Dinner Time Live with David Chang

Hello, David Chang here. This is crazy.

Dinner Time Live, hosted by yours truly,

is Netflix's first weekly live show of the year.

They're growing their live capabilities

and I'm so honored to be part of it.

Not to mention this is, to my knowledge,

the very first ever

truly live cooking show anywhere.

No swap outs, no TV magic,

no commercials, no edits, nothing.

Watch the meal, the mistakes, the conversation all unfold live.

Speaking of, the clock is ticking, so let's get going.

Welcome, guys.

-Holy cow, this is actually happening. -

-This is very surreal. - Hell, yeah.

Honored to have Rashida and Steve with us.

On the very first show of Dinner Time Live.

- Honored to be here. - Honored to be here.

Thanks for being the guinea pigs.

Let me just explain to you what this show is about.

Okay.

I love cooking TV,

I love all things food,

but I found that over the years maybe

making it useful isn't actually part of the process.

There's a lot of editing, a lot of swap outs,

there's a lot of commercials.

Part of making it practical

with all the knowledge out there,

maybe we can make something that's entertaining,

that's real, that's honest, with a lot of mistakes,

I promise you I'm gonna make a lot of mistakes,

and let's just see how this goes.

This has been my dream for a long time.

We've been working on this project for a long, long time.

I'm so honored to have you here,

I'm so grateful to Netflix for this opportunity.

-Can I serve you food? - Yes.

- Please! -Right.

-That's why we're here. -Yeah.

So, I'm going to explain the menu, which is

chicken.

I feel like chicken in America has a lot of meaning and symbolism.

But I think it's one of the most misunderstood foods.

Because you get it boneless, fried,

roasted, all kinds of things,

but I don't know if people get enough out of it.

So, I wanted to show you how I can take one chicken,

actually I took two chickens, because there's...

I wanted to make sure there's extra, just in case.

I can make three dishes out of one chicken.

So, I boned out a chicken here.

And I'm gonna cook the breast right now, and I want to...

put that right in the oven, press it like this...

- Is that like brick-chicken? - Brick chicken?

But you don't need a brick.

-Just something heavy. -A big pot.

-All right. -Sick.

And that's seasoned,

salt and pepper, a little Momofuku savory salt.

And, I'm gonna cook that for about 30 minutes.

I boned that out and I made a stock.

Like, a broth from the bones.

Okay.

-And... - What else is in that stock?

The chicken bones, garlic, rosemary...

You don't like rosemary, I hear.

- Yeah. -I put a bit.

- You don't like rosemary? -

What's wrong with rosemary?

I don't know, is that a hot take?

-I don't... - I don't know.

-Not my thing. Not my flavor. -Not your thing.

I don't know rosemary intimately enough to have...

Already?

I cooked it in the soffritto,

which is carrots, red onion, celery.

And, I just put a little bit in there, took it out.

This is a recipe based off of a chef that I worked for, Marco Canora,

who has a restaurant, Hearth,

I used to work for him many years ago,

and whenever it got cold out, we put this on the menu.

And this is Ribollita.

-Oh, yes, thank you, thank you. - Mm. Yum.

You have some silverware in the drawers below.

Ooh!

It's like a murder mystery. What else is in there?

Yeah!

-It's an escape room. -Yes, like...

Somebody here has committed a crime.

Yum.

-Thank you. -Yeah, enjoy

- Can we dig in? -I love the soup, it's...

Wait, I need this?

Do I use fork or spoon?

Do however you want, you want chopsticks?

No, I thought this is thick...

-We're getting a live reaction. -We're getting a live reaction to this.

There's some croutons in there, some bread.

Yum.

Mm.

-Come on. -Yeah?

-Yes. -Yeah.

-It's a hard yes for me. -It's good. All right.

I understand now why you were talking about it being cold out,

because it's like instant warmth in your chest.

-And flavor. - It's so good.

So, that's what I love about soups in general.

There's something so hospitable about it.

You come into someone's home or restaurant, there's no pretense,

it's about hospitality, something delicious.

Not fussy. Is this...

What's the difference between a soup and a stew?

I think stew's more thicker,

it's got, like, braised beef in there...

This is thick.

-This is thick. - This is so good.

-You know... - I think it's ridiculous

that we were thinking that we had to react to this.

-It was gonna be good. -I know.

Like, "What do you mean?" It was gonna be good.

Let me get my acting hat on.

The reaction is why am I making a soup from Tuscany?

I don't know, I'm down for it.

- It's good. -So good.

Also, love bread in a soup,

'cause you don't have to have the bread on the side.

It's, like, in there,

taking in all the flavors and juices.

That's my favorite part.

I just wanna go back to soup and stew for a second,

this is somewhere in the middle almost.

-Yeah. -You know what I mean?

It means "reboiled."

I love it because it's about frugality,

it's about using whatever you have left over, in theory...

- Reboiled, I love that. -Yeah.

If I had this in a winter in Michigan...

-Oh my God. -Amazing.

You'd still live in Michigan.

-I'd still be in Michigan. -Yeah.

I wouldn't have moved to LA if I had this soup.

-It's very good. -Yeah.

The internet wants to know if this is your first meeting with them

or if you've cooked for them?

The entire Internet wants to know?

- -It is trending right now.

This is Chris Ying, say hi, everybody.

I've cooked for these guys several times.

I've already messed this up, I'll cook another.

Nice.

I'm gonna poach these eggs in a microwave,

if you're wondering what am I doing.

- Is that vinegar? -No, just water.

-Yeah. - Okay.

Steve and I live close together.

-And... -You live together?

-We live together. -That's a surprise.

On the weekends we just hole up together.

-We just hold each other. -We spoon.

We have some similarities here.

Our kids are friends. That's how we've gotten to know each other.

We have some mutual friends as well.

Steve's come over a bunch, I've cooked for him. This is normal.

Yeah, that's why me being like...

It's like, "No, duh."

-It's gonna be good. -Yeah, yeah.

'Cause I don't know how to make food in small portions.

-I know. -You've seen this too.

-I just... - Yeah.

I cook a lot.

Sometimes we get a message.

He's like, "Dinner's happening."

We're like, "All right, let's go."

Can I have that message too, please?

I feel like I'm butting into your house.

But I did take food home, last time you cooked for me.

Ate it for the next two days.

-So... - Good.

I have to admit, I'm not into eating leftovers.

I know you both are.

You're not? That's crazy!

I'm like that too.

You don't eat leftovers?

I do eat leftovers, it just...

I'm telling on myself right now.

It's fine, just do it.

I do it eat leftovers, I love leftovers,

It's just, I think, it requires me to re-engage with it

and be like, "How do you make it good again?"

-It's not about reheating it. -Hang on.

This dish is now offended by you.

-I know. -The whole premise of this dish...

-Is that it's a leftover... -Yeah.

I gotta say, I'm just making this shit up.

I don't even know if it is "leftover."

- Yeah? -I'm not from Tuscany.

I just learned how to make it.

This is just good food.

I'm just assuming that it's leftovers. Chris, what do you think?