Rebel chef Justin Warner shares his journey from winning Food Network Star to his quest to become the ultimate Bon Vivant. Justin talks about starting his own podcast and pursuing the things that make life good. He talks about how he first learned to cook and the resources he used before the internet became what it is today. Justin reveals the various influences that have shaped his culinary point of view and his appreciation for Japanese culture before sharing why he and his wife decided to settle in South Dakota and open a ramen restaurant after traveling the country in an RV. He shares what no one ever tells you about owning a restaurant and what he misses most about New York City. Justin talks about his favorite flavor combinations and cooking motto and then his memories with Alton Brown as his mentor on Food Network Star. Justin talks about his experiences on Guy’s Grocery Games and how he manages the pressure as a floor reporter on Tournament of Champions.
Rebel chef Justin Warner shares his journey from winning Food Network Star to his quest to become the ultimate Bon Vivant. Justin talks about starting his own podcast and pursuing the things that make life good. He talks about how he first learned to cook and the resources he used before the internet became what it is today. Justin reveals the various influences that have shaped his culinary point of view and his appreciation for Japanese culture before sharing why he and his wife decided to settle in South Dakota and open a ramen restaurant after traveling the country in an RV. He shares what no one ever tells you about owning a restaurant and what he misses most about New York City. Justin talks about his favorite flavor combinations and cooking motto and then his memories with Alton Brown as his mentor on Food Network Star. Justin talks about his experiences on Guy’s Grocery Games and how he manages the pressure as a floor reporter on Tournament of Champions.
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/justin-warner-on-rebellious-cooking-flavor-laws
JAYMEE SIRE: Hello, and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast, where we dish on all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host, Jaymee Sire. And today, we have a self-taught chef, who cooks to the beat of his own kitchen timer.
He shares his experience winning Food Network Star. What it means to be a culinary rule breaker and what he's been up to in South Dakota? He's a cookbook author, restaurant owner, Food Network Star winner, and in the pursuit of becoming a genuine bon vivant. It's Justin Warner.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Justin, welcome to Food Network Obsessed. And before we dive into all things Food Network, I do have a question that I've actually been wondering about for a while. Your social media handle, is it "Eat Fellow Humans" or "Eat, Fellow Humans" with a comma?
JUSTIN WARNER: It's the latter with the comma. Way back in the day when I was just a lowly waiter, I felt as though my main job was to get people to eat and stop beating around the bush. Just eat, fellow humans. Come on, like this is it. And so, I also said wow, like that's interesting because without the appropriate punctuation, it could really mean quite the opposite. That just seemed to be very funny to me as a, I don't know, 25-year-old or whenever Twitter came out.
And so although I have matured past that level of humor, I couldn't give up the handle. People just liked it. And I've done a little like Twitter polls and whatnot to see like, hey, should I change it? Should I grow, mature as an adult? And people are like nah, we love it. Keep it.
JAYMEE SIRE: I'm glad we got that out of the way. By the way, you are a fellow podcaster as well. I know you recently launched your own podcast, where you kind of explore the things that really make life great in your quest to become the ultimate bon vivant. So what does that look like for you exactly?
JUSTIN WARNER: OK, yeah. So the podcast is called Warner's World of Wonders. And the idea is I've encountered things in life that I think are spectacular that make my life great, that I don't necessarily know that everyone shares the same affinity for.
We basically do a deep dive with other people who feel the same way, and then someone who might not necessarily feel the same way, but happens to be an expert in the field. It's not just food, it's everything. Everything from the sensation of cold sheets to the smell of gardenia to this really obscure book called McTeague by Frank Norris to any other number of things that I just happen to wonder, like why is this resonating with me and why is my life better because of it.
Our latest episode was on Bee Gees, you know, stayin' alive, stayin' alive. And it was just a really weird coincidence to me that I kind of discovered the Bee Gees during peak pandemic. And then the HBO documentary came out the same year.
And I was like, why is all of this coming together kind of at the same time? And so we kind of worked to unravel the mysteries of the why do certain things make life great. Like we can all say arugula is great. It's definitely the king of the washed, refrigerated greens. But why?
JAYMEE SIRE: But why?
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: So peppery. But you also did an entire episode on aged Gouda, which I appreciate. I'm curious what you prefer, recording a podcast episode or filming on set for an episode of television?
JUSTIN WARNER: They're very different things. And I'm sorry to give a diplomatic answer, but the thing that I love about a set is the coalescence of people and ideas. And there are so many people involved to make something happen. And when it all comes together and everyone's kind of in the zone, the feeling is super magical.
But that being said, you don't necessarily develop a super deep relationship with anyone there. You really are like thank you for doing a great job. You've done a great job. Let's all do a great job and move along. But when you have a podcast, generally, you're really trying to get to some nitty gritty or trying to figure out what's going on in the world or with someone. And it's a little bit more laser-focused. So shotgun approach of excellence versus laser approach of excellence. They're both excellent and I love them all.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I think that's a good assessment. I approve of the diplomatic answer. Well, you are no stranger to Food Network, but definitely a rebel of the bunch in terms of the fact that you're a self-taught chef. No formal culinary training. You tend to break the rules. You cook outside the box. What sparked this love of cooking and just learning and exploring?
JUSTIN WARNER: I've been a career waiter. I started out on that kind of front of house path when I was about 15 or so. Whatever the legal working age was, I was like chomping at the bit. Because at that time, I just liked being a kid with money. But I also really liked to eat. And I liked learning about food.
Then I just kind of kept chasing higher checks. And with higher checks, comes more food knowledge. And I just went from restaurants to restaurant, always trying to max out my knowledge and be the best waiter that I could be. And I found that once you get to a certain point of waiting tables, you really have to know just as much as anyone who's in the back of house cooking.
So when a guest says what is braising, you need to be able to tell them that's what braising is. And then once the definition, it's really not that difficult to figure out the technical aspect of it. Once I learned what braising was, then I went home from the shift and braised something.
And so that kind of unlocked the idea that maybe, I could cook too. And then I was just kind of casually entertained friends. I was through pretty nice parties. And I don't know. That's pretty much it. But I think, given that I didn't have the rigorous schooling that I think a lot of chefs do or even a foodie upbringing, my parents always let me explore whatever I wanted to. But we still had the crispy onions on top of the canned green beans with the mushroom at Thanksgiving.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely. I mean, I still put those on.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. I mean, and I've learned now later in life, there's no point in trying to gourmetify that. Like forget your crispy shallots, forget your haricots verts. Just put the glop with the glop with the crispy, bake it off.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, as you started kind of learning and experimenting, what kind of resources did you turn to kind of learn those techniques, those skills that, as you mentioned, you didn't have the formal training for.
JUSTIN WARNER: So this was not-- I'm not saying pre-internet, but it was maybe pre content before everybody was like a content or information factory, where people would just put their life in information on YouTube for free. So I had to like buy a book.
And I want to say the book that kind of blew the lid off of it was maybe Food Lover's Companion. Then there's one I think called The Flavor Bible. And of course, Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. That was kind of the trio, I think, that really unlocked it.
And then just studying menus and being curious and asking questions. And I'm very fortunate to have worked with a lot of chefs that didn't mind having a front of house person incessantly bugging them. Because that's who I am. I worked at a sushi restaurant when I was 18, ended up managing it before I could legally drink.
That was simply because I had a great relationship with the head chef. He valued my curiosity. And I think because he was a Japanese guy, and I think a lot of people were just like sushi man, sushi man. And I was like well, there's a lot more to your culture than sushi. And there's also a lot more to you than what you produce. We then have become lifelong friends and he's helped me explore the world. And I hope that I've helped him explore the world as well.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you remember some of the first recipes or dishes that you really kind of learned to perfect?
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah, easily. So it's a weird cut. It's called lamb breast or lamb belly. It's essentially a segment of lamb rib cage with a lot of fat on it. And we found it at a big box store, who didn't pay to be in this podcast. So they won't be named. We found this cut and it was super cheap. And we were scrappy restaurant people.
He kind of taught us like hey, man, just simple, salt, pepper, slow, low. It just came out, the whole house of smelling like lamb and we were just eating like kings. And then we had this huge discussion on what is the king of fats, which like, if you go through the list of all the animal fats, man, you could really get into a fight. Like forget is a hot dog a sandwich. I want to talk about fats.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Well, what is the best fat?
JUSTIN WARNER: I don't know. It's tough. And I think like life and the context in the season might change, but I'm up there with, I think, it's either beef fat or tuna fat. And I it's tough because tuna fat is difficult to isolate. You can't necessarily like have a block of it and spread it on toast.
But there's something about beef fat in the way like I made this beef ramen. That I've given to people, even one of the producers on Grocery Games. And everybody does this thing with their lips, where they like they just had the best Chapstick of their life.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, it is a dual purpose in that sense. It probably is the best Chapstick. What are some of the experiences that have shaped this very unique culinary point of view that you have now?
JUSTIN WARNER: That Japanese restaurant. I also worked at a brasserie in my hometown, which my hometown was very fortunate to have at the time. I learned little things like amuse-bouche, for example. And when you're, I guess, 16 and learning about amuse-bouche, and I would talk to everyone. For some reason, everyone there treated me like an adult, which was very strange.
And so I was like 16 and had a recipe for mojitos, just in my back pocket, just in case.
JAYMEE SIRE: Just in case. you never know.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. And they just kind of blew the roof off of the idea of you don't necessarily have to be older experienced to want to live a good life through food. When I was in the spelling bee, in the eighth grade, it was an all expenses paid trip to DC, which was only like 70 miles away, growing up. But I was like, all expenses, huh.
So they paid for me to go to Michel Richard's La Citronelle. And I had squab and a vol-au-vent for the first time. And that was in the eighth grade. And that was just my jam. And so I mean, there have been countless, countless things. But in general, those are probably the radioactive spiders, the origin stories, if you will.
JAYMEE SIRE: So you are currently living in South Dakota with your wife, Brooke. What brought you to South Dakota from Brooklyn?
JUSTIN WARNER: A kind of a long story. So we were living in Brooklyn, but not doing a whole lot of the living. We were kind of just working and grinding away. We got a wild hair and decided to live in an RV for a year. And the RV--
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, my god, amazing.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. I don't know. This is just how life works in our family, I guess. And so we needed to fix up the RV. But to do that, we needed a driveway. And the only driveway we could think of is Brooke's parents in South Dakota because obviously, Brooklyn doesn't have driveways, at least, not 30 foot ones.
So we sold a lot of our material things and moved some others into storage, and kind of set sail. And it was this really wild experience. And then to do some of the repairs to the RV, it took a little bit, so we just kind of bopped around my current hometown, Rapid City, over the summer. And we kind of got into a nice little routine. It's very nice for hiking and for exploring.
And I can drive 30 miles in one direction and bye bye self service and just disappear. But at the same time, we have big box stores and you can be in and out in 10 minutes versus in New York, it's kind of an all day affair. And then they don't have what you're looking for.
JAYMEE SIRE: And then you have to carry it home.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. And then you have to carry it home on the train. We set sail after that. And when we bopped around the country, kind of dating cities. And ultimately, we made a complete lap. And we're like well, we could do this again or we could just kind of plant roots.
And so we found a cute little house as seen on GGG Delivery. That's it. And we were just like oh, we like you here, so we'll stay here. But like we always reserve the right, like we still have the RV. It's an escape pod just in case, I don't know, things get weird. We get run out of town. It's still kind of the Wild West here.
JAYMEE SIRE: When you were living in the RV, what was your favorite part about that lifestyle?
JUSTIN WARNER: So I'm going to say the connection to nature. But I don't just mean like birds and fauna and trees and gators and whatnot. Nature involves humans too. And so when I say nature, I mean, the courteous guy at the gas station in Arkansas or the fact that you have to downshift and use the transmission as a brake when you're scaling some or descending some massive hill.
And you just start to understand, in a very different way, the world around you. When you have 40 feet of metal behind you and that's all of your surroundings or you get stuck in mud. Mud in Brooklyn is one thing. Mud in the middle of nowhere off the grid in Utah is a very, very different thing.
Your eyes kind of just get wider and you perceive a little bit more. And you think a little bit more cautiously and optimistically about the world around you. So that's kind of it. It's just a different lens for seeing things. And it's freaking great lens.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that. How many states did you guys hit?
JUSTIN WARNER: Oh, I don't know. But we did have over 10,000 miles.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, wow.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah, I don't have the number on states, though. It was a lot.
JAYMEE SIRE: Did you do a lot of cooking in the RV or were you kind of doing a little diners drive-ins and dives?
JUSTIN WARNER: It was a little of both. But the coolest thing is, is that I wrote an entire cookbook in the RV. And it was for a device. And my thesis was if I can make an entire cookbook in an RV using literally only this device, only one outlet, then assuredly, you can use this device in your home with multiple outlets and multiple tools and shelter from the elements.
JAYMEE SIRE: How is the food scene there in South Dakota?
JUSTIN WARNER: It's good. It's growing. It needs a little stoking. And I think that a lot of restaurateurs sell themselves short, and think like oh, people won't eat this. And I'm guilty of that too. When we open a ramen shop, I just thought it would be a sleepy little thing that Brooke and I would manage, and little mom and pop place.
Like day one, were like overrun. We are a little limited in terms of the supplies we can get here just because we're somewhat remote. But other than that, I mean, yeah, we're doing great out here. The craft beer scene is out of control.
JAYMEE SIRE: Why ramen?
JUSTIN WARNER: Brooke and I are big time Japanophiles. We met in a Japanese restaurant. We both worked in ramen shops. Brooke managed a ramen group. And when we were moved here to South Dakota, we kind of were trying to look around and see what is the most viable and responsible cuisine that we could make.
When we realized just how much agriculture and livestock there is here, combining that with our affinity for Japanese food and ingredient, we were like I think we can do this. Can we do this? And then we found a supplier for a great noodle and that was it. It's just kind of making do with what we have.
JAYMEE SIRE: If I were to visit, what was like the top thing I would have to try on the menu.
JUSTIN WARNER: Well, you have to have two visits.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK.
JUSTIN WARNER: Because like our first born is the beef bone ramen. And we are definitely in cattle country here. And I would say, there are probably under maybe 20 places that do a gyukatsu or beef bone ramen in America. And probably, under 100 in the world. But then on your second visit, you would have the bison bone ramen, which as far as I know, we are the only ones in the world.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's super cool. How did that process go when you guys were kind of developing that menu? A lot of ramen?
JUSTIN WARNER: It was like any other thing. So oddly, enough, we established in a bakery. And this bakery has no gas or ventilation. And when you think about boiling soup, you generally think about gas burners and cooking things for a long period of time over a very high flame.
But we took a gamble that we could get it done in an oven because heat is heat. And so believe it or not, it's actually quite efficient because an oven has a thermostat, an auto shutoff once the temperature gets too hot. So we're actually able to control the boil of the broth very easily. Yeah, we're baking ramen in an old bakery. It's such a weird thing to say. But if anyone was going to do it, he's got two thumbs and pointing at it himself right now.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it. It's very on brand for sure. I mean, obviously, you've mentioned it just Japanese culture kind of has this reoccurring theme in your life. You have the ramen shop. You met your wife in a Japanese restaurant. You worked in them. You have your handcrafted cooking knives on your website. What are some of your favorite elements of the Japanese culture from your visits to Japan or just learning about it?
JUSTIN WARNER: Attention to detail is, I think, maybe the number one thing, and that spreads across the board. And I don't like to speak in like generalized statements necessarily like that. But I'll just give you an example that sometimes, you go to a 7-eleven and you'll ask where the restroom is, and they will walk you to it, open the door.
It's a heated toilet seat and you feel like oh, man, this is a relief. This is great. I've been walking all day I get to sit. I feel comfortable. And then you'll purchase something, and then they'll put it in a bag, seal the bag, hand you the bag with two hands because one, it's too casual.
I was on a train that had velvet seats. In New York, that'd be demolished in under 30 seconds. I think that's probably the number one thing. And being a career waiter, I got to a point where the goal was not just to provide what people needed, but it was to anticipate what they needed to make them happy, make them better, leave them more fulfilled than when they came in.
That's kind of tough because if they're not giving it up, if they're not saying, hey, I need this, this, and this, you know that you have to crack the nut. And I think oftentimes, that in our day in and day out in America, sometimes we forget courtesy is just like this incredibly infectious thing. And politeness and kindness is just something crazy. I lost a DSLR camera on there on a bullet train in Japan. And somehow, it came back to me.
JAYMEE SIRE: Certainly, you're no stranger to owning a restaurant. You had Do or Dine in Brooklyn for several years as well. What are some things you learned about owning a restaurant that no one told you about?
JUSTIN WARNER: There's a lot of numbers involved. I hate numbers. I hate paperwork. There's a lot of paperwork involved. There's a lot of regulation. It's not a lemonade stand. I knew that a grease trap existed, but I was never that intimate with it. And I would tell any restaurateur, like, get intimate with a grease trap, and then see if you still feel like you want to own a restaurant.
Other than that, I don't know. I've been in them for so long that I kind of understood most of the ins and outs. And ultimately, I think if you have a quality product at a fair price that's served with genuine enthusiasm, you will be all right.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you miss New York City and Brooklyn?
JUSTIN WARNER: Oh, so very much.
JAYMEE SIRE: What do you miss the most?
JUSTIN WARNER: The ability to literally have a roulette wheel of options, all of which are fantastic. And spin that and go.
JAYMEE SIRE: Selfish question over here. What are some of your favorite Japanese spots in New York City?
JUSTIN WARNER: Ichiran, Shuko, Sake Bar Hagi, Decibel, [? Azasu. ?] I mean, there are so many. Kajitsu, if it's still open. I think Kajitsu is closing this year, so get there fast. There are so many. Like one of my best experiences as like a new recruit in Food Network was having a business lunch at Morimoto in Chelsea Market.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, my gosh.
JUSTIN WARNER: I mean, there are so many things that-- Osakana, YUJI Ramen. There are so many places. I could go on and on. But in general, pretty much anywhere. I just--
JAYMEE SIRE: Anywhere.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. They are also good. Those are just that come to my head first.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Well, hopefully, everybody was taking notes, I know, I was. I mentioned, kind of your reputation as this rule breaker, you have a cookbook, The Laws of Cooking And How to Break Them, where you really do encourage a lot of improvisation in the kitchen. You kind of lay out flavor laws with familiar foods. And then kind apply it to more playful recipes. Can you give us some examples of a common flavor law, and then one of your recipes?
JUSTIN WARNER: So the first chapter in the book is something I think that almost everyone in the American palate has had, unless you're allergic, of course, which is peanut butter and jelly. And so the idea of peanut butter and jelly is that you have this rich concentrated creamy thing, the slightly sweet, slightly sour thing. And then something spread it on.
So what is pizza if not rich creamy cheese, slightly sweet, slightly sour tomato sauce, and then something to spread it on. Now what is a lot of Italian cooking other than that kind of beautiful three note combo? I make an all purpose kind of wing recipe that involves this sort of sweet, sour, and richness. You have butter, you have jam, you mix it together, steep a little habanero or whatever your pepper of choice is, and apply it to wings.
And so fat, fruit, something and spread it on is generally like a great rule. And you can't screw it up. I mean, think about every cheese board-- fat, fruit, something to spread it on. Think about every pate or foie gras dish, fat, fruit, something to spread it on.
There's also like the law of General Tso's, which is like heat and sweet. It takes a minute to kind of break it down. But at the same time, it's all kind of normal. Another one is like love bagel and lox, which deals with the idea of smoke and like where does smoke come into play. And so generally, with smoke, if you look at the bagel and lox, you have onions. So any sort of sulfury allium thing is going to work with smoky.
You have capers, so generally, something pickled in briny is going to work with smoky. You have cream cheese, so like cheesy or rich. Now, we've unlocked the entire Arby's menu.
JAYMEE SIRE: It makes a lot of sense when you break it down and kind of simplify it like that. What would you say your motto is when it comes to cooking?
JUSTIN WARNER: Don't burn the toast.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS]
JUSTIN WARNER: You can't unburn toast, OK? This is it. Is you can scrape it off, you can sand it. You could power wash it. But the idea is the aroma is there. And you can't unhook something. And when something is passed it's optimal cooking, you can't undo it. So that's really the only thing.
I think you can actually correct a lot of flavor mistakes or flavor issues or textural problems. But when something is toasted, and I mean beyond toasted, there's no going back. I look at that as like also for life.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah?
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah, you can push it. But if you push it too far, it's burnt.
JAYMEE SIRE: You're toast.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah, you're toast.
JAYMEE SIRE: No, that's a good one. Because every time I try to toast things in the oven, I forget. And I have to do it again. It's a good motto for actual cooking, and like you said, life as well. I know the foreword was written by Alton Brown who was your mentor on Food Network Star. What does it mean to you to have his guidance and encouragement?
JUSTIN WARNER: I was kind of a different person back then. Because I was like I said, this kind of scrappy waiter who kind of walked into a restaurant and played chef. And then when I got on Food Network Star, I was like oh, I can't play anymore. But I think Alton understood that I had some really good bones in me. And I think he saw that I was kind of building the me around these bones.
And I think he kind of liked what he saw. And at one point, he said, I'm just going to get out of your way, man, just like keep doing it. And I think that's the kind of mentorship that I needed.
JAYMEE SIRE: Alton even refer to you as the son he never had. And obviously, you were the winner there of season 8 with him as your mentor. Can you just kind of walk us through the experience as you progress through that competition? And in the end, what you were able to learn and apply to make you that winner?
JUSTIN WARNER: Well, so Food Network Star is incredibly tough. It's not for the average person. You're not rooting for the person next to you and that's a weird thing. You wish them all the best and you love them, but it's a competition. We're all there to win. I like to, in general, play for fun and play for finesse. I like a power move here and there, but I'm not necessarily the guy who has to score the winning goal and take home the trophy and that sort of thing.
But once I started getting far enough in the competition, I realized like there's no point in playing around here. There's no point in kind of winging it. You got to win this thing. When Alton and I are standing there at the end, and we've had this bond and I formed the bond with my teammates, the big reveal-- it was actually like a big reveal about myself. Like maybe, you are OK at what you do or maybe you're better than OK at what you do.
And I guess, I just never really thought about it like that. I was always just kind of playing games or just trying to get to the next tip or table or menu item or something like that. It was not hey, maybe you should reevaluate your life course and pivot into something and share what you have, so whoa. Like rarely in anyone's life do you have this tournament based epiphany.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. Like the prize was not necessarily just being on the team of Food Network. The prize was like hey, you get a new self. Cool. Whoa.
JAYMEE SIRE: What was the most challenging part do you think of that competition?
JUSTIN WARNER: Being away from friends and family. At least, back in that era of reality TV production, we were in pretty much isolation. Unless there was an emergency, you weren't calling home. And it was kind of a pain. We were shooting maybe eight blocks from my restaurant.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, my gosh.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. Yeah, I could like practically smell it. You know what I mean? So that was tough. But other than that, you grow to like these people. And ultimately, like you're just like oh, it's a real shame that at the end of this challenge, somebody is going to go home. It could be me. Like after a while, you're just like all right, well, let's just do our best and no hard feelings, pal.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you still keep in touch with any of those people from your season?
JUSTIN WARNER: Oh, yeah. I mean, Martie Duncan, on the absolute regular. Martie Duncan is one of the greatest people on earth. She actually has a podcast as well, which is pretty fantastic. I was on it. A lot of other Food Network talent has been on it. So you've got to check that out. Yeah, we always check in here and there or maybe, we'll be in the same circuit. We'll show up at a food fest being the same town or something like that.
JAYMEE SIRE: Coming up next, Justin shares his favorite on-set behind-the-scenes moments. And he reveals the best part of being a member of the Food Network family.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I mean, you're no stranger to any Food Network programming and Guy's Grocery Games. We get to see you back in Flavortown market in an upcoming episode from this new season. Do you remember the first time you met Guy?
JUSTIN WARNER: Oh, absolutely. I want to say it was on episode five, perhaps, of Food Network Star season eight, available on Discovery Plus.
JAYMEE SIRE: And what was that experience like?
JUSTIN WARNER: Oddly, enough, it was a Halloween challenge. And I was somehow picked to go first for this like Halloween dish. We had to make like a spooky dish. So of course, I made edible sardine skeletons. Duh, as one does.
JAYMEE SIRE: Obviously.
JUSTIN WARNER: And somehow, like I didn't get the memo that I was supposed to kick this off. I thought Guy would be like hey, I'm Guy and I'm here to talk to you about blah, blah, blah. And so there was this like awkward silence of me like waiting for Guy to kick it off. But everyone's like, I think Justin's intimidated by Guy.
I'm like, I mean, yes and kind of no. He's like been in my living room more than almost anyone else, but at the same time, yeah, it was just kind of a rocky start. But then I caught up with him somewhere, some event we were at. And he was like hey, man, like you'd probably be decent on Grocery Games. You want to come check it out? And I was like yeah, sure, Guy. Why not?
JAYMEE SIRE: What is your favorite part about filming Guy's Grocery Games?
JUSTIN WARNER: I think it's the camaraderie that we just all have. It's a really great team. It's not just judges and Guy, it's everyone. Every person is recognized as a valid human being that has a name. It's not just like lighting, do this, gaff, do that. Sometimes, maybe, in emergency situations. But in general, like everybody knows everybody. And everybody wants everyone to have a great day and do a good job.
And it feels so easy to make magic. And when magic just happens organically and it doesn't have to be cultivated, that's what happens when you have a ton of really talented people all in one place.
JAYMEE SIRE: How does a shoot day for Guy's Grocery Games compare to shooting an episode of Guy's Ranch Kitchen, which I know you've been involved in as well?
JUSTIN WARNER: So they're both about two episodes per day. When you're at the ranch, the ranch is a very different setting. So waking up in the morning is like wake up, go for a hike with Guy, survey the peacocks and goats, shower, get into hair and makeup, and do your thing.
Guy's Grocery Games is more like wake up, panic, take a shower, put your running shoes on, and go through your mind and try and figure out what have you not made in the more than 100 episodes you've been on in the show.
I'm like how are you going to conquer it. Now, is this in that aisle or that aisle? You don't know what's going to happen. So any plans you make is like walking up stairs. More plans, more stairs. And then once there is the reveal, that's how many stairs you are going to fall down.
JAYMEE SIRE: What are some of your go-to grocery staples when you're grocery shopping not on Guy's Grocery Games?
JUSTIN WARNER: I always find myself buying soba noodles. I love cold soba for some reason. It's just like I can't think of what to eat, I'm going to eat that and I will always love it forever. At home, I eat a lot more for sustaining myself purposes, mechanical purposes, practical purposes, if you will. I've got a great mushroom guy, a lot of lion's mane mushrooms. I don't know.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. I like that. Well, I mean, you've worked with Guy, also, as a floor reporter on TOC, which is probably one of the most intense shows I've ever watched. You have a ton of responsibility as the floor reporter. It's up to you and your counterpart, Simon Majumdar, to present one chef's dish to the judges because it is a fully blind judging. So it's up to you to basically present this and really represent it well. It seems like a lot of pressure. How do you kind of manage that responsibility and what's the toughest part?
JUSTIN WARNER: Well, I think it's actually not that tough for me because I've always been a waiter from some chef who's going to--
JAYMEE SIRE: That's true.
JUSTIN WARNER: --beat me up. Not really, but some chef, who is going to be very unhappy with me if I misrepresent the dish. I tell you the toughest thing is in the brief amount of time that we have to kind of gameplay how we're going to present the dish is convincing the chef to either edit the verbiage or to change the idea.
I'll give you an example. Michael Voltaggio made this incredible-- this like juiced butternut squash barbecue sauce. But I was like chef, if you call that barbecue sauce, man, that's pretty thin sauce, you're going to get hit. What about barbecue jus? And he's like, bingo. And then so I'm like, yeah. It's accompanied by a barbecue jus. And they're like, barbecue jus? Great idea.
Or for example, one time a certain chef was required to use a multitude of ingredients, but kind of only used one. And I was like let's not even talk about it then. Let's just say it's a blankety blank. And if the judges can figure it out and they can point out all of the ingredients that you didn't use, then don't worry about it.
But that's where being a career waiter helps. The more information you give someone isn't necessarily better for the dish. So when you're articulating a dish, and whether it's a thing like tournament of champions or if you're just in a restaurant, every word you say is a promise to the guest. If you don't deliver on those promises, the guest or the judge is going to be able to kind of find fault in it.
So I think it's generally better to under-promise and let the mystery be. The main thing is that we just want to be succinct and we want to be on the same page. And that was often my job when I was a high end waiter. Oftentimes, the chef will say, this is a [? fantazee, ?] do this, that, and the other. And it's like chef, can we call it fruit salad? You know what I mean?
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I mean, I think the blind judging really sets the show apart from other competition shows. That, and obviously, the randomizer. Do you think that this is the toughest food competition format on television?
JUSTIN WARNER: Yes. You kind of have no one but yourself to blame. If someone tells you four things to do, which is kind of what the randomizer does, and then the fifth thing is the time in which to do it, and you can't execute well enough or enough to beat the person next to you, then you probably need to work on that. Like I hate to say it, but that's the thing. And I think that's what makes the win so great and the loss is so rough, is because it's kind of just a reflection of how multifaceted you are as a chef.
And I think that if you go back and watch season one and season two, you'll find that the chefs who are more Swiss army knife and the chefs who can adapt and are less like I only cook this way, they tend to go further. I mean, look at Darnell, the Kingslayer. Darnell Ferguson, I mean, that guy's never really seen a challenge that he can't wrap his mind around.
JAYMEE SIRE: If you ever competed, who would you want to go up against or not go up against?
JUSTIN WARNER: You know, who I'd want to go up against, rest his soul, is Carl Ruiz. He and I had this sort of great relationship, where he would win all the time in Grocery Games. But as far as I know, any time I went head to head with him, I beat him.
And so I know that he, somewhere, is still harboring that grudge. And I think Tournament of Champions would be a great place for-- just to say it for once and for all.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah.
JUSTIN WARNER: And then who would I not want to compete against is-- I'm going to say the current champ, Maneet. She's crafty, man. And the devil's in the details. And she's deeply acquainted. There's always like one move, where when I watch her cook, I'm like, brilliant.
She doesn't beat you over the head with brilliance. She's just like if you look closely enough, you'll see that I'm brilliant. And that is the kind of thing that I think anyone who eats her food can see. It's not so esoteric or out there that you really have to struggle or get out any sort of book to understand the brilliance of it. She's just like yeah, it's in there. You don't have to look too hard. So charming.
JAYMEE SIRE: She is so charming. We had her on right after she won. And she was so lovely. But she's so competitive also. So it's the sweetness, but also like don't ever underestimate her, I think, is definitely the message that everybody learned during that last season. What is your favorite part about being part of this Food Network family?
JUSTIN WARNER: I never went to college. So I imagine it's kind of like a long form college. Like Rocco DiSpirito texted me yesterday, needing advice for some ramen project he has. And I'm like hey, I got you covered, bro. And Eric Greenspan will like text, like hey, dude, can I use this emulsifier. And then I might say to, like Jet Tilla, hey, Jet, have you ever used this sort of appliance before?
And so it just kind of feels like the commons or something, where we're all doing our own thing. And someone else is playing hacky sack. But in general, if we walk up to each other, it's like hey, man, what's up? Oh, yeah, you're struggling with that? Cool, let me help you out. Or at least, in my experience, I've done this.
And I don't know. Maybe college is not like that. But in general, it's just kind of feels like that. It's somewhere between college commons and WWF. And I don't mean that it's everything that you see on Food Network is absolutely real, but like Marcel Vigneron and I and Richard Blais or all of the kind of sciencey nerdy chefs or whatever people want to call it.
We all know that we're always going to be put head to head and things for the rest of our lives because it's what the people want to see. And like we have no hard feelings and hang out all the time. But when it comes time to do battle, we're going to lay it on thick.
And I think that's kind of it. It's like we all know that we're like in this fantastic world, where we all kind of play our own part, and nobody ever yuks anyone else's yum. And we all, ultimately, just kind of want each other to have a great life and great experience. And it's always a very dude, that's great. Good for you, man. Congrats. And there's not a whole lot of like, you should have done this. We all just kind of function as allies.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that. This has been wildly entertaining and informative. I feel like a smarter person after having talked to you. But we are going to finish things off with some rapid fire questions, and then we have one final question we want to hit with at the very end. So favorite flavor combination?
JUSTIN WARNER: Scallop and vanilla.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, OK. Most underrated snack food?
JUSTIN WARNER: Anything in the processed meat jerky family. I think people only eat jerky when they're like traveling. And then I think that people only eat like charcuterie and stuff when it's fancy time. And really, I think, we should just all be eating like cured meats, regularly. Like you need a quick protein pop? Bang. If you had a deli slicer at home and could just like shave off a few things of salami, you probably wouldn't be snacking as hard.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. I like that. Favorite food city.
JUSTIN WARNER: Osaka.
JAYMEE SIRE: Kitchen tool you cannot live without.
JUSTIN WARNER: Offset spatula.
JAYMEE SIRE: Food-related guilty pleasure.
JUSTIN WARNER: Anything that rolls.
JAYMEE SIRE: What's an example.
JUSTIN WARNER: You know when you're at a convenience store, and they'll have a multitude of like semi grotesque sausages or like rolling tacos that they call like certain things-- they will--
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah.
JUSTIN WARNER: Anything that's on that rolling thing. And now that--
JAYMEE SIRE: You want that.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah, now they've got burger. Another got like Buffalo wings. I've even seen tamales in some parts of the country.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK.
JUSTIN WARNER: Which I don't understand how you can wrap a thing in a corn husk and then wrap it in plastic and have it roll in a thing and still be good. Yeah, anything that rolls.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK, anything that rolls. I like that. Go to weeknight meal.
JUSTIN WARNER: Probably, hot pot.
JAYMEE SIRE: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
JUSTIN WARNER: Lucid dreaming.
JAYMEE SIRE: In the spirit of your podcast, what are some things making your life great lately?
JUSTIN WARNER: Natural wines, marrow bones, Caesar salads. I know that like that's kind of like an everyday sort of thing. But I just had a very incredibly lightly dressed Caesar salad the other day. It was like 89 degrees out, and I was like, this rules.
You're like, thank goodness that we have this. It's like I know it's just romaine, but the remaining wasn't chopped, it was hand torn. And I was like someone put a lot of thought and effort into this very simple thing. But at the same time, like I've also had Caesar salads, where I'm like, what are you doing with the tomatoes, guys? I didn't ask for this.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, I think a really good Caesar salad can really bring you a lot of joy. Before we let you go, we have one final question we ask everybody on the podcast. And that is what would be on the menu for your perfect food day? So we want to hear your breakfast, your lunch, your dinner, dessert. There are no rules. You can supersonic jet, you can time travel, spend absurd amounts of money. Whatever you want to do, it is your day.
JUSTIN WARNER: Breakfast, we are, of course, hitting like New York delicatessen. We're going to have some smoked fishes and niches and all sorts of other things, bagels bialys, et cetera.
JAYMEE SIRE: Anyone in particular? Any spot in particular?
JUSTIN WARNER: I mean, the obvious is Kossar's and Russ & Daughters, but we'll just consume them all. If I have infinite appetite, we'll do all of those things.
JAYMEE SIRE: Sure, you'll do a little like smorgasbord.
JUSTIN WARNER: Then, I think, we'll have-- I'm always curious about what the idea of a sort of like chuckwagon breakfast would look like. And like I don't know, 1880s or something. So bang, now, we're enjoying a chuckwagon thing with, probably, like eggs and like gritty coffee, and maybe some beans or something.
But I feel like that would be just like a very restorative meal. If we're really going to take this to the max, I'm hoping that we have the appropriate context for all of this. So when we're enjoying the bagels and lox and whatnot, we're slightly hungover, not too hungover, but slightly hungover. When we're enjoying the breakfast, we've slept under the stars and we've heard the Coyotes howling.
And then we're going to jet to Fukuoka to the original Ichiran ramen shop. And they're open 24 hours. So for a third breakfast, we're going to hit that. And we're going to feel as though we're ready to face a huge day of global travel.
For lunch-- lunch is like a weird meal for me because the lunch is always very utilitarian. It's not often one of the most pleasurable meals. But I'll go to a restaurant that I used to work at that I still, to this day, truly love, which is in The MoMA. It's called The Modern.
And it's going to be a wintry day there with freshly fallen snow. And a lot of people aren't going to be eating lunch there. It'll be pretty low key and quiet. But we'll be able to observe all of the sculptures in the sculpture garden with a light crest of snow. This is a spring snow, by the way, where it's like one of those last in between sorts of things.
And we'll have a three course meal. We won't offer the tasting menu because that's a lot and we've got a lot more to do this day. And we'll probably have-- I forget what the fish was, but it was served with a green tomato chutney. And there was just something about this weird green tomato chutney.
And then we'll probably have-- for the third course, we'll go back to fall, but it's still the snow and we'll have the Concord grape vacherin, which is just a miraculous thing. I love the idea that snow can be like an early fall thing or a late spring thing.
JAYMEE SIRE: Or dead of winter thing as well.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah, yeah. But I think the most poetics are when it catches you out like off guard. Or when you see like a crocus pop up through the snow. It's like a very cool thing like life's changing, get ready. OK, so well, we're only on lunch one there.
Lunch two, maybe we go for a sushi snack just at this little spot that I just love called Taro in Brooklyn. We'll probably just have some monkfish liver, ankimo, maybe a little sunomono salad. I just love those things. We might even need to have a mid-afternoon snack and perhaps, a beverage.
What's a good mid-afternoon snack? Oh, The Halal Guys on 53rd. I just love them. For some sort of beverage, I don't know where we have it, but let's find a nice glass of natural wine.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK.
JUSTIN WARNER: Yeah. And then for dinner, there's just so many fantastic dinners that I've had, and that life is good. Well, regardless, we'll have the little tiny sushi rice ball that I had at Masa, that's rolled in honey and truffle. We'll probably have some chicken from Jonathan Waxman.
I mean, we've got to take a trip to Flavortown, right? So we'll pop by the ranch and just let Guy do whatever he's doing with his steaks and giant meat hooks and stuff like that. Then we'll have late night yakitori in Omoide Yokocho in Tokyo. We'll go for drinks at Golden Guy, also in the same sort of area in Shinjuku.
And then I mean, I guess, we need dessert for all of this somewhere. Desserts are really tough for me. Ideally, we need pie. The question is, where do we get pie? So perhaps we'll travel back in time to Robicelli's. And they had a miso apple pie that was really quite nice, that I really enjoyed. Yeah, I think that's it. Let's have a couple of espressos and maybe a nice digestif.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, you might need a couple of digestifs after all of that. I mean, it sounds like a perfect food day. It sounds very Justin. I appreciate you being so descriptive. Thank you so much for taking the time and telling us your stories, and learning more about you.
JUSTIN WARNER: Thank you. I am so happy that I'm here in a part of all of this. And eternally grateful to be part of the Food Network fam. And it's just so crazy that the work that we do is appreciated by many. And I'm very thankful for that.
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JAYMEE SIRE: All right. We really do need to do a second episode, so I can hear more about that year in the RV. You can catch more of Justin on a new episode of Guy's Grocery Games on Wednesday, October at 9:00/8:00 Central on Food Network.
Thanks so much for listening. And make sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss a thing. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review. We do love it when you do that. That's all for now. We'll catch you, foodies, next Friday.
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