What changed?

I think what changed was I felt like I've been in New York for 18 years, and I felt like this concept, this restaurant that I'm opening, we don't really have in New York.

But it, it, I thought of places in Europe that I love, in California where I grew up, and I wanted a place that was really a highly dependable place where people can get a great food that's easy.

Think, uh, something I hear a lot from friends of mine who are in food, out of food, it's like how hard it is to get into restaurants right now, how expensive it is, and I thought, "Okay, I wanna be able to create a restaurant where it's mostly affordable."

[laughs]

[laughs] Well, it was right there in kind of my backyard of sorts.

And my uncle told me, like, "You know, one of the best restaurants in the country is, is right here.

It's called Chez Panisse." And he told me about it, and the woman behind it, Alice Waters.

What changed?

I think what changed was I felt like I've been in New York for 18 years, and I felt like this concept, this restaurant that I'm opening, we don't really have in New York.

But it, it, I thought of places in Europe that I love, in California where I grew up, and I wanted a place that was really a highly dependable place where people can get a great food that's easy.

Think, uh, something that I hear a lot from friends of mine who are in food, out of food, it's like how hard it is to get into restaurants right now, how expensive it is.

And I thought, "Okay, I wanna be able to create a restaurant where it's mostly affordable."

[laughs]

[laughs] Well, it was right there in kind of my backyard of sorts.

And my uncle told me, like, "You know, one of the best restaurants in the country is, is right here.

Why trust me?

And then once you let that sit and then you have this really nice creamy salad.

Super, lots of texture, a little bit of gar- lar- garlic, a little bit of chili.

... mixed up?

... that, and then you just mix up.

So I just, you'll see how pretty immediately the pasta will just kind of get nicely coated in the green sauce.

... is it just something you enjoy?

No, no, no, I, I definitely...

There's, um, there's a few dishes in, in my first book, and definitely recipes that I've developed for, for, uh, the Times and when I was at Bon Appétit.

But there...

I remember going...

I was in, uh, Ho Chi Minh and, uh, Hanoi and Da Nang and Sapa and Phu Quoc, but...

And there were dishes like bun rieu, which if I could, that would be a dish I'd have every single morning.

Mm-hmm.