Supper with Sylvia #5 Al Roker, Cooking up a Storm

He's been a household name for decades and the guy millions of Americans wake up to every morning on NBC's Today Show.   But Al Roker is more than the beloved weatherman, he's a prolific author of fiction, non fiction and cookbooks.  His latest is a labor of love, a tasty collection of cherished family recipes meticulously tested and detailed with the passion and enthusiasm of his co author daughter Courtney Roker Laga.  From pancakes to  shrimp and grits, Al calls these Roker Family  recipes easy memory making dishes for every occasion. 

Supper with Sylvia is produced by Jane Stephens
Audio engineering and music by Donnie Cutting

Additional Music:
"Finding the Balance" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Transcript

Supper with Sylvia (00:06.19)

Settle in everyone and grab a cup of coffee. We've got America's favorite weatherman today. With more than 40 years in broadcasting, the today show's Al Roker has been guiding millions of viewers through snow and slush, hurricanes, heat waves and drought. But did you know he's also a Broadway actor, founder of a thriving multimedia company and prolific author? His latest project is a labor of love.

taking generations of his family and friends' favorite recipes and transforming them into a cookbook. Welcome to this episode of Supper with Sylvia.

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Broker America's favorite weather man. I am so happy to talk to you. How are you? I'm doing great. So the hour you I am doing wonderful One of the things I love about doing these podcasts and as a journalist, you know I love doing the research on the people and wow I have learned so much about you that I had no idea You are truly a Renaissance man. You do it all but we're here today to talk about this fun new cookbook

Tell me how this came about. Well, to be honest, I wasn't thinking about doing a cookbook. During the pandemic, my son and I, Nick, we were cooking and doing a thing on Instagram. And, you know, it was fun. And my daughter, Courtney, who's a professional chef, said, Dad, you've got all these likes and people are commenting and you should do a cookbook. And I said, no, I don't think so. And then she kept the after me. Finally, I said, OK.

do a cookbook, but you're gonna have to write the recipes. I'll do the head notes, but you've got to write the recipes. And to my surprise, I thought it would scare her off. She dug right in. And here we are two years later with the National Best Selling Cookbook, which I am thrilled with. Which is crazy. 20 years ago, you had another cookbook. And for people who don't know, Courtney is a personal chef.

And she also, I understand, is a recipe developer. So would you say Courtney did all of the hard stuff? absolutely. You know, I mean, look, she had worked at the beginning of her career. She worked in Michelin-starred restaurants and did all that. Then it did some catering and and then she, you know, was working as a recipe developer for an appliance company. And so I think that in fact, that's really

her first love. And so this was kind of a challenge for her. You know, we came up with about 160 recipes and went through them. And unless they had some sort of relationship to us and to our family, our extended family or chef friends, it didn't make it. So we went on it down to like a hundred recipes. And that's when the hard work for Courtney began. She had to

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Because I don't know about you Sylvia, but my mom, my grandmother, almost everybody we knew, nobody wrote down the recipes. So, like Courtney could remember eating things that my mom made, obviously I did. So, she was basically like a recipe detective. She was interviewing people and trying to find out what was in stuff, what did they remember tasting.

I just think she did an amazing job. Well, I want to add to that because first of all, the cover is so cute. There's Al holding some shrimp. also, I'm somebody who I am a good cook, Al, but I don't think I'm creative like you. I need to follow recipes. And what I love about this cookbook is it is absolutely beautiful. You have pictures, which as somebody who's really kind of a novice chef, if you will.

I need pictures to help inspire me. And these pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Really well done. Thank you, Sylvia. In fact, again, that was Courtney. She found the photographer, this wonderful photographer named Amy Roth. And Courtney did all the food styling. She styled all those pictures. When I did my book 20, 25 years ago, you know, the standard format for a cookbook, had the recipes. In the middle of the book, there was maybe

two, three pages of pictures. Now you've got to have a picture with every recipe. And I think that's one of the things that I think kind of makes the book stand out. The pictures just jump off the page. Well, besides that, I want to say to everybody, if you haven't had a chance yet, this cookbook is really more than a cookbook. I have to tell you, it's funny. It's got your funny personality. Thank you. But it's also heartwarming.

because there was a story in there that touched my heart. And you talk about how when you were a kid, you would get up extra early just to be able to have breakfast with your father, who was a bus driver and would head out early in the morning and you'd wake up before all your siblings would wake up just so you could be able to have that special time with your dad. And being an early morning TV person, you don't have that opportunity to do it with your child, but you did it.

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in a different way. Tell everybody what you did before your son went off to college, just to make sure you kind of had that connection. Well, I would make him, I'd make him breakfast. You know, he was getting up, especially he was working a summer job. He was working as a groundskeeper at City Field. And so I would, and even in high school, I would make him breakfast. And his mom, Deborah, would make it too. Deborah Roberts from ABC 2020.

But I always liked, Deborah's a little more health conscious, if you will. I'm more, you know, he's a growing boy. works out like crazy. He can handle the extra calories. And so, yeah, I'd make, you know, what I call the McRoker kind of a pancake sandwich with eggs and bacon. I'd make him omelets, bacon, stuff like that.

because, and then put it in the warming drawer so that he had a hot breakfast before he went off to school. made, listen, I loved being with my dad, but I also liked the idea of getting an extra breakfast before my siblings got up. Yeah, because you would have breakfast with your dad by yourself. And then by the time all your siblings came downstairs, your mom would make another breakfast. So you had a double breakfast every morning. Yes. And when you look at me, that's no surprise. Well, you have come.

such a long way in so many aspects of your life. And you are a busy man for people who don't know, because I have done the Al Roker Delvathon. Like I have just done all my research on Al. He has Al Roker Entertainment. He's on Sirius XM radio. This is his 14th book. And this is a thing I love.

It's so much more than just a cookbook or life stories. Al has written something called the Morning Show Mysteries that have been turned into Hallmark episodes. He has family style with Al Roker on Peacock and he does all of this while he has to get up at 3.45 a.m. every single weekday morning. How the heck do you do it, Al? Well, Sylvia, here's the deal. mean, I think, first of all, everybody's busy.

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Everybody's juggling. But I think if you can find what you love, you make room for it. I tell people, get up an hour early, because you'd be amazed at how much you can get done when you don't have either the kids or work or all these things. That's that kind of magic time where I think you

can get more done than you realize. Because by the time you get to the end of the day, you're beat, you're spent. But those first hours in the morning when the house is quiet and you've got it to yourself, I think you get a lot done. Yeah, I agree with you because until recently, Ally was also working mornings and people would say, why do you get up so early? You have to get up early anyway. But there's something about that quiet time in the morning that's just you to be able to use it to your advantage to kind of set the

the day. And I mean, you've been doing full-time weather for the Today Show since 1996. So these early morning hours are just a part of your day. And I have to ask you what people would always ask me, and that's that, did you ever get used to it? yeah. Well, I think I was almost in a way born to this because my mom said I didn't sleep a lot as a baby. I didn't nap. I would always wake up relatively early.

even on the weekends. you know, this is, I think I fell into the right job and I don't know. It doesn't, it just, is what it is. You know, people, there are people who get up early, know, shift work, you know, whether you're, you know, sanitation worker, police officer, teachers, all these folks, you know, they all gap early. So I've got nothing to kick them.

Yeah, well, I know what it's like to be exhausted during the day. So I think you have extra energy. You mentioned the McRoker for people who have not had a chance to see the cookbook yet. That is the recipe that I was most intrigued by. Tell everybody what that is. Well, it's a couple of pancakes. It's my favorite meal of the day, truth be told, is breakfast because you can do a lot of things with breakfast. But it's two pancakes, scrambled eggs.

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cheese, or kind of like an omelet, cheese and bacon. And it's kind of like a take on the McGriddle. Don't come after me, McDonald's. And it's fun because if you don't put syrup on it, it's like a breakfast sandwich. You put syrup on it. My other favorite in there, or one of my favorites, is the bacon waffle. Completely by accident, one day I had leftover waffle batter, I had leftover bacon.

I thought, wonder. So I just as an experiment, I poured the batter onto the waffle iron, laid three strips of bacon, closed it. And lo and behold, the waffle kind of envelops the bacon. And you have the perfect transport system for butter, syrup and bacon. even have a recipe for the family pet. Tell us about that. Yeah. Pepper's paw print little biscuits. She is

just the best. We lost her this summer. yeah, and it was right after the book came out. We got the first copy and I put it on the the on the counter and it fell off, know, face, you know, pages down. I picked it up and it was open to her at her picture. yeah.

There's nothing worse than losing a family pet. They bring so much joy and they're so sweet and innocent, aren't they? I gotta tell you, I still expect to open the door and she pops her, she would do this thing, you'd open the door and we had a vestibule door and she'd hear the door and she'd just kind of poke her head out around the corner. And I'm still not used to her not doing that. Yeah, that's tough. And we'll be right back.

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You celebrated your 70th birthday this year. And wow, congratulations. It's just been incredible what you've accomplished over these 70 years. Like I said, you've been with Today Show since 1996. But I look back and the amount of hardship you have had over the last, what, 2020, you had the prostate cancer diagnosis. then in 2022, we were missing you on the Today Show for a few months.

quite know what was going on. And you ended up having a kind of a life threatening health scare. Tell everybody about that and how that has impacted your life today. How has that changed you? Well, I think, yeah, listen, it was a kind of a confluence of a lot of internal stuff going on. They thought it would be a two hour, two and a half hour operation ended up going almost eight. And it was very touch and go. But the gift that Deborah and my family gave me

was that I had no idea how sick I was so that I could just concentrate on getting better. And you come away with, you know, gratitude. Listen, first of all, to have great healthcare is so important. If I didn't, I would be dead. There's no question about it. But to have family members who are advocates for you, so important. But also the love of friends.

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and of strangers, prayers and well wishes from people who you've never met. And that's got to have some impact. So, you know, your gratitude level goes way up when something like that happens. Yeah. So was watching some of the coverage and your wife, Deborah, said that she couldn't believe how many people there was this national prayer chain going and people would come up to her and say, I'm praying for your husband.

And then I watched the video of your Today Show family when they came to your house and they were singing Christmas carols and you got very emotional. I got emotional watching that. That must have been incredible. Yeah, you know, during the whole ordeal, I never cried.

But that made me that brought me to tears. It just seeing them all there it really it all kind of kind of hit home. But you know look it it's there a lot of people. Yeah, it's tough as it was a lot of people that go through more who don't have what I.

very aware of that. So, you know, while it was difficult, it was tough, you know, there's so many other people that we don't know about whom have gone through far worse. And one of the things I always remember was, you know, walking the hall of the surgical ICU, you know, because they want you to get up and walk. The number of people who didn't have anybody coming to visit, didn't have anybody in their room with them.

pop my head in and say hello. But it was, you know, it really brings that home to you. Well, I think that everybody knows you and you're just this big presence and you're always so positive and so happy. So it's been interesting to kind of see what has been going on. I all that you talk about, I talk about the hardship you have, you talk about it's always worse for somebody else.

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You're also inspiring to people. And I want to talk about that because you've been very open about your weight loss journey. You talked about the gastric bypass. And I know during that time, you must have gotten a lot of feedback from people because obesity is a huge problem in this country. And what it does to somebody's personal psyche can be overwhelming. And I know you're not one to say, hey, let me give you advice on on how to lose weight. But

I do want to say to you, what do you want to say to people who are going through their journey themselves, dealing with obesity struggles? What words of advice would you have to just enable them to keep them going like you did? Well, I would just say, don't listen. Stay off social media. Don't listen to people. You your journey is your journey. And you know, look, when I did the bypassing...

Then when public with it, people, you cheated. Just like people say, if you've done Ozempic or Wigovia, you're cheating. Well, everybody's got a different path. So don't judge people. Shut up. You've got to do what you need to do. And don't worry about the other people. They don't matter. What matters is you're taking an initiative to be better.

And that's all that matters. however you get there, you get there. And it may not be on the same timeline as you want, but as Mr. Incredible says in The Incredibles, we get there when we get there. I love it. OK, how are you doing, by the way? How's your health today? Everything's, you everything is pretty good. mean, you know, we've got to, I'll tell you the one thing that has made a big difference and in fact was kind of

One of those things that helped me get through this or the will to live, you will, Courtney shared with me that she was pregnant and she was pregnant with our first grandchild. And that little girl, Skye, is just the best. And you just smile. She's a happy baby. She's a beautiful little girl. Courtney and her husband Wes are great parents. I just, every time I see that,

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little face, you know, it's like that's everything. And you know, you would hear people talk about their grandchildren and they're going on and you're like blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you have your grandchild and you're like, Now I get it. Now I'm one of those people. You know, somebody told me, he said, if I had known they'd be this great, I would have had them first.

I also want to talk to you. You guys have made the news a lot because recently because Hoda recently announced that she's going to be leaving today's show in January. Was this as big of a surprise to you guys as it was to those of us who watch from home? Well, I found out before the show. I got a call from Hoda like at four in the morning. The same day everybody else found out. Others may have known before, but it was it was, you know, a surprise.

But it's not a shock. She's got two very young girls, daughters. And I think, you look at your life and it's like, where do you want to spend that time? So I'm really happy. And I guess my disappointment or sadness would possibly be greater

if she was just like going away, but she's still going to be part of the family. You know, we just won't see her every morning and good for her. Yeah. Absolutely. To be able to be with those girls, you know, I mean, I applaud her for making the decision. think it's terrific. It's really special. And I know that, you know, having a

a family, office family like you do. You guys do get very close. I know you all have your own lives, but I know you also wish the best for each other. OK, so let's go back to the to the food part of this for a minute here. so you and I were connected by a mutual amazing friend in Chicago, and I can't let you leave without asking you. I know you're a New York guy. Yes. But what is your personal connection to Chicago? We have a Chicago centric podcast here. What do you want to know?

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What do you want Chicagoans to know about how you feel about our city? Listen, I would say it's my second favorite city in the country after my hometown of New York. You know, I love Cleveland because I worked there for five years. you know, a good mutual friend, John Anaris, who's a chief marketing officer and chief cook and bottle washer at ConAgra. You know, we first met in New York, but

You know, he's been in Chicago for years now and it's just, it's a great city. I mean, you see the architecture, you got a river running through it. It's a terrific food too. You know, there's just, it's got the L, the subway. I mean, you got so much going for you. You know, got carrots, popcorn. There you go. So that brings me to this question, because I like to ask everybody this. When you do come to Chicago, because I think you come here often enough.

Is there a favorite place that you love to go to, a favorite restaurant? You gotta have your Garrett's. When you come to Chicago, what do you have to do? I like the Chicago cut steakhouse. You know, I love, what's the name of the donut place? there's quite a few of them. There's stands, there's donut vault. There's You know, I finally went to Mr. Beef. I'd never been to Mr. Beef. And that was terrific.

Girl and the Goat. You know, all the... I guess you could get a bad meal in Chicago. just... No, we're kind of snooty that way, even though we're called the second city. We think we're the first city when it comes to delicious restaurants. So, this is your 14th book, which still blows my mind. What does the future hold for you? What have you got going on? What have you got cooking? You know...

Book-wise, don't know what's next. Hopefully enough people buy it. We do a second one. I've got an animated kid show coming up in July 2025 on PBS Kids called Weather Hunters. It's about a family that goes looking for weather. The dad, Al Hunter, is TV weatherman. His wife, Dot, is a news producer. And then they've got three kids. And Lily, the middle girl, is the real science aficionado.

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She loves weather and science. And so I'm really excited about that. The first we're working on the first season now. I mean, we've got 40 episodes in the first season. Wow. And Holly Robinson. I do The Voice of Al Hunter. Holly Robinson Peet plays my wife. We've got three adorable young actors. Charlie Ralph is our next door neighbor. LeVar Burton plays my grandfather. So it's it's a

We're really excited. Well, you should be. That's an amazing cast that you have lined up there too. You mentioned family a lot in this book because this is really what it's all about. And you dedicated the book to both your mother and your mother-in-law. Yes. Tell me how important that was to you. And, you know, as you look back in your family and everything you've experienced, how has that all shaped

the Al Roker we know and love today? Well, look, I think, and interesting enough, my dad was not a half-bad baker, but my mother, you know, obviously your mom, least in my household, had Deborah's, you know, was the caregiver, was the nourisher. I remember some of my fondest memories. And they were just, there was nothing special in that. There were no bells and whistles.

who's just sitting in the kitchen doing your own work while my mother was cooking. Deborah had the same experience. And so I think it's important to be able to have a legacy, know, that you're actually, what Courtney has done for our family, and I've helped a little bit, that we've got a record now of our favorite family recipes.

and recipes from our friends and an extended family. And it's all in a book. It's all there. And that's pretty special. OK, so finally, when people get to see this book and they get to try these these recipes with their own families, what is the takeaway? What do want them to leave with? I just want you to to enjoy cooking. Other than your two recipes that are a little more complicated.

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My mother's oxtail stew and dumplings, Danielle Balloud's short ribs. But other than that, everything's pretty straightforward, a minimal number of ingredients. And that, think, I hope, it gives you the confidence to take those recipes and then make them your own. Do whatever you want with them. Because as you get more confident, then you can add lip. Which is the great thing about cooking. You know, I look at it almost like music.

Cooking is like jazz. Once you've mastered the basics, you can pretty much go wherever you want. I think baking is more like classical music because it's more about reactions, chemical reactions, physical reactions. And if you veer too much off of that, it's not going to end well. But I want people to... The beauty of this book, I think, is the ease

in which you can cook and just enjoy. Yeah. And you know what else you did? Cause I, as I read through your book, you gave me permission not to be stressed out about cooking dinner. cause you have a line in there about don't be stressed. Just, just do it. Right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's a, it's like life, you know, just go, just do it. And, and, know, everything will work out, you know, but, but you've got to fry first. Yeah.

As Yoder says, there is no try, only do. I love it. We could go forever with all these great quotes that you have. Al Roker, what a pleasure talking to you. Thank you for coming into our homes for all these years and just being this happy force in the morning that brings smiles. And please keep doing what you've been doing for a long time to come. Can't wait to see what's next. Thank you. Nice seeing you, Yoder.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Supper with Sylvia. I'm Sylvia Perez. This podcast was produced by Jane Stephens with technical support and music by Donnie Cutting.