like you mentioned this.
The amount of detail could be someone who has just had a very involved thinking session about what they're going to say when they come in here.
Right. They were doing a whole Stanislavski ski method on us.
Like they invented a whole backstory.
Exactly. And so I feel like when you give too much detail, it often indicates that you're lying.
Like very often short answers are just like, there's nothing more to say.
Our second guest was Grace.
Grace was the one who cooks a wide range of different kinds of things.
She and her friends like to hang out and hang chickens and pineapples and other animals over smokers all day.
So that was Grace. So what are your thoughts on grace what points you in the direction that she might be a real chef and what makes you skeptical of her I'm skeptical because of the lack of detail and then the ceviche detail I can't decide if it's pro or con because it feels very chefy as we said to come home and eat ceviche after being drunk but also it feels so chefy that it feels almost like a parody and so I'm unsure of which direction we're going in here.
And then the third and final guest we heard from was Danielle, who we just heard, also a private chef.
She has one particularly finicky client, an older lady who doesn't like anything really.
Yeah. But mounds bring water.
Right. Who makes chicken broth made with bottled water.
So, Rachel, what are your thoughts on Danielle?
Pros and cons in favor of either direction?
direction much like sarah if danielle turns out to be fake i'll be upset because the pound cake and the biscuits sound incredible and i want to go look up these recipes yeah um i do feel like and this might be a con for both grace and danielle i feel like being a private chef i'm like that feels easier to lie about interesting yeah but also the specificity of no nightshades no rice and making broth with bottled water that feels incredible if she was making it up yeah right yeah why do you think it's easier to lie about being a private chef i feel like with a private chef there's less corroboration like
as a private chef you you can make up anything you want about your clients right and also we've been to restaurants restaurants.
I've never had a private chef.
It's true. So I kind of, right.
So it's like we have more to go on if someone's saying they're in a restaurant.
It's true. Interesting.
All right, Rachel. Well, I think we've asked all the questions.
We've thought it through.
I'm going to pause now for a brief musical interlude to allow you and our listeners to finalize their guesses.
All right, Rachel, the moment is upon us.
It's time for you to guess who is the liar.
Is it guest number one, Sarah?
Is it guest number two, Grace?
Or is it guest number three, Danielle?
What is your answer?
I think the liar is guest number two, Grace.
And if I'm wrong, I'm so sorry.
All right. It's time for the big reveal.
We're turning on the camera in our studio in L .A.
where all three of our guests have been together all along.
And we want you to reveal who is the liar.
That would be me, Sarah.
Sarah, no! Bombshell.
Wow. Wow. Wow. You were right about the amount of detail, but also I'm so disappointed that Crab Dip sounded so good.
Oh, man. So, Sarah, introduce yourself.
Who are you and how'd you come up with the idea of Spanakopa to Crab Dip?
Great question. Hi, guys.
I'm actually Lucy Grebin.
I'm a comedian, actor, and writer living in L .A., doing stand -up, making TikToks with my sketch group, Livin' Laughin' Lovin'.
So nice to meet you, big fans.
You were on to me in a big way.
And I was like, I got to figure something out.
But I was honestly just like at first I was going to maybe be a private chef.
But then we had two.
So I was like, all right, I guess I have a restaurant now.
And I guess I'm the proud owner of a restaurant.
And I really I love spanakopita.
And so I was like, I'll be Greek.
And I love krabditz.
So I combined them and I was like, it sounds just L .A.
pretentious enough and just like kind of gross enough, but also done well, delicious enough to work.
and are you actually from New Jersey I am actually from Jersey yeah are you half Greek no I'm just full Jewish okay so many lies Rachel what are your thoughts I'm not gonna lie I'm a little disappointed and I was really looking forward to coming to your restaurant Sam I was like Sam's gonna hook me up with the spritz and some babka ice cream.
Grace, let me turn to you next.
Rachel thought that you were the liar.
How did that make you feel?
As soon as I heard Sarah or Lucy's well thought out intro, I was like, oh, it's not going to be as easy to do this off the rip and sound legit as I thought.
She definitely put in a lot of a lot of a lot of work, a lot of study and a lot of effort into that.
So and kind of halfway through it, I think we kind of looked at each other and I was I was like, dude, maybe I just act like I'm not the one, you know?
Because that's really good.
You, like, really did that up.
This is actually, this is a new wrinkle.
This is the first time all three of our guests were in the same place.
Oh, really? So this sort of allowed them to sort of conspire together, which is kind of fun, actually.
No, it was very fun.
I was very impressed with her bio.
And, of course, Danielle's whole bit was, real bio was incredible.
Right. Well, Sarah, a .k .a.
Lucy, Grace, and Danielle, thank you all so much for joining us for this edition of Two Chefs and a Lie.
So, Rachel, thoughts?
I feel so bad for slandering Grace.
It's part of the game.
It's part of the game.
I really fell hard for Sarah.
I was so excited. I was planning my next trip to L .A.
You already had restaurants picked out.
I did. I did. I did.
I did. You know, I'm a real sucker for a large amount of detail, which as someone who hosts a podcast about details that are sometimes true and sometimes not, I should really be better about.
But it's true. And that was what I always struggle with in the times that I got it right versus wrong.
It's like how much weight to put to different things, because on one hand, shorter answers or more vague answers may think that person is lying.
But also if a person is a chef who isn't typically interviewed and is maybe a little bit nervous or shy they also might give shorter answers or not go into so much detail without some prodding and so it's hard to know when you're getting those kinds of answers is it that they ran out of lies yeah or is it that there's like sort of a normal somewhat shy human being who's not used to getting interviewed i know i know it's a real catch -22 well you did a great job rachel don't feel bad as i said i got it wrong it was two or three years the first two or three times we played this game i failed to get
the the correct answer.
So you should not feel bad.
That makes me feel a lot better.
I'm glad we started with that information because if I went through this thinking that Dan had gotten this right every single year, I would have been looking for the nearest window.
Well, you did great anyway.
It's been great having you.
Rachel Hampton hosts the excellent podcast Normal Gossip from our friends at Defector and Radiotopia.
Definitely check it out.
It's fun. It's juicy.
It's got great stories in it.
It kind of has everything that makes a great podcast all rolled into one.
And as of today, as we tape this, it is one of the 100 best podcasts of all time, according to Time magazine, as is this one.
Yes. All right. Well, thanks so much, Rachel.
Thank you so much, Dan.
Thank you for having me.
If you want to learn more about our guests, Chef Danielle's website is de -pores .com.
Grace is on Instagram at yourchefgrace.
And check out our liar, Lucy.
Lucy. She's an actor, comedian, writer, and generally incredibly hilarious person.
She's on Instagram at Lucy Grebin.
That's G -R -E -B -I -N.
Check out her stuff and her great work with her comedy troupe at Third Base Comedy.
Next week on the show, what makes a standout ice cream sandwich?
I go inside the R &D process for one ice cream shop, and I get to pitch my own ice cream sandwich concept.
There will be a sandwich. And remember, I will be there at Heap's Ice Cream in Park Slope, Brooklyn next Thursday, August 14th at 7pm when the sandwich goes on sale.
Get psyched for that episode.
And if you're in the neighborhood, come on down.
Why wait for that one?
Check out last week's show.
Are carbs better for you in Europe?
Everyone says that.
Is it true? Why do so many exclusive restaurants have bad food?
And should you avoid eating bagged salad greens?
All that and more in our Salad Spinner.
This episode was produced by me along with managing producer Emma Morgenstern and senior producer Andres O 'Hara.
Our engineer is Jared O 'Connell.
Music help from Black Label Music.
The Sporkful is a production of Stitcher Studios.
Our executive producer is Camille Stanley.
Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.
And I'm Doug Hastings in Seattle, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.
This segment is brought to you by Samsung Bespoke Appliances.
Now we're going to see what's cooking in the kitchen with our new bespoke wall oven.
Today, I'm in the Samsung Test Kitchen with DJ, the Senior National Training Manager for Samsung Digital Appliances.
Or, to put his job in simpler terms, he's basically a kitchen appliance nerd who explains all of Samsung's amazing new technology to regular folks like me.
And today, it's all about their bespoke oven.
Off the bat, it just looks sleek with clean, modern aesthetics.
There aren't even any visible handles.
But that's no problem for me in this focaccia we're about to bake.
This is the beauty of it.
You can do it with your elbow.
You don't need a free hand to touch the handle.
The door is open. Wow.
There we go. All right, so we just put a focaccia into the oven.
There you go. Pretty much everything you can possibly think of from cooking technologies is inside of this oven.
And there's one feature I read about on this oven that I'll be honest with you, DJ, I'm a little skeptical of.
Okay. No preheat. Yeah, so this does have the option for air fry, so it's going to be able to take into account the airflow flow and being able to move that airflow quickly, but also take advantage of the broiler to get that up to speed.
So it uses the broiler like temporarily to heat faster.
Yes. And then the broiler will automatically shut off and it'll continue to air fry.
Correct. And am I right, this thing's got a camera in it?
This definitely has a camera on it.
And one of the cool things that you can do is pull up your SmartThings application on your phone, and then it allows you to get like a sneak peek.
I feel like I would just hang out and watch things in my oven all the the time.
100%. Think about browning, being able to see how something's rising.
I just think about when I was a kid, the way I knew the cookies were done was I stuck my nose to the actual, the door itself to see exactly how close they are.
So, you can still do that, but now on the comfort of your couch. Or even when you're out.
Right. But you know what would be cool?
Can it tell you when it's done?
Yes, it can tell you when it's done.
One of the cool things you can do with this also is there's an option for a temperature probe.
So, maybe you like something to be specifically medium rare.
And as you know, you want to also get it out to be able to rest and still kind of be cooking a little bit.
So this is going to be able to tell you that target temperature to get that roast out exactly when you want.
Will it tell you how much time until it hits the temp?
Yep. It'll give you an estimated time, but then it also gives you a notification alert.
So maybe you're out front doing yard work and then it could say that, hey, this target temperature has been hit or it's getting close to hit so that you can get inside and take that out of the oven.
And it also takes into account resting time.
Wow. With Samsung's SmartThings app, I can get that notification that my roast is about to be done wherever I am, whatever I'm doing.
On my phone or TV. This is an issue.
I think I'm a pretty good home cook.
But when I screw up in the kitchen, it's often because I'm trying to do too many things at once.
I got the grill going.
I got the stove going.
I got the oven going.
There's kids running everywhere.
I'm in a rush, and I lose track of something.
You're telling me that this will alert me.
Yeah, as long as you have a mobile device on you or maybe you're near the TV, it'll be able to give you that information.
So notifications are probably the most popular thing that people love about SmartThings.
Let me tell you something.
You get this bespoke oven, you're going to be able to get rid of a lot of old appliances because this oven is an air fryer, a steamer.
It's even got a sous vide function.
It uses air circulation for slow cooking.
It's also got some pretty cool time -saving features.
So I'm just looking at the oven.
There's a metal sort of tray right across the center that says Flex Duo.
Yes. What's that? That's our smart divider.
So can you think of a time when maybe you had to cook more than one thing at a time, especially like holidays or large gatherings?
Yes. 100 % So the idea here is how can I get more done with a short amount of timeframe?
Dual convection here really gives us that added option.
So if I want to broil something on the top and then down below having a convection bake I can do that and save that extra time.
Wow. And then the best part about it is it's removable.
So we can take that Flex Duo smart divider out, and when it's time for let's say Thanksgiving and you need to get the big bird in there I can use the full capacity that that's got The focaccia finished baking with time to spare thanks to the no preheat feature and let me tell you it was so good golden brown and crispy on the outside perfectly airy and chewy on the inside phenomenal flavor phenomenal texture all at the same time Thanks Oven I'm grabbing a piece of focaccia I'm just going hands here okay Thanks again to our sponsor sponsor Samsung for inviting us to test out their new product features.
Let me tell you, I especially loved the way this wall oven works with the fridge and the other appliances.
Like through the SmartThings app, they're all connected and you can look up a recipe on the fridge and it sends it to the oven.
Everything is working in concert.
Like I said, the smart wall oven camera live streams video to your smartphones.
You can easily check on meals as they cook.
Save time and convert your top oven into two with the Flex Duo Dual Oven Removable Divider.
You can even cook They cook three separate dishes at their own distinct temperatures and settings all at once.
Samsung's new line of bespoke AI appliances simplifies your time in the kitchen.
Visit Samsung .com slash bespoke to learn more.
The SmartThings app is available on Android and iOS devices.
A Wi -Fi connection and a Samsung account are required.
As a small business owner, you call the shots and check the boxes.
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