The Pittsburgh Dish
Do you really know the food scene of Pittsburgh?! The Pittsburgh Dish introduces you to the people, places, and recipes that make our regional cuisine so special. By sharing personal stories, weekly recommendations, and community recipes, we aim to inspire you to connect with local taste makers and experience the unique flavors that shape our city.
The Pittsburgh Dish
007 Dishing Up Humor and Resilience with Desarae Legros
When Desarae Legros steps into the kitchen, it's not just about the sizzle of the pan but the laughter that fills the room. She joins us this episode, spicing up our conversation with her journey to cookbook author and TikTok culinary sensation, blending cooking prowess with a hefty dose of humor. We unwrap the pages of her life, with candid tales of resilience and tradition, seasoned with the realities of dealing with disability, loss, and the pressures of social media.
The heat turns up as we navigate Desarae's love of molecular gastronomy, culinary competitions, as well as the heartwarming narrative behind a family burger recipe that's much more than a sum of its ingredients.
Closing the lid on our gastronomic journey, we reflect on authenticity and connection beyond the screen. Desiree's commitment to uplifting small businesses and championing community initiatives, like Lasagna Love's mission to feed the hungry, fuels a conversation on the power of food to unite and heal. Her plans for a new barbecue-themed cookbook promise not just to fire up the grill but also to kindle a spirit of giving.
Later, we serve up a recommendation for tacos at one of Pittsburgh's neighborhood gems, and revisit the classic Strawberry Jell-O® Pretzel Salad recipe, ensuring that our listeners leave with their appetites—both for food and life—fully whetted.
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. Does chaos help you to focus? Well, that's exactly what it does for this week's guest and maybe why over half a million people are focused on her on TikTok. Could your Taco Tuesday happen any day of the week? Our friend Ana Anthony has just the place to make that happen, and later we revisit a classic Pittsburgh recipe for a salad or maybe dessert. All that ahead, stay tuned. Thanks to Beano's Deli Condiments for being a sponsor of the Pittsburgh Dish, you may have used their submarine dressing for your favorite sub, but try it on your next salad. The combination of red wine, vinegar oil and Italian spices gives a salad a zesty zing that it truly deserves. Find more product information on their website at ConroyFoods. com. Now back to the show. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so excited to talk with you. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and everything you got going on?
Desarae:Okay, I am Desarae Legros, also known as Linda, also known as Cooking Comedy Chaos on social media. I am a social media food content creator. I do local Pittsburgh food reviews and I'm an author of two cookbooks.
Doug:Oh my gosh, I think you might be the first person I've interviewed that's a cookbook author.
Desarae:There's well, that sounds good. There's a lot of errors in mine.
Doug:Well, I think I'll just tell you, Desarae, this show is not about perfection, and that's great.
Desarae:I think that's what has been helpful to me. Being successful on social media is I don't have to be 100% perfect. We make mistakes and we overcome it, and we problem solve and we move along.
Doug:I think that's why I love you so much and now that I've got to work with you and know you, you're multifaceted and I think it shows and you've really expressed a lot of different angles and talents, both on social media and when you and I've worked together in real life. I actually have a little story to tell you and I don't know if you know this, but you were on a KDKA spot in October of 2022. And I saw it and I watched you intently because I was on the following week and I was so nervous about going on TV and that kitchen and I played and paused that spot of yours because I was trying to estimate, like how big is the island and where do I want people to stand. So I probably watched that episode like over a dozen times.
Ana:The train wreck of the episode oh no, I loved it.
Doug:I thought that was great and that got me hooked. I started following you on TikTok and all of the places you are For folks that don't know your presence on. Let's start with TikTok. How many followers do you have at this point? Do you have any idea?
Desarae:I'm right under 600,000.
Doug:Yeah, I just it kind of blows me away.
Desarae:You're like half a million people, I don't understand it, that means there's a whole bunch more train wrecks in the world that have not revealed themselves.
Doug:I think it's people that are relating to you. I mean, you're doing something right that people gravitate towards your comedy and towards the way you produce your videos and all of the other stuff you have to share. And then the numbers on Instagram aren't bad either. I think you're.
Desarae:I think I'm at like 36,000. Yeah, instagram is hard to grow. It is very, very hard to grow.
Doug:It's interesting to hear that about the different sort of social outlets. I think I like Instagram the most. Although I started in YouTube and I'm doing less long form video, I'm getting better with my own short form videos.
Desarae:They're really pushing shorts. It's weird to see that YouTube, which has always been a long form content platform, is pushing shorts and then TikTok, that has always been a short form platform, is pushing longer creation. So you can really see from a marketing perspective that competition. Yeah, but I think I like TikTok more because the engagement is so much better. On TikTok, I mean, you get 20,000 views. I typically get 2,000 plus likes. If I get 20,000 views on YouTube, I have like 54 likes.
Ana:Oh my gosh.
Desarae:I'm like man. They really don't like me over there.
Doug:Yeah, I find the same thing, though like really varying responses on different outlets. Let's talk a little bit about that. The cookbooks how many are Do you have out?
Desarae:now I have two out now, well, technically three. One is an additional limited edition with another chapter in it.
Desarae:So I have the What's Up Buttercup and then the Unicorn Edition of that and then the Bang for your Buck, which is going into a vault and it will no longer be on sale until holidays of this year because we're going to add more family recipes. Okay, that one I was really proud of because it was a cookbook where so many people have been asking me for my story on TikTok yeah, and it's hard to be vulnerable on the internet and I really opened up in that cookbook because it's a holiday cookbook and I think around the holidays we all struggle so much with the weight and baggage of the pain and trauma in our lives and I wanted to let people know like right now, with the inflation and the economy the way it is, you don't have to have the gifts. You can make stuff you know homemade seasonings from your pantry and put them in a cute jar with a ribbon and a cute note and really just like get back to the core of making the memories. I think we've all gotten so lost in like the commercial hustle and bustle of the holidays. You lose touch and we look back and we look like look at our childhood, like making cookies with grandma and stuff like that, and we're forgetting those traditions that truly shaped us at our core.
Desarae:I mean that book. It goes over everything. It goes over my disability, loving an addict, losing an addict, traumatic things from childhood, and all of it is just meant, along with these very affordable recipes, to just bring you back to that place that you know it's okay not to be okay, and I hope that my story is just inspire somebody on their worst days. You know, just keep going, trust the process and everything will unfold the way it's supposed to. So that book is very, very personal to me. I love the first book, but that one, like my pride and joy, yeah, you really go deep.
Doug:And I think maybe that is the secret that I see in you is you have been vulnerable a little bit before and the comedy and the chaos that you put out in the world is really a way that channels in a positive platform all of the stuff that you've gone through in your own life and how other folks can sort of take their experiences and make some light out of it too. Can we talk a little bit about your early life? For folks that don't know, Did you grow up in the Pittsburgh region?
Desarae:No, I grew up in all around Akron Ohio so it was really rough.
Desarae:We moved a lot very, very unstable childhood and I started cooking with my dad, really, really young, and then I ended up in foster care and there was no cooking there and when I came out of foster care and I lived with my dad, that was really when our way to get to know each other.
Desarae:After those years that I was in foster care, it came in the kitchen and, growing up with my dad being a pretty hard core alcoholic, those times in the kitchen were the good ones.
Desarae:I look back now and I think of like the time he put me on the counter and I was wearing one of his t-shirts those were always our pajamas and he was taking herbs out of his McCormick green spice jars from the 80s and he was putting them on my tongue and describing them to me as I was eating them and I like the way that he taught me to build flavor was truly his love language was food and you know every memory I have of my dad cooking together one of the one of the best memories. So one of my favorite memories was one time I burnt biscuits and we couldn't eat them. And so a couple days later he was out in the backyard drinking with his buddies and I leaned down his bed and window and I was like, hey dad, what do you want me to cook for dinner? And he was like I don't know, Desi, what do you feel like burning?
Desarae:And I was like are you serious? Like all I did was burn the biscuits. But now, if he were here today, I would just say myself because, usually that's. That's what gets burnt in the kitchen. Oh no, we have a lot of stories there.
Doug:Oh well, but he helped you sort of shape your own love language through food, and also I love that story about the herbs and and developing your palate. When did you actually have a sense that food might be something that you built a career out of?
Desarae:It was in those years cooking with my dad and foster care. When I came out of foster care, because foster care was like the most traumatic thing in my life Through that time. You know, when I came out of foster care we would my dad would go to therapy with me and my set mom would go and we would talk about those things and you'd just come home and you know you're defeated but you can find laughter and fun in the kitchen and so we'd come home from these exhausting therapy appointments and start cooking together. We just had like this natural chemistry in the kitchen, me and my dad. And it happened with a few of us kids where you just you know there's there's out of six kids he got three that can really cook good food.
Desarae:So I think, he did really good, but it was, it was like this on, and it wasn't ever like a small amount of food. You know, we were always cooking for 10 people because we had a big family, six kids and two adults, and then, you know, you had to have leftovers. So it was there. And then my first job I was a school janitor actually my first paid job at 12 years old. So it was through the school, through Akron Public School, and I'd go in after school, got out every day and clean the rooms and mop the floors and scrub the toilets.
Desarae:And after that it was the industry for me, the restaurant industry, and I fell in love with the chaos of it. I thrive on chaos. You know when the world is burning down around you. I'd be like doing the electric slide stocking stations. You know cashing people out at the register, and it's just like one of those things that I think that people that struggle with focus in a lot of areas of life. When you get into the restaurant industry, that's where you find your success, because you can't ever focus on one thing too long because there's so much going on. So, yeah, I miss it. I miss it so much I would do anything to work, a 15 hour shift again.
Doug:And you, you know you worked in some catering. I know you worked in a couple of like sub shops, Mediterranean restaurant, and then you had some medical reasons why you're not in the kitchen anymore. Yeah, as a profession, when did the TikTok version of cooking comedy chaos start?
Desarae:Well, I've always been a little crazy in the kitchen and I had started an organization and I created food club and it was. It was cooking club. And through cooking club people would see me like trainwreck. You know we're all on video chat and they'd like the world is burning down and they're like what are you doing over there? It's like I'm just cooking. You know, I'm just having a good time. And through cooking club because I used to have an old account called season, simmer and shake it and I would just mostly do like comedy on there. And but through cooking club I wanted a page that was like solely food and originally my page I'd ask people. I was like I'm going to do like a food page. You know, do a molecular gastronomy and stuff, because I do love molecular gastronomy it's just really hard to do a video of because it takes like four freaking days that stuff is. So don't even get me going.
Doug:Oh my god, this is, this is why I love you again. I didn't know that you had any love for molecular gastronomy.
Desarae:I love it. I'm in a cooking competition in April and there's a mixed drink challenge, okay. And so I have like two recipes planned. We have to, we have to test that, okay. So the first one is going to be smore spaghetti and the spaghetti is like a chocolate noodle infused with Kahlua. Okay, so that's the first recipe I have planned. And then I have another recipe with strawberry shortcake where I'd make, like the strawberry noodles with strawberry vodka, and then I'd like make the take the pound cake and you liquefy it and then you turn it into powder, right, and then we would have some whipped cream in there.
Desarae:So, some vodka, some whipped cream, vodka infused whipped cream.
Doug:My mind is blown. I like I'll need to see it oh it's going down, it's listen.
Desarae:This last cooking competition I went. I only won two awards. For the first one I won for and I got. I got my. Can I cost on here?
Doug:Okay.
Desarae:I got my, I got. I got my rear end kicked by a 15 year old named Aliyah. Uh oh, she's amazing.
Doug:Is Aliyah coming back? Aliyah?
Desarae:is coming back. And then there's also another 15, 16 year old now. Her name's Emily.
Desarae:She aged out of the kids comps and so now she's in regular competition with all of us adults like man, these, the, this younger area of chefs that are coming up. They retain so much more information. Emily taught us that you can grate cheese with a metal slotted spoon. None of us knew that. Oh my. Yeah, see how that would work. I told her. I was like why don't you make a tic-tac out of that so you can go absolutely viral? Oh my gosh. You know, how many people go camping and they're like I don't have a cheese grater.
Ana:I love that.
Doug:You know, as you were saying about this, these younger chefs coming up, you know these, these aspiring cooks. When I watch, like the kids, cooking competition, they blow me away, and so they have so much more information to learn from and in so many other different forms of media like the media, you do, yes, so it's pretty insane.
Desarae:It's. You know if I could have grown up. I remember a lot of the recipes and stuff that I learned my dad had subscribed to a recipe book delivery thing. Oh, yeah, so they gave him like this big, like four inch binder and I think it was called like Recipes of America or something like that, and every month you would get like 10 new recipe cards delivered.
Doug:I think I remember this actually. They were recipe cards, and then you could put them in the little box.
Desarae:Yeah, Like you, like the binder came with like 20 different categories and you would put it, it would tell you exactly where. Yeah, those gosh I haven't thought about that recipe book.
Doug:You can pop them out If you find it, if anyone finds one at a, you know, tag sale, yard sale, you know send it to me Exactly PO Box in the bio. Oh my goodness, Are there any recipes that you have done in recent times that are like your ultimate favorite or a fan favorite? Do you have like a top couple?
Desarae:that just In recent times, I mean.
Doug:I mean like the last year.
Desarae:So the sweet, my daddy's sweet burger. People go absolutely nuts over it is. I'm from Akron, so Swenson's is the number one burger chain. Okay, and they make sweet burger. My dad and I spent years trying to replicate it and the whole time we were using the wrong sugar. You just have to use brown sugar, no white sugar, yeah. And so we grew up with these sweet burgers and I put it out on the recipe. I think I've posted that recipe like four times now, every single time, dude people go nuts.
Doug:Can you describe for listeners that haven't seen it Like is it a burger or is it like a sloppy joe kind of burger?
Desarae:It's a burger, but they're like two patties that are like super thin right, you flatten them Like smashed yeah super smashed, and then you put them on a griddle and you flip them.
Desarae:as soon as you flip them, you put some American plastic cheese. It has got to be the American plastic cheese. Let me emphasize this Don't go out and get in your fancy little slice cheese at the deli because you'll ruin my dad's burger and I'll be very disappointed in you. Okay, I will never forget. That is unforgivable American plastic cheese. And it's got to be a double. And then and then you got to toast the bun in the burger grease. Okay, Okay, Pro tip, it's like the sweet, greasy crunchy. I'm telling you it's magical. Now, where does the sweet come in? You put it, it's the. You do like one pound of ground beef, quarter cup of brown sugar, salt and pepper In the beef.
Doug:So this? So you've seasoned it this way. Yep, Amazing.
Desarae:And then that's it, and then you just smash those patties super thin and American plastic cheese, american plastic cheese, oh my goodness, I'm telling you. And then we did the burner burger, which is what my husband and I were planning on opening a food truck before I injured my foot and became disabled. So the bruner burger is that double sweet burger and it's got bacon and a fried egg on it. And then you take the, the brioche bun, and you dip it in my French toast custard and you make some French toast out of it. And then you take some maple syrup and some cayenne and you drizzle it on top. I'm telling you, it's, it's out of this world. I've actually it took. That burger took second place in a cooking competition last year.
Doug:I can see why and I'm I'm thinking of that as being like the ultimate, like brunch burger with all of those components. It's so magical.
Desarae:I can't even explain to you. I mean, I would I'd have to make it for you, for you to fully comprehend how magical it is.
Doug:That is sounding amazing. Are these recipe s in your cookbooks?
Desarae:Yes, the bruner burger is in my bang for your buck, affordable holiday magic cookbook, and then the sweet burger is in my other two cookbooks, because that entire book it was the first cookbook I wrote and it was dedicated to my dad because he loved food so much and he taught me you know so much of what I know I can't. I can't say everything because gosh darn it that YouTube and TikTok they're they're like encyclopedias of information.
Doug:You, really you can. You can YouTube almost anything you can't you can't.
Desarae:That's how I learned how to do molecular astronomy. Was YouTube. I'm blowing away.
Doug:It's so much fun, you should do it. Okay, well, let me get my liquid nitrogen.
Desarae:This is Desarae from cooking comedy and chaos. And you're listening to the Pittsburgh dish.
Doug:So let me just ask and bring you sort of closer to home. So now we're in the Pittsburgh region. You live, you know, just outside of Pittsburgh and are there any like food mentors here or really good friends that you've really gravitated towards, that that really help you on your food journey? Now?
Desarae:Oh, yes, hugely. I've been in Pittsburgh for going on eight years, moved here to for a district management opportunity with a quick service restaurant and then, you know, did a. I worked at a sub shop, I worked at Aladdin's eatery Shout out to Aladdin's best.
Ellen:Oh, love Aladdin's, I love it.
Desarae:Oh, my goodness gracious, when I, when I need Lebanese food and I don't feel like making it, I'm going. I'm going to Aladdin's or Cedars and McMurray. They're really good too. Oh, Cedars. Well, we need to. I need to know that my foot doctor told me about Cedars and McMurray and I was like we're going and it's, it's magical, We'll have to make a trip. So yeah, I did, you know, but my most recent job was managing owner for a multi-franchise location, so that was fun and I forgot the question.
Doug:Yeah, that's okay. That's what it's all about and I'll edit it out or maybe, maybe I won't. Do you have any other? Like food? You know, mentors, friends, people that have helped you along the way?
Desarae:closer to home now, yeah, I have quite a few. My friend TJ is a good friend of mine. He owned a bakery in Jefferson Hills and it was amazing His flavors. We just did a cheesecake battle on my page. He won whatever. But my friend Brandon, he's just a home cook. He loves cooking for his kids. David Gallifah, he's the executive chef at Lab at Armand's Barrels. Janet, she's been huge. She's helped me so much, Like Janet Loughran. Yeah, Chef Life Hacks, I love that woman she's. I mean granted, sometimes it's like really hard to film with her because we can't stop freaking, laughing.
Doug:I've seen a lot of giggles.
Desarae:And then you end up with like hours of footage. You're like I don't want to cut anything out because it's so freaking hysterical. But Eric Miller, Russ Johnson, the owner of the steel plate, that dude, I could talk to him for hours about food, like so knowledgeable.
Doug:And yeah, I think those are my, my closest, my closest mentors when it comes to food, you found a tribe and really made some connections here in Pittsburgh now.
Desarae:I did, I did.
Doug:And.
Desarae:I thought what I love the most about it is like making those connections. And now two of my good friends that never knew each other before are getting ready to get some things going business-wise and grow from that. Because, you know, we we brought each other together over food and it's such a beautiful thing, especially when, like the people that are making these connections, they have the same, the same part of their soul that wants to drive the community to do better and make those connections and grow the community. So it's it's very beneficial to everybody involved because we're all leading with our heart, you know, and I think that when you lead with your heart, everything is going to happen the right way. That's that's kind of been my thing in like 2024. Cause, I think, like becoming an influencer quote, unquote influencer you you feel a lot of pressure to make money right, like that becomes your job.
Desarae:And in 2023, I think, is when I really blew up a little bit more than I did the year before and I lost focus. Like you know, I started pushing products in every video and falling into the trap of influencer. And you know, I always tell myself, like I have a house full of stuff, I don't need to keep telling people to buy things, because if my house looks like this other people's house, like part of the influencing stage is like you're kind of telling people to like find their happiness and items, you know, instead of doing the work to to find happiness. So my goal for 2024 was kind of like to back off of that influencing. I'm still going to support my small businesses short smoke seasoning gendos you know all of my friends that have businesses and amazing products. But as far as like chasing the money, I almost lost my heart and soul in this career last year doing that.
Doug:Well, I was going to say I think what I'm hearing from you too is where is your heart in it? And I see someone that's doing a lot of other things to give back. That's my passion. Yeah, that's like that's what I want to do. Tell me a little bit more about what you did last year and some of those, those sort of give back passion projects that you you like to keep close.
Desarae:So I I love to love through food, and growing up, when I was in foster care, there was a form of abuse that was held by starving us. For two years, all I ate was a hot dog at dinner, a little bit of cereal in the morning, grits or peanut butter and jelly. We didn't have healthy meals. We were foster kids and she fed us. That's all that mattered. So throughout that abuse, I think when I came out and I started cooking with my dad, that became so healing for me that food really absorbed my love language, like that's, that's just what I do.
Desarae:And so, after I became disabled, I went through a lot of surgeries and I wasn't getting any better.
Desarae:I'm still, you know, in so much pain trying to walk.
Desarae:My husband and I were on our way home from a trip to Ohio and I started crying and I just said I feel so worthless, like I'm so tired of this life, of not being able to do anything and being in so much pain, and I said I need to find something to give back, like that's always been what inspires me and that's always what keeps me going.
Desarae:And he said well, baby, you should do it, you really should do it. And at first I wanted to go into nursing homes and work with people that are struggling through disability or help the elderly, but when I was going through Google and I was searching for these charities, this this organization named Lasagna Love popped up and I was like, oh, what's this? And so I went to YouTube and watched a couple of videos and my husband was listening to it and I was like, you know, can I do that? Like we were not in a good financial place. And so my husband being like, well, you know you could do it, but maybe just like once every other month, because it's like you know, the ingredients are pretty expensive.
Doug:It's a commitment.
Desarae:Yeah, and so I did it and I made my first ever Lasagna Love, you know, and I delivered it and the recipients always stay anonymous. So I've only ever met one of my recipients and later that night I got a text message from this woman and she was like you know, we just had a big death in the family and that was just such a comforting meal. Thank you for everything. It was delicious and I sobbed. I I never expected to thank you. You feel good enough just knowing what you're doing, but when she thanked me, it was like it lit this fire inside of me and I would volunteer as much as I could. But to me, this was this was a form of of being able to use my platform, because I can't deliver as much as I want, but I can tell people about it. And it's so simple. You just you sign up to be a Lasagna chef through their website. You take a couple training videos like five minutes, and it's all about food safety, which is extremely important when you're cooking for other people, and then you know their system matches you with a family in need in your community and they can be in need for whatever reason. There are no questions asked no red tape, you just ma ke them in Lasagna and you deliver it. And so I started telling people about it. And I'll never forget the morning that I had received a message from , from the founder of , in my in my Instagram DMs and I opened it and she said this was 2022. She said, hey, we're planning our annual Lasagna-thon. It's like a YouTube event. Would you want to come on live and cook with me? And I cried my eyes out. I was like, oh my God, knows who I am, like this charity that I love so much. And it was after that, that first in 2022, that I was like you know what, we're doing this and I'm going to do everything I can to help support this organization. So this, you know, Lasagna
Desarae:love started during COVID, during the pandemic. Since then, we've fed 1.8 million people, every single one of them through acts of kindness. So when it came to another in 2023, Amy from Flower Power her and I had talked about doing something at a luncheon one day and she messaged me and she was like hey, did you still want to do that thing? Because you can use my studio. She has the cooking studio and I was like, yes, girl. And at first I was like, okay, we'll do 100 people. And then I was thinking about it. I was like you know, there's a lot of people who always say they want to meet me. Here's your opportunity. Let's turn it in. And it became what it was. We fed, you were there and I can't thank you enough for coming. That was such a magical day.
Doug:Such a great day. And for anybody that's not familiar with Amy's school, it what is Flour Power? Flour Power, and it's generally a kids cooking school, but she does do some adult classes at night. It's located up Route eight and, yeah, she was so gracious in letting us use her kitchen and all the equipment. We had dozens of volunteers and we rocked out I don't know how many meals, 500 we fed.
Desarae:Well, it came out to be like 520. Yeah, 520 meals. We, and then the local businesses that became distribution sites for us and we delivered to battered women and children, center, addiction recovery centers. It was. It was a beautiful, beautiful day.
Doug:Well, you coordinated it and you also got. You know, Ragu was there, they donated some product. I mean, you got people to action and I have to say like I'm so happy that I was a part of it.
Desarae:It was. This year is going to be bigger and better. Okay, it's this year is like when was on your love told me they had Ragu as a sponsor. I was like wow.
Doug:In addition to lasagna love, what? What other goals do you have in mind in 2024?
Desarae:My goal is to write another book. Oh wow, this one it. You know we've gotten so much into the barbecue world and we work with true smoke barbecue. We're one of their sponsors. So very small sponsor, but we try, we are doing well, we I say we a lot because, like Linda lives in my head, you know, it's just like let's do a little side moment because of people they're not understanding.
Doug:Desarae, who is Linda? Okay?
Desarae:So like don't judge me, but Linda is definitely my most asbestos imaginary best friend.
Doug:Okay, she's not your mother Cause sometimes, when I do something that's reminding me, I'll be like, okay, Lou Ann, which is my mom, because I'll do something that my mom would do, but that's not you, this is just an imaginary other side of you.
Desarae:Yeah, I'm a child of the nineties, so Linda's basically my drop dead Fred. You know like, just imagine her like that and I'm sure she looks like Mimi from the Drew Carey show you know, oh my but uh, yeah, she's nuts, I love her. She lets me get away with a lot of stuff.
Ana:Well, that's good yeah.
Desarae:My husband. He'll get irritated. I'm like you. Better talk to Linda.
Doug:I don't know. So what does Linda have to say about the next book, the barbecue book?
Desarae:Linda said it's going to be utter chaos, Like she's going to write more recipes. In my books there's Linda Nese recipes and that's like her own language that she speaks, oh my. So she's definitely writing some recipes and it's going to be like a barbecue. It's going to be called what's Shaking Bacon. It's a barbecue cookbook. The chapters are like the way I develop the chapters. I have like low and slow, you know, and then, uh, hot and fast and you know stuff to like play on the world of barbecue.
Doug:I love that. I mean, I love like a whole chapter just being telling me if you're going to do anything in this chapter, you got to be given it like all day or all night, yeah, but this one, this chapter, you can probably get this done in an actual like cook a meal time.
Desarae:Yeah, another chapter that's in there, because you know how I say phalanges. Oh yeah, the appetizer chapter is phalanges, oh my goodness. Like that's this publisher. They let me do whatever I want, and it's you know. It's okay, let's go with it. That's amazing.
Doug:Yeah.
Desarae:So someone told me that I misspelled my own word in the chapter of Linda Nese, like the dictionary. They were like you misspelled engine and I was like no, I died and not Linda did. And that's how it's gonna stay, because that's what she wanted to put like don't try to tell me, you know. But yeah, so the next cookbook and then the lasagna battle. Lasagna thought it's okay, it's gonna be crazy this year.
Desarae:It's like a cooking competition and it's our goal is to feed a thousand people, but it's also gonna be a public event at the same time. Okay, so we're talking big baseball field food, you know, food everywhere, smokers going. It's a smoked lasagna comp, wow. So their entry fee is they have to donate two trays of lasagna, okay, and Ragu is sending all the sauce for that. So you know, won't have to worry about that, and then they can compete with any kind of lasagna they want seafood lasagna, taco lasagna, like they can make any lasagna and then. So all the lasagna is gonna be cooked for us and then they'll just, you know, we assemble the meals and we ship them, arrange delivery. Yeah, just like last year. I love it. What time of year is that gonna take? It's, it's.
Doug:July 27th. Okay, so in the deep summer, yes, and I thought you told me something off off mic about another something coming up in my house throw down, home chef throw down, and this is starting later in March.
Desarae:Yeah, march 26th is the kickoff date and Basically, what it is is last year I was like I watched this show on Netflix called pressure cooker and I was like I need a cooking competition, like I just need, and I was like why don't we do like a, you know, a cooking comp? And then it turned into this fundraiser for lasagna love. And so this year home chef throw down will have 10 social media chefs competing every week with very insane challenges, and then you, as the viewer, can go vote on your favorite chef through lasagna loves website. Not only does it bring these 10 chefs together and create community and friendship between them, it's also we do a small business spotlight. So we find businesses within the culinary world. They send out product to every contestant and the contestant then uses that product within their recipe.
Desarae:That's our way of giving back to the small businesses that really just. They're the ones that support their community baseball team. They're the ones that our lasagna loves chefs themselves and you know, make lasagna's for neighbors in need. So it it's all about giving back home chef throw down. We do the competition and then at the end, at the top two chefs with the most votes, they go to a live battle. We've got awards, we've got companies donating winners gifts Like this year is gonna be so much bigger and better than last year and our our financial goals $6,000 to raise. I would love to have 500 new lasagna chefs sign up and then also the requests that come in last year. During the last year, during home chef throw down, we had over 1600 requests for lasagna of people that had never heard of lasagna love before. So that really showed us that we're breaking barriers and we're breaking that stigma of being afraid to ask for help, because right now we have more, more people that are suffering financially from going from middle-class to poverty that they're scared to ask for help.
Doug:Yeah, that's never had to for maybe ever or a long time yeah.
Desarae:Yeah, so we just really we want to spread, spread the word bird, you know that's what I always say, and it's an honor to be able to, to use my platform to do such good.
Doug:If people want to find out more about these events the one coming up in March with the chef throw down, or the one in July Is it lasagna love the website they go to, or where would they find out more information?
Desarae:LasagnaL ove. org. Or just check out many of my pages. Yes, and click on my link tree and it will all like every, every form of seeing it will be in my link.
Doug:Oh, I love it. You know, Desarae, it's been such a pleasure having you on. I love, at the end of the the show, to plug anything else, or even your websites and social handles, anything we didn't mention, for anybody that's interested in finding out more about you.
Desarae:Oh, so I am cooking underscore comedy, underscore chaos, and you can find me on all the platforms and Desarae.
Doug:Before you leave me today, I always like to ask everyone on this show a final question what has been the best dish that you have eaten this week?
Desarae:That's such a hard question because I just made two killer dishes back to back. Okay, okay, um, mmmm, we're gonna go with the French onion pot roast soup that I brought for you today You've brought me your best dish. Mm-hmm, oh my, it was either a tie between that or lasagna casserole.
Doug:So well, that's a. That's a pretty good type. Tell me about this French onion pot roast.
Desarae:So it's my French onion soup that is a little bit different than what you've probably. I'm probably the only person that puts Allspice in French onion soup.
Desarae:That would be different but it gives it like an earthiness that you really really mean. And then I also make a pot Roast and I shred my pot roast so caramelize the onions for hours and hours and hours, get in that deep, rich, dark brown. And then I use the broth that I build from cooking my pot roast To build my broth in my French onion soup. And then you put the pot roast it's so good.
Doug:I cannot wait.
Desarae:Yes, so I'm excited for you to try it. I'm excited you can eat it later today, and then I just, you just need to text me and let me know.
Doug:Desarae, thanks again for being on the show.
Desarae:Thank you for having me.
Doug:All right, bye, bye, up next, the weekly recommend Thanks to Isaly's for being a sponsor of the Pittsburgh dish. Whenever your ice cream season hits, isles has the flavor to satisfy, from their classic vanilla and chocolate to that bring-back flavor that they just launched again in stores chocolate chip with the chocolate jimmies. Isalys. com to , and check out their store locator to find out where Isaly's products are sold near you. Hey everybody, so our friend Ana of Ana Eats Pittsburgh is back. I'm back, Ana. You know I always know that you know the places that I should, I guess. So yeah, so I just want to know you've been.
Doug:You know you're posting constantly, there's all these great restaurants out there that I probably haven't made it to a lot of other folks. Can you give us a new restaurant recommendation, something that's under the radar, that you really think people should be visiting? Well, okay, I don't know if it's under the radar, but I know we were discussing Mexican.
Ana:Yes, a little bit ago, and the first thing that popped in my mind was Las Palmas. I was like a little bit ago and the first thing that popped in my mind was Las Palmas.
Doug:Okay tacos.
Ana:Have you been? And it's. They have a couple of locations now, I realized, but the only one I've ever been to is on Brookline Boulevard.
Doug:Oh, Brookline Boulevard yeah.
Ana:Brookline best tacos you'll have in Pittsburgh.
Doug:That's usually out on the street. Yes, it's not even a restaurant right you can't.
Ana:There's no dining there.
Doug:It's a. It's a Grocery store. Is a grocery store inside?
Ana:when the weather is not like it is today.
Desarae:It's not cold and nasty.
Ana:They do have some seating outside, but you make you basically pick your protein. First of all, you order inside of the grocery store, you tell them how many you want and what protein you're getting, and then you come out they make it for you, you put all your toppings on yourself and then you enjoy it. Literally is the best taco You'll find in Pittsburgh the most authentic.
Doug:They are so legit.
Ana:So legit and so delicious.
Doug:All right, Las Palmas.
Ana:Las Palmas over in Brookline. Yeah, all right, thanks so much, thank you.
Doug:You can follow Ana Anthony on Instagram @ana. eats. pgh . This week we have a classic Pittsburgh recipe from somebody that I know really Ellen Kotzin, who you might know from Instagram or TikTok as Pittsburgh Hills. Let's give her a call and talk through this dish. Hello, hey Ellen, it's Doug. What's up? I'm calling because of the recipe that I got from you. It's the classic right Strawberry Jell-O pretzel salad.
Ellen:Yes, it is the classic, definitely.
Doug:Literally. Did you grow up eating this as a family? Did you have early memories of strawberry jello? No?
Ellen:So this is the thing. Like I'm a transplant, I don't know if I realize that I went to high school out here. I didn't come here until the 80s, so my experience with this as a salad is later on. And also I love any kind of jello in general, like jello molds or what, I don't even know what you call them all, but like, even like, what do you call it? Ambrosia salads and stuff like that. I mean, is that jello? I think it is.
Doug:There might be a package of jello in there.
Ellen:Yeah, and I've always not been able to replicate good jello stuff because it's so like what do you call it? Volatile Jello is like you got to, like you know temperatures and all that. So, yeah, it's a little tricky. This was for that picture was a July 4th party and I'm like we've got to make this this looks good. Yeah, and I think I attempted to do something like it in Syracuse when we were living there and it came out to be horrifying.
Doug:So, Ellen, I know you say you're not a food person, but I did see this video of you and your daughter then making this strawberry salad for your 4th of July gathering. Did people love it? Yeah, people loved it.
Ellen:In fact, somebody else brought a strawberry pretzel salad to the party that we made this for our house. I'm like, well, I guess this is the thing you know that's popular. You know, and I've been seeing stuff. I just saw some restaurant somewhere selling these little to go things of it and it looked really good.
Doug:I love jello. I think I've seen Curbside on the Run and a couple of other places.
Ellen:Yes, that's what I want to go to.
Doug:We should go, we should, go, we should totally go together. Yes, we should do it, so it's like in Fox Chapel or something. Yeah, I think it's up 28. That way I think it's like in Fox Chapel or Blawnox. So this is a classic strawberry jello pretzel salad recipe. I think you and your daughter made one out of Taste of Home. I've seen one on Betty Crocker. I mean folks can find it everywhere. I'm sure it's in a ton of families. You know recipe boxes in Pittsburgh.
Ellen:Right, it's probably very close to each other's recipes.
Doug:I bet it is, and so, if there's anyone out there that's new to Pittsburgh or listening to our show, we start off with like a crushed pretzel crust which gives us like that nice salty crunch, and then the middle layer is usually a whip topping like cool whip and cream cheese, and then the top layer is strawberries and strawberry jello. And, Ellen, did you, did you all use fresh strawberries or did you use like frozen?
Ellen:No, we use frozen giant eagle. Well, that's okay. Yeah. So I'm wondering if it within the process, when you put it in the fridge, if the fridge frozenness does something better or less.
Doug:I don't know. I think the frozen strawberries helps accelerate the the jello layer, because you do got a way the setting. Yeah, the setting.
Ellen:Yeah. So, like my, my experience with trying to make anything jello-y is not very good. I love jello so much and I've seen all these cool recipes you know, from layers to different kind of different, you know cakes and stuff like that and I just I don't, I don't do well with it. It just I don't know why, but I don't know how to do it properly. But this pretzel dessert came out very good and you you could see the layers of strata in between and it worked out great.
Doug:You guys did great. Your daughter did great. I think you said she did most of the cooking.
Ellen:Oh yeah, she does most of that. She's got it all. I mean, she follows directions and I have an issue with that kind of. That's cool, I have an issue with that kind of.
Doug:I will say when I have made traditional strawberry jello pretzel salad, one of the pro tip things you have to do is the middle layer. It's that creamy layer. When you get it in the middle you actually have to make sure that you push it all to the sides so that when you do pour the liquid jello on top it doesn't seep down.
Ellen:And you guys did a great job. Oh yeah, okay, and do you use a specific?
Doug:kind of pretzel. I like rods just because I like to smash them in like a bag first, like a zip top bag, yes, but I think you could use anything as long as you.
Ellen:Yeah, I think we just use normal pretzels and we also did smash them in a bag with a hammer. So I mean, you know, whatever cooking hammer is called, exactly, mine's my rolling pin.
Ana:What do you call that?
Doug:thing, oh, like a meat mallet.
Ellen:That's it. Yeah, that's what we do it with. I love it, the cooking hammer.
Doug:Ellen, thank you so much for submitting the traditional Pittsburgh quintessential recipe strawberry jello pretzel salad. And for everyone out there that doesn't know, you can follow Ellen on Instagram or TikTok @Pittsburgh Hills . Thanks again, Ellen.
Ellen:You're welcome.
Doug:You can submit your own recipe to the show at www. pittsburgdish. com and look for our Share a Recipe form. Well, that's our show for this week. We want to thank all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.
