Happy National Lobster Day! We're revisiting this fun interview with 5-Star Chef Ivan Flowers who not only talks about seafood, but shares how to make his West Coast Lobster Rolls. Check out his recipe here: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/west-coast-lobster-rolls/
Big Daily Blend
West Coast Lobster Rolls for Lobster Day
(upbeat music) - Well, Five Star, Chef Ivan Flowers was back on Big Blend Radio Champagne Sunday show today to teach us how to make his West Coast lobster rolls. Not as East Coast, not the South Coast, the West Coast lobster rolls. And you can see Chef Ivan's recipes in Big Blend Radio and TV magazine. In fact, this recipe will be in the January, February issue of our 2018 January, February issue. Also go to blendradioandtv.com and you'll see them in our expert department and you can click on the chef and see his recipes. (laughs) That's what you want to do. Also listen to his interviews, but you can keep up with them on Facebook and Twitter @chefivinflowers and also see his YouTube cooking series. He cooks with his pickle. Anyway, that's what it's called. Cooking with my pickle on YouTube. So Chef Ivan, how are you? - I'm good, how are you guys? - Well, we're feeling a little, I don't know, rambunctious today. It's our last Champagne Sunday show of the year. Next year, it's our 11th year for the radio. - Oh, nice, nice. - 21st year of the Big Blend, whatever we do, magazine, radio, whatever, all of it. - Great, great. - Great ball of wax. And now we're feeling like, yeah, and you get to be the final guest on this, so we're excited for today. And I'm glad you're part of it. Yeah, you've been on our show for, I can't count. - It's been a long time. - I can't count, but I'm glad you're not one of the dirty old men we were talking about earlier. - No, no, no, it's good to be nice. - You're bringing that up. - No. - Yeah, it's good to talk about that. - I'm sorry. - Sure. - No, no. We have to, well, you know, that's part of our thing. We have to discuss things. - Yes, of course. - If you don't discuss things that are happening and that people should be aware of and do things, I don't know, you know what I mean? We just have to do that, but hey, champagne toast to you. And lobster, west coast versus east coast, south coast. I mean, do they even get lobster down south? You know how Nancy and I are allergic to seafood so we don't know, but-- - Yeah, well, the lobster's here on the west coast are called spiny lobsters. So they don't have claws. So they can't smoke cigarettes or they can't smoke cigars or go shopping whatsoever. They just have the tail and the body and then some like antenna stuff. I don't use that, I use lobster from Maine. - Okay. - Because that just works for this dish. It's west coast. One, you're eating it in the west coast, so that makes it west coast. But like we put the corn in, we put the grilled corn in, we put the jalapenos. So we're doing a little southwestern infusion into this lobster roll. - Oh, I see. Okay, that's cool. Okay, so now I know this recipe you talk about, you know, you're gonna use cooked lobster. Okay, so now I have to just jump backwards because I know this kind of, okay, let me just say this, this west coast lobster, it is almost like, before we get into how to make it, but it's almost like making my katuna salad, but with this fancy hot dog roll thing you're doing, right? But you're using lobster. Am I right? Am I getting it kind of right? - Yes, yes, you know, and people do, you know, a lobster roll or hot dog roll. What I actually do is you know the Kings Hawaiian, the little square rolls that are sweet and very, very fluffy. - Yeah, they're yummy. - I use those and I roll them out. I take a rolling pin and I roll them really flat and then what I do is I grill them with a little butter and they're fabulous with this. They just work like nothing else. - I was wondering that. I was like, how did you get them? Because I was looking in the photo of the recipe and it's all like, these are like hot dog. I'm like, he's like, how did you send them out? Like that doesn't happen when I try and like toast them or whatever, that didn't work for me. But, okay, so now I wanna go to the thing about the cooked lobster. Because you can cook your own and we can talk about that too. I mean, actually the best way in the world, and I remember when I was up in Maine years ago, the best way in the world to eat lobster is they can only see water that they catch in it. And that makes it indescribable. But a lot of people can't do that. So what you do is just salt the water where you get a good amount of salt in the water. And then basically you're putting the lobster in. Let's say you're doing a pound and a half to a two pound lobster. You're averaging about nine to 10 minutes. And then you're taking the lobster out and you're putting it in cold water with ice. And that stops the cooking and allows the meat to set. You leave it in that water for a good 20 minutes, you take it out. And then of course you start cracking the shells, taking out the knuckle meat and taking the tail meat out for that fresh lobster. But if you could ever get a lobster cooked in the water that it was caught in, do so. It's smacked epicent. - Where do you get that kind of thing? Like do you go to a fish market or something? Like do you or-- - Well, you know, it's the coastal towns on the east coast. I believe that in Mexico and ports of California and Baja, they'll cook it, spiny lobsters in the water that they catch at him. Some places actually have, whether they do lobsters, they have seawater in the tanks, actual seawater. And sometimes you can actually buy that seawater that the lobsters are in to do your lobster boil and that. It makes a huge difference in natural ocean water. - So now what is the difference? Okay, now we know that ones are spiny and the other ones are the eastern. What is then these like crawfish thingies? 'Cause we were in Nevada and you're in Nevada by the stream. And there were crawfish, crawfish, crawdaddy. - But they had like big pinchers things. - And they were going at each other. They were having a fight while some, the park sport people were putting fish, stocking the stream with fish. And we're like, no, they're not lobsters because I think lobsters are only salt water. They're midget lobsters and they're smaller. - Yeah, they call them mud bugs and they get them in the rivers and stuff. They look like lobster. The crayfish are completely different. The West Coast lobster is a warm water lobster. The main lobster is a cold water lobster. Mud bugs are basically warm water. The big thing when you're eating crayfish is the experience is, of course, they eat kale and then they suck the head. And because there's a lot of flavor and juice from the boil and that. - And I've seen people sit at a table and eat 100, 150. - Wow, that's like Louisiana kind of style, right? When you get the corn out and yeah. And that's okay, so that's what's so neat. I feel like Louisiana, Southern Louisiana especially and the Southwest are very connected. Like I always go like, especially when we were Southwest Blends. Like when you were on our shows initially, we were like Southwest Blends, right? And I always go like, okay, so some people said Texas was not part of the Southwest. I'm like, what, they've got desert, dude. That's the Southwest. And then you get to Louisiana. If you actually look at the history, we're all connected because of the Louisiana purchase. But they have tamales in Louisiana. There's this whole history of tamales there and they have a tamale festival in Zwali. But some of them, I mean, they have hot sauce and all of that. And so there's this side of me that says, like we're connected with that. So like when you say, okay, you're putting some corn in the lobster roll over there, they could have the, you know, the clod dads and they're doing corn too. So don't you think we're kind of connected in that way? - Yeah, we are, we are. You know, and the regional cuisine is crossing so many boundaries now and infusing with other things that it's, I don't look at rules that way anymore. As long as something tastes good and you know, you're kind of just working it, you don't have to, I've never followed those rules in my career. Like I was, many years ago, I was crossing French with Mediterranean and southwestern. I'm just doing these crosses, but they worked. It's like, what do you call it? You don't have to call it anything, just make it delicious. You know, you don't always have to label, you know, what you're doing or it's an infusion of this or it's, what is it called when it's all fusion? You know, there's techniques, like I'm very French Italian trained and that's my base. But there are things that I can do with that that go into so many other regions of the world. You know, with Mediterranean, southern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, I mean Asian, it just goes on and on. - Yeah, because it's like once you know the technique, then the world's your oyster, right? It is, it's like you can open it up and do different things. Okay, so before we get back into the lobster, I have a stupid question. I know it's not supposed to be stupid, but this is stupid. Like, I don't, okay, I feel like Jessica Simpson is this chicken of the sea, you know, but then we find out later that some of the tuna in cans was actually chicken. So, I'm, no, no, so, no, because this whole, like brain fart came before my champagne, right? And reading the recipe, it's like cooked lobster meat. I'm like, okay, so how are people getting cooked lobster meat? Are they cooking it themselves or are they getting out of, you know, 'cause I know we don't all like canned food, right? Especially vegetables, that's Nancy's pet peeves, but as we all know, but do they do, 'cause I really generally don't know since I don't eat seafood, do you get lobster in a can or in a jar or like do people go to the grocery store and ask for it? And is tuna in the can, if it's real, okay, so there's this stuff that isn't, then there's this stuff that probably is, and is that stuff cooked or like brined out? - It's very interesting. - What is that? Tuna fish, when people hear of tuna fish, it's not ahi, bluefin, yellowfin, things like that. It's usually skipjack or amberjack, kind of tuna, and it's cooked in the can, and that's what they did when they first came out with tuna. They didn't know how to do it, and people were eating tuna, and it was very fish, and it was terrible, and they figured out a way to do solid albacore, chunk, light, dark, it's cooked in the can. That's how tuna is done. Lobster, you go to look, yeah, it's cooked in the can. Lobster is, you go to a fishmonger that has lobster tanks that cooks fresh lobsters that morning, cuts up to meat, and has it ready for you by the pound. From that-- - Because a lot of people don't wanna do the whole thing where they are now killing the lobster with, you know, dropping them in the boiling pot. That's-- - Sure. - I don't want to. - This is interesting to me because being allergic to fish and shellfish, the one thing I have been able to eat is canned tuna, which said to me, "This isn't really tuna, this is not fish," because-- - Yeah, but then they didn't-- - I think that episodes would end up-- - But then I thought, okay, then I could eat canned salmon, no, I couldn't. You know, that was a disaster, so here's the deal. So canned, do they cook the salmon in the canned too, or is it not good? - Yes, a lot of times they do. Yes, no, it's cooked in the canned. - Okay, but is that a bad thing? Well, because my immediate reaction was negative, and I'm thinking, now, do you have BPA mixing with the fish and just like-- - I don't know, I think-- - I don't know, I think it's rather safe, actually, and I think they perfected it many, many years ago, which turned the tuna fish market around. I think it was the early '30s or '40s, that something scientists worked on this since it waited a second. - Interesting. - We can cook this in the canned. - I never knew that. - And then it's back, you know, oh yeah, it's cooked in the canned. - I'm so glad I asked my stupid questions. - That's all it is. - Nobody is interested because I'm always wondered, like, why is it I could eat that one thing of fish, but nothing else. - Yeah, but that's weird, because it's not even some of it was chicken way back land too, so, okay. - So now, the lobster, you can go get it from your fish monger, go do it there. Grocery store's not gonna do that, right? I mean, I'm just thinking about all the people that don't have a fish monger from old. - It depends, the whole foods will do it, higher-end grocery stores will have it. Sure, yeah. - Okay. - Big item, the boxes for me. - Okay, so you get that. Now, like, oh, it's like a tuna fish sandwich in a way. Now you could do this as a chicken salad sandwich, right? - Sure, of course. - Because this is, again, the technique. - Yeah. - It's a technique. So, you're taking, you're thinning your buns, Chef Ivan, while he's cooking with his pickle, I'm just saying, he's a very busy boy. And he's got pickles involved, they'll pickles involved in this. So, you're taking the hot dog buns, but apparently, the butter has to be real, unsalted butter, no margarine crap, right? None of that's good. - No, no margarine, of course not. That's good butter, yeah. Margarine is horrible for you, yeah. - No, no, it's, you will have anal seepage, everybody, if you keep believing. - That's true. - Yeah, yeah. - Which is fast. - Yeah, it's horrible. - Sorry. - I grew up with margarine, we didn't know. We had no idea. - But we all wondered about it anyway. (laughing) - Why was that happening? - That's because when a company wants something passed by their food and drug administration, they say do your own test, turn it in. - Yeah. - And there you go, you're fine. - And so you need to look at it on certain potato chips too that you get. You gotta look at what, if that OLEO word is in there, on your potato chips, hydrogenated oil, you gotta think about it. We can make our own potato chips. - Yeah. - Yeah. - But it is interesting if independent companies did the test on our food products that were passed by the, it'd be an old different, there are companies who do that and documentaries on it. Okay, so let's go to the recipe. So we got lobster meat, you got 24 ounces of cooked lobster meat 'cause it's gonna feed four people. Is this a meal or like an appetizer? - You could do it as both, you know, let's say, let's say you wanted to do little ones, you can do them as apps, if you wanted to do big ones, larger ones, you can do this and serve them with different side salads, maybe some really thin French fried potatoes, maybe some roasted garlic and Parmesan fingling potatoes and turn it into a meal. Very usually, one way or the other. - Yeah, you've just changed my mind on hot dog blends, I wanna go and do that now. I'm gonna like roll 'em out and just see, because I think like we could do all kinds of, like we could have like a breakfast scramble in there, just thinking, like, you know. - Would you ever mix lobster with any other kind of fish? - I would mix it with crab. I would mix it with really nice crab meat, absolutely. I would mix it with shrimp, I would mix it with scallops. Oh yeah. - Okay, so then you wouldn't go on, so you're doing the crawly things, the crustaceans. You wouldn't mix it with like flounder or maimai or something like that. - No, but although on Long Island, one of their very famous dishes is a crab meat or lobster stuffed flounder roulade, where they actually take the flounder fillet and they'll take crab meat and lobster and cook it with butter and garlic and different things and lemon. Touch of breadcrumbs, put it in the lobster, and roll it and then bake it in the oven. It's quite famous. - Hmm, oh, wow. - Well, there you go. - Hmm, it's like chodecken. - Because flounders are very neutral fish. So, you know, it's very neutral, it's white flaking and sweet, so you can do a loch with it. - Is that the one that lays on the bottom with one eye looking up? - Yes. - Yeah, okay. - Flounder fluke out here, it's halibut. Unfortunately, the flounder on Long Island are disappearing. I was a huge flounder fisherman when I was a kid, and I was a flounder fishing and catch 50, 60, 70, 80 at a time. Now they're almost gone. Now summer, now winter flounder are literally gone, and so are most of the lobsters on Long Island's first stand. - Yeah, well this is part of, you know, people, there's climate changers over fishing, commercial fishing, and a lot of commercial fishermen are trying to change into doing things differently, and we're working on a segment about lionfish, chef using lionfish, so that the other species would have a chance to come back and use the lionfish because it's like an invasive species, mostly in the Florida area. And chef's are doing this slowly, but surely, starting to work with lionfish. What do you think about that? - Absolutely, absolutely. You know, let me tell you something, lobsters in the early 1920s and 30s were fed to prisoners. They were considered cockroaches of the ocean, and they fed them to people that were in federal prison. It's the American people that then turned it around and made it a gourmet dish. Monkfish was considered trash, absolute trash of the ocean, and now monkfish is very sought after, and so were the livers. Lionfish, there's another, oh, I can't remember the name, there's another fish in Florida, hogfish, that was considered, why would anybody eat it? It's delicious. A lot of times, it's the chef that knows what they're doing. When I was on Long Island, they have what's called, they don't do it commercially, tautog, or blackfish, which is considered the chicken of the sea. It's delicious, and they have bluefish, so I used to do a dish called black and blue, and it was delicious. A lot of Long Islanders love it because they, if you know how to cook it and work with it, you know, but back in the old days, it was like salmon, flounder. You know, we were very restricted. There's so much different life in the ocean with different fish, but it was when you go after them commercially, that's hard. Like you really can't do commercial flounder fishing, it's hook and line, blackfish is hook and line, you know, you're not dragging for it. - Like a net. - So it's different. - You have to come on our segment when we do this, but let's see if we can make it work out, because there's a bachelor of fishermen, and there's a whole organization behind just trying to get it out there, because people, you know, there's this like, oh, if I don't hear about it, it's like organic, right? The same thing, organic was, you know, chefs were doing organics years and years and years ago, and yet then the word organic came out and people thought you were gonna eat dirt and pesticides, and it's furthest from the truth, you know? So it's kind of like an interesting-- - You didn't get a perfect looking thing. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So like if the apple had a bruise-- - But once a chef had done with it, you don't see any of that. - Well no, 'cause you can hold those parts. - Yeah, but it's like in a store, you go, ooh, you know. - Well look at tilapia, you know? Five six years of tilapia was 99 cents a pound. A lot of tilapia is farmed in Vietnam and tilapia farms, and now they've put huge numbers on tilapia. Do I think tilapia is a great fish? I don't. I don't think tilapia is a great fish. - I've heard some really bad things about tilapia being actually like, you've got worms in it or something, like old stuff. Also, farm raised salmon, the farm raised salmon, the certain ones that are good, but the basic Atlantic farm raised salmon is one of the worst things that you can eat. It actually makes you fatter, and they had coloring to it, and they modified it. So compared to like wild salmon, copper river, king, sockeye, that's super deep red, that has all, you know, the omegas in it's so healthy for you. And there's this, you know, you got to be careful when you get into farm raised stuff. You got to see what they're doing, you know, what they're doing. I mean, they're trying to raise bluefin. They're trying to farm bluefin, and they're having a hard time with it. - They need to swim. They need to migrate. They need to go where they're supposed to go for reasons that they go there, and you can't do that in a little camp. - Well, that's how the salmon work, too. - Also, Kenya, when we lived there, that was the fish that was on every menu with tilapia. And sometimes they called it red perch. - Yeah. - Remember that. - Yeah, and, you know, it's a pretty, it's pretty, the fishes. - Yeah, I remember, I swam with one. I remember, 'cause the little kid that's floating in this creek in there was a dead one. So I like was slamming around, there was this big red fish thing in the creek. - Okay, well then, I don't know what that big fish was. I'll never forget that big fish. I was like, "What the hell is that?" And then I got freaked out, 'cause they had big teeth. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - Okay. - But anyway, no. - But anyway. - Yeah, no, they don't have products in Africa, but they have, they need South America, but yeah. - They have other things. - But, no, that, I think-- - That was the guy with the misty guy when I put the honey. - That was not a tilapia. 'Cause I think they're ocean. It was a big red, now I'm going like, now it's red or yellow. Like, go back of a kid. It was the same trip as when the guy went up the tree to get the honey. That was the guy. Went up the tree. I mean, I've been swear to God, this guy came out of the tree, smoked it. - That was so weird. - Like, arms loads of honey out of the tree. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. Like, really-- - He was covered in bees. - Covered in bees and didn't care. - Oh, gosh. - 'Cause he's throwing them all out with smoking 'em out, you know? And then they all came back to life, and everybody was happy. He took the honey, the bees woke up, and we ran. It was one of those times the van broke down, 'cause the van breaks down everywhere you go in Kenya. But anyway, let's go back. So, I'm gonna get back to it, 'cause I know listeners wanna know the recipe, and we always go off in a tangerine, 'cause it's just, you know, it's like, whenever you start to look at things, you have like, "Wow, what about this?" Yeah, so you got your lobster meat, you dice it, and it's gotta be chilled for this recipe. So this is the, even though you're heating your buns, this is gonna be cold on the inside, right? Like a-- - That's correct, yeah. - You're gonna see room temperature? - Uh-huh. - Got mayonnaise. And everyone, the recipe will be on the website, blendradiontv.com, so you can get the real thing there. So, chopped celery, a lemon, or the juice of fresh tarragon. So this is, now, this is the thing. Do you ever use dry herbs on something like this? Kinda dish. - No, no, you better refresh. You wanted to have that fresh licorice-y, kind of taste, if you want fresh tarragon, yeah. - I like tarragon. - Yeah, and then-- - Because, but it would work as well. - To me, I could-- - The paprika. - Smoke paprika, a shallot, all fine-y minced, unsalted butter for the dog, hot dog buns. You got sea salt, pepper, granulated garlic, a tablespoon of dill pickles, all minced up, and then grilled corn, a cup of grilled corn, and a jalapeno, all fine-y dice. So basically, everything other than the hot dog buns and the butter, that's what the mixture is for the lobster side of it. - Yeah. - And then it goes into the shell. - That's how you make the shell. - 'Cause you make like, these are like little shells that come out, the hot dog buns, really yummy. - Yeah, yeah. - I know, so, but for us, we could turn around and do this with anything, like our normal salads, 'cause I always do eat a bit with our salad, but now I'm like, I'm gonna try that. - Yeah, do with tinnitus chicken, salmon, all of it. It's a great salad, it works. - I know. - Would you do, okay, so now, croissants. I have a thing about them. I think one of the best things ever in the world. I know you're gonna say it properly from making one. - I know, wouldn't that be cool? - I know. - So, would you ever flatten a croissant and make it into that? Would that be more religious? - Well, you don't want to flatten a croissant because you want those layers, but-- - Little puffiness. - You can do this only if it's a really, really, really good croissant, because I remember growing up, like when I was younger and catering things and remember when it was taught, everything was on a croissant, and people would go to the grocery store and buy this horrible, horrible croissant, but tuna salad and shrimp salad and all of this stuff, and there were commercial croissants and they had no integrity to them. Something like this, which is buttery, a truly good croissant, this buttery would work very well. But it's got to be a great croissant. - Yeah, it can't be the phony ones. Do you remember there was these muffin thingies that were like layers that you could peel one layer off when you opened them? I don't even know what they were called. My grandmother, you see them all the time. You got them in the grocery store, probably in one of those tillsberry roll things. - Yes, those cans, you crack the can, yes. - Yeah, and then you put a can cracker. - Yeah, and then you, you know, it's fun to whack it open, and then you put the things in the little muffin tin, and it makes a little muffin thingy. - Right, isn't that a perfect thing? - And it comes out kind of like like a croissant, and then the little muffins and layer thingies. Remember the puff pastry, yeah. And you can peel layer after layer after layer off, yes. Tillsberry, you can make them, they still do. - Oh, it's the Mitchell and Fire of pastry. - They're delicious, yeah, they're delicious. - They don't know, they're really good. - I know, there's like that salt. - 'Cause I think they have lettering. - That's kind of buttering between a layer. Butter is key, butter is key to everything, man, it is. I remember the croissant thing, because it's weird, because you know how you get like pre-made sandwiches and stores which everybody be aware of? Just saying, 'cause after being on the road, I know. - If it has mayonnaise, don't buy it. - And no, it's not always a mayonnaise thing either. It's just like how long the spread has been in there and Saran wrap, it's all the mayonnaise is in the bread without being refrigerated. - And then that meat gets that like that greenish, you know, like it's like a rainbow color on it? Have you seen how cut meat gets that like roast? Because like a mayonnaise? - Oh yeah, it oxidizes, and it starts to look like green and silver, and as you kind of move the meat around, it almost looks like colored scales are on it. - It looks like-- - Yeah, that's oxidation. - Is that okay? - No, it looks like an oil when you walk into a parking lot. - No, no, 'cause I always thought it was weird. Like I don't want to eat that, it doesn't look normal. - No, it's not, it's old. You want to stay away from that, it's starting to age and basically decay. Well look, if you go into, I'm not gonna mention the names, but convenience stores, and you know, this is what I was teaching in nutrition to the kids up at Smeko Valley High School, but look at this sandwich, there was a simple sandwich, I think it was like tuna on rye, or tuna on white, with something, there was 76 ingredients on the label. - Oh. - And three quarters of them were chemicals, 76 ingredients in the tuna table. - That's the thing, that's why when we started the tour, when we started traveling-- - No, we learned. - Nancy and I turned around, we got our own kitchen box, and because the first thing, I mean, we just went out there, you know, crazies, and next thing you know, we're in a town that there's no real, I mean, even if you go in the grocery store, you're like, what the hell, you guys aren't, you don't, you know when you go in the grocery department, like the vegetable department, and everything's wilted? And then we could not-- - Yeah, the food was carrots. - Carrots can withstand time, potatoes and carrots, but that, I mean, it was crazy, and you don't like, I don't even, so then you get the box salad that I know we've talked about this before, but I will tell you, I couldn't believe it, we were living on varying little food, like really, we weren't eating big meals or anything, we were just having a sandwich or a salad. I started to feel like total crap, and like, puffy weight, not real weight, like this weird chemical company. - Well, because the salad's treated, well, it's treated. It's treated with stuff, Tracy always talks about that. It's treated with stuff not to turn a color, it's treated with stuff to preserve, I mean, meanwhile, right across the aisle, there's the fresh head of iceberg, there's the fresh head of romaine, there's the fresh head of bib lettuce, why in the world? But it's convenient, I don't want to cut it, I just want to buy it in the bag. - No, it's about cutting that-- - It's better. - Yeah. - It's better. - They want if people want to eat now, they want to grab, and they don't care, and a lot of the young people that I've been speaking with, this new generation that's coming up, and hopefully things change, they're meat-centric, beyond belief, and it's all-- - Really? - Their parents work a lot, - Oh, you're a regular, yeah. - And it's pizza hut, and it's Burger King, and it's-- - Oh, wow. - You know, it's not good food. Yeah, it's just not good food. - And you're in an area, you're teaching in an area that they actually, this is not a food desert whatsoever, you have organic farms, - No. - And you wineries, affluent, you know, it's like, you know, not totally affluent, but-- - But then it's gonna be how they were brought up. - Middle, you got a big middle class, dudes can be how they're brought up. - They're-- - And it's about being checked. - You know, they're kids. - They're kids, they're like-- - They're not supposed to think about that right now. You know, it's like, remember, I mean, when we're 14 or 15, and somebody said, well, before you turn around, you're gonna be 50, that doesn't make any sense to them, that's not in their vocabulary. - But it's not true, because now I'm 40-something, and that's just like, what the hell? I remember, I remember as a kid, 'cause our family was really poor, that my mom bought things like Chef Boyard D, ravioli in this big can, which was disgusting, but it was full of salt, so you got this taste for-- if something didn't have salt on it, you didn't wanna eat it, 'cause you're accustomed now to really salty, salty, gross food. And that became what you thought ravioli tasted. And then when you went to a restaurant and you got real ravioli, or like, that's not ravioli, it doesn't taste good, yeah. It looks like two different things. It's like-- - Well, you gotta get-- - If I ever said one, yeah. - You gotta remember, too, it's like, I've done a couple of labs, one of them was very, very interesting. We did, like, kids will tell you they love fried chicken, or they love chicken fingers, so they love, you know, barbecued chicken, smoked chicken. But when we did a chicken hole, and we cut it down from the raw, a lot of the kids were like, oh my God, they were freaking out. You know, I took out the neck, and the liver, and the heart, showed them the chicken. - Oh, I mean-- - Go in the raw states, they're flipping out. Then I did muscles. - Oh, well. - Most of them have never seen muscles. So it was very interesting. And I'd say it's three-quarters of the class case, and it's like, this is good, but they had never seen it, what do you mean, it's live? I said, it's not like in the show, watching Call of TV and reading the newspaper. There's no central nervous system, and then they tried it, it was interesting. The other day, we did an Italian dish, and they called it Felipe Agra Dolce Sweet and Sour Meat Bowl. Again, they loved the meatballs, it was a great lab, but when they had to mix the ground beef, it was kind of like, ooh, you know? So what the country has done is, it has, when people eat chicken, when they eat a burger, when they eat a steak, a lot of people, not only younger kids, but older, don't even associate that it was alive. - Right. - That it came from a raw steak, that it was processed, and it came through a slaughterhouse, and it was raised. They just wanna see the end product, and they're not interested in the where, and the why, and where does it come from? That's not their concern. - Well, but that's where we're in that zone, and I think it is kind of changing, and it's like, it is, I'm glad you're teaching, dude, seriously, it's so, you know, chef, dude, dude, chef, 'cause honestly, it's so important, because we talk about this on shows all the time, of number one, the school is obviously doing the right thing, because they're actually hiring you, and putting this into place. A lot of schools are not doing this kind of class, and they have this amazing kitchen I know that you're working in, right? So, there's a school that's doing it right, but across the country, you're gonna go, and, you know, southern Mississippi, ain't gonna get this kind of stuff, right? - No, no, no, no, yeah. - And different places, you aren't gonna get this, and it's like, you get, you know, kids coming home after school, taking care of themselves, they're gonna grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which isn't as bad as the rest of the world, of things other than now, peanut butter's full of sugar, and other things, and treated, and so, the jelly, too, is really bad. Now, it never used to be as bad, and those are things that you could just crush it up yourself. You could get real peanut butter, you know? Or get low sugar, get low sugar, you know, they have it. - Without any, there's organic butter there. - Read the label. - Read the label, you know? - But that's like, we need to see the kids, all these different things, and for kids to be consuming the stuff when their bodies are growing, at that premium time when their body is setting up, and the chemicals are changing. Now you're adding, like, you know, teenage years, okay, their chemicals are going crazy. Now, let's add some more chemicals, and see what happens while they're experimenting with sex drugs and rock and roll. Wow, yay, this is what we're doing to kids. And not teaching them. I'm saying, like, what you're doing is exceptional and amazing, and I wish more schools had the ability to do that, because the majority of the country is not, they're not getting it. They're not getting these tools of, and it goes beyond the cooking, it goes about making decisions and thinking, and understanding things, like what you're saying, them understanding where meat comes from, understanding what a whole chicken looks like. See, not having that connection to your food is why we don't have a connection, a lot of us, do not have a connection to what we're doing to our planet. If you can't connect with something that you put in your mouth in order to exist, how can you have a connection to what you're doing to a planet drilling here, drilling there, mining here, mining there, without any regard for what, with the pollution in our air and our waterways? How do you have that connection, if you can't even figure out where your food comes from? - Listen, cattle farmers can't keep up with demands. We're shipping in China, they can't keep up. It's meat, meat, meat, they can't keep up in the amount of water, land. Resources that go into raise one steer is unbelievable. Yeah. - The methane offload into the environment is one of the chief reasons we have a problem with our climate. - Is it true that nothing is better than cattle cheese, like cow cheese, like the environment? - Yes. - Good. - 'Cause that's what I do. I'm a goat proponent, like Nancy and I said, that's how we're gonna retire one day. - You want to raise some goat milk. - Yeah, but I want goats. Like, you know, 'cause they're like, I'm gonna take a whole man. But like, if we can do goats, Nancy can do her bulb to the end of our organic farm, but you know what, it's the hardest thing. - We're just reading how farmers, it's one of the highest suicide rates in the country. It's farmers. - I know. - They're sassy. - They're sassy. Go to sassy, they're very, very sassy. - I do so much fun. - And they jump on everything. And they do crazy antics, so they're fun. But we're not like killing them and doing this. I don't know, I want it to be gentle for the animals. I don't, you know, I just, it's a thing about how are we eating things that go through torture. That's what-- - Well, that's what my wife said. Tracy's been a vegetarian since she's five. I've cut down significantly, and hopefully working towards full one day. And she believes that when you eat meat, you ingest the pain that the animal has gone through. And there's a reason why you've never seen a Florida house on TV. There's a reason why they don't show that, because people would be amazed. And they don't show it, yeah. - And people don't want to see it. They won't turn and play it. But that is why the industry, the food industry is so successful with the chemicals and replaced flavors and all that, because we're so far, again, disconnected from our food source that you can eat something and not understand this is actually, was once a life chicken or two or three or four that you just ingest. - Okay, so we are omnivores, and I don't want to get into the whole argument of what we were and what we should be and all that. Everybody's different, everybody's body is different, and we're just in that world of difference, right? And reality is do what is best for you, but try to do it as best as you can for the planet. And what's the most, normally what's the most healthiest thing for you is the healthiest thing for the planet, too. - Really? I mean, if you're gonna eat meat, you can do grass-fed. You can do things that are done in the non-traditional, that's what has become traditional way of things. You don't have to eat a steak every night. You know, you're gonna have protein every night, doesn't always have to be a steak. There's all kinds of ways to do things. And when you look at the farmers, that's what's the thing about the highest suicide rate being farmers, that's because of the big corporations coming into the mass production of farmers. And yeah, there's something in the financial side. It's really hard, you know? - They know they used to be the sole producers. - They are the sole producers, you know? - Yeah. - They are what we sort of go now. - It's called now corporate, corporatism. We're starting to live in it. We're not in a capitalist, it's democratic, it's stomach. Corporatists, I can't pronounce it. I'll tell you something very interesting. - Yeah, corporate society, let's just put it that way. It's industrialism, corporatism, yeah. - Corporatilism. - When somebody- - You need to have champagne, chef. - Yeah, I need a champagne. When somebody, when there's an autopsy done in Europe, for the most part, they do an autopsy and the people live longer than Americans. Less stressed, different foods, different way of eating. Well, the internal organs are older. They look used because they've been used and they're older, they've broken down more. Even though people are living to 80 and 90. When they do that here in America, even though the body, the person was younger, because of the preservatives and the chemicals in the food system, they're almost a lot of the times they're pristine because they're preserved. They're killing us, but the organ looks preserved. It's like almost pickled, you know? So it's more and more I learn, especially through my wife, really, if you think about it, you're putting stuff into your body and then it's coming out the other end and what is it doing in between? People aren't reading labels. I go to the grocery store. I am amazed at what people put in their food carts. It's crazy and cheap food. You know, they're saying the economy is getting better. I don't know about that. I think a lot of Wall Street is ether. So people go and they buy the cheaper foods and they're not reading the labels and these things are just really bad. You put something in a can, you put something in a jar, you see, you know, beef stew that's not refrigerated, that's on the shelf, because it's in a vacuum package. - For years? - The scientists are working extremely hard not only to get you addicted to that food, but for that food to be modified to such a point where that's what we're used to eating so we don't know any different. - Yes, and they're also doing fake mosquitoes, fake tree bark, they're trying to do trees that are insect-proof, they're trying to do all these things. - They're trying to be God and they can't do it. - Yes, and there's a point, I was watching a documentary, an online documentary, and I can't pronounce her name, can't remember it off the, oh man, everyone's gonna know who she is, and it's like, oh. Anyway, it's on our Facebook page. If people go to Facebook for a big brand of medium TV magazine and go to our recipes and gardens and farms thing, you'll see this video I'm talking about, ah, I'm gonna get her name on, I don't wanna do it. She went out and she was showing about what happens with people wanting the price of organic food, and now do we know, are we really getting organic food? Like is Walmart's organic food really organic, right? They're making all these deals and doing things, and I know that they are trying in some ways to be better. They're the biggest employer in our country. 1.5 million people are employed through Walmart, minimum. Okay, so they're the biggest employer, and you can go, there's a map online, go look at the map of who's the biggest employers. - Wow. - Education is at the damn bottom, but it's still in the top part, but it's interesting. But anyway, they are, I know from other organizations we work with like Global Green that they are trying in some ways, but then I go, okay, how really, and actually some of the onions, I've been in Walmart and we've gotten onions from Walmart and we know the farmer. Up in Yarington, Nevada, a little town. Who knew, and he told us, you'll see our stuff in Walmart. I'm like really swear to God, it's there, and I've seen it grown out there and done in the right way. So, some of it's good, some of it, I've really, really questioned. When people are in an area that's a dry zone or whatever you call it, a food desert, what do you do? Well, like she was saying in this documentary, grow your own, do it in the urban, they're doing it in an urban LA everywhere. People are just growing their own stuff, the co-op gardens, and it is cheaper than buying it and wondering, right, if you got it or not, you can share the bounty amongst your neighbors. But then you get how plants work. Right, I know a mountain, Palomar Mountain, Bailey's Mountain, Bailey's Palomar Resort. We spent some time up with them, Palomar Mountain, right up there by Temecula. That whole mountain, they share a pig every year, a cow every year in each other's gardens. One person does sunflowers and does all this thing, the other one does zucchini, one does the lettuce, they all have greenhouses and they, as a mountain top, have decided to be sustainable amongst themselves, as well as protect their water rights, 'cause they have some of the freshest and most badass water ever, to be sustainable. She took me around all the different farms and somebody, they're doing ferns, bracken, they're eating bracken ferns, they're doing all this stuff. Ancient apple orchards, it's incredible. In fact, Ivan, you should take your school kids there. It'd be cool because they really do this. And this whole mountain top is sustainable just amongst the families living there. And their old school generation, but they share their pigs. Thank you. - I think that's great. And I'll tell you something what's scary and where it's going. And I hope that this movement that we're speaking about continues with the millennial generation, you can literally, you don't have to leave the house. So retail, everything that we start being bought online, retail is going away, when retail goes away, all of that affects the rest of the economy. They push, they push now boxed foods coming to your house. I can't tell you the waste involved in the packaging and the little plastics and the cards and the lamination and all of this just so you can pay a huge amount of money to sear some salmon, cut up some vegetables and put it on a plate. So now you can forget about the grocery store. So on the computer, you can get your food. On the computer, you can buy a bed. On a computer, you can have your drug store to live of your drugs. Every, it's gonna be the new way. And unfortunately, it's going to affect this economy in the future in ways that we've never dreamed of. And it's all on your fingertip that we don't wanna do more than our fingertip. - Okay, but let me just, let me just say this. You say it's on your fingertip, but now that we lost or are losing internet neutrality, it may cost you more than you ever dreamed of to order anything online because all the small people selling online are gonna have a really hard problem if they have to pay to speed up stuff so people can actually get to their websites. - So save it as conversation as best as we can. - So, oh no, it's really true. What's happening, this is a two-fold disaster across the board, so you're not gonna have a local grocery store, you have to buy online, which means you have to have internet and a computer if you don't, too bad for you. - I wanna-- - No, no, no, but think about it. Just think about 10, 20 years in the future now and maybe even quicker, if somebody else is controlling the speed of your internet and what websites you get to see, you know that at the end of the day who always pays for it, it's a consumer and the small people, yep. - Well, I'll tell you something, the two best jobs for the future is become a cardiac surgeon or work for Federal Express UPS or Amazon and deliver packages. - No, sir. - If that's where we're going. - Oh, you know, it's a factory stacker, the stacker. - Yeah, oh my God. - You know, and you just tell the robot where to go. I know, it's totally true, right? And meantime, the post office still isn't gonna do as well. - Or you go off the grid and just have your own little farm and grow your own stuff. - I know, I know. Like, Dr. Jackie, she comes on our show, she's a cardiologist and an electrologist or she zaps people, you know, she's cool, she's super cool. Her whole thing is to try and tell, especially women, stop eating so much meat, stop eating this way, and everything you're talking about because I don't want to see you in my office and women don't know when they're having heart attacks. It's the number one killer of women, it's heart disease. And it's coming from-- - Yes, let me tell you something about that. A lot of times when the women come in with symptoms, they're told to go home that it's not a heart attack where the men are put in right away. And, oh, you know, it's just a little stress, a little bit of that, it's different symptoms with the woman. A lot of times they're not-- - Yeah, you don't recognize, it's not that, what's his name going on? And what's his name? Samford and Friends, Samford Gwen, it's the big one. It's the big one, yeah. They don't have to grab the chance thing, they just like, I don't feel really good today. - I know, I know, hey, guys, we gotta run, you know. - Okay. - Chef Ivan, good conversation, we're gonna continue this in the New Year as long as we can with neutrality. We'll always keep going in some format, no matter what, and screw them. (laughs) But anyway, what's your champagne toast? Because there is good-- - My toast is to America, because I think that we are, when it comes to the heart with a good moral country, and I think eventually we will see that again, and be brave, have courage, stand up, when something, let me tell you something, the world works two ways, it's either something is right or something is wrong, either something feels right or it's wrong, it never stays the same, you know when something is wrong, you know. There's a need an explanation, if it doesn't feel right, it's not right, and you've gotta go with that, you've gotta stand up with that, because really, that's what it's gonna take. - Really, really, really-- - It's true, I agree. - Absolutely true, and hey, Alabama just showed us what's right and what's wrong, right? - Thank God, thank God. - So I talked to Alabama. - Yes. - I'm just saying, go Doug Jones, you go. - I don't think people can afford to be so busy that they're disinterested in their own future. - No, you can't do anything, like I always say, I understand, you know, a parent with, you know, a bunch of kids and jobs trying to make everything balanced, there's, like you've gotta, you can't sit and be the politician and investigate every single thing, and that is a full-time job, but you can make some basic look around and go, okay, that's screwed up, I ain't voting for that, or, oh, that's awesome, I'm gonna vote for that, there are some things out there, and the internet does actually give you the right thing, there's places you can go to, that are good, you know, follow the money.org, it's one of them. - That's a great place. - You know, so there's places you can go to find out the truth, and vote accordingly, and the one thing is to use our voice no matter what, you know, I just saw something the other day, I was too busy to vote, I wasn't like, what, what? I was too busy to vote, you can't not be too busy to vote, because the country is going to dictate what you do then, so you either choose your life, or others will choose the life for you, it's pretty much what you said, right, Chef, it's like, amazing. - You won't listen, you lose the middle class, you lose the country, no society in the world can run, without a middle class. - And the rich can't run on that? - No, the rich can't, the rich can't run on anything, the rich run on us, the rich can't run on anything, they're in a whole different mindset, you lose the middle class, you lose the country, you lose the middle class, you've gotten serious, serious, civil problem, that's a good thing. - And we have to go back to supporting small business and home-based business, the one thing I've seen, okay, then we gotta go, the home-based business, this is the thing, it was a big fight, like 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I met, you know, the home-based business, and how home-based business, we were fighting, saying, hey, we get reds too, we don't have to have a big storefront, blah, blah, blah, you know, I know plenty of people are working from home, and then this whole thing is laptops came available, and you know, Skype, and all these things, all these technology, you know, all of this technology came available, more people were able to not commute, which is not, you know, we're not putting more cars on the road all the time, and do some stuff from home. Now, we're getting penalized, everybody that works from home. Now it's changing up, and we all got lax in that department thinking, oh, we're fine, we're not, anybody who works from home, and just about everybody does at some point, I mean, Ivan, do you ever look at your menus with the school kids at home, on a computer? I mean, that's working for home, we all do work from home at some point, and you've gotta look at that. If we're gonna take our step home, we should look at it still as an office space or whatever, and so I just wanna put that out, home-based people, you gotta start looking at your rights because they're about to be swooped away. Just saying, especially on textbooks. All right, so, Chef Ivan, we're toast to you and Tracy, and we'll chat with you in the near here. Yeah, and pickle, a little pickle. - Thank you. - Do you dress them up for Christmas? I saw those photos. - Actually, we're taking them right now to PetSmart, to get photographed with Santa. She's gonna get photographed with Santa. She's gonna get photographed with Santa. I bet you she peeps on Santa's knees. (laughs) - Yeah, she's up, you know, she's one of our babies, and we need the picture. 'Cause she's very, very excited right now. - I can't wait to see it on your Facebook. Everyone, again, keep up with Chef Ivan Flowers, go to Facebook, Twitter, and also blendradioandtv.com. You'll see him there and get his recipes. Thanks so much for joining us. - Thank you guys, I'll speak to you next year. - Take care. - Be well, bye-bye. - Bye to Tracy. - Happy holiday, Tracy, it's a little thanks, bye. - All right, happy holidays. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
Celebrate National Lobster Day with Chef Ivan Flowers who explains how to make his recipe for West Coast Lobster Rolls