English Script Request

"Well, burgers, fries and shakes..."
"We've got the shakes..."
"Oh my! Yes! Mhm!"
"Look at these great one's right here. This one's cookies and cream, ..."
"Cookies and cream!"
"...toasted marshmellows."
"I've never heard of a toasted marshmellow shake, but there it is!"
"Well, you might hear that and you might think of that place on Capitol Hill

that is big business all thanks to Chef Spike Mendelsohn, a former Top Chef

contestant. He's behind these goodies that he just brought us and you're

behind the new Good Stuff Cookbook!"
"Yes."
"How are you, sir?"
"I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for having me."
"It's good to see you, especially when you bring us treats. We love that,

yeah!"
"Of course. I wasn't going to come without them."
[unintelligible]
"Please do."
"Which one do you want to try?"
"You try that one; I'll try this one."
"Great. This one is the cookies and cream, and this one's the toasted

marshmellow. This one's like a campfire in your mouth."
"Is this, like, a signature dish here?"
"This is the sign -- people think I'm in the burger business, but we're -- I'm

actually in the toasted marshmellow business, and that's..."
"Oh my gosh, this is yummy."
"Yeah. You guys are gonna have to swap."
"You guys talk."
"Right, and we got all of the recipes..."
"Oh, it's so sweet!"
"...in the cookbook to make these, uh... Yes, it is sweet. You should

actually put a little yogurt in it to..."
"Delicious!"
"...kinda tone it out a little bit."
"Very thick!"
"You gotta try some of that."
"Well, the thing is we make our own custard at Good Stuff every day.

Every morning we make fresh, really thick, delicious custard."
"Well, here you are at work in your..."
"Oh, look at that!"
"...in your, uh, ice cream area."
"...little, little cameo."
"Do people actually make it through your burgers and your shakes?"
"And fries."
"This is so..."
"And a wedge salad."
"You don't think you could do that? I could do that."
"I probably could."
"It looks like you could."
"Oh, wow, thanks! That's what we've been talking about. Appreciate that. We're on a time spike, so, uh..."
"Why is it that burgers and fries and millkshakes, that's like the perfect thing? Everybody loves that."
"Well, it's classic American comfort food. And the thing about, you know, Good Stuff is we take it to the next level just with toppings and we just make it a little different, you know? We've now got a lot of training -- you know, fine dining training -- and I apply a lot of the techniques I've learnt over the years to just a simple burger, and I think that's what makes the difference. And..."
"When you say over the years, you really mean over the years, 'cause -- did I read this right? -- you were, like, twelve or thirteen years old and your parents owned a restaurant..."
"Right. Everyone was hanging out at the beach and I was, uh, you know, sometimes dishwashing, doing the, uh, the fry station, salad station, grill station, and I just sort of worked my way through that kitchen and here I am today, so..."
"So you really learned -- you came up learning the ropes of every single job that there had to do, to be..."
"Absolutely. I hosted, I bartended a little bit -- I know probably every facet of the restaurant industry. And then I kinda began to take it serious. I went to culinary school, and then I went to France, and..."
"You learned some big names in the business."
"...then to Viet Nam. Big names, yes. Guys that have helped me over the years a lot, so it's been a good career so far."
"And you also sort of have an asian fusion influence to some of your things..."
"I do! You know, I was cooking French food for so long, um, I just got a little tired of, like, the regular cuisine, and I wanted something new, so I decided to travel to Viet Nam and cook my way from north to south. It made sense for me because Viet Nam had a lot of influence from the French on their cuisine."
"What a trip! How long did you take to do that?"
"I took about three, four months touring all around and then I just stayed a couple more months in, uh, Sai Gon, and, uh, enjoyed all the markets and cooked for, uh, you know, the prime minister and stuff like that, so..."
"Oh, wow!"
"So you probably learned to use different foods than what we had available here."
"Absolutely. Absolutely. And..."
"Lots of different vegetables, I guess."
"Yes, lots of different vegetables, a lot of exotic, uh, ingredients like kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass, ginger, uh, [?], all that kind of stuff. Really citrusy. A lot of herbs. Tommy told me to, you know, use a lot of herbs in the cuisine stuff."
"And would they sort of ferment different kinds of things and give them flavors?"
"They ferment a little bit in Viet Nam -- I think Korea ferments a lot more -- but, um, they have some fermentation going on there."
"So you cooked for the prime minister over there -- what about our first family? Have they come over? You have the Michelle burger, don't you?"
"We have the Michelle melt on the menu. We also have President Obama burger which is an award-winning burger."
"Has he not come over yet?"
"Welllllll..."
"What makes it a President Obama burger?"
"What makes it -- well, it started, it actually started because, you know, when I first moved out here and we, uh, opened up Good Stuff, I wanted to feel a little bit, you know, part of the community. I wasn't really into politics that much on Capitol Hill, so we did a, uh, McCain-Obama burger campaign and we characterized the burgers depending on the way they were running the campaign. And, uh, you know, to say the least, Obama obviously won. We put bacon in his burger, so..."
"Ah, bacon! That'll do it."
"So you were a little partial there, you were a little partial."
"Well, I wasn't too partial, but, you know, the McCain burger was like the maverick burger. It had, like, a corn salsa, a chipolte mayonnaise, it was really rough around the edges and in your face. The Obama burger was, like, really well-balanced. It had, like, blue cheese, it had some, like, um, some sweet tones from the marmalade, some tartness..."
"You're making us hungry."
"...from the horse radish sauce..."
"This is coming from the guy who has eleven different types of mayonnaise? Mayonnaise is mayonnaise, isn't it?"
"Yes. I mean eleven different types in the cookbook; we have about four the best of the best at the restauraunt, so..."
"Let's talk about Top Chef."
"Yes."
"People will recognize you from that. How much fun did you have on that show?"
"I had a blast on that show. I mean, um, you know, I was one of those that kinda just took the approach of just enjoying myself, not being too competitive, and, um, you know, just enjoying the -- taking in the whole experience. And I love the show. And it's kind of earned me everything that I've got going on now -- it's because of that show. It really kind of propelled me into the media and the chef world and, uh, I just kind of ran with it."
"But you found ways during the show's taping -- didn't you? -- to kind of stand out a little bit, you wore hats and..."
"I did! I wore hats. And, you know, I love my fedora, and I wear a lot -- I'm just growing out my hair a little bit now, so I can't fit the fedoras on anymore, so..."
"Too much hair!"
"Too much hair, so..."
"What do you think about Top Chef DC now coming here?"
"Totally excited about Top Chef DC. Uh, it should be one of the best seasons yet, I think. They've done a lot of interesting challenges, I've heard, around the city, so I think it should be cool."
"Are you going to be making some appearances?"
"Yeeeah!"
"Maybe! I don't know."
"Yeah, they haven't said anything."
"They have to come to your place!"
"Well, I mean, you're a star!"
"Right! They gotta do a quick fire at the restaurant or something. Yeah!"
"Do you watch all of the episodes now that you've been on?"
"I was a huge fan of the show before I was on and I'm still a huge fan of the show now, so, yeah, I watch all of the episodes."
"We'll have to have you back in when the season really gets down..."
"Please do! Yes."
"I want to try one of your hamburgers because they look so delectable."
"Which one? Which one would you like?"
"I don't know, I don't know. What are kinds -- what are some of the things that you put on them to make them so different?"
"Well, I think we play a lot with textures and, uh, you know, topings like I said. One of our best burgers is the Colletti's Smokehouse. It's got apple smoked bacon, so it's super crispy and smokey; it's got a little bit of cheddar cheese which is rich; and then we fry these vidalia onions rings..."
"Oh, I love vidalia onion rings."
"...that are really crispy; and we top it off with a chipolte barbecue sauce. And it makes it pretty delicious."
"How do you maintain a good weight?"
"I work a lot. And I run up and down the stairs."
"Do you eat your food?"
"The thing is I never sit down and have one entire meal."
"So you're always kinda snacker?"
"I'm always kinda snacking and tasting things and making sure everything's on point, so, uh, but I do eat a lot. I mean, right now, I'm opening up We the Pizza. I've been cooking maybe hundreds..."
"We do want to mention that. We the Pizza is going to be right nextdoor to The Good Stuff, right?"
"Yes. We the Pizza is going to be right nextdoor to Good Stuff Eatery."
"On Capitol Hill."
"On Capitol Hill."
"It should be open in, uh, July. And it's, uh, it's homemade pizza, homemade gelato, homemade sodas, so, uh, again we're taking that, you know, the comfort food and kinda just putting our label on it, so..."
"And we know you'll put your certain spin on it."
"We'd love to have you back."
"Yes."
"Bring some pizza."
"I will. I will next time."
"Well, thank you for the shakes. We'll enjoy this."
"Thank you for having me. Yes."
"Good luck. Thanks so much."
"I wanted to mention... Good Stuff Cookbook is out there if you want to get your hands on it. Thank you, Spike."
"Thank you."