Not My Job: Chef Edward Lee Gets Quizzed On Dog Racing

Transcript

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And now the game where we ask people who have done a lot that's important to do a little that's not. It's called Not My Job. So Chef Edward Lee came from Brooklyn to Louisville, he says, in search of bourbon. We're lucky he did not know that there are liquors stores in New York because...

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: ...He's become one of the most famous chefs in the American South. He's been on "Iron Chef" and "Top Chef." He was the star of season three of "Mind Of A Chef." Edward Lee, welcome to WAIT ...WAIT DON'T TELL ME.

EDWARD LEE: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: So is that true you were just following the scent of bourbon?

LEE: Well, like most young romantics, I had the Kentucky Derby on my bucket list, and I was going through a rough time in New York and my girlfriend left me and I thought, well, what better time than now to go check out Kentucky and the Derby. And I got here and, you know, there was bourbon and pretty girls in dresses and people in hats.

(APPLAUSE)

LEE: The flowers were, you know, out in the sunshine. Well, no one told me that the other 51 weeks out of the year it's not like that.

SAGAL: Yeah, I know.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Now, you have become famous for doing traditional Southern food with a Korean twist. How is that possible?

LEE: Koreans and Southerners have a lot in common. I mean, they both have - they're both really loud.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: They have hostile neighbors to the north.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: They tell like it is, you know, they're very frank.

SAGAL: A lot of them are named Lee.

LEE: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: And when you - I mean, for example - so we were at your restaurant, MilkWood, here in Louisville, and it is amazing and...

AMY DICKINSON: You know what? Can I just say, Adam sort of indicated before the meal that he would let me taste the chicken.

ADAM FELBER: Yeah.

DICKINSON: There was some - I felt like there was an agreement sort of made.

FELBER: Sort of attached agreement.

DICKINSON: So I didn't order the chicken, and I loved my meal as well, but I kept glancing over at Adam and you know it was like...

FELBER: Can we do this later, Amy?

(LAUGHTER)

DICKINSON: It was like...

FELBER: I'll say two things. Number one - I had a cold. I didn't want to get Amy sick. Number two - there are limits to friendship.

SAGAL: That's true. You had this one dish I loved. It was technically a side dish, but it was my favorite. It was collard greens, right, with kimchi, which of course is the famous...

DICKINSON: It was so good.

SAGAL: Now, here's the thing.

LEE: This is what I deal with all the time.

SAGAL: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

DICKINSON: It was so good.

SAGAL: You said here, hey, I'm a Korean guy from Brooklyn, and I'm here to take one of your staple foods, call it braised collard greens with a little ham and I'm going to put in kimchi, a Korean pickle, and they did not want to hang you, apparently.

LEE: No. Well, no. That's not true, some do.

TOM BODETT: I just heard a few.

LEE: We have a small restaurant.

SAGAL: That's true.

LEE: And we have a security guard at the door. The name is a real funny thing to me because when I first started doing events around the South I would travel and set up shop. And, you know, you would do these tasting tables and they would always have a little placard, right, with your name on it. And it would say, Edward Lee, Louisville, Ky. You know, so you know, Lee is - can be also a Southern name. People would come and they would look at me and they would look at the plaque then they would look at me and they would look at the plaque and it would go on. You know, and there was a whole bunch of like, yeah, that's really me.

SAGAL: So what part of Louisville are you from, son?

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: Or, you know, when's the real chef coming? I was like, no, that's me.

SAGAL: You have actually described yourself - and I'm quoting him - a typical Korean redneck. What in the world does that mean?

LEE: Go down to 4th Street, there's a bunch of them.

SAGAL: Really?

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: You know, well it's funny. So when I first moved down here people wanted to introduce me to, like, the finer things in life - you know, country clubs and horseback riding and stuff like that. And I enjoyed it all and I love it and I still do a little bit of it, but then I started to meet some rednecks.

SAGAL: Yeah.

LEE: And they were like, whoa, we're going to go frog giggin', you know, we're going to go shoot things, you know?

DICKINSON: They know how to have fun.

LEE: And I was like this is so much more fun than country clubs.

SAGAL: Really?

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: So I just - I don't know. I just naturally gravitate towards, you know, killing small animals.

SAGAL: Right.

LEE: But eating them, just not for sport, eating them. There's a lot of frogs in this world. Got a get rid of them.

SAGAL: Well, Edward Lee, so delighted to talk to you. We've asked you here to play a game we're calling...

BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: It's Just Like Horse Racing, If You Pretend They're Tiny Horses.

SAGAL: Since we are in Louisville, capital of thoroughbred horse racing - the sport of kings...

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: ...We thought we would ask you about the dog racing, sport of retired bus drivers.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Answer two questions about dog racing correctly, you'll win a prize for one of our listeners - Carl's voice on their voicemail calling a race. Bill, who is Chef Edward Lee playing for?

KURTIS: Hannah Crabtree of Bugtussle, Ky.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right. Are you ready to play the game?

LEE: Born ready.

SAGAL: OK. Edward, here is your first question. Greyhound racing has been around for thousands of years and has been popular all over the world. Arab princes back in the Middle Ages used to love to race their dogs, but how do they get over the Islamic prohibition against consorting with dogs? A, they dressed the dogs in special miniature camel suits; B, they just decided that their dogs were not in fact dogs; or C, they turned their backs on the racecourse and hired Jews to narrate the race for them.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: I feel like answering this question is going to get me in trouble.

SAGAL: Probably.

DICKINSON: Don't answer.

LEE: I'm going to go with the most outrageous answer, and I'm going to say A.

SAGAL: You're going to say A, they just dressed the dogs in miniature camel suits. Zip them up. No, actually it was B, they just decided that their dogs weren't dogs. The Arab princes who loved to race dogs just said that their racing dogs, an ancient breed called Salukis, just weren't dogs. They're not, so it's OK. You still have two more chances. Many famous people in history have loved dog racing. In fact, which of these actually happened? A, General George Armstrong Custer enjoyed a dog race right before the Battle of Little Bighorn; B, James Joyce wrote "Ulysses" to pay off his massive debt at a Dublin dog track, or C, Barry Bonds, as he pursued the home run record, always kissed his pet greyhound, Woundsley (ph), before every at bat.

DICKINSON: What?

LEE: I know a little bit about literature, and I do remember that James Joyce had a gambling problem, so I'm going to go with B.

SAGAL: You're going to go with B that he wrote "Ulysses." So you're thinking that he's saying to himself, oh, man, I'm down 40 quid. I better write the lasting monument of English literature.

(LAUGHTER)

FELBER: And not a quickie way of earning my money back. No, I'm going to write one of the longest novels ever.

LEE: Can I change my answer?

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: It might be A.

SAGAL: It might be A? Are you going to go with A?

LEE: It might be A.

SAGAL: Yes, it was A.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

LEE: Custer loved racing or coursing his greyhounds - had a whole pack of them. In fact, he's often found napping in the middle of them in the middle of the day. All right. If you get this last one, you win.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Much like every other sport, greyhound racing has had its doping scandals. Authorities suspected the use of drugs at a racetrack in London recently when what happened? A, the greyhounds all came out of the gate and chased a bag of Doritos rather than the hare; B, some of the dogs just fell over and grinned happily instead of running; or C, one of the fixers accidentally injected himself and then ran off and tried to catch the rabbit.

LEE: Well, I've done A, so I don't think that's true, so I'm going to go with B.

SAGAL: You're going to go with B, the dogs just fell over. That's right. That's what happened.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)

BODETT: Oh, wow that cloud looks like a rabbit, man.

SAGAL: Bill, how did Edward Lee do on our quiz?

KURTIS: With two out of three, he is the pride of Bugtussle, Ky.

SAGAL: There you go.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Edward Lee is an award-winning chef and restaurateur. When you're in Louisville, eat at his restaurant. Edward, thank you so much for joining us.

LEE: Thank you.

SAGAL: Edward Lee.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT'S THAT COOKING")

DEKE DICKERSON: (Singing) What's that cooking? Roasted chicken. What's that cooking? Fingerlickin', marinated with herbs and spice. Roasted chicken sure is nice.

SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill trades his huppah for a hookah in the Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT ...WAIT DON'T TELL ME from NPR.

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