Three days a week, I wake up at 4:30–5 a.m. for The Chew. I'm not one of those people who likes to wake up and just go to work. I like having an hour and a half or two to myself—have breakfast, get a workout in, and walk our two dogs: an old English bulldog, Ozzy, and a bull-mastiff, Ruby, who's pretty old. She's 13. They're both about 110 pounds.
I eat breakfast almost every day. I eat really fatty foods for most of the day, so I'm pretty conscious of what I'm eating in the morning. On The Chew, when we shoot two shows a day; that's six dishes of food. I'm literally eating six meals before 2 pm. That's probably like 6,000 calories in five hours, so I eat oatmeal almost every morning. I use steel-cut oats and usually throw in almonds, dried fruit like cherries, a good amount of cinnamon. There's also a green juice—usually kale, ginger, apple, parsley, and I usually do a shot of spirulina. Then I go on my steak n' bacon lovin' way.
For my morning workout, I just do some very quick TRX bands for about 20–25 minutes to get the blood flowing. And four times a week after work, I do Ashtanga and Vinyasa flow yoga with my wife, Liz. I quit lifting a couple years ago and started doing yoga about eight months ago—it's very relaxing. I really love it.
Liz and I usually go out to breakfast on weekends. Our favorite spots all depend on where we are: When we're in Cleveland, there's a little diner called Lucky's that I love. In New York, I love the brunch at Maialino. It's probably my favorite brunch spot. My brunch cocktail of choice? Bloody Mary. Spicy. All day. Sometimes I do Bloody Beers. And sometimes, I have bourbon Bloody Marys. It's a sturdy way to start the day. For garnishes, I love any kind of spicy or pickled veg. Green beans, asparagus, onions, jalapeños, okra.
When we host brunch at home, my wife does the cooking. She loves savory bread pudding—it's her go-to brunch dish. It's really simple: white Irish cheddar, my restaurants' bacon, and a pullman loaf. Then, she makes a custard, soaks everything in the custard overnight, adds scallions, and bakes it in the morning. It's great because she'll prepare it the night before, throw it in the oven an hour before people get there, it'll cool a little while we're having cocktails, and then it's perfect. We we serve that and a little smoked fish and charcuterie. And, of course, we do a pitcher of Bloody Marys. We do mimosas, too, but more for the guests than for ourselves. The secret to an amazing Bloody Mary is freshly grated horseradish. So much better than prepared horseradish. It's night and day. Bottom line.
We've been making our own bacon at the restaurants for 17, 18 years, which I also stock at home. We usually use Berkshire hogs from a couple different local farmers, cure it ourselves, and smoke it over apple chips. It's delicious. When we use the bacon at home, I like to cut it a little bit thicker and cook it on a medium-high heat to get it crispy on the outside, and it still has that nice unctuous fat in the middle. Sometimes we candy it—I like sweet and salty.
