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honey, or a perfectly cooked egg with a

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runny yolk. For a breakfast you

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can't help but savor. Learn

0:24

more about Thomas's at thomass'sbreads.com. Hey

0:31

there, Dan here. Today's reheat is my conversation with Andy

0:33

Richter. When I spoke with him back in 2017, he

0:36

was best known as Conan O'Brien's late night

0:38

sidekick. Now he hosts the podcast, The Three

0:41

Questions, and he'll also be hosting a new

0:43

show, The Andy Richter Call-In Show, on Sirius

0:45

XM's Conan O'Brien Radio. The show premieres on

0:47

Wednesday, June 26th. And

0:50

before we get into this reheat, I do wanna give

0:52

you a heads up that this episode contains discussion of

0:54

dieting, weight loss, and body image. Now

0:56

this past spring, Andy and I reunited in LA

0:58

where he moderated my book tour event. If you

1:00

wanna hear the best bits from that show and

1:02

my other book tour events, we're releasing a two-part

1:04

series from the book tour. First part's out now,

1:06

second one comes out Monday, and there are a

1:08

lot of hot takes about pasta, food, and so

1:10

much more from Andy, me, and many others. Don't

1:12

forget to subscribe to or follow our show so

1:15

you don't miss an episode. You can do it

1:17

in your podcast app right now. And finally, as

1:19

always, if there's an episode from the deep freezer

1:21

that you want us to reheat, please send me

1:23

a note at hello at sporkful.com. Thanks.

1:29

Did I read that you were the prom king? Yes,

1:31

I was. My senior

1:33

year, I was the prom king at Yorkville,

1:35

of Yorkville High School. Did

1:38

you get a crown? There was

1:40

a crown that you don't get to keep. It looked

1:43

like sort of a classic cartoon crown. It

1:46

had fake white fur that I think is supposed

1:48

to be ermine with jewels and

1:50

then kind of tufted velvet around

1:54

the top of it. on

2:00

me, I could see from the inside that

2:02

the base of it was actually

2:05

a Ricotta cheese tub that they

2:07

had probably gotten from the cafeteria.

2:09

Wait, and did you say

2:11

that you don't get to keep the crown? No,

2:14

it's a prop that then they take from

2:16

you. So this Ricotta cheese tub was passed

2:18

down for generations. For all I know, it

2:21

could still be going

2:23

on the heads of prom kings

2:25

today in Yorkville, Illinois.

2:28

Did you buy Ricotta cheese? Do you

2:30

think of that crown today? I rarely buy it

2:32

in, because I mean this was probably like a

2:34

gallon tub. I rarely buy

2:37

it in such quantity, so I

2:39

don't think so. This

2:44

week on The Sporkful, I go out

2:46

for brunch with Conan O'Brien's longtime sidekick,

2:48

Andy Richter. How many of

2:50

life's problems can be solved by a really nice

2:52

refrigerator? Andy is trying to find out.

2:55

Plus the conversation will get more serious. When

2:58

we talk about Andy's lifelong struggles with his

3:00

weight. You know, when you feel

3:02

bad, eating something that

3:04

tastes good feels like

3:06

you're fighting and

3:09

staving off the feeling bad. This

3:18

is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's

3:20

for eaters. I'm Dan Paschman. Each week on

3:22

our show, we obsess about food to learn

3:24

more about people. Andy

3:26

Richter is a comic, actor, and writer.

3:28

He started several network sitcoms, and he

3:30

just launched his own podcast earlier this

3:32

month. It's called The

3:35

Three Questions with Andy Richter. It's a

3:37

conversation show where Andy asks each guest

3:39

the same three questions. Where

3:41

do you come from? Where are you going? And

3:44

what have you learned? When Natasha

3:46

Lyonne from Russian Doll came on the show,

3:48

things got pretty personal. I

3:50

have taken, though, lately to plucking

3:52

because... Really? I'm 52 years old,

3:55

and I... You know, like there's a difference

3:57

between eyebrow hair and whiskers.

4:00

getting f***ing whiskers growing

4:02

out of thick, coarse, bore-bristle

4:04

hairs growing out of my

4:07

eyebrows. And then also too,

4:10

just appearing in a couple

4:12

of days, like a three-inch long whitey. Okay,

4:15

upshot, however, pretty

4:17

soon, eyes don't work as well.

4:19

You think it's the right prescription. Right,

4:21

exactly. But you don't know. Exactly. That's

4:23

the life of a woman, you see. I know,

4:26

I know. And especially your hair. Andy is

4:28

best known as Conan O'Brien's longtime sidekick, and

4:30

I have loved him on that show forever.

4:33

His persona there alternates between dopey

4:35

and darkly funny. You hear

4:37

that dark humor in this comedy bit, where Andy

4:40

recounts the titles of the 18 memoirs he

4:42

claims to have written. Then we've

4:44

got, Sidekick to the curb, the

4:47

Andy Richter story. Good

4:50

one, boss. My life is a

4:53

TV toady. Fake

4:57

laughter, real tears. Sidekick's journey. Okay, okay, Andy,

4:59

I think we get the idea. There's

5:02

11 more! Forcing

5:07

the laugh, hiding the gym bottle. So

5:10

that's Andy on Conan. But

5:12

off the show, he's also thoughtful and smart. In

5:14

fact, he holds the record for the highest

5:16

one-day score on Celebrity Jeopardy, and he

5:19

did very well in the food category.

5:21

The name of this pasta says,

5:23

this pasta, similar to Penne, means little

5:26

mustaches. Andy? What

5:28

is Mastacholi? Correct. Wolf

5:30

it down for 2,000, please. Try some

5:32

of the chicken cooked in this charcoal-fired

5:35

oven that's used throughout India. Andy?

5:38

What is a tandoor? Tandoor oven, yes. Andy

5:42

and I met up at Patty's restaurant in Burbank.

5:44

It's a classic LA diner. It's been around since

5:46

1960. It

5:48

was Andy's choice. We

5:51

should order some food. Yes, we should. If we... If

5:54

you get a... Yeah, yeah. Yes,

5:57

we're ordering on mic here.

5:59

Let's do it. Andy, lead the way. I'm

6:02

gonna have a scramble with turkey

6:04

meat, scallions and mushrooms. Sliced turkey?

6:07

No, no, ground turkey, I'm sorry. Eggs

6:10

cook soft, tomatoes instead of

6:12

potatoes, and corn

6:14

tortillas. Could I please have

6:16

a mushroom omelet

6:19

with American cheese? For the toast,

6:21

could I please get an English muffin? And maybe,

6:24

well, let's get a second toasted English muffin

6:26

on the side, please. And it also comes with

6:29

a side, you can do hash browns, home fries,

6:31

fruit, or cottage cheese. Hash

6:33

browns are home fries, that's a

6:36

tough one. I will

6:38

say hash browns, please. Okay,

6:40

that's it. Yeah, thank you, thanks. Thank you for

6:42

the coffee? Yes, please. I

6:45

figured hash browns, higher surface area to

6:47

volume ratio, more crisp. I get the

6:50

hash browns and I say burn them. Yeah.

6:53

And if you say well done, it's usually not well done

6:55

enough for me. I was like, burn

6:57

them, you know? That's funny, I got an email from

7:00

a Sporkful listener who said he's having a real issue

7:02

with his grandfather, because every time they go to a

7:04

diner, his grandfather orders bacon and he always says, I

7:06

want it crispy. But what he means

7:08

by crispy is virtually

7:10

burnt. Yeah, yeah. Like as stiff as bacon, as stiff

7:12

as a board. So that you

7:14

bite into it and it crumbles. Right. Which

7:16

is beyond crisp. Yes. And

7:19

so he always says crispy, and then it never comes

7:21

out the way he wants it. He always has to

7:23

send it back. It's complained, yeah. And it becomes, and

7:25

it's this, and so he wrote, this guy wrote to

7:27

me asking for advice on what

7:29

were, what were. Burnt. That's

7:32

what the grandfather said. That

7:34

is in diner lexicon, because they won't

7:36

burn it. So shout out to Matt

7:39

in Portland, Oregon, who wrote in with

7:41

that question. Andy Richter has

7:43

addressed your issue, Matt, thank you. Order

7:45

it burnt, Matt. I

7:48

read that your mom was a kitchen cabinet

7:50

designer. Yes. Did that affect

7:53

your own thoughts about kitchen cabinets? Yes.

7:56

Can you tell me about a few of the details that you think

7:59

are crucial to making your kitchen. I

22:01

will sometimes say, you

22:04

know, I will express the regret that I

22:06

feel for not having practiced healthier eating habits

22:08

throughout my life. Like you said, you're trying

22:10

to find a balance. You don't want to

22:12

make things too heavy. You always have to,

22:14

you're always searching the kind of perfect light

22:17

touch, you

22:19

know, because you want to tell your, you don't want to tell

22:21

your kids, if you eat too

22:23

much of that, you'll get fat and no one will

22:25

want to love you, you know. But

22:28

you do, so you want... Wait, hang on,

22:30

let me make a note. Don't say that.

22:32

Okay, guys. Has

22:34

being a parent and having to steer

22:37

your kids on some

22:40

of these issues changed at all the way

22:42

you feel about your grandmother letting

22:44

you order that second Sunday? No,

22:47

I was aware well before I had children that

22:49

that was not such a great, that was not

22:51

such a great MO. Right.

22:54

But it hasn't given you any

22:56

more like empathy

22:58

for her. You know, when

23:00

you love somebody a lot and you just want, like

23:03

you get carried away with a moment and you just

23:05

want them to have whatever they want. Yeah, but that's

23:07

not what taking care of a child is. That's

23:10

not, you know, you can't be all

23:12

accelerator when you're taking care of a

23:15

child. When

23:17

you drive, you use accelerator and brake

23:20

and when you're loving a child and raising

23:22

a child and teaching a child how to

23:24

be a good human being and

23:27

a good citizen, you're going to use accelerator

23:29

and brake. And

23:31

there wasn't a lot of brakes, you

23:33

know. There wasn't a lot of brakes. And

23:37

when there were brakes, a lot of them were kind of like,

23:40

you know, more Bible related. Which,

23:44

you know, then you, that's

23:47

a different podcast. Yeah, maybe

23:50

in the sequel. I

23:53

get the perspective of like, I'm an

23:55

adult and you take responsibility. Yeah. You

23:58

know, but also there's, you know, to some degree, you're