Watch this.
How do you do? I'm Chef Goldblum. I'm gonna be your server tonight.
Do you know what you're doing?
-You know how to work this? -Do I ever.
This is ostensibly our home. It's not, really, it's just for shooting.
But this is my real family. Look at 'em.
- There we are. - Look at that.
I'm looking at your hands, those big rugged hands.
Me, I'm a... I'm a humble student, always looking to expand my horizons.
Yeah... I... Yes, of course I know how to do it.
- Charlie. - Barbecues...
You know, I wouldn't say that I'm exactly the king of the barbecue.
Nothing. Nothing. It's not taking. I thought this would work.
I should know how to do this, and I don't.
My wife said to me, "Hey, can't you... Can't you pitch in with the grill?
"You know, just once, even?"
Barbecue. Barbecue. Barbecue.
All around the world,
whether it's yakitori in Japan to grilling in Greenland,
it just seems to have a universal appeal to our senses.
And my mouth is having trouble right now.
Barbecuing... Why? Why do we love it so Gold-darn much?
And can I learn enough around the outdoor flame
to start the hands-on feeding of my good-looking brood?
Yeah. Yeah.
pick up the barbecue basics
from some well-known, highly esteemed practitioners
of this ancient art.
Who might they be?
I've come upon a strange scene.
What sort... What's sort of like a scene is this?
Welcome to the Pit.
Yeah. What's your name?
-Bobby Fame. -Fame?
-As in famous. -Mr. Fame.
How you doing? They call me Jitterbug.
You got it.
- Blaze Pitman. - Blaze?
- Yeah. - Blaze Pitman.
-You must be the fireman. -Known for lighting fires.
-You ever see that movie Deliverance? -Of course.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a... It's a...
The Barbecue Pit Boys. Look at them.
They... At first, I thought they were like ZZ Top.
And globally, they got 15,000 devoted fan groups,
and their fans, they lap up all these barbecue recipes like...
Yum-yum-yum-yum-yum. They love it. They just love it.
Tell me the whole darn story.
I was a Boy Scout, a Cub Scout.
We learned as very young kids how to cook around the fire
or go camping with the family.
I mean, it's something you picked up naturally.
- So, and... - All of you?
-Everybody was kind of... -Well, pretty much all these guys.
- Yeah. - Yeah. We're gonna teach you
just basic introductory barbecue.
- I'm a bit of a novice. - Yeah.
- I kinda don't know... - Yeah.
You know, when I was a kid, I grew up in Pittsburgh,
and we had kind of a grill, and my...
But, you know... No, that's it.
In my adult life, I've done nothing.
- Right. - Nothing.
Well, this is easy to do. You'll do it all the time after you finish...
Really? I want to. Well, my wife says, "Why don't you..."
-We have a couple kids now. -Yeah.
She says, "Why don't you do some grilling?"
What's the difference between grilling and barbecue?
Well, traditionally, barbecue means low and slow.
It takes a long time to cook a piece of meat.
Whereas grilling generally refers to...
it's hot fires, steaks, burgers, and that kind of stuff.
- I got you. I got you. - We'll be cooking up, ribs today.
- Ribs. - These are beef ribs.
- Beef ribs? - We have, dinosaur ribs.
- No, we don't. - Yeah, we do. When you see them,
you'll go, "Yeah, they definitely... I've seen those before."
We'll see. We'll show them to you.
They're big. You know the lyrics of that song?
-Okay, let me see. So if I... -Yeah.
-I'll go. -There you go. Now, just push.
-Come on, you... -Yep, one more time.
-Come on, you little wood. -Got it. Perfect.
Good job. Good job.
Okay, they're all hard at work, the Pit Boys.
I think I've been taken in to their bosom.
I feel very good.
I'm, rightly appetized...
by this whole world.
Let me show you some meat here.
We'll start preparing it for the grill and the smoker. So...
these have been trimmed, for the most part.
Right? It cuts most of the fat. The silver skin is off for the most part.
- Maybe I'm Silverskin. - Yeah.
-Instead of Goldblum... -Yeah?
- ...I'm Jeff Silverskin. - Yeah.
With a steady hand, you're right-handed...
- Steady hand? Look at this. - Yep, steady hand.
- Look at this. - Yeah.
Unfortunately, this is the hand I shoot with.
- Yeah. - Boy.
-I'm holding her down there. -Yeah.
- And... - Yeah, keep it, there you go.
- How's that? - There you go.
By the way, where are all the lady folk? Is this strictly, men's work?
Well, we all have our Pit Girls. They just... They don't come here with us.
Because they know the boys gotta be with the boys, sometimes.
Just like the girls like to be with the girls.
Anyway, that's your... that's your credo.
-Now you gotta rub it. -I gotta rub it?
This is a dry rub. Right? It's mostly sugar.
- No kidding. - Right?
- Rub it right in with your hands. - Rub it means rub literally.
Yeah. I'm a massaging that beef.
So, we'll place 'em, bone side down.
- This is invaluable. - Like that.
The hardest thing now is waiting for this to cook.
- Sit around... - Get our music and, we're all set.
What kind of music?
We listen to a range of music here, but definitely jazz piano.
Just kidding.
I have Jitterbug,
-to show you how to cut this boss. -Jitterbug.
-Yeah, okay.
Dinosaur steaks, man. This is what we do, man.
-Jitterbug, show him how it's done. -Thanks, Jitterbug. Show me.
All right, you got yourself some beautiful tomahawk steaks here.
-And you do... Hey, you do animal calls. -Yeah.
What call... What calls could you do that might bring animals here?
That's a wild turkey.
That's a doe.
-When'd you learn how to do that? -I've been hunting, like,
-since I was four years old. -Really?
See this, right here? You wanna follow that flow.
You wanna go as smooth as possible.
Hold this side of the meat and stay away from the blade.
- Don't cut your finger. - No. I play the piano, I need all...
all the... Whoa. I think I'm... No.
Hey. Yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
What's your favorite part about barbecuing? Is it...
Do you think it's cutting like this? Is it preparing the meat? Is it...
Watching everyone enjoy something that I created
and seeing people enjoy it gets...
- gets me goin', yeah. - Beautiful, yeah. Gee, beautiful.
Like that?
- How was that? - That was awesome.
Well, jeez, this has got me thinking now, you know,
this all really is, caveman stuff, isn't it?
Well, here, I'm being given some research. Listen to this.
About 1.8 million years ago, humankind discovered cooking over a flame.
And, as the theory goes,
it became our ticket to becoming bigger and bolder and brighter.
The body can take in more energy more efficiently
from cooked food rather than raw.
So, we become taller and stronger...
giving us the time to develop new skills...
...and pursue new activities,
all the while expanding our brains.
So, you could say that cooking over fire is fundamental to human existence.
- Look at this. - My gosh.
Man. Look at that. I don't know where to begin.
You can pull it with your fingers.
-You can pull it apart. -You do?
Look at that baby.
Boy, what an introduction into the world of barbecuing.
I had no idea. I feel I'm...
properly, you know, rubbed.
And now, it's my...
turn in the smoker to marinate,
and I'm all out of clichés. I'm all out of...
- Am I crazy? I like the... - Yeah.
- The burnt part, the grilled part. - Yeah.
Yeah, that's definitely the best part.
Yep.
Okay.
Gee, those Pit Boys.
Like I said, I think they ought to include some Pit Girls,
but, there you go.
And now, I'm eager to learn more
with all my questions and my curiosities.
Better nutrition plays its part in helping us enjoy life to the fullest.
Traditionally speaking, barbecuing here in the US of A
has been the domain of, the male species,
the manly man.
These hotdogs will be barkin' in a minute.
Guys, fellas, have long competed socially
to show off their grill skills.
You know, "Hey, men only, no dames here." Ay, yi, yi!
Doesn't that look good?
Is it a man's job?
Well, I'd say those old roles of masculinity and femininity...
Nope. Nope. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Now, here is a culture that loves a barbecue
just as much as us Americans, the Korean culture.
I'm not meeting a man, but a... a wonderful and powerful woman
who's bringing barbecue into our current era.
Yup, yup, yup. I think this... this lively person...
I feel like I should've dramatically run to you.
- Hello. Hello. - Hello, hello.
-It's so nice to meet you. -It's so nice to meet you.
-Hi, I'm Stephanie. -Stephanie Soo.
-Yes. Yes. -This is Stephanie Soo.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Stephanie, and today...
Stephanie has a YouTube channel with over one million subscribers
where every day, she barbecues online.
Just a quick question. I don't know if I'm supposed to call you...
I don't know what to call you.
-Master Goldblum, or... -Okay, that sounds good.
-Really? -'Cause typically, Koreans,
we don't call older peop...
We don't call people who are older than us...
-...by their first names. -That's a bitter pill.
Older than you, okay.
- Holy cats. - There's a lot of interesting stuff.
We're gonna grill together.
But first, we need to hunt down and seek out the ingredients.
Tell you what, I'd be happy if she takes the lead
- and I just follow. - Okay.
Then, the meat is this way.
We don't use all of the meat for Korean barbecue.
-There's like specific types that we use. -Yes.
And it is a little bit different from, like, traditional American barbecue.
How so? How so?
It's just a lot of it is more thinly sliced.
If I were a kind of a meat that we'd put in a Korean barbecue,
what would I be? I'd be one of the lean meats, wouldn't I?
-Really? -What do you think?
Probably, like, a pork belly.
No, no, no, no. No, no, Not because you have a belly! No, no...
I'd be pork belly? No, it sounds delicious, you know.
That's like the original Korean barbecue.
Like, there's no one else like you. So like, pork belly.
-You're pork belly. You're PB. -All right.
- We're going down some aisle... - Yes.
Some... Down toward the checkout.
Stephanie Soo doesn't operate out of a restaurant.
Her YouTube subscribers are invited into her own home to mukbang.
All I wanna do for the rest of my life is mukbang.
Whatever that is. What is it, for heaven's sakes?
A mukbang actually started in South Korea.
And it's pretty much a shortened abbreviation version
of meok-neun bangsong.
- Meok-neun bangsong? - Which means an eating broadcast.
You got tons of good food that you wanna eat,
and then you eat it in front of a camera. Whether it's live streaming
or you edit the video, upload it to YouTube.
Do you see the way the camera is set up?
-I do. I do. -Very strategic.
- It's directly in front of the food. - I see.
It just makes them feel like they're at the table with you.
-'Cause we're already doing it. -Yeah.
-Hi. -Hello.
-Something occurs to me, though... -Yes.
-...that you're talking and eating, but... -Yes.
...can you talk and eat at the same time?
As long as they don't see the food. They tend not to have a problem.
Sometimes, if you're in the middle of a really good story,
they actually get really upset that you took a bite of food.
You're part of the early versions of our species
as they gathered around a fire.
That's exactly my thought.
Every time I go Korean barbecue.
- Really? - Yeah.
You always say, "First bite."
They always wanna know. And then you eat.
First bite.
Do I have green onion in my, teeth?
Mukbang. When did it come about?
- Like around 2008. - So...
Yeah. So it's relatively new,
but it's spreading, like, all over the world.
Who's doing it, and why are they doing it? What are they getting out of it?
There's so much going on on social media.
And you're like, "Man, I should be doing this,
"I should be doing that," but everybody's gotta eat.
- FOMO? - And so... yeah, FOMO.
And I think, like, the whole purpose of barbecue
is to bring people together.
If you don't have two, three friends to go to Korean barbecue with...
you could, sure, you could bring home the same food, grill it up.
-So if I barbecue it with you... -I get that.
Because, yeah, who would do this by themselves?
-Yeah. Exactly. -Go to all this trouble and...
But you could if you...
-if you didn't have a partner... -If you're watching.
-We Homo sapiens are social creatures. -Yeah.
- We need to be together. - And it is my duty...
...to keep giving them what they want.
We have to do the outro.
-I didn't know there was any such thing. -Yes.
Okay. Since it's going up on YouTube,
you always have to say, "Make sure to click that Like button.
"Make sure to hit that Subscribe button. It's free.
"And we've got Jeff Goldblum today. And we'll see you guys in the next one."
See you guys in the next one. Click that Like button.
-The jazz fingers. -And dancing fingers.
Mukbanging...
sharing your, companionship with others
who might be eating or not, but who want to see you eat.
Well, that's something. That is something.
She's... She's, contributing, in some substantial way,
to people, I guess, who are...
you know, lacking, deprived of, companionship.
It's true. I've hungered my whole life for human connection.
- So... - Love you, Jeff!
Hi. So, having said that...
this global obsession with barbecuing,
could have a downside.
Let me refer to my crack research team.
One-third of the Earth's land surface... one-third
is used for livestock production.
Boy, that's got some consequences.
Water use. Lotsa, lotsa water, that takes. And gas emissions. And factory farming.
Now, you could just go vegetarian, and, you know, that's not a bad idea.
Or scientists are working away in labs, creating smart meat or in-vitro meat.
But there's a more natural and sustainable alternative
that has been staring us in the face all this time.
Wait a minute. Why are we looking at cattle?
Wait... Wait a minute. I'm talk... I'm talking about an alternative.
- Okay. - Boy. Boy, boy...
So, this is a large cricket farming facility.
We farm crickets exclusively for human food.
And we've got ten of these rooms in this facility full of crickets.
Insects.
Just a sec. Insects...
We're trying to generate just the highest quality
of the most efficient superfood that we can possibly generate.
That's so interesting.
Aspire is providing an alternative to cooking meat
on the barbecue.
These lovely people operate in
one of the most advanced insect farming facility on Earth
and believe that they can contribute greatly to saving the planet.
We see protein demand increasing across the world.
And insects are the most efficient way
to convert plant protein into animal protein.
My gosh. So, I'm seeing bugs right now.
- I'm seeing crickets? - Yep.
-Those are crickets right there? -You know what?
Let me show you some close up.
We have to change our clothes a little bit.
So I'd encourage you take that jacket off.
I like the look of this.
-Don't you like that color? -It's a great color.
I'm red-green colorblind, but it looks good to me.
You're colorblind? What colors are unavailable to you?
Red-green colorblind. So I struggle to see the color red.
Really? You know what?
You're not missing a thing. I'm not so crazy about red.
- Knock, knock, knock. - This is Jeanette.
And she'll walk you through the incubation process.
Hi. Do you want to come on in?
-Very, very much so. -See you in a little bit.
This is where the crickets initially hatch out
and start their life.
-Aww, that's sweet. -It's very sweet.
- Do you ever name them? - I never name the individual ones
because that just seems like a lot of work.
But I do sort of
consider them all, in a weird way...
- like part of me. - I really admire what you're doing,
-and I respect what you do. -Thank you.
Okay, come on, come on. Don't lag behind.
We separate all the live crickets into a bag.
And then, we'll take that, and we'll freeze them very quickly.
Do they have an idea what's happening to them?
Some of the others told them, "You know, pretty soon,
"it's gonna get cold."
You don't think they have any idea about that?
This is a research facility, and we spend...
Our scientists spend as much time thinking about
whether or not they can do something
as they spend thinking about whether or not they should do something.
You just... Didn't you...
Did you just quote me a line from Jurassic Park?
-I say that in the m... -Yeah.
You did it intentionally? You sly fox.
-And you can actually take your mask off. -Really?
Yeah.
So, if we want to really make protein accessible,
we can convert crickets into some sort of meat analog.
-I'm into it. -Those are the kind of things that I think
will really shift the dynamic in North America.
They've sort of whet my appetite with all this bug talk.
I don't know why. It's all of a sudden sounding kind of... kind of tasty.
I'm gonna give them a little toss.
I'm gonna spread over our dry rub seasoning.
How much cricket do you eat now?
-Three meals a day. -You do?
Great. You can't eat enough crickets.
So we got 'em, we have 'em seasoned.
Ay, yi, yi.
Was there a fly just now on my head?
-Did you see that? -There was. It just kinda flew...
You know what I hate? Mosquitoes...
-I don't like those. Can you eat them? -You probably could.
I have some wet mesquite and hickory wood chips.
And what I'm doing here,
it's going to help get that smoke really going.
Really? Now we're getting into it.
Once they're seasoned, we're going to go ahead and put them in the smoker.
How can we turn our noses up at crickets or any real source of...
sustainable food?
-Time to eat. -Really? Okay.
Here I go. Ready?
Wait a minute. Really good.
Really good. Spicy.
The smart people of Aspire have, good intentions
and aspire to great and grand things for all of us.
So, I'd love to introduce and help encourage
others to, be flexible, open-minded, and eat some sustainable, food.
Yes. Yes.
Hey, wait a minute, I have a good idea.
I think it might be time for me to put my newly acquired knowledge to the test.
Here we are at Los Angeles
and the barbecuing extravaganza that is the Fourth of July.
That's when the most barbecuing goes on in America any, any time.
Well, Fourth of July. Hello, happy... happy Independence Day.
Happy, happy Fourth. Isn't that sweet? People are particularly kind of...
lovely on this day.
And you know, when we started this little odyssey...
I... I hadn't much experience with grilling.
I think that barbecuing can be more than just, you know, men and meat.
And here's the place.
What if I barbecue some sustainable food?
Not crickets, maybe not crickets. I got something in mind.
All right, guys. A busy day today, Fourth of July.
Don't let me interrupt. Don't let me interrupt. I'm so sorry.
Come on in. Why don't you have a seat right here?
-Really? -Yeah, yeah.
-I don't wanna squeeze you. Squeeze you. -Whoa!
Okay, so, fire, you guys are a big part of our lives.
- Great, great. - Yeah.
It's just the fire service is a community-based service.
So what this enables us to do is have a barbecue, host a barbecue,
and bring some of the family sense into our family,
which is the fire house.
-Isn't that beautiful? -Yeah.
Such a beautiful thing.
If you weren't here, would you be at home barbecuing, anyway?
Most likely. Most like... Yeah.
Almost all these guys here, they're great cooks.
Really? You're all good at barbecuing?
They're all good cooks.
- What do you like to make? - Burgers, tri-tip...
- Ribs. - Spatchcock chicken.
Brisket.
We understand you're quite the cook. So...
Well, I'm not. That's the thing. I've got help.
I'm gonna cook some vegetables and stuff like that.
And you're gonna cook some meat, some hot dogs, you know...
And then, we'll see who likes what.
-We gotta get cooking. -Let's get to work.
We're getting some, customers out front, guys.
So...
- Avery is my, trusted sous chef. - Yes. Yes.
The great Avery Pursell. Thank you, Avery.
- You're welcome. - This is a cauliflower steak.
So, now, I'm just gonna put those on the grill.
- Get your drizzle on. Get your drizzle on. - Yeah, thank you.
-I get that on there? -You're doing good.
There goes your steak. There we go.
- There you go. - How's that?
Watch out. Watch out. Okay. Now, we're...
So, you're gonna drizzle a little bit more oil over here.
It might cause a little bit of a flame-up...
- So be careful. - Yeah. But it'll be okay.
-If only there were firemen around. -Yes.
If only... if only somebody could help us if we caught on fire.
What could go wrong?
Okay, watch out. Okay. No fire yet.
- No. - Boy.
This is what I call a portobello mushroom slider.
I'm gonna try the cauliflower first, okay?
I put my heart and soul into that.
That's romesco sauce on some cauliflower steak.
If ten Goldblums is the highest you can get,
how many Goldblums would that get, do you think?
I'd say about a ten point two.
- What have you got... - Romesco sauce.
-...going there? Holy smokes. -What do you think of that?
They're going like hot cakes.
This seems pretty fancy. We're just looking for a hot dog.
-Thank you. -Okay.
Well, there you go.
- It's really good. - Can I have the same thing?
You want the same thing? Yes. How about some butternut squash...
- You sure you don't want a hot dog? - I'm good.
Hot dog...
Hot dog, schmot dog. Come on.
- You like it? - I really like it.
Thank you for coming into our house
and enjoying the Fourth of July celebration with us.
So now, you're considered part of our fire department family
-here at 69. -Well, a little in a...
-In a little... I'd be proud. -You're more than welcome.
- I had one of these... - Really?
- ...mushroom dishes... - Aren't they good?
- Yeah. Yes. Look at that. - Man.
That looks pretty good, I'm not gonna lie.
This is a great honor. Look at this.
Barbecuing is something, isn't it?
When you got an assortment... a rainbow assortment of people
from all different, backgrounds and stratas
appreciating the same lovely, well done food,
it really creates community.
What I've seen is that, when people are eating barbecue,
it doesn't matter what food is on the grill.
It sure isn't about the dish, but about the shared experience.
Gee, that's not a bad thing. I may just...
really take this home to my own family and start to do a little grilling now.
That's how I feel about it.
So happy birthday, America, and happy love day, Planet Earth.
Look at me... Look at me now.
What?
Is Dada a grill master, or what?
-Flip it over. -How did you do this?