with the writing gradients, celebrity chefs have earned their chops into businesses. luring us in with the tips of the trade and the high-stakes drama of attention. tv shows, restaurants and cookbooks. these personalities have made eating into a multibillion-dollar industry and we all know some of the best conversations happen over a male to we gather at a classic new york city restaurant. first up, mario batali.

he got schooled in remote italian village. he is known around the world for his restaurants, cook books, and personality. hurry, you tell me or in i marty leaving the house. up in her family's restaurant business, she turned her concept of 30 minute meals into an empire. is too humble to take credit, calling her career a happy accident. being a chef says was not cool when he went to school. but he change that in the early 1990's. >> nurse r.o.k.. out is -- is ok

with hardware. >> the chicken liver mousse was really -- or helping the world's hungry find a plate at the table. welcome two titans of the table. thank you for joining us. p.j. clarke's been around since the 1800s. irishk it was an immigrant who came here and decided it was a great restaurant and bought it and expanded it. at your own businesses and say i hope this stays around for over 100 years? >> no. mesa turned 22 years old this year. ourave already outlived original plans. we planned on getting in, but we did not have a plea -- plan of

getting out. idea, but that would be four or five generations of chefs and families. are you preparing your business for that possibility? >> my mistake was -- >> creating something we can sell as a group, like people in this room are doing, they are not- really valuable as an expendable chain or group of restaurants. >> you have 21 to choose from. us, it has to be the casual concept. we think it's a will be the way we are going. how about you, bobby? do you think about your businesses for the next 50 years? i opened mesa grill, i

was 26. i wasn't thinking about anything except the next weekend. i just wanted to build the restaurant that i always wanted to build. i have already seen that restaurant growing up. it had a lot of energy to it. the food was american. it it a lot of flavors do evolved because it is important to continue your concept within the concept itself without changing it. the hardest thing that i have had to put a stop to is all my cooks are watching with the next food trend is. when asian cuisine came along, i said hold on. we don't need to know every single thing for every trend. shoots came in, we -- when youo know

crave the food, sitting at home trying to decide where to eat, and you feel like having something with chile peppers, you think of mesa grill. blonde we started doing what we were doing, we were rallying against those restaurants. we wanted to be independent. will beght was never, i here for 100 years. about thoseinking lines. even when we opened gramercy tavern, we were not thinking of 50 years in the future. when i started cooking, i had no idea that i would be working in new york. we did not have a model for a young, american chef doing whatever kind of cuisine.

there was nobody to follow. getting a cooking job was the last thing you did when you got out of the military. it was the lowest common denominator. you could always get that, no matter what your education. when i told my parents i wanted mecook, they had a vision of standing there with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth. what would you say was your big ?reakthrough moment might career has been a series of happy accidents. i enjoy a long day, i enjoyed many plates in the air. not in the real long-term, but i think bobby hit

on something that is very important. you should always get up with the intent of making us up at her and to grow and learn. but you have to know what you do well and what you offer. i never had any designs or ideas on being in television. i love working in food, i had a pickup talk and a great job. any job in food makes me happy, with the -- with the exception of dish machine operator. i don't wish to have a job again. i wanted to get back into restaurants for years. we will finally get that accomplished this year, i hope. dayst want to get up every and have a new purpose and new goals. i also want to stay true to the brand we have built over the years. we are successful if we make you happy.

>> our job is to provide you with the confidence to follow the recipe book. >>

define your brand in three words. >> can do. i want you to be able to envision, everything we touch is a group and -- >> never enough. if i had to choose the ones, it would be authentic, the lucius, and it would either be italian-- >> bobby what about you? american ands, grilling. when it gets warmer in the northeast, people -- they look for ideas and tips. >> i want to be remembered for to make people happy. if we can do that we will be

successful. >> it's all about sharing. you couldn't before you ever read. it is a wonderful way to make a living. we cook and make delicious food, but if you believe happy we are successful. it iny also look at value. and there is value at the $100 entree, and there is valid -- value at the two dollar entree. it's how they remember, whatever that experience was, when they think about it day or two later, people think were heroes, but it is really about making it delicious. >> you have restaurants that are very difficult to get into, but you also try to make yourself accessible. how do you balance that?

>> we are not talking from the top of a vaulted key, telling people what to do. we look straight across at every single person that wants to learn how to grill, that wants to talk about it tell you and or competition shows. we share it directly across the table. has their ever been a push and pull in your life as you try to get more accessible to the average american, you run the risk of compromising the credibility of your restaurants? >> i was talking about that this morning. it is a big question. time wherewn up in a food has become very important in this country. -- the three of us, that

own restaurants and owned it for a long time get it at the higher end marketplace. you had to think about going there and spending your money. as time has gone on, people like rachel have come along and brought the rest of the world home,ood food, to make at and also at the right price point. we also look at that and say how can we be in that business as well? that's the way we live our lives most of our days. we don't eat it four-star restaurants every night. we have suffered such a poor economy for so long, anybody who wanted to stay in business, you had to offer it in new and more affordable ways. that came out of a prolonged. of economic depression as more good food, food truck craze and the special offers to get people

into the pricey restaurants. we have a big invitational, part of this food and wine fest alled the burger bash,, pretty serious throwdown competition. there are putting their skills in to make it accessible. i don't think those things are mutually exclusive. >> you know immediately if it doesn't seem right.

how would you describe mario's brand? >> bigger than life. alwayswhat i think of, ready to have a good time and always ready to feed people. always up for fun. >> and how would you describe to --m's brand? ,> he chooses things carefully

he makes delicious food, but his passion is on his sleeve all the time. accessible,rand, passionate, and a great home cook. incredibly focused and she has been doing that for a long time very well. >> everybody here, i am fan of all of theirs. there are all accessible in their own way. much for thee so shows we do with the young people. i love watching him talk to kids with as much respect as any grown-up person in the room. he is so focus. he doesn't do stuff for the cameras. >> he is the same on camera as off? he is doing so much of these

kids. he has talked with the kids. we only shot for a few minutes. the cameras were off, and he stood there and coach them, and advise them. it was so lovely to see. >> all of you are big brands, you also endorse products. rachel you partner with kohl's, the first thing i designed was an oval pasta pot. sweaty before you have even done anything. and pots, stoneware pans, i work with meyer corporation to produce those things for me, but it's not like i am a spokesperson for them. >> you put your name behind it. >> sure.

they are all practical. it the largest value of its kind in that type of category? >> a lot of chefs will have a producer go get market goods somewhere in china, bring it back and put their name on, and that is all right, too. are a lot of people you can see on qvc on a regular basis good. it is a quick way to capitalize on their recognition factor. athel and i and everyone this table will agree that is a fast and easy way to get money, and very appealing. i have turned down a lot of things. proposals --ds of they want us to get into the commercial olive oil business camera and --, and mediocre

spaghetti business. necessarily a bad idea if you don't mind that you looks kind of bad in the long run. you have to make sure everything your brand has is high quality. >> younger people come to me fortifies, regarding opportunities, you are in a great position, thing will shape you buy the things that you say no to instead of what you say night -- yes two. it might not be the brand to -- for you. say no to things all day long, whether it's different grills, tons of food products, restaurant chains. to check your debt. your gut knows immediately if it doesn't seem right and you have to walk away from it.

>> if i use it, i will endorse it. i sell diet coke in all my restaurants, you get a diet coke if you order that. it did not bug me at all. said no to frozen dinners and tomatoes us. i say no to everything. >> some people believe that the competition shows are rigged. >> it takes you 20 years to build up brand and three days directly entire thing.

>> you are celebrities in your own right. there are celebrities in hollywood trying to get into the food business. i -- i think about gwyneth paltrow. you had eva longoria, who has youed restaurants, what do

think about these celebrities trying to get into your business? it creates more awareness in general for the food industry. i was just talking to mario before we sat down, and i said, tech -- technically jay-z is your partner is in the? think that is cool that he is interested in food. >> he is fascinated by it. he won't build a cheesesteak place. if i was going to get into the i wouldbusiness, probably call apple. other people are trying to capitalize on it. it is like putting a sticker on commercial goods on something you bought from current -- china. there is less learned jeopardy

in putting your sticker on something you don't really understand. >> owning and operating is not just about having the capital. everybody has a fascination about food and wannabes of it. the beauty of our field is that there is no entrance fee. you can come in and cook anytime you want. our job is to provide you with the confidence that you can do it and follow a recipe book or following a cooking segment or follow you on page six -- there's a whole vicarious pleasure to eating and preparing delicious food. the average person has a sort of strange understanding of what chefs do. the way i like to explain it is if you are hearing classical

music, who gets top billing? the conductor. you don't expect the conductor to jump down and pick up a violin at star plane. if you did, it would be chaos. the chefs write the music, we are in the catch is to orchestrate. we are not actually cooking. we are writing the menus, and the recipes. it is our way of setting up a kitchen. and we are teachers and we are executing it we are not in their playing the fiddle every night. >> when you get to a brand as big as all of you, how do you make sure your restaurants are using the kind of food that you want them to? is, you have to check your ego at the door. the second you think that nobody else can do what you can, then

you should have one restaurant instead of seven. >> i think tom touched on it. coach of is being a the team, being a supervisor and being the last word about how the food is supposed to look, make sure that they don't take shortcuts. make sure they are tasting the food, check them for seasoning. i have chefs at sous chefs that answer to me every day. i have six high-end restaurants and i have 14 burger places. so, it would be impossible for me to hire every single person. in the burger places, the check average is $10 as opposed to $75, $85, $95 at one of my restaurants, but we still train the cooks with proper technique, the same technique fundamentals that we would train someone in the high-end restaurants. >> where did you learn that? where did you come up with that?

when you say the same technique, who did you model that after? >> i have very little formal training in terms of school. as you know, i did not graduate high school. i dropped out when i was in ninth grade. i had to get my equivalency diploma to go to culinary school. i learned from living, living life. the only way i could figure out how to do it is to do it practically and figure out how to get it done. the only way i knew how to get it done then is the same way i get it done today, which is to never rest on your laurels, make sure that people do the fundamentals every day. i walk around the kitchens. i do not spend a lot of time fixing really fancy sauces. the thing i say more than anything else is, did you season it on both sides with salt and pepper? it is the fundamentals. a good basketball coach will tell you the same thing. put the ball down. i do not want to see if you can shoot. i want to see if you can dribble with both hands. i take the same approach as a coach in my kitchens. >> i want you to construct a dish using cherry coke. >> yes, please. >> "iron chef" -- i've done 80 of them. >> we are looking for another way to go here.

♪

>> you are all tv stars. and all of you started loving food, started as chefs. what is it like now to be

television stars? people see you as chefs, but they also see you as a television star. >> it is really good 80% of the time and it is not very interesting 20% of the time. if i am sitting there with my kids and i want to have a nice breakfast, i have sold a part of that down the tubes because i have agreed to meet the customers. i like it. it is fun. it is fun to be popular. it always was. i don't know this from high school, i learned later on. [laughter] but there is a lot of good to it, and the little bit that is bad about it -- if you do not want to talk to your customers, you should be home. don't go out there and treat them with anything other than respect. it takes you 20 years to build a brand and three bad days to wreck the entire thing. if you do not feel like engaging in a positive way, you should try to stay out of their way. >> do you like those cooking competitions, those game shows that you have been part of and you have judged? >> yeah, otherwise i wouldn't do them. i do not apologize for anything i do.

i did a show on nbc called "america's next great restaurant" that lasted for only one season, but i had a great time doing it. we went through the process of trying to find somebody to create a new business. i have done five years of "throwdown." tom does "top chef." it is part of our culture now that competition is in food and i love it. "iron chef" -- i have done 80 of them. i love doing "iron chef" because i do not have to talk to anyone. i can just cook. it's actually kind of nice. >> what do you think viewers get out of it? what do americans get out of a competition like that? >> it's voyeurism. they are rooting. they want to see what happens at the end. they obviously pick a side at some point. they want you to win or lose, and that is what holds the viewer. >> keep in mind that the competition exists because the tv people know that there is something called stickiness. if there is no reason to stay to the end of the show, you will not sell your advertising. there is the payoff at the end they are relying on to keep the viewer watching. that is self-perpetuating.

we are looking for another way to go and it still will be reality competition shows for some time. >> does it annoy you when someone says, ah, bobby flay, he's a tv star, he is not a real chef? >> does anybody say that? >> people say it all the time about all of us. >> i would say that most of the consumers would not say that. what we hear mostly are people in who are in our business, our contemporaries, and i think a lot of it stems from jealousy. i know a ton of people who said to me i cannot believe you're doing television when it all first started. and mario can talk about this as well. they sent their tapes and everyone is on television. it is amazing. >> rachael, what is your relationship like with the network? >> i have a great relationship. i our daytime syndicated show is partners with scripps, parent company to food network and cooking channel. i work largely with the same people all throughout my year. i film the daytime show from september to may.

we do 180 episodes of that. then during the summer i do my food network and cooking channel projects. are there are the same people who come back and forth with me to those places. it feels like family to me. i've been on food network about a dozen years. i like that continuity. i >> those competition shows -- and i'm not talking about "top chef" itself, but some people believe those shows are rigged. >> let them believe it. who cares? >> we can't focus on negative in>> we can't focus on negative energy. >> the one thing we can't do is waste a lot of energy trying to get everybody to believe that we are putting on something that is real. it is exhausting. those people are watching, too, so we invite them in. it's ok. if you want to watch -- >> conspiracy theories sell lots of books. >> exactly. >> one of the things i want to do is our own sort of recipe challenge. will i want to have you construct a dish for a frequent guest on my program, someone that many people know in

america. a mario, let me start with you. lloyd blankfein is someone we have had on bloomberg television quite often. i want you to construct a dish you would cook for the goldman sachs ceo with new york hot dogs. bobby flay, don thompson is someone i know well. he is the ceo of mcdonald's. ahe is the ceo of mcdonald's. i want you to construct a dish for him -- >> no problem. >> using the sweet-and-sour sauce at mcdonald's. >> ok. >> tom colicchio, warren buffett is someone i have talked to quite often. her he loves cherry coke. so, i want you to construct a dish using cherry coke. >> sure, i'm the coke guy, right? great. in a >> you signed that deal, buddy. >> rachael, i will give you a bit of a curveball. elon musk is a billionaire, founder of tesla, the electric carmaker. >> those are really cool. they are very cute. >> he is south african. so, a south african beef jerky. i want you to construct a dish

using beef jerky. mario, you've had a second to in think about it. a what would you make lloyd blankfein? >> first of all, i would chop one of the hot dogs -- do i get more than one hot dog? i would chop one of them up and dredge it with flour and salt and pepper and some cayenne and make it nice and crispy and hot. i would take the other one, i would butterfly it open until it will was flat, dredge in flour and bread crumbs. i would make a hotdog schnitzel and serve it with a crispy hotdog salsa. >> nice. >> yes, please. >> i'm up for that. bobby? >> he is the ceo of mcdonald's, i you said? you i'm not going to try to serve him a hamburger. i think mcdonald's could use a little more vegetables in its life. so, i will use the sweet-and-sour sauce and i will do a roasted cauliflower, agua dulce, sort of sweet and sour with some red chilies and put it in an earthenware dish, and put it in an oven and roast it. there you go.

>> sounds good. tom? >> a midwest guy, he probably likes beef. will so, let's braise some short ribs with cherry coke and let's cut that sweetness with a lot of vinegar. >> rachael? i >> i do make a great homemade beef jerky i make for my family every year and i give it to all the dads in my family. has a lot of worcestershire, juniper, beer, soy. so, i could make my homemade batch of jerky. or you could bring the jerky back to life, make a burger and stack it on it like a bacon cheeseburger, but a jerky cheeseburger. >> that sounds good. you >> if elected officials aren't going to get behind this, they should be labeled pro hunger. >> we should be thinking about bugs. let's start getting used to it. >> eating bugs. >> i cannot even imagine the idea of it. >> we'd need a lot more rose. >> bring on the rose. ♪

>> tom, you have just executive produced a film called "a place at the table." >> fantastic film, by the way. >> talking all about how to get kids to eat healthier and how to get the government to care about

it. why can't we get proper food into our kids? who do you blame? >> that's a very complex question. i don't know if we have enough time to address everything. >> as opposed to blame, what can we do? >> it's actually not all bad news. the health and hunger-free child act was the first increase -- not enough, but it was the first increase -- >> that is criticized in tom's film. >> i criticize that. >> and i agree. >> the president asked for $10 billion. it gets ordered down to $8 billion, then it gets down to $4.5 billion, and they take half the money from snap. >> i cannot understand why both sides of the aisle would not have come together on all of the money that was granted -- >> hunger issues and obesity issues cost the country $110 billion a year. if you factor in lack of productivity, it's $176 billion a year. you would think you would want to address that whatever side of the aisle you're on. >> it does not make sense. >> why aren't lawmakers listening? >> because no one is asking them. hunger and food is not a voting issue. it's not like second amendment rights or reproduction rights. and so, no one is out there

advocating for people. there are 50 million americans who are food insecure. if all of a sudden they became a voting bloc, people would listen. >> if you watch the movie, it outlines very clearly the problems we have in the legislature but also in the home. people are choosing salty, fatty carbohydrates because they have been sold those. they are the cheapest. so, you are gettings something to eat. but the funniest thing, along with the obesity, there is malnutrition. big people are malnourished. they are not healthy. >> but again, why? we have farm subsidies, $20 billion a year, and 85% is going to corn, wheat, and soy, all these products that go into fast food or highly-processed foods. we are only subsidizing dairy and livestock to the tune of 15% and fruits and vegetables 1%. >> what about the horsemeat scandal? i want to get your thoughts on that. >> bobby's comment on that one. you're a horse guy. >> that's right, you own some thoroughbred horses. >> i do.

obviously, as an american, i cannot imagine the idea of it. i know in other countries, it is commonplace, but not for here. >> i do not know. when you're looking at a shortage of protein, why are we not looking at the sources of protein? >> because those kind of animals are expensive to grow as a protein source. we should start thinking about bugs. let's just start getting used to it. there's an infinite supply. bugs are definitely the future of protein if we are going to feed a growing planet. transferring grass through an animal to make it bigger so that you can get some kind of return on protein is a very inefficient system. >> it is a new pizza topping, grasshoppers. >> i am not against it. >> crunchy. >> right. >> you travel all over the world and you have experimented with these types of proteins. >> i've eaten bugs. >> in china, we eat chicken feet. it is a delicacy. are americans food snobs because they won't touch certain kinds of meat? >> i don't think that's snobbery.

>> it's culture. it is fear, ignorance. if you have something that is delicious not knowing what it is, and you find out what it is, odds are it is not going to bother you that much. one of the things about teaching children not to be so picky is to cook it with them. >> if they have ownership of it, they want to try it. they put their own time and effort and they're proud when their family sits down together, so they want to try it, too. >> i always hear the stories about parents feeding their kids a different meal than the parents. >> you don't agree with the whole separate children's menu at restaurants? >> absolutely not. ridiculous. >> all of our food is children's food that happens to be adult-friendly. what kid does not want to eat spaghetti? >> i hear a rumor that you may be interested in running for mayor of new york. >> the envelope, please. >> we got five guys already lined up. >> i'm going to work very hard to make tom colicchio president of the united states. >> thank you. >> i have never been more jealous than when i walked into

that place. you guys killed it. ♪

>> this has been a great meal. i want to ask what is next for each of you. me bobby, i hear a rumor that you may be interested in running for mayor of new york? >> who are you going to bribe for that one? the envelope, please. you >> we have five guys already lined up. >> wow.

i thought you were going to ask youi thought you were going to ask me something else. i i am opening a new restaurant. [laughter] >> i know that. you can talk about that, too. >> i am a native new yorker. i am proud to be a native new yorker and i love new york so much. it has been a wonderful place for me, a wonderful stage for me to be on. everybody at this table is really passionate about things. i am passionate about new york. i think that at some point in my life, i could be helpful in the political arena. i do not know when that would be. i do not know what position. people say mayor to me. people say i might run for office one day. who knows? >> you are open. >> i'm open, sure. you are >> you're not worried about a skeleton or two in the closet? >> i'm going to put the skeletons on the table day one. i don't care about that. one thing that we all have in common -- you >> skeletons? >> not only do we have skeletons, we are used to being hit on in the press. you at this point, we are numb and to it. >> everything anybody needs to

you know about bobby flay is already out there? >> totally. absolutely. do you have something i don't know? if you have something to make me more interesting, bring it out. >> tell us about the restaurant. >> i had a spanish restaurant i>> i had a spanish restaurant for 15 years called bolo. it closed about five years ago. they knocked the building down when my lease was up. i'm going to open a restaurant. you it's not going to be called bolo. i made a decision that bolo lived and died for 15 years. it will be in the spirit of bolo. the thrust will be spanish but i will utilize as much of the mediterranean as i feel comfortable with. i love those ingredients. >> i have a name for you. lobo. >> i'm sure lawrence would like that. [laughter] >> more bobby's -- burger palaces? >> i have 14 bobby's burger palaces. we will build four or five more this year. >> you are opening up in bridgehampton, right? what are your hopes for it? >> that is busy and profitable and people love it. >> you are going on a cruise, is

that right, for "top chef"? >> yes. [laughter] >> what a joy. and all the positive press cruises have been getting, who knows what's going to happen? >> we might have planned that before some of the latest news stories. >> we are opening a restaurant in las vegas in july at the mirage hotel. >> what is it? >> heritage steak. i am busy raising children and running restaurants. >> trying to change the world? >> trying to change the world a little at a time. >> rachael, what about you? >> i am going to work hard to make tom colicchio president of the united states so we get more money for children's school food. >> thank you. >> and i will spend any day off that i get for that working on the campaign for bobby flay for mayor. >> i just want you to come to the restaurant, don't worry about the other part. >> no, because that is what i have to do to support mario, my good friend. i have to spend the other 21 nights i have off at his restaurants so that he can decide where he's taking his

career next and which one gets to be the chain. >> there you go. >> i am dedicated to getting up every day and trying harder at all the things i am blessed to have the opportunity to do. i didn't plan it so far, so i am going to stick to that plan. >> would you be happy if you were doing this for the next five years? >> this is really, like, four or five different things for me. >> this for five years -- >> i'm not sure you could take it. we need a lot more rose. >> we will open a couple of eataly's. the first one, next up is in chicago. >> amazing concept. in >> fantastic. >> i have never been more jealous than when i the first time i walked into that place. you guys killed it. >> thank you. a we're proud of it. it is an honor to be able to onit is an honor to be able to associate ourselves with the italian food culture in such a way that it just feels great. anyone who walks in can be italian if they want. >> what was the key to that success? >> the originator of the idea came up with this because it was all the things he is passionate about.

italians love the food -- whatever their mom or aunt made growing up, or their grandma, or anyone in their family. so, it is generally about the flavor of the wind on the hill closest to your house. he grew up in the area where they made this wine. he wasn't a rich kid, but he worked hard and really made this great idea. and celebrating all of his favorite things to eat was what that store was about, and more than just the food, the information and the ideology behind it. he is about slow food. it was all about not fast production. it was about pure, traditional flavors of italy. when they brought it here, a lot of the things people had never seen. we bring our own production into america. you will not find a lot of products on the shelf anywhere else. it feels good. there is exclusive products. the price point to walk in there is free, and you can get something to eat for $2. it is a really happy concept. it works really well for a lot of people. >> on that note, i want to say

cheers. thank you very much for joining me on this edition of "titans at the table." ♪

? >> by now, you know his story. the kid who started the social network in his harvard dorm room. he became one of the wealthiest men in the world. what mark zuckerberg may not be changing the world just yet. taking facebook public has only made it bigger. using billions to expand his empire into photos, even virtual reality. featuring an epic battle with google, drones, lasers, stratospheric hot air balloons, to bring the internet to the farthest corners of the earth.