Dinner Time Vibes
David Chang, the Netflix Kitchen, and New Offerings
David Chang leaves an impression. From the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004 to his most recent project, Dinner Time Live with David Chang on Netflix, this man knows how to get attention. He has spent his 20 years in the spotlight building an empire. He’s attached to at least 15 restaurants worldwide, has a line of products in grocery stores across North America, and a growing media and television portfolio. He is a public figure and a household name, even if you’ve never eaten at any of his restaurants. He’s known for his hot takes, famous friends, adventurous palate, imaginative dishes, and explosive anger. His talent is completely undeniable, but his new show is an exercise in performative vulnerability that I’m just not into.
The premise of Dinner Time Live is admittedly ambitious. It streams live every Tuesday at 4 pm PST/7 pm EST and claims it’s the first totally live cooking show with, “no swap outs, no tv magic, no commercials, no edits, nothing.” David’s aim is to cook several dishes during the hour-long run in front of two celebrity guests, a live audience, and his hosting sidekick Chris Yang who is there to ask questions being posted online as the show airs. He opens the first episode, with the effortlessly charming duo of Rashid Jones and Steven Yeun as guests, by monologuing the general thesis for the program:
“I love cooking tv. I love all things food, but I found that over the years maybe making it useful isn’t actually part of the process. There’s a lot of editing, a lot of swap outs, there’s a lot of commercials, I think part of making it practical, right, with all the knowledge that’s out there maybe we can make something that’s entertaining, that’s real, that’s honest, with a lot of mistakes, I promise you I’m gonna make a lot of mistakes and let’s just see how this goes. This has been my dream for a long time.”
I was immediately interested. The hardest part of learning to cook is often adapting on the fly when things aren’t going right. It would be great to watch a seasoned chef mess up and then make those real-time choices and explain them to the home audience. But that isn’t what’s happening here. Despite his stated purpose, Chang immediately serves his guests a ribollita that he didn’t prepare live. Ok, that’s fine. He’s obviously nervous and this was the first episode, but it happens over and over again. He alludes to how he’s spent hours cooking before the show airs, from deboning chickens, making stocks, pasta dough, biscuits, in each episode. So much for making something that’s practical. He repeatedly says in the first episode that cooking and talking is hard and I firmly agree. It is hard to cook, be charming, and talk to guests all at once but this is the show he wanted to create and now seems resentful of. Jones, clearly tiring of Chang complaining about the format of his own show, says “I’m not gonna be gendered but women do this all the time.” Chang fully ignores this while continuing to cook.
As promised, the episodes are full of mistakes from repeatedly burning bread, a burger patty that even this vegan knew wouldn’t stay together, eggs overcooked in his own specialty microwave pot, and many more. Someone needs to get this man some timers. Instead showing home cooks how to take these less than perfect dishes and save them, Chang just talks about how he messed them up and then chucks the food in the garbage. This is a missed opportunity and these mistakes don’t really show vulnerability, they’re just wasteful. In another episode of the series, Chang cooks for Seth Rogan and Ike Barinholtz using what can only be described as an immoral amount of caviar. When Rogan asks how much a giant tub like that would cost, Chang demurs saying that it probably costs as much as tuition at state college. It's not cute, even if it’s the Netflix overlords who are footing the bill. This conspicuous consumption feels out of step in a time where groceries are higher than they have been in decades and more and more families are struggling to put food on the table. Between this and the millionaire CEO of Kellogg’s telling Americans to just have cereal for dinner, it’s been an insulting couple of weeks for 99% of us.
All of David Chang’s experience, understandably, is cooking in professional kitchens but this lack of love for home cooks colors the whole program He clearly has no desire to be a teacher; he is an entertainer who isn’t being very entertaining. He doesn’t explain what he’s doing as he’s cooking, struggles to remember everything he added to stuff prepared off-camera, and gives terrible advice. When Jones asks him if he has any tips for cleaning dirty enamel coated pans, Chang first says metal scrubbers work great but will scratch up your pans so it’s better to just let everything bake into the pan. WTF. This isn’t helpful particularly when a Le Creuset pan or something similar is often the nicest, most expensive thing people have in their kitchens. Personally, a little baking soda or salt with a damp sponge works great for everyday messes but for the heavy-duty grime, nothing is better than Bar Keepers Friend. Chang should know that. So, is it nerves or is this whole live program just an attempt to show that Chang can control his rage and mouth on camera?
Chang and his temper are legendary. In an industry dominated by difficult men who refuse to control their emotions, Chang has always stood out. This volcanic anger was said to be part of his perfectionism, his quest to create the perfect dish and perfect restaurant, but this rings hollow. I’ve had PLENTY of experiences with angry men screaming into my face about some minor inconvenience and none of them are tortured geniuses. They’re just assholes. While promoting his memoir, Eat A Peach, Chang attempted to put this version of himself in the rearview mirror with middling success. Hannah Selinger, a former employee of Chang, wrote an excellent review of the book for Eater, which wonders why Chang hasn’t face any consequences for his decades of poor behavior:
“Despite the formative role that Chang’s rage plays in both his personality and the memoir, as someone who witnessed it, its scope and its effects on the people around him never feel adequately described, partly because he favors hazy generalities over specifics, and partly because he claims to suffer from memory lapses in and around the maelstrom of his anger.”
People are allowed to change but like Selinger, I wonder how much of Chang’s change of heart is about evolving his brand rather than realizing the error of his ways and the harm that he’s caused. In another episode of Dinner Time Live, Chang recounts a story from his time in culinary school to guests and longtime friends John Mulaney and Nick Kroll. He tells them that during his time at the French Culinary Institute everyone got paired with a partner who you moved through all six levels with. A laughing Chang says that his partner told their instructors that she’d rather quit school than continue to work with him in level 2 and beyond. She didn’t receive a new partner, so she quit. He told this story proudly as though his female partner couldn’t take the heat, not that he was an unrestrained asshole and terrible partner. The studio audience gasps when he says she quit, and Chang and his guests change the subject.
This doesn’t sound like a person remorseful for his arrogant, abusive behavior as a young man but rather a dude missing the good-ole days when you could always get away with that shit. I don’t know if Chang has changed, I don’t know him at all, but I do know that confession isn’t the same as absolution. If Chang really wants to leave this image of himself in the past, he needs to show some contrition. If he wants to make Dinner Time Live watchable, he should use some timers, simplify his menus, and actually cook on camera. Making mistakes on live TV isn’t vulnerability, it’s just reality. David Chang should stick to touring the world with his famous friends and eating other people’s food rather than cooking a bunch of expensive meals that the audience will learn nothing from. We’ll just have cereal for dinner.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Thanks so much for joining me here in Stir the Pot! This week I am trying out a lil audio companion to my recipes so that you guys can cook along with me in real time while getting extra tips and tricks as we go from start to finish. This is something I am thinking of producing at least twice a month for paid subscribers and occasionally for you cool kids here in the general newsletter. So please enjoy one of my favorite quick as hell recipes that will make even your most boring meal seem fancy- Quick Pickled Red Onions- and let me know what you think in the comments!
Quick Pickled Red Onions
Makes one large jar
Active cook time: 7 minutes
Total cook time: 7 minutes
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of sugar
1 large red onion, thinly sliced in circles
Place the water, vinegars, salt, and sugar in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer over a gentle medium heat. Stack all the sliced onions in a 12-ounce glass jar, one that's ok with taking some heat and has a lid. Once the vinegar is simmering and the salt and sugar have dissolved, turn off the heat and pour it over the onions, making sure they're all covered. Let it cool on the counter for 10 minutes then toss on the lid and stick it in the fridge. Serve after 30 minutes or let them hang out in there until they're all the way chilled.
Eat within 2 weeks.
Tomorrow, paid subscribers are getting a recipe for a thick, stick-to-your-bones, type of one pot meal. You ready?
Xoxo
Michelle
This is why you’re one of my first sources for great recipes, cooking advice, and hot takes on things that insult/impede. Also I adore pickled onions so making these STAT!!
My daughter is in the industry and some time ago when I unwittingly sent his book to her as a gift- oh my, was I sorry. The first hand experiences of her esteemed co-workers are just plain ugly.