0:07

Welcome to the Talks at Google Podcast, where

0:09

great minds meet. I'm Kyle,

0:11

bringing you this week's episode with record producer,

0:14

songwriter, and actor Benny Blanco. Talks

0:17

at Google brings the world's most

0:19

influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers

0:21

all to one place. Every

0:23

episode is taken from a video that

0:25

can be seen at youtube.com/talks at Google.

0:29

Benny Blanco visits Google to discuss his

0:31

cookbook, Open Wide, a cookbook for friends,

0:33

where he teaches you everything you need to know

0:35

about cooking, enjoying life, and throwing the greatest dinner

0:38

party of all time. Benny

0:40

has contributed to the sale of hundreds of

0:42

millions of albums worldwide through his work with

0:44

artists including Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber,

0:46

Rihanna, Katy Perry, The

0:48

Weeknd, Maroon 5, Sia,

0:51

and many more. As a solo artist,

0:53

Benny has released two platinum albums that have

0:55

been streamed more than 11 billion

0:57

times to date and have featured

0:59

multiple, multi-platinum hits. Benny

1:01

made his TV debut playing a fictionalized

1:03

version of himself on the FXX

1:05

series, Dave with Little Dickie, which

1:08

has become the number one comedy on FX and

1:10

FXX. His longtime friendship

1:12

with acclaimed chef, Mattie Matheson, has spawned

1:14

two massively viral online food series, Mattie

1:16

and Benny Eat Out America, and

1:19

Stupid Fucking Cooking Show. Moderated

1:21

by Vivian Lueck, here is Benny Blanco,

1:23

Open Wide, a cookbook for friends. Welcome

1:35

to this Talks at Google.

1:39

Both those of you here in the room

1:41

and those of you who are tuning in

1:43

virtually, I'm Vivian Lueck, global head of artists

1:45

at Google and YouTube, and I am really

1:48

excited for today. Our

1:51

guest, Benny Blanco, to many needs

1:53

no introduction, but I will

1:55

do it anyway. Benny is a Grammy-nominated

1:58

artist, producer, songwriter, the genius. make

8:00

the best roast chicken you've ever

8:02

seen. It's golden brown. It's beautiful.

8:05

It smells delicious. I have all

8:07

my friends there. We get in.

8:10

We cut it open. And it's raw. I

8:12

don't understand it. I have no idea. Still

8:14

to this day, I cook so much. It's

8:16

completely raw. It

8:19

was completely raw. And the first

8:21

thing we did, without thinking, I have no idea

8:23

how my friend took the chicken and we threw

8:26

it out the window into a pool. I

8:29

have no idea why. And we ordered pizza. And

8:34

everyone had the best time. And I realized in that moment,

8:36

I was like, wow. It's

8:38

not just about the food. It's

8:40

about the wrap. It's about hanging with your friends.

8:42

It's about when the

8:44

food's great. That's amazing. But it's

8:47

about having that connection with your friends and

8:49

creating an experience and ambiance. And

8:52

when I decided to make this book, I was

8:54

like, wow. I have all these great

8:57

dinner parties at home. I

8:59

don't want to go to a fucking club on the weekend. Who

9:01

wants to do that? I'm too short to be in a club.

9:04

I'm way too short to be in a club.

9:06

And I'm way like, give

9:09

me 15 minutes with a person. I'll

9:12

show them how to be my best

9:14

friend. But in a club, I'm short.

9:16

I'm like the little gremlin at the

9:18

end of the rainbow. I'm

9:21

like, and then I want

9:23

to be like a. I have that issue also. Yeah,

9:26

you're wearing like 40 inch heels. It's insane. But

9:28

what I want to do is I want to

9:31

be at home with my friends. I

9:33

want to eat so much food that I

9:35

can unbutton my pants and lay on a couch

9:37

with my friends. And we can laugh. And

9:39

some people can go in and out of sleep.

9:41

And we're playing games. And everyone's having their

9:43

own conversations. And I just wanted to teach

9:47

people how to create that. Like

9:49

also, how the fuck

9:51

do you kick your friends out when it's time to go

9:53

to bed? I have a guide of how to kick your

9:55

friends out so they love you the next day. I think

9:58

that's the whole culture of the dinner party, which thinking

18:00

I was going to be the biggest rapper in the

18:02

world. That was like, I am not the biggest rapper

18:04

in the world. But I

18:06

did some pretty cool shit in music. So it's

18:08

like you just try something, and

18:10

you're going to end a little bit

18:12

off the mark, probably, unless

18:15

you're just a pure genius, but I'm an idiot.

18:17

So I landed a little bit off the mark

18:19

to the right or left. And

18:21

then you just keep doing it. And then I never

18:24

say I was, you

18:27

know, you can get really complacent and

18:29

stuff. And I remember

18:31

in my career one time when I

18:33

was like, I made all these songs

18:35

for all these people. And I was

18:37

actually sitting with Ed Sheeran, OK? We

18:39

were on tour. And

18:42

we had just finished, like a year before

18:44

we had finished

18:46

his Divine album. And it was this huge

18:49

album. It was like 30 million copies. And

18:51

I remember we were sitting on tour, and

18:53

we were watching that documentary,

18:55

The Defiant Ones. And

18:58

with the Jimmy Dray. Yeah, the Jimmy one

19:00

and Dr. Dray. And I remember

19:03

we finished it. We were backstage. And he was like,

19:06

man, what the fuck are we doing with our

19:08

lives? And I was like, and literally, it was

19:10

literally like a high

19:12

school movie. The second he said lives, a man

19:14

comes in, and he was like, all

19:17

right, you're on in one minute. And then

19:19

he runs out, and he's actually playing a

19:21

sold-out stadium for 80,000 people. And

19:24

three seconds ago, he said, what are we doing

19:26

with our lives? And I'm sitting in the back,

19:28

and there's a picture of this. I have no

19:30

idea who took this picture of me, because it

19:32

haunts me. A picture of me with a teddy

19:34

bear as tall as me, so

19:37

it was two feet tall. And I'm

19:40

leaning against it. And I was just saying in

19:42

my head, I'm like, what am I doing with

19:44

my life? And I remember

19:46

walking backstage and

19:49

calling my managers. And

19:51

saying, I'm not inspired

19:54

right now. I've

19:57

been producing so much for these

19:59

people. And yeah, I'm having great success,

20:01

but I'm not feeling

20:04

what I want to feel. Like, I don't

20:07

want to use the word jaded, because it

20:09

wasn't jaded. It was like, I'm just not

20:13

getting that same feeling, and I want to

20:15

get that feeling again. So then I decided

20:17

to become an artist. So I moved the

20:19

goal post. And what I'm doing is I

20:21

always try to move the goal post a

20:23

little bit. Like, one of my best friends

20:25

was making a TV show, and I was helping him come up

20:27

with ideas and write it. And then he was like, hey, we

20:29

can't find anyone to play you. You want to come do a

20:32

screen test? And I was like, what's a screen test? And he

20:34

was like, just come in. And I was like, OK. And then

20:36

I come in, and he's like, hey, you're in the show. And

20:38

I was like, what? No. I was

20:40

like, I don't want to. Play yourself.

20:42

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, like

20:45

a, I guess, a slightly exaggerated

20:47

version of myself. But

20:49

yeah, and I always will

20:52

try to do things. I remember one

20:55

year, I don't know

20:57

if anyone, do you guys know what the

20:59

Pro Tools, the program at all? OK. OK.

21:02

So when

21:05

I first started making music, I was like so

21:08

bad at computers

21:10

and didn't know how things worked. So

21:12

there's like, you guys know what beats

21:14

per minute is and stuff? OK. So

21:17

there's like a grid that's like a default grid

21:20

on Pro Tools. And it's 120 beats per minute.

21:23

So it's like, doo, doo, doo. And

21:26

I didn't know how to change that. So every

21:28

one of my songs, for the first like five

21:31

years of my career, I swear to God, if

21:33

you look back, every song I

21:35

ever did was 120 beats per minute. Every

21:38

single song. Every single, like the first

21:41

like five years. And then when I

21:43

figured out that you could change

21:45

that, I

21:47

was like, OK. And I always try

21:49

to put like a weird goal

21:51

for the year. I was like, OK, I'm only going to make

21:53

songs in 80 now. And then like

21:55

I remember when we were doing Ed Sheeran's album,

21:57

I was like, I have to have a big

22:00

song that you can do. that doesn't have a

22:02

snare drum in it. And I'll always come up

22:04

when we were making, Justin Bieber,

22:06

Love Yourself. I was like, I

22:08

want to make songs that don't have, because

22:10

at that time, there weren't really songs a

22:13

lot on the radio that

22:15

didn't have drums in them or full production. So

22:17

I was like, I want to strip songs back,

22:19

because if people are listening to the

22:21

radio, they need a fucking break every once in

22:23

a while. Well,

22:26

when you're cooking, then, do you do

22:29

something similar? So if you're always making

22:31

chicken, do you switch it up and

22:33

make a steak?

22:36

Sometimes I do. Oh, you have a great steak recipe in there. We

22:39

got a good one in there. Yeah,

22:41

I always want to just keep myself

22:43

on my toes, because that's how you

22:45

learn. And you might jump into something

22:47

that seems a little scary, but

22:50

it'll be chill. I think

22:52

that's a great point. There's so much to

22:54

be said for failure, making mistakes, and learning

22:56

from them. That's kind of the only way

22:58

that you grow and

23:01

achieve anything. So

23:04

I love one of the things on the

23:07

front cover of your book, when in your

23:09

preface, you're opening the internal front

23:11

cover. I do love

23:13

all the photographs, including the one on the

23:15

front cover. But

23:17

you reference the experiences

23:22

that people on a personal level

23:24

have at a dinner party, the laugh

23:26

until you cry kind of thing, the crying,

23:29

the connection, in

23:31

very general terms. Are there any

23:34

moments that stand out for you? Any

23:40

pivotal experiences

23:43

that you would be open to sharing with the room? What,

23:46

just like at a dinner party? Yeah. I

23:49

mean, so many. I, you

23:52

know, some

23:54

people are just waiting to

23:56

be opened up. You know, it's like when you're

23:59

making a video. making music. So we have

24:03

the heart. It's the hardest. It's the funnest job,

24:05

but it's the hardest job, because you never think

24:07

about it. I have

24:09

to go into a studio with someone. I

24:12

have to instantly become the greatest therapist

24:14

in the world. You're

24:16

just my therapist for two minutes. Yeah, so you just wait.

24:18

You want to make a song now? OK,

24:21

so I have to get in there. I

24:23

have to make

24:26

this person my friend very quickly.

24:29

Then I have to say, hey, what's

24:31

your deepest, darkest secret that we

24:33

can tell the entire world? And

24:36

then I have to get them to

24:38

tell me that deep, dark secret. And then I

24:41

have to convince

24:43

them to put it out to the

24:45

world, all in four hours

24:48

with all of us having the

24:50

highest functioning ADD

24:53

possible, but

24:56

all of us being unmedicated. And

25:00

no, but at dinner parties, it's the

25:02

same. You'll be sitting there, and

25:05

someone might want to get something off their

25:07

chest, but you might not know. And something

25:10

that you might say, I can't tell

25:12

you how many times. Someone's cried or

25:15

had a revelation and then started a

25:17

company after, or two people have met

25:19

and then started making the best music.

25:22

Or somebody who's

25:24

a scientist met an author,

25:26

and then they connect. There's

25:29

so many things that have happened like

25:32

that that I can't even pinpoint one. And I

25:35

think if you guys start having, I

25:37

mean, I'm sure you guys have dinner

25:40

parties, but if you, every time you

25:42

do, something really cool happens at yours,

25:44

whether it's bringing your friends closer together

25:46

or finding out two people hate each

25:48

other. That's happened at a dinner party,

25:50

where I've been like, oh my God,

25:52

I didn't know that these people were

25:55

beefing. And

25:57

now it's like, now it's like, so.

28:00

not be at all. Like, that's why I have

28:02

a don't take, you don't have to take your

28:04

shoes off policy in my house because I always

28:06

felt like it's better to have the germs because

28:08

then you develop the immunity that you need to

28:11

combat them. No, I just think it looks nasty. Like

28:14

people, I don't care about the germs. I don't

28:16

care what someone's tracking in. I'm just like, ugh.

28:20

I don't know, I've always been like that. But

28:23

I was always like that as a kid. I don't

28:25

know, I'm like a little OCD. I

28:28

like them all stacked up at the

28:30

front. I like the type

28:32

of, I like organize everything in my

28:34

fridge. Me too. In a crazy. In

28:36

my cabinets also. No, no, no, mine's like. Is everything lined

28:39

up? Yeah, everything's lined up. It's lined

28:41

up by shapes, sizes. I

28:43

could tell if anyone's been in my bathroom

28:45

by if they've moved, everything I have is

28:47

like. And your closet, right? Oh

28:49

yeah, my closet's crazy. Imagine having two daughters

28:51

in what happens. Yeah, I'd have a red

28:53

light green light. You'd have red light green

28:55

light if I had a closet. I understand

28:58

now. All right, let's

29:00

go to some of your collaborators. Because you have,

29:02

and you used the word fun a little while

29:04

ago, and when I watch your

29:06

shows and when I listen to your music, whenever

29:08

I see you, you just exude

29:11

positive energy and your smile

29:13

is infectious and it's awesome.

29:15

And I would not have red

29:17

light green light policy with you in the kitchen. But

29:20

I would love to hear about your collaborators that you

29:22

work with in the kitchen, and

29:25

how you together build out these recipes. Oh

29:28

my God. Okay, when I

29:30

first started getting successful at all,

29:32

most people are like, oh my

29:34

God, I'm gonna use this to

29:37

get concert tickets

29:39

and drugs. My first

29:41

thing was just like, wow, I

29:43

need to meet every chef, go to every

29:46

restaurant in the world. I

29:48

was like, whatever success I have, I

29:50

have to use to meet these, because

29:52

those are my idols. I

29:56

always loved food so much. So,

30:01

Meeting some of these people has

30:03

been such a dream. And

30:06

it's cool, because they love what I do

30:08

and I love what they do. And

30:11

I'm always just trying to learn. Whatever room

30:13

I'm in, I'm trying

30:15

to learn. Whatever the medium

30:17

is. Anyone, I don't

30:19

know. Yeah, leave your ego at

30:21

the door. I don't wanna, everyone's the

30:24

same. No one's shit. You

30:26

know what I mean? I'm not shit, they're not shit,

30:28

no one. I might

30:30

know a few things. Someone here, every single

30:32

person in here could teach me something, I

30:34

don't know. And it's

30:37

so fun to be able to walk

30:39

in the room and

30:42

just be like, yeah, standing across from

30:45

someone I envy their

30:48

food, taste, and I

30:50

can just learn things

30:52

from. Yeah, I

30:54

didn't know that you could fully

30:57

suvie a steak while in a

30:59

jacuzzi. Like, you can, it

31:01

works, it works. You just, you

31:03

just, you, does

31:05

everyone, do people know what suvie is? No, what is that?

31:08

Okay, okay, wow, that's a dog. I don't want other

31:10

people, other people here, man. Oh my God, that

31:12

just came out of nowhere. What's

31:14

that dog's name? Eleanor. Eleanor,

31:17

is that French Bulldog? French

31:19

Bulldog, Boston Terrier. Oh my God, I

31:21

have a, I have a Frenchie. Me too. You

31:24

do? Yeah. What's your Frenchie's

31:26

name? Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina, how old? She's

31:29

eight. Oh wow. I

31:32

have one named Larry, and that, why

31:35

does everyone always laugh when I say that? I

31:37

have a dog named Larry. I think because of

31:39

Larry David. Yeah, and then I have

31:42

another dog that's an English Bulldog named

31:44

Pudding. I met that one. Yeah, Pudding

31:46

is, Pudding is, she's

31:50

like melting into the earth at

31:52

all times. Like her body, she's

31:54

like barely, like, there's

31:57

barely bones in her. She's like made

31:59

of jelly. And like her tongue

32:01

is has never been inside of her mouth

32:03

and then I used to have another one

32:06

named disco But she passed away It's

32:09

okay. She died a while They're

32:12

fun. Yeah, they're fun. It's crazy. I

32:15

never knew I never have it

32:17

was disco was my first dog I had her for

32:19

like 14 years This

32:21

is crazy. We're talking about this in the Google

32:23

talk. But like losing an animal is insane It's

32:26

the crate. I've lost friends nothing hurts

32:28

more than losing an animal. It's no

32:31

I'm serious It hurts it hurts so

32:33

much. I think it's cuz they're always

32:36

Perfect like even if they're bad They're perfect

32:38

like no one's ever stayed mad at like

32:40

an animal for more than like 15 seconds

32:43

Like it's in pop like you'll be so mad for 15

32:46

Like imagine if that was like your real life like with

32:48

your husband or something like you're just mad for like 12

32:51

seconds And you're like, oh my god, you're so cute No,

32:54

no your happens. No, yeah Like people are

32:56

mad at their husband for like years of

32:58

resentment building up and they're just like and

33:00

they're just like and then they Do it's

33:02

just like or like your wife or like

33:04

people pick a time like 30 years later

33:06

And like you didn't do the fucking dish

33:08

it like you can't you can't do it.

33:10

You can't do it to a day animal

33:12

You can't I love they're better than all

33:14

of us. No, I know. Okay. Are you allowed to bring

33:16

you're allowed to bring animals here, huh? Wow,

33:20

I can't I can't bring my friend she here

33:22

why she's runs around she gets

33:24

very excited everything's chaotic in your house It's

33:28

just chaos in your house Wait,

33:30

does anyone else have an I gotta ask one more. Okay,

33:32

go ahead and wait Does that does

33:34

anyone else have an animal in here right now? All

33:37

right. Okay, cool. Wow, you're the only one

33:39

All right. Apparently you guys are terrible people

33:43

well Hello, it's

33:45

very well behaved dog Yeah,

33:49

I sure eyes are open but I could tell

33:51

they're not Okay.

33:54

Okay the sue of the steak in the

33:56

hole. Yes sous vide Okay,

33:58

so basically A

34:01

sous vide is basically

34:03

like a bath of water. And

34:07

you put something in like a plastic

34:10

type device. Like

34:12

it's kind of like a bag. And you submerge

34:15

it in water and it's fully

34:18

submerged. And you have

34:20

a constant cooking temperature around the whole

34:22

thing. So water makes it, so it's

34:24

constant. Because when you're doing it in

34:26

like the oven, like it might be

34:28

a little uneven somewhere on a grill,

34:31

this ensures that it's the exact same

34:33

temperature the entire time of cooking. So

34:35

a jacuzzi can also work

34:37

like that. Because you know you're cooking,

34:39

if you're cooking like a steak, you're

34:42

keeping it at like, in

34:44

a sous vide at

34:46

like 115 or something. So

34:48

you just pop it down to

34:50

104. And then basically you

34:52

take whatever you're sous vieing out of the

34:54

bag and then you like sear it off

34:56

at the end. So we had a dinner

34:58

party, you're gonna love this. Me and my

35:00

friend Matty Matheson, we had a dinner party

35:02

and we had to cook so many steaks.

35:04

There were so many people. We were serving

35:06

like 25, 30, 40, there was so many

35:08

people. And he

35:10

was just like, why don't we just put them

35:13

all in the jacuzzi? And then when

35:15

we stay in the jacuzzi all day

35:17

and then we get out and we

35:19

cook. So we cooked everything in the

35:21

meal. Everyone's like, this is so delicious.

35:23

And then we were just like, hey,

35:25

isn't it crazy that we cooked all

35:27

of this in the jacuzzi together, just

35:29

all day. We fully told everyone after

35:32

they were finishing their steak that we

35:34

cooked it in the jacuzzi naked. How

35:38

did they react? I

35:40

think people thought we were joking. And then Matty

35:42

was like, no, seriously. And

35:45

everyone, I think they

35:47

were disgusted, also amazed. Also,

35:49

you know, it was the faces

35:52

were moving through all sorts of

35:54

different series. What

35:56

kind of bag do you put the steak in

35:59

that doesn't? they're

1:00:01

afraid of something, so it makes them

1:00:03

not enjoy their present thing, or they're

1:00:05

thinking so much about the future. I

1:00:08

always tell my mom, sometimes my mom is thinking

1:00:10

about stuff like that where she's like, well, what

1:00:12

if I get sick? Well, who's gonna take, and

1:00:14

I'm like, mom, if you get sick, you're either

1:00:16

gonna fix you or you're gonna die. Like, so

1:00:18

you gotta, no, so you gotta live

1:00:21

every day. Like, I

1:00:23

wake up every day. This is true

1:00:26

facts of what I do. I wake

1:00:28

up every day, and

1:00:31

I try my hardest to make that day

1:00:33

like the best day. And

1:00:36

sometimes you fall short, but I

1:00:38

always try to have that attitude because where I'm

1:00:40

like, okay, if I like, if

1:00:42

everything ended today, like, I know, I probably

1:00:45

wouldn't know because I'd just like die, but

1:00:47

like, but I'd

1:00:49

be like, wow, as I'm fading away, I'd

1:00:51

be like, this was a good day, you

1:00:54

know? And I

1:00:56

encourage you to do that with your dog.

1:00:58

What's your dog's name? Franklin. Oh, I

1:01:00

can. He's really cute, so like, that's why I cry. Yeah,

1:01:03

I can tell you're sensitive. What sign

1:01:05

are you? Gemini. A Gemini, oh, wow,

1:01:07

that's a crazy one, though. I'm like,

1:01:10

I'm the most sensitive person. Like, I got

1:01:12

to dinner with my family, and I just

1:01:14

cry thinking how thankful I am to like,

1:01:16

be with them. You're beautiful. Thank you. You're

1:01:18

beautiful. I shed a tear the other day

1:01:20

at dinner too with my family. I was

1:01:22

telling everyone how thankful I was. Wow,

1:01:26

that's crazy. Gemini's the

1:01:28

crazy one, right? Yeah, two seconds. Oh,

1:01:31

yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm Pisces.

1:01:33

What sign are you? Pisces. OK. What

1:01:35

is that? What month is that? I think it's like,

1:01:37

oh, what month? March.

1:01:40

Oh. 8th. It's like sensitive, creative,

1:01:42

I don't know. My little one's

1:01:44

a, I'm on the cusp of

1:01:46

Taurus and Gemini. My birthday. My

1:01:48

dad's a Taurus. Yeah, it's wild.

1:01:50

All right, well, I think we're

1:01:52

going to wrap. You have

1:01:54

been an amazing inspiration for everyone today.

1:01:59

I think we can all see. We started off our day

1:02:01

in the spirit of the way you start off your day

1:02:03

by being here with you. So thank you. Thanks,

1:02:05

guys.