Nicole, when I was growing up, my Nonna would take me to the best hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurants. We’re talking breadsticks, all-you-can-eat salads, tours of Italy. That doesn’t sound very Italian. It’s gotta be Olive Garden, you said breadsticks? No, no, Olive Garden. This is, “A Hot Dog is a Sandwich.” Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, “A Hot Dog is a Sandwich,” the show we break down the world’s biggest food debates. I’m your host, Josh Scherer. And I’m your host, Nicole Enayati. And today, we have a very special, mostly naked guest joining us. He’s known as QCP, aka Queen City Prince, and no, there is not an alternate backstory to that. He’s one of the top Italian chefs on TikTok, and author of the cookbook, “Italian/American.” Please welcome Gianluca Conte. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for- For saying my name right. For saying it all right. Thanks for having me. You got it. I’m excited to talk about what’s right and what’s wrong about the Italian cuisine, and who’s right and who’s wrong. Well, I am very curious about that, because as people who have been creating recipes and videos online. Yip. All of us, for you know, many years at this point, nobody gets madder in the comments than Italian people about Italian food. So. Oh yeah and, not Italian people talking about Italian. They also care more than the Italians themselves. And you’re a real-deal Italian. Like, you got it running through. My father is from Italy. Nice. And that’s enough, right? I’m a first generation Italian. People love to be like, “No, you’re not!” And then I’m just like. Who is questioning your Italian credentials? You should take a 23andMe and just post it on the internet and be like, “I’m Italian.” I mean, my dad is literally like, “Hey, how you doin’? It’s a gabagool.” Not like. You posted a shot in Italy with your dad, like in his hometown, right? So many times, yeah, yeah, yeah. So funny. But what is it specifically about Italian food that makes people want to gatekeep it? I think it must be because it was really brought from, it’s one of the only, no, that’s not true at all. Everything’s been brought over but most things have kind of stayed the same. Okay. A lot of authentic you know, Chinese food, Japanese food, has mostly stayed authentic, and Italian food has been completely converted into its own kind as Italian-American food. Like Italian-American food, sure. And I think that’s why it kind of lost its, like, intensity. So people are mad because they’re like, “That’s not Italian, like, that’s not, that’s Italian, that’s not.” So it must be that. It must be like. Because they have their own language in the northeast. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They, you know, have a whole translation. They took like a dialect of southern Italy and turned it into English, so it’s like, they’ve got so much going on. People don’t really, no one’s done that in any other culture. Yeah. So. I don’t know why. Even the term gabagool, right? So many people know that as a little joke from “The Sopranos,” but where it actually comes from in the language, I talk about this all the time, that Italy was not a country until like the 1880’s. Sure. It was a bunch of different kingdoms with different languages that were all united. But the term, gabagool, it’s capicola, right? Right. Sure, yes. But then, when you go into southern dialects like Sicilian, which is. Exactly. A lot of people that came over here, like, the hard, ka sound softens to a, ga. Right, right. And they would also drop the last vowel at the end of words because that’s, you know, it’s like pronouncing things pecan or pecan or, there’s so many regional dialects. Yeah. Where my father’s from, this is exactly true. He has the dialect. Where’s he from? He’s from Ischia. It’s a small island off the coast of Naples. Okay. So it’s like, you’ve got Capri, and then you could literally see Ischia from there and the other way around. And the Napoli accent, Napolitano accent is a complete dialect, it’s its own language. They have different spelling, they have different like, It’s completely different. And for an example, mozzarella, in Italian they say mozzarella, and then Napolitano they say like, mozzarella, mozzarella. The inflection is in different parts. And then you get Tony Soprano goes, “Mozzarel.” Yeah, then they say, “Mozzarel.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s like , , . Whatever the hell they say, it ends up being, gabagool. Yeah. So it’s just like. But it’s funny, you know? I’m trying to like, make things, I’m like, I want things to be civil. It’s kind of like. You’re trying to unify. I’m trying to unify. You’re trying to, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like Garibaldi, man, trying to unify the Italian kingdoms, the great hero. And the Italian Americans are trying to do it, too, you know? They’re really trying their best, but like you know, they’re, I don’t think everyone else cares. What I wanna know. I wanna know, since you’re here repping Italian-American, what are some rules that you think should never be broken with Italian food? What are like, gimme like four that you’re just like, don’t ever do this. Okay. The store-bought, shelf-grabbed Parmesan cheese. Oh. Is the worst thing in the world. Shaky parm, you don’t like shaky parm? No! Oh, we got down with the shaky parm over here. What’s your beef with shaky parm? It’s just bad cheese. Sawdust, it’s, yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of, Italian cuisine is so simple. Yeah. It’s very easy and all it requires is quality ingredients. Yeah, it’s an expression of specific things, yeah. Yes, there is a lot of other factors, like you have to know how long things and that and cooking. Yeah. But then you really mess it up, you can make a whole dish and top it with store-bought sawdust, and it’s gonna ruin the whole dish. So that’s what’s important. My favorite part. That store bought thing. My favorite part. Dry herbs and all that. My favorite part about that cheese, it has so much chew and so little taste. You know what I mean? Right, right. It’s an iconic taste though, I must say. When you taste it, you know you’re tasting shaky parm, so. I would never know. I’ve never even. You’ve never tried it before? I don’t think so. Do we have some in the fridge? Of course, we have some in the fridge. I wish we could bring some out for you. Well, we’ll get some in the other pod. Okay, later, later. Okay, okay. I would love to show you guys, like, show you my top tier. You definitely have had Parmigiano Reggiano, top tier. Of course. And then you put the two next to each other, it’s just like. Oh, it’s nuts. It’s incomparable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not even worth it. But that’s just one of my thoughts of things that are wrong. Okay, fair, fair. There’s plenty. Gimme one more. Gimme something about pasta. I feel like I’ve seen on the internet, people. Of course, you can’t the break the pasta. Okay, but sometimes they’ll be. Sometimes the pot isn’t big enough. What are we supposed to do? Just go buy another pot? Here’s the thing, if the water’s boiling enough. Okay. Then the pasta technically will get soft quick enough when you put it in. Yeah. And then you can like, what I do is I take the spider, whatever it’s called, and I push it, I push the pasta and make it kind of slip up on the other end so you even it out. So it’s like. Yeah. It’s like a little U situation. There’s a strategy, but get a bigger pot. Yeah, that works in practice. You know? But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve burnt the tips of my linguini because it just doesn’t push down. But you know, sometimes. You gotta be quick, you gotta be very quick, yeah. But let me tell you, sometimes broken pasta, in a pinch like, it works, you know? Also, burnt pasta works. There’s a whole recipe about. Spaghetti all’Assassinina, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We love that. It’s a burned thing. Yeah, I’m Persian. It’s burned a little differently, but yeah. I’m Persian, so we do macaroni. Oh. Where we literally make a complete tahdig, which is the burnt bottom and we flip it over and it’s the most delicious pasta dish ever. That’s such a sick dish. Yeah. And I never thought about it in terms of like pasta all’Assassina, because you’re doing the same thing. Same thing yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, which is. And we break the pasta in that, too, but also. I didn’t realize that. That’s again, it’s like a, it’s an iteration of what Italians do and you know, whenever it goes through so many different things you get something like macaroni, which is completely out of left field, but it still hearkens back to Italian recipes. Yeah well, in my culture, white trash Pennsylvanians you see, with some Mennonite cousins that might’ve been involved in organized. And you’re Jewish. You only have. And you’re a Jew. I’ve never had Jewish spaghetti. I’ve had white trash spaghetti. You’ve had kugel. Olive Garden must be your only choice out there. You’ve had kugel. Oh my God, I’ll tell you what, Olive Garden was absolutely. Iconic. That was the fanciest restaurant I’ve been to growing up. But then now tasting it as somebody who knows anything about food, they don’t salt their pasta water, you know? You got the spaghetti. There’s a lot of things. There’s so much. I went recently too. In the back? Because I did a video with somebody who. Oh. We compared the worst and the best Italian restaurant in New York City. Oh, cool. And we started at Olive Garden and then we went to like a 4.9 out of five, open table. Where was it? Top tier. What’s it called? Which one, the good one? Yeah. I dunno why I’m kind of, I’m blanking. I did a video, I was with, “Jack’s Dining Room.” I dunno if you’ve seen his, he does food reviews. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But basically the difference in the video is, one of the craziest, we pick up, you pick up the ravioli at Olive Garden and it’s like, the bottom is, there’s no sauce even on the bottom. I don’t even know how they did that. Just put it on, yeah, yeah, yeah. They like, they pull it out of the thing and it’s, they just put some sauce over it. Plop, plop, plop. And they serve it to you and it’s. That’s my culture. Yeah no, for real, like. The breadsticks too, I’m like, everyone loves it but like it’s, they get solid. Yeah. They get rock hard. They really do. If you don’t eat it in 30 seconds and like. They literally found that out like, an investment firm literally didn’t audit on the Olive Gardens practices. And they were like “Hey, we noticed that you just served six breadsticks to three people and then after 30 seconds they’re awful. What if you just serve them one at a time?” And they’re like “Nah, next.” That’s not how we make money. And they’re like, “Well, we noticed you don’t salt your pasta water. What if you did that? Because 80% of people who ate it said it doesn’t taste like anything.” I know so well that they don’t use like, decent quality tomato sauce or anything. Yeah. They’re not in the quality business. But it’s like. The quantity business, come on. But tomato sauce is so cheap. It’s expensive. Where it’s like. Yeah. Three cents more per pallet. You get like 10 times better of the sauce. I don’t like those margins. She must, she’s vouching. Nicole’s gonna leave here to work for Olive Garden corporate. Yeah. I’d do great, I’d make. Take, all the olives out of the salad. So much money. We’re losing money on the olives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll remove three almonds, we’ll save billions. There are a lot of Italian-American dishes. So I lived with two Italian soccer hooligans in college and they were fantastic. I learned so much about. Were they from the northeast? They were both from Rome. Oh, oh actually from Italy, okay, okay. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, full on like. Okay. Just came to try and get into the movie industry from Rome. Nice. And so they would have their parents send espresso, olive oil and tomato sauce. Cute. Because those are the three things that like, we can’t get that anywhere here. But they had so many rules and they were horrified by all these Italian-American dishes. Once I made myself spaghetti and meatballs and then they were like, “The bread is already in the meat.” What are rules that Italians would say that you shouldn’t do with food that you think in the Italian-American context is really dank? Like, chicken parm is a huge one, they hate it. There’s so many weird things that don’t make any sense. It’s like, meatballs, meatballs are fine. Meatballs are very Italian but not with pasta. Yeah. So you cannot put spaghetti with meatballs, that’s one thing. Chicken and pasta is another no, is another rule. This is something we’ve talked about too. There’s no chicken. You don’t put chicken. Yeah. Anywhere near, there’s no Tuscan style. That’s not true. Then the biggest one is just cream at all in any pasta. Oh. So it’s like, there’s no milk in pasta but you can take like five balls of burrata, which is full of milk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And slap it all over your food. It helps, yeah. And it’s not cream. So it’s like, there’s a lot of different things, but like to me, I think it’s, I think it’s kind of ridiculous and I, like for my father being like the authentic side, and then me like living in the US my whole life and seeing the other side of it was why I like wanted to even make this book, to have both of them together, that was like. Yeah. A reason why I made a cookbook. Oh, really. Was I was like, Let’s make this civil. Because they’re all good. Like they’re, both sides of it are really good dishes. Yeah. And they just have different, they’re just not traditional. Yeah. Yeah. Carbonara with peas and ham can exist. I have, one of my dad’s Italian friends. Yeah. That’s how he does it. Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. And that’s his part of Italy, he does it. Yeah, we shouldn’t get. But my dad’s doesn’t, you know? We don’t have to have a war in Italy over the food. We shouldn’t get mad over it, maybe we can just be friends. Chicken parm. Maybe that’s what it’s all about, friendship. Chicken parmesan predates carbonara, that’s the thing that messes a lot of people up. Uh like, it was invented in the US? Correct, chicken parm. When? Nobody actually knows the, I think the first time I’ve seen it in print was like 1930’s. And carbonera was. I’ve been “Benjamin Button,” ing. I’ve been existing for a long time. And carbonara was after that? 1944. You’re lying. Historian Luca Cesari says that carbonara was born in Rome around 1944, just after the liberation of the city. That’s the thing, all these things that we, we associate Italy with this like ancient history, which is true in so many regards. Yeah. But we almost like take out its ability to modernize because we say, “This isn’t authentic. You can’t put cream in that carbonara.” It’s like, that dish is literally, there are more rules to chicken parmesan than there are carbonara, right? Sure. It’s an older dish. And that was an immigrant dish from, you know, southern Italian immigrants in New York City, you know? So I think that’s great. Of course. It’s a diverse wealth of delicious things. And nobody needs to gatekeep. It’s pretty humorous how much depth there is in this conversation, in the argument of Italian food, it’s just like. Sure. It’s intense, you know? And there’s so much history behind it. People get mad. Yeah. People get very mad. Who’s the maddest person you’ve encountered about Italian food? ‘Cause I mean, my. I don’t know. Mad, in person? A lot of the times I just, I try not to learn the full thing. Like, it’ll be an Italian a lot of the times and I see a couple of words in the mix. Oh, really? And then I’m like. Just don’t hit, translate. Nah, I’m not gonna play it. Yeah that one, that one I know is not good. Like, but then, then there’s another side of it. There’s some people that are, most of the people that are from Italy, like they see me post, they just laugh. They’re like, “Great video.” You know, like? Sure. Who cares like they, there’s some who care more than others. And like I was saying, a lot of the time it ends up just being like some person behind their phone who saw one video of it being done authentically. Then they see someone else do it in like, not authentic. And then they’re like. Sure. “You’re wrong.” Yeah. And it’s like, yeah, sure. But like I didn’t say, authentic carbonara. Sure. And if I did and then I was wrong, blame me, but. Then we’ll make an, I’m sorry video on YouTube. Exactly. And we’ll get millions of views. Exactly, I’m gonna do that. I personally follow a, an Instagram reels page, ’cause I’m not on TikTok and it’s called. You’re not better than me. Yeah, a little bit. It’s called, “Italians being Mad at Food.” And it’s just people, it’s reaction videos. And it is insane how much traction just this passionate, intense hatred of what someone is doing makes on the internet. It’s all, what is it called? It’s like rage bait. Rage bait, yeah. Yeah, it’s like rage bait videos. But you can’t stop watching them because there’s something about it that’s just so. Oh yeah, watching somebody react to somebody doing something extremely incorrect is really. Yeah, I love it. Shout out to, “Chef Reactions,” man. Yeah, he’s hilarious. Oh, great. He’s like, cornered the market on it. But it’s just, it’s incredible to watch people just get so mad at some, like, I was watching this video of someone in Italy pouring water from their water bottle into an espresso and someone behind them just looking at them like, what are you doing? And I just love those kinds of videos so much. And I think other people on the internet love watching it as well. Just that rage baity, in your face. Like, I’m here to make you mad. There are so many things in Italy. Yeah. If you order a cappuccino past 12:00 PM you’re considered like, insane. And that’s just like a thing. I love cappuccinos at 4:00 PM. Your digestive system doesn’t, girl, you’re slamming lactates, I see. You gotta, she has a drawer full of lactates. Oh no, oh no. I bet you. I don’t do lactates anymore. I get it. I don’t really drink milk anymore. She’s built it, she’s built her tolerance back. I don’t drink milk anymore. No longer intolerant. I drink lactose free milk now, I’m about the Fairlife milk. It has extra protein in it. Very fair. Josh. I do, too. Oh, you have the Fairlife milk? I do, too. Yeah. Wait, how do we get, how do we all collectively get that sponsorship? ‘Cause the macros on that milk. I would love. I made a video where I had like, lactate in the video, like the pills. Okay. And I made like a mac and cheese like two years ago. Sure. That was full of a bunch of cheese. The video had like 25 million views on TikTok. And then I was just like. Knock on wood. What have I done? I love that. I just gave them so much free promo, but you know, it is what it is, it happens. Let’s get sponsored by Fairlife and Lactate. Yeah, two for one. Enjoy it all. Well, I tried to get a sponsorship from Sunsweet Prunes. You sure did. Squatty Potty and Tushy Bidets. And then I was gonna. We got the Tushy’s. We got the Tushy’s. We got the Tushy’s. Well that’s why, and we had a meeting with Sunsweet Prunes. What a combo. I love prunes, great simple carbs after a workout. Keeps you regular. Your shirt looks like a prune today. Yeah, that’s, this is me trying to subliminally message, eat prunes. But I wanted to call myself. I have to curse once I have to, I wanted to call myself a shit fluencer. Wow. Oh, you’re the poop guy? Because You’re the poop guy. Prunes, Squatty Potty. Ah. You’re the poop guy. Turn me into the poop guy. All food turns into poop eventually when it. I Have you guys seen the poop guy? Who’s the poop guy? On Instagram? Who’s the poop guy? No. He’s just a guy from New York who like, makes a joke that people order poop at the deli. Oh, I. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Lemme get two scoops of poop. Yeah, can I get a? You know, a ciabatta roll with the. He’s like, “A hero with the little mortadell and just a scoop of poop?” He’s like, “Is that alright?” Yeah, the bits that take off, man. Yeah and now like, he literally only does poop content and like, and he has fake slabs of poop. He does like little. Oh, man. He does things where he’s like, meets somebody in public, gives them a little, he’s like, “You need your poop? I got you poop.” And then he’s, he’s got yeah. Oh my God, the internet. Wild, wild West. I think I’m glad I didn’t get the three poop infinity stones. God love us. To turn myself into the poop influencer, ’cause then I would’ve been really pigeonholed and we couldn’t talk about like the, you know, liberation of all the Italian city states in 1889. Seriously. What is. Hilarious. Like, the recipe in here that you’re most proud of, that like says this is the Italian-American experience? The Italian Amer, like one, there’s no, there’s not like one that combines the both like, together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah sure. I guess because I have, I have like every recipe has an Italian flag or the United States flag. Oh, really? Identifying whether it’s Italian or Italian-American. That’s fabulous. That’s really sick. So I guess it’s kind of harder to answer, rather I mean, there’s, it’s pretty cool. Like there’s just, so there’s kind of, almost every authentic Italian, like basic. It’s all, I have all the basics in this book. So I’d say my favorite like, Italian-American recipe is probably, which is crazy, is lasagna. Like my lasagna, regular lasagna bolognese. Sure. Is just like, it’s, they’re all easy. But time is what throws people off on anything. Yeah, yeah. Of course we get it, we get it. But it’s like, the experience and the result is what is great. I mean I, it’s so hard for me to choose favorites, but my favorite authentic Italian, which is my father’s recipe. But it’s obviously it’s like, you know, you can say it’s your father’s recipe, but a lot of people will do it the same. And a lot of people will say, that that’s not from Naples. Sure. And that’s from Bologna. Yeah. And that we do and then they, people fight about this stuff like we said. All the time. But it’s definitely the ragu napoliano, like slow cooked, short rib, beef chuck and sausage. It slow cooks for three hours. And then once it’s done you throw in your pasta and it’s like it, everything melts. It creates like a brown, almost. Like, I can’t even describe the color. Is it super tomato or no? Like rusty, like a rust color? It’s not that it’s, yeah, more rusty. Because you’re not you know, you use, I’ll use one can of whole peeled tomatoes, just kind of crush ’em up, take out the stems. Right on. And then let that, let that boil. And then all of a sudden you see it changing its color and then the sauce just becomes, it’s the meat and the bone broth and everything that like, just melts. I love that. And it makes just the craziest flavor. Like just such a unique, intense, just a, but it takes three hours and that’s what’s scary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it’s like. You gotta do this. You have to do it to impress somebody. I think that’s, I think that’s where it matters most. It’s like, do you really wanna impress your date or whatever that night? Sure. If you have someone over for dinner, take the one that, do the one that like, you have it cooking, they walk in, they’re like, “Whoa.” Yeah. “What are you cooking?” That happened to me once. Which one? Only time somebody has ever cooked for, ’cause I would normally eat, dating back to college, I would like, always cook for girls on dates, ’cause that, what an easy way to impress somebody. You’re like, “Lamb chops?” But anyways, this one girl was like, “Let me cook for you.” And it always would go badly because they don’t know how to cook, ’cause they’re 19. I was also 19 to be clear, but anyways. So. But I remember walking into her apartment, she called her dad, they were Italian-American, and she called her dad and he told her like, his Sunday gravy recipe. And it has this giant pot and it’s bubbling. And I look in there and there’s just like whole beef bones. Yep. Like neck. Dude, neck and straight up neck bones. Yes. You have roasted, now roasted, it was roasted pork neck and then beef. Yum. And then there was veal and then there were sausages. You can, yeah, yeah. To this day, I have never had a better like, red sauce experience. Yeah. Holy smokes, that was so incredible. That’s incredible. And the thing is, is like people don’t understand that you can do like, oh my God, how simple. I can say how you cook it in like, and make it in 15 seconds. It’s like, braise the meat. Take it like, olive oil, braise the meat, take it out. Yeah. Vegetables goes in, saute sauce, meat goes back in. Or red wine, meat goes back in, let it simmer, you’re done. But it’s just like time, three hours. Yeah. Like there’s quick, easy steps, but it’s all about the time. Ah, I don’t wanna do that. But it won’t taste as good. Yeah, exactly. Things can taste good in 30 minutes of course. 25, sometimes 15. But it’s not the same experience at all. That’s why that’s like one of my favorites, is the ragu. Yeah and that’s where like, love comes into cooking. Of course, it’s time. Yeah it’s that effort, it’s that time. I’ve come to peace with that for sure over time, ’cause at first was very lazy, lazy, lazy. Like I gotta, I’m gonna make a video, make it fast, I don’t care what it tastes like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. Then my dad calls me. We’ve been there before too, yup. And he’s like, “Gianluca, what are you doing? This is embarrassing, you need to make it better.” No way, your dad called you out? Yes, yeah, yeah. He’d be like, “Why you use the panchetto? Go find guanciale, you know?” Oh no. It’s, yeah, yeah. The amount of times I said the phrase. Quality. Ah, if they can’t find guanciale, bacon’s fine. Yeah, that one I won’t say. I’m like, fine, panchetta’s fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh no. But no, that’s funny, yeah. No but your dad, like the guardian of quality. Has four restaurants so he. Oh, I didn’t know that. Wow, oh, really? He has forever, so since before I was born, he said he had his first restaurant in 1995. Wow. When my first sister was born. And then he’s had a restaurant for every child that he’s had. Oh, that’s beautiful. Like the same year. Which is pretty cool. And so, yeah, I mean that’s where I have another standard is, I gotta keep up with him. Restaurateur father, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah and I guess it’s destiny. Man. To be doing the food stuff. The Queen City Prince. He’s actually the king of Queen City because he’s, he’s had his restaurants in Charlotte since before I was born. Yeah. And he’s been the best. Did you grow up like, cooking with him at the restaurants or were you not involved in that? Not really it was like, I didn’t start cooking until 2019. Nice. So like I am. Right. I’m only this many years in, but like every day, so. How old were you when you realized like, I’m gonna do food? Literally, 19 so it was like. Same. Yeahs so it was like. Yeah, at 19. I kind of made a video. Not like, not many people know this. I made a video making fun of people from New Jersey, like The Jersey Shores. Okay. Like, if “The Jersey Shore” had a cooking show, ’cause as you can see. That Angry Jersey Shore cooking show, right? Right now, I’m not talking like this, but like, I used to literally talk like that and people thought that’s who I was. And it’s such a beyond character, It’s like, no way that’s a real person. Yeah, sure. So then I made this video kind of, but the thing was, yes, it was like the first time I made a, I made like, not made, first time making pasta. First time I like at least filmed it, but maybe it was like my 10th time ever. Wow. Even cooking for myself at 19 years old. But because I had seen, my mom’s an incredible chef. My father’s an incredible chef. I’ve watched them, I’ve been walking around holding my dad’s finger when I was two years old, like walking around the kitchen. Like, I’ve been seeing it my whole life. So when it came time to doing it, I was like, this is so easy. Sure. And it got easier and easier and I would watch a quick little video or something to figure it out. Then it got to a point where it was enough of trying to figure it out and watch a, call dad. Because like he will actually tell me how to do it the right way. Touch, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he’s the one that helped me, like make it more and care more and actually do things correctly and grow the love that I have. And yeah, I mean I’ve got recipes from my dad, from my grand, both my grandparents, like grandmothers on both sides, from my mom, I’ve hit it all, like from sister. Your mom Italian too? Yeah. Beautiful. So she’s half Middle Eastern, she’s half Syrian, half Italian. Very nice. So very much. Nothing Syrian in there? And she’s from no, no but my grandmother’s got incredible, ’cause it was her husband. Sure. That, my grandpa that was Syrian and they did you know, it was either Italian night or Syrian night with her. But yeah, I’ve learned it all from them to be honest. So it’s cool to be able to put that out there. That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. What would you have been doing if not for food? Was there something else on the horizon that you were like, this is another place I’m going to and then the food bug just but ‘ya? Ironically, I was making music. No way. And I kind of made a TikTok to like, promote it and then I was just like. What kind of music, EDM? No, like kind of like hip hop. Why’d you assume, Nicole? Because I love EDM. It’s a racist stereotype. I listen to EDM music, I listen to EDM music, continue. Just, it was just like hip hop. Okay, cute. And just, it was fun. I was like the rapper in my high school kind of and like. No way. And then I went on there to promote it and then I ended up just like making a bunch of skits and then like hundreds of videos later after I, I had like 700,000, 800,000 followers before 2020, which was before I made my first cooking video. So people don’t know I had a big, I had a good following. Oh, no way. Especially at the time, it was a lot harder to grow following like, because there’s not that many people on the platform in 2019. Sure, yeah. So I had like, a pretty good following. People followed me for just whatever came out of my ADHD brain was what they would see. And then the cooking video was kind of another one of those videos, which then I ended up doing more and more and more and more until it, I was like, this is all I’m gonna do. Which was in 2020, so. Can you drop your SoundCloud? Ah, is it still there? I think it’s QCP, I think it’s, but dude, it’s old music, it’s old music. I’m gonna look it up. Can we license some of it to make like a new theme song for this podcast? Yeah I can, I can send? Is it family friendly? I can send you. I can send you like one song. We’ll edit around it. That I, that I’m like a, I think would be really would be a good fit. Oh, hell yeah. Or I mean, I have it on my phone but like, I made a song called, “Pasta in a Lamborghini” that I didn’t release. All of it was really like, poorly developed. And it was just. Oh my gosh, B sides? It was more for fun, but people liked it. That’s so funny. You know, had a small following for that, but. Yeah. Here we are, I’m sidetracked. I remember the first video that I saw of you. It was actually on Twitter of all places. But I mean, it was mostly like a thirst video, you know? Yeah. But you were like smoking, you know, I dunno if it was like bucatini or you were like smoking it, but it was very like caricature dress. ‘Cause like you said, that’s what it was meant to be. Yes, yeah, that was definitely like 2020 me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The early days. Yeah. I’m like, screaming like that. Yeah, yeah. I was like, and then as I would watch my own videos, I’d be like, settle down, you know? But it’s funny because you have like taken the full loop now, where like you can tell how much heart and how much love you have for specifically Italian-American food and Italian food in general. Yeah. And that you’re able to like, now put family recipes into this book. So many people start online with a little bit of a caricature and then all they do is escalate the caricature. Right. I mean, not the, no shade to the poop guy. This guy, you know, he is walking around with a fake poop now. Poor poop guy. You know, it started off as a funny little joke and now he’s got fake poop. Whereas you kinda want the opposite of like, have this caricature and then now you’re, I mean, you’re like a fully fleshed out. Yeah, yeah, it was a lot easier for me to fall in love with the idea. Yeah. Knowing that like. Sure. It’s my family, it’s what they do. Like, my dad’s a restaurateur. Like, you know, it’s like my life has always been about that. So it’s like, how hard is it to be like, this is the right thing? Like, you’re doing the right thing. Was easier to say, “Let’s do this thing,” because. This book is growth and maturity, I love it. Absolutely, I’ve got the, I’ve got everything in there. You know, the stories, the kid, the photos of me when I was a kid. There’s baby pictures in here? There’s everything, yeah. Okay, I wanna pop it out, let me see. Yeah, pop it open, pop it open. It’s like the first, the third page. I love a good baby, the third? Meanwhile, let me give some Italian food hotcakes. Go for it, go for it. I think 99% of people can’t make better homemade red sauce then, or jar of Rao’s, 99%, 99.9%. Are you serious? I think a jar of Rao’s. I can neither confirm nor deny this. I mean, okay. It is about, oh, the Italians getting mad about food, I’m kidding. I don’t think I’ve ever had it. Get the hell outta here, you’ve never had the Rao’s hot sauce? You’ve never had Rao’s? No, I’ve had like other, more homey versions. Look at it, so cute, drinking milk. Yeah. So cute. No, that’s actually, that’s like a coconut. I don’t know, some weird coconut drink. So cute. That I liked. I love it. That’s really, yeah, there’s some baby stuff. Me drinking olive oil. Very nice. Ah, that is solid. Very nice. Yeah, yeah it’s, it’s a fun book. There’s a lot of cool stuff in there. A lot of cool features. Incredible man, well thank you so much for taking the time. There’s a ton of love poured in this cookbook. I’m gonna actually cook from it. Me too. Do we have a copy? Will you sign it? Yeah, can I have one? Yeah. Can I have your apron? A hundred percent. Do you wanna trade aprons, like a jersey swap? Yeah I mean, am I allowed? We should make a video of it. We should make a video of it. Oh yeah, we’ll absolutely do that. Why not? Well, all you have to do is just make things right in the Italian cuisine and people will, no, they’ll always come after you. Oh, they’re gonna come. They always come. Yeah. Yeah, if you make it, if you make spaghetti, the Italians will come. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or if you scream at them loud enough, like me, they just don’t have a choice. They’re just like, “Alright, let him do his thing.” You’re right. Don’t wanna put in any work whatsoever, but still want Italian food asap? The Sporked team tasted and ranked every single Rao’s frozen meal. Head over to sporked.com to find out if lasagna beats chicken parm. Nicole and Gianluca, we’ve heard what you and I have to say. Now it’s time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. Well, it’s time for a segment we call. Opinions are like Casserole. Anyways, we got a lovely music video queued up that we gotta watch. Oh, heck yeah. A 20 second music video. I’m so excited When I created the song and edited this very quick, funny, not funny music video. Oh my God, I’m so excited. Now don’t demure, don’t play cool. Okay, okay, okay. We gotta watch it. Six years ago I created a song about parmesan called, “Parmesan Dreams.” Please enjoy a cinematic experience about parmesan. ♪ Parmesan dreams ♪ ♪ From A to Z ♪ Okay, Drake. ♪ Don’t come close to me ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ What do you mean ♪ Oh my goodness. This is so dramatic. ♪ Oh yeah ♪ When you crack open a parmesan wheel, that’s it. I mean. That was beautiful. Beat was fire. Was it a cinematic experience? Beat was fire. We can all agree on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fire beat. Who produced it? Lyrics? Lyrics are off the, you know, it’s six years ago, emphasis on six years. How old were you six years ago? 18, 17, 18? Man. Yeah, yeah. Hey, no, that’s a banger of a first track. Gotta show it. It was great. Thank you. 10 outta 10. Thanks so much, “Parmesan Dreams.” Light up that first opinion. Hey, Josh and Nicole, big fan. I’m a big fan of you. Anyway. Can I get a scoop of poop? Most Italian food, almost all Italian food in fact, is better without any meat. Oh, okay. The only major exception is seafood Italian dishes. You’re cowards if you don’t play this on the show. Well, we’re not cowards. I’m definitely not a coward. What do you think? Only because you’re playing it on the show. What do you think about that? I don’t know, I don’t get it. I think I know where they’re coming from, though. Do you mean like. Look, if the. A tomato sauce without any meat? A cream sauce without any meat? Pesto without any meat? I think they’re, I think they are thinking of like, chicken fettuccine alfredo. If I had to guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what I love about Italian food is, they tend to use meats as a way to flavor other things. Flavoring agent, absolutely. Right? Other than like, raviolos. I’m starting to see what he’s saying. And ivilltinis and tortellinis. Other than filled pastas. It depends. Sure. Yeah. If the quality of everything else is like great, and then it could be accompanied by a great quality, if you get bad beef or something. Like it is not, it’s gonna ruin it. Like, for sure. Sure. For sure, I kind of get it, I kind of don’t. Yeah. I feel like those are just very separate things. Like, Italian dishes are themselves like, on their own. And then there’s a separate dish that has meat in it. You know, like? Yeah, I agree with that. You can have a vegetarian lasagna, it’s gonna taste like one thing. You’ll have one with meat, it’ll taste like, it’s just. Another meat. It’s like a different thing. Yeah, another dish. If I said the phrase, meatball salad, does that mean anything to you? No. He’s talking about meatball salad. So I’m gonna talk about meatball salads. It’s an oxymoron, right? Well, no, no, no. One would maybe think. I believe jumbo shrimp is an oxymoron, but meatball salad is not. Not even, so I went to, I inexplicably had like two back-to-back weddings in Morristown, New Jersey. And my fiance grew up in Long Island, but she grew up vacationing at the Jersey Shore in like, Margate area. And so we were in Jersey for 10 days. And when I go to a place, I wanna find the most regionally specific foods that I can. And so, you know, I got the original sloppy Joe in Jersey. I had you know, a pork roll. Sandwiches on the shore, all this stuff. But one thing I saw was meatball salad. And I didn’t ask people. Are they like, tiny? No, so what it is, it’s just a side of like a very Olive Gardeny looking salad and then like three meatballs on a plate just kind of plopped next to it. And some of the sauce gets in the lettuce. But I remember asking somebody about that who was from Jersey, and they said, “Yeah.” They said it’s because, you know, spaghetti and meatballs, very Italian-American dish. But a lot of the Nonnas, they’d be like, “You don’t eat meat with pasta, you eat meat with vegetables.” Right, and so the vegetables that they were serving that time were a very Americany salad like that. Okay. And the meat was the polpette. Okay. And so they’d be like, “Yeah, I’m gonna eat my vegetables with my meat.” And then that became the meat salad. Like, it’s not taste bad, but I think like, you just serve it separately, you know? It’s like, you go up and you choose whether you want a salad. Not here. Or if you want some meatballs. Not here. Then Nonna gots to wash another dish. No, you know. No. People are taking it out. Yeah. Like, people are taking out the meatballs and then removing the pieces with the sauce on it. It’s the hot and the cold. And they’re like, yeah. The hot and the cold. It wilts, the thing is, it has to have a. Right? Oh, I love it. Let me tell you what are they using, like an iceberg mix with this? Oh, big time, the hardest iceberg, it’s so good. See, if it’s paired with like an arugula. Soggy. Or something that can withstand it. Sure thing. I think that makes more sense, because when they wilt it’s pleasant. That’s a great point. Iceberg wilted, not that pleasant, but arugula or spinach or even like, massaged kale. Once it, like the heat touches it, it is a more pleasant eating experience. I agree. It’s like apple pie a la mode, you just gotta go quick, you know? Right. Before the ice cream melts. Right. While the temperature difference is still there. Right, right, right. I don’t like apple pie, actually. I’m not a big apple pie person. Next opinion. Hey Josh, hey Nicole. Hey, man. Hey. I got something that might be a little controversial. Oh, really? But, uh. You don’t say. What could it be? I think, chicken and dumplings. It doesn’t need celery, it doesn’t need carrots. Okay. It doesn’t need peas, it needs leeks. Oh. Leeks are fantastic. Okay. Leeks are, you know, of the onion family, which I love. Alliums. I think more people need to do leeks in their chicken and dumplings. Oh and by the way, I love you guys. Hey. You guys are both hilarious. I’m not ready to say it yet. And Josh, I pride myself on being funny, but you might be funnier than me, anyway. Get the hell outta here. Love you guys. Now I love him. Love your show. You want me to love you, just play me one compliment. Yeah, yeah, have you had chicken and dumplings before? Did you like it? I have had it. I like it. Yeah. But like, I’ve never made it. I don’t, I cook literally only Italian food. And then like steak and like. Whoa. Protein by itself. When you you out to eat, like, what do you like to eat though? Oh I mean, I eat everything, too. You eat everything, okay cool, that’s great. Yeah, sushi, Mexican food. Awesome. Like, everything. Yeah, usually. So you’ve never had chicken and dumplings? Or have you had it? I’ve had it once. At The Cracker Barrel? I’ve had it at Cracker Barrel, once. Okay, nice. That’s so funny. And they have carrots in theirs, right? I don’t know, I don’t remember. Yeah, it’s like. Very chicken pot pie esque, right? Yeah, yeah, like it’s supposed to be kind of like chicken pot pie, like soup. Well okay, so let’s bring this back to Italian food. Have you ever had the creamy gnocchi soup from The Olive Garden? No. Oh my God. Have you had it? That sounds awful. No, I’ve only been to Olive Garden twice ever. The first time was like. Me too. Oh, funny. Was like eight years ago, literally. And I don’t think I got anything. I think I only ate the Caesar salad. Then the most recent time was when we did the food review. And the food review was, oh my gosh. Like if I showed you guys, if we pulled it up, you’d be like, wow. Yeah. ‘Cause like when you see the difference, it’s like, crazy. I’ve only been twice too. I mean, gnocci soup, Nicole, It is just chicken and dumplings. I got food poisoning last time I went actually, at The Olive Garden. I think they’re hitting at a point, though, there’s a lot of people that, I have this big vendetta against the French. Weird. They’re still freedom fries to me. No, but I don’t know even know if you’re old enough to get that reference. No, I just was like. Oh my God. No. We’ll talk about it. I think it was Nicola Sarkozy refused to back George Bush in the war. In the war. In terror. In Iraq, yeah. Over fries? And so they called it. No, no, no. Wow. But like in the White House, they refused to call it french fries. They would call it freedom fries. I don’t think it was the White House. Wow. I think it was in red states. That adds up. Really? Yeah. I went to a burger restaurant in Oklahoma that still had freedom fries listed on the menu. Wow. That is so funny. Incredible. A Belgian. But so many people think that you need to add mirepoix, celery, onion, carrot, to any dish to quote, make it have flavor. Have flavor, yeah, yeah. You can add anything, dude. I’ll use Swiss chard stem in there. That’s a great aromatic. Sure. Leeks, the king of the onion family, that’s a great aromatic. You can do anything you want. You don’t have to compulsorily add anything that you want into an aromatic that you don’t want to. Not at all. I agree, so actually I’m a huge chicken and dumplings fan. But if we’re talking Italian food, like of course you have to, because there’s one way to do everything. You have to add everything. For chicken and dumplings, I’ve had multiple iterations of it. And some of the best I’ve had is just a pure chicken and salt broth without any vegetables. You’re talking about the Dolly Parton recipe. The Dolly Parton pure expression of chicken. I want to get sick just to eat that right now. I know, right? It is so good. It is like the most beautiful expression of chicken and warmth and happiness that I’ve ever had. And then there’s some people that you know, they make it like down home, country. They put everything in there, they put carrot, celery, onion, yada, yada, yada. And it’s so good and thick and beautiful. I have never had it with leeks, but I do think leaks would be phenomenal in it. Because I freaking love leaks. Especially a lot of ’em. A lot of leeks. I just think. A lot of leeks. Leeks are the unsung hero of the allium family. And more people need to be enjoying leeks. I scarred my body with it. I can’t get buried in Jewish cemetery now, Nicole. Yeah, it. That’s unbelievable. New York Yankees. I’m really proud of this. The fact that you beat me to it and like, I don’t have any, I don’t have like. You don’t have any tattoos? I’ve got no tattoos. You’ve got no tattoos? Me either, I don’t have any tattoos, either. You know, I’m either gonna get, betch on. Solid. On like, you know, my butt cheek. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like a meatball. That’s good. Or like a pasta. What do people say? Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari? On a Bentley. On a Bentley. Kim Kardashian quote. Yeah, yeah, Kim. Yeah, if it’s like a really funny. They said, “Hey Kim, do you have any tattoos?” She’s like, “You can’t put a bumper sticker on a Bentley.” If it’s like a really funny bumper sticker. Love me. I’m doing it. It’s like my other cars, you know, something like that. Right, right, right, right. Then I’m doing it. I think your tattoos are great. I stopped adding carrots to most of my soups, made ’em better. Carrots, too sweet. Carrots, too sweet. Too sweet, ruins it. I like peas in my soup. Nice savory beef stew with red wine. You’re adding sugar to it? Nah, get the hell outta here. Roast the carrots separately if you want ’em, next. Okay, sassy. Hi Nicole, Hi Josh. Hi. This is May, I’m a teacher in Omaha. Thank you for being a teacher. We love teachers. And I wanted your opinion on the best type of gluten free products. My partner is gluten free and we have found the two best things that we buy all the time are the Ube pancakes from Trader Joe’s. What? She started typing it in. And the supreme gluten free pizza from Costco. Looking for new suggestions. So please let us know your thoughts. Love the pod, thank you. It’s another one that I’m not really a part of. Banza pasta, have you had a Banza pasta? I hate banza pasta. Yeah, I’ve had it. All I can think of is. What are you feeling about it? All I can think of is foam. Yes. [] All the foam. The aquafaba. When you get into the, that realm of, of like I’ve seen sort of the backend development of like, of gluten free pasta. Yeah. And vegetable-based pasta and stuff, it’s really difficult to make like, a really good product, so. Oh a hundred percent. So hard to make. So whoever ends up really doing, I’ve heard there’s some good ones, but I just feel like, you know, they gotta do better branding or something, people need to know. Yeah, there are certain things. So when I moved in with my fiance and you know, you combine households in all ways, but you also combine pantries. Of course. And I’m cooking almost all the meals for us. And so she’s one of those people that if she ate pasta, it was always Banza pasta. She was like, “There’s protein and no gluten,” and whatever. Right, right, right. If she ate tortillas, it was always a whole wheat tortilla. And I come in and I’m like, as like a chef I’m, I don’t wanna budge on any of these things, but you had to make concessions. And so I kept the whole wheat tortillas, but I instituted just normal semolina, durham flour pasta. And that was you know, my trade off. That’s night and day. Because for me, pasta is gluten, like it, you know, you can get, I love. I love pasta. I love rice noodles, I love stir fried. Yeah. You know, chow fun. Yeah, different story. But entirely different. Agreed. I recuse myself from the gluten free debate. I can talk about this a little bit. Yeah, you’re gonna have to help ’em out. So Trader Joe’s really does a great job. I would say the two best gluten free items are the gluten free chicken mini tacos. One of my girlfriends, she’s very celiac and very gluten-free. And she eats these like candy, like, she’s obsessed with them. Eats them like three times a week. And then also their grainless granola is phenomenal, delicious. Nuts, honey, seeds, delicious. Other than that, I mean, I’m not a big Banza pasta fan unless it’s for pasta salad, because. Is it not pronounced Banza? I don’t know, Banza, Banza. I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you. But other than that, I don’t know that much about gluten free. But those two are fantastic products. Gluten-free or not. My overall opinion on this though is, if you are gluten-free, you now just just eat like a Japanese person, right? Like a feudal Japanese warlord. You’ll probably live longer, anyway. A hundred percent, you’re eating rice. Let’s do it. You’re eating pickles. Like real, proper, fermented tsukemono pickles. And you’re eating fish and that’s great. Or you’re eating like a pre-Hispanic Mexican. Sure. You know. Before the conquistadors came through? Before the conquistadors, you’re eating nixtamalized corn. Gimme nixtamalized corn. They didn’t have no gluten. They weren’t growing wheat there, you know? Just eat like that and you know, you eat corn tortillas and delicious guisados. Yeah, eat before globalization came. That’s a good life. No, but I’m saying like go to the cultures that did not eat gluten to figure out what to eat. When you’re trying to make gluten-free pizza, it’s a losing battle. Yeah you know I was. You’re right. When I think about it all, and I feel like people have asked me this question before, like, would you marry someone who’s just fully gluten-free? Ooh. I’m thinking about all those times that we’re in Italy, everywhere around the world that they just can’t. I’ll tell you something. I eat like, whatever. There’s someone out there for you, but it might not be me. Yeah. I’ll tell you. I eat everything, my husband does not. And I thought it was the biggest deal. I was like, I want me and my husband to enjoy delicious charcuterie board. Like, that’s my future goal. Yeah. Like we drink wine and eat charcuterie together and just enjoy life. It is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I’m just telling you as a 30-year-old woman. Oh you’re gonna end up with a beautiful, oh my, a princess. Italian food eating princess. Gorgeous. No, gluten free, man. She’s gonna be gluten free, oh, you’re. Vegan, aloe this. Lulu Lemon that. And you’re gonna be in Iskia. Air only, like you just. Breathertarian, a breathertarian. You’re gonna have to ask the server at this beautiful Iskian restaurant. Just like, is this gluten free? And then they’re gonna judge you. What is a gluten? And cuss you out. And you’re gonna love each other so much. So much. Oh my God. So hard. Beautiful, large sons, cooking the gluten free raviolis. Nah, N-O for me. On that note, thank you so much for tuning into, “A Hotdog is a Sandwich.” We got new episodes every Wednesday and we got new episodes out on YouTube on Sunday. That’s right. “Hotdogs Are a Sandwich.” Thank you God, if you wanna be featured on, Opinions are like Casseroles, hit up, hit us up at 8-3-3 Dog-Pod1. Our number again is 8-3-3 Dog-Pod1. Everyone make sure to check out Gianluca brand new cookbook, “Italian/American.” Thank you so much. The one stop shop for all your Italian-American recipes. Don’t worry about it. He’s got the tagline. Where can the people find you? Plug your handle. @itsqcp, I-T-S-Q-C-P, all platforms. It’s very hard to miss it. That’s including SoundCloud. Make sure we’re bringing it back. That’s right. Abort, I just removed all my music on Spotify. Did you actually? Thank God.