Pop-Culturalist.com

Stephanie Izard needs no introduction. She’s an award-winning cookbook author, executive chef, and owner of multiple award-winning restaurants: Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, Cabra, and Sugarcoat. She won the James Beard Award in 2013 and was named Food & Wine’s “Best New Chef” in 2011, and now she’s adding TV host to her growing list of accomplishments.

In The Curious Chef, Stephanie does not look to the Michelin Star chefs for inspiration but instead goes back to basics, cooking with home cooks and chefs. Learning the way she started; through the recipes, the process, and the flavors that come out of the home kitchen.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Stephanie about The Curious Chef, how she hopes the series inspires other home cooks to try new things, and more!

PC: You’ve got a new show coming out on Tastemade. Tell us about The Curious Chef and what audiences can expect.
Stephanie: Curious Chef started with me wanting to become a better home cook. It sounds funny coming from a chef, but I don’t cook at home much. I have a six-year-old, and he’s starting to get more curious about food as well. I want him to start eating more things. Throughout my career, I’ve traveled around the world to research. That’s how I find inspiration for everything that I cook. We found a way to combine both travel and cooking in a show where I go cook with different home cooks, people who do pop-ups, and people from different backgrounds who cook with food from all over the world. I bring that into my own home kitchen.

PC: The show’s also inspired by the bond that you shared with your mother. Can you talk a little bit about the impact that she’s had on you and your love for exploring these different cultures and cuisines?
Stephanie: I was really lucky to grow up with a mom who cooked food from all over the world. If you looked in her cookbook, there were recipes from all different parts of the world. She made Mandarin pancakes—a recipe I still use today at Duck Duck Goat. She cooked really cool stuff, so I grew up that way. I want to have that same thing with my child.

My mom used to hang a menu on the refrigerator every week. On Sundays, she would put the menu up. It would say what we were having every night of the week. My friends would come over and say, “I’m going to come over for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, I’m going to come over for moo shu,” or whatever they wanted to come over for. We’d go to the grocery store together on Sunday. My sister and I would be in the kitchen with my mom. It was such a huge part of my childhood. I want that to become more and more a part of my bond with my child too.

PC: In the show, you also talked about going back to your roots and how you first got started. Having had so much success in this industry and throughout your career, when you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Stephanie: There have been so many cool things that have happened. I always say that I’m on a little rollercoaster ride with myself, not knowing what’s coming next. I don’t know what’s around the corner. My first restaurant, Scylla, opened when I was 27. It was the jumping point where I decided to open my own restaurant because I’m a spur-of-the-moment person. I was like, “I’ll just do this.” Having done that gave me the opportunity to get on Top Chef, which gave me the opportunity to meet the partners I have now. Each of these big moments led to the next, so it’s hard to pick one.

PC: You said in the past that you’re constantly learning from different chefs that you’ve met throughout your career. What’s the biggest lesson that these home chefs that we get to see featured on this show have taught you?
Stephanie: To have fun and not be afraid in the kitchen. A lot of times, home cooks will look at a recipe and if there’s one ingredient that the grocery store is missing they’ll be like, “I can’t make this.” It’s about having an understanding of why these different ingredients are in the recipe, whether they’re to bring acidity or spice, and knowing that if you want to change that ingredient up, you can. Have fun with it! If you don’t want to use blueberries, use strawberries. If you want to sub in a different kind of chili for the spice, do it! It’s about understanding how it all works together to make layers of flavor.

PC: How have you been able to incorporate the lessons that you’ve learned from these chefs into your own cooking? How have they inspired you?
Stephanie: The chefs on the show have inspired me hugely. We’ve actually put new things on our restaurant menus since meeting with these cool chefs. We met with a couple of chefs from Nigeria, and that was a whole new world to me. I had never cooked with any of those flavors before. There’s this one ingredient called fermented locust beans. I think we bought out every store in LA. [laughs] We need more fermented locust beans. They’ve become my favorite thing. I’ve started talking to my other chef friends about them. I brought them on another cooking challenge that I had to do the other day. I’m so excited to find some different flavors, spice mixes, and things that I haven’t done before. That gets me so excited.

PC: I love the conversations that you have with these different chefs on the show. How are you able to build that trust and that bond with them?
Stephanie: You give a couple of cooks two minutes and they just bond right away. Sometimes, it doesn’t even take that much time. Chef Eros, one of the chefs from Nigeria, and I bonded so quickly. Within moments, it felt like we’d been friends for years. Or going shopping with Brittany…as soon as we started talking, it felt like we’d known each other forever. When people have a strong love of food or grew up with their mom’s cooking, it gives you ties that make you feel so connected.

PC: This is also the first time that you’ve hosted a show. Has anything surprised you about the experience? What’s been the biggest takeaway thus far?
Stephanie: I love hosting because you get to ask a lot of questions, instead of being the one that’s getting asked or being in a competition where I’m stressed and sweating. I get to go out there and learn things about food, talk to other chefs and home cooks, and eat and cook with them and do the things that I love without pressure. It’s been amazing. It’s such a different way to do TV and a different way to showcase flavors. It’s really educational for me as well.

PC: What do you hope audiences take away after they see the show?
Stephanie: I hope they want to jump in the kitchen like I did after each show. That’s what it’s meant to be for. We want them to go to different markets and try things. We went to a Thai night market, which is really awesome. I didn’t even know anything about Thai Town in LA. But this show makes you want to go into different neighborhoods in whatever city that you’re in and explore and check out different markets. If you can’t get to Thailand or Nigeria, you can still find an awesome market and awesome flavors.

PC: If your son wanted to follow in your footsteps, what’s the biggest piece of advice that you would give him?
Stephanie: I don’t know if I would do that. [laughs] No, I’m kidding. I’ve always been the type of person that has no plans and wants to try new things. I think my advice would be, “Don’t be afraid to try new things. Don’t think too much about what could go wrong. Think about the amazing things that could come out of it. Every step that you take should be because you’re excited about it and want to learn new things.”

PC: Outside of this, what’s next for you?
Stephanie: I’m working on a lot of different things with the holidays coming up. Because of this, I’m jumping into more home cooking. I’m doing a little more home cooking for the holidays and things like that. We have Little Goat in Chicago getting ready to have this huge last-hurrah party because its location is moving. For Chicago fans, come out and check out Little Goat. I’ll be dancing the night away. Then we’re going to be reopening Little Goat in a new location in Chicago, which is different for us. Just like moving to LA was different. Going into a different neighborhood in Chicago is a whole other world. Like I said, I’m on this little rollercoaster ride, so we’ll see!

To keep up with Stephanie, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. The Curious Chef premieres on November 15th on Tastemade.

Photo Credit: Tastemade