September 28, 2024 • 26 mins
Simon Majumdar has an important message to tell The Fork Report FANS. We also have Adam Gertler from Vesti Sandwiches which he gives a more detail about his sanwiches in the next segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedre. You're listening to kfi EM six
forty the four Report on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
How do you do? A couple of things want to
remind you about. It's Halloween time at Disneyland. They've got
so much going on there and we are thrilled to
be giving away tickets today. The park has switched over
for the holidays and Halloween is so beautiful there now
(00:22):
through October thirty first, so keep listening. Later on today
we will give away a four pack of one day,
one park tickets to Disneyland Resort. So go know where.
Right now, I'm going to invite not only for us
to chat for a little bit, but also having him
stay with me for the rest of the show. Right
you're going to be sticking around. Turn your mic on,
(00:43):
will you, buddy. I don't think they have it on,
Well have it on out there? It is. That is
the voice of Simon Majumdar and his fake accent. You've
probably heard it.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Today you howdy.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Here, heard it on the Food Network sometimes you could
hear it change. He's actually from Jersey and he puts
on this whole, you know, air of being from London,
all that business. But anyways, you know Simon w and
Jumdar as an author, a wonderful author in the culinary world,
as a judge on the Food Network, and I want
(01:15):
to introduce you to him in another light. Some time ago,
I got a call from Simon and he said, I
want to talk to you. I'm going I'm having some
health issues. And he told me what he's going to
tell you in a moment, and we prayed together and
we talked, you know about the heaviness of the situation.
(01:37):
Now you fast forward and you get to tell a
joyful story one of you know, a lot of travels
through in the hands of fairly highly trained doctors, and
an event that you're going to be hosting for a
(01:57):
great cause. So walk us through the diagnosis. God, where
you are today.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, I'm here because a very very good nonprofit that
I work with now, who's called Oligo Nation. They they
asked me, you know, if I can get any press
for this event we've got coming later. And Oligo Nation
basically is a form of brain cancer. It's very rare,
(02:26):
but you'd be glad they see. Of course I only
got the rare type. Of course, yes, I mean the rarest,
only the rarest.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Very picky about what diseases and cancer.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was very very picky. But it's it was run
by this guy called Brock, who's who runs it now.
He's he's got these two sons who came down with
this brain cancer, which is very difficult, different because it's
two people getting it. So I don't know how that happened.
But it's actually called something like oligo andro glioma olio
(03:02):
oligo is what they call it, because I can't even
pronounce it, because yes, anyway, but about two and a
half years ago, I suddenly realized I was at an
event and I fell over after the event where I've
been doing demos and all of that, and I came
off and I fell over, and I got taken to
(03:22):
this hospital and they checked me and they said you've
got brain cancer, and I went, oh, okay. Then and
so I had, you know, my surgery, which I mean,
this is basically what everyone who has cancer will figure
and everyone who looks and deals with someone who has
(03:44):
cancer will know. But I had the radio, the surgery,
I had the radior radiation, sure, and then I had
the oncology and so this lasted you know a long time.
And Sybil, who's here with me in my wonderful wife,
she will be that she was so fantastic for this.
(04:06):
But now I've started doing that and you can hear
my accent is well, my accent is fine, of course,
but but I was a little harder for me to
get it. But I'm you know. The fact is, after
I came out of the radiation and the oncology and
all of that, I could barely speak. And now you're.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
An incredibly intelligent person and witty and fun to be around.
And to think that you know all those things. No,
and I think that all those things, it's like, of
all the things to hit you know, somebody who's a
writer and a researcher and all those things. Was was
very shocking, I know for you, but for those of
us that love you as well, friends and family, it
(04:51):
was like, wow.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It was. It was hard. But I've thought you were
going to say, well, you weren't like that before.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Would the obo, Yes, oh good, I wasn't being able
to do before.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I thought what's what's.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
But not otherwise I would have said I was surprised
they found a brain cancer.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
It but I.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Was the first time you made a joke to me
was when I knew that you had overcome it. When
I when I heard you again, well.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Once I yeah, Uh, it's true when you say that,
because I went through this period and only a couple
of months or something where I was hard for me
to make Johnson, And now I'm exactly the same as
I am, but with about half the brain go I no, yeah,
tiny bit of the breath.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
The jokes are equally as bad as they were before.
You know what's gotten better is your taste in clothing
is simple dressing you. No.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Now this I know people can't see it unless but
this is the pins right that I'm wearing right now.
This was the thing that I walk I'm in what no,
fifteen or sixteen years ago when I was doing eat
my globe the thing this is the one I folded
up and put in my bag, and so I thought
(06:15):
I'd wear it for you today. Oh I love it,
So I thought i'd wear it. But anyway, we're going
to have because we haven't supported these events, and well
I have supported them, but we haven't done one yet.
Antonia la Faso has given us. Have you got to
She is fantastic she is. What a lovely human being
(06:38):
she is and a great chef.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Oh I've enjoyed her food on multiple occasions, but she
she makes me smile every time I see her face.
There's just something about her as a human being.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
She's so kind and so she and Brooke Williamson one
fail in of wonderful line, I mean amazing and so
we're going to be doing that on the twenty ninth
of October.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Okay, hold that do We're going to take a quick
news break. We're going to come back October twenty ninth.
Put that on your calendar in Venice, California at Scope
Italian Roots. There is going to be an event. It's
very powerful to me because of the fact that not
only is Simon a part of this as he is
for many different charities, this time it's one that hits
(07:20):
home for him and all the more meaning to me
to get the word out to you. So stick around.
We'll talk more with Simon Majumdar, my guest today. He's
not only going to hang out for the next couple segments,
but he's going to hang out through the rest of
the show and we'll chat with the other guests as well.
But we really want you to know about this event.
(07:40):
O l I g O Nation dot org. O l
I g O Nation dot org for more information. We'll
be back with more.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Neil Savedra on
demand from kf I AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday to you. Neil Savadri here with
the Fork Report, all things food, bevere and beyond. Stick
around in the last hour today we in the four
o'clock hour, we'll be giving away a chance to win
four pack of one day one park tickets to Disneyland Resort.
So much going on there for Halloween. It really is
(08:16):
such a beautiful place to be during the holidays. I
just love it there and now through October thirty. First
you get all the overlays, the cool Halloween overlays for
the park there and you get to enjoy that. So
we'll give those away in the four o'clock hour. Be
listening for that. Right now, we're chatting with my buddy
Simon Majumdar telling us about his battle with brain cancer
(08:39):
and the rarity of it all, and now on this
side of it, being a part of an event in
our own neck of the woods here in Venice, California,
October twenty ninth, and it's Scopa, Yeah, Scopa Italian roots
there in Venice.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Which is Antonio La Fasso's Theful, wonderful restaurant. It's very
close to where we live. But she's bringing along Brook Williamson,
which is extraordinary, and Malen So they're all going to
be and then we're going to be having incredible prices.
So like Alton Brown is going to be sending something,
(09:18):
Guy Fieri is going to be sending something. You know,
I'm fortunate that I can write to some of these
people and say, by the way, this is Simon. I've
had an illness and they all know about it. And
I had to tell them before because you know, I
was going to work with them anyway. I told them
all before and they said, well, we've got to help,
(09:41):
so they did and they What I found really great
was that everyone that I talked to in the Food
Network everyone was so I mean, I'm not saying they
wouldn't be kind, but I never know.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
In this business, they're just you. When you're in entertainment,
you come across good people and bad people. Yeah, and
there could be people going up next, you know. Moving
on to whomever.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well like me because I'm not a good person.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I didn't want to say it.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But these amazing people and then when this uh do went, yeah,
this event went, they all turned up long before I
was involved. Well I was involved with it, but I
didn't know they were going to be part of it.
And I had an organizer do it, and she said, oh, yeah,
(10:32):
Antonia's going to give you scoper and these other people
came along and as well, and I thought, oh okay,
And I'm not used. I'm British. I'm not used to
people liking me. Yeah, I mean you you were. I
consider you a very dear friend of mine, and I
don't like you. Well, so I'm somebody that didn't. I
(10:53):
can't even imagine. But the fact that this is open
to you listening now, if you want to get tickets
and have an amazing opportunity to eat from the minds
and the hearts and the hands of chefs that we
don't always get to experience multi course meals with, this
(11:13):
is the time to do it. Only go onigo O
l I g O nation dot org. O l I
g O Nation dot org. You'll see there, You'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Simon smiling faces and the lovely chefs that are participating tickets.
You click on the tickets, you can see the breakdown
of what it is cost and you know what the
cause is, the future, the focus of all these things.
I could not think of a better way to spend
money on a night like that, knowing that it's going
(11:45):
to a good cause as well.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And as all the money goes to oligo not known
to me, you know, I've I'm okay, you know, we're
not gonna you know, we're what's the word I'm looking for?
So it's all going to all Ago and they're they're,
you know, looking for money, and they give this money
to the cure, you know, the toll because it gets
(12:10):
no press.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This one. It's so hard because there's these for every
you know you think of cancer for there's so many
sub categories that I never heard of this until well
I hadn't. Yeah, it's like until you brought it to
my attention through your own battle with it. And and they.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Took they took this thing. And I don't want to
ruin it for everyone, but they took this lump out
of my head and they then they saw it was
attached to my speech, and I was just like, oh
I had, and they said it'd been there for ten years. Anyway,
enough of.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
That, I wish enough of hilarious.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
It would like a yank that would have been. That
would have been really bad, indeed, because I'd never get
any work after that.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Anyway, you're hired for the accent. I'm so sure this
isn't for you. This is for the cause. However, if
you want to throw a couple bucks in for cosmetic
surgery for Simon, there's a couple of suggestions I have.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, I've got this nice my head.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It is really not. You know, when you open up
the head, you'd think there'd be a you look really great, buddy,
You just do I think.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
This looks like I've got a gangster thing.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well I will. I'll show you. I'll show you how
to walk like a gangster, and then it'll all come together.
Simon has agreed to hang out through the remainder of
the show. We have Adam Gertler coming on. He's been
on the show before talking about Doghouse. He's got his
own sandwich shop now that he's gonna tell us about.
So we're going to bring him into the fold as
well as Poqito Moss is going to come in and
(13:48):
tell you a little bit about them, and I will
be broadcasting live next weekend next Saturday from Pokito Moss
and Encina, which is my home town. Boom, yepbrot. Was
it burt not Burdbank Street? Was it Burbank? I think
Burbank was where Kaitla's going. I don't know where you
(14:09):
grew up. Any who stick around more of Simon and
we will post a link to the Oligo Nation at
KFIM six to forty dot com. Go to the Fork
Report page. All that stuff will be there. I will
also put some stuff on social media as well this weekend.
(14:29):
So go nowhere.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from kfi A six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Every little piece of the culture of food, cooking, ingredients,
going out to eat, all of it matters to me.
I'm just fascinating with all of it, and I appreciate
you taking the time to hang out with us today
as well. Right now I'm talking to Simon, a Jumdar
author and of course you see him on the Food Network.
(14:57):
He's a speaker podcast Eat My Globe.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I'm actually writing the next lot of Eat My Globe
coming out in probably November. Oh wow, And I'm writing
about onions and MK Fisher. Do you know MK Fisher?
Of course, yeah, but a lot of people don't. And
she was the first woman to ever write about to
write memoirs about food, amazing things that from nineteen eight
(15:27):
I think she was born anyway, But I write about
all these things. I'm writing about lamb and goats.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Being on the lamb. Is there something you want to
tell everybody? No, Well, that of course is the voice
of Simon Majumdar. And it's always great to have you
on the show. Last time we were out of the studio,
that was great too. So yeah, we were out at
a Wendy's and we just ate and ate and ate
and talked and talked and talked. And that was when
(15:54):
you were releasing your last the last episodes, yeah, of
Eat My Globe podcast, which you can find everywhere you
listen to podcasts. And now we were talking about Oligo Nation,
Oligo Nation dot org O l I g O Nation
dot org event coming up that's near and dear to
(16:18):
Simon because he got this very rare brain cancer. It's
so rare that I'm reading, you know, five years ago
or more, there was no medical research on this particular
cancer five years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Holy crap, if i'd have if i'd have got this
five years ago, Sid, we'll be on our own now.
And I'm sounding like I'm being happy, happy about it,
but it's it's a truth. Five years ago, I wouldn't
be here. So I don't know whether you think that
that's a good thing or about things.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I'm still weighing the options, but.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's the truth. So you know, I'm glad that I
could still be here. But I'm even more glad that
Oligo Nation, which is this very small organization, is still
a giving million and a half a year to this
particular event, this particular cause, and paying people to look
(17:21):
at whether they concurre it, you know, in hospitals, and
but people aren't really you know, know about it. I
guarantee you most people anyway who listen to this, and
you have a load and load of wonderful people, but
I don't think they'll have heard of it.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And I yeah, it's amazing, and there is so much
to this, and I know we're asked all the time,
and I have I have a simple structure forgiving, and
I don't care if it's one dollar to whomever. My
thing is local, national, global, So just pick a couple
from each and give what you can. I don't care
(18:00):
if it's a doll Just be as consistent as you can.
Says Hey. I feel the same way about church. If
you're going to give to church, be as consistent as
you can so that they can pay the bills and
do whatever. But this Chef United for a Cure is
happening October twenty ninth, so two months from now roughly
at SCOPA Italian Roots in Venice. And what a line
(18:23):
up the chefs that you have there. So if you
want to get tickets to that, you can go to
Oligo Nation dot org. Oligo Nation dot org. It's O
L I G O Nation dot org and you can
do that, or you can just donate if you have
a couple of bucks in your in your pocket. Simon,
what are you cooking right now? What are you working?
What are you working on? Have you been cooking anything
(18:45):
at home?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, Sybil smiling, So that means something's being cooked at
home that she likes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Well, we're doing a lot of that. So for the
last three months, so this is shows you how well
I've dealt with this brank answer. We traveled for three
months and we went. We went because again you know,
when I'm what, traveling is going to be the thing
I love rather than anything else with Sybil, and so
(19:13):
we went to the Stans. I don't know if people
know the Stans, but it was Bekistan, Tajikistan of Tajikistan
and all of these places, including Tokmenistan, which is this
weird place where they have an autocratic leader and people
like three thousand people come in throughout the year and
(19:37):
they're the only people who can come in. And he
has this whole city that is white. The people are
dressed in white, or they're dressed the cars are white.
The whole city is white. And he does it and
he and it's it's closed off to the rest of
the world apart from some people go in, and we
went in. It was fantastic. Anyway, we went to all
(20:00):
these and we saw some of the food that they
have and what the reason we went there all this
is because that's where the Silk Road really started. And
then they came from Injuring, China to there, and then
they went from there in tendrils around Europe and from
the Silk Road, and so when we were there, we
(20:21):
went to these beautiful teahouses that had been Silk Road
places before. They'd been just amazing, and that's what we did.
We went to them and we had the best time.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I love that your your model life model of you know,
go everywhere, eat everything continues. You and your evil partner
over here whose Sybil's always ready to go, And I
love that. We'll talk more about the stands and I
want to know about the food there. My wife Tracy
went to the stands in her twenties, in her late twenties,
(20:56):
I think, and she did all of that and we
have tons of finalia at the house that had come across.
She's oh, yeah, that was from the littlest stand and
I'm like, oh great. We'll come back more with Simon
Majumdar and more. So go know where you've been listening
to The Fork Report. You can always hear us live
on KFI AM six forty two to five pm on
(21:17):
Saturday and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app. How
do you Do? Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Buy It's been one of those great shows filled with
a lot of cool people and people that I dig.
Simon Majumter is hanging out with us until five o'clock,
and now Adam Gertler joins us. Now. Adam has joined
us many many times on the air, often to talk
(21:39):
about sausages and the like that he does with of
course Doghouse because he's a vestmaka. But now he is
here with us today to talk about Vesty sandwiches, which
is his newest endeavor. Hit that top button if you
would there, sir, how are you? I'm doing great? Nice
since I got through that traffic. I'm so sorry. Well,
(22:00):
l A, I will tell you something. They can close
one on ramp or a one off ramp and then
all hell breaks loose.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Man. And it always gets me, man that like Saturday,
it's the worst of all the days. You think it's like,
oh oh, people talk about the traffic here Saturday because
it's there's no rhyme reason. It's coming from everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
It was even getting here to the station, and I
don't live far uh that it was insane. The amount
of traffic just unborrow them, just like the street right
here off the freeway. So I get it, and everyone
listening understands they've driven through it as well. So exciting
that Simon's here. I haven't seen you in years.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
But I have a good thing now because I have
this brain thing. They always I'm not allowed to drive anymore.
Oh I love that because I just say.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You're talking anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I got drive anywhere you didn't drive much before. Well
that's a different map to.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
He's happy that he has the excuse now. I always
could anyway, always used the excuse. Well, you guys drive
on the wrong side. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. We're going to
go to a break in a minute. So before we
do that, tell us about Vesty and your newest project.
So Vesty is.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Something that I started with one of my very best friends,
Shane Lyons. We actually met years ago on The Next
Food Network Star season four. He was a contestant. He
was nineteen years old. I was almost thirty at the time.
We became fast friends. We've cooked together for years. We've
never done anything professionally together, and we kind of just
had this idea. We met somebody that made some great bread.
(23:37):
We took a trip to Italy, we came back, we
started making sandwiches. We kind of had the idea that
the sandwich needed some attention, needed some love, and it
was the perfect vehicle for now to put all of
the love and conception of a dish into the often ubiquitous,
but sometimes underappreciated humble sandwich.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Well, I will tell you those things usually make for
a make or break situation if you can pull off
the humble, if you can pull off those things that
might be simple in concept but often miss doone. You
get ratios wrong, you get your spreads wrong. Yea. Then
everything about.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
What you're just saying, yeah, the bread, the bite ability,
the bites that you want the person to have, the pockets,
the sauces.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
You know, everything is is thought.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Through, and you know this is you know, we're putting
ourselves out there in between these loaves, these loaves of love,
if you will, wow.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
And basically what we're doing for dirty we're making this
very soft, fluffy forcatca bread that is particularly great for
a sandwich, and we're baking it in these sheet forms
like you can see, I have a full box here,
So we're basically baking these sheet pans of akatcha and
we're able to get ten sandwiches at it.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Look at this so you're looking at a bar or
I'm looking at a box right now that it's maybe
I don't know, eighteen by twelve or something like that.
Pretty good call. Yeah, that's exactly right. So it's and
it's just filled with all these sandwiches wrapped in that
brownish red Butcher style paid butcher papers, and it's just
(25:16):
we're going to get into this week come back. We're
gonna go to the top of the hour. When we
come back. Simon's still staying with us. Adam Gertler has
joined us and his new project in Labor of Love
is Vesty Sandwiches. Where you guys located or is it
order only? Well, that's that's.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Really part of the thing is we are going direct
to businesses and direct to customers, so we're not doing
a traditional brick and mortar for reasons that we'll talk
about when we come back. But yeah, you go to
eat vesty dot com. You can look at us at
on Instagram at eat Vesty, and you can order. We
order we sell by the five, so basically half of
one of these sheet pens is the minimum orders. We
(25:53):
sell them by the five or ten or twenty. I mean,
we can do hundreds that's kind of the point.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Is also, I'm excited about this, Bryan, when we come
back the best oh Nowhere.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
Hey, it's Neil Savedre. You're listening to kfi EM six
forty the four Report on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
How do you do? A couple of things want to
remind you about. It's Halloween time at Disneyland. They've got
so much going on there and we are thrilled to
be giving away tickets today. The park has switched over
for the holidays and Halloween is so beautiful there now
(00:22):
through October thirty first, so keep listening. Later on today
we will give away a four pack of one day,
one park tickets to Disneyland Resort. So go know where.
Right now, I'm going to invite not only for us
to chat for a little bit, but also having him
stay with me for the rest of the show. Right
you're going to be sticking around. Turn your mic on,
(00:43):
will you, buddy. I don't think they have it on,
Well have it on out there? It is. That is
the voice of Simon Majumdar and his fake accent. You've
probably heard it.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Today you howdy.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Here, heard it on the Food Network sometimes you could
hear it change. He's actually from Jersey and he puts
on this whole, you know, air of being from London,
all that business. But anyways, you know Simon w and
Jumdar as an author, a wonderful author in the culinary world,
as a judge on the Food Network, and I want
(01:15):
to introduce you to him in another light. Some time ago,
I got a call from Simon and he said, I
want to talk to you. I'm going I'm having some
health issues. And he told me what he's going to
tell you in a moment, and we prayed together and
we talked, you know about the heaviness of the situation.
(01:37):
Now you fast forward and you get to tell a
joyful story one of you know, a lot of travels
through in the hands of fairly highly trained doctors, and
an event that you're going to be hosting for a
(01:57):
great cause. So walk us through the diagnosis. God, where
you are today.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, I'm here because a very very good nonprofit that
I work with now, who's called Oligo Nation. They they
asked me, you know, if I can get any press
for this event we've got coming later. And Oligo Nation
basically is a form of brain cancer. It's very rare,
(02:26):
but you'd be glad they see. Of course I only
got the rare type. Of course, yes, I mean the rarest,
only the rarest.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Very picky about what diseases and cancer.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was very very picky. But it's it was run
by this guy called Brock, who's who runs it now.
He's he's got these two sons who came down with
this brain cancer, which is very difficult, different because it's
two people getting it. So I don't know how that happened.
But it's actually called something like oligo andro glioma olio
(03:02):
oligo is what they call it, because I can't even
pronounce it, because yes, anyway, but about two and a
half years ago, I suddenly realized I was at an
event and I fell over after the event where I've
been doing demos and all of that, and I came
off and I fell over, and I got taken to
(03:22):
this hospital and they checked me and they said you've
got brain cancer, and I went, oh, okay. Then and
so I had, you know, my surgery, which I mean,
this is basically what everyone who has cancer will figure
and everyone who looks and deals with someone who has
(03:44):
cancer will know. But I had the radio, the surgery,
I had the radior radiation, sure, and then I had
the oncology and so this lasted you know a long time.
And Sybil, who's here with me in my wonderful wife,
she will be that she was so fantastic for this.
(04:06):
But now I've started doing that and you can hear
my accent is well, my accent is fine, of course,
but but I was a little harder for me to
get it. But I'm you know. The fact is, after
I came out of the radiation and the oncology and
all of that, I could barely speak. And now you're.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
An incredibly intelligent person and witty and fun to be around.
And to think that you know all those things. No,
and I think that all those things, it's like, of
all the things to hit you know, somebody who's a
writer and a researcher and all those things. Was was
very shocking, I know for you, but for those of
us that love you as well, friends and family, it
(04:51):
was like, wow.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It was. It was hard. But I've thought you were
going to say, well, you weren't like that before.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Would the obo, Yes, oh good, I wasn't being able
to do before.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I thought what's what's.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
But not otherwise I would have said I was surprised
they found a brain cancer.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
It but I.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Was the first time you made a joke to me
was when I knew that you had overcome it. When
I when I heard you again, well.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Once I yeah, Uh, it's true when you say that,
because I went through this period and only a couple
of months or something where I was hard for me
to make Johnson, And now I'm exactly the same as
I am, but with about half the brain go I no, yeah,
tiny bit of the breath.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
The jokes are equally as bad as they were before.
You know what's gotten better is your taste in clothing
is simple dressing you. No.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Now this I know people can't see it unless but
this is the pins right that I'm wearing right now.
This was the thing that I walk I'm in what no,
fifteen or sixteen years ago when I was doing eat
my globe the thing this is the one I folded
up and put in my bag, and so I thought
(06:15):
I'd wear it for you today. Oh I love it,
So I thought i'd wear it. But anyway, we're going
to have because we haven't supported these events, and well
I have supported them, but we haven't done one yet.
Antonia la Faso has given us. Have you got to
She is fantastic she is. What a lovely human being
(06:38):
she is and a great chef.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Oh I've enjoyed her food on multiple occasions, but she
she makes me smile every time I see her face.
There's just something about her as a human being.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
She's so kind and so she and Brooke Williamson one
fail in of wonderful line, I mean amazing and so
we're going to be doing that on the twenty ninth
of October.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Okay, hold that do We're going to take a quick
news break. We're going to come back October twenty ninth.
Put that on your calendar in Venice, California at Scope
Italian Roots. There is going to be an event. It's
very powerful to me because of the fact that not
only is Simon a part of this as he is
for many different charities, this time it's one that hits
(07:20):
home for him and all the more meaning to me
to get the word out to you. So stick around.
We'll talk more with Simon Majumdar, my guest today. He's
not only going to hang out for the next couple segments,
but he's going to hang out through the rest of
the show and we'll chat with the other guests as well.
But we really want you to know about this event.
(07:40):
O l I g O Nation dot org. O l
I g O Nation dot org for more information. We'll
be back with more.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Neil Savedra on
demand from kf I AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday to you. Neil Savadri here with
the Fork Report, all things food, bevere and beyond. Stick
around in the last hour today we in the four
o'clock hour, we'll be giving away a chance to win
four pack of one day one park tickets to Disneyland Resort.
So much going on there for Halloween. It really is
(08:16):
such a beautiful place to be during the holidays. I
just love it there and now through October thirty. First
you get all the overlays, the cool Halloween overlays for
the park there and you get to enjoy that. So
we'll give those away in the four o'clock hour. Be
listening for that. Right now, we're chatting with my buddy
Simon Majumdar telling us about his battle with brain cancer
(08:39):
and the rarity of it all, and now on this
side of it, being a part of an event in
our own neck of the woods here in Venice, California,
October twenty ninth, and it's Scopa, Yeah, Scopa Italian roots
there in Venice.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Which is Antonio La Fasso's Theful, wonderful restaurant. It's very
close to where we live. But she's bringing along Brook Williamson,
which is extraordinary, and Malen So they're all going to
be and then we're going to be having incredible prices.
So like Alton Brown is going to be sending something,
(09:18):
Guy Fieri is going to be sending something. You know,
I'm fortunate that I can write to some of these
people and say, by the way, this is Simon. I've
had an illness and they all know about it. And
I had to tell them before because you know, I
was going to work with them anyway. I told them
all before and they said, well, we've got to help,
(09:41):
so they did and they What I found really great
was that everyone that I talked to in the Food
Network everyone was so I mean, I'm not saying they
wouldn't be kind, but I never know.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
In this business, they're just you. When you're in entertainment,
you come across good people and bad people. Yeah, and
there could be people going up next, you know. Moving
on to whomever.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well like me because I'm not a good person.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I didn't want to say it.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But these amazing people and then when this uh do went, yeah,
this event went, they all turned up long before I
was involved. Well I was involved with it, but I
didn't know they were going to be part of it.
And I had an organizer do it, and she said, oh, yeah,
(10:32):
Antonia's going to give you scoper and these other people
came along and as well, and I thought, oh okay,
And I'm not used. I'm British. I'm not used to
people liking me. Yeah, I mean you you were. I
consider you a very dear friend of mine, and I
don't like you. Well, so I'm somebody that didn't. I
(10:53):
can't even imagine. But the fact that this is open
to you listening now, if you want to get tickets
and have an amazing opportunity to eat from the minds
and the hearts and the hands of chefs that we
don't always get to experience multi course meals with, this
(11:13):
is the time to do it. Only go onigo O
l I g O nation dot org. O l I
g O Nation dot org. You'll see there, You'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Simon smiling faces and the lovely chefs that are participating tickets.
You click on the tickets, you can see the breakdown
of what it is cost and you know what the
cause is, the future, the focus of all these things.
I could not think of a better way to spend
money on a night like that, knowing that it's going
(11:45):
to a good cause as well.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And as all the money goes to oligo not known
to me, you know, I've I'm okay, you know, we're
not gonna you know, we're what's the word I'm looking for?
So it's all going to all Ago and they're they're,
you know, looking for money, and they give this money
to the cure, you know, the toll because it gets
(12:10):
no press.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This one. It's so hard because there's these for every
you know you think of cancer for there's so many
sub categories that I never heard of this until well
I hadn't. Yeah, it's like until you brought it to
my attention through your own battle with it. And and they.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Took they took this thing. And I don't want to
ruin it for everyone, but they took this lump out
of my head and they then they saw it was
attached to my speech, and I was just like, oh
I had, and they said it'd been there for ten years. Anyway,
enough of.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
That, I wish enough of hilarious.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
It would like a yank that would have been. That
would have been really bad, indeed, because I'd never get
any work after that.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Anyway, you're hired for the accent. I'm so sure this
isn't for you. This is for the cause. However, if
you want to throw a couple bucks in for cosmetic
surgery for Simon, there's a couple of suggestions I have.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, I've got this nice my head.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It is really not. You know, when you open up
the head, you'd think there'd be a you look really great, buddy,
You just do I think.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
This looks like I've got a gangster thing.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well I will. I'll show you. I'll show you how
to walk like a gangster, and then it'll all come together.
Simon has agreed to hang out through the remainder of
the show. We have Adam Gertler coming on. He's been
on the show before talking about Doghouse. He's got his
own sandwich shop now that he's gonna tell us about.
So we're going to bring him into the fold as
well as Poqito Moss is going to come in and
(13:48):
tell you a little bit about them, and I will
be broadcasting live next weekend next Saturday from Pokito Moss
and Encina, which is my home town. Boom, yepbrot. Was
it burt not Burdbank Street? Was it Burbank? I think
Burbank was where Kaitla's going. I don't know where you
(14:09):
grew up. Any who stick around more of Simon and
we will post a link to the Oligo Nation at
KFIM six to forty dot com. Go to the Fork
Report page. All that stuff will be there. I will
also put some stuff on social media as well this weekend.
(14:29):
So go nowhere.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from kfi A six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Every little piece of the culture of food, cooking, ingredients,
going out to eat, all of it matters to me.
I'm just fascinating with all of it, and I appreciate
you taking the time to hang out with us today
as well. Right now I'm talking to Simon, a Jumdar
author and of course you see him on the Food Network.
(14:57):
He's a speaker podcast Eat My Globe.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I'm actually writing the next lot of Eat My Globe
coming out in probably November. Oh wow, And I'm writing
about onions and MK Fisher. Do you know MK Fisher?
Of course, yeah, but a lot of people don't. And
she was the first woman to ever write about to
write memoirs about food, amazing things that from nineteen eight
(15:27):
I think she was born anyway, But I write about
all these things. I'm writing about lamb and goats.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Being on the lamb. Is there something you want to
tell everybody? No, Well, that of course is the voice
of Simon Majumdar. And it's always great to have you
on the show. Last time we were out of the studio,
that was great too. So yeah, we were out at
a Wendy's and we just ate and ate and ate
and talked and talked and talked. And that was when
(15:54):
you were releasing your last the last episodes, yeah, of
Eat My Globe podcast, which you can find everywhere you
listen to podcasts. And now we were talking about Oligo Nation,
Oligo Nation dot org O l I g O Nation
dot org event coming up that's near and dear to
(16:18):
Simon because he got this very rare brain cancer. It's
so rare that I'm reading, you know, five years ago
or more, there was no medical research on this particular
cancer five years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Holy crap, if i'd have if i'd have got this
five years ago, Sid, we'll be on our own now.
And I'm sounding like I'm being happy, happy about it,
but it's it's a truth. Five years ago, I wouldn't
be here. So I don't know whether you think that
that's a good thing or about things.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I'm still weighing the options, but.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's the truth. So you know, I'm glad that I
could still be here. But I'm even more glad that
Oligo Nation, which is this very small organization, is still
a giving million and a half a year to this
particular event, this particular cause, and paying people to look
(17:21):
at whether they concurre it, you know, in hospitals, and
but people aren't really you know, know about it. I
guarantee you most people anyway who listen to this, and
you have a load and load of wonderful people, but
I don't think they'll have heard of it.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And I yeah, it's amazing, and there is so much
to this, and I know we're asked all the time,
and I have I have a simple structure forgiving, and
I don't care if it's one dollar to whomever. My
thing is local, national, global, So just pick a couple
from each and give what you can. I don't care
(18:00):
if it's a doll Just be as consistent as you can.
Says Hey. I feel the same way about church. If
you're going to give to church, be as consistent as
you can so that they can pay the bills and
do whatever. But this Chef United for a Cure is
happening October twenty ninth, so two months from now roughly
at SCOPA Italian Roots in Venice. And what a line
(18:23):
up the chefs that you have there. So if you
want to get tickets to that, you can go to
Oligo Nation dot org. Oligo Nation dot org. It's O
L I G O Nation dot org and you can
do that, or you can just donate if you have
a couple of bucks in your in your pocket. Simon,
what are you cooking right now? What are you working?
What are you working on? Have you been cooking anything
(18:45):
at home?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, Sybil smiling, So that means something's being cooked at
home that she likes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Well, we're doing a lot of that. So for the
last three months, so this is shows you how well
I've dealt with this brank answer. We traveled for three
months and we went. We went because again you know,
when I'm what, traveling is going to be the thing
I love rather than anything else with Sybil, and so
(19:13):
we went to the Stans. I don't know if people
know the Stans, but it was Bekistan, Tajikistan of Tajikistan
and all of these places, including Tokmenistan, which is this
weird place where they have an autocratic leader and people
like three thousand people come in throughout the year and
(19:37):
they're the only people who can come in. And he
has this whole city that is white. The people are
dressed in white, or they're dressed the cars are white.
The whole city is white. And he does it and
he and it's it's closed off to the rest of
the world apart from some people go in, and we
went in. It was fantastic. Anyway, we went to all
(20:00):
these and we saw some of the food that they
have and what the reason we went there all this
is because that's where the Silk Road really started. And
then they came from Injuring, China to there, and then
they went from there in tendrils around Europe and from
the Silk Road, and so when we were there, we
(20:21):
went to these beautiful teahouses that had been Silk Road
places before. They'd been just amazing, and that's what we did.
We went to them and we had the best time.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I love that your your model life model of you know,
go everywhere, eat everything continues. You and your evil partner
over here whose Sybil's always ready to go, And I
love that. We'll talk more about the stands and I
want to know about the food there. My wife Tracy
went to the stands in her twenties, in her late twenties,
(20:56):
I think, and she did all of that and we
have tons of finalia at the house that had come across.
She's oh, yeah, that was from the littlest stand and
I'm like, oh great. We'll come back more with Simon
Majumdar and more. So go know where you've been listening
to The Fork Report. You can always hear us live
on KFI AM six forty two to five pm on
(21:17):
Saturday and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app. How
do you Do? Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Buy It's been one of those great shows filled with
a lot of cool people and people that I dig.
Simon Majumter is hanging out with us until five o'clock,
and now Adam Gertler joins us. Now. Adam has joined
us many many times on the air, often to talk
(21:39):
about sausages and the like that he does with of
course Doghouse because he's a vestmaka. But now he is
here with us today to talk about Vesty sandwiches, which
is his newest endeavor. Hit that top button if you
would there, sir, how are you? I'm doing great? Nice
since I got through that traffic. I'm so sorry. Well,
(22:00):
l A, I will tell you something. They can close
one on ramp or a one off ramp and then
all hell breaks loose.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Man. And it always gets me, man that like Saturday,
it's the worst of all the days. You think it's like,
oh oh, people talk about the traffic here Saturday because
it's there's no rhyme reason. It's coming from everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
It was even getting here to the station, and I
don't live far uh that it was insane. The amount
of traffic just unborrow them, just like the street right
here off the freeway. So I get it, and everyone
listening understands they've driven through it as well. So exciting
that Simon's here. I haven't seen you in years.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
But I have a good thing now because I have
this brain thing. They always I'm not allowed to drive anymore.
Oh I love that because I just say.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You're talking anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I got drive anywhere you didn't drive much before. Well
that's a different map to.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
He's happy that he has the excuse now. I always
could anyway, always used the excuse. Well, you guys drive
on the wrong side. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. We're going to
go to a break in a minute. So before we
do that, tell us about Vesty and your newest project.
So Vesty is.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Something that I started with one of my very best friends,
Shane Lyons. We actually met years ago on The Next
Food Network Star season four. He was a contestant. He
was nineteen years old. I was almost thirty at the time.
We became fast friends. We've cooked together for years. We've
never done anything professionally together, and we kind of just
had this idea. We met somebody that made some great bread.
(23:37):
We took a trip to Italy, we came back, we
started making sandwiches. We kind of had the idea that
the sandwich needed some attention, needed some love, and it
was the perfect vehicle for now to put all of
the love and conception of a dish into the often ubiquitous,
but sometimes underappreciated humble sandwich.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Well, I will tell you those things usually make for
a make or break situation if you can pull off
the humble, if you can pull off those things that
might be simple in concept but often miss doone. You
get ratios wrong, you get your spreads wrong. Yea. Then
everything about.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
What you're just saying, yeah, the bread, the bite ability,
the bites that you want the person to have, the pockets,
the sauces.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
You know, everything is is thought.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Through, and you know this is you know, we're putting
ourselves out there in between these loaves, these loaves of love,
if you will, wow.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
And basically what we're doing for dirty we're making this
very soft, fluffy forcatca bread that is particularly great for
a sandwich, and we're baking it in these sheet forms
like you can see, I have a full box here,
So we're basically baking these sheet pans of akatcha and
we're able to get ten sandwiches at it.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Look at this so you're looking at a bar or
I'm looking at a box right now that it's maybe
I don't know, eighteen by twelve or something like that.
Pretty good call. Yeah, that's exactly right. So it's and
it's just filled with all these sandwiches wrapped in that
brownish red Butcher style paid butcher papers, and it's just
(25:16):
we're going to get into this week come back. We're
gonna go to the top of the hour. When we
come back. Simon's still staying with us. Adam Gertler has
joined us and his new project in Labor of Love
is Vesty Sandwiches. Where you guys located or is it
order only? Well, that's that's.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Really part of the thing is we are going direct
to businesses and direct to customers, so we're not doing
a traditional brick and mortar for reasons that we'll talk
about when we come back. But yeah, you go to
eat vesty dot com. You can look at us at
on Instagram at eat Vesty, and you can order. We
order we sell by the five, so basically half of
one of these sheet pens is the minimum orders. We
(25:53):
sell them by the five or ten or twenty. I mean,
we can do hundreds that's kind of the point.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Is also, I'm excited about this, Bryan, when we come
back the best oh Nowhere.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
The Fork Report w Neil Saavedra News
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