-This morning, I felt queasy.
I'm like, "Whoa.
[ Chuckles ]
Last night happened."
-Ooh.
[ Crowd cheers ]
[ Crowd chants "Oscar!" ]
-Oh, man.
I got, like, 2 hours of sleep.
I'm fucked.
Oh!
I thought you were
gonna give me a beer.
I'm like, "No."
-Cheers.
♪♪
This is "Chef's Night Out," yes,
but not like any
"Chef's Night Out"
you've ever seen before.
You know why?
I'll tell you why.
This is Oscar.
He's one of our interns.
And we are taking him out
around New York City tonight.
Oscar over here just turned 21.
He has no friends at all
in New York.
We're his only friends.
This is either the best idea
we've ever had....
or the worst.
We'll find out.
Just like a "Chef's Night Out,"
but it's Oscar's night out.
You ready?
-Yeah.
-Let's do this.
Yeah.
♪♪
-I'm from Oconomowoc,
Wisconsin,
population 12,000.
We were the first town to
air "The Wizard of Oz."
I have been in New York
for almost three months now.
I'm living with my grandfather
and my grandmother.
This T-shirt,
it's got that crease
because my grandmother
folds my clothes...
[ Chuckles ]
...and she does
a really good job at it.
The reason why I want
to cook is because
it's like never-ending,
like, learning.
I'm still in school,
and I've got another year left,
so not even on the map.
Uh-huh.
-6 cups of that.
-Okay, 6 cups into here,
crush lightly.
-Yes. Thank you.
-Yeah.
Aye-yi-yi.
I don't even know how to...
get 6 cups out of here
with that.
The hardest part about coming
to the Munchies Test Kitchen
was probably how
they do their recipes.
Like, you got to weigh
everything out.
I get nervous, yeah, like,
whenever we get,
like, a new recipe.
Help me.
Help me.
I'll just be like, "Holy smokes.
I've never done anything
like this before."
I've got two nectarines,
two peaches.
It was one of
my first days here,
and Farideh asked us
to shoot her some ideas
for recipes to develop,
so I said, "Oh, I'd like
to do a summery bread pudding,"
and so we chose to do
a peaches and nectarines inside.
Oh, my word.
I feel pretty good
coming into tonight,
but there's, like, parts of me
that are like, "Oh, shoot.
This is happening.
I'm going out to the big city."
We can just toss it right in.
-It's time to start drinking.
-From hearing me? Yes.
-Cheers.
-Oscar, cheers, cheers, cheers.
-Happy birthday, buddy.
-Oh, shoot.
Cheers.
-Oh, thanks.
It's been in the oven
for about an hour now,
and we just pull it out.
After I made the bread pudding,
me, Farideh, and Peter
all gathered together.
Oh! [ Coughs ]
Oh, ho, ho, beer.
We all sat down.
We had a big old pie
from Best Pizza.
-You need to pregame with
not only beer but with pizza,
so I thought we would
get some Best,
'cause it's the best.
-Oh, my goodness.
Peter and Farideh --
I didn't know them all too well.
Farideh is pretty open.
Peter, like, usually keeps
to himself, I feel like.
-You don't really work
with Peter that much,
but Peter is basically --
-I'm excited to get
to know you better.
-Farideh poured us some
shots of whiskey.
-Whew!
-Cheers.
-Cheers.
-To a great night.
-Yeah.
-So after we took the shots...
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, my word.
I feel warm on the inside now.
...we were hiding out.
-Ready? Here we go.
-And I'm like,
"Oh, I'm not gonna be
paying for anything,"
so I just left my wallet here,
and right as we got
out to the car,
I'm like, "Oh, shoot.
Oh, shit, my wallet.
Should I go get that?"
You need your ID.
-You need your ID, kid.
-"I think I need my ID
in case they ID us."
-Oh, fuck.
-Rookie over here.
-Shoot. Ah!
I'll be right back.
Goodness!
I got my ID,
and we were on our way.
-Come on.
Who forgets their ID?
[ Laughter ]
-Jeez.
-We're going to go
into Manhattan.
We're gonna have some dinner.
I want to surprise you
when we get there.
-Okay.
-The chef is really amazing.
I think that you'll be really
excited about this place.
-This is my first time driving
over the Williamsburg Bridge.
-Your first time driving over
the Williamsburg Bridge?
-Yeah.
-Well, take a look.
You have a best view
of Manhattan over here.
Check this shit out.
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay, tell us
two truths and a lie.
-Oh, gosh.
Oh, on the spot?
-Yeah.
-All right.
I lived in Wisconsin
my whole life.
I've visited Canada and Mexico
in three months of each other,
and I was born
on my birthday's time.
-We have to choose one lie?
-Yeah.
Which one do you think it is?
-It's the Mexico-Canada one.
-Mexico, Canada?
-Yeah.
-Yeah, I agree.
-Oh, shit.
I did all truths.
-What?
[ Laughter ]
Oh, man.
I mean, I was thinking it.
I'm like, "Oh, I just told
all truths about me.
Shoot," but...
[ Laughter continues ]
♪♪
The first place,
when we hopped out,
we entered Crown Shy.
I was just, like,
in complete awe.
The architecture,
it looked sophisticated.
Everything was, like,
marble, granite,
and I'm like, "Oh, wow.
This is nice."
♪♪
This is insane.
I'm, like, loss of words.
It's, like...
It's beautiful.
It feels, like, so laid-back,
but then when you look in there,
it's so sophisticated,
like a well-running machine.
Like, we got a Notorious BIG
picture up.
-Notorious B.I.G., by the way.
-I thought that was how it was,
like, pronounced but no.
It's B.I.G.
Farideh corrected me
quickly and swiftly.
-Hi. How are you?
-What's the deal?
Welcome. Birthday?
Birthday boy.
-Well, yeah.
-This is Oscar.
-He's never had a cocktail
before in his life?
-Never.
-We can change that.
Chef James Kent --
That man is something else.
He came up to the table
a couple times,
and he treated us really well.
His history in the food world,
working at Eleven Madison Park
and working at NoMad --
He was the real deal.
It was awesome.
-You want nonalcoholic?
-[ Chuckling ] No!
-We all ordered some cocktails
that were on their list.
I think I'm going to get
the Captain Kidd,
the Brown Butter, ooh.
I got the Captain Kidd.
-Captain Kidd is good because,
also, that's gonna be
your new nickname.
-It's got plantains in it?
Ooh.
-We're gonna try
each other's drinks.
-Ooh.
-Have a sip.
What the fuck did you get?
This is delicious.
This is, like, an old-fashioned,
like, a rum old-fashioned.
It's so good.
-Virginia,
who works for "Munchies,"
came in and joined us.
She was our driver.
She was parking the van.
-Hi.
-No drinks for Virginia.
She's our driver, okay?
-Yeah.
-This is our pull-apart olive
bread with pressed labneh.
On top, some brown butter.
-Ooh.
-So next, we ordered
some appetizers.
My first oyster ever.
Does it slide down?
-Chew it a little bit.
-It was different.
It wasn't bad.
It's good.
It's not as bad as I thought
it was going to be.
-It's not as bad as
he thought it was going to be.
-I thought shooting an oyster,
it just goes straight
down the hatch,
but from what I was told
by Farideh
is that you got
to chew the oyster,
and I'm like, "Ah, man.
Are you serious?"
-Oh, my goodness.
-All right.
-Look at all the goodness.
♪♪
So the entrees --
We got charred carrots
with razor clam.
-Our 24-hour citrus-
marinated chicken.
-What?
-We got the chicken with,
like, the hot sauce on the side,
and then we had short ribs,
and it was presented,
like, on the bone.
Then I had some quinoa with it.
This is insane.
I feel spoiled.
-You are spoiled.
-I don't...
-Don't tell anybody
we did this for you.
Let's do this.
I'm going for this right away.
-Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
♪♪
-Right there.
-Aw, dang!
-It's okay. It happens to
the best of us, you know?
-I thought with, like,
the presentation
of the restaurant
and, like, its food,
it was top-notch.
-What's your best
piece of advice
you could give someone like him
who's trying to become
someone like you
potentially one day?
-Man, you got to work
really, really,
really fucking hard.
-Yeah.
-And for me, it's, like,
not, like...
I'm not the most creative
or the smartest or the best,
but I've worked really, really
hard over the last 20 years.
-He just said, like,
"Just stick through the pain.
Whatever you're going through,
whether it be, like,
you're working, like,
a hard station,
you got hard co-workers,
just, like...
stick it out
and just shine through."
-Yo, what's your goal
after this?
What are you doing?
-Go back to Wisconsin,
finish up school,
come to New York,
work for five years,
six years and...
-Well, come back
and trail with us.
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
He offered me
a trail opportunity,
and so I'm hoping to take him up
on that opportunity.
-Have fun tonight.
-Yeah, thank you.
-Thank you so much.
This is so good.
-Thank you for everything.
-Amazing, thank you.
-We finished up the dinner
at Crown Shy.
Oh, my goodness.
-We were on to
the next location.
-Hey, Oscar.
Were you surprised?
What'd you love?
Tell us everything.
-Oh, my goodness.
It was, like, life-changing.
The beans, the chicken,
that salad that came out first,
oh, my goodness.
-Next place we're going is
a real New York institution.
I hope you're hungry, so...
I'm not going to tease it.
I'm gonna tell you
where we're going.
Shane, can I tell him
where we're going?
-What's your favorite thing
to eat at a baseball game?
-Hot dogs.
-Yeah.
We're gonna get hot dogs, mate.
-Oh, fuck.
-That's the hot dog place.
-I love those things.
Crif Dogs.
-You ever had a Crif Dog?
-No.
♪♪
-It opened up into a nice
little hot dog joint
that was playing,
like, '90s rap.
I like the vibe,
I guess you could say.
They had, like,
creative hot dog options.
We went up and ordered
some dogs.
I got the Lil Ma.
Peter got everything-bagel
hot dog.
So there was a line of people
coming into Crif Dogs,
and they were all dressed nice.
They were all in line in front
of the door in Crif Dogs,
so I was confused
with what was going on.
-We're gonna get our hot dogs,
and through that door
right there,
where all these other
assholes are going
is a speakeasy bar.
Have you heard of
Please Don't Tell?
-No.
-You've never heard of it?
-No.
-So it was...
There was, like, a phone booth.
There's, like, a...
There's a phone on the wall,
so you pick it up,
and then they see if, like,
if you have, like,
a reservation or not,
and if you do, they let you in.
If not, they say,
"Oh, there's the street."
We had a reservation
for that night.
The entranceway
was super cramped.
Me being, like, a bigger dude,
I had to go, like,
sideways through it
because my shoulders,
they were just too wide
for, like, the door.
-What?
Oh, I'm so sorry.
-That's okay.
-Oh, my goodness.
This is cool.
It was comforting.
Inside the bar, they had, like,
nice leather seats in the booths
that you just sunk into.
-Can we have...
Are you going to let me try it?
-Unh-unh. Unh-unh!
-Come on. Come here! Come here.
-Unh-unh.
-Oh, my goodness.
-[ Laughs ]
I ordered the Shark,
and that had some, like,
rum, pineapple juice.
-We're gonna loop like...
Yeah, like this.
You ready?
-Peter had an idea
of twisting arms
and eating the hot dogs.
I thought it was weird because
I didn't know Peter that well.
[ Chuckles ]
But he was all for it.
I'm like, "Alright.
Let's get it, Peter."
He was getting saucy.
He was pointing a lot.
From what I was told,
that's when you could tell
he was, uh...
He was feeling it.
-[ Laughing ]
He's going like this.
♪♪
-I just got another Rum Shark.
Rawr.
-Score.
-Ahh!
-[ Laughs ]
-We're going somewhere.
We'll show you
when we get there.
This is, like,
a late-night spot.
I don't think
I've ever been here
when I haven't been drunk.
-Are we still in the city?
[ Laughter ]
Is that a bad question? Yeah.
-No, that's a good question.
-Oh, we are, yeah. Yeah.
-Have you seen us go
over a bridge yet?
-So last, we ended up
at a nice little noodle shop
in Little Chinatown.
-Yeah! Beer!
Ducks.
I'm so pumped.
Thank you, sir.
Hi.
I've walked by this place
probably like 10 times.
♪♪
-New drinking game --
Every time Oscar says...
-Goodness?
Shucks?
-..."shucks," or, "goodness,"
we got to drink.
So, drink. Drink.
And when he peels his label,
drink, drink, drink.
Three times, drink.
[ Laughter ]
-We ordered congee.
-Thank you.
-Oh, what is that?
-Congee.
-What?
-So it's like a rice porridge.
-Oh, that's good.
We got some crazy
pork-belly soup
with dumplings in it
and noodles.
So we're all sitting there,
and the last dish to arrive was
this, like,
mushroom-looking brown stuff
in, like, a bowl.
We're looking at it.
They looked like
morel mushrooms.
-I'll eat it with you.
Come on.
Ready, Peter? You, too.
-Oh, no, I can't eat that.
-Oh. [ Chuckles ]
What could it be?
It's not mushrooms, is it?
-Do you like it?
-Yeah.
It's beefy.
-And they're like,
"Oh, beef intestines."
I'm like, "Ah, man."
-Ooh, He's actually going back
for seconds. Good on you, man.
-It was something
I'd be scared of,
but at the same time,
it tasted really good,
and I, like, I went back for,
like, seconds and thirds,
but it changed me.
It's super beefy.
It's a flavor bomb.
[ Indistinct talking ]
[ Laughter ]
-It's good, right?
-So, we finished up at
Great New York Noodletown.
We left.
We hopped in the van.
-Oh, wait.
Are we leaving Manhattan?
-Holy smokes.
Oh, I feel like shit.
-[ Laughing ]
-Aah! Ugh!
Good God!
Our last and final stop
was the "Munchies" Test Kitchen,
and that's where things
got rowdy.
-♪ Back to Vice ♪
♪ Back to reality ♪
-We got here,
so we were walking
into the studio,
and I figured it was just
going to be, like, us
and maybe a couple other people.
[ Crowd cheers ]
-Sup?!
-How are you?
-Out here?
-We had Frank from Best Pizza
and lots of other "Munchies"
employees or Vice people.
-So it's hitting the 2-1?
Eat and get that
stomach filled up, bro,
because you're going
to need some shit
to soak up all that alcohol.
-Pizza, pizza!
-Happy birthday.
-It was like a party.
I helped plate up
the pulled pork
and spicy coleslaw sandwiches.
It's in the new "Munchies"
Cookbook coming out.
I thought this was
a good comfort food.
-Oscar, are you fucking this up
or what?
-Maybe.
What the hell?
-Man down!
-You guys want
another one down?
No!
[ Laughter, cheering ]
[ Crowd chants "Oscar!" ]
-Stop. Stop this.
No.
-They had a piñata set up.
-Three, two, one.
-It was the shape of "21"
for my 21st.
[ Cheering ]
-It was filled with a bunch
of little bottles of booze.
I got vodka SKYY.
-Yeah!
-[ Cheers ]
-I shotgunned beers.
♪♪
-I feel like Miguel was --
-Oh, God.
Shotgunning the beer was good.
It was crazy.
Like, I wasn't tasting anything.
I was just going at it.
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
-Stop!
-♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
-I don't think
I can blow it out.
♪ Happy birthday, dear Oscar ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
[ All cheering ]
-Some of the things that
stood out the most was just,
like, the amount of people
that were here and so late.
It was, like,
1:00 in the morning.
I feel like I've made,
like, a lot of connections
coming here to New York,
and I'm grateful for that.
♪♪
I'm still in culinary school.
I've got another year
left to finish,
and so I still have yet
to get out there.
♪♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh ♪
♪♪
♪ Ooh, ooh ♪
-Oh, gosh!
Holy smokes.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my word.
