CAL ELLIOTT: Ch-ch-ch-chpfff.
You just use the russet potatoes for any Okies.
I grew up in Idaho and then I fished in
Alaska for nine years.
I moved to New York in '93.
I ended up cooking.
My cooking career was going OK.
And so I thought I'm ready to start my own place.
People said that they would back me or help me source out,
just get into something.
And so I got into something.
And the economy went to shit and nobody showed up.
We didn't have any money when we opened.
Somehow I got a loan from a credit union in the Bronx that
saved us in the 11th hour.
A lot of people sat around and watched me drown.
And at that point I was like, you know what?
If I go down, I just go down on my own.
I'd rather just not make any money and feel good
about what I'm doing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CAL ELLIOTT: My name is Cal Elliott, and I'm the Chef and
Owner of Rye Restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Rye does simple American food.
We try to be market-driven.
Driven by the seasons.
Every dish makes sense here.
Food that you recognize, and it makes you feel good, and
full, and satisfied.
I hate to say comfort food, because
that gets thrown around.
And you just think mac and cheese or something, and it's
a lot more involved than that.
I think we do duck really well, but we
always play with it.
Like, sometimes I'll serve it with curried lentils, with
different marinades.
We finish it with a little curry butter.
We do everything in-house, so we try to
take care of the product.
The meatloaf is veal, pork, beef.
And then we always have duck scraps.
So we have all the duck tenders, so we grind those up.
And it basically ends up almost like a tureen
once you slice it.
It offers somebody an easy out.
Like, you don't have a lot of money but you're going out
with the six type of friends.
You're like, all right, I'll just get
the meatloaf sandwich.
I'm not interested in just cooking for rich people.
And if someone can come and enjoy the space that doesn't
have the money, and enjoy a nice meal, I'm all for it.
We don't have the resources to really just work on a dish for
three months and then be like ta da!
Here we go.
Here it is.
So everything's kind of a work in progress.
It's assumed that I'm supposed to have more
thought behind things.
But things are really just like, oh, fuck, I've never had
a scotch egg.
So let's make a scotch egg.
It was a egg wrapped in sausage, deep-fried.
I was like, who doesn't want that?
And then you make it and you're like, oh, it's good,
but it would be good with this.
And then all of a sudden it's good with that.
And the mornay sauce.
Cheese on your deep-fried scotch egg?
Like, of course.
And it's perfect bar food.
I mean, I guess it's interesting to see your food
on a plate in the dining room.
But when you cook it every night on your day off, it's
like I'm constantly eating butter and rich food.
And then I would just rather go out, when I go out, and eat
simple food.
It's no fair.
You guys are ahead of me.
CHUCK WHITE: You can catch up.
SHEVAWN NORTON: Are you ready?
CAL ELLIOTT: Yeah.
Chuck and I are sick, man.
We want some sake and some noodles.
We went to Samurai Mama's on Grand Street.
Who's the mama behind it?
I don't go out very often.
But when I do, I prefer to go out to places like Samurai
Mama where Makoto is another chef/owner.
You know that you're supporting the neighborhood.
You're supporting someone who's put
their life on the line.
In this neighborhood, there's a restaurant
that opens every day.
And it's not easy.
It makes it feel like a community, which is why I
opened a restaurant where I live.
SHEVAWN NORTON: Hi, Song.
CAL ELLIOTT: One of our old employees, Song, is the
manager there now.
She actually dates Chuck.
It's nice to go somewhere where you feel like people
actually care a little bit about you.
Cheers.
SHEVAWN NORTON: I usually come here by myself
and sit right here.
And nobody bothers me.
And it's very relaxing.
CAL ELLIOTT: They got a good lunch special.
We go out to lunch here sometimes, talk business.
MAKOTO SUZUKI: Now we use this.
Mm.
Scallions!
This is just a deep-fried lotus root.
CAL ELLIOTT: All right.
Look at that.
Yeah, I love eating Japanese food.
They season dishes differently.
They might put something bland with something really salty so
you make sure that you have to have it all together.
MAKOTO SUZUKI: The scallop and sea urchin are from Hokkaido.
This is a sea urchin paste.
This is pretty salty, so this works as a sauce.
You know what?
I'm sure Cal loves this dish.
So this is a present from me for Cal.
CAL ELLIOTT: All right.
What is that thing?
Oh, nice.
Thank you so much.
You see how food makes everybody happy?
We were all uncomfortable before.
Oh my god, that looks delicious.
I'm raw dogging the tempura.
CHUCK WHITE: I'm going to bareback the squash.
CAL ELLIOTT: Shevawn, you must love this because they give
you a little of everything.
You love that.
SHEVAWN NORTON: I know.
I love that.
CAL ELLIOTT: That's what's great about going somewhere
where you know people.
They just send stuff out.
I really enjoy that when people kind of leave it in
your hands.
Because you get to give them dishes that you feel good
about, with a lot of pride and all of that.
MAKOTO SUZUKI: Mama's gyoza.
This is a secret water.
CAL ELLIOTT: Oh, the dumplings, nice.
Do you know what this stuff is?
Because this stuff is delicious.
I need to learn how to make that, because that is the best
thing in the world.
That's seafood curry udon.
SHEVAWN NORTON: Thank you.
CAL ELLIOTT: This is awesome.
[CHUCKLES].
I'm having such a good time.
I am.
I might need you to stick your thumb up my ass so I can get
some of this out so we can go to the next place.
[LAUGHS].
It's funny, we've spent a lot of time together, but the
three of us don't-- we rarely--
I think we've been out once, the three of us together.
And you need to alleviate stress, and going out is a
really nice thing to do.
I wish I did it more often.
We got very drunk at Samurai Mama.
We were having some warm sake.
I'm a little under the weather.
Then the shots didn't really go with anything we were doing
other than helping us enjoy the meal.
CHUCK WHITE: Song, you want a shot?
CAL ELLIOTT: Thanks for having us.
Ah, delicious.
I guess they didn't have proper shot glasses.
So it was like a flute of champagne shot.
And we had like four four-ounce shots.
No one was keeping up.
I think I was the only one that was throwing them down by
the end of it.
Say hello to Lisa.
Hello, Lisa.
Did you just hypocrite me?
She tried to stop me, but I wasn't having it.
SHEVAWN NORTON: You have to go back and cook.
So just letting you--
CAL ELLIOTT: Oh, fuck, I have to cook.
The whole staff is going to be wasted.
It's going to be just like Christmas party, and then I
got to do it.
[HICCUPS]
Bullshit.
Thank you, guys.
Everything was delicious.
MAKOTO SUZUKI: Arigato.
Thank you.
CAL ELLIOTT: After Samurai Mama's we came back here so I
could cook for everybody, which was pretty hilarious.
Oh, man.
Can I just tell everybody, we had the best
meal at Samurai Mama's!
-Really?
CAL ELLIOTT: Oh my god!
If you guys have never had a barrel of
cabbage, it's delicious.
You're coming in.
You have to come inside.
Yeah, don't you dare not come inside.
Hey man, everybody's still here.
They're still here, yeah.
They lay downtown roots and they stay.
[CHEERING]
-The champ is here!
CAL ELLIOTT: That's right.
That's fucking right.
-The champ is here!
CAL ELLIOTT: You can't get drunk and eat by yourself.
Everybody's about to go home and it's like 3 o'clock.
And they knew you were there until 5:00 in the morning.
Those nights that you don't get back,
they're just the best.
So if it wasn't humbling enough to go eat beautiful
food at Samurai Mama's, we came back here so I could burn
grilled cheese.
We're going to grill some cheese.
Make some grilled cheese sandwiches.
So basically, we're going to see how this goes, because
we're all guinea pigs.
This is one of those things, like this sandwich
has been in my head.
I've never tried this at all.
We have a great short rib.
To me, this would be a delicious grilled cheese.
I was thinking about that sandwich for brunch, actually.
I mean, it's like the most kick-ass patty
melt you could get.
I thought it would be easy to make a sandwich.
Turned out to be a little more trying than I thought.
I was wasted.
And I'm like, everybody's going to get a grilled cheese,
which was fucking ridiculous.
Like immediately I had too many pans going.
I thought I turned that off.
I turned it up.
That's going to be a disaster.
-Let's see his secret to drunk cooking.
CAL ELLIOTT: Don't be drunk.
So any imperfections in this sandwich is like 100% to do
with the cook.
I didn't follow the steps because I drank too much and I
didn't give a fuck.
And that's Cooking 101.
Every step of the way, you have to care.
And one step you skip, you end up with what we have tonight,
which is a piece of shit.
MILTON CHAUCA: No, [INAUDIBLE].
CAL ELLIOTT: No, you.
You, my friend, man, Milton.
This guy, Gladys--
Gladys and I have worked together eight years.
Milton and I, 12 years.
You know how you know these guys are awesome?
Because they came to save me.
They're like, I know he's going to fuck everything up.
And they came to save me.
Yours is burnt.
MILTON CHAUCA: It's OK.
I don't care.
CAL ELLIOTT: It's a good sandwich though.
Cheers, man.
Thank you so much.
This guy's awesome, by the way.
DANNY MINCH: Aw, dude!
We were about to kiss right there.
What the fuck?
CAL ELLIOTT: Did you get that?
DANNY MINCH: I tried to go right and he went left.
CAL ELLIOTT: I mouthed him.
I mouthed him.
DANNY MINCH: That was like a bad pick and roll.
What the fuck?
CAL ELLIOTT: I'm going to talk to Elizabeth, I talk to her.
I don't care.
DANNY MINCH: I don't think my wife's going to like that.
CAL ELLIOTT: I need your money.
DANNY MINCH: She's not going to like three things.
CAL ELLIOTT: He makes money.
He knows how to make money.
DANNY MINCH: Ai yi yi.
CAL ELLIOTT: I can cook food.
He knows how to make money.