Yahoo Lifestyle Joel McHale Really Loves Coffee, The Cure, and Meat Pies
The "Community" and "The Bear" star talks about playing a toxic and talented chef, his Jason Bourne moment with a coffee pot, and his feelings on men who don't cook or clean.
Courtesy of Cliff Lipson / CBS
Joel McHale and the Spiced Steak Fantasy
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 26 of Tinfoil Swans, a podcast from Food & Wine. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
On this episode
You may know Joel McHale from his star turns on beloved shows like Community, The Soup, or Animal Control, his standup special Live From Pyongyang, or as host of House of Villains and Crime Scene Kitchen. Chefs know him from their nightmares — or rather as the menacing chef David Fields on The Bear. He's also a very talented cook, especially in the realm of meat. McHale joined Tinfoil Swans to talk about working at a coffee stand in his teens, crappy tippers, what he thinks about men who don’t do their part in the kitchen, why Robert Smith of The Cure is a genius, and what a joy it was to terrorize Carmy on The Bear.
Related: Every Single Restaurant Featured in 'The Bear' Season 3
Meet our guest
Joel McHale is a comedian, actor, TV and podcast host, and author, currently starring in the sitcom Animal Control, and hosting both Crime Scene Kitchen and House of Villains. He will reprise his role as Jeff Winger in the upcoming Community movie, based on the six-season sitcom of the same name, and appear in the third season of Yellowjackets. For 12 years, McHale hosted The Soup on E!, and his memoir/self-help book Thanks For The Money: How to Use My Life Story to Become the Best Joel McHale You Can Be was published in 2016.
Meet our host
Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine's Signal Award-winning podcast, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.
Highlights from the episode
On his gateway restaurant
"In the '80s, I would go out with my good friend Spencer and his parents a lot to Roberto's Pizza on Mercer Island. They shredded mozzarella on top of the salad and then put a piece of pepperoni in between the salad and the mozzarella. So it was basically like getting a bonus pizza. It was one of the greatest salads of all time. Bottomless drinks, too, which I was just like, 'We can just have all the Coca-Cola on the planet? Yes. I'm in.'"
Related: All the Chef Cameos in 'The Bear' Season 3, in Chronological Order
On doing your part in the kitchen
"My mom did most of the cooking and had a full-time job as a newspaper editor. The deal was because my dad can't cook, he would do the dishes and all the cleanup. To this day, for the most part, if I'm not cooking, I'll clean up — and I don't mind cleaning up. I learned that from my dad. He was always like, 'You've got to do your part.' When I hear about like dudes that don't cook and don't clean up, I'm like, 'What do you think is happening here?'"
On wooing with food
"I married a person that was smart and sophisticated and who was already eating better than me. She had lived in Europe and all over. But I always had this fantasy of being a chef. I would make omelets and stuff for my brothers. I was good at that, but acting and performing really kind of dominated what I wanted to do — that or sports. When I met Sarah, I was like, 'Oh, I have to use every resource, and trick, and energy I have to try and convince this person to stay with me.'"
Related: Curtis Stone's Chicken and Leek Pie
On tipping decently
"Sam Johnson on Mercer Island had the first coffee cart and one of the only places in my hometown at that time — which is a suburb of Seattle — that had espresso. I had to wheel that thing out at four in the morning and get going in the cold and rain, but ultimately, it was a great job. One guy pretended to rob me. A guy came up from behind and said, 'Give you me all your money.' I knew the guy, but the was the Jason Bourne moment where I was like, 'I'm going to hit this person with the handle and basket and smack him.' Sam Johnson continues to be a friend to this day. He was like 23 and I was 15, and I remember thinking, 'Someday I'll have a real job like this guy,' because I grew up in what became a very affluent suburb, but I noticed that the people in the not-nice cars tip the most, and the people in the super nice cars tip the least."
Related: After Training Will Poulter for 'The Bear,' Dave Beran Would Definitely Hire Him As a Line Cook
On baring his teeth on The Bear
"First of all, I'm the hero. Chris Storer, who created the show and directed the show, I've known him for years because he is the longtime boyfriend of Gillian Jacobs from Community. Everyone knew what a genius he was. He's also the nicest guy and a really good chef. It's so hard to make a show and get it picked up, and then he did all that and asked if I would do this role. It's so good and that's all Chris' brain. Chris also keeps this very light set and that first scene, we were kind of screwing around. I did all the scripted stuff and then he's like, 'Just say what you want. Here, say this.'"
So those lines are actually from you?
"Yeah, a lot of them are. But Chris threw out a lot of those lines. There was this scene in the third season, where I just walk by and go, 'F--- you,' to Carmy and they put it in the show. I knew it was good because my wife was like, 'Oh, yeah, that was pretty good.' I'd been in things where she was like, 'OK. Let's hope the check clears.'"
Related: Meet the Brother-Sister Duo Behind 'The Bear'
On the genius of The Cure's Robert Smith
"Disintegration is one of my favorite albums. Young people listening to this podcast right now, are like, 'What the f--- are they talking about?' It's the 'Friday I'm in Love' guys. Check it out. 'Just Like Heaven' is a perfect pop song. It is like carbon on the periodic table of perfectly executed, joyous, catchiest, most perfect things. 'Pictures of You' is probably one of the most tragic pop songs ever written, and it's perfect. 'A Forest' — I remember when Nouvelle Vague covered that, and I was just like, 'Oh my gosh.' I don't know why The Cure doesn't get more recognition for how important they were. To go from punk into New Wave, into — I think at any moment if Robert Smith wanted to, he could be like, 'I can write the poppiest song of all time.' Like Kurt Cobain, where it's just, 'I can do this all day long. But I'm going to put sandpaper in it and make your brain turn upside down.' But then you're like, 'What just happened to me?'"
On the magic of Curtis Stone's meat pies
"I did get to go to [Crime Scene Kitchen co-star Curtis Stone's restaurant] Maude right before it closed, because he's opening up his pie shop. The world is so lucky, especially Southern California, because they get to have his meat pies, and his Key lime pie — I've never had anything like it."
If they were to do a Joel McHale pie at his shop, what would be in it?
"Key lime and like, I don't know, brisket all together. It's got to both savory and sweet — just half and half."
What would your character from The Bear put in that pie?
"Criticism."
Related: Previous Episode: "Bitchy Waiter" Darron Cardosa and the Tipping Conundrum
About the podcast
Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.
This season, you'll hear from icons and innovators like Daniel Boulud, Rodney Scott, Asma Khan, Emeril and E.J. Lagasse, Claudia Fleming, Dave Beran and Will Poulter, Dan Giusti, Priya Krishna, Lee Anne Wong, Cody Rigsby, Kevin Gillespie, Pete Wells, David Chang, Raphael Brion, Christine D'Ercole, Channing Frye, Nick Cho, Ti Martin, Kylie Kwong, Pati Jinich, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George, Tom Holland, Darron Cardosa, Bobby Flay, Joel McHale, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what's on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that'll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.
New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.
Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.
