The Good Life: Luxury Dining & Living- Design Cook Eat Ep2

The Good Life: Luxury Dining & Living- Design Cook Eat Ep2

How do you define the good life? It could be a luxurious setting, perfect service. Maybe it’s the right company. Those rare moments that make everything unforgettable. It could be the space around you, the atmosphere, the details, the design that transforms the everyday into the extraordinary. It could be the food of the highest quality, crafted with passion, rich in flavor, and filled with emotion. Styling, living, dining, elevated. Think about your belly. I don’t even want to touch anything. I don’t want you to touch it. [Music] Cheers. Cheers. Like the Ritz Ritz like Ritz crackers. Welcome to another episode of Design Cook Eat with the Live Better Guys. What does living the good life mean to you? I am Ryan Hinson, food culturalist. To my left, design expert Michael Lambi. To my right, private chef Howard Seight. This is episode two, the luxury episode, the living good episode, the good life episode. styling, living, dining, elevated. That’s it. Now, we still do need a drink sponsor, but forget about that for now cuz we’ve got an incredible title sponsor for this episode. The inaugural. This is the luxury episode. So, how fitting is to be using a luxury appliance line? Yes, Janeire. So, I just want to welcome Janeir for their beautiful appliances and supporting us on this episode. Yeah, let’s give it up for Jire. So, we’re talking about the good life, Mr. Dr. Michael Lanvy, what does living the good life mean to you? Well, honestly, for me, it’s about environment. I I like to believe I create an environment that elevates people’s lives in the job that I do for my clients. And so, it’s really about style and atmosphere. You know, when they say you are what you dress, when you dress like a million bucks, you feel like a million bucks. That’s what space does, too. So, when you have a space that feels like it’s just on point, I think that’s it. So, it’s about surrounding. It’s about how things look. Atmosphere and and details and styling. Yeah. What you can take in for sure. So that’s the good life. You don’t look so convinced. Not at all, man. Have you had a personal chef in your home? I haven’t. But yeah, I have. Funny enough, you have. Not every Not everybody lives in the Michael house. Very true. Leave a What about a 36 day dry-aged Wagu steak? So you’re talking about kind of like those things that you consume, some good wine, the right meal. That for you, that’s the good life. Now you’re speaking my language. It’s appreciation where the food is coming from the process, right? It’s all nature, right? And not only that it’s coming from the other side of the world, but there’s a price tag on it. Ah, okay. So you’re talking about elevated food, you’re talking about all the way to the top, right? something like Black and Blue Steakhouse that we went to. And you’re kind of talking about accommodation similar to the Ritz where we visited. Yeah. I mean, eating good is nice, but it’s such a short period like for 20 minutes, half you’re enjoying it. When you’re in the atmosphere, it’s there. It’s constant. You come home, you open the door, it hits you. You wake up, it hits you. So, I mean, I can I can downplay my my meal that day. I’m still going to feel amazing in my space. So then actually I’ve got a question and I’m talking to the audience. Would you rather live in a beautiful decked out home for the rest of your life and eat average okay everyday or would you rather have the most opulent succulent handcrafted meals and just have an environment that you live in that’s just okay? I know where you’re both going, but get in the comments. Let us know which of those define the good life to you. Think longevity. Think think about more than a few minutes. Think about your belly. Think about tuna belly, right? Ah, coming from Japan. Come on, man. How often do you get to go to Japan? It comes to you. Let me let let me let me let me paint this picture to take take this take this. You know you’re living the good life when you step off the elevator into your home. No lobbies, no hallways, just you. And this. Every time I step into this condo, it still gets me. The view, the calm, the light. It’s the kind of space that doesn’t need to show off. It just knows. [Music] Let’s go get Michael and let’s get this party started. That is what’s up, bro. I cannot believe the response to episode one. Yeah, let’s go. All right. Oh, look who’s calling me now. Perfect. Must have been raining. Lambi, what’s going on? Yo. Hey guys, are you guys on your way to Black and Blue now? No, not yet. We’re actually early for once. Shocker, right? Perfect. Perfect. Head over to the Ritz. I just finished putting up a piece of art for a client and the place is spectacular. So, you have to come check it out. Like the Ritz Rits. Like you talking about Ritz crackers. This guy. All right. Yo, come. Sounds good. All right. We’ll see you in a bit. Take me through how you felt when we got off that elevator right into that suite. This guy’s smarter than he looks. You know, you had that table with the with the two pieces that were there and then it’s just that long hallway going down and then it’s just like I don’t know. I was I was pretty custom design and made table by the way. Yes. Okay. [Music] Did this just open straight to the swing? Land. You were not joking. I’ve never seen that in my life. So, this is what happens when your designer has a range, eh? Yeah, man. That’s it. That’s it. So, they called me because they wanted to bring more personality, some warmth to it. And that’s really the hard part after a renovation. Um, especially one that’s a modern like this one where the tones were grays and the client wanted to keep everything really gray. Yeah. Is how do you warm it up? You don’t want it to feel like a hotel. You want it to feel like a home. So, certain tricks I use when people want warmth, when you want depth, you want sort of a feeling. Yeah. Wallpaper. That’s my go-to. Yeah. The texture. Well, texture it’s feeling it there. Wallpaper has more depth than paint. Okay. So, we have gray walls and they’re flat and there are backdrops. When you have wallpaper, it actually is like the art. You can actually look at it and you find yourself touching involved. So, in a project like this, when I have a lot of options, my go-to Ultralux Linens, Jacqueline, I call her up and I say, “Okay, here’s what we’re doing. I know I wanted to put wallpaper on the ceiling. It was a massive space. I’m getting it now. I’m like, there’s no wallpaper on the wall. What are you talking about? No, it’s not on It’s not on the It’s up on the ceiling. It was It’s really just to kind of cocoon you a bit, right? And if you look closely, you can see there’s texture up there. It’s not flat white paint. Yeah. I I I don’t like white on my ceilings anyways. But when you have depth, Yeah. it’s that much better. So, my go-to is I need to have these samples. I need to have the sample books. Again, at Ultralux Linens, they really give me that kind of variety that I need cuz they they bring from everybody. Okay. Different suppliers. They have all the range that I have. So, we work together. We picked a fantastic one here. We did a different one in the hallway. So, the hallway creates a different mood. Yeah. Yeah. There’s different ones in the powder room. So, you’ve done this all throughout throughout the space. Picking the right wallpaper for the right space, right? So, it’s about really creating that kind of feel. Yeah. Man, this place has more personality than most people’s condo boarding. That’s crazy. You got to take the mirrors off your ceilings and get some wallpaper instead. Mirrors on what ceiling? What are you talking about? Hey. Oh, look at this. The painting and it’s got the E in front of the A. He spelled his name right this time. I spelled right. Okay. So, this is you on the wall. On the wall. Cuz again, it’s about creating that texture. So, in this space, it’s massive space. You’re going to be looking at these views and your eyes moving. So, as designers, we want to keep your eye moving and we want to control it, right? So, when we land here, the TV, such a large TV and a fireplace there, it stops. Yeah. Your eye stops when you get there cuz they’re just big black squares. So, what I wanted to do is I want to continue that motion of lines across the wall. So, I took the black lines, brought them here, but made them dynamic. Yeah. echoed some of that texture from the ceilings here. Brought some of the browns which are on the my accent pieces. The little colors I snuck in little hints like I see in the corner there. And you’re shifting the attention. You’re shifting the eye. Right. Exactly. How do you even come up with this? It’s crazy. I didn’t even think about it. We have a running joke. Not everybody lives in a Michael Lambi house. Definitely not everybody lives in a penthouse at the Ritz. We’re talking luxury and elevation, right? But you don’t have to live at the rits to enjoy no to make your your whatever space you’re in feel luxurious. How does someone do that regardless of where they live where they’re at? It’s it’s about selection. I mean that that Ritz Connell was quite large and most condos are not that large. So we had more to do but if we did it on a smaller scale we could still achieve it, right? So it’s about selecting the right pieces that are for you and what you’re going to do. I say the two most important things you’re going to buy when decorating your place is always going to be your mattress and your sofa. Yeah. The places that you sit on and spend the longest time. So you don’t that’s not where you cut your budget. That’s where you actually blow your budget cuz you’re going to feel amazing when you jump into a bed and it’s just it cradles you and it’s the right support. You feel amazing. So same thing with that couch or that main chair. So buying those right pieces with the right fabrics, the right style, that already is the starting place. So and then we just accessorize. I don’t even want to touch anything. Mike, I don’t want you to touch. Don’t touch a thing. Okay, but talk to me about these chairs. I’m loving these chairs. These these this was a search because my client spends a lot of time here. She actually knits and reads and she’s this is really her spot when she’s not working out. So, they had to be really comfortable, right? But oh my gosh, they’re in front of the entire I was just going to say Roger Center is right there. Right there. So, no matter what size your space is, your proportions are the same. Like, we’re in a big room right now, but the three of us are talking comfortably this area. And that’s because we’re we’re humans and we don’t want to talk too loud. So, what we got to do is we create little zones in your space that kind of echo that. Okay. So, this is intimate for two people there. If we’re going over to the dining room, we have that isolated there. And same for every space. Honestly, you can imagine this being in a condo one/3 the size. It would be the same layout, the same proportions, the same distance. So, design tip. Yeah. As long as you have 30 inches through everything, you’re comfortable. And then that dictates your zones, right? So, this is four spaces plus pathways. But this almost feels like a a Roger Center and CN Tower mirroring the the circular shape of these chairs gives me the feel of the Roger Center. You’re taking my secrets. I’m just saying it just feels like it just fits, right? You got the city views, you got the water views, so it feels like you’re in two totally different. I’m still thinking about dinner, but this view might be the best appetizer in town. Where did you get the crackers from? When did you leave? Listen, man. See the pantry loaded. Let’s check out whatever you did in the kitchen. Back then, of course, we got to do the bedrooms. This is the primary suite. This where the shirt them come. So what’s interesting here, such a large condo, small bedroom. Again, it’s about that spectacular open area, right? You sleep and you you you go, right? But how do you make this place feel unique? Yeah. So the colors are different here. The tones are different here. And I wanted to create a special space. So, one interesting fact is I was able to sneak some color in here because my client’s favorite color is yellow. Okay. So, we got the little pop of yellow and the little gold and then on the walls of all my primary bedrooms, hopefully bedrooms, a couple things are important to me. One, it’s depth. And here you see the wallpaper again. So, Jacqueline came through. We did something that has a little bit of a shimmer. It’s actually a metallic shimmer. So, when the light’s really coming through, this this wall is alive, but we’re keeping the gray tones. And then the challenge was how do I bring the feeling of what’s happening here into the art piece I created. Yeah. Well, I’m using rules of threes here. So, we did side lighting. I did three kind of playing a little dynamic feeling. Yeah. I like what you did there, man. That’s pretty. Look at this guy. So, we brought the the three into here, but interpreted a little different cuz they’re squares, right? And then I tried to mimic the texture of the wallpaper into the strokes of the paint. Pointing here, his name. I wear glasses, right? Man has man has enough paintings to start his own art gallery. Right. There’s another one in there’s three more actually in a different bedroom. But honestly, it it was an honor. It was uh uh I was stunned, excited, and challenged. How do I make all these pieces different in every room? Right. And then I noticed different textures like on the bedding as well. So, you’ve got like the furry pillows, then the kind of quilted nature over here, and then a smooth sheet. It’s really all about that. When you get here, you’re hanging here to sleep and to relax and feel comfortable. So, we want those textures and those tones. I like the size on this lamp, too. It’s kind of like for me, I guess, like the statement piece aside from the bed of the room. Yeah. And and I’ll point this out. A chair. I don’t care how small your bedroom is. If you need to get a chair in there, you try to get a chair in there. It’s this way when you come, you can throw your jacket, you throw stuff on the chair, not your bed. If you have shoes on or you’re changing your sock on the chair in the bed. This is not a small This is not a large space. This is a small room. But we still got this nice white little chair in there. And you added the yellow pillow, too, for that for that last piece of touch, right? Always. That’s it. That’s it. Yeah. One more bedroom, three more pieces of art, one more new challenge. Obviously, you want to pick the right size. You want to pick the right wall. Here, I used three because I had a big space and it was about movement. So, it was my composition was small to large. I took dynamic lines to bring you this way cuz I’m trying to get you out of the hall. I’m inviting you into the space. I replicated the colors that are here, which is my gray palette. And then obviously the textures, textures, textures, textures, textures. And it’s a question of where do I want your eyes to go? And I want your eyes to go all the way over. So no matter where you’re placing your art, no matter how you’re using it, you always got to say, do I want my eyes to stay there? Huh? Or do I want to move them onto somewhere else? And I believe in movement. Movement is dynamic. The space is dynamic. That window, especially for you. So that is what you want to look at. That’s what you want to see. So yeah, this was really amazing to have such different pieces throughout the space. No matter where you are in this space, it’s like you’re always looking at something great. Whether it’s the view, the painting, the walls, like the pieces that are just sitting on the on the tables, it’s it’s incredible. Now, for someone like yourself, you’re orbiting around that kitchen. I saw your face when we hit the kitchen. I love being in the kitchen, right? So just even having a TV in the kitchen, that’s probably the spot I’m always going to like I wouldn’t even be in my living room. I’ll just be chopping onions just to chop onions and watch it again. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. Okay, so to finish this tour, of course, I got to show you guys the kitchen, which is incredibly minimalist, sleek, really functional. Howard, you’re going to love the island. It’s not a massive massive space, so it’s about being sleek. We’re not really trying to look at the appliances. We want the functionality of the appliances which Janire makes some beautifully high-end stuff and I’m going to show you that in a second. Stylish on the inside, not just on the outside. So, the panels enable us to create the visual as we want. When you interact with the appliances is where you get the the beauty of what the designers of those appliances did. When I’m working with my clients, I let them buy their appliances. It’s like buying a car. You have this personal connection. But Janer’s fridge. The Obsidian interior glows with this dramatic industry exclusive dark finish. There’s three zones of humidity and are all controllable over Wi-Fi. There’s that silky smooth gliding drawer system which really gives off a feeling of pure luxury. Tell me about this island. I always try to keep my sinks off my islands, right? So you have maximum workspace, right? We’re using quartz here so that it’s uh really friendly for cutting and stain resistance. And again, it’s about being able to it’s about being able to kind of function totally and multi people function at one time, right? So, we have our zones, we have people cooking over here, you’re chopping here, you’re washing dishes here. We got our dry and cold storage over here. So, our pantries, our beautiful Gen Air appliances with the refrigerator, a separate fridge door, separate freezer door, full freezer, full fridge. Again, this is still luxury. Yeah. And when we do luxury, we do things kind of focused. It’s like winter tires and summer tires. They’re both fantastic at what they do. So, that’s the benefit of separating your your fridge and your freezer. Yeah. So, yeah, this is just really about mood. I can’t believe how with such a big island, it still feels like there’s so much space for people. Like I don’t feel like I would be on top of someone. You know when you’re in the kitchen back in the day, your mom tells you to come out because like you she feels like you’re on her back. You know what I mean? Or that was my excuse to like not do any work. But this feels like this is massive. My eyes go right to it. But then there’s still so many other things that like deserve attention that look good, feel spacious, and like a view from here. Minimalist light fixture. You always want your light fixtures over your island. It creates your workspaces, but we didn’t want to distract the view. So, we want this to almost be invisible. It’s a very sleek profile LED. We’re not trying to be dramatic here. Sometimes you want the light fixture to be the focus. Yeah. I’m I’m going to let you guys experience that fridge. Go check it out. Check it out. All right. Let’s go check it out. Maybe, you know, you can um make a little appetizer before we hit the next spot. No. How about tech? So, my client was telling me when they moved in one day, she’s going to kickboxing class. She’s ready. It’s early in the morning. So, she she’s in the house. She presses the elevator. It stops. The door opens up and standing there is Drake. He’s standing there looking at. So, obviously she pauses. She goes, “Oh, hi.” for a second. He’s like, “What are you doing in my house?” Right. Right. Like, you coming over? So she gets on and says, “Hey, how you doing?” You know, cuz clearly he lived above. Actually, he has a song where he talks about moved to the rits or whatever. So it was true. Actually, this is before he built that mammoth house, right? Yeah. Question for you both. Your you own this place. Your elevator door opens. Yeah. Who do you want to see on your elevator? I’m not telling you on podcast. Or else are you going to tell? You’re telling on the podcast who you want to see on your elevator. Also for y’all, you live in an incredible penthouse. Your elevator door opens. You’re meeting your new neighbor for the first time. Drop in the comments. Let us know who you want and who do you want? Your your answer. You’re your answer next cuz I’m Yeah, my my answer is my wife. We got two We got two units on top of each other. That’s how good our lives is. We have two units. She lives upstairs. I live downstairs. Who do you want to see? I want to see the World Series champions. Okay. All right. That’s a slick answer. Yeah, I’d like to see my mom coming to visit me. Beautiful. Beautiful. Subscribe. Yeah, subscribe to the director’s cut of DC for their real answers, but we’ll we’ll go with those for now. Black and Blue Steakhouse. first just getting to Black and Blue and both of you all how you feel when you we were greeted by EMAD and what we saw what we felt everything was exactly how I imagined with the word elevation it was elevated as soon as you walk in it’s the it was the light fixtures so it had this big open space and then you had the the wine celler that was like gold it was literally like gold shells just stacking on top right oh the Louis the third Louis the third bottle notice That was extra high like he made sure he made sure we could reach that bottom right there. There’s the man. Hey, what’s happening guys? Good to see you. Meet the guy in the theater. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. How you doing? How are you? Look at how handsome these guys are. Welcome to Black and Blue. Took me 10 years in the making. This is my town. I grew up in this city and I’ve been trying for a long time. And this is my ultimate warrior chef. This is the only chef that you’re gonna find doing 16 hours a day and you still have time to go to the gym. It’s like our chef. We we we got we got a chef. Come on in. Let me show you the place. In instant wow. Instant wow. So, our first impression was obviously extra special because we are greeted by Emmad, the owner, and Morgan the chef. I mean, come on. VIP access or what? But it was great and and thank you so much. It was an amazing experience and we apprec app appreciated the hospitality. Um but outside of being greeted that way soon as you walk in impressive powerful thing. So here here’s what was really good about that. It’s actually indoors. So you you enter this space from indoors and so now you’re already feeling a little smaller. So those high ceilings immediately alleviate that. Those high ceilings make the space feel larger. And then for it to be so dramatic because that’s what they wanted to happen. They wanted your eyes to go up, follow all these uh bottles in this big wine celler type thing. And then you get those architectural details with the lights which are custom made out of the metal and the mesh. Pretty industrial feeling, right? With the LEDs. So, oh, so now you’re up there. You’re not really so conscious of the small entrance and the fact that we’re indoors. It feels huge. So, it’s a clever design trick. Bring you up and bring you expansive before you start entering the space. And that and that’s what it was. It’s that as soon as you walk in, it was that huge just like Michael was just saying. It’s that pop, right? It’s just like wow. Do you feel it’s possible that there’s a disconnect between an atmosphere and the food? Have you ever experienced that? Oh, 100%. You could walk into restaurant that you enjoy the food very well, but you don’t remember anything. Yeah. About the space, the space. And then I guess to the contrary, there’s some spaces you walk in, you’re blown away, but the food does not matter. And then the food doesn’t measure up. And as beautiful as the space may be, it almost doesn’t matter. you you know what that’s the first thing I look for when I walk into a restaurant is the space. What does it look like? Um I think it’s just it’s just like when you put a a a plate of food down. It’s presentation. It’s the first thing. It’s like your eyes are eating. It’s it’s a feel. I’ll give you a best example. I want you to take a look at up there. This greenery it’s driving me nuts. Yeah. And I’ll explain why. You see all these gaps? I mean these gaps because this is all get open. So to bring the light in. My problem is if I’m sitting here, I feel it’s like a somebody had a a bad hair transplant. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Like it’s all all batches everywhere. You look at the gap, so you’re not looking at the plants. Yeah, I’m looking at the gap. I’m not looking at the plants. Ask you about even the Somalier, right? Right. So, they took us over. He came over with a couple different options. Shout out Henry. Yes, Henry. Um and like that the passion that bled through like you could see how excited he was to speak to us about that. It’s an09 bordau uh chat mo bread. Um it’s a not classified by any mean. However, this is from a big legendary vintage. It’s showing beautiful structure especially with what all the elements that we’re going to have today. When I ask about the cork and like right like he put it on a he put the cork on a platter and presented from a sending you the cork. Okay. Am I supposed to smell that? You’ll see the condition on the cork that would tells the the condition of the wines typically when when the first time you feel poor. From the napkins to the salad to the drinks to the presenting the meat. It was just on every stage, every levels experience. It was there’s a gentle education happening there which made you think you had influence on what you’re going to eat and we picked the right thing for you. All that’s elevated. It’s not like this is a special have this. you’re going to like it. You know, it was there was a conversation which I think was really powerful. Here we have our housemade bernese, our housemade panzoo. This one’s really interesting. We don’t use bonito flakes. We use actually dried shiakei. So, it’s vegetarian. We tend to find it gives a much more interesting umami when you’re doing it with your steak and of course the classic red wine jew. You said a a a great word too is education cuz I think a lot of times um people are willing to pay for things that cost a little more. I think for the wrong reasons. And then there are people that get sticker shock and they’re like, I’m not paying this for that. Why? But when you when the education component comes in and you understand what you’re paying for, technique, quality of ingredient, expertise, all of these kind of things, freshness, all these little things that again you may not get by just going and sitting, but you know, you rock with us. Watch the Live Better Guys. We’re going to explain to you why certain experiences are so important. Um, but yeah, education’s a a key piece. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] So one of the most important thing that Black and Blue is known for is our meat locker. You look at down there. So what you see is this is not a wall of marble. This is actually a wall of Himalayan salt. But it’s actually it’s salt. So what salt does is it take the moist out of the strip loins. That mean that my steak on the menu that if it’s read on the menu 14 oz strip loin it started at 16 ounce and it shrunk before I serve it to you. Any every other restaurant when they say 14 ounce they start at 14 oz. So, what I left you is the right consistency of chewing, the incredible explosion of flavors because there’s not much water in it because I shrunk it a little bit for you. So, you know, you could get waggo from Australia and Waggo from United States. Correct. Wagu is an animal that grow in Japan that uh uh Japanese are very very strict on this. You cannot import a livestock out of Japan. Period. years ago, there was an Australian farmer took out a a male and a female and flew them on a private jet, got them out of Japan. But they saying that that’s how you got wagu out of Japan. That’s why it’s different. When you try a a an Australian wagu, you could see that the marble is not as the quality of Japanese. Japanese really treat their cattle incredible. Add on this on Kobe. You know, we were showing you the copia and we were showing you the the golden statue. Oh, there it is. Look at that. Wow. Wow. That’s beautiful. And you’re going to you’re going to find restaurants have it. The minute you see it in the restaurant, that mean that they really they carry real Kobe. Interesting. I didn’t know that. Now I do. Yeah. Uh Kobe is a little small town in Japan that they are so known for their beef. And the beef has to come out from this little town called Kobe. They give you certificates. They give you that golden statue. If any restaurant anywhere tell you they’re carrying Kobe and they don’t have the golden statue. I’m gonna say it on camera. They’re full of they’re lying to you. They might be selling you Japanese Waggo where is Japanese beef. Yes. But they’re not carrying the the true Kobe. And Mike asked what’s what’s the difference. Waggo is Japanese beef. Kobe is particular. It’s like champagne, right? a ball of champagne. It’s not a champagne anymore. If it was made in Australia or if it were made in Italy or made in in Canada, the region is the important thing about it. And how they train their beefs, you’re going to find a little bit the marbling is a little bit less, right? But the quality of the beef is a lot higher. So, the price at the end of the day, oh man. Okay. So, what we’re going to do today, oh, chef, is we’re going to be dealing with a little bit of butchery and a little bit of searing of uh one of the things that we’re most known for in the city, which is our A5 beef program. So, the piece that we’re going to be dealing with today is the strip loin. So, what we normally start with is simply just getting it out of the packet to start. Oh, that looks beautiful, man. Look at the marbling on that. So, I mean, this is it, right? Oh my goodness. And when you look at that kind of marbling, I mean, this is where all the flavor is. all that flavor all through there. So, first things first, we’re going to look to start taking some of this senue off the bottom. So, what we’ll do is we’ll keep and we’ll have it use that for something else later on. And what would you be using that for later on? So, what we do is we trim some of this up and it becomes our A5 fried rice. Fried rice. Yes. I am coming back for the fried rice. That is a guarantee. If I can get some A5 Wagu in my fried rice, I’m in. We normally try and cut for about an inch and a half to two inches thick. I’ll take that piece for myself. Just this one. Yeah. I thought you were going to ask for this one. Oh, that was a trade-off. So, I guess you lost this time. Okay. Now that we’ve got this beautiful piece in the middle. Yeah. So, now we’re going to try and get to around about a 6 oz size, which is what most of our guests go for. Now, chef, for you, you’re going to take over now. You’re going to season really nice and heavily for me. Okay. There’s so much fat on this. You need a lot of salt on the surface area on all both sides. Make sure you get a really nice coat. Now, we don’t need any extra fat. We’re just going to go straight to the grill. Let’s get it going. So, am I too generous or is that perfect? That’s perfect. Nice and good. Now, we never use pepper on our steaks. Okay. Only because it burns. That’s right. We season with pepper after if required, but most of the time we don’t. Got to get that sound, nice sizzle. So, quick cooking tip. When you are cooking a steak and you hear that sound, you hear that sizzling sound, that means your your heating element is is uh is ready to go for cooking. If you don’t hear that, that means you’re going to be steaming your steak and you don’t want to steam your steak. You want to make sure the flat top is nice and hot so you can get a nice crisp on each sides of the steak. All right. I normally like to do a piece around about this size for rare to mid rare at around about four minutes on each side. And then I do all of the side edges to get that nice caramelization all the way across. And then I normally go for about another minute on each side. Got take it off, let it rest, and then we’ll give it a little tickle in the oven just to get that heat back into the steak to finish it. And then it’ll be carved to traditionally tableside at the restaurant. And correct me if I’m wrong. So the reason for resting it and then giving it that little tickle is that we want to make sure the juices are settled before we start cutting into the steak. 100%. Every steak we rest. Every steak we give a little bit of time to allow that mass muscle to contract back up. Keep that juice back on the inside so it stays nice and moist for you. Perfect. Science. Science. I never passed it, but here I am today. Well, we’re doing it. We’re doing it. All right. So, you saw it. We did our Wagu A5. Saw chef cut it down to 6 oz. Cut the fats off. Cut out the trimming as well. And he did mention that they use it for the fried rice, which I will be back for. All this fat. I mean, we put no oil on the grill. That is literally just the fat starting to seep out. So, I noticed, chef, when I’m even searing my steaks, I feel like the sizzling is a little bit more aggressive. Why is it not as much aggressive on the flat top? or am I just too aggressive? You might be too aggressive. Again, when you’re doing with this at home and you’re using a pan and you’ve got your your gas or your electric or your induction burner at home on full pelt, you’re going at maximum heat. The glorian with this particular planter is it’s a consistent heat and maintains it with the grain against the grain. That’s another the tactic that people don’t understand. One of the reasons why we cut against the grain is to increase the amount of tenderness in the steak. Right? If you cut with the grain, you’re leaving fibers whole, which are becoming more for you to chew through. Whereas, if you cut against the grain, you’re breaking down those fibers a tiny bit more, which is making the meat a little bit easier to eat and therefore more tender in your mouth, giving you a better mouth feel. We’re going to go this way. Hold on. Okay. Cuz we’re going to want that anxiousness in the steak. It’s okay. You can eat more than that, though. I got fiber popping out of the bottom of these pieces here. It’s just all to do with the follow through, chef. All right. All to do with the follow through. You want to be as smooth and as silky as possible. There you go. When you use the cut and make sure you go all the way through, chef. There we go. Class is in session. All right. Now, the best bit, chef. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you very much. My pleasure. I think there’s a job opening for me here. No, I’m always looking for good grill coats. What about sue chef? You want to be a sushe? Can I be a righthand man or Well, man, you got to come and improve yourself, huh? want to ask you, were you nervous with that that Kobe steak that when you guys were cooking it and cutting? To be honest, I think Chef Morgan was nervous. He’s looking at me like cuz he’s like, “Yeah, we’re going to cut the steak.” And he’s like, “You go ahead and cut it. Just make sure you know you cut it properly.” And he’s looking at me. I’m like, “You know what, Chef? Just go ahead and cut it.” Cuz I can see the look in your eyes there. All this food talk though, I am hungry. You made a promise to um if we waited on our Mary Brown’s chicken, you would do something special. I’m ready for something special. All right, let’s let’s elevate this Mary Brown’s chicken. Okay, I’m pairing Mary Brown’s chicken with some creme fresh caviar and some bubbly. So, we have the fried chicken, which is rich and fatty, also with the creme fresh. And then we have the saltiness, which is going to cut to the fat as well. And then of course the bubbly is going to give it a nice acidity kick. It’s going to be perfect. So amazing. We have our podcast sponsors which is Mary Brown’s fried chicken. We have our inaugural Yeah. sponsor for the whole episode which is Janire Luxury Appliances. Ultralux Linens which supplied the beautiful wallpaper in that luxurious condo that I did. You want quality, you go to quality suppliers, quality partners, and that’s what you get as a final result, which this episode is quality elevated. As Egyptians, we grow up through the Silk Road where we had stranger through our thousand years coming in from Asia all the way to Europe, stopping through Egypt through the Silk Road. stranger that we welcome them to our home, we trade with them, we cooked for them, we feed them, we we give them drinks and we send them in their way. I want to tell you a story. Uh it’s a very simple story. Years and years ago, I was in Egypt on a holiday as an Egyptian. I decided to take a fuca down the Nile and fluka down the Nile is this little boat that you could sleep on it and then it’s a group of tourists will be on it. And every day in the morning at 6:00 in the morning, we stop on one of these little small villages. And we’re talking the smallest of small. My cousin, it happened that time to be the the tour guides. So he said to me, “What do you feel?” And I said, “I’m dying for a cup of mint tea.” He said, “No problem.” We’re walking around and we go to a door and he knocked on this door. Okay. This old lady opened the door and she said in Arabic mean, “Welcome, welcome, welcome.” He looked at her and said, “We’d love to have a mint tea.” So she said, “Sure, come on in.” We all sat in the courtyard. She goes in the back. She’s making us mint tea. So I’m looking into my cousin and I’m like, “Is this like part of the show?” He looked at me and said, “What are you talking about? You forgot we’re Egyptian. Our houses is always welcome.” Ah. I said, “So you mean you never met this?” She said, “I never met this woman in my life.” Right? The magic of that put tears in my eyes. You see, here is an old lady that doesn’t know anything about us. That stranger knock on her door, ask for a minty and she welcome to her house. That was the essence of our company. Can you keep this magic all the time? You could have a guy that having $2,000 bottle of wine sitting beside somebody that have the $7 glass of wine from happy hours and nobody will know the different because they’re both going to get exactly the same service, the same quality, the same atmosphere, and the same design. That’s what that’s what our company is all about. It’s been an honor. This is our second episode. Thank you. We’re on a mission here to tell stories that people don’t have access to so that then they walk by they connect because they don’t get the honor that we got of spending time and being hosted by you. So, thank you for the time. So, I just really I know our glasses are empty. I just want to cheers one more time. Thank you. Thank you, Emman. Thank you. Welcome to episode two of Design Cook Eat Black and Blue. In the end, the good life isn’t defined by where you are. It’s how you live, what you share, and who’s at the table with you. From design to dining, every detail tells a story. And tonight, we got to live it. Good friends, great food, and a city that always keeps us inspired. That’s what living the good life looks like. [Music]

Step into The Good Life with Episode 2 of Design Cook Eat as The Live Better Guys take you inside a Luxury private Ritz-Carlton penthouse (decorated by Micheal Lambie) and one of Toronto’s most coveted steakhouses, Black + Blue. In this luxury-filled episode, food culturalist Ryan Hinkson, interior design expert Micheal Lambie, and private chef Howard Seivright explore what “living well” really means through elevated interior design, unforgettable dining, and next-level hospitality. From custom art, wallpaper, and zoning tips for creating a five-star home, to a behind-the-scenes look at JennAir luxury appliances, dry-aged Wagyu, Kobe beef, and a dramatic Himalayan salt meat locker, this episode blends travel, cooking, and design into one immersive experience. If you love luxury condos, designer kitchens, restaurant design, premium steak, and Toronto lifestyle content, this is your episode. Watch, learn how to elevate your own space and experiences, and let us know in the comments: is the good life about the food on your plate or the space you come home to?

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