Tiffani Thiessen on Getting Creative with Leftovers, and Her New Cookbook Here We Go Again

On this week's podcast we have Tiffani Thiessen. She’s probably best known for her roles as Kelly Kapowski on Saved By the Bell, and Valerie on Beverly Hills 90210.   But today she’s not here to talk about acting. We’re talking about her new cookbook Here We Go Again (her second cookbook), which will be released on September 26th. The book tackles the topic of leftovers and how to creatively recycle and upcycle them. So, if you’re someone who cooks, which is pretty much everyone, this show is for you.

Topics Discussed
Cooking for family, and with kids
Food waste
What inspires her
Celebrity cookbooks
Challenges of cookbook writing
Social media and content creation

TIFFINI THIESSEN
Tiffini's Website
Tiffani's Instagram, Facebook and TikTok
Tiffani's books Here We Go Again and Pull Up a Chair

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Transcript

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Chris Spear: 0:00

Where are all my gen xers and younger millennials? Wait, wait. If that's not you, please don't go because you're also going to love this episode as well. But for me, this was an exciting one. My guest today is Tiffani Thiessen. She's probably best known for her roles as Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell and Valerie on Beverly Hills 90210. A quick look at her IMDB page will show you that she's also been in classic shows like Charles in Charge, married with children and blossom. I'm sure some of you remember those as well. But today she's not here talking about acting. We're talking about her new cookbook. Here we go again, which is out next Tuesday, September 26. So if you're someone who cooks, which is pretty much everyone, this show is for you. This is Chris spear and you're listening to Chefs Without Restaurants. The show where I speak with culinary entrepreneurs and people working in the food and beverage industry outside of a traditional restaurant setting. I have 31 years of working in kitchens but not restaurants and currently operate a personal chef business throwing dinner parties in the Washington DC area. So something interesting to note. Due to the current sag strikes, Tiffany was not able to discuss her previous acting work. No juicy gossip about Saved by the bell, no discussion of 902 and Oh hairstyles. But thankfully Tiffany loves talking about food and cooking. Her first cookbook pull up a chair was released in 2018. Now she's back with a new one that tackles the topic we all deal with leftovers. Besides reheating them as is what are some really interesting ways to use up those leftovers. But more than from just a cost saving standpoint, this is an environmental issue. Unless you've had your head in the sand, you know how big an issue food waste is? Sure you can compost food. But isn't it better to actually reimagine it as something delicious that you and your family can eat. That's what Tiffany's new book here we go again is all about. It also has a really fun, nostalgic feel to it. We talked about cooking for family and with kids. And I want to find out what inspires her and how these cookbooks came about. And what didn't she know about cookbook writing. Of course, she didn't come up in the food world. So what were some of the challenges she had. We also discuss her relationship with social media, something I think all of us can relate to these days. And on the topic of celebrity cookbooks, I asked her which celebrity cookbook she'd like to see. And when you're done with this episode, if you're thinking wow, I would love to learn more about Chefs Without Restaurants. What's next? Well, besides working your way through the other 200 Plus episodes, I'd like to direct you to chefs without restaurants.org. It's kind of like a link tree, you'll be able to find my Instagram, as well as sign up for the Chefs Without Restaurants newsletter, where I'm sharing cooking content and recipes. You can also join our private Facebook group for culinary entrepreneurs, as well as find links to some of my favorite products. And the show is made possible with the help of our sponsors. So this episode will be coming right up after those sponsor messages.

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Chris Spear: 3:49

Hey, Tiffany, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming on.

Tiffani Thiessen: 3:51

Thank you for having me.

Chris Spear: 3:53

I'm looking forward to talking to you today. This is a little different one for me. You've had a long career in the spotlight. I guess most of our guests probably know you from your long career as a chef and cookbook authors. Is that right?

Tiffani Thiessen: 4:05

I would say most people probably know me as an actress. Yes, for a long long time. But but food has always been a huge passion of mine. I grew up kind of In the Kitchen with the women in my family loving to cook and and getting creative and in the kitchen with them. And so my my love of food kind of started there and and then as I grew older, I was you know, fortunate enough to travel through you know, the entire pretty much all states in our country and then I got to go overseas and really kind of broaden my sort of love of different cuisines and different cultures and so my love of food just kind of broadened even more and and so I stumbled upon an idea that I was able to sell and had a cooking show on Food Network and cooking channel for a few years. That was really fun and and then from there, you know people were like, Well, why don't you do a cookbook and I'm like Like, Oh, I guess I could do one of those, huh? Yeah, I had my very first

Chris Spear: 5:04

Yeah, it was weird transition though it was like,

Tiffani Thiessen: 5:07

Well, I think most people generally in the food space probably start, you know, their career before TV, right. But because TV was already a part of my world, that it seemed like that was the natural progress, you know, for me because I was already there, you know, doing, you know, as an actor, so it was a little bit backwards probably for most most people, but it seemed probably the right progression for myself. So, so yeah, a few years ago, I published my very first cookbook called pull up a chair. And then my new one comes out the end of this month, on the 26th. And it's called, here we go again, and I'm super excited about it. So it's, like I said, it's a huge passion of mine. And it's fun that I get to kind of share my love and this sort of kind of second career really, you know,

Chris Spear: 5:55

I guess why a cookbook, the TV to me makes sense, because it's probably easier for you cook writing, and I'm sure there was a lot that you didn't even know, you know, besides the actual recipes, and the recipe development, you have things like food safety, or even can people find ingredients? What did you What did you maybe not know, the first time Oh, did your first book like what were surprised, I

Tiffani Thiessen: 6:14

didn't know anything. I mean, I'm gonna be really honest. Like, it was my first book, like, you know, I've done other books, like my husband's an author, and he does children's books. And we actually did our first one together, but, but a cookbook and, and what they call a four color way, and all those things that you learn, I kind of feel like you sort of learned along the way I sort of did that with acting too, I sort of learned along the way, you know, it's, I was so young, when I started that there really wasn't a lot of classes, or I didn't go to school for it or anything like that I kind of learned as I went and sort of, I sort of feel like the cookbook was the sort of the same thing for me, I kind of learned along the way, made a lot of mistakes. And, and, but took those mistakes, you know, in my brain and learned it for the next time or, you know, that's just that's kind of life. So it was extremely hard, I make a joke all the time that I, I say, you know, creating and putting a book out is almost like birthing a child, except it has four hard corners. It's luck, it's, it's hard. It's really, really hard. It's a very long process. A lot of people I think, when I started talking about the first one, they didn't realize how long it takes to make a book. Again, especially a color, you know, a four color way book, it takes forever, I mean, the printing process in itself. And then since with COVID, and all that kind of stuff, it takes even longer because of just the delays, you know, overseas and things. So it's a very long process. The first one took about from the first spark of the idea to the the moment it got on the shelves was over three years. And this one Yeah, it's a really long time. And this one is close to that, I'd say about two and a half. So you know, it's it's a big process and and what I enjoy about it is the creativity. Um, but it's hard. It's not, I don't think it's for everyone because I think I think it's it's because it's so hard. And I don't know if the payoff is so huge, except for the physical part that's really exciting about getting a book that you put so much work into. You know, there's there's a joke people say you don't make money in books. And it's, it's kind of true.

Chris Spear: 8:24

Casting, you know, like, like, this is this is a hobby, I mean, I get some revenue from like ad sponsors and stuff. But reality, like you and I are having this conversation, I'm gonna spend hours of like going over it listening to cutting it, and then you put it out. And there's a lot of excitement for the first week or so. And then it's on to the next right, it's on next. And now we're promoting the next guy. Yeah, and downloads but you're like, Wow, that was a lot of hours, I put into this one hour conversation. And I'm trying to do that every week. So

Tiffani Thiessen: 8:52

So I totally agree with you. Yeah, it's an in cook. Yeah, exactly. So I totally hear you it's, it's a little bit of that you really have to love it, to really want to do it, because it is a lot of work. And you don't get a lot back generally.

Chris Spear: 9:06

But it didn't scare you away from doing a second one, obviously. I mean, it's nice once you have all the knowledge base, right, it was definitely

Tiffani Thiessen: 9:13

easier. The second time, I can say that about having a child like the second time was just a little bit easier because you know what you're doing, but it's still hard. It's still time consuming, as you know, so but it's but it's fun. I'm proud of this one. It's it's one that kind of the idea kind of sparked during the beginning of COVID. So it's kind of has a little special, you know, place in my heart because I think we all have that time period very focused in our in our lives. And so just to give you a backstory on it, I you know, we weren't going to the grocery stores, often all of us were so afraid right? And you know, we were so free to go to the grocery store. So, you know, when we when I would send my husband who normally doesn't do the grocery shopping, but he was like, I'll do it. I'll do it. You know, I was very strategic about what I I was getting him to get and then I would really try to stretch everything we had for as long as possible, you know, so he wouldn't have to go back right away and, and get exposed or whatever we thought was happening at the beginning of COVID. So, and it got me thinking, because I was raised that way for different reasons. You know, I was raised in a family that didn't have a ton of money. So my mom was always stretching food for the budget reasons, you know, so she would take the roasted chicken that she would make on Monday, and she'd make you know, the leftover chicken into enchiladas and things like that. And that's just kind of how I was raised. And it got me thinking, I was like, You know what, this is, this is no different than how I feel we should be really preparing and cooking food generally, I've really tried to instill in my children about food waste, I think it's extremely important to understand how impactful it is, if you know to global warming, because it is it's huge. We waste almost 40% of food, which is a stark astonishing to me. Yeah,

Chris Spear: 10:58

it really Freestar when they're getting rid of the vegetables and stuff,

Tiffani Thiessen: 11:01

grocery stores, coffee shops, all the pastries get thrown away. I mean, it's mind boggling to me, and it's quite saddening. So I said, you know, there's, there's a different kind of cookbook here. There's an idea here that I have never seen myself. And so that's kind of how the idea kind of sparked was really something that my mom was kind of doing anyways, for, for money reasons. And here I am trying to do it for my kids. And then it got sparked again, sort of because of COVID. So, you know, it all kind of came full circle. And that's, you know, that's the book. Here we go again.

Chris Spear: 11:35

Yeah, I love the idea. I mean, I think food waste is something we really need to work on. One of the things that was interesting for me is we started composting not too long ago, and, you know, I'd much rather eat it. But what I find when you're dedicated to putting food in there, you visually see how much of that trash is food, right? Like, hey, I'm in the trash bag. It's like it's paper plates, your kids stuff, whatever you don't really think about. But when you have a bucket, you're like, Wow, this is a five gallon bucket of food. We're throwing away like now five gallons of food every day. Yeah, that like reinforced it with me even more than like, Okay, what, what are we putting in here? And why is it going in there? And what can we do? So that, you know, doesn't end up and

Tiffani Thiessen: 12:12

yeah, we started composting many, many, many moons ago. And if it wasn't going to our chickens, because we have chickens as well, it was, you know, it was the last resort was composting, but it does make me feel better knowing that it's composting and going back into the dirt to the food that I grow anyway, so we really have taught our children the whole full circle of it all but but again, you know, like, I It's like a fight, like I want to make sure I use everything in my fridge. And it's kind of a funny little way of being creative, right? Like, really getting creative about some of the stuff that's leftover in your fridge and your pantry too. You know, my kids used to throw away all those broken chips. And I'm like, no, no, no, I could do something with that. Stopstopstop you know, so sometimes

Chris Spear: 12:56

it's like a science experiment looking in my fridge or the freezer, like I've bags of like vegetable scraps or bones or just little bits of meat. There's some great Instagram accounts these days. So many fun stuff. And there's this one restaurant in London, and they're doing all kinds of crazy things. But they have recipes for things like coffee liqueur, using spent coffee grounds, like you just take them out of the coffee pot and add sugar and water. Yeah. And then you know, like, you're basically the next day straining.

Tiffani Thiessen: 13:24

Yeah, what's really neat to see people get extremely creative, like truly and, and that's really what this book was really about for me. And a whole different way. And then I got to throw in just because it was kind of an a nod to my childhood and to my mom and, and I really wanted to sort of have a really kind of big nostalgic, you know, sort of look to the book. And so it was fun to kind of throwback to the 70s and 80s. And, and really kind of give it that sort of flair, which was really fun, too.

Chris Spear: 13:54

And it's great because it makes you you know, I'd say relatable. You know, I'm not in Hollywood, I think the perception is maybe like, Oh, these celebrities, they're so rich, and they just eat out and they have private chefs. It's like, no, Tiffani Thiessen is like using leftover hotdogs in her house. She's just like us look.

Tiffani Thiessen: 14:11

It's you know, here's the thing, it's, it's bigger than that, like, that's why I say it's something I want to really try to teach my children that we need to be more responsible. And that's really what it's about.

Chris Spear: 14:22

That seems like in my expense. There's always at least one person who's not into leftovers. I don't know if you have that. Oh, yeah,

Tiffani Thiessen: 14:27

I will totally put out throw him under the bus. It's my husband. It's my husband. So

Chris Spear: 14:30

it's another them Yeah, two days ago.

Tiffani Thiessen: 14:33

I know. And he was he's always been the person and I don't know where it's kind of stems from with him because his parents tell me all the time that they always were doing leftovers. You know, they didn't grow up with a ton of money. So I don't know what it is. But you know, now it's more of a game a challenge, I would say to literally take things that are leftover and make it into something else that he has no idea because if I tell them hey I'm gonna use the leftover blahdy blah for a dish. He'd be like, I don't want it. I don't want it again. That'll be his usual answer. Yeah.

Chris Spear: 15:08

I mean, sometimes we'll, we'll free like if we feel like it's a third day this week, we're doing something with chicken. That also goes along with like meal prep, you know, I've got two kids. It's a busy week, like, we'd love to just like cook on Sunday, a ton of chicken and have chicken Sunday night, and then, you know, chop it up, and maybe Tuesday, we'll put it in a dish, and then it's like, Okay, we're gonna put in the freezer. And then we've got that, literally the next time. Oh, yeah. How are the kids with it? Because, you know, kids are sometimes again, they're great. I

Tiffani Thiessen: 15:33

think if, um, you know, it's so again, it's kind of like my husband, it's, I don't want to say I'm tricking them. But I'm definitely you know, I'm up for the challenge to literally take things that they wouldn't probably notice that I've taken from earlier. You know what I mean?

Chris Spear: 15:49

Yeah. What are some of your favorites? Like when someone gets this book? If you were to give them maybe like a three recipes that you really think they should try? Do you have favorites in there?

Tiffani Thiessen: 15:57

That's like picking a favorite child, Chris. It's so hard. I think there's ones that are super relatable, right? So we constantly have leftover pizza, like you know, because you know, I don't cooked over pizza. Come on. I love cold pizza first. I mean, I love cold pizza. But we generally order a lot of pizza dish, because my kids are like just cheese and my husband and I like other things on it. So we we generally have leftover pizza, half of the time. And so, you know, instead of just having normal cold pizza, I created a really amazing, super easy breakfast sandwich out of pizza that I think people will really like. It's easy to do. It's relatable, because I feel like everybody loves pizza. Everybody has leftover pizza. That's one. I think anytime that there's we always have leftover rice because I usually make a huge batch of it. My kids love making their own sushi. So we do these little sushi cakes that have leftover rice, which is really fun, super easy to do as well. That's probably going to be another favorite. And then just to go kind of nostalgic for me. So I grew up on Bing and bacon soup. I don't know if you remember, but can soup right? And I don't know why but it was my most favorite soup as a child. It's kind of like the movie Ratatouille with the very end when he gets taken back. Right. That's that soup for me. And so I wanted to recreate a healthier sort of fun kind of version of it. And so I do a sausage beans and greens soup. And my new book. Here we go again. And to me, it's again, total personal reasons but it's so nostalgic for me that I love it so much.

Chris Spear: 17:38

That is one of my number one recommended recipes to people who want to learn to cook and the cook is like I think some people are paralyzed by they need a recipe. Yeah, I have a recipe that was originally like a cannelini being Teresa and kale, but like but it's like what do you have? Do you didn't pick up some Swiss chard at the farmers market? Oh, do you not eat pork? Well, Jackie sausage. Oh, the thing about Ronzo be absolutely it's always like a green a sausage and a bean. Yeah, and that combo is such a good we do that now all the time in our house, but I will say I'm not a soup for dinner. I'm not an only soup for dinner again. That's my pet peeve my wife is always like oh we're having soup so you need something else sandwich

Tiffani Thiessen: 18:18

well what about it just a good crusty you know, you know bad guy

Chris Spear: 18:21

crusty bright? No, I know like maybe but I want like a I don't know it's just my family loves soup for dinner and I didn't say that every night.

Tiffani Thiessen: 18:30

To me that's enough because you've got the Greens you've got to me you've got all the separated things just all in one stew so

Chris Spear: 18:37

tried so many times.

Tiffani Thiessen: 18:40

Hey, you know what you like?

Chris Spear: 18:42

Is there anything on your do not serve list or do not make in your house? Like what are the things that what are the things that maybe like you or your husband like that the kids don't or just you like or is there something you universally All right, I'm

Tiffani Thiessen: 18:54

still trying to get my kids to like brussel sprouts. You know, it's one of those things that my husband actually used to hate until he met me and then I cooked them in a way that I guess he's never had before and now he loves them. But my kids still won't eat them I've tried so many times. I mean they'll eat them I'm not gonna say they don't but they don't love them. They just don't love them. So that's one of those things that I am constantly trying but but they're not doing it like if I shave them down and like fry them up though they'll eat them but it's not the best way to eat them but anyways,

Chris Spear: 19:28

Bacon makes I know unpalatable. That's my daughter's favorite vegetable isn't really like either like chopped pepperoni in there or bake or you know I make

Tiffani Thiessen: 19:37

one with wicked with pancetta and a good little you know little bit of balsamic and stuff and it's amazing that's what actually turned my husband that recipe. Done it

Chris Spear: 19:48

boiled right like your parents brought probably brought bought frozen brussel sprouts. That's

Tiffani Thiessen: 19:52

how I felt about peas. When I was younger. I hated peas. They were so mushy. They weren't exactly how they should be served right

Chris Spear: 19:59

but it's so fun. He that I feel like some of those generations still hold on to that. And maybe it's for their nostalgia like my inlaws live with us. And my mother in law's like always making comments that like, My food is always burned. And it's not it's not burned. It's roasted, but like I pull out the brussel sprouts, and like the ones on the edge are nice. Great stuff and like, Oh, we're having burned vegetables, like her favorite is grab that bag of like, now this microwavable and you just get in the microwave. I'm like,

Tiffani Thiessen: 20:25

oh, like, can we not? And can we not put plastic in the microwave? Please?

Chris Spear: 20:31

You know, she's at I don't know that we're gonna change them.

Tiffani Thiessen: 20:34

No, you're not. She's set in her ways. And you know what? The older I get, I feel like I'm the same way. Right? It's just different generations. Yeah.

Chris Spear: 20:40

And you know, I, I love fresh vegetables. I love the farmers market. But I've got to stop going on Sunday and buying like 12 days of vegetables. But then like, you know, the by Wednesday, or like, what am I going to do with all this stuff? I'm

Tiffani Thiessen: 20:52

not okay, well, I have a whole chapter about produce better, everything produce in there to give you some extra ideas. Not that you probably need help, but sometimes it's nice just to get a little, it's always

Chris Spear: 21:01

nice. I saw the recipe for it's like a keen Wah porridge that you did. And I think that would be great. Like, I've never done this. I love quinoa, but I usually treat it like rice and just, you know, cook it in stock or whatever. And just, you know, kind of put stuff on top of it. Yeah, I love the idea of having it be

Tiffani Thiessen: 21:14

it's like, creamy, savory porridge, which I really love. And it's actually one vegetable my kids do like mushrooms. So they'll eat that one, which is really great.

Chris Spear: 21:23

Yeah, well, it's, you know, it's great to kind of see, like, I don't see a return to cooking. But I do feel like it fell out of favor a little bit. Like, like you, you know, I grew up with a household where you just ate what your parents bought, like, the kids didn't really complain, there was no alternative menu in my house, like I get up from the table and like, make a sandwich or have a banana. But I just like so many of my peers, people my age, I feel like they just don't deal in leftovers, and they just like cook on a whim.

Tiffani Thiessen: 21:50

So because I think we're moving so fast. And a lot of us. It's we're usually coming from a house where both sides are working. You know, both parents are working. Kids are even busier than they used to be like, they've got sports and homework is a lot more than I remember homework being when I was a kid. So I feel like it's really about the less time we have right to think about, okay, let me be a little bit better about you know, looking into the fridge and not just throwing things away, because I just don't have time. You know,

Chris Spear: 22:19

are you strategically planning like your week like saying, like, we're gonna have on Monday chicken, and then by Wednesday, it's chicken enchiladas are like, I anticipate that we're gonna have rice leftover Are you being that thought, right?

Tiffani Thiessen: 22:30

I try to be it's not perfect all the time. It depends on how much my load is, you know, with work and stuff like that, and travel and kids like, again, kids sports and all that, you know, we don't have a nanny or anything. So we're shopping our children around my son starting baseball again. And my daughter's in volleyball and she's got tennis, and so it's busy. So I try to prep a little bit. But it's more meal planning and ideas for the week for shopping purposes. I'm not a meal prepper I really I just don't have the time. That's a presentation these people's dedication and I think it's amazing and I was more that way before I had kids. But now that I have children, I do not have time and and I know a lot of people do it on Sundays, Sundays, I'm literally at the baseball field or I'm at a volleyball tournament or I'm trying to grocery shop or, you know, it's just it's, it's usually or it's my day to finally kind of chill with my kids and do a little bit of nothing, you know, so it's hard for me to do the actual meal prepping. But I would say meal planning I definitely try to do

Chris Spear: 23:30

are the kids interested in cooking at all or being in the kitchen? They are

Tiffani Thiessen: 23:33

they I would say my my teen and my now teenager was much more into it. But now it's more she's got a lot of homework. She's wants to talk to her friends. She's got sports and so for her it's it's a lot of its timing. She'll she'll get in there and bake with me sometimes on the weekends. She does love to bake. My son when he was little he was he loves to do the dishes. He was a cleaner.

Chris Spear: 23:57

Oh, I need him in my house.

Tiffani Thiessen: 23:59

I know. It's so funny. But now that he's gotten older, he likes to help. He's like he's like more of a helper, which I appreciate. It's very sweet and just likes to hang with me in the kitchen and see what I'm doing. Yeah,

Chris Spear: 24:10

I feel like you always see in like movies and TV shows and even like cookbooks, like families cooking with their kids. And everyone looks like they're having so much fun and it's happy. And then I don't I'm like I'm kind of getting stressed here and having anxiety and it's just like can you just like step aside like I just want to get this onion cut without making a big mess on the island.

Tiffani Thiessen: 24:29

I feel that way with big holiday dinners. I kind of just want everybody to leave me be let me be in cotton like Thanksgiving and stuff like that. I'm more like, the best thing my husband can do is take the kids and just move away. You know? Yeah.

Chris Spear: 24:44

Did they help you at all with any of the recipe testing in either of the books?

Tiffani Thiessen: 24:48

Yeah, I mean they they absolutely did a lot of them are ones that I have been doing forever, especially the very first book so they are all tried and you know true and tested, you know through through my family, some of them were like, like the very first book my mom's cream cheese pies and they're and that's been in our family for years and years and years. Sounds

Chris Spear: 25:09

delicious. I don't even know what's in it beside cream cheese.

Tiffani Thiessen: 25:12

Oh, guys, so good. Um, but yeah, so a lot of them definitely because I'm cooking and I'm, you know, testing and are reinventing an older recipe than I'm making into new like the sausage beans and greens and so they're they're always like, what did you cook now? Mom? What do we have to try now mom, sometimes they're into it. Sometimes they're not.

Chris Spear: 25:30

My daughter right now is doing the decorative dessert type stuff. So I love that she's kind of like that she's

Tiffani Thiessen: 25:36

being creative. And I love that. Yes, but

Chris Spear: 25:38

the things when I open these books, she has the Alice in Wonderland official cookbook. And when you see eight out is like how long this recipe is. It's eight hours. It's like

Tiffani Thiessen: 25:46

we made. It's like a Lego set with my son.

Chris Spear: 25:50

She made this like these little like Japanese looking flowers. And we had we couldn't find white bean paste at the grocery store so we can make our own. So it's like cooking dry kidney beans in the pressure cooker and then puree them. I'm like, I love it, I you

Tiffani Thiessen: 26:06

metal, you earn a medal for that, Chris that and they're gone. And it

Chris Spear: 26:09

only made 20 of them and then serve them at her birthday party. And then we're gone in like three minutes. And then you see the kids who take one bite and say they don't like it, you're like, please don't throw that out. That took us eight hours to do this. So I'm hoping that this is a book that, you know, we can get into some of the savory side. But you also have sweet stuff and

Tiffani Thiessen: 26:26

all of it, all of it. I also have a whole chapter on leftovers from all the holiday all the popular holidays too. So

Chris Spear: 26:32

just what's your favorite food holiday?

Tiffani Thiessen: 26:34

I would say Thanksgiving, for sure. Just because it's the one day that you get to eat as much as you want, without any guilt. And I love it.

Chris Spear: 26:43

And the sheer volume. Are you guys like 20 sides? type people like where you have to have everything are like how do you decide what's going to hit the

Tiffani Thiessen: 26:50

car. And what's nice is again, like I think I mentioned at the very beginning of this interview that all the women in my family cook right this is kind of where my love came from. So we all the women pitch in. So between myself, my mom and my aunts, you know, my grandmother is no longer with us that we all pitch in, you know, I do the big stuff. And then each of us do a dessert and then a couple of us, you know, do a couple of different sides. And then you know my kids love to do my the roles that we do. So they help out with that. So it's really fun. It's like a whole it is a whole family sort of, you know, tradition to kind of come together and pull together almost like a potluck, but it's Thanksgiving.

Chris Spear: 27:25

And the first couple of days after you don't even need creative recipes. You're just like piling it on. Right and maybe a sandwich that you just load it all between two pieces.

Tiffani Thiessen: 27:32

And then I take the stuffing this is another thing that we do that's leftover we take the stuffing and I make savory waffles out of the stuffing after I see that

Chris Spear: 27:39

all the time. I've never tried that cookbook called like Will It Waffle or something where these people just put literally every

Tiffani Thiessen: 27:45

everything, but the savory stuffing. Oh, they're so good. Because then you can make your sandwich out of the waffle. It's amazing. Anyway,

Chris Spear: 27:53

have you done that with rice before? Like in the waffle iron because that's another thing I see like

Tiffani Thiessen: 27:57

people are doing rice. Yeah, people do. Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. I do a version of that for the sushi cakes. Where are you but I'm just doing it on the pan. So but you can definitely do it in the waffle iron. Yeah, I do. hashbrowns we can do hash browns like that too.

Chris Spear: 28:10

That sounds hash browns are my favorite potato like you would say yeah, of all the potatoes out there. But they have to be any potato. I mean besides make potato I want to cook really crispy. I can't make a meeting lasted potato meat. So like the tater tots like if you're going to elementary school and they just bake them in the oven. And then they see you on the tray like not a hard fried agree. Nothing beats Agree.

Tiffani Thiessen: 28:32

Agree?

Chris Spear: 28:33

Is there anything you haven't been able to creatively recycle or upcycle? Like just something that is a leftover? That hasn't worked out? Gosh, that's

Tiffani Thiessen: 28:42

a hard question. I don't think I have yet. I mean, I think there's things that definitely generally never are leftover. Like chocolate.

Chris Spear: 28:55

Well, I will say the leftover brussel sprouts get fun. Yeah, like not as great and then your fridge smells delightful for a couple of

Tiffani Thiessen: 29:04

leftover brussel sprouts if they're cooked. I mean, I definitely you know we've we've been very lucky and growing some which have been really fun. And so I just love shaved brussel sprouts raw to I love a good raw brussel sprouts salad. So

Chris Spear: 29:17

I do I feel like you have to do it yourself though. Because when you buy them at the store, they're not the same. They leave the hard stock and they cut them way too thick. I'm always like they do just give us the like the bad stalks. The good stuff for someone else. And we make Brussels

Tiffani Thiessen: 29:29

sprout tacos too on the days that we don't want to do a heavy meat.

Chris Spear: 29:34

That's the main man.

Tiffani Thiessen: 29:36

It's so good.

Chris Spear: 29:38

Do you like any vinegar bread or anything?

Tiffani Thiessen: 29:40

A little bit of apple cider vinegar? Yep. Yep. And I love it. It's one of my favorite things and knows I actually generally like to do a little bit thicker just because it gives it that kind of density and the taco.

Chris Spear: 29:51

Yeah, I love tacos. I mean, my thing is like you could taco anything. I could eat tacos every night. Great ever. I've gotten the fridge. I've done like Brussels sprouts slaw. In a taco, but not as the heart of the meal there. Well looking at like, cookbooks in general, I think there's a glut of them, right? There's a million cookbooks and like every chef has a cookbook. Now every restaurant has one. Now, all the youtubers want one. Obviously, we have celebrity cookbooks. How do you stand out? You know, there's a sea of cookbooks out there. Like, what, what differentiates you? Or like,

Tiffani Thiessen: 30:23

I wish I knew the answer to that, you know, do

Chris Spear: 30:26

you have a target market or a demographic that you're that you're trying that you're trying to get? Like, because here's

Tiffani Thiessen: 30:30

the thing I would say differently from the first book, it would be, you know, I was going more towards hopefully people relate to me as a home chef, because I'm not a professional chef. I did not go to culinary school. And I really wanted people to see that anybody could cook right. And so I was really focused on that sort of idea. And that sort of audience for my first book. I think this book truly relates to everybody. You know, I have the nostalgic thing there, which I think people relate to me as being kind of nostalgic just because of my long years and TV. But it's more than that. It's more I feel like this is a book that I've never seen before, where we all could actually use a little bit of inspiration on really reimagining the things that are already in our fridge in our pantry.

Chris Spear: 31:20

Well, to be honest, you know, don't tell my chef friends this, like, these are the kinds of cookbooks I cook from because you know, so I have a lot of cookbooks, but most of them are for like inspiration. That's exactly how I live my business. Like I'm coming to cook for you as your chef tonight. That's a different ballgame. You know, like most of the week, I'm cooking for home. And I'm not taking out my Alinea cookbook, which I don't even think professional chefs can cook from or you know like they live in Madison.

Tiffani Thiessen: 31:49

I mean, it's a beautiful book. But that is a coffee table book.

Chris Spear: 31:52

What are you making from there? And I have literally hundreds of these books that I'm not cooking from my wife uses like Mark Pitman's how to cook everything right, like it's in our kitchen. Because it's like whether you need pancakes or whatever. And those are the books that we at home. So even chefs I think are gonna love this book, because we're trying to get dinner on the table just like everyone else, you know, and save,

Tiffani Thiessen: 32:13

and save some money and save some money. Yeah, and do something good for the planet.

Chris Spear: 32:17

Yeah, and do something good for the planet food is so you know, the prices going up and up and anything we can keep out of the been?

Tiffani Thiessen: 32:24

Yes, a great is better for all of us. I agree. Agree. What inspires you. You know, there's so many thing that there's so many things that inspired me, I would say my family inspires me the most, of course. And I would say my friends as well. And I would say you know, I'm it's funny, being an actor, I would, I would say TV, but I generally don't watch it. So I would say music inspires me, I would say fashion expire inspires me, I would say interior design inspires me. People in general, inspire me, others, you know, and I think truly nowadays because of social media and being so huge. You know, I just this old lady recently just got on Tik Tok, which was a whole nother thing. You know, there's some pretty talented, amazing people that we have access to now, because of social media. I mean, there's lots of crazy bad things about social media too. And I get that, but I really try to look at social media and hopefully a healthy way. And it's been fun to see some pretty cool things, especially on tick tock food is like massive on tick tock and and it's fun, really fun. So that inspires me. And the

Chris Spear: 33:36

opportunities, right? I mean, first of all, like, I, I first saw you on TV when I was 13 years old. And if you told 13 year old me, I'd be interviewing you, first of all via the internet, which didn't even exist. Yeah, crazy. But I have friends like my friend Ryan Peters, who's on my show. He does Peters pasta, and he has millions of followers now. And it just started with him making pasta and he was like amazing lion cooking in a restaurant. And now he's traveling the world to do like pasta making with, you know, celebrities and sports teams, all this stuff just because he started making pasta. So that's something he loved, and it's something he loves. And then you can turn that into something. It seems like you're having fun online, but do you find it fun, exhausting a little of both, like, with content creation, I

Tiffani Thiessen: 34:21

think it's a little bit of both. And there's days where it gives me more anxiety than I'd like. But I try again to look at it in a in a sort of healthy manner. And know that as long as I'm being truthful, and I'm I'm really taking it with a grain of salt, right? Literally, that I can I can I can have fun with it. And that's what I'm trying to do. Yeah.

Chris Spear: 34:45

Now, do you feel like you're gonna slow down once the book is kind of out? And because I know, right? I mean, but I mean, right now you're in full promotion mode, right, like cooking recipes from the book. Yeah. Which I think when you have a release, you're at a faster rate. granting, of course,

Tiffani Thiessen: 35:01

of course, and that'll probably slow down a little bit just because, you know, I only have so much to show for the book. And hopefully, by the time the book comes out, everybody will have it. And I get to start seeing what they're doing with my book, which is really super exciting, right. But the content itself, you know, like, I've been on it for years. And, and, and I mean, tic TOCs, the only one I've been newly on, but it's part of another sort of part of my career, right? I? Yeah.

Chris Spear: 35:28

What would you say to someone like me, who maybe wants to move from the food space into, you know, whether it be acting or collabing, with celebrities? So from your perspective, you know, because people are coming from, say, the acting world getting into the food world? Do you have any advice for someone who maybe wants to make a transition into a different career? From what they were doing?

Tiffani Thiessen: 35:49

You know, I think, I think anybody can if they have the passion first for the time, and the determination, right, those are the three things that I think you definitely have to have to even start anything new. And I could say that about food, you know, acting was my whole life, but food was a passion always had been there. And so I just kind of turned it on its side a little bit and said, Hey, I wonder if there's a way that I can make another career sort of out of this sort of area that I love so much. And I did. And I highly recommend that to anybody if they want to give something new a try. And not even new, I would say something that they enjoy.

Chris Spear: 36:29

And it takes time. Right? Again, course it does. The one of the downsides, I think, with social media is that it does seem sometimes that happens so fast, right? Someone went viral, and all of a sudden, they're famous. It's like, well, they you didn't see. But that's

Tiffani Thiessen: 36:42

like winning the lottery. I mean, it's really like winning the lottery, it's so hard to know. And you can't put all your pennies into that. Right? Like it's, that's that's not where you should be. It's really just wanting to put out if it is content, putting out the content that speaks to you. And you will most likely hopefully find an audience because you're being truthful.

Chris Spear: 36:59

Do you have any aspirations within the food world other than the cookbooks? Like? Have you thought about that? Like, a line of sauces or a food truck?

Tiffani Thiessen: 37:09

I don't know. Like, it hasn't hit me yet. I would never not say no to it, because I love food. And I think there's definitely ideas that could be kind of fun. But they haven't presented that that yet. So maybe maybe in the future

Chris Spear: 37:23

with the book are you doing, you're doing like a little tour, kind of.

Tiffani Thiessen: 37:28

It's a little shorter than my first one. But I'll be in the tri state area. I'll be in New York and Tribeca and New Jersey, and then I'll be going off to Chicago, and then I'll be in Austin, Texas. And then I'll be doing a couple in the Los Angeles area. So that's my tour week as of right now. And if anybody wants to see if it's sort of close to them, they can go on my website, they could also go on my socials. I've been posting all of that like crazy of exactly the time and the bookstore that I'll be at.

Chris Spear: 37:57

What haven't we talked about that you think you would like to get across to our listeners today?

Tiffani Thiessen: 38:02

Um, I think we've covered everything. But I would say just a point on the book, I would say if if you're feeling like you need a little inspo and not just in a traditional cookbook way, but just for people who already have the things that are in their fridge in their pantry, then this is definitely the book for them.

Chris Spear: 38:23

Fantastic. I have one for you. Celebrity cookbooks, if there was one celebrity who you would want to put a cookbook out and you would buy it,

Tiffani Thiessen: 38:32

who just a celebrity that just like someone, someone you

Chris Spear: 38:35

love, but it's got to be a cookbook, you know, you're just like I really would love if so and so put this out, right? Because I'm sure there's people who are huge fans of you. And I'm like, I'm gonna buy her book because she's amazing. And I've watched her

Tiffani Thiessen: 38:47

so hard, you know, I for years. Oh, gosh, that's somebody who hasn't because Snoop Dogg would would it would have been a one but he just put his out a cup. I

Chris Spear: 38:55

gotta get him on my show.

Tiffani Thiessen: 38:56

Oh my gosh. So he endorsed my book. We actually went to school together because we both grew up in Long Beach. Oh, that's

Chris Spear: 39:02

crazy together.

Tiffani Thiessen: 39:04

But somebody who hasn't? Oh, that's a really hard question, Chris. I don't know if I can answer that right off the top of my head. Yeah, you do. That was a tough one. Mmm hmm.

Chris Spear: 39:18

I'd want it to be weird. I want to be like, like I love like Nine Inch Nails. Like if Trent Reznor put out like dark and like, are we gonna have all black food or so? You know,

Tiffani Thiessen: 39:32

I could go so that I could go kind of nostalgic right and yeah, people that I used to listen to like, I loved the Go Go's, like Belinda Carlisle. I wanted to be Belinda Carlisle when I was

Chris Spear: 39:42

you know that there's not a go ghost cookbook. There might be I might have to go on Amazon. I don't know.

Tiffani Thiessen: 39:46

You're telling you're you're asking a very hard question. So I'm just throwing things out there. Right like, like you said, so I don't know.

Chris Spear: 39:53

It's just Yeah, because it is really interesting. Like now like, again, my daughter has this Alice in Wonderland cookbook, you know, just like the official little avatar cookbook, you know, Star Wars Wookie Cookies like there's so many interesting bizarre ones it is. I love Star Wars. I'm gonna get that book. So that's okay. We'll say Go Go's cookbook. I think that'll be fun. We'll see if we can find Belinda Carlisle, and she can get a ghostwriter or something, signs off on it. Well, it's been great talking to you, Chris. Thanks

Tiffani Thiessen: 40:21

for having me. I appreciate it.

Chris Spear: 40:23

I can't wait to promote this when the book is out. So we'll get that out there. So everyone will be able to get this book. Thank you. Looking forward to seeing you continue to cook recipes on that I enjoy watching. I love the you know, under one minute, consumable?

Tiffani Thiessen: 40:35

Yes, I think I think we all do now I think we're at that place. Right. There's

Chris Spear: 40:39

a little break. Yeah. Well, thanks again for coming on the show. You're still here. The podcast is over. If you are indeed still here. Thanks for taking the time to listen to the show. I'd love to direct you to one place and that's chefs without restaurants.org. From there, you'll be able to join our email newsletter. Get connected in our free Facebook group, and join our personal chef catering and food truck database so I can help get you more job leads. And you'll also find a link to our sponsor page where you'll find products and services I love. You pay nothing additional to use these links. But I may get a small commission, which helps keep the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast and organization running. You might even get a discount for using some of these links. As always, you can reach out to me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants or send me an email at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com Thanks so much.