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
052 Rick Sebak - Hot Dogs, History, and Hidden Food Gems
(00:55) Rick Sebak occupies a special place in Pittsburgh's cultural landscape. For nearly four decades, he's crafted documentaries that capture the essence of our region, always with a keen eye for how food connects us to place and memory. "I celebrate Pittsburgh," he says simply, though his work does anything but take a simple approach to storytelling.
What makes Rick's style so compelling is his deliberate choice to step away from the spotlight. "I never think I'm the story," he explains, preferring what a colleague once called "an explosion of voices" – letting the people he meets tell their own tales. This approach has carried him from showcasing local institutions like Kennywood and the bygone Original Hotdog Shop of Oakland, to traveling cross-country capturing America's diners, bakeries, and shoreline foods for national PBS audiences.
(26:10) Our conversation weaves through Rick's formative upbringing with food – from his mother's home-cooked meals in Bethel Park to his transformative years abroad in France and Brazil. These experiences shaped not just his palate but his understanding that food tells our cultural story in ways politics and formal history often miss.
(35:35) We explore his current projects, including the upcoming "Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh" premiering April 10th on WQED, featuring stories about Weatherbury Farm's ancient grains and other regional treasures. Rick also shares his latest Pittsburgh food experiences – from the Grant Bar's dual-style pork chops to Chaykhana's Uzbek cuisine in the West End. We end with a wine pick from Catherine Montest to pair with Rick's beloved 'cowboy' cookies.
This episode offers a glimpse in cultural storytelling through the lens of what we eat, who prepares it, and how these experiences shape our memories and communities. As Rick puts it, quoting a saying he's adopted: "All food history is written on jello" – acknowledging both the fluidity and the fundamental importance of our culinary traditions.
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How do tales of hot dogs, bakeries, diners and more help celebrate people and place, especially Pittsburgh? Rick Sebak knows we talk about his past and latest work, including a meat-centric assignment. He's on right now. Who's making that list Later in the show, Plus wine with dessert, or for dessert, Catherine Montest of your Fairy Wine Mother gives us a recommendation. All that ahead, stay tuned. Thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show. Thank you for having me no this is fun.
Rick:When I heard you listen to this on your walks, I have to tell you I'm flattered hey it's a good, wonderful podcast, I mean, and you know, I learn things every time and I think that's why we like podcasts.
Doug:Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and anything you have going on right now in the world of food?
Rick:Well, I'm Rick Sebak. I have worked for a long time at WQED. I make TV programs, documentaries. I celebrate Pittsburgh I think I do a lot of that and I've also done a slew of national programs for PBS. Those may be more about food in general than the Pittsburgh shows, which just usually have food in them.
Rick:I think all my shows have food in them. What am I doing food-wise right now? Well, I have some stories that we just did that are on YouTube, including Weatherberry Farm in Washington County, where they make ancient grains and they mill them there, and that's been an eye-opening experience and they're all going to. I mean, a bunch of my stories are going to be put together in a show called Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh, which is going to be on April 10th I'm not sure exactly when this will air, perfect, okay, april 10th, which is a Thursday evening, I think. Okay, it'll be on at eight o'clock. And the first one that I did, the first Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh, which premiered on December 26th when I was in North Carolina. I don't think a lot of people were watching TV that evening. It's going to repeat right after, so you can see both of my shows called Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh.
Doug:The one from December. Did that have Badamo's pizza in it, Actually, and-.
Rick:Am I saying it right or wrong? No, I always said badamos, but Anthony says badamo, badamo.
Catherine:Which and I always think that's A little- wider.
Rick:A, I always call it like a flatter A, but it's the same thing as when you see people from out of town come in and do stories about Pittsburgh. They always say primantes. Yeah, and I thought nobody here says primantes, it's Primani's. So it's not Badamo, but Badamo, Badamos.
Doug:Badamos. They might have one of the best square slices in the city. I had two the other night. I need to talk to him, I think.
Rick:And actually, yeah, but I'm also addicted to the garlic knots, oh yes, and I just buy a slew of them and don't make them, heat them before they get into me, and I take them home and I put them in the air fryer as needed. So I like to have, you know, half dozen in the house.
Doug:So this is sort of your newest concept of shows or programs. You've been doing these features sort of on YouTube. First, almost I think a lot of them are like eight minutes or so. That's about exactly right. And then you put three or so together and now it's a show on yeah, I mean I, you know, I tend as I say.
Rick:I celebrate Pittsburgh, so they're not hard hitting. They're not, you know, investigative journalism. They are celebrations and usually very people's oriented. I want to know about the people behind all of this, whether it be food or sandstone or whatever.
Doug:Is that how you? Well, let me ask it as a question how do you describe yourself? Is it a documentarian, historian, human?
Rick:interest? I don't know. I always say I'm a TV guy, you're a TV guy, a TV guy, you know documentary sounds, documentarian sounds, so uppity Highfalutin. And you know, I guess I'm considered a historian only because my shows and the way I like to brand them is.
Rick:When I started at QED, nancy Lavin was the woman who hired me and she helped start many of those first documentaries that I did. And she saw a thing in Current Magazine, which is the PBS in-house sort of newspaper, and it said Los Angeles is doing a series of six programs called the Los Angeles History Series. And she said you know, you always have history in your shows. She said why don't we call them the Pittsburgh History Series? And so Holy Pittsburgh was the first one that we did as the Pittsburgh History Series. You're watching WQED's Pittsburgh History Series. And then we went back and put that on Kennywood Memories and the Mon, the Al and the O and all the shows we've done so far. And I keep it up. Now it's my brand, the Pittsburgh History Series. It's my brand, the Pittsburgh History Series. And I say it's to let people know that you know, history doesn't have to be about politics and government. History is everything.
Doug:History of an amusement park is just as valid as history of the Congress and even food. You have captured moments and I'll just jump around a little bit. From the hot dog program you have a great segment with the O at Pitt. From PA Diners, you have my stomping ground, state College, with Ye Olde College Diner and it's not there anymore, nor is the O there I know, I watched it the other day and it brought me back because I was up there circa 1993, and I think you were there in 92.
Doug:So it was right the same time and, uh, you know, you just can't bring that back.
Rick:So there there is history and the night we were there we were sort of running from a snow storm, we were trying to get back to pittsburgh, but I said let's stop and stay college and we'll see, and uh. But I also also always remember and I don't know who I attribute this quote to, but I always say it all food history is written on jello, okay. Okay, because who knows you're like how things got started. Yeah, all food history is written on jello, so yeah yeah, but you are capturing.
Doug:I think we always think about those tastes and flavors that harken to a memory, so you do that for so many folks yeah, well, I think food is important that way.
Rick:Yeah, it it is, and I don't mind that. You know there's food and everything. The one I remember is I did a show for PBS, a national show about cemeteries. I was down in DC talking to them and they said is there a program you've always wanted to do that you've never been able to? And I said I've always thought I'd like to do cemeteries of Pittsburgh. I think people care more about the cemeteries around where they live. And they said, oh, we'd like that for a national show. And so we did. We made a national show about cemeteries across the country and when we were in Atlanta they said, oh well, there's this place just across the street that has food called Six Feet Under, and there was a TV show Six Feet Under and all that. But it was really fun that right across from the cemetery there was a restaurant, a good restaurant. So we included that in the show too. That was, you know, even in the cemetery show I had food.
Doug:Yeah, when you think about your body of work and I'll just say I don't do a ton of research, but I tried to do a little light research. I have no idea how many shows you've done, how many programs Do you? No, I don't know either. I know when you hit the 25 years at QED, I think you said there were somewhere over 30. And now you've been at QED for 38 years. 38 years 1987 to 88, right?
Rick:The 4th of July 1987. I drove from South Carolina, where I'd been working for 11 years, to Pittsburgh on July 4th 1987.
Doug:Oh, my goodness, and the first couple of programs you did here, the Mon, the Al and the O Kennywood.
Rick:Memories. And well, actually the first show I did here was called Transplant Town, oh, which is-.
Doug:Oh, with like Organ transplant. Organ transplant, yeah.
Rick:Yeah, because at that time Pittsburgh was the world capital of organ transplants. More organ transplants were done in 1987 in Pittsburgh than in the rest of the world combined, which is staggering, isn't that amazing?
Doug:Yeah, that's because Dr Starzl was here, Starzl, that's right, yeah, and he had, you know, worked with some anti-rejection drugs and cyclosporine.
Rick:I'm glad I can remember the name of it.
Rick:Oh my gosh. Yeah, but he was a great, great guy and actually the story that I always tell is we had asked could we be in the operating room, which is like hard for a TV crew and you have to get all suited up and hair nets and all of that and we did. We went through all that rigmarole and it was going to be an operation and we were set up for like 6 AM and we went up and we were at Dr Starzl's office. We're going to be an operation and we were set up for like 6 am and, uh, we went up and we were at dr starzl's office. We're going to follow him down to the operating room. And just about the time we were getting ready to leave his office, somebody came up and said problem with the organ, the operation is canceled. Oh, and we're like oh, no, and dr starzl says I am famished, let's go to the o. Oh, and that was the first time I went to the O was with.
Rick:Dr Starzl, isn't that amazing? Because it was open 24 hours at that time and we're going down there and he says, oh, I have no money, I'll find a medical student. And it was just excellent.
Rick:My first trip to the O was with Dr Starzl. What a memory. Now it's all a memory. The O. They were great hot dogs. We had shot hot dogs for my hot dog program, for PBS across the country, and then we realized, oh, you know what Right here in our backyard is maybe the best and it's the last story in the show, because and I remember, we shot it on Holy Saturday and it was just great, it was just really excellent. And there's one shot that I would say is on like my top 10 shots of all time this young black guy talking. He goes oh, I know, you come here, you bring your girl and then later you bring your family and your grandkids and just as he says that, a whole family walks right behind him.
Catherine:It's just perfect. That is Like we had orchestrated it.
Rick:So you know I'm very lucky with what I get to do.
Doug:From those first programs. What was the first one? That was totally about food.
Rick:Probably one of the national shows. Well, no, I would say diners, Pennsylvania diners. Chris Fennimore, he's been on the show. He was our program director at the time and when I did a show called pennsylvania road show, there was one diner and at us in-house screening before it aired, chris said you know, I could watch a whole show on diners. And I said I could do a whole show on diners. Yes, and we had always sent my Pittsburgh programs to PBS and said, hey, could you air these? And they would always say man, it's too's too local, too parochial. Only you people in Western Pennsylvania care about this. But when we sent the diner show, they said you know what? Everybody knows this kind of restaurant. It doesn't matter that they're all in Pennsylvania, let's run it.
Rick:And it got great ratings and they were really excited and they said make a list of 10 things you'd like to do. And I did and I think we went almost. I mean, maybe we did all 10. I'm not sure. Others came into the picture, like cemeteries, but you know, it was just really fun and because of the diners, I got to do ice cream and shore things. Yes, and shore things has lots of food in it too. I wanted to do a show about non-environmental reasons why you go to the beach.
Doug:Yeah, so you know, saltwater taffy and you know, all that stuff, as opposed to sand, in my shoes. Exactly Now, I seem to recall you telling a story that when you were shooting one program, you were also shooting for another one. I don't recall which one that is.
Rick:It's all of the national shows. We would do two at a time to take advantage of the travel, because you were spending money on the travel. So we would try to find a story for each of the two shows. And that persisted all the way to when we did pies and bakeries. Okay, if you're going to, we went to Juneau. To Juneau, alaska, alaska, yes. And so you find a pie place and a bakery, and that's the way we tried to stay honest in public television.
Rick:We didn't have a lot of money but we would always do that and it always worked out.
Doug:I have sort of a behind-the-scenes question. As you were saying earlier, you create a program, you have this idea, you create a program, you have this idea and you create a program, and then you you're trying to see if it'll be picked up in a national sort of scheme from PBS. Is that still how it works today? If you wanted to produce something right now, I don't know.
Rick:I don't know. No, no, no, things always change. And you know, with the change of administrations at QED, at PBS, you know everywhere there's. You know. With the change of administrations at qed, at pbs, you know everywhere, yes, there's, you know, a flop over, and so you know, sometimes it doesn't persist the way it's always been or the way you've known it to be before.
Doug:So you just sort of roll with the punches yeah, I mean I do see you also evolving your style because of what we stated. You're doing a lot of things that sort of go to social media first.
Rick:Well, I think because so many people look at that. Yeah, as long as people are watching, I'm happy.
Doug:You've covered so much over the years with so many shows, so I don't want to ask you for a favorite. But I am wondering you know, in these travels and making all these food-centric shows, are there one or two places or stories or dishes that always come back to mind for you?
Rick:Well, immediately, I think of, I worked with a woman named Nancy Coates, now Nancy Coates-G reenwood, and when we did a hot dog program in 1998, I think we're shooting maybe 97, 98, just learning how to use search engines, it was the first time we were using that and she and I sort of had a competition like who's going to find another hot dog place? And she came in. She found a guy in Anchorage, alaska, who had a push cart where he sold hot dogs and I said a guy with a push cart has a website. And so we laughed about it and we went on and then we thought we were done shooting and our finance guy, sam Hall, said you know what? You haven't used all the money and this is a reimbursement grant, so you have to spend the money for us to get the money that has been promised. He said you need to do another shoot, and so it was winter.
Catherine:And.
Rick:I said well, maybe we'll go like to new Orleans or to Miami or something. And Nancy said to me what about that guy in Alaska? And I said he's not selling hot dogs from a push cart in Alaska in the winter. And she said just let me send him an email. And so she did. And he said I sell hot dogs one day, the day of the Iditarod dog sled race.
Catherine:And I was like whoa.
Rick:You know hot dogs and cold dogs. It was just the best. And so we set that up and that was miraculous. And it turned out that he had a website because his roommate made websites and he said I'm going to make a website for you, and so that's how we got there, and it was just a great time. And the one thing we weren't supposed to reveal, and it's not revealed in the show, was that he grilled the hot dogs in Coca-Cola. He would pour Coca-Cola on the flat top, and so it was really good.
Rick:So this is like a secret little trick and they were reindeer hot dogs, reindeer hot dogs, so they were closer to what we would. You know, almost like a kolbassi or something. A know almost like a kielbasa or something, a slim kielbasa or some sort of spicy sausage more coarsely ground. And when I think of other things, you know, when we were doing pies and bakeries, I would just, wandering around online, I found this woman who had a food truck in Durham, North Carolina, Rhonda Jones, and she made rum cakes. Oh yes, and it's called Chez Moi. She's still doing it and I love to buy them for presents and she'll ship them, ship them, and they're just so good. I don't know what it is, but they're better than any rum cakes I've had anywhere else. And we went to her house where she cooked, and she's just a Francophile. Her father had driven a bus and sometimes went into Canada and she told us all these things about how she learned to love France. And then she wanted to go to France and that's why her business is called Chez Moi, which is my house in French. And I still stop to see Rhonda when I go to North Carolina, just because sometimes you make those connections.
Rick:And also on that same trip, I think, we went to Woodruff's Pie Shop in Virginia. I'm not going to name it, remember the name of the town, but it was excellent and I still follow them on Facebook Woodruff's Pie Shop, and they were just stupendous they. I remember the woman saying I know how you found us and I thought, oh, online. She said my brother lives in Sewickley and I was like whoa, and I said I'm not aware of that at all. But all these great friends, actually Connie Thayer, up in New York State too, near Chautauqua, and she has portage pies and I can't imagine driving anywhere into New York state near Buffalo, and all that without stopping to see Connie cause she was just great. So many of the people that we meet I like to keep up with.
Doug:Oh, how great yeah.
Rick:No, totally wonderful.
Doug:You. You started to answer a question I had coming up and that was about your network to discover and the internet is there. What other means?
Rick:do you Well, actually, I always remember that when we did an ice cream show, one of the first national shows we did, we relied on the places where we were going to recommend another place. Oh, and I know that we went to Ben and Jerry's in Vermont and I got to interview Ben and Jerry and I said, if you're doing a show about ice cream, where would you go? And they said, oh, in Venice we'd go to oh, I'm not going to remember the name of it, it's a woman's name, I can't remember but and we went there, you know, and said, hey, ben and Jerry sent us and that was the way we did it at the time. And there was a convention of ice cream collectors I think it was in Lancaster, pennsylvania, maybe and we went there and that opened up a lot of doors and that's how we got to one of my favorite interviews, which was out on Cape Cod talking to a guy and, like you know, we met him at that convention, but he ran an ice cream shop near Hyannisport and he said you know, I did.
Rick:You know we met him at that convention, but he ran an ice cream shop near Hyannisport and he said you know, I did. You know Carolyn Kennedy's wedding or something like that. I was like whoa, okay, and it's just fun to always make these crazy connections everywhere.
Doug:It goes back to old-fashioned networking, exactly, and leveraging all those folks in your pipeline. Yep, does it feel the same in Pittsburgh? I mean, are you? I often see you stop at a place and maybe post it on your social media and I'm like where did that come from? And you've lived here now since you grew up here, and you've been here back since 87. So you know, how does something new pop on your radar now. Is it still just a friend network, or yeah, I think so.
Rick:I think it's a friend network and it's just. You know.
Doug:Hey, I want to stop and see this and I mean, it's Pittsburgh, everybody's related to everybody, and sometimes we don't make it to a place because I think it's our topography. I never went over that Hill Right, and today you took me to Emil's and I've never been. I've known about it for years.
Rick:No, it's one of my very favorites. We're not supposed to talk about it, by the way. Oh, that's right, what happens at Emil's stays at Emil's, but the food is very good. I mean, it's one of those places you know that a little bit of a time machine, simply prepared food, really well done, all homemade.
Doug:Sourced. Well, yes, we talked to the owner today and she talks about where she gets things from and it's very important to her Right like where her chicken comes from. Yes.
Rick:Yeah, and that's wonderful. That's what makes it special. Yeah, I actually just recently I actually brought this little list too, because Table Magazine just asked me to put a list together of my 10 favorite places to get meat. Oh, and I had gone over to one of my favorites, which is the Grant Bar in Millville, and again, more of a time machine. You're not sure what era you're in when you walk in there. It's very Pittsburgh, what era you're in when you walk in there, and it's just, you know it's, it's very Pittsburgh.
Rick:But you know, because I was the last time I was there, I had an incredibly wonderful cod filet and I thought, well, that doesn't work with this meat assignment. So I went back because I remembered the waitress saying you know, you want to try our pork chops? Oh, and they had two kinds on the menu. It just says pork chops and then in parentheses under it says grilled, bone-in or lightly battered. And so it was a different waitress when I was there recently and I said you know which one should I get? And she goes well, I like the grilled one, it has a bone, but the other one's okay too, and she goes how about one of each? And I said, perfect, and so other one's okay too. And she goes how about one of each? And I said perfect, perfect.
Doug:And so, uh, you know, but I, I love things like that. And uh, and what is that? The grant bar in millvale? Is that what you grant?
Rick:bar in millvale. When you get off 28 and go into Millvale, it's the sort of the first thing you run into it's a bar and restaurant in the back and it's uh, it's been there since 1933.
Rick:You feel it, but that's part of its charm. Yes, and I first learned about it when I did an unexpected show called the Joys of Millvale with Bob Lubomsky, my cameraman, and we went there and we met Mr Rosenberka. The Rosenberka family founded that place in 1933. He had memories of being a boy when his mother cooked upstairs and there was a dumb waiter and his father ran the bar. Oh, wow. And he said that they always claimed to be the first restaurant in Pittsburgh that served shrimp regularly in 1933 because they had a supplier. Could be true, it could be true, we don't know.
Rick:But I was surprised to find that the shrimp that you get there, they actually prepare each one. They butterfly them backwards and they bread them and everything in the kitchen one by one. And I thought, oh, it's not like they get it from some service and just deep fry a frozen shrimp. They're actually carefully making each one and it's pretty great. But they also have, of course, prime rib on Saturday and it's a great little place. Hey, this is Rick Seback from WQED and you're listening to the Pittsburgh Dish what else in your mind's eye is another, maybe hidden gem?
Doug:Maybe it's on your meat list, maybe it's just randomly elsewhere.
Rick:Well, I mean, you know we mentioned that I grew up here. I have on my list Pasta Too. Oh yeah, which is, you know, like a family Italian place in Bethel Park, right by the main entrance to South Park. My family has been going there since it had a different location about a mile further north on Route 88. That building is now a laundromat, but that used to be Pasta 2, much smaller. We would go there at least once a week as a family. My mom liked it, my dad liked it. At that time they had no liquor license, but you could have beer or wine, whichever you wanted, for free, and I just thought, we just thought it was the best.
Rick:It was like being at home you know, and so I love Pasta Too, and I, you know, I sometimes don't know whether to get the chicken Parmesan or the veal Parmesan, but they also sometimes have lobster bisque and stuff like that. It's all good, it's just, you know, just simple and wonderful food, yeah.
Doug:They've come a long way, because our listeners probably have seen their pasta sauce somewhere at a Giant Eagle Right.
Rick:And in fact I was reading about that recently because, yeah, they are now marketing their sauces and some of their dishes. Actually, I think I took some to my sister Some wedding soup that they put in a bag now and sell at Giant Eagle.
Doug:Your sister lives down south now, right, is it?
Rick:North Carolina. She lives in North Carolina, and you know. But Pasta Too is home to us.
Doug:Do you want to give me one more?
Rick:Sure.
Doug:I see something on some notes there. I need to get to Stunt Pig.
Rick:Have you been yet? I've never been to stunt pig, but I did go, you did go yeah this is over in squirrel hill right.
Rick:It's a narrow little place it's just a tiny storefront, um and uh, somebody at work actually molly suggested that I, you know, check out. If you're gonna be looking for meat places, check out stunt pig and the sandwiches. It's just fun. And, yes, there's two tiny tables if you want to try and sit there. And you know, there was a guy sitting at the one table and I ordered and I said I'll take it to go. And they said you know, it's better if you eat it here and the guy goes, I don't care, sit here. And so we talked, but I had a smoked pit. Is that right? Pit beef, a pit beef, which they said is a standard sandwich in Baltimore. Oh, I had a pit beef, it's a big beef sandwich, which is what I was looking for for, a thing about meat. And they said oh, but you should also get pig wings, which is pork shank on a bone that they prep, and I thought they were excellent.
Doug:Wow.
Rick:Yeah, so pig wings. And I got a pit beef P-I-T-T. In Baltimore it's P-I-T, but here it's P-I-T-T. Then they also said and their signature sandwich, mr Orange. They made me taste that too, and it was. You know, I think you saw today at lunch I carry a little salt from the Steel City Salt Company over in Millvale. I love their Trinidad Scorpion salt, but I thought that, mr Orange, was spicy enough that I didn't need to add anything. I love spicy food and that seemed to be on the edge of what a normal person might find too spicy, but I loved it.
Rick:It was really good. It was good for you.
Doug:Oh excellent, yeah, Rick, but I loved it. It was really good. It was good for you. Oh excellent, yeah, rick, I love it so much. And you know you hinted at this with mentioning pasta too. You grew up in Bethel Park, bethel Park. What was food life like growing up? It was mom.
Rick:Yeah, yeah, is that who cooked for you? Yeah, mom cooked every night, I would say. I mean, we rarely went out to dinner, I mean, and I guess, until the era of pasta too, which may have been like by the time I'm I don't think that's not high school, I think that's college when I'm in college is the begins our Pasta Too era. And I mean before that we might once a year go out for mother's day or something like that, but we rarely went out. We would sometimes go to my grandmother's house. My grandmother and grandfather, my father's parents, lived in Bethel Park too, and we would go to their house and my grandmother was happy to be a cook and that's where I would get stuffed cabbage and stuff like that.
Rick:She was of German extraction, but she would make a lot of Eastern European dishes, I think, to please her husband, the Sebak, you know, which is a Slovak name, Whereas my mother was Irish. So, uh, I think the Irish don't care that much and I don't know that my mother ever loved cooking, but she did, you know, she did it, she did it, she. I think she was more of a baker than a a cooker, but she made dinner every night. It was, you know, just expected, I think, at the time and, uh, we mentioned liver and onions we were talking earlier about this, yeah and my mom made great liver and onions and even as a little kid, I loved it.
Rick:I loved it yeah, because I think liver is one of those things that has such a strong flavor. Yes, it can turn a off, but I liked it and I liked.
Doug:all my life I've loved liver and onions, so this may have put you on the path to an more adventurous palate.
Rick:Could be. But you know, like, as a kid, I didn't like tomatoes, I didn't like asparagus, both of which I love now, yeah, yeah, we grow into some of those. I mean, my mom was the cook. It's funny.
Rick:I did my junior year abroad, in France, and she came over to visit at Easter time. I know that it was when she was awakened to the whole world of cheese. Oh yes, she said you know before that she sort of knew Velveeta, yeah, but in France she just loved the cheeses. I mean, she became a dedicated brie eater for the rest of her life, but she loved the fact that you could get a cheese plate after dinner and all of that, and I just thought that was so wonderful. And by that point I had learned that when I was there in France that we love to find a one-star restaurant, like a three-star restaurant. It was so much of a, you know, an event, but if you found a one-star restaurant that used, the food would be so good and everything. And so I can remember going to some of them with her and, uh, you know, she was an enthusiastic eater at that point, you know, and and learn to love things like that. So, um, and she was always adventurous, which I liked too.
Doug:Were you much like her.
Rick:You were learning, expanding your own palette in France and along the way, Right, I mean when I did that junior year abroad, we went to France and back on the SS France, the boat I would say I was so old there was regular transatlantic service at the time.
Rick:But as a group from the University of North Carolina we went on the SS France and that really introduced us to the whole rigmarole of French eating, with courses and, you know, very attentive waiters, all of that, and so it was really great. And Lyon, where I studied, calls itself the world capital of gastronomy. And on my 21st birthday I went to Paul Beaucou's, to his restaurant, and it was a wonderful, wonderful experience. Three-star restaurant, but it was a big event. I went with two of my best friends, jim Bird and Elizabeth George, for my birthday. We were supposed to go on Jim's birthday and he got appendicitis and had to be in the hospital, so my birthday was next and we went. My 21st birthday, I went to Colonge de Montdour oh my, I think that's the name of the town that Chez Beaucouz is in. So it was really excellent. How perfect. Yes, and what I love is it's Colonge de Montdour or Colonge I'm not sure what that is of the Mountain of Gold, which is actually where Dormant gets its name, mont D'Or is Dormant, dormant.
Doug:There's your Pittsburgh history on the Pittsburgh Dish today. Everything connects it does. I also want to just sort of trace some steps then. So mom was cooking. Always growing up, you guys both sort of expanded your palates with trips to France and travel. And then did you spend some time in South America, in Brazil, yes, as a foreign exchange student in high school.
Rick:Yes, very lucky. At that time in Bethel Park it was a competition to be a foreign exchange student and they actually helped pay for it and I was the first boy to apply in like over 10 years I think. It was always girls who always went to Rosario, Argentina. Well, I didn't have but one semester of Spanish, but I've been lucky to study French since I was seven. In my classroom at St Valentine's School, Randy Larkin's mother was a French war bride from World War II and she thought she would speak better English if she taught kids how to speak French. So from second grade through sixth grade I had French every Tuesday with Mrs Larkin, and so I had a lot of French and a little wee bit of Spanish.
Rick:And I encountered a guy at Boy Scouts who said well then you should go to Brazil because they speak Portuguese and it's a little bit like Spanish, a little bit like French, and you know there's romance languages. So I applied for Brazil and I always laugh because we had a thing at Taylor Alderdice High School there were 40 of us and 34 were going to Sao Paulo and six of us were going to Rio and, like you know your high school mentality. I'm like, oh, everybody's going to Sao Paulo and we have to go to Rio. And then when you realize, oh no, we hit the jackpot. We got to go to Rio for the whole summer and it was really excellent and there were always women selling food on the street, which I loved, and you know, it was never expensive. You could always stop and get something from the women on the street. And then when I came home I did very little research in advance, but I came home and I read this thing that said never buy food from the women on the street. But it was always wonderful and so, yeah, that expanded my worldview.
Rick:And actually that's when I started to drink coffee. Of course, when you go to Brazil, everybody drinks coffee. A cafezinho was like the cheapest thing you could buy. So yeah, and I've been very lucky that way with travel, yes, it's always added to the palette in some way.
Doug:Exactly, I had one more sort of early formative question for you, when I think about what you do now. Well, first off, I'll just say this I love your style of how you put a piece together, where you sort of take yourself out of the story. You might have the narration at the beginning or the end or a little overlay, but you let the people tell the story, and so it's true observation and curiosity. When you were younger, were you a curious observer and a little more quiet, or were you a questioner? Did you ask questions like you might do today?
Rick:Huh, I don't know. I think I've always been pretty outgoing. I don't know that I was ever the quiet kid. I would say I was always a good student. I love school, yeah. So you know I was always interested in that and, yeah, perpetually curious. I think that's the thing that can help. And as far as, like, I never think I'm the story, yeah, far as like I never think I'm the story.
Rick:You know, I want to and I think it's sort of it's closer to classical documentary making than TV. Constantly I see things and even more so now on social media, where people make themselves the center. Well, you're really not the story. You know, if you're giving us a tour of Pittsburgh, why are you on so much? I don't want to be part of this story. I want to highlight what's there.
Doug:I think I love that balance. It's something I really respect. I want to do on this show. It's not about me, it's about the person I'm talking to, right.
Rick:Exactly, and that's what I always think too, and I want to highlight those people and you know as many soundbites as I can work in, I want to do it. Yes, yeah, and if the person actually and I would say that the story that's going to be in this new Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh, the reduced stone quarry up near Butler, there is just one voice, it's the guy who was so excited that we were coming and he was in charge and he told us the whole story and it wasn't really until we got back I thought he's the only voice we hear. And that's unusual for one of my things. I always like what my one-ended Rick Mnookian called an explosion of voices. If we go to the oh, we want to talk to everybody that we can talk to, and you know, then put all those voices together in a little explosion. And in fact we have a little bit of that in the Weatherberry Farm story when people come to pick up their grains.
Doug:Yeah, they're pulling up and you hear what everyone is getting.
Rick:I love that, yes yes, so it's part of the joy of all of this and I do think of it as joy.
Doug:Do you have any food-centric things on the horizon? Or I'll just ask generally what's ahead?
Rick:I never know except that, and this is so funny because I saw you there. But we had such a great time at the Community Kitchen in Hazelwood, yes, and when I realized that this is their last year there, I thought, oh, it would be fun to document the way they are now, just like the? O or any of these places. It's good to see how it is right now, and so we're going to go back in a week or so to do a story. I've never done a fish fry story in Pittsburgh.
Doug:Oh, my goodness, and I think it's such a big thing.
Rick:Yes, and I'm also. It's so joyous, which I don't think is the spirit of Lent.
Rick:No, but we get through it but here in Pittsburgh we love Fridays in Lent because we have fish fries and that's all just really. You know, I don't know, lanyap, I don't know. It's something to celebrate, yes, it's just the best it is, and so that's coming up. But I also I'm interested in Wild Rye's Bakery, which I've just been learning about, and you know, always, sometimes I think, I take some of the food places for granted. And well, on my list for Table Magazine I put Mitch's Barbecue up in Warrendale.
Doug:Up in Warrendale we talked about Mitch's with other folks.
Rick:It's excellent. And Chef Justin there, with Asian influences, which I think I came from his culinary training, he makes Asian buns, he makes brisket buns and pork belly buns and he makes ramen with brisket in it. It's just everything is good Out of this world. Yeah, out of this world. So I'm just lucky that way that it's you know, yeah. I don't know yet what everything's coming, but you know, food will be involved somehow, I'm sure.
Doug:Well, I love that. So, Rick, let's just recap for folks Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh, which is going to be your newest program on WQED Broadcast program. Okay, keep me the right with the terminology, because some of these things have been on YouTube in the stories. We just do little wraparounds. Yes, yeah, you see me. Yeah, so April 10th for the latest episode, right, and there was an earlier one in December, but it'll replay.
Rick:Replay that same night. So if you tune in at 8 o'clock, at 8.30, we're going to play the first one. So it's going to be number two and then number one.
Doug:All right, Rick, if someone is under a rock and they're not following you yet, or they don't know where to tune in, how about we give you a moment to just promote where they can find you and your work?
Rick:Well, I'm still on Facebook and Instagram, as at Rick Sebak, but you should also be part of WQED, which is at WQED, and subscribe there or follow there or whatever I do occasionally an experiment on TikTok, but not often Same here, you know. I just I'm not into it yet and it's vertical video which I still resist.
Catherine:Oh, I know Just because you know, we're horizontally ingrained.
Doug:Yes. So, and I'm going to give a little plug, if people want to find you in the wild, they can stop in Wednesday nights most Wednesday nights, almost every Wednesday night, at Independent.
Rick:Brewing Independent Brewing Company in Squirrel Hill on Shady Avenue, I play records. Yeah, it's a wonderful night of vinyl Vinyl and you know I really enjoy it. That was just a chance because I know Pete Kurzweil, who owns the place, and during the pandemic I saw it was his birthday and I had baked cookies. The bar was closed and I said are you at the bar? And he said yeah, but if you're going, if you're gonna come, come right now. And so I went. We had to buy a beer and I gave him the cookies and he said I gotta go because I'm playing records. I said what do you mean you're playing records? He said we play vinyl here on Wednesday nights and I said I want to do that. So, uh, I've been doing it for almost five years now every Wednesday night and uh, Lance Jones, uh, does it with me now, uh, who used to work at QED and he was also the manager of Starlake Amphitheater, so he's met a lot of the artists that we play, so that's totally fun.
Catherine:But I say there's no rules.
Rick:I want to play country, I want to play show tunes, I want to play rock, I want to play folk, anything. I want to play Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and all kinds of music. And Carol Zippy Brennan over in Springdale always listens and she wants us to play a Bing Crosby cut every week. So we do.
Doug:And there's lots of good food and drinks to go along. Exactly, yes, well, thank you for that. All right, rick, there's always a final question I like to ask our guests. The name of the show is The Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you've had to eat this past week?
Rick:Last two weeks actually have just been spectacular, as I tried to put this together and I put little stars and I went for the first time to Chaykhana in the West End at one of our Uzbek restaurants. Yes, and there's a buzz about that, we have six or seven Uzbek restaurants now New ones, yeah, yeah. And I thought it was excellent.
Rick:I had a lamb shank with rice and tomato and onion and it was just excellent. It was simple and wonderful, so that was a big highlight. Chaykhana Inn it's in the West End and it looks like Chaykhana, but they don't say the K. I asked how do you pronounce it? Chaykhana? Okay, but they don't say the K. I asked how do you? How do you pronounce it? Okay, um and uh. I also, uh, went to gaucho downtown and I had the uh, which was a pork shank, and I thought all these shanks, you know, but I thought they were great. And uh. I also wanted to say like a little thing about because this was another night.
Rick:This week I went to Streets on Carson oh yeah, he makes the best wings, I think confit wings that are just superlative. And while I was there, I also noticed that they had a meatloaf sandwich and I got the meatloaf sandwich too and took it home and it was also very good. Sort of in a Primanti style, they put the mashed potatoes on the sandwich. Oh, meatloaf and mashed potatoes on a sandwich On a sandwich With the onion Like the crispy onion Straws yes.
Rick:Oh, I'll go for that. Yes, it was really good and I thought maybe this I also brought for you. He's bringing out gifts. Yeah, no, no, no, because I thought you know this helps promote and everything I've been making these cookies. It's one of my mom's recipes for cowboy cookies. Oh my goodness, and I've changed them over the years many times. My mom wouldn't recognize these cookies, but these are made with Weatherberry Farm ancient grains.
Doug:Ancient grains, oh my gosh. I see all kinds of things here. It's like, in a good way, a gnarly looking cookie. It's a gnarly looking cookie and nuts and some dried fruit. And is this a flaked salt on top?
Rick:Flaked salt from the Steel City Salt.
Doug:Company From Steel City Salt. Thank you, Steel City.
Rick:Salt and yeah, so my mom never put dried fruits in, but I have dried apricots, chocolate chips and also I found that Trader Joe's you can buy a bag of dried blueberries, so there's dried blueberries in there as well, and then there are some macadamia nuts and pistachio nuts and all that.
Doug:It's a kitchen sink.
Rick:And then, talking with Nigel out at Weatherberry Farm, he said well, you do this usually with rolled oats. You want to try rolled spelt and einkorn flakes. But then I've gradually. I've known them out there at the farm for about three years now and over the years I've tried various things. These have no all-purpose flour, they just have spelt, emmer and einkorn flour and then rolled spelt and einkorn flakes and I think they taste better than ever.
Doug:they're a little bit more fragile I'm excited to try them, probably because they don't have that traditional white flour gluteny.
Rick:Maybe that's it, yeah and uh, you know sometimes they break and they fall apart, but you know, actually these held up pretty good.
Catherine:I'm excited those are yours, thank you so much that'll let you taste weatherberry.
Doug:Oh, my goodness, I'm flattered and I just want to say, Rick Sebak, thank you so much for the gift. Oh, you're welcome, and thank you for being on the Pittsburgh Dish. Thank you for having me. Rick's latest broadcast program, Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh, is airing on WQED April 10th 2025. If you can't catch that show, you can access it and more with a PBS Passport membership. Just visit WQED to learn more. Up next, wine with dessert or for dessert. We sit down for an overdue catch up with our friend, Catherine Montest of your Fairy Wine Mother. It has been a bit. It has been a while, Doug, we need to catch up. Catherine, you have been doing some traveling and all of it was for fun, but also for a lot of, shall we say, wine research.
Catherine:Yeah, I think we could say that I spent a little bit of time in Europe. We went to France and did get to sneak out to the Champagne region. I'm looking forward to sharing that with you. We also went to Barcelona and we went to London and I had a really surprisingly beautiful bottle in London.
Doug:Wow, well then, that was sort of in the late part of 2024. And then I went back to ask you a question and I found on, maybe Facebook, you had just put a picture you were in Chile, yes, and at a vineyard.
Catherine:At a vineyard. We were there. We were on the ground for about five days. A lovely friend of mine who used to live in Chile and she worked in the wine industry there. She now lives here in Pittsburgh and she put together a tour for 10 of us and it was so much fun.
Doug:I bet we have to get into this a little bit further, but while we're here today, I'm going to keep it short. We just got done talking with Rick Seback. He was lovely and he brought some really delicious cookies. Lovely and he brought some really delicious cookies. It got me thinking about desserts and, Catherine, when you finish a meal.
Catherine:Is there a wine or a dessert wine that you like to go for to wrap up a meal? That is a great question and, being in Pennsylvania, we have access to something that's really kind of special and in other parts of the world it's only made during certain years. Okay, and that's ice wine.
Doug:Oh, I have tried ice wine, I think, once in my life. It's a little bit sweet.
Catherine:It's very sweet. So what happens, what makes it so sweet and why Pennsylvania is really good for this, specifically, you know, up in the Erie area is the winter comes in and freezes. What they'll do in the vineyard is leave a bunch of the grapes on the vine and then, when that first frost hits and this is really crucial little ice crystals form inside the grapes, pick them and press them while they're frozen. Interesting While they're frozen. While they're frozen. Interesting, yeah, while they're frozen. While they're frozen, and because those little buddies have been hanging onto the vine for so long, their acid is really low and their sugar is really high. So those wines, even after they're done fermenting, are very sweet. Huh, so just as a dessert by itself, or kind of with the cookies that Rick brought.
Doug:Yeah. So an ice wine would be just a great after dinner sipper, absolutely, and you could pair it with another sweet dessert or just have it on its own. You're exactly right, doug. Oh, catherine, that sounds delicious. I think I'm going to pick up some regional ice wine at my next trip to the state store.
Catherine:They're carrying it for you and it'll be a made in Pennsylvania product.
Doug:Catherine, thanks again for stopping in. I can't wait to catch up a little bit more on your recent trips. And thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish Always a pleasure, doug, thank you. Catherine Montest has studied with the Napa Valley Wine Academy and earned her wine certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust in London. You can find out more about Catherine on her website at www. yourfairywinemother. com. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description, and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at DougCooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to 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.
