Tom Colicchio
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
People were yelling. But, you know, I think there's a reason for that. Especially when I was in France working, I got a sense that they couldn't communicate any other way. That was the only way they could actually, like, get a point across. Right, the French. Was just yelling and screaming, yeah. And so you got used to it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
So I guess my question to you is, like, I mean... They were yelling at you in a different language. Yeah, yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
No, we don't do that anymore. No, no, we can't do that. No, things have changed. When I was coming up, it was 40 years ago. It was a very different world that we lived in. And there wasn't a whole lot of in-your-face screaming and yelling, but it was a lot of hard, long hours. And there was a lot expected of you. But it wasn't the yelling and screaming that you think about.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
But the misogyny was obviously there, the sort of machismo of the kitchen. You burnt yourself. That was a badge of honor. Sometimes you burnt your arms and things like that. But I think a lot of that's going away.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
No, I don't think anything's missing in transfer of knowledge. I think that it's going away for the right reasons. You know, the idea of getting someone to do something through intimidation doesn't really work. I mean, maybe it works in the military. I have no idea. But it certainly isn't necessary to get your point across. And I think also, if you look back, you know, chefs that were
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
You don't have to be. I think it's... a matter of 40 years ago, the chefs that were working in kitchens, they weren't able to communicate exactly what they were looking for. And so they were running around and screaming the whole day because they thought that was the way that you had to motivate people because that's the way they were motivated.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
And it's somewhat along the lines, I mean, for me, and I think I mentioned this in a book. Yeah, with Thomas Keller. Well, that was That was different. That was more psychological nonsense that he was playing. He played a lot of games. I mean, he's a great chef, but I just had an issue with the way he was talking to me. You know, I, you know,
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
I promised myself at a certain point if I got a restaurant that I wasn't going to sort of... The things that... The way I was treated, I was going to break that. I was going to do something different. And, you know, did I lose my temper at times? Absolutely. But nowadays, you kind of walk away. Before you lose your temper, you walk away.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
But I don't know if you saw the third season. We went the whole lot of yelling in the third season. And it wasn't that good, right?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
I think there's a lot of people who think that the third season was a little slower.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
They're going to take my cookbook. I have a cookbook on the shelf there. They're going to take it off now. No, they won't. Season four, my book's gone.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
No, no, you're not. But I think what you're experiencing in this country, nutrition is expensive, but calories are cheap. Yes. So you can go out and buy a bunch of junk, and it's cheap, but it's not nutritious. But you try to go to the farmer's market and buy great produce and stuff, it's very expensive. Right. So that's part of the problem here with this country.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
OK, it's no, it can't. It's it's it's complicated because it's, you know, the average person who who doesn't really quite understand what they will subsidize subsidize fruits and vegetables. You really can't do that. There's really no subsidies for fruit and vegetables. There's subsidies for corn and soy. That's about it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
And the subsidies are in there about crop insurance and not insurance the way we know insurance. Just it's just guarantees a price. Sure. So some people say that maybe what we can do is if you put enough research and development behind figuring out ways to grow more fruits and vegetables on the same acreage, then actually you'll have more in the system and prices will come down.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
But that's not happening. That's not happening. No, no. The government looks at fruits and vegetables and they're actually labeled specialty crops. They don't pay attention to them at all.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
No, but what is American food? Because when you came to America, you thought you were eating American food, but what were you?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
But in restaurants, you'll find something different. Sure. So it all depends.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
Because everyone wants me in their restaurant. As your economic... As your economics changed, you started going to better restaurants, and all of a sudden the food got better, right? Yeah. So the system works exactly the way it's set up to work. I'm not saying this is a good system, but it's set up where if you have money, it works. If you don't, you struggle.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
It's a bad system that we have in this country. Someone applauded that. Someone was like, the system works.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
It's not a good system, but it works the way it's set up to work.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
Also, part of it is cooking. If you can cook for yourself, you can probably do a lot more for your family. If you're relying on fast food and you're relying on someone making the food for you and be delivered to your house, that's a different story. And then also learning how to stretch that food, learning how to use it all, learning how to use leftovers. And so you can stretch.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
I mean, I think the numbers now, roughly a quarter of what is purchased at home gets wasted. 25% of what you purchase at home goes in the garbage. Okay. And so that's a good start. So we're talking about food waste, which is another big problem. That's a bad thing, and a good place to start is to address that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
I mean, listen, I think if they started teaching home economics in school again, that would be great. That would really be great. Did they stop doing that? No, no. In fact, they're going to get rid of the whole education system nowadays.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
Listen, there's plenty of people talking about it. There's plenty of work that has to be done. I mean, I know for years I did a lot of work up on Capitol Hill. I co-founded an organization called Food Policy Action. I spent a good amount of time on the Hill looking at issues about sustainability. And, you know, it's a complicated problem.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
But it almost as if it's such a non-issue for our government to try to figure out that this stuff has to happen through grassroots and sort of in your own communities. And it starts at home. It really does. If you want better food at home, learn how to cook. And you don't have to learn how to cook fancy food. You have to just learn the basics.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
Learn the basics so you can actually cook for your family. And that's sustainable because you're buying produce that is sustainable. You're not relying on food that's over-processed with too much sugar, too much salt, too much fat in it. And you're going to end up with a healthy America, too.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
And so, yeah, but it's a complex problem because our system isn't set up to actually get fresh food to the masses. It's set up to get processed food to the masses.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
It is bad, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can, I don't know if the government's going to fix this problem. I think this has to happen in communities and in your homes, in your actual homes. I think a great place would be school lunch. I mean, that's one place that I think we could do a lot better.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
And there are some great chefs that... I mean, the chef at one of the most famous restaurants in the world in Copenhagen, Noma, one of the chefs there decided that he didn't want to cook in fancy restaurants anymore and started cooking in school lunch programs and started a whole program called Brigade where he's trying to get professional chefs into schools.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Rage Rooms, Four-Year Cruises, Post-Election Feels | Tom Colicchio
I mean, right now, everything that's in school is all mass-produced. And so I think we need to start there. Also, I think school lunch should be universally free across the board.