definitely bringing the pain there mhm hey what's going on everybody for first we Feast I'm Sean Evans and you're watching hot ones it's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings and today I'm joined by Tom kikio he's a James Beard award-winning Chef he's got some Emmys in the trophy case and you
can catch him on season 14 of Top Chef which returns to Bravo on Thursdays Tom welcome to the show thank you this is pretty awesome I feel comforted because I know that you once saved a party guest's life who was choking on chicken right I read a New York Times article
one time this this is true I was standing in a hallway and noticed I turned turned to my right I saw that two guys patting her on the back and I kind of walked up behind her and said can you breathe and she went like this and I get her once I said now and now again chicken flew out and as it turned out
there was about 50 journalists at the party and within minutes I got a call from my wife my wife saying what are you doing getting quotes and stuff yeah but it was pretty crazy but uh yeah well it gives me a sense of comfort are you ready to start ites ju had a comfort but
I'm the one to eat the chicken I hope I hope you can do [Music] it I it's all heat not a lot of flavor you know fermentation is fine but not not not a huge fan I want to start by talking about your near miss with sex in the city because from what I understand you almost had a scene in the pilot but it
had to get scratched due to some unfortunate circumstances yeah they they shot the pilot at at gry Tavern and the day before combination of a couple things happened I was playing basketball and spraying my ankle so bad I couldn't stand I I was actually bleeding through
my skin it was that bad and I had the hospital I had a walking cast put on we also had a fire that day and so the area where they were going to shoot was in our um sort of woodboard and Grill that we had but we we had to scrap the entire scene because we couldn't light the
grill and I couldn't stand up so yeah did you feel it all like you missed an opportunity like now it's probably easy to look back and laugh at it but at the time you're kind of like oh that would have been awesome at at the time who knew it was going to be a hit it was it was a pilot maybe it's more painful now
well probably more painful now yeah but it was it's you know it's a great show and we were happy that we could actually help launch it I can tell that shurger producer creator of hot ones he really tried with the sauces I think he was like trying to impress you like this seems more
deliberate and like the wings are a little warmer you tell we usually get cold wings with hot sauce now we're getting actually hot wings and hot sauce mhm got it okay just for you Tom these days it seems like the ways in which a restaurant or a chef can win it's very varied these days lots of path to
success and what I want to do is Bounce some scenarios off you it's just a game of would you rather and you can tell me would you rather have this or would you rather have that and then if you can kind of explain the logic behind it I'd appreciate it does that sound good sure
would you rather get an extra star from the New York Times or an extra star from the Michelin guide when the Michelin guide first came to New York craft got one star and I was interviewed and someone asked you know what I thought of Michelin in New York and I start I think it's really great this is their first
year if they're here for you know 10 years 20 years and that that'll be great but growing up I didn't dream of Michelin stars I'm an American Chef I dreamed of New York Times stars and I'll stick to that I still would rather W New York time star there how about 100 five-star Yelp reviews or one tweet from
Kanye West saying Craft's the greatest restaurant in the world I'm not a fan of Yelp but I'll take the Yelp fans right now yeah I mean Kanye I think he's in a hospital recovering from you know uh some brain def you know defect that he has at this point but uh yeah we'll take
the Y so would you rather win another James Beard award or win another Emmy considering that um I still consider myself in the restaurant business and not in the entertainment business I'll take I'll take a another beer award especially since we're opening a new restaurant and so we probably get
nominated for best new restaurant and I would take that would you rather the Obamas come to one of your restaurants for date night or Rihanna post an Instagram with your signature dish and like a giggling Emoji uh Obama's in the restaurant no no competition all right so this one is a
uko chili H is it chili habanero it says habanero yeah that's good host of the show kind of knows the sauces kind of doesn't mhm you had the distinction of being roasted at a food policy fundraiser what do you think was the funniest joke someone got off on you it was a lot of light hearted
stuff I think you know PMA got a good good couple licks in um I actually roasted her at the frier friers club roast so she got me back I had a rebuttal to every single one of them and I got them all back but it was you know it's all good fun besides the heat someone's actually doing a pretty good
job of seasoning these which is with salt so it's pretty good somebody over there I couldn't tell if that was a child or Eddie Wong um but I guess it's a child I know you bristle at the thought of chefs being the new rock stars and in part because you idolize rock stars
you're very much a guitar guy I I I play a little guitar I don't say idolize them but I know I I have respect for their craft can I ask you what would happen if let's say the hostess at craft went running to the back of the kitchen and said Eric Clapton has just taken a seat can you take me step by step what
happens from there do you greet them at the table are there dishes that you send out no I don't you know I don't think I I send out you know I've had over the years plenty of rock stars come in the restaurant I usually leave them alone I'll try to position myself at the door at the end of the night just to say
goodbye I I think that people if they come into the restaurant should give them the space let them eat let them enjoy themselves and again I'll I try to just catch them on the way out is this like The Parting Gift in a t-shirt in a t-shirtt so we undercut it with like a citrus
blend no I like the CIT I like the acid you do I think it's balanced yeah this is why I don't like Sriracha it's just hot there's no sort of background this has some background flavor yeah it's pretty good I like it we have a recurring segment on our show called explain that gram but you're way too
much of an adult for this segment on our show but damn you do have great pictures online we've pulled a couple of them and we just want the bigger picture okay you tell me what's going on in this picture beyond what just you see okay you and Eddie and Pat and oswal oh yeah the
googaa the great googaa uh in Brooklyn the Food Festival music festival and that was the first time I met Eddie I like him a lot you know when I first met him I I you know I didn't obviously I didn't know him but I didn't know much about his background he told me that day he said I'm writing a book it's going to
come out I'm going to have a TV show and I'm going to blow up and I was like yeah sure okay book TV show up yeah Tom and Z this is Iconic if this isn't framed in your house then I don't know not actually that was at the um NBA All-Star game he does an event of fundraiser uh
for his foundation as famous and as wealthy and successful as he is um he he still hasn't gotten too far away from Queen so broke one I should say this is interesting oh yeah I was simpsonized if I remember correctly um I was in marg's dream she was on Top Chef and she was
competing and I said something and then the stove turned into into a car or something and I turned that actually into my my uh my my Twitter um Avatar cuz you have to if you're simpsonized you have to yeah at first it wasn't it was a picture of me and a fish or something and I was like yeah no Simpson I
thing the game really does does itential ramp up situation there's a huge debate right now in the restaurant industry about whether or not tipping should be abolished and I know that you've tried it out in at least one of your restaurants can you give me an idiot's
guide to why tipping doesn't make any sense anymore cuz I think it is hard for people to wrap their heads around why should we leave it up to 100 to 200 people a night who come into the restaurant to decide who's how my employees are going to get paid and how much they're going to get paid we want
to professionalized the industry we have professionalized the industry and I think they should get paid like professionals and they should get paid a wage the argument is well we're not going to have good service actually I think the service will get better why because now if you're going to complain
you're going to complain directly to me you know if you complain to a waiter I'm not going to find out if you give a waiter a bad tip I'm not going to find out if you tell me that someone gave you bad service uh number one I'll know number two I'll do something about it the food's late that's one of the
biggest complaints food's late come out the kitchen that's not the waiter's fault that's the kitchen's fault you're not punishing the kitchen right and so there's a lot of reasons why I I I think it's an outdated model but if we lost it one thing that I would miss out on are
those great stories about outrageous tips you know what I mean I love when those stories hit the news you know about sha leaving $20,000 behind I love those stories your restaurant experience are there any of those that stand out uh I don't again I don't know I don't get involved in the tips if someone got
a great tip it's you know they usually keep if Shaq left 20 stack you we know know yeah you're doing your that little Shake thing be really [Music] great smoke a lot of salt your restaurant's craft and Grammy Tavern they've birthed some of the most celebrated chefs in the city for Out of
Towners can you give me some iconic New York dishes that people would really understand and learn about New York having tried them definitely bringing the pain there mhm that's a good question I could think of Gotham uh in their seafood salad is a real iconic dish you know Alfred was the
first chef to start using height on plates and that Seafood Tower is just a it's a classic I would say any uh um raw fish preparation from Eric repair at leam lead was one of the first restaurants to actually bring outside of Japanese restaurants to bring uh raw fish preparations um and also
undercooked you know lightly cooked fish preparation so I would say That's a classic um uh God let me think you know Con on hot dog maybe I don't know that's a good one yeah you know I had a little bit of a sinus uh issue and start we clearing up it's clearing it up yeah well you're welcome
Tom yeah it's good what's next so this one is the bomb Beyond Insanity glasses are on what makes this Beyond Insanity you're about to find out mhm I know that you're very involved in food policy and you really put your money where your mouth is you go to Capitol Hill you
confront Congress face to face but it does open yourself up to a certain type of Internet troll a certain type of criticism that even when you're championing something that's very common sense like child hunger people will still go after you when people say Tom go back to the kitchen make food stop
thinking about Hunger do you get kind of a kick out of that or does it bother you no it it neither because I think that it's it should be right in this country to feed to to to have food also to have nutritious food not not just garbage if someone has a problem with my my
politics and think I should stay in the kitchen let's look at food through a different lens because I think if you look at some of the topics of the day that people really care about whether it's the economy whether it's Healthcare whether it's um um that was hot um uh Healthcare uh National Security and the
environment food actually could fix all of it my guess is there are certain things that you think you know what when it starts to burn your ears is that a problem no that means that means that means the show's going just according to plan there's probably some issues where
you're like well that's a pretty complicated solve and then maybe there are other issues where where you're just like this seems so easy to me why can't we do it is there one issue that stands out to you as being like the most frustrating thing hunger's easy hunger poverty is harder um well sometime you
know because the two is they go hand in hand they actually go Absol absolutely go hand in hand when I say hunger is easier because we produce enough food in this country to feed everyone so if you look at countries where people are literally starving it's usually because
of famine because of War because of drought because they're actually producing enough calories um for um for their citizens we do here we produce more than enough food so really people are hungry not because we don't have enough food they're they're hungry because we don't have the political will
to make sure everyone's fed and that's what's frustrating are you ready to move on it's it's maybe you know I the my mouth is fine lips are on fire mhm my stomach's going to hurt tomorrow yep we don't make you do any of this Tom I know at this point I can't stop right I'm the last two wings no way I
mean do you really out with one more Wing left no way no way you can't have that on the internet forever what I want to do is a little Top Chef rapid fire to you drawing on all those Seasons that you have it's not going to be easy to think that's through the Mad Dog 357 but we're going to do it Tom M
57 is not so bad Tom is a g look at Tom favorite guest judge um favorite guest judge U God I mean the obvious ones because everybody wants to hear me say Anthony bouran um and he was always great to have around Charlie sarin CU at one point she just turned around and said does anybody in this
room have an Oscar no then shut up past winner that you've been most proud of um you know proud of them all I think think going back to to number one I think Harold um because I think he represented the brand so well and represented himself so well and you know he didn't go out there and
go on the on the chef's tour and a whole bit he actually opened up a few restaurants and did really well for a while and I think you know he was the first one and I think he really set the standard for for everything that came after that do you ever get into it with producers I always wonder this behind
the scenes because there are probably people that like you know they're a fan favorite they're an inator whatever maybe you get a couple weeks past your expiration date so from day one what's I think been great about the show is that the producers and I I say this with with
um I'm a producer so I I do have a say in it but the producers don't have get involved at all in who stays and who goes we really don't get occasionally if we're trying to make a tough decision you know we may hear one from the background say well you know this one's a better character and we're like it
doesn't matter just they don't taste the food they have absolutely no no say at all in who stays and who goes [Music] um so this last one is blares Mega Death sauce with liquid rage it's tradition around here to put a little dab on the last wing okay Tom you don't have to if
you don't want to but my guess is do it that's where I thought this was going Tom that's I that's where I thought this was going Tom this is all [Music] fine little dad will do you yeah there we go I like I like cuz it has technique I like when we have chefs well you know
you want to you know got a nice there you go you might pay for that yeah probably next couple days yeah I'm going to let me preface this question before we take a bite okay okay I'm always curious about your thought process when you're judging a dish so I'd like to sort of present this last Wing to you as
if it were a Dish On Top Chef and if you can just speak your thought process out in as much detail as possible if you were to judge this dish and I'd like to present it to you sort of like um Top Chef Style just cuz like this is what I would say um I present a carry out Wing
from BDubs it's been tossed in Blair's Mega Death sauce with liquid rage to get full coverage serve it room temperature on wood with a milk Chaser enjoy cheers um oh first is it cooked properly is it overcooked is it undercooked is it seared properly if it's a wing it should be a little crunchy right so is it
crunchy then is it seasoned properly which is really salt is is it just seasoned right now you tell me it has Mega Death sauce on it so I expect it to be hot so the question is is it hot yeah it's hot um sometimes I'll ask the chef if they overcook something was your intention what's your intention how how
did you want to serve this if they say medium rare no it's not medium rare you screwed up they say medium well why why would you serve it medium is that the best way to serve it and let them hang themselves a little bit yeah right and then you're looking at everything else
around the dish so in this case it would be the woodboard and the you know the hot sauce but does it all make sense is you know as you eat it do all those bites make sense can you get a different bite or do they all work together did that bite makes sense this bike makes
sense yeah um we got we have to finish this way though and I got to we have to finish does this make sense M AB absolutely not but it was a lot of fun the time you made it through you cleared the board this camera that camera let the people know what you have going on in your life my wife and I along with food
policy action and a place at the table campaign we actually launching an anti-hunger campaign the first lady will will be in our first PSA and uh we're launching sometime in December who's hungry in this country why they're hungry what we can do about it and the fact that we can actually take care of
hunger in our lifetime in this country so that our our children and our children's children don't have to not only not that they're hungry themselves but don't have to witness people in this country um without food so that's that's the next thing on our agenda [Music]