That is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s meals questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of a few of our favourite folks. This interview collection will dive deep into their meals routines, together with feast methods, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.
In comic Atsuko Okatsuka’s newest stand-up particular, Father (now streaming on Hulu), she shares her greatest meals fantasy: “I simply need to sit on the sofa and eat chips, surrounded by ranch.” I instantly sat up, paused, and rewound that bit 3 times, attempting to image precisely what she meant. Floating in a pool stuffed with ranch? A moat of ranch round her? Or a transferring lazy river of ranch for splendid gravitational pull towards dipping?
“I really like that you just dream larger than me,” Okatsuka says with fun after I share these eventualities over Zoom. “I don’t dare to dream that huge. I used to be pondering of the little facet containers of ranch you get to-go at eating places, surrounding me in a circle like candles. Not stacked up so that they don’t fall and spill.” She likens her viral TikTok “Drop Problem” to her love of ranch, a condiment that provides her the identical feeling as dropping down low and gradual to Beyoncé’s “All Evening.” Her favourite sides of ranch are from the chains Behavior Burger & Grill and Denny’s, the latter of which she had stocked within the fridge on the time of our interview, prepared for future dip emergencies.
Okatsuka is an adventurous eater however likes to maintain a comparatively easy cooking routine together with her husband, Ryan (who directed Father), once they’re residence in Los Angeles between tour dates all over the world. That features discovering one of the best gluten-free pasta, making comforting Japanese curry that reminds Okatsuka of her father, and, shockingly…roasting an entire turkey. Not on Thanksgiving—simply on a random Tuesday. “I really like turkey, particularly turkey legs, and I want I may have all of them 12 months,” she explains. “It’s essentially the most American factor I can do!” Learn on for Okatsuka’s solutions to our Amused Bouche questionnaire.
If you happen to may solely eat one factor 24/7/365, what would it not be?
Gluten-free pasta with our model of “bolognese,” which is simply browned floor meat and the 365 model vodka sauce. After my husband obtained identified with celiac, we realized the massive factor taken away from us was pasta. So we tried plenty of completely different gluten-free pasta and located our favourite is Jovial, which is made from brown rice. It’s so wild that I do know that. By no means in my life would I’ve thought I’d grow to be such a gluten skilled. I all the time favor spaghetti as a form, and I stab it and put it in my mouth and chew it off. I’m Sew from Lilo and Sew. I eat like Sew. I’d like to eat with Sew—sauce in all places, meatballs on our heads.
What’s the very first thing you realized find out how to cook dinner?
Mapo tofu. I used to be devastatingly too outdated, 26, when my grandma taught me. I wanted to convey a dish for a potluck, and I used to be scared it was a bizarre factor to convey to a barbecue. And I didn’t convey rice. So I used to be like, “Right here you go! No rice. Determine it out!” and I guilted folks into consuming it by saying it was my grandma’s recipe.
How about your newest kitchen journey?
I lately cooked an entire turkey as a result of I actually love turkey, particularly darkish meat and turkey legs. I need to know why they don’t promote turkey all 12 months! Turkey legs shouldn’t solely be obtainable at amusement parks. Uh, hey, are we not American? That is essentially the most American factor we will do. There was plenty of worry doing it for the primary time, however I used to be up for the problem. I become a prairie spouse, like, “Sure, that is how my ancestors on the Mayflower would have accomplished it!” and I become another person. The recipe was easy with simply butter, onion, garlic, and thyme, and I discovered the rubbing with butter, the massaging, fairly soothing and comforting.
What’s your treat-yourself splurge?
I had an entire fried lobster with plenty of garlic, jalapeños, and greens at a restaurant in Temple Metropolis, and it was so good however gone too quick. There’s barely any meat in a lobster, and it makes me unhappy as a result of it’s like oh, it’s already gone, and it was $124. I eat every part. The claws are my favourite, however I eat the pinnacle, too.
What’s your most cherished cookbook?
Sam Low’s Fashionable Chinese language, which he generously gifted us and cooked from for us at his residence whereas I used to be on tour in Auckland. The feast included his model of tomato egg, steamed rooster with ginger relish, tuna and pomelo salad with herbs, pickled persimmon with Sichuan pepper, roast pork with crackling pores and skin, bok choy in rooster and scallop broth, spicy tofu with shiitake and pickled mustard greens, and fruits with oolong jasmine jelly and shiso granita. I haven’t made something from the cookbook but, but it surely was among the best meals of my life.
Is there a cooking catastrophe that made you swear off a dish perpetually?
I don’t actually cook dinner sufficient to have too many disasters, however as soon as I attempted to cook dinner milkfish, and I didn’t know the way. So I undercooked it, it was very fishy-smelling, and we couldn’t eat it. The entire home smelled for some time, and it was exhausting to scrub up.
Which nostalgic meals from childhood convey you essentially the most consolation?
I all the time love Japanese curry. My dad would make the packaged curry with the massive bricks and potatoes and carrots and stuff in it. He informed me after I was a child that it was so sizzling that I ought to stir it as much as cool it off. I keep in mind pondering that science was mind-blowing, and it additionally coated the rice with all of the curry. It was a really bachelor mindset as a single father, however I assumed he was a magician. At 5 – 6, that was so spectacular to me.
Once you’re enjoying feast DJ, what’s spinning?
Music to bop to love Charli XCX, Lorde, Beyoncé, Orville Peck, Chappell Roan, Utada Hikaru, Ariana Grande, Popcaan, Girl Gaga, Shakira, and Doechii.
What’s your greatest entertaining flex to impress company?
My character! But in addition I’m actually good at matching the vitality of the company. In the event that they wish to sing, we karaoke. If not, we chat. If I had it my method, I’d make everybody watch me lip sync, dance, and carry out. On Christmas, I truly make my mother and grandma watch me carry out “Santa Child” as a strip tease all the way down to my underwear. Yearly they act shocked when the garments begin coming off, and my grandma laughs however pretends she hates it. We’re a unique sort of household. We’re not regular. “Damaged however good,” to cite Sew.
Inform me a few meal so good you’d hop on a flight to relive it.
We had a 10-course meal in Hakone, Japan, at a ryokan we stayed at. They made all of it gluten-free, and it was such a wonderful expertise—we even obtained to take a personal onsen tub in our room after. We had chawanmushi, sashimi and nigiri, tiny little greens, and even roast beef. However the factor that obtained me was…it was so lengthy. I used to be like, “Oh my god, it’s been three hours, we gotta get out of right here! I have to examine on my grandma! The solar goes down!” It was the size of Titanic, the film, and it gave me nervousness however was additionally enjoyable for a similar causes.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
