Let me ask you: Are there any famous people – actors, writers, politicians, thinkers, musicians, whatever – that you see on talk shows or doing interviews and you think, “Now that’s someone would be great to talk to. Just sit down, crack a beer, and talk.” One of those people, for me, is chef David Chang. Dave is not only an awesome cook and an amazing resteraunteur who does good while he’s doing well. He actually won Who Wants To Be a Millionaire for charity – yeah, a million dollars. Now he’s a guy I’d like to sit down and share a meal with. And you can eavesdrop on him doing exactly that on Chrissy and Dave Dine Out.
This isn’t his first time at the rodeo, either. He did it back in 2019 with Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, a series you can still see on Netflix, where he sat down with a different celebrity in a different city every episode, where they ate great food and just talked. He did it again on a Hulu show called The Next Thing You Eat, and then again in a series that was partly a documentary, partly an interview of chefs or food experts or even historians about normal foods, street food, stuff we eat every day and have been for a hundred years, called Ugly Delicious. That’s also still available on Netflix. And now he’s back on Hulu again, still eating and talking.
This is just great fun. The “Chrissy” in question is Chrissy Teigen, who’s smart and funny and endlessly curious, and really doesn’t care who knows it. She and Dave visit a different restaurant in L.A. with every episode – not a big fancy place, but little places, family restaurants, even – – dare I say it? — holes in the wall. Pizza places. Mexican food. Thai food. And each episode they bring along somebody to have a meal with – sometimes husbands and wives, friends of the family,, whatever – who are just as interesting to Dave and Chrissy. And they eat, and they talk, and they talk to the equally amazing chefs who made their food, and you just want to be there, you just want to have a seat at that table.
Look: you really can’t go wrong watching anything that Dave Chang stars in or simply produces – hey, even his silly-ass cooking contest show, Secret Chef on Fox, or the drag queen cooking show with Neil Patrick Harris, Drag Me to Dinner. They’re all worth a look. The only drawback, of course, is that you feel absolutely compelled to eat while you’re watching them. It’s impossible not to, at least for me. So I just cook up some Momofuku – yeah, I’m totally into him, I admit it – and plunk down in front of any available screen to see who Chrissy and Dave are eating with next, and where they’re doing it.
Maybe you should join us!
