- My next guest is as well-known in LA
as anyone on the Walk of Fame.
For 23 years, he worked at the legendary
Dan Tana's Restaurant,
climbing up the ranks from server to general manager.
Then 10 years ago, he took a chance and opened his own spot
called Craig's, which I love.
It's been a huge success.
Let's get Craig Susser on the line right now.
What's up, Craig?
How are you doing?
- I'm good, how are you?
- I'm good actually.
I'm having a great day, so woo!
- All right. - I love your restaurant.
- Such great food.
The restaurant is kind of a celeb hot spot as well.
Every time, I've been there a few times,
and every time I go there, there's so many people there.
Do you ever get starstruck?
- Yeah, I do get starstruck.
I mean, most of the time I just try to keep it in
and pretend like I'm not being starstruck,
but every once in a while, it does escape.
And I think the only time that I actually dropped the mask
was when I met Mick Jagger and I turned around
and a four letter word came out of my mouth,
and he just looked at me and said,
"Yeah, I get that all the time." (laughs)
- That's awesome!
- I think he's kinda used to it.
- "I get that all the time," that's so rock and roll.
That's so cool.
Well, I think you're allowed to with him.
So we're in the middle of our Summer Staycation Celebration
right now on the show, and I understand your Chef
has created a dish just for us for the occasion.
- So what I'll do is I think I'll walk back to the kitchen,
we'll introduce you to Chef,
we'll make a really simple, easy Summer Staycation dish.
You're actually walking - Okay.
through the kitchen right now.
- Yeah!
- [Craig] And here we are with Chef.
- Hi!
- [Craig] All right, so we're gonna make a really easy
Chicken Milanese with a beautiful
peach and plum summer salad
that's got a really easy vinaigrette.
- Okay, I'm ready, let's make it.
- [Craig] Chef's got a grounded out piece of chicken,
and what we're gonna do is we're gonna dredge it.
So we're gonna put it in a little bit of flour,
and what you wanna do is just make sure it's coated
and there's not too much flour,
then you're gonna dip it into egg.
- Oh my God, look how thin that is.
- [Craig] And then you're gonna dip it
into panko flakes, right?
The little breadcrumbs.
- Yes.
- [Craig] Make sure that it's evenly coated really quick,
there's not too much on there,
and then we're just gonna take a little olive oil,
we're gonna put it in a pan,
don't be afraid to let the pan get a little hot
'cause you wanna get some really good color on the chicken,
and it's so thin
that it cooks really quickly. - It, yes.
- Oh my gosh, that's making me hungry.
- [Craig] You can see it's already browning a little bit.
- Yes.
- Really quickly.
And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna cheat a little bit
and we're gonna bring out one that he's already prepared,
and we'll- - The magic of television.
Yeah.
And we'll create the salad that goes with it.
And here's the thing about creating good
light summer dishes is you wanna use light ingredients,
you wanna use fresh ingredients.
We're gonna make a quick vinaigrette out of olive oil
and lime juice.
- Okay.
- [Craig] The great thing is is that typically,
these dishes don't take too long.
So Chef's got some arugula, peaches, we've got some plums.
- Yes.
- [Craig] We've got some little baby tomatoes
and we're gonna cut them in half.
We got a little salt, a little pepper,
and we're gonna use a little bit of olive oil.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- [Craig] And a little bit of lime juice
creates that freshness, brings out all the citrus flavors.
- Oh my gosh, my mouth is watering.
- Okay, it's just a quick little toss.
So, so far, you've got seven ingredients.
You've done it really, really quickly
and here's a little trick of the trade
that you always wanna do when you're done frying something,
is you always wanna put it on a piece of paper
to make sure that you're getting the excess oil off of it
so that it's easy, quick, clean.
- [Kelly] It looks like a heart!
- [Craig] That's why people come here.
I mean, we've been really lucky.
We've got the entire crew on staff
for the entire COVID shutdown.
- Oh my gosh.
- [Craig] Because not only do people come here for the food,
but they come here to see their favorite people,
and it's like a home.
It's like coming home.
And so Chef has just put it on a plate.
- That's really awesome for your employees.
Not everybody's, you know, been able to keep their job.
That's awesome.
- And that's it, and then you're ready to eat.
- Okay, we got the finished product right?
And then we got the salad you're pairing with.
I actually happen to, somebody got me a dish.
I got this dish prepared and it's here for me,
and I'm very excited about it.
So there's that.
- The good this is it's really easy to prepare,
it's really something that the average
home cook can prepare.
- Oh my God, it's so good.
- Right? It's light, it's fresh, and it's easy.
- It's so good.
That's like the perfect amount of crunch, too.
Oh my gosh, I miss going to your restaurant.
Okay, now I'm...
Well, you also sent over a dessert.
So what's that?
'Cause I wanna try that too, hold on.
- Right, so a few years ago,
because of our vegan clientele, we did it in a full meal.
So we created a vegan ice cream,
which flavor do you have there?
- I have the mint chip, the Melrose mint chip.
- Yeah, so we have mint chip, peanut butter chocolate chip,
vanilla and strawberry.
And people are buying them online.
We're shipping them all over the country,
and then we're in some of the local supermarkets
here in LA, and non-dairy, and it's a third less sugar.
- Oh my God, it's really, really good.
- And it tastes like ice cream.
And it's- - It tastes like mint chip!
- Oh my God.
Well, thank you so much.
The food is incredible, and really,
the ice cream is a lifesaver at this point.
So thank you, Craig.
Thank you, Chef, for helping us out!