today on larry king live there are a innovators the only way you're able to connect with a guest in surprise and i think is with how the food actually taste and how you make them feel when they're in the restaurant what made michael voltaggio what made you think it's work ethic and i think that's what makes any person who succeeds in their profession well you're a fan of lots and bagels as you're calling this big ozone watch my mother is fainting plus not me bald guys what makes a great meatball right here is grandma's recipe compared with these hands there's a ball handler all next on larry king now. our special guest today on larry king now is michael voltaggio he is the award

winning chef and restaurant tori was recently named one of food and wine magazine's best new chefs of twenty third team in one of the top chef show back in twenty zero nine and he did his brother in that show and he's the owner of this incredible restaurant. on the wildly successful restaurants here in los angeles he's got another place right down the street called and said why did you name it inc inc well everyone's first idea i think is that it was a tattoo reference and it's the furthest thing away from that as you could or go out in wide fountain pen that's actually closer to the real meaning we couldn't think of the name of the company we were trying to start our corporation it's something i and see period we couldn't think of something that made sense for us so we're sitting around and we're like inc inc inc inc inc something in can they were like why not just call it inc inc and it was kind of a joke and then we relate if we put a k. on the end instead of a c. then anything that's in ink is permanent so the idea was that. we would start

a company that would hopefully be around for a while is this your first restaurant it is well the same a shop opened first but what made you decide to go on your own i think eventually you know you need to figure out if you can do it your own way if you can succeed yourself without anyone else telling you how to do it and i think it comes back full circle when you work for somebody else you're kind of doing it through their vision and you're executing their vision and then when you start managing other people it comes back again because you start realizing that you're taking influence from their vision to make your vision stronger and i think that it was out of arrogance at first but now i learned a big lesson that i need. to take that same influence that is to take from the people that i work for and apply it to the people that work for me what is most gastronomy that term doesn't sound like food i think that term was created for people to try and understand a food movement that was happening ten years ago or so where chefs were taking

things that were done in a laboratory and applying that to cooking in a kitchen. for me it's we're not taking food down to like a molecular level we're just we're taking advantage of technology today and using that as a way to improve how we cook our food or in some cases not improve how we cook our food depending on how it comes out i was raised in a jewish home and i'm old school my wife my beat well done you know i like to basics what i enjoy nk. i think we could find something on the menu. to search you know we've converted vegetarians in this restaurant so i think it's it's a matter of taste restaurants today with the internet and technology and everything like that you see everything before you ever go inside of it so the only way you're allowed to the only way you're able to connect with a guest and surprise them i think is with how the food actually tastes and how you make them feel when they're in your restaurant g.q.

magazine called this the best new restaurant in two thousand and eleven in the country. was in good from the start we were. we were i think busier than i wanted to be because i didn't feel like we were doing we were doing our best work when we first opened when g.q. called. jim nelson called from the magazine and you know i asked him i said that's great but why why why did you pick us you know and i was surprised that he had chosen us because a lot of great restaurants are open that year and he said you know honestly it wasn't it wasn't the most perfect experience war or whatever i just remember he couldn't really say what it was specifically about the experience he said that he just liked it and for me that was good enough there there didn't need to be an explanation it didn't need to be measured by how pressed the knockings were or how clean the dining room was which we take a lot of pride in all of those things it's a fact that when he was here he felt good when he left he couldn't touch one thing that made him feel that way what would you think you put

a stamp on what made michael voltaggio what made you. it was a dish was a concept i think is work ethic and i think that's what makes any person who succeeds in their profession is the idea that you're going to work hard. and you know how long have you been doing what you're doing now fifty seven years and i bet every single day that you wake up to do this it's as if you were doing it fifty seven years ago and i think you have to go into it that same do that same discipline for yourself so that that i mean hopefully in fifty seven years i'm still going to get to go stand behind the stove and hopefully call my septic was ina's still here and we were still cooking food for people is your brother your brother he's a very good chef is he had his own restaurant he's got four he just opened one that's like twelve thousand square feet which is it's in d.c. and he had an effect on you he did my first job was working in a kitchen where he was the sushi up so he was in charge he was the first person

under the chef and i was just the cook and we hadn't gotten past that it was that that's when i had to learn the professional relationship between. a leader in an employee or a boss an employee and in my situation my brother was my boss so i had to learn really quickly that you know you're not allowed to fistfight in the kitchen that you're not allowed to scream at your boss and do you enjoy fame. i mean that's a that's a hard question to judge you know that probably hard to get into this place where it's difficult i mean we've got we're like any other restaurant and we have our slow nights you know we treat it like a business it's not it's not a circus and you know when our review came out from the l.a. times i remember that the writer had written something like voltaggio stands at the kitchen like a carnival barker telling the ladies to step right up and come and it wasn't it's never even been about that for us it was that i feel like people wanted to say

that's what we're about as opposed to coming in and appreciating that we're the complete opposite of that i hear there's another restaurant concept coming we're looking at other restaurant concept opportunities for sure we definitely wanted to know i think for me now i want to stay here can you give me as to what time a concept it would be i don't know as they hint i chinese deadly not chinese but that you know it's it will be whatever we conceive with each other here in the restaurant i mean we'll talk about it we'll figure out what the next thing is one of the. there's a famous restaurant in miami beach called joe's stone crabs i still have my movies and they have a guy a toast i'm quitting his only job is to look at the food before they bring it to the table how important is the way something looks it's the first sense it's touch maidish lens in front of you so your eyes and then you smell it and then you start to taste it so i think that visually. that's one of the most important things

because that's the first impression that you have when you said addition friends that's a big part of your concept absolutely you know we just see what we shall see you let's go michael what are you going to make for me walk well i heard your fan of lox and bagels is that yes i am ok i was raised a moxon but so this is this is what we refer to as the belly exam and so when you make a smoke salmon usually do the whole side of this is smoked salmon made just from the center lines of the best part of the fish just going to do a couple little slices of it and and this is a dinner dish this is a dish for larry this is larry's dish on this actually i've never done this dish before so it's either going to be really good or it's going to be really bad without we on their menu it could be well it depends you wouldn't call the bagels and lox what would you call it on the increment call the larry's bagels and lox larry's berries and those unlocks right away. i want this on the menu and i will start to flag this place is i mean you just made a reservation i'm going to make

a reservation somebody write that down well as the wife well everything's going to eat here given here you have an unlisted number. so this lettuce is is fully dressed we put it into a bag and vacuum packed it so that the dressing if you're at a salad you start eating at the top of it tastes really good but then you start digging around the bottom of it and it's dry and there's no lettuce that because they saturate the top of the salad before they send it out a lot of restaurants will toss everything together so what we do is we put the dressing in the bag we vacuum pack it so it sucks all the dressing right into the lettuce and you get the same bite every time you got it so that's just lemon lemon been a grad so that's a lemon part of it for the caper part of it without caper powder would be appropriate you need capers with bagels and lox these are capers that have been hydrated and then blended into a powder so this is caper powder if you want to sprinkle some of that you want me to do this how many how much capers do you like that you're going to eat i'm not going to get i'm not a big kid i'm not thinking a little all right like right there on the some of the chair ok there's somebody in

cambridge out for a little mess here with it too and then red onions so this is a red onion gel basically so things rather than the things you like things of the things of the things i get that are my goal that i give us a goal so this is a red onion. well just put some of that how much written in you like it's good it's good that's it ok. we've got. our big oh so mon it's not really a big oh it's i like anchovies so does this is this is a duo that we made out of anchovy i like it and i like i like pork rinds but pork rinds aren't very kosher so not kosher months not yeah i learned that when i moved to l.a. so we were making the same thing out of anchovies so this is basically an anchovy dough that when we fry it all looks like a pork rind but tastes a anchovies it was a piece of paper. ok so the job that he did otto and wait for it to flow to the top once it floats to the top of the wood for the right off it goes

from this to this look at that so that's our big go now or in show v pork rind if you will with no pork obviously and then we've got over here some of gravity or sea grass it's like a little sea grass a little weed like this is going to me garny yes garnish carney will just dress is a little bit of olive oil a little bit of salt and will place a couple pieces of that right on top of the. let is there one we've got a green cheese cream cheese perfect so this is cream cheese no with just a little bit of horseradish in it ok this is like no dish i've ever seen so we're going to does that little bit of cream cheese and horseradish no because you're calling this big ozone watch my mother is fainting ok well the idea is that it's all taste the same when you get into it though and it will take her in show be big or small crispy cracker thing and just sit in there like that and so that's larry's

but we're not going to be able to dig into it you know like i just said you do because i was here watching so i tell you it's weird first of all we will say this it looks different so i would not call it if we're going to serve this is a dish ok and in ink i would not call it lars bagels and lox we're going to call it . loudly in like two hours i'm going to figure that out before you bring the menu larry locks swap larry's locks aswat perfect l o x a as a i can i get right down ok it locks us was that all is lost as well. got it. all were there you go perfect good thank you. and so i can put on many of the nine. what are on the menu now we only use this in the evening but we don't open till six so it isn't even

edition i guess the needed such sometimes we get one free rolls going up. we don't serve rolls and serve bread now it's all a everybody's good and very. pleasing the next time you come doing if you get in. ask him for larry's walk. if they don't have a strong out. it's very good thank you thank you and honestly make this a regular of this disc it's world to the city they would come some called the city for those less kind of levees the heights of the lizard the larry's locks this walk you have this a great place and it's been a lot of fun and i can't wait to bring the why don't you larry appreciate my cold cold ta joe and it's very. beautiful and.

it was a family very hard to take i. want to get on here there's a lot happening that that would make their lives. a little. bit. please. please. please if the people.

crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want.

the meat ball guys are here they are daniel holzman my culture now and then we do obama and a wildly successful chant of restaurants in new york city called the meat ball shop we don't have a kitchen in our studio but the guys were kind enough to whip up some of the signature meatballs for me i will taste one and then get into the end of. oh she was borders a source a classic tomato sauce very simple burger and with this is cheese little cheese keep it kosher. a jewel of a nice little spicy touch a little kick. for company. how did this all happen for you we we both worked in restaurants and for kids actually together we screwed got our first restaurant get together when we were thirteen fourteen years old and we were delivering the good food on the upper east side ironically the handle café

delicious if you are a vegetable who wants to be i've been so so you know we we had decided that you know about four and a half years ago that we were going to open up a restaurant together we couldn't figure out a concept that that we both wanted to do we really were having a very very hard time. i knew that dan ultimately wanted to do the only one for him feeling that it would not go good. and so he had worked in fancy restaurants his whole life really after our little stint at the beacon restaurant he went straight into the into into four star restaurants and and you don't want to do fancy food anymore and. so we found this restaurant we still didn't know all we wanted to do the restaurant had a little side window the side window was right next to a very busy bar we saw bleaker and broadway bleecker and lafayette lower east side lower east side leader and barry and we go back between bearing the nodal and so. there was a bunch of people hanging outside of this bar smoking cigarettes and doing whatever they do on bar we both rode over there and and we saw. we saw an audience we needed

to feed them but we didn't want them necessarily to come into the restaurant cause they were drunk in latin whatever so we set that aside one of their we're going to serve something out of that side window i worked at an italian restaurant for a long time i would always eat meat balls by themselves he would order he would order spaghetti meatballs hold the pasta because he's a healthy guy i mean you don't want to eat the carbs a little late and then he would order a side of a side of spinach a side of broccoli would dip it into the sauce and would eat and i would bust his chops because you know you guys hold the positive month and i would be eating my rigatoni reglued was delicious and he told me at the time i was a little bit heavier so so he stayed in called the meat ball is so we basically said you know let's do meatballs nobody's actually executed a meatball concept what makes a great meatball. right here you're staring at him these hands these hands it's gramma's reza be compared with these hands this man is a ball handler so when you have five of them who's doing the others where are you guys we have you know actually recently we just brought all the meatball production

into one place so we actually have the five guys that started with us almost three years ago now three and a half years ago now and all of them work together make in the meat balls everything shipped up to the store and then we ship not every morning all the day got it up there and then we and we and we hit him up with everything all the all the chefs are incredible that work in the restaurants but one chef would have a little have a ham and a salt you know we taste you know and the so we wanted to make sure that the meatballs were consistent from store to store to store and that was the main motivation for what they say these are the best and you also tips that really. i wouldn't kids i would tell you a good while i want you to know that last night at. ten o'clock last night i went to the market i bought i bought the i bought the meat and all the ingredients and we started making these meatballs and i thought i hope these new polls are good because you know i mean this is this is not this could be a basis you know fifteen minutes with mr king could run downhill if he thought he was the only growing national dish you know we wouldn't have a we don't have

a plan to go national we certainly know that meatballs are liked all over the world specifically in new york right now we had a pop up actually in venice and l.a. in l.a. in los angeles and you know a thousand people showed up in four hours is pretty incredible for us to see that she wouldn't open here most likely not for then. we would love to open here but you know where new york and there's still neighborhoods in new york city that are are begging for the balls to the rest of us we have about one hundred seats in our biggest store and forty seats in our small center still seven outside the window absolutely not and. the window now but i can't believe i'm so so sad that this we made this for you this is this is a brooklyn. her big will those. are storm and this is a big pizza sandwich this is seven thousand calories and not only that but it is as close as it gets can i add weight to this because you're going to have a little more of i'll give even i do is from brooklyn more to big old you know old

guard are you going to get an older one hundred three he'd take a bike ride or die or to make up i actually stopped by brooklyn water bagel the other day as though he would get that it's alleged was pretty good kid and then i hope you enjoyed his photos with. it do you miss five star restaurants i do i do i love working in the environment i miss mostly i just miss the camaraderie of working in the kitchen but you know we had a man in the kitchen a couple of days ago i mean i'm told everybody knew it but you guys like to use my on my big voice when i'm indoors neda's in the kitchen with us and the secret is to maintain consistency so i was annoyed as you say i would say that the secret is to maintain consistency in our industry but but the real secret the real secret in the biz because it's such a tough business is to make sure that your staff is excited to be there and that is that that is at the end by far and away the most important piece of the puzzle making sure that your staff is taken care of because everything speaks to that what

does this had signify what is this symbol that is our that's our grinder it's a symbol of our brand you know we we really fell in love with the grinders we use grinders in the de corridor at our restaurants and people sort of know that now walking down the streets in new york running around me you know we're always on the grind grind grind when we grind our own meat and began to fans right beginning fans i'm a bit of fan we're brooklyn dodger fans will l.a. dodgers to our live group at the dodgers i grew up with the brooklyn dodgers when i was a duke snider mania new jackie robinson i was at his first game really is it true you hire homocysteine this guy right here a couple of years ago. he started a foundation three amazing. where you know he's able to actually change change people's lives and take people that haven't had a great opportunity and give them give them what what they need in life to actually succeed it's pretty special you know we started something called me ball heroes you

know and as a restaurant in new york city we always get asked by so many different charities to participate and we always do participate and then about a year and a half ago i said you know we participate in so many different charities would be really nice to sort of focus on something that we feel is personal touch to and so the covenant house in new york city is a shelter where they where they housed homeless youth and body works there and he took me there and we walked through and i was really touched by the experience and i thought what better way to give back to the city that i grew up in than to offer an opportunity to some some kids that really want to work and they just didn't have it they don't have it i don't know chantelle fishley some of our best some of our best employees have grown who are chefs have actually come through the program so i mean they've been with us for over a year and it's and ledge them in new york and i want to come by the meatballs hopes and be very nice but to be sure i'm not even going to tell you i'm coming all right we will be there waiting a papa are let you know i'm seventy seven then such and right this is that's and

that's the newer shop the biggest on the newest we want to include game called if you only knew what your favorite meatball pork meatball. get a slice of courtney voltz god god's gift that pork is the forbidden fruit god made the apple taste so great and then told the jews not eat it that is the pick what do you approve me cool actually not a meatball vegetarian bowl so we do an amazing veggie of all the restaurant and i eat it every single day what's what's in it lentils mushrooms on the ends carrots celery parsley a lot of people there's just like a meatball guilty pleasure. ladies food you can't stand. i'm not a lamb guy that's is favored you know my lot and you come into this show i hate eggs that's what we heard it was he was going to make you a meatball egg and cheese sandwich and they were like it was your favorite my favorite food we have chocolate. who's your favorite. i love dan barber

where is he at the blue hill stone bar it's no favorite chef you know favorite dish but never change and i'm sure a cook good dish should never mastered souffle. everything you're not a cook i'm a cook but i'm definitely not a chef and i don't master was it was during cooking shit a guy that likes to cook and a chef is a guy who actually knows what he's doing is a chef that tells the other people what to do. like over or under cooked absolutely . i'm an undercurrent i don't know who i prefer very or a well done man i'm a well a jew if the usa as it is not a world but i like it it's i think i'm going to add there can't even handle it i just can't can you explain it to me just a second we just have to take a second i hate red meat what is what is the thing with because my mother if there if there's a speck of light in that meat right over there what's what is it what is that a lot of like that because it tells you too much it's like blood as we're brave is

and i don't want to eat better but you're eating the thing anyway i know but it did the thought of the rich as just i don't recall that would take its bite of a living cow for you i mean i would just first of all it resonates fully to me and doesn't know with how many times have you tasted it while here sometimes just so there are some restaurants where they won't do it well done and so i'll say medium well then they can blame oh i hate that but it would be do that to me one or six words of i was in the french restaurant new york it was lunch i don't eat eggs so i sit down look at the menu didn't understand one thing on the menu anything so i said ok i'll have a cheese omelet but i want to burnt burnt and i want extra cheese and maybe one day you know i don't want to taste you wanted cheese you want to cheese on my son the eggs right sort of like meat boy i didn't know i'm going to get their chef comes out with table of six six guys who is going order does that get out

at all i like the soup nazi oh i get out he says me or you my job or you leave i will not make this omelet and when you said i left. yeah i would leave too by the way you're not going to find any rare meat balls in the middle of nowhere no rare ball no red well as those are saying is a rib you know our balls are fully fully cooked and nobody you can't make a rib me but i mean you could but i wouldn't have steered. sushi no possible way right now not a sushi man. no sushi period zero i have never can do it could make my wife loves it always dinners my wife the other night she had. he's going to say one of my kona tutor tart char oh. well she is adventurous. too tart are. you guys are regular guys. working on a different generation i mean there's not as many or expand for me we have already ration and give me ten years of dough tenuous about what's happening i went to the

ball stores i mean there are now many posters will probably have around you know. fifteen all in new york i won't even know about it i'll just be on a yacht somewhere i only have a yacht all in new york you know i'm going to know it will probably when you're at the lobby all i know is it will be out in new york at some point but you know for right now new york is is our market we love new york or hardcore new yorkers and but chicago i would love us chicago jersey definitely jersey so expansive jersey is going to happen and it was friends of mine entrepreneurs love man what would you guys go portland oregon absolutely not they have to go to cali first so we have to have los angeles for us up like ok you guys are terrific thank you so much ok don't forget the maple shop affair in new york thanks to my guest daniel holes on my cultural he said let's meet bull's eye of add one more information go to w.w.w. dot the meatball shop to look up their locations and really could find me on twitter at kings things see you next time make it will.

world. science technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered. wealthy british style.

expert on. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds of reports on. a. i'm not a martin this is breaking the set yesterday the world lost a legendary man pete seeger was a folk musician who produced over one hundred records with hit singles such as where of all the flowers gone and guantanamera.