 Hey everybody and welcome to another edition of yes we're here and in this case yes we hope you're hungry. Ryan Rucco with you and I am joined by my favorite chef on the planet who also has become a good friend in my life. Mark Forgione is with us. Mark you may know from winning Iron Chef or perhaps one of his fabulous restaurants. Restaurant Mark Forgione, Kio, Peasant amongst other things. Mark thank you so much for being with us ma'am. Yeah happy man well listen I've got some extra time on my hands so. Oh man I know I know and you know you've been doing such amazing things to give back during this period of time and I want to dive into that in a moment but you know first and foremost you know you have built up this you know network of incredible restaurants. I am not alone at the yes network when I say my favorite restaurant in the world is restaurant Mark Forgione, your restaurant at 134 Reed Street in Tribeca. What what kind of got you into your love of cooking Mark? Yeah you know it's funny cooking in me we've always kind of been in love with each other I mean it sounds like such a stupid fairy tale but it's like you know my parents met at culinary school you know my grandfather was like the patriarch of the family you know Italian always had an apron on I just kind of grew up around the stove and like you know you can ask my mother you know as you know when I was young enough where I couldn't even see over the stove you know they'd have to put like a box so that I could like see what what's going on and like I just always wanted to be in there I think I've been making my own breakfast since I was like five or six years old you know I know you know this but I have a 15 month old at home now I swear I think he's got the bug man and like he no matter if I'm at the stove like he will pull on my pant leg until until I pick him up and then once I once I pick him up he just goes into like a zone and he just how cool is that man that you're already seeing it being passed down oh dude I mean again I would never ever like my dad or my mom like nobody ever forced anything on any of us to be a right you know kind of goes back to where I said I was just bit by the bug early but listen I would I would a hundred percent support if that's what he wants to do you know I don't need to tell you this it's a tough life but if you love it it's also one of the most satisfying lives out that you could possibly have you know we were talking the other day Mark and talk about how much I miss being in your restaurant and and look you can't go to your restaurant or your restaurants without them being totally and completely full and obviously right now in this current environment you know there's no one going to restaurants the hospitality business has been you know shut down I'm wondering you know what is it that you miss most about being in your restaurant on those regular busy nights yeah I mean it's it's like almost like sad to to like emotional to even talk about it it's like you know like I'm sure for you you know like part of your job you love you get to watch sports you love sports you know right I mean at least I hope you do or else you'd be pretty mythic I do I do I swear but you know like and me in my business I love cooking I love cooking for people I love you know just the whole the music the energy the the adrenaline the good things the bad things and you know I think one of the things you know that we talked about the other day and I don't even think I realize until I said it out loud but you know there's there's a creative energy that you know chefs go through every day where you know you you get to work you create something with your your heart and soul and your hands and you know you get it on a plate you watch it go out there could be something you've never served before or something you serve a thousand times and you know I always enjoy just kind of standing at the doorway of both of the kitchens and I just watched for that kind of like first bite and you know the feeling that happens when you watch somebody like take that bite and they just kind of shake their hand and they you know wow you know it's just like I'm getting goosebumps talking about it right now I think you you if you talk to other chefs too like I think we all got real depressed and we all get real depressed when when we're when we're away from the stove for a little while and I think it's because of that adrenaline that we don't that we don't get or that that that kind of you know je ne sais quoi that happens that emotion that we get that from you know making people feel good with what we do you know and I think that's also why you're seeing so many chefs do everything in their possible power to help because it's like in most chefs dna to to make people happy it's like part of what we do along the lines of what you are just talking about you've been really involved in a lot of different ways to help first responders also to help your restaurant employers employees who are obviously going through a tough time and I want to give you a chance to talk about some of those ways in which you're giving back during this period of time so first and foremost give us an idea of taste of Tribeca and what your involvement is there and and how you guys are giving back to the effort against COVID-19 right now yeah so I mean I think like after about a week you know it was when I think the whole world realized like whoa this this this thing is real you know but I thought they were gonna have us shut down for a couple days you'd have to lice all everything and then everybody would kind of come back but I think after about a week or 10 days it was like wow this this is you know this is hardcore you know people are dying this is like we gotta figure something out here and at that point you know I think I was watching the news and you know as a chef you know what can I do what can I do to help this situation and while I was searching I got an email from the Taste of Tribeca and Taste of Tribeca is an event that we have every year in June where all the restaurants in Tribeca kind of set up their their respective tents on Greenwich Street and everybody comes and all the money goes to the public schools in Tribeca but obviously we're not doing that this year so the Taste of Tribeca sent basically an email blast out to all of their supporters and they raised you know thousands of dollars to help pay for the food and you know to give money to some of the local restaurants to prepare meals and then bring them to the front line workers I mean it was like a really kind of simple concept that has been incredible I think just between Mark Fourgill, Peasant and Kio I mean I would have off top of my head and probably at like 25-2600 meals wow served in you know about three weeks it's been incredible I mean you know the first and I know it sounds like kind of melodramatic but the first delivery I made you know I pulled in and I just saw this nurse sitting on the curb and she was eating I think it was like a white castle burger by herself and it was just like you know like this woman's probably on like a 15-16 hour shift she's probably been working for three weeks straight and like that's her break like you know she gets to sit by herself on a curb on a rainy day and eat like fast food like to me it just it like made me sad and like the fact that 120 meals in the back of my car while I saw that you know it just it also you know made me realize like how important this is and some of the feedback that we've gotten from you know the people accepting the food is you know it's not just to fill their bellies but it's to give them that kind of emotional you know spiritual kind of push you know it makes you feel good it makes you feel normal and I think it also makes them realize that you know people out there know how hard they're working you know when I started this you know you saw a couple other chefs but now I think it's like it's the every chef out there is you know reaching out to try to do something and I even notice when I'm dropping them off now now you see other cars emptying the you know cars filled with food so it's it's really been amazing you know I think as a New Yorker in particular you know New Yorkers you know kind of have a reputation for being you know tough and maybe a little rude and you know but I think one thing you know when when we have a tragedy or we have something that we need to step up and we have to take care of our own you know I think New Yorkers usually come up to that plate and do everything they can to to knock it out of the park amen man well done I love what you guys are doing you people if they want to donate they can go to Taste of Tribeca's go fund me page also frontlinefoods.org something you're involved in and I also want to let people know because you know as restaurants near and dear to my heart I know this is something that mattered to me for you know employees of you know whatever restaurant you love in your case for peasant and restaurant Mark Giorn you have a go fund me page for that as well for people who want to donate for these workers who right now are out of work this is a way for them to contribute as well maybe it's not your restaurants maybe it's a restaurant they love many places of hospitality out there have those options and in this case you do with restaurant Mark Giorn and peasant so make sure people check that out for go fund me and one more thing before we get to a cooking demo I just wanted you to briefly touch on mark something that just sort of recently developed and that's recipes for relief by me's what what is that about well started by a friend of mine his name is Josh Sharkey same as you know other chefs looking for how they can help you know he's in the software world now so his idea was well how can I combine you know the two things that I do and you know he's been chasing chefs like me around for recipes and content and now you can go on to recipes for relief and you know we geared them towards like home friendly recipes they're not really restaurant recipes but you go on there and you can pay as much as you want for the recipe so you want to pay two bucks five bucks you know ten cents you know it's up to you and again that money goes directly to the stash you know there's one thing that's not really being talked about and it's you know there are probably give or take 20% of every restaurants employees that are not on unemployment you know which means that they haven't gotten a penny they've been unemployed and haven't been getting any money for over a month now so and there's other restaurants that have probably the same percentage amount of people so that's really what a big chunk of the GoFundMe is going to go to right a lot of our employees go on employment God bless them but there's a lot that aren't that need to feed their families so and again it's not just me it's other restaurants and I posted this on my Instagram you know everybody's sitting down to eat dinner these days at home and you know I just implore you just kind of lift up your laptop or go on your phone you know before you eat and say ah you know what maybe like where would we be eating tonight if I wasn't if we weren't home and I guarantee you they have a GoFundMe go on there and just give what you can I know times are tough with everybody but you know that you know something as little as 20 bucks you know you add that up over a hundred people that night and you know that's a lot of money so amen and it's it's if you could do it it is absolutely it's the right thing to do and it's a great way to get us through and get some of our favorite places through this incredibly tough time Mark you know speaking of the cooking at home a lot of people are trying to step up their game right they're trying to figure out ways to to either get inventive creative they got a little more time or or they just desperately miss the tastes of restaurants like yours I know for me I miss the chicken man I miss the chicken I miss the sauce you cook it in and you are kind enough to demo for us today the sauce and how to make it at home for your brick chicken which is a legendary dish when it comes to New York City cuisines so so please Mark let us know how we can try to seemingly duplicate this inimitable dish yeah so um you know it's funny I I recommend to people especially if you have an apartment in New York City like you know doing the whole thing with the pan and the brick like you're probably gonna smoke out the house and but you know there's you know you can kind of do it in a much simpler way that I think I'll show you real quick you know everybody yeah most people can roast the chicken I'm pretty sure you can roast the chicken right right if I can andrea can one of us can get there so you roast the chicken and you know I roasted this chicken last night and now this is like the just the roasted thigh all right so when you roast the chicken you're going to get juices that come in the bottom of the pan all right so save those juices okay okay so now you've got the chicken already you've got the juices from the roasted chicken now the sauce you know I think people are going to be shocked at how easy this is so uh we take a little bit of shallot if you don't have shallots you can use an onion it's not a big deal but you just kind of rough chop you're going to turn your stove on this is listen I've been doing a lot of virtual demos these days yeah and like this is the time where I like I may have made that look easy to chop a shallot but not everybody knows how to chop a shallot yeah this is there's no time like the presence to like learn how to chop a shallot or an onion you know do those types of little tiny things because that will help cooking like a chef right yeah I was going to say there was there was artistry just for the chopping which was beautiful right and that's what I mean it's kind of like you know if you want to like train your you know your foul shoot your foul shoot yeah yeah take an onion every day and you know take your time and chop it I guarantee you after two weeks should be great all right so now we're going to take a little bit of butter like seriously watch how easy this is just butter okay those shallots that we just chopped okay we're going to take that roasted chicken leg or thigh whichever one you have we're going to in the pan skin side down skin side down all right all right so now you're going to get a little bit of that flavor you're going to see the butter starts to turn brown once the butter starts to turn brown you take capers all right chopped parsley okay this is making me want the sauce so badly right now it's like restaurant Mark Fogione here oh my gosh you know now I'm going to be doing this right away right look how easy this is I feel like one of those guys on an infomercial like look everybody all right so now we're going to add the chopped parsley okay a little bit of red pepper flakes and then remember those chicken juices right hmm yeah it's now you put them in it's almost like a schmaltz if you know what schmaltz is okay all right so now we take the chicken again I hope you guys can see that yep all right and then for kind of dramatic oh beautiful how good does that smell right now I'm not joking it's like making me get choked up because it smells you know I'm going to try to get this on that camera for you guys but oh just like the the forged chicken you know what that is amazing first of all you know just to give since we're yes network to give our audience some perspective this dish is one of the favorite dishes of your favorite athlete all right like it's amazing how many different New York athletes are powered by the chicken of Mark Giorna restaurant Mark Giorna and not even just New York it's funny I could still remember Dwayne Wade bringing up your chicken dish to me in an interview a few years ago that I did with him so I mean this is something that people are going to want to do at home they roast their chicken and then boom they can have your sauce make it feel like they're back at the restaurant and I do want to make sure that everybody that's listening understands that you know a big part of the reason that a lot of the athletes love it so much is because of the guy that I'm talking to right now you know one of the one of the best advocates that we have and I tell you all the time and it doesn't go unnoticed and I appreciate it if you don't believe so you are so welcome you know I only endorse that which I truly love and that's the case with your food you and your restaurant and all the people work for you Mark this is amazing man thank you for taking us through that you've motivated all of us to make our homes smell like your restaurant and seriously all the best man you know for everybody just a reminder you know whatever your favorite restaurant is as Mark said you go to sit down you're getting ready to eat at home check out see if they have a GoFundMe page like Mark does for Restaurant Mark 4G on as well as peasant go to taste of Tribeca GoFundMe to continue to fuel the front line workers like Mark and his colleagues are doing check out recipes for leaf great recipes for things you can do at home and also frontlinefoods.org Mark thank you I cannot wait to see you back in your restaurant soon enough my friend we will man stay strong out there everybody