In this episode of Food People, Bon Appétit chatted with former and current SNL cast members Ana Gasteyer, Ego Nwodim, and Sarah Sherman about all things comedy and food. We found out how Ego Nwodim originated her instantly iconic Lisa from Temecula character and what inspired Ana Gasteyer’s historically funny “Delicious Dish” character. Sarah Sherman shared her wild salad prep secrets, and all three stars went off the cuff with quick-fire questions about their own dining habits. (Spoiler: A lot of obsessing over restaurant menus.)
Jamila Robinson: I am Jamila Robinson, editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit and Epicurious, and this is Food People. Food People is the show where I get to sit down with the luminaries making big moves in food, from chefs and entrepreneurs to celebrities, and even activists, because food is something we all participate in. And this week we have a special treat. Joseph Hernandez, our associate director of Drinks, is here. Hey, Joey.
Joseph Hernandez: Hi.
JR: You got to talk to some pretty special food people this week. Saturday Night Live is having its 50th anniversary, and you got to catch up with some of the cast members.
JH: Yeah, it was a ton of fun. I got to sit down with Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, and Ana Gasteyer, and we talked about all sorts of things from past sketches and sketches that they were in, to their late-night snacks that they're eating on set.
JR: So fantastic. We're so excited about the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary. So much comedy takes place in restaurants and around the things that we eat. There were so many iconic sketches. There's “Cheeseborger, Cheeseborger,” and then of course my favorite, you'll talk to Ego about, Lisa from Temecula. So thanks for being here. Thanks for taking the mic. And I hope everybody enjoys this conversation.
JH: Thanks, Jamila!
JH: Food can often be a throwaway or secondary prop in film or TV. As a jumping-off point, how do you all think about what makes a successful food sketch at SNL? Ana, let's start with you. You had Delicious Dish, the iconic NPR riff.
Ana Gasteyer: Wow, Pete, I have to say, your balls are so tender.
JH: Can you talk about why you think that sketch was so successful and...
AG: Yeah, I mean, I wish it had more to do with food, but I think it was really more about NPR.
JH: It was almost like a tone poem, in some ways.
AG: Yeah, yeah. Obviously that's what I mean, we were just having fun with the idea of NPR, of commercial-free unself-aware hosts that are not really concerned with commercial breaks or the constraints of audience comprehension. So there was just fun with that. And in terms of the food, generally, it was about sort of [inaudible 00:02:37] Banal food or [inaudible 00:02:38] Banal relationships with food, and then obviously the Schweddy Balls was a little bit more about a double entendre and going as far as we could with that.
JH: And taking that seriously as an NPR host would.
AG: Absolutely, yeah.
JH: And did you think when you did that sketch that people would respond so, I don't know, immediately to it, and it just kind of feel centered?
AG: Yeah. No, no, no. I mean, it was a sleeper for a long time, and then, I mean, it was refreshingly quiet in the loud din of SNL, but certainly the Schweddy Balls kind of became its own iconic thing.
JH: Because that was with Alec Baldwin and-
AG: Mm-hmm.
JH: Yeah, he took it very seriously as well.
AG: Yeah, yeah. I think people think of the sketches just that one time that we did it, probably more than they think about the fact that we did it a lot.
SS: Wait, Schweddy Balls wasn't the first time you guys did it?
AG: No, it was probably literally the 15th.
JH: Ego and Sarah, as current cast members, I'm sure you are inspired or turned back to a lot of the history of SNL and things like Schweddy Balls. How did those things inform your comedy?
SS: Well, literally Massive Head Wound Harry, wasn't there actually a piece of meat? So a guy comes into a party and he has a massive bleeding head wound, and then they wrote a beat for a dog to come and lick the open head wound. And I think they literally put meat on it, right?
AG: I think that's right.
SS: I have covered myself in meat many times. Many times for the sake of comedy. It wasn't always funny, but I did it. I think everyone at this table actually has had meat-based sketches.
JH: Yes.
EN: Yeah, yeah. Meat is a big part of life. We are all frankly made of meat. So it's no surprise.
JH: Famously.
EN: Famously we're all made of meat, and so no surprise it would find its way into sketch comedy. But yeah, I feel like, well, we all have to eat for sustenance. And there's funny people, the way that people relate to food and the etiquette around food to me is kind of funny. And even when, I think about often, I never took an etiquette class, but people seem to have, and I do know which fork to use at a dinner now, and I know which glass is mine. But just at dinner with my brother and sister-in-law the other day, we're like, "Why do people know this? How do we know this?" And it's like some people took a class and those people who took a class have the expectation that everyone else should get in line and also know the rules of the fork, use the one or the other. So I find it all fascinating and-
AG: Yeah, it's human behavior, really.
EN: Yeah. And so that's the root of sketch too, is us toying around with human behavior and what's peculiar about it or these strange things we sort of accept.
JH: Well, I wanted to take something that you had said, Ego, about etiquette. And this is, I guess, more a serious note because SNL is good at heightening the moment, like Lisa from Temecula, the etiquette at a table.
JH: But I think that there's also, in the real world, etiquette in some ways is enforcing or governing people through civility at the table. And I think of Lisa from Temecula flips that. And can you talk a little bit about that and that creation of that character?
EN: Yeah. Well, Alex English, Gary Richardson, and Michael Che wrote that piece, and I've said before that when they were like, "Oh, this woman orders a steak well done and sort of shaking the table, in my mind I go, especially to sell a sketch at our table read where Lauren and the producers decide what sketches are going to go and dress for rehearsal, you kind of go, "Okay, but where does it go from there?" But I had decided at that point to relinquish all control and let them create their baby. And I felt honored that they would let me play that. And yeah, it was just, I mean, they had a real steak delivered to me at our read through table read. Oh, I really was-
AG: Oh, my God.
JH: Oh, my gosh.
EN: And it was seasoned really well. It was really seasoned well.
AG: You're tired, you could use it probably, [inaudible 00:07:31] the B vitamins.
EN: I truly was like, exactly, "Some protein." I was not mad at it. But Lisa, I think they wrote this character for me and then I got to play her. But then I sort of just seemed to understand her as a person who is oblivious to all of those rules of etiquette and is not abiding by them. I love to play disruptive and indignant characters, and she's very much that. And in her mind, she's enjoying her dinner, and what's the big idea? Yes, the table's shaking, but she's not concerned about that. It's like we came to a dinner, we're here to eat, and because I've ordered a steak, this is what it looks like for me to eat my well-done steak. It's no big deal.
And so yeah, when we think about what social norms are, we think about etiquette, and I think it's fun to play a character who sort of just tosses social norms and is like, "You guys are all weird." She was convinced everyone else with this making a big deal, and she's like, "I'm eating steak and it's delicious. What's the problem?"
JH: "Get me my ketchup."
EN: Yeah, get me my ketchup. Could stand to be even more cooked. But yeah, we are all sort of abiding by all these social norms and unspoken rules. And then I think what's fun in sketches, every once in a while we get to play characters that are like, "I don't, what if someone doesn't abide?"
It's so fun to, there's so many sketches that take place in restaurants because sketch comedy happens when something is crazy happening where it's not supposed to. So if you have a really poorly behaved situation or character, it's really fun to put them in a restaurant, because everybody knows the rules.
AG: Yeah, because the code of behavior is so... Yeah.
JH: I think of sketches like the Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger sketch from back in the day. I re-watched it recently and it ran long in comparison, the pacing is different. So Sarah, can you speak to how food sketches like that, how they've transformed over the years? And even I'm thinking of your girl with a green ribbon thing, and it's just so absurd in comparison to some of the more grounded in a restaurant scene.
EN: Well, as I said earlier, we're all made of meat, and there's line of Meatballs. It says, "We're meatballs made of body meat."
AG: So that's something profound.
SS: Yeah, actually.
EN: We should try end the podcast now.
JH: That sketch is less about food and more about maybe body horror, and partly because the original girl with a green ribbon, her head is detached, and here you are with growths that are meatballs.
EN: Because there is the thing... Good morning. There is the thing about food and the grotesque, which I am thinking about Heidi's sketch that she just did with the Buy a High Burger challenge. It's like there is a very fine line between, food can very quickly become disgusting in a comedy piece, especially if you're being funny with food like she was chowing down on a really tall burger and it was getting all over her face, and got all over my face. And there's another aspect of food where it's like food is almost basically rotting as soon as it's in front of you, it's going bad as soon as it's in front of you. So there was, remember that Italian restaurant sketch where everybody at the table gets called pretty by the Italian server except I'm ugly. Oh, that was the same episode as Lisa. As Lisa was the same set, I think too.
AG: Back to back.
EN: I think they fully were like, we're not changing sets. It's going to be the same [inaudible 00:11:35]-
AG: Different tablecloths.
EN: Exactly.
AG: Favorite day.
SS: Literally. Oh yeah, that was awesome. And the props department set the table. There's a line in the sketch earlier that says, "Here are your scallops, ladies." So the props department legit put full ass scallops in front of us. And they stink, the fucking scallops [inaudible 00:11:56].
They stink.
And I get so nervous before a sketch. I'm not even answering your question at all. I'm just talking. I'm rambling.
JH: Well, who cooks the food? Is it actually edible when it's on set?
SS: It has to be, right? I actually don't know.
AG: Yeah. I don't know. SNL, everything's happening. So catcher [inaudible 00:12:14] catch can, I think I think I just went with God, yeah.
JH: I don't know that I would risk taking a bite of scallops.
SS: And they've been out.
JH: Yeah, yeah. Speaking of rotting
AG: A lukewarm tepid six-hour scallop. What's wrong with that?
JH: Yeah, right.
SS: I get so nervous doing sketches that if there is food around, the food smell does make me, like at table reads sometimes, there's just fucking salami out. And so I'm all nervous at table reading and you're just smelling it, but there's a lot of comedy in all of it.
JH: Well, I was thinking, just as you were talking, I had recently read Molly Shannon's memoir and how she kind of went all out to be Mary Catherine Gallagher, and just throw herself at sets. But I think that you wouldn't want to do that with food that's been sitting out. There's such thing as too much commitment.
SS: Yeah, there are repercussions for that.
AG: Yeah, but I think in the sketch world, I think SNL world, because it's also adrenaline fueled and, as Sarah was saying, you're so nervous. I mean, we had those sketches where I think it was a Parnell sketch where they would masticate food, feed each other like baby birds. It is amazing how many people do things like that, and you don't even think about it. You're just eating chewed food from another human's mouth, whatever. It's also fast and so adrenal that I don't remember much thinking about it. In fact, what I mostly remember food wise, not that anyone's asking, is that I was constantly hungry at the show. There's no food at Saturday Night Live. At least, I don't know how it's now.
SS: No food.
AG: But occasional salami, I guess. But before we got there, was this generation of excess basically, before I got there in the mid-'90s. And somebody had, so we were cut off by NBC, and then Norm MacDonald kicked in the soda machine the first week we were there, so they took that away, and we had no food. Just all we did was steal Tootsie Rolls and popcorn from Lauren's office. You're there late at night. And even recently, I can't remember when I was back, and I remember Maya, we were standing by the page desk, and literally just like, I never figured out the food thing here. There's no craft service. It's so different than other television that, where there's nothing but food. You're fed like a stuck pig on all other television and film, because there's craft services, there's lunch, there's a catered breakfast. They're always kind of meeting the needs of talent. But at SNL, there's just a mad scramble for somebody's Halloween candy. In fact, the Rosie O'Donnell show was where Seth's show is now on HG, so we would share dressing rooms.
SS: Oh, my God. I would die to be that close to Rosie.
AG: But it was cool because all these bands and whatever, and we would always, Thursdays were great because we would get in there for blocking, and you could often steal their old food. They had little sandwich baskets or whatever.
EN: The barrettes.
JH: Yeah, it feels like Mad Max.
EN: [inaudible 00:15:09].
AG: It was. It was very, yeah, or if an artist came in and brought a band, Whitney Houston brought thousands of crab legs.
SS: No.
JH: Whoa.
AG: In her Rider.
EN: Kind of love it.
AG: I know. It was kind of great. In that little band room, talk about a stinky scallop.
EN: There's candy everywhere. No shortage of candy. I mean whatever kind of candy you want. Hi-Chews, Laffy Taffys.
AG: Where? Where do you find that candy?
EN: Page desk. Also, there's a little drawer and wardrobe.
AG: Good to know.
EN: Top drawer in the wardrobe department.
JH: Then what's the snack during the day if you guys are at the studio all day? What are you-
AG: Your hours are weird.
SS: Girl, there's none.
AG: Everything, you show up kind of late and weird, and it's all sort of nocturnal, so, well, I don't know if it still is, but was when we were there. So you're kind of like, yeah, you're just off a little bit.
EN: I'm constantly looking at menus.
SS: I was going to out you.
JH: Yeah, tell me more.
SS: I was going to out Ego.
EN: I'm constantly, yeah. Mikey said this about me a few years ago and I didn't realize it, but he goes, "Every time I look over at you and on your phone, you're looking at menus."
AG: To figure out what to order, or?
EN: Yeah, yeah. And planning for later meals different, like "Oh, I'm going to bookmark this restaurant." And it's true. I realized that. He's like, "You're not on social media. You're not texting," don't love texting famously. But, boy, am I looking at menus. It's a big part of my personality.
AG: I love that. I know-
JH Is that before you go to a restaurant?
EN: Yeah. Maybe I-
JH: Do you let yourself have the spontaneous moment of what are the specials?
EN: No, I don't know. I am curious about the specials, I want to hear them, but I'm planning, I'm plotting. I'm going, "What's the new?" I'm reading Eater.com all the time. I'm on Resi.com reading.
AG: And Bon Appetit naturally.
EN: Bon Appetit, naturally. Yes, of course. Naturally.
SS: I watched her book her meal for a flight a week and a half ago in advance.
AG: Oh, my God.
EN: Yes, yes. That's why Sarah asked me today. She says, "What are you eating on the plane?" Because they gave six options, I was looking at them, little pictures, and then I had to cross-reference and go, "Google, I need Reddit. Someone has taken a picture of this in real time, not their fancy photo. I need to see. I need to know what their feedback is." And this is just for a three-hour flight.
AG: I like your brain.
SS: But that is why I respect.
AG: I really like your brain. What's your drink on the plane?
EN: I'm going water, which is boring because you're not supposed to. I would normally go hot tea, but you're apparently not supposed to drink hot tea on a plane because the-
AG: The inside of the things are dirty.
EN: Dirty or something. And so it's water. Last summer I was flying a lot, and I had four espresso martinis on the plane, and I was like, "This flight attendant is my friend." And then as soon as I landed-
AG: That sounds like the worst drink on a plane.
EN: Oh my gosh, Ana. I don't know why I didn't do the math on that. I landed and I had the worst stomach ache for three days.
AG: Oh, my God, absolutely. Absolutely.
JH: I can imagine.
AG: I'm Bloody Mary straight through and through on the plane. That's it.
EN: Yeah? Bloody-
AG: Yeah. Maybe if it's-
JH: Do you doctor it at all? Hot sauce or?
AG: On the plane?
JH: Yeah.
EN: This is the drink expert, remember?
AG: Oh, yeah. But there's something about Bloody Marys on the plane. I actually read that it's like a thing, people.
EN: Good for you? Thing as in good for you?
AG: But I think that people crave that more. I'm not.
JH: Your body craves like sodium.
AG: Maybe that's what it is.
JH: Where you're in all that air pressure.
AG: Oh yeah, there you go. So Bloody Mary mix and then the spicy.
JH: It makes you more dehydrated, but it's a whole thing.
AG: Yeah, whatever. Sometimes you just got to enjoy.
EN: Do you have a plane drink?
SS: I have the biggest water bottle known to man, and I fill it with those element-
AG: Vodka.
Sarah Sherman: Yeah, with vodka. And then I fly the plane, those Element hydrating [inaudible 00:18:58].
AG: You really fly like an influencer, is what you're trying to say.
EN: And they're going to send you a bunch. Now keep this in.
SS: Hello, Element, the salty watermelon, I will basically do anything for lifetime supply, you name it. But I go into full hydration mode on the plane.
AG: It's healthy, [inaudible 00:19:17].
SS: I'm like, "I don don't care if I'm next to the window and I got to get up and pee," but when I'm traveling...
JH: Electrolytes, electrolytes.
SS: To the point where I basically gave myself high blood pressure.
JH: Whoa.
SS: Because I was drinking, I was addicted to Gatorade. Thank you.
AG: You're only supposed to have one a day, according to my son.
SS: One Gatorade a day.
AG: A electrolyte drink a day.
Jamila Robinson: We're going to take a quick break. When we're back, more from Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, and Ana Gasteyer from Saturday Night Live.
JH: Question for all of you. Do you prefer to dine in or eat out?
EN: Honey, I'm eating out.
AG: This one eats out. I don't even know her and I know it.
EN: Yeah, you can tell from the menu. Yeah, I'm eating out.
JH: What draws you to a restaurant? What's...
EN: Good food, quality ingredients. I have a hot take.
JH: You're a farm-to-table girly?
Ego Nwodim: I was saying to my friend yesterday-
Ana Gasteyer: You have many hot takes.
EN: I have many hot takes, and don't get me going on my food hot takes-
JH: But cook your meat.
EN: I cook my meat. I used to be a well done girly, but I've since moved on. We're medium. But I will say that I am upset about restaurants where the vibe or the appeal or the scene is better than the food.
AG: Oh yeah.
EN: It's very upsetting to me and my health [inaudible 00:20:44].
AG: Not to mention my portions.
EN: Exactly. Unless this is a tapas restaurant, let's get a real portion.
AG: Get a seat. Come on.
EN: And so, yeah, I was just telling my friend last night, I was like, "I should go live on a farm and then just be, and make farm-to-table meals."
JH: Love that.
AG: It's a good plan.
EN: I was just, I'm like, "Maybe in a later life." But yeah, good food, but really good food.
JH: Any cuisine calling that you just crave?
EN: Italian is always going to have my heart. Italian food is so delicious to me.
AG: Spumoni Gardens?
EN: I'd have to go.
AG: You and I, we'll go.
EN: We should. We're neighbors.
AG: Yeah, have a little neighborhood date.
EN: Okay, let's do it. Yeah.
SS: I recuse myself because I'm lactose intolerant. So you guys just go.
EN: But you could have a nice fish. It's sad. It's sad to be the one.
AG: Nobody wants to hear her.
EN: I had an Italian restaurant, you could have a nice Branzino or something. But yes, good food. And am I not into hype. Sometimes people have earned their hype, but oftentimes it feels, it's like you got a famous person to go to the restaurant, and reservations are impossible and now everyone thinks it's good, and it's not.
JH: And it's also false scarcity sometimes.
EN: Yes, of course. You've created demand.
AG: My two add-ons to that are I mostly want things I can't make at home, and I'm a pretty good cook, so I want to go to a restaurant for something I've never had before, or that I can't, that's a pain in the to make more, to be specific, that's time consuming or whatever. And my old fart era, I don't like it to be too loud.
SS: Oh, my god. I was just going to say, if you play amazing music, I don't care if the food is actual garbage.
AG: Really? Okay. But what if you don't want to have a conversation?
EN: And Sarah's like, "No."
Ana Gasteyer: I agree about the music, the soundtrack, but-
JH: Do you bring a book to the bar and sit there and just listen?
AG: Oh, I want to be there. I like to talk.
SS: And I point at myself and I go, "I'm writing."
JH: Sarah, besides lactose intolerance, what are your food?
EN: Tell them about your salad order lately. Actually, I think it woke me up in a night sweat last night just me thinking about what you order for salad.
SS: I think you laughed for literally six minutes straight. And I told you. [inaudible 00:22:50]
EN: Can I actually tell your order?
SS: Yep, okay. Because this really stressed me out. I'm still thinking. Do you remember what I called it?
EN: I don't remember where you called it. I want to say what it is.
JH: Yeah, say it.
EN: It's from Sweet Green. Her latest order is, this is crazy.
AG: You lost me there.
EN: This is crazy. Oh, it's a dry salad. That's what she calls it. Listen to this.
AG: Is it dry kale?
EN: Oh, check this out.
AG: She ain't massaged?
EN: Worse. Worse. Rice, arugula, tofu and almonds. That's devastating.
SS: And cabbage, and hard boiled egg.
EN: Oh, I forgot the cabbage. I'm sorry. I forgot that. I didn't know this was in there.
JH: No dressing at all?
EN: Sometimes I throw it. No, I do the... What's it called?
AG: It's in the menu, it's called fart salad.
EN: The [inaudible 00:23:34] limes. Here's the thing again, [inaudible 00:23:37], every day at that job, your stomach goes through World Wars III, IV and V. And I'm like, "The only thing that will prevent me from my pants is-
AG: Is cabbage.
JH: Fiber? Raw dogging fiber?
AG: With a nice rice base.
EN: You know what I mean? But there's something about the rice that conjures it up.
AG: I know. I understand. I get the almonds. The dry factor.
EN: And it's like that thing that I'm saying about feeling nauseous. If you smell the scallops on set, you're done. A dry almond and rice.
AG: I think, you know what I'm learning at this table?
EN: Yeah.
AG: I feel like I go and I have a different reply to anxiety than you do. So your stomach ceases too exist, which I totally get, but my-
SS: Or it really expresses its existence.
AG: Itself. Yes, I do get that. But my half of my apartment when I was on SNL was a kitchen. It was a studio with a Murphy bed, and half of it was a kitchen. Because cooking to me is a very meditative, mindful, I'm not an expert cook, but I'm a great comfort cook and I'm really good at a... I mean now I have more of a short-order kit because I have kids. But to me, it's very soothing and comforting. Every single Friday night, the brutal night, which is like, it's late, you're tired. You're spent every single night... At Friday Night, I think I made linguine with clam sauce.
EN: Mm, that sounds really good.
AG: Very specifically.
JH: With fresh clams or canned clams?
AG: If I could, but if I have to do clam, I'll do clam. And now I'm like, I have a whole thing. I go to fire island in the summer, and we go clamming once a summer. So it's like a ritual that we do with our best friends and we bring in a clam hall, and then we make our own clam broth because we steam them all and we save half of them and chop them. And then right around this time of year we get together for it. We're sad that it's so cold dinner, and we make homemade clam sauce.
JH: So you cook, cook?
SS: Oh, [inaudible 00:25:33]. I don't [inaudible 00:25:33].
AG: I do, but, like I am saying, I won't make an emulsion. I won't make, I won't, things with multiple steps. I like a sheet pan dinner. I like a stewy dinner. I like good food, but I'm not precise, if that makes sense, anymore.
JH: Yeah. Sarah, do you cook?
SS: Come on, let's be wrong.
AG: Well, she likes it dry, sort of a simple...
SS: Yeah, I can make a hard-boiled egg, and nobody's fucking business.
EN: Do you like your yolk a little runny or a little soft in there.
AG: Jammy?
JH: A jammy.
SS: Is that what's it's called? Jammy? Jammy, okay.
JH: At Bon Appetit, we love a jammy egg.
SS: I was going to say-
AG: I've been doing jammy eggs in soy, the-
JH: Marinated?
AG: Marinated ones. And they're so good for actually a dry rice bowl dinner.
SS: Really?
JH: Yes.
AG: You look like you want to cry.
EN: I need my yolk fully cooked.
JH: Okay. I A little gray?
SS: You don't like a jammy?
EN: No. Well, it doesn't have to be gray, it can be yellow. But if I go to a restaurant and I'm ordering eggs for breakfast.
JH: Oh sure, sure, for breakfast.
EN: If I'm ordering eggs for breakfast and they ask, and I like them fried over hard, and then I say to the server, because I've been burned a few times, I go, "I mean really over hard." And then I go, "I mean yoke, fully cooked." I don't want a cute little surprise when [inaudible 00:26:50].
AG: I like it runny. [inaudible 00:26:51].
EN: I don't like it runny. I don't know. I can't get behind it.
SS: Well, explain this to me, Bon Appetit Magazine.
JH: Yeah.
SS: What is up with the runny egg on the salad lately?
AG: It's very French.
JH: It's very French.
AG: She's French.
SS: Why is runny egg on burger?
JH: It's its own dressing.
SS: That's its own dressing.
AG: Like that salad. Have you ever had that salad? Yeah, you goo it up and then... Well, you don't eat meat.
SS: I do.
AG: And a little bacon lardon? And then, it's basically just like bacon and eggs with some lettuce involved.
SS: Ana's being modest. Ana's a cook.
EN: Yeah, you're kind of giving cook vibes.
AG: I love [inaudible 00:27:27] French food. I love French food.
JH: When you're dining out, do you prefer small intimate groups, or do you prefer kind of a bigger kind of a deal?
AG: Small, intimate, small intimate, small, intimate, small, intimate.
EN: Small, intimate, small intimate, small, intimate, small, intimate, small. Sarah's going [inaudible 00:27:36] party.
AG: Big, loud, big, loud.
SS: Big party.
E
: See, I'm going small, intimate. I don't don't want to be yelling across the table. That's where the loud music comes into play. I'm like, I need to be able to hear you and I don't want to over exert. So I'm going to say small, intimate. I went to dinner with someone recently.
JH: Three to four people max?
AG: I'd go six. I don't mind six.
EN: I could do six.
AG: Actually, if I'll have eight.
SS: That's huge.
AG: At a restaurant? No, you can hear everybody. Also depends on the table.
EN: The shape of the table.
AG: Got to be a round table.
EN: Right, it's agreed. Or I could even do seven.
JH: A round table is great.
AG: Yeah. As long as you can see everyone's face.
EN: Yes.
AG: Because here's the other thing, is if you're with any stranger at all and you get stuck next to a lemon, if you get stuck next to it, what's a typical week at Saturday Night Live? And you want to shoot yourself and others, not get [inaudible 00:28:24].
EN: Oh, my gosh, guys, I got to say, if I'm allowed-
AG: Please.
EN: When you go to dinner with an SNL cast member, please don't do that.
AG: You know when the best one ever was? And this is not well sort of food related, but I was pregnant with my first, we went to Hawaii, and my mother-in-law had it in her head that I was going to swim with the dolphins. I know. And I had horrible morning sickness, and I drank a bunch of pineapple juice. This is a bad story for a food podcast. And I started puking. I got the worst seasickness. And the dolphins were right behind us. I was puking on the dolphins.
EN: Oh, my gosh.
JH: Oh, man.
AG: And in between pukes, the other person on the boat said, "So what's a typical week at Saturday Night Live?
EN: Oh, my gosh, hell.
AG: And I remember thinking, A, "There's so many parts. Not only can I not answer the question, but that's a seven part ask."
SS: Yes.
AG: I don't want to, "Well, first night when we pitch, [inaudible 00:29:17]."
EN: "Sir, I'm puking on a dolphin."
Jamila Robinson: We're going to take a quick break. When we're back, we'll hear about pre-show meals at Saturday Night Live with a Ego Nwodim. Sarah Sherman, and Ana Gasteyer.
MUSIC: (music)
SS: I have a big question I'll ask everyone. This is just coming from, what do you guys eat before a show?
JH: Ooh, it's a great question.
SS: Because, truly, I feel like I'm always asking.
AG: That catered dinner I never ate at SNL because, to me, that smelled death. Just anxiety. It smelled like the taste of metal in your back mouth, sort of a hot flushing smell.
JH: What were those meals?
SS: Like a wet chicken.
AG: There's a catered dinner. I never could do that dinner.
EN: It's in the cafeteria. It's like, they've got three different little stations. One's-
AG: Oh, I was thinking about it, and my palms just started sweating.
EN: Oh no. There's, one station I feel is very clearly grilled meat. There's the salmon, there's burgers, there's chicken tenders, but then the other two sections, I'm unclear of what their theme is, because they do change as well, those two. But I'm like, I don't know how they differentiate. It's just two different cuisines.
AG: Do you eat that dinner?
EN: I did for years. And then one day Sam J said to me, "That's disgusting." And I thought, "Okay." And I was like, "Salute, I'll stop. You're right." For a person who, I was just like autopilot eating it. Mind you, food is my whole personality. And so it was like, "Oh yeah, what am I doing?" And so now I order, it varies what I order. But Keenan and I had a whole thing for years where it'd be like, "Okay, have you eaten yet?" And then I loved cracking the code of, for him, what he needed, because sometimes he'd be on a certain regimen, and I'd be like, "What are you in the mood for? What are you not? Okay-"
AG: I love that.
EN: "What if we order from this place?" It was like a team effort thing, and it was really fun.
AG: You can always wait and steal the Chinese food from Lauren's office later. Sean Lee. Anyway.
EN: Ooh. That is good to know.
AG: I would say, Sarah, in answer to your question, I do have survival foods, like the basics and figuring out, like bananas, those bananas, almonds, what's brain food like oranges, whatever the thing is that can kind of layer base and get you energy. Coke, I do okay with Coca-Cola, and then after really eat-
SS: For a moment there, I was like, "Cocaine?"
AG: Okay. It's Saturday Night Live.
AG: A little bump. But, or ginger ale, those things that are really sort of standard that you can just kind knock back. That's actually smoothies are really good for that too because they're just getting some protein and brain into you, and then later on hit the hot-
SS: Because it's such a long haul day. We get there at 11:00 AM. I mean by the way, we haven't slept the whole week.
AG: Yeah, you're all smoked out.
SS: You're dead. You wake up dead, you go to work 11:00 AM and then you're there until 3:00 AM. And so it's like you need to have your protein, and you need to be full. You can't be too full because you're running around then jump to work.
AG: Your brain needs to work, yeah, a little bit.
SS: Yeah. Your brain needs to work.
JH: If there was one thing that you wanted to try this year, either cooking or in a restaurant, what's something that is catching your attention that you would like to try this year?
AG: There's a new Omakase in Dumbo called Kinjo that is very affordable and quite lovely and very peaceful environment, and I'm really excited about that. Honestly, that's on my list. I just finished doing a Broadway show, so my nights are back, so I'm super invested in, "What restaurants have I not been to," and that's one.
JH: Or even a travel to a city for a specific food?
SS: You know what, every time somebody goes to London, they come back. They go, "Oh, you didn't go to Dishoom while you were there?" [inaudible 00:33:09] going to go-
AG: My husband's there right now, literally right now.
EN: Here's what I'm going to say-
AG: He just texted our family chat. He is like, I'm at at Dishoom."
EN: He's at Dishoom? I've never been to Dishoom. I've only been to London one time. But when I went to London, the best meal I had, it's a meal I think about often. I've been going on and on about it, Josh Patton, one of the writers on Weekend Update, because I was talking so much about it, took his family there Last year. Jim CAna, I'm going to say Jim CAna may better to Dishoom, having never been to Dishoom myself, but Jim CAna, I was asking for London restaurant recommendations and Michael Che, who's kind of like Mr. Nonchalant himself, Mr. Glib even, shrugged and he goes, "Jim CAna." And I was like, "Of all the people to take a recommendation from, I'm going to say most unlikely suspect for me," because also the way he very was like, "I don't fucking know Jim CAna." And why did that end up being the best meal I think I had all year?
AG: That's awesome.
EN: And it was so good, and I cannot stop talking about it or thinking about it. And it made me realize I do like Indian food. I wasn't sure that I did.
SS: You would love Indian food. Well, another peek behind the actor's studio, Ego loves warm food.
EN: I do, I do.
SS: And so when I'm eating my cold, dry salad, she's looking at me going, "Well, that's not warm. I need warm food."
AG: That's Ayurvedic thing almost.
EN: But also, my sister and brother, and I like my food to be piping, so if I get food to go, I need it to never sit at any moment. I need to eat it while it's piping hot. My sister and brother like their food warm, but so much so that my sister will heat up a thing that's meant to be cold, such as ice cream.
AG: No!
EN: She'll just warm it up a little. She'll warm it up a little. She wants it melting. And I go-
AG: Yeah, she doesn't want to do the work. I get it.
EN: But I'm like, "That's crazy." I shouldn't be calling my sister crazy. But that's crazy to me. But I do love a hot meal.
SS: That Indian food, a boiling hot food?
Speaker 8: Go to Gymkhana, I would say, yes, Dishoom, but I'm looking forward to trying, in Paris, this restaurant that Gary Richardson, one of the writers, or was a writer at SNL-
AG: Man, your generation really goes to Europe more than mine does.
Speaker 8: I went to London-
AG: We were like...
Speaker X: Yeah, saw my parents.
Speaker 8: I went to London one time, I had never been, which is also my insane.
SS: I go to the Comedy Connection in Providence, Rhode Island.
AG: A lot of delicious Portuguese food There.
EN: But Gary does casually go to Paris, and he's like, "We're right here." And he will go. But when I was going to London that year and I was going to do a night in Paris, I was like, "Where to eat in Paris? I need the best meal. I'm going to do one night." And Gary said, "Rigamarole." And so I looked it up and it was closed for season. I went to Paris again last year for the Olympics, they were closed for season, but they came back in October, I wasn't there, of 2024. And so that is a place I'm dying to try, Rigamarole in Paris.
AG: Is it French food?
EN: It's French food. I think it's a farm-to-table situation. They had a-
AG: Oh, don't get her started.
EN: Don't get me started. I might have to move to my farm. They did a collab with Claude here in the city, but we were working sometime last year. I couldn't go, but because they were closed for season, I found this pizza place that was doing business. I was watching Action Brunson's at 2:00 AM doing research for Paris trip, because I was like, "I need to eat the best meals," this past year when I went. And there was a pizza shop operating outside, inside of Rigamarole, that place stopped operating in Rigamarole, opened their own location, [inaudible 00:36:39] bots, best pizza I had all year. I know in Paris. Anyway.
JH: Sarah, question to you. What are you looking forward to?
SS: No, I'm sounding like an egg maniac today. When I worked at a coffee shop, my job was scrambling the eggs for the breakfast burritos, and I used to be able to crack eggs with one hand so fast at speed of life.
JH: That's cool. Very cool.
SS: Literally I would have to scramble hundreds-
AG: It's a good special skills.
SS: ... but I think I've lost touch with that, so I just want to get back to being.
JH: Egg skills?
AG: You'll get back, that's like a half an hour.
SS: You know what I mean? It was just like, you know what I'm saying? When I could do it, just like, boom.
AG: I love it.
JH: Muscle memory.
SS: Yeah.
JH: Well, thank you all so much for joining me today. I have Ego Nwodim, Ana Gasteyer, and Sarah Sherman from SNL. Thank you all for coming and joining me on Food People.
All: Thanks for having us.
Jamila Robinson: Thanks for listening to Food People. If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a rating and review on your podcast app of choice, and hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. I'm your host, Jamila Robinson. Special thanks to Joseph Hernandez for guest hosting today's conversation. Our senior producer is Michele O'Brien. Our associate producer is Abi Lieff. We had help this week from Emily Elias. Pran Bandi and Jake Lummus are our studio engineers. This episode was mixed by Jake Lummus. Jordan Bell is our executive producer. Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's, head of Global Audio.