- Hey guys and "It's Alive"
we're gonna be doin' a little,
oh a little special one.
A little shootin' from the hip, no recipe,
we're gonna do it together.
Just gonna make a real cool
open-faced tomato sandwich,
a little ricotta cheese, some
tomatoes some basil or garlic,
a little ollie oil.
Real nice, real simple, let's make it.
You know we're just gonna
be cookin' together here.
[cymbal crashing]
Oh yeah this is "It's Alive" right?
[chuckling]
Let me get a cutting board.
- [Matt] That's a great intro,
"This is It's Alive, right?"
[laughter]
[upbeat music]
- With tomatoes I like to just,
you know less is more, a little
salt, a little olive oil,
maybe a little garlic obviously.
But I mean I don't like to
go jazzing them up too much.
When tomatoes are good
they just have so much
flavor on their own.
What I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna get a little bowl.
No, no, no, we're not
even gonna do that yet.
We're just gonna take
these over, all right.
I got a little cast iron pan
we're gonna preheat a little bit.
Just gonna add a little bit of oil,
and pop those bad boys right in there.
Oh there we go huh?
Little flavor bombs droppin' in.
[explosions booming]
And then look I got a couple
cloves of just garlic.
Boom, we're gonna throw
those right in there.
Get them toasty right in
there own little skins there,
I like that.
I don't wanna go turnin' 'em into,
where not makin' soup here,
we're not makin' you know,
where not makin' grandma's gravy.
But I just wanted to get a
little, warm 'em up a little bit,
bring some of those flavors out.
All them sugars kinda pop when
they're heated I feel like.
So, like yeah just gonna
try and get a little bit
of color on 'em.
If some of 'em pop open and the
juices come out that's fine.
We're gonna keep all that, we're gonna
put it in a little bowl,
we're gonna let it hang out.
Nice, this is gonna be my breakfast,
me and Matt we're gonna
have it for breakfast.
Look at the flame, I
don't like saying medium,
just look at the size of the flame,
and that's what we're feelin'.
So, when you're home you can
just match it to that flame.
Okay, 'cause a lot of people like to ask,
"Oh you know, is it medium?"
Everyone's oven is a
little different okay?
Oh, I just had a great
idea, you stay right there.
- [Narrator] Breathe in
and out, oh he's back.
- This is what I love about cooking,
It's just in the moment,
you think of things,
boom inspiration, lightbulbs go off.
Whoo, little chili de arbol from Mexico.
Lovely sugar man Rick
Martinez brought me some back.
And look I'm just gonna
drop 'em right in there,
let 'em toast up in the olive oil.
Yeah, now we're cookin' bud.
It's been a while, it's been a while.
A little pinch of salt, bam!
- [Matt] Little Emeril?
- Little Emerald yeah.
I'm always gonna call
him Emerald I don't care.
Sohla what are you doin'?
You wanna be in "It's
Alive" it's cool come on!
Awe, yeah little Emerald.
Emerald Lagasse, yeah with a d.
Emerald, don't forget the d folks.
Emerald if you're listening,
anytime you wanna come on bud,
I'm ready all right?
Anytime you wanna come on
and make a little etouffee,
a little crawfish, etouffee.
I'm here babe.
I'm here blisterin' tomatoes.
- [Matt] How about that flame?
- What?
- [Matt] The flame.
- Yeah just a little fuego.
It's fine, as long as it ain't kissin'
my tomatoes that's fine.
It's the oil splat.
And I'm just gonna out those in a bowl
let 'em hang out with the
chilies in the bottom.
I'll take the garlic
give it a little crush,
turn it into a little paste,
it's all comin' together man.
Look at that, come on man
don't you just wanna bite that?
Like little candy.
All right we're gettin'
to a good spot here,
I'm gonna pull 'em off
the heat and just dump 'em
into my little bowl I got okay.
I want the garlic and
the chili on the bottom
so it sits in the tomato
juices and gets real happy.
Oh that's a beautiful
thing, that's pretty huh?
I'm gonna add a little
more olive oil to that.
Little more of that sodium, yeah babe.
Beat it.
Okay next I'm just gonna
open up this baguette.
We'll do a little halfsy.
Then we're gonna open it up this way okay.
I know that probably
makes some of you nervous
but that's how I like to cut.
Yeah bud.
And then we're gonna toast this
right in that same skillet,
I think, I hope it works.
[playful music]
So it picks up some of
those flavors that we got
from the tomatoes and from the garlic,
and from the arbol.
We're just gonna do it
right in there, boom boom.
All right, we're gonna do
this on a little lower heat.
What could possibly go wrong?
All right this is what we'll do,
we're just gonna hit it with
a little more ollie oil,
just let it get nice, don't
go walkin' away all right.
Don't go playin', what's
that word game, Sudoku?
What's it called Sudoku?
No, that ain't it, Morocco
what's that game, the word game?
Come on you know.
Huh?
- [Gaby] The one with the numbers?
- Sudoku?
- Sudoku.
- Is that what it's called?
- Yes!
- Yes you won Brad!
- It's the first time I've
ever said something right.
Sudoku, it's with numbers, what did I say?
- [Matt] Words.
- Same thing, oh that smells so good.
So, it's picking up a little bit of color
from the olive oil obviously
but it's also soakin' up
all that tomato flavor and the garlic
and the chili de arbol
that we had goin' on
in the pan, right.
Just mop that good stuff up.
I do like my go-to references like,
"Would make a great ham sandwich."
But that would make a great ham sandwich.
Little prosciutto cotto, whoo!
All right I'm gonna give it a
little flip, kiss the bottom,
let's kick it up a notch huh Emerald?
Gaby what's that meeting
we have on Friday?
What is that?
- [Gaby] We have a meeting on Friday?
- Yeah, it's like you invited me to it.
- [Gaby] I did?
- Some room holds.
- [Gaby] I didn't.
- [Matt] No, you invited
everyone on staff.
[laughing]
- Yeah you did.
- Oh yeah, yeah it's the--
[upbeat music]
All right you know what we should do?
Now that we've soaked up all the flavor,
that stuff that's on
there is just gonna burn.
Must throw this in the sink.
I'm not happy, I'm not happy,
I want a little more crunch on there.
So, what we're gonna do is
I'm gonna get a new skillet
and kinda give it a quick.
Morocco would you, I don't
feel like firing up the grill.
Like I don't know--
- Get the grill on!
- [Brad] Get the grill on.
- Wait five minutes, I
made some nice coffee,
that's what's gonna bring you there.
- [Brad] That's what's gonna us there?
- Yeah.
- 'Cause it soaked up all
that goodness but like
the sugar's gonna burn.
- [Morocco] Yeah.
- [beep] damn grill.
- [Matt] Got some ollie oil on the lens.
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
A little ollie oil on the lens?
That's what I'm talkin' about bud.
Oh that just smells like
gas, I'm sure it does.
Stand back this might blow up.
[gentle music]
We'll let that heat up,
we'll kiss it on the grill.
Pick up a little smokey
charryness you know.
Not really smokey, it's a
gas grill who are we foolin'.
[gentle music]
- [Brad] Just got a nice oil
smear over the whole thing now.
- What's that cloth?
Is that comin' in?
Is it focusin' or is it a little froggy?
- [Matt] No, it's good.
- It's good?
There's the dish, just eat
ricotta cheese with a spoon
and eat that, boom, you're set.
All right we'll let that warm
up, I'm a little impatient.
[gentle music]
So, what I'm gonna do
is take the garlic out,
we're gonna take it out of it's little,
you know what I'm gonna start
callin' it garlic husks.
I don't know what it's
actually called, skins,
but I like husk.
So, they're warm , they're hot.
Yeah they're warm and they're
hot that's great Brad.
What I meant to say is
they kinda got like a
semi-roasted like softness
to 'em which I like
but not completely mushade yet,
and I'm gonna crush it and paste it out.
Yeah, ditch those little
germs out of there.
They can be a little vegetal.
That's because garlic,
well it's February here,
in lovely New York City.
And you know we couldn't get
the best garlic in the world,
but this is nice.
But that's it trying to grow you know,
going into germination.
Ooh, oh that's delightful.
For our next trick Hunzi,
we have a little bowl,
stay with me all right.
We got a little ricotta
cheese I'm gonna pop that
in there like so.
I'm gonna take our garlic,
just gonna put into the cheese.
Now we're gonna hit it
with a little bit of salt.
- No I didn't say that,
I did not say that.
- Hey Dan.
- Hey Brad.
You ready bud?
- You [beep] ready or what?
All right, a little black pep.
I'm talkin' like Molly lately.
And a little more ollie oil.
Right into there.
So, that's our little cheese.
And we'll come back to the tomato,
open it up let it kinda
bleed into that oil.
We're gonna use that tomatoey oil,
as our finishing sauce.
Oh happy things happen
over on station one here.
Dan the man drinkin'--
- We're talkin' about you
Yeah I know my ears are ringin' bud.
- Brad, here's my thing about the show.
I don't--
[upbeat music]
You hear me?
- Yeah we hear you Dan, God's sakes.
Okay, now look I'm just
gonna take off all the...
[upbeat music]
God that was a tough one.
They smell delightful
but not so good to eat.
Now we just got that oil,
let that hang out in there.
And then look I'm gonna
discard this, the arbol.
All right, we need a pinch more salt,
Then I'm gonna hit it with
a little black pepper.
Salt and pepper on a tomato, come on.
It's all these flavor bombs want.
I got the grill goin', these
have plenty of oil on 'em,
I'm just gonna kiss 'em on some high heat.
Yeah, we'll start that way down.
Sohla what are you makin'?
- A little 'nduja gravy.
- Ooh!
- Breakfast?
- All right this was a good idea Morocco.
It's what needed to be done.
Oh God this is a disaster
waiting to happen.
Make me nervous, if that
falls into the grill
we got a real bad day.
- True.
Flour, very flammable,
especially in the air.
A lot of big fires in the old mills,
a lot of people died.
[suspenseful music]
- Cool.
- Yeah real cool.
Yeah great story Brad.
We all gotta die sometime, Red.
That's all pop, that's all pop,
A little breakfast for me and you.
We'll get Ali some food too.
She earned it.
[upbeat music]
- What are you gonna
put that gravy on Sohla?
- Biscuits, biscuits in the oven.
- Whoo, for what just for?
- Just for fun.
- You're out of control.
[laughter]
See that, that's what we like.
Okay, all right hot bread, whoo!
Hot bread, hot bread, who
wants to play hot bread?
Oh Murcle, he'll play a
little hot bread with ya.
That old rascal.
And look we're gonna put
the cheese right on there.
Oh yeah bud.
Yeah I'm into that.
I'm gonna cut it like this.
All right you guys beat it, beat it.
Hello, hello.
And now we're just gonna take
our little tomato mixture
and I'm gonna carefully
place these okay, nice.
All right, for all you food
geeks you can break out
your tweezers if you want
all right, get into it.
Whatever makes you feel good, okay.
As long as you're not hurting
anybody, whatever man.
I ain't got time for that you know.
What's this guy talkin' about?
And then look.
Look at that saucy goodness.
Okay, look and I'm just
gonna pour this right on.
Saucy bud.
And then we're gonna hit
it with a little basil,
you don't need a lot, a little
bit of basil goes a long way.
So, every bite gets just
a little accent of basil.
I don't want it to be a
basil bomb, all right.
It's a flavor bomb not a basil bomb.
Just gonna hit with a
little pinch of salt.
Why not?
Just a little black pepper.
That looks so good.
Look at us, would you look at it?
You want me to move that closer to you?
- [Matt] Yes please.
[laughter]
- [Brad] Why don't you look at it.
All right well let's try these huh?
Look we'll save the beauts okay,
you wanna try one?
I'll try one.
It's so good.
I would happily pay for that.
You know I was really
surprised with how flavorful
these tomatoes were.
Personally I've always
kind of been the guy,
my head spaces with tomatoes
has always been like,
"Just give them to me two
months out of the year,
"in their peak season."
'Cause so many tomatoes in the supermarket
that are just kind of booboo,
and by booboo I mean not so good.
But I'll tell you what,
these ones are pretty nice.
And these are the folks over at sunset,
out in beautiful Michigan
they're growin' them
in these monster hoop houses.
All right, let's say me and you bud,
let's get on an airplane,
let's get out there.
Let's see how they make these
little flavor bombs all right?
Let's see what it's all about.
You know you want a
middle seat, aisle seat?
I'll take an aisle, I got long legs,
and let's go to Michigan man.
I don't think I've ever been to Michigan.
[upbeat music]
No, no I haven't.
Let's go see tomatoes.
[piano glissando]
All right well here we are.
So, you guys we're in beautiful Michigan.
I'm here with Paulie Mastronardi
from Sunset Tomatoes.
So, what kind of tomatoes
you guys got growin' in here?
- [Paul] So, in here this is
actually our flavor bombs.
So, the variety actually
found in the South of France.
- [Brad] Okay.
- [Paul] It explodes in your
mouth and it's got flavor
so we're like, it's a
bomb, it's a flavor bomb.
- [Brad] It named itself.
- [Paul] Yeah.
- [Brad] I gotta say man,
they tasted fantastic.
How do you guys do that?
How do you guys pull that off?
- Well it always starts with a variety
and then how you treat the
actual variety after that.
So, enough light, enough
fertilizer, water,
the right temperature.
So, this is the best way
to baby a tomato plant
is actually within a greenhouse.
That allows us to actually
bring out the most flavor
and deliver it in the
middle of winter when
there's snow flying outside
in the middle of Michigan.
- So Paul, where in
this tomato jungle here,
I gotta say I've never
seen anything like it.
And like back home I grow
tomatoes in the ground
or in like five gallon buckets.
This is all off the ground.
- [Paul] Yeah, it's pretty different.
So, over you know seventy
years my great grandfather
came over and we started farming,
we were farming in the soil, tomatoes.
We started growing in the
ground in the greenhouses,
but then eventually we realized,
"Hey we can control the tomato
plants better if we actually
"grow out of the ground."
And then we raised the
plants and hung them
from the greenhouse structure
like you're seeing here.
And this allowed a lot
of great things to happen
from getting better airflow
underneath the tomato plants,
better for the workers,
now people don't harvest
by bending over anymore and their backs.
Everything's harvested
now at waist height.
- So, what's inside these blocks?
- Yeah, so we grow in different media so,
in this one here is
something called Rockwool
which is basalt rock.
And we also grow in wasted coconut husks,
'cause there inert and organic
and it's great for us to use.
- [Brad] That's just
they're anchoring system,
makes 'em happy and then
you keep 'em surrounded with
oxygen, water, food.
- Exactly.
- And then you get 30 foot plants.
- [Paul] Yeah, the
greenhouse is 30 feet tall,
but the plants can go 50 feet long.
So, what we need to do is
we need to teach the plants
to lean every week.
So, they come off out of our
nursery as about a foot tall,
and then every single week the plant will
grow about a foot.
- [Brad] A foot a week?
- [Paul] Yeah, and we'll
wrap the head and then we'll
teach the plant to lean.
So, a plant that starts
here will end up down there
by the end of the year.
- All right, so hey man,
do you think we could,
I saw a gentleman on one of
those little scissor lifts
going up can we go
vertical in this jungle?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- All right, come on Hunzi.
I got you a ticket too bud.
Wow look at that.
[gentle music]
That is unbelievable.
Can I take a picture?
- [Matt] Yeah, yeah.
- [Brad] This is incredible.
- On a tomato plant, the
plant usually has what we call
about seven to nine sets
of fruit on it at a time.
So, this would be a set of fruit.
And then naturally by nature
the top fruit will ripen first,
and the trail fruit last.
- [Brad] Sure.
How many tomatoes are usually in a cluster
with this variety?
- It depends on the variety,
but this variety will usually
have around 20 and we'll prune
it back to about 14 and 16
to make this variety taste the best.
So, to grow up this far
in the north in the middle
of the winter what we'll
have is what we call
supplemental lighting.
A tomato plant needs
about a thousand joules
of energy a day,
And on a cloudy day in the
north we might only get about
300, to 500 in the middle of the winter.
So, we'll bring the
energy level of the plants
up to about a thousand joules.
- Okay, can we pick
some of these bad boys?
- [Paul] Absolutely that's why we're here.
- All right, doctor.
- What we're gonna do is we're
gonna harvest a full vine.
- [Brad] Beautiful man,
so what kind of colors
are you lookin' for?
- What we need to make
sure is that the top fruit
are fully ripened all the way down,
and we want to make sure
that the trail fruit
at the very bottom isn't green.
- Okay.
- So, we need to make sure
that the bottom fruit is
at least about 50% orange.
- A little orange is okay.
And so, then we're gonna cut
the vine just right above
the top fruit just like that.
- Yeah, full cluster.
- Beautiful
All right, see you in 12 hours.
- [Paul] Oh that's a winner.
- A little snip right here.
- [Paul] You got it right there.
- Look at that beauty.
I'd be gettin' in trouble Paul,
I'd be eatin' them all day.
Two clusters, a little popper for me.
All right, hey I like this!
Well when the video dries up
maybe I'll come apply here.
Wow, can I eat one?
- Go ahead.
- Oh my God that's so good.
I'm not just sayin' this 'cause
you're standing by me Paul,
but these are delicious,
they are the bomb.
- They're the bomb.
- They are the bomb.
All right, so I'm gonna factor
in a little bit of weather,
I'm gonna hit a little
bad weather going through
Pennsylvania they think but
I'll make it back to New York
by I'm thinking Monday.
Au revoir.
Not a bad little cruiser bud. [chuckles]
[triumphant music]
Sorry gentleman, we're just
out here [beep] around.
Eat some breakfast bud.
- [Matt] And we're back.
So, we just got back form Michigan.
- Okay.
Should we get rid of this [beep]?
Should we do that?
- [Matt] No.
But I mean if that's in the
video where it will play.
- Right, right, right.
- [Matt] Right, all right.
Well we just got back.
- Oh you wanted me to say that?
- [Matt] You don't have to.
I'm just saying like that's
where, in your head--
- Well will pick up a outro here?
Oh really?
- [Matt] Yeah.
- [Brad] It's a live outro?
- [Matt] It's a live outro,
don't worry about oh we--
- [Brad] Don't worry about that at all?
We didn't learn nothin' yet?
- [Matt] We did not learn anything.
- [Brad] Okay, okay.
- [Matt] It's very clear
to the viewer that you
have not gone there.
- Even in the outro?
- [Matt] Yes.
- How you're gonna package
it, that will all make sense?
[Narrator] And again
we breathe in and out.
- Same day.
- [Brad] You can pretend it's not gonna,
then it will be clear.
- Okay I trust you.
All right well that's in man.
[upbeat music]
Yeah, now?
They're doin' a meeting.
Sohla, you're not paying attention.
- [Sohla] We're in a meeting!
[laughter]
Dan, bring your coffee over bud.
I bit that one but you
can have any one you want.
- Okay, it looks like
something you'd get at the
like the nicest Italian
restaurant I've ever been to.
- And bon appetit folks you heard it here.
- Food stylist.
- Boom Dan keep talkin',
way to redeem yourself after bullying me.
- This is good.
- Yeah get a bite I'm just
gonna watch you, yeah.
It's not creepy.
Yeah you eat that.
It's good!
- It's better than good.
- It's real good right?
- Oh yeah.
Right, like sweet, little hint of heat.
- Perfect amount of heat.
- Right it just kinda, it's
like not even like hot.
It's just like a very welcoming tickle.
- It's there and then
it goes away like it was
never even there to begin with.
- It's called balance babe.
Ready?
What are we doin'?
- It's gonna be a great
day, are you guys hungry?
- No, we're having a meeting.
- It's so good though Chris.
Chris it's so good, you're not havin' 'em,
come over Molly.
- [Woman In Orange Shirt]
We're in a meeting!
- Yeah but what are you talkin' about?
- Why don't you bring it over here then?
- Okay.
- [Blond Woman] Bring it over here,
come to the meeting we miss you.
- Okay, okay, let me cut some pieces.
- Remember when you used
to come to this meeting?
- That's great, just 'cause I
got pulled it into something--
- [Sohla] Oh my God Brad, whoa!
This is delish.
- What is it?
- Some tomatoes--
- Tomatoes, ricotta, garlic,
olive oil, chili de arbol,
salt pepper.
- [Blond Woman] Oh my God!
- [Brad] Sorry Morocco.
- What did you do to the tomatoes?
- [Brad] Nothing but heat.
- They're so sweet.
- They taste like in season.
- Right?
- Are they canned?
- [Brad] No, fresh.
[beep]
- I know.
Hoop house, we're goin'
to Michigan me and Hunzey.
- That's pretty crazy.
- Like my school usually is like tomatoes
two months out of the year.
'Cause most tomatoes in a
supermarket are kind of foobar,
these are pretty good.
- I'm like really shocked,
it's February right now.
- You heard it here first folks.
When you have good
ingredients you don't need
to use all types of crazy stuff.
Little bit of salt,
little bit of olive oil.
Just have fun with it, cook with it.
We made this dish from nothing,
we didn't have a recipe did we Hunzi?
No, not one, we just had a little,
this was like one of
them shows where they go,
"Get your ingredients and cook"
and call it a competition of whatever.
But I'm not a competition kinda guy
when it comes to cooking.
Let's just have fun, let's
make delicious beautiful food
and let's eat it, and that's it.
Bon appetit.
- Great job Brad.
[upbeat music]
So, I'm dead on the inside.
- [Matt] Yeah.
[laughter]
♪ La la la La la la ♪
♪ La la ♪
♪ La la la ♪
♪ La la la La la ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
Who sings that?
- [Matt] Hopefully a royalty free artist.
[laughter]
- And that's cut.
♪ La la la ♪
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La la ♪
Who sings that?
♪ La la la ♪
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ Wah wah wah ♪
♪ Woo woo woo ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
You know what I'm talkin' about though?
- Yeah.
- [Brad] It's one of them
songs that everyone knows
and no one knows who freakin' sings it.
- So, when you sing a song like that
does that mean you can't use any of this?
- Yeah. [laughter]
[upbeat music]
