2007 was a year when comic Patton Oswaltâs food cred soared to new heights. First, he lent his voice to Disney-Pixarâs Oscar-winning âRatatouille,â where he played Remy, a rat with culinary ambitions. It was a film chefs said revealed more about life inside the restaurant kitchen than any live-action movie before.
Then, in an epic 3 minute 26 second takedown on his stand-up album âWerewolves and Lollipops,â he riffed on KFCâs Famous Bowls, a horrifying mash-up of potato, popcorn chicken, cheese and gravy, and forever burned the phrase âfailure pile in a sadness bowlâ into the pop cultural psyche.Perhaps more than any comedian this side of John Cleese, Patton Oswalt is a gourmand through and through. His recent swing through Chicago for the Just for Laughs Festival was as much about performing stand up as it was a restaurant-hopping tour.We chatted with Oswalt in an all-food, no-comedy interview.
Patton Oswalt: I didnât develop the palate until I had the finances, probably around the late 90âs (around the time âThe King of Queensâ premiered on CBS). I remember the first meal I splurged on: the vegetarian tasting menu at Aquavit in New York City. And that opened the world of, âOh, [the chefâs] personality is coming through in this,â rather than just working down calories. And that led me to follow chefs and their biographies and background.
I started reading magazines, websites, books, reading reviews when I go to a city. I try to read about the chefs I should go see and try out.
By the time I got to Ratatouille, I've been a very strong foodie for about a decade. But in getting to go to The French Laundry and meeting so many chefs, that opened a deeper insight into these amazing restaurants, and realizing itâs as much about organizing a team of people and personalities, or dealing with local building codes and producers and merchants. There are so many different levels to it. The more access I got, the more amazement and wonderment than when I was starting off and didnât know the ins and outs.
I didnât get to meet him until the Oscars at an after party. Iâve eaten at his restaurants â French Laundry and Per Se in New York â but he wasnât there [during those visits]. It was really amazing to see him come in and have the chefs come out and actually want to cook him something, just so that they can say Thomas Keller tasted their cooking. Thatâs like watching Eric Clapton go into some tiny bar gig and have the musicians up their game because heâs around.
I get star struck by a lot of these guys, the high end and the low. Iâm just as amazed to meet a Marcus Samuelsson or a Thomas Keller as I am to meet the woman who makes the tacos at Yucaâs on Hillhurst (in Los Angeles). Thatâs all interesting to me, someone cooking from their heart, kind of a âI met you before I met youâ sort of way.
I have a friend at Charlie Trotters and she said, âYou really got the dynamics of the kitchen right.â Like how thereâs always a pot of potatoes soaking. I heard that Anthony Bourdain was very impressed with us, which jazzed and tickled me to no end.
He was terrific. Iâd only known Emeril being ubiquitous on Food Network and on commercials, so I guess I had that kneejerk anti-[sentiment] in my mind, thinking, âOh, this is just some corporate guy.â But then I was in New Orleans doing a movie and his restaurant was amazing. Heâs an amazing cook. Sometimes things get popular because theyâre very, very good. And heâs just a really charming guy. He really loves to cook.
Once something gets popular, thereâs going to be an oversaturation. But there are good shows. Stuff like Alton Brown and Top Chef. Americaâs Test Kitchen is a great show, or Anthony Bourdainâs No Reservation. Thereâs always good shows amidst all the hullabaloo.
Not that I remember, no. The population has since grown something like seven-fold and thereâs a lot of immigrant communities moving in. From what I hear, thereâs good sushi, good Chinese and Indian. Northern Virginia is a great wine growing region. Thereâs all kinds of great farms and produce, it just wasnât being used for a long time, and now it is. Thereâs a place called Sterling Pizza and they did these rectangular Neopolitan pizza, in this mini mall in Sterling Park. Weâd get pizza from them all the time and I remember that being really amazing. And thereâs a place, I think itâs still there, called Hunan Lion or Hunan Dragon (editorâs note: thereâs a Hunan Café), and itâs just your classic East Coast Chinese restaurant, with a little section with fried chicken and burger for the timid. Iâm sure it was spiked with MSG, but man, some of my earliest Chinese food was inauthentic and I just remember it being delicious.
I was on a radio show in New Jersey. Someone called in and described it, and it was the same reaction as when I saw the commercial for the Famous Bowl, that I didnât think it was a real thing. I donât know if itâs this creepy symbiotic relationship, and not to sound self-aggrandizing, but now theyâre doing stuff to spite me.
Of course they are. Of course they are. Theyâre not dumb. They know how Americans eat. Americans are frightened and angry and depressed. So when that happens, start pouring salt, weâll buy it.
Thursday afternoon we went to Frontera Grill, which really blew me away. The fact that it was such a casual Mexican restaurant, but oh my God was the food so delicious. We sampled all the tacos, tried their guacamole, then I tried their coffee for dessert which was delicious.Then for dinner we went to Graham Elliot. Basically we just tried his menu. He had cooked for Brad Bird (director and writer of Ratatouille) and I when he was at Avenues, and it was a truly amazing meal. I donât even want to say he stepped it up, I think he did what he does every night. The fact that this is his set speed is sort of astonishing. Iâd love to see what he does when he tries to blow someone away. The pop rocks with foie gras lollipop ... oh God that was so good. The spring pea bisque with mint marshmallow ... that was one of my favorites of that night.Friday I took it easy during the day. I had to walk off those two meals. At night we went to Forest Park to Skrine Chops, which is this amazing barbecue place. God, that guy knows how to cook. Got the Skribs, which are these baby back ribs. He made great barbecue chicken, which he does so perfectly. It was sweet and spicy with this undercurrent of burntness to it, which I loved.Saturday we just sort of walked around, then before the show, we ordered from this place called Pennyâs Noodles, which were dee-licious. I got the vegetarian rice noodles, had the right amount of light sauce. Someone got the beef noodles which I thought were a little too sweet, but the veggie noodles were right on.
Iâm gonna come back in December and I want to do Schwa. Everybody had raved about it. And if itâs open, I want to go to Next, Grant Achatzâs place. And I really want to go back to Moto. We went there last Christmas and we were blown away. It was like if Grant Achatz had a meth lab in his basement, he would open Moto. It was so much fun and so tasty.
I totally disagree. Molecular gastronomy is so much riskier and requires so much more technique. If it doesnât taste good, then youâre screwed. At Moto, the food tastes so concentrated-ly good, that itâs gone beyond fad.
Iâve had the winter menu and the summer menu a couple years ago. I framed the summer menu, I swear to God. One of the best meals Iâve ever had. I felt like I had just walked away from one of the great seminal rock concerts of all time.
Right now, no. I don't have one. Iâm feel that Iâm too young. Iâve had meals that have been up there, but I wouldnât have anything that was âbestâ yet. Iâve got my top five or six, but Iâm gonna wait a few more decades when my palate is more refined.
The Alinea summer menu would be near the top. The vegetarian tasting menu at Aquavit back in the late 90âs would be up there. The 34-course meal at The French Laundry. This big New Yearâs Eve dinner I put together at Andalu in San Francisco, nearly a perfect meal. And then, any number of nights Iâve had at Katsuya in Encino (California). Just amazing sushi.
I wanna go to The Fat Duck and St. Johnâs in London, I want a guided stroll through a marketplace in Paris, to try stuff right there. Unless I get extraordinarily lucky, Iâm never gonna eat at El Bulli. I would like to do five different menus at Next, that would be great to check off. Too many to name.
One would be Tallyrand restaurant in Burbank, the turkey sandwich there. Thereâs a restaurant called BLD and I get the three-bean huevos rancheros, and then Providence on Melrose, and Loteria, a Mexican restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. Just get any three or four random tacos there.
No, Iâve never had a chef bring out ratatouille. But Iâve ordered ratatouille in a lot of different restaurants. And itâs a really tasty dish. Iâm surprised itâs not more popular, especially with everyone so weight-conscious. Itâs pretty much all vegetables. A chef has not brought me out ratatouille, and I wished they would.