Funke (2018) - full transcript

‐ There's very few
people that think about

the actual shape
of pasta like I do.

I wanna create the most
comprehensive pasta program

in the United States.

I want you to eat everything.

The geometry, the
actual shape of pasta,

it all has meaning.

‐ Just probably one of
the best pasta makers

in America, definitely
handmade pasta.

‐ [Evan] How far can
you push the hydration?

How far can you restrain it?



‐ Just like he does, I want
people to be able to see

like, how much work went
in to this bowl of pasta.

Like, but sometimes, to
people, it's just a pasta.

‐ [Evan] When you dunk it,

I want the water to move
in very uniform way.

‐ I mean, Evan's like, crazy.

When you have a guy
who's that invested

and that singularly focused,

you end up getting a really,
really great product,

but you also get like a little
bit of insanity with it.

‐ It can't just be all
about the romance of pasta.

It has to be a modern approach

to how to make the
shape taste like

and feel like it's
made by a machine,



but still have the soul
of all that history

and all that work and all
that technical knowledge.

You can't just make dough
and throw it in the hopper

and sheet it out
and make shapes.

‐ [Man] You've got a guy
who refuses to comprise

and is coming back
to reclaim what was

sort of taken from him.

‐ Fusilli, garganelli,
caramelle, malloreddus,

briganti, casarecce,
orecchiette,
pappardelle, gorgitas.

With my hands, I can make 188
of the 365 documented shapes.

Passion's not the word.

I'm fucking maniacal
about pasta.

‐ Evan's like this big
but lovey, sweet guy.

You know, very quiet.

I'm sure as he progressed
through the ranks

in his own kitchen, maybe
he's a little more vocal

but ultimately Evan
was a really quiet,

very astute type guy.

‐ First, we're gonna make well.

Take your hand and very
simply spread the flour.

So mixing is simple.

You wanna take a fork,
crack those yolks

and just start scrambling,
gradually folding in

the flour from the
inside of the walls.

And what we're
looking for is similar

to creaming egg
yolks and butter.

And now we fold.

Now it gets a little messy.

‐ Evan fits in the top
one percent of the people

who've come out of this kitchen
that have great raw talent

and great raw ability.

‐ What you really wanna look
for is a smooth, elastic dough.

When you put your finger to it,

it's gonna spring right back.

That's what you're looking for.

‐ [Interviewer] You'd put
Evan in the top one percent?

‐ Yeah, Evan's good.

Evan's successful because
he's good and he cares.

‐ This is a Mattarello.

It's a rolling pin,
a very large one.

I got this one in Bologna.

Now, there's a
saying in Bologna.

There's a church on the
hill, it's called San Luca

and my teacher always
used to tell me

never stop rolling the
dough until you can see

San Luca through the pasta.

You can see my
hand through that.

You see how thin that is?

That's what we're looking
for in this pasta.

‐ There's a lot of people
who have great skill

and there's a lot of
people who have great heart

but seldom you
come across someone

who has great skill
and great heart

and those are the ones that
make it to the next level.

‐ And there we have it, our .

The second I set foot
in culinary school
I said to myself,

I'm gonna have my own
restaurant some day.

That's the dream, right?

It smells the same.

Fuck me.

You ever seen a sumo match?

The sumo wrestlers
through salt into the ring

to rid the ring of bad spirits.

And before we opened
Bucato I came in here

and burned sage and
I threw salt around.

Didn't work.

That was us, Los
Angeles, Bucato.

I wanted to be the
best pasta restaurant

in the United States.

‐ Bucato opened in 2013
and I think that it was,

without a doubt, one of the
most important restaurants

at the time.

It was one the first restaurants

where it really
felt like everybody

was talking about this place.

It built a sort of mystique

that you don't see with
restaurants that often.

High minded pasta palace right
in the heart of Culver City.

White walls and blonde woods.

The one little
map of California,

the outline with
knives on the wall.

They had a pasta lab upstairs.

‐ Best pasta in the city.

Go to Bucato, you know?

It's like, wow, I
gotta go try that

and it certainly was the
best pasta in the city.

‐ This was clearly a
devotional restaurant.

This was clearly a restaurant
where he was trying

to bring the type
of craftsmanship

that he had seen in Italy
and bring that to LA.

‐ [Farley] You used
to hear details

about what was happening there.

A guy from Japan that he knows

who helps make pasta.

Then you'd get these clips
of him making pasta upstairs

in this oddly triangulated
room that's just full of light.

And it was like a
Bruce Lee movie.

Like, he just is a zen master
making pasta all day long.

‐ It was the perfect,
perfect team.

I'll never put another
team together like that

ever again.

There was this family bond.

‐ The fact that most of us
had either worked together

or all worked under
Evan at one point.

It was like cult‐like almost,

the amount of passion
everybody put into it.

That brotherhood
and that synergy

was pretty much instantaneous.

‐ It would take a while
to get a seat sometimes,

like 45 minutes.

It's just like, and even
for family it was like

we don't have any tables.

You know, the place is packed.

‐ [Evan] Let's go.

As it is, as it comes, let's go.

Go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go.

‐ And literally every 15
minutes there was five, $600

of food going out.

Like, making a lot of money
and yet where's all the money?

‐ Yeah, I actually have
a little portrait book

of all the employees
from the first year.

So, that's Ed Keebler.

He was the other
managing partner.

And, of course, Evan.

‐ We were about
nine to 10 months in

and Julio and I were
talking because we had one

of our paychecks
bounce and we were busy

every single night and we're
like, this is impossible.

‐ Cooks are getting angry
and dishwashers walking out.

Vendors always calling, asking,
you know, where's the money?

‐ I don't think
he was oblivious.

I think he knew
something was happening.

I think that for a long
time he was in denial

and we would constantly
be like, look,

you need to look into this more.

Oh, we were busy.

He came up to me and told me

we did 3.5 million
dollars in the first year.

I don't understand what
happened to the money

at that restaurant.

Nobody can figure that out.

‐ Money was mostly
in the control of Ed.

It was really hurting our
relationship with people.

Farmers we hurt a lot of.

I mean, any of our
purveyors from the city.

‐ When no one else is
gonna extend credit to you,

it was literally
impossible to buy product.

When I saw the sheer volume
of subpoenas implicating me

it was literally one of
the most terrifying moments

of my life.

I sought counsel and
that counsel's advice,

separate yourself
immediately from this person

in order to protect
the rest of your life.

‐ I found out somewheres
around the end of service

the night before.

All the employees got an email

and literally everyone
in service just stopped.

If they hadn't checked their
phone, someone told them stop.

Check your phone.

I looked at it.

I was just like, what the fuck?

What in the entirety
of fuck just happened?

‐ All right, well we've been
together for like six years.

Like, we consider
each other family

and they I couldn't,
I heard nothing.

So I was like, oh
yeah, he abandoned us.

It definitely felt like that.

‐ If you're gonna take
the position of captain,

executive chef, you're
responsible for your crew 100%.

You asked these
guys to follow you.

They followed you.

If your ship's going
down, you're the captain,

you go down with it.

That's the only way it goes.

If you can't do that,
there's no honor in that.

The captain should never
be the first guy to jump.

‐ Damn.

I don't know why I'm
looking in this shit.

I know there's nothing in there.

I'm looking for where the
bodies are buried I guess.

You know, this room
was my sanctuary.

‐ [Interviewer] Where's
your sanctuary now?

‐ It doesn't exist,
I don't have one.

‐ [Man] Most of the investment

was Evan's friends and family.

‐ [Evan] Investing in the
restaurant, those people

were investing in me.

‐ [Interviewer] How
much did you invest?

‐ All told,

the tally is $123,000
of my own money

into Bucato.

I can't freak out
about it anymore.

I've done my freaking
out over all these years

of it all happening so.

‐ [Evan] The people that
invested in that restaurant,

I can never get
their money back.

All I can give back is my craft,

leaving something behind that
is better and bigger than me.

‐ We had been in contact with
people on the ground at Joe's.

We knew that Joe's
was gonna be changing

and possibly closing
all together.

Out of nowhere, Evan
Funke's name came in.

And that's when it was like,
all the pieces really clicked.

‐ We need to open with a smash.

All this planning and
all this designing,

the devil's gonna
be in the details.

‐ [Reporter] Massive
Westside news today

is it's just been confirmed
that Evan Funke will take over

the now defunct Joe's
on Abbot Kinney.

‐ Breaking news, start
demo on the 22nd.

I'm just excited to get
back in the kitchen, man.

‐ Mmm hmm.

‐ I'm going fucking nuts.

‐ [Reporter] The move's
a joint collaboration

between Funke and Gusto 54.

‐ I'm an entrepreneur
and an entrepreneur,

you cannot be risk adverse
and you throw the dice

and you go for it.

So there's a little bit
that makes me feel alive

when I live a little
bit on the edge.

Fingers crossed.

‐ She described my food as

which means the housewife style.

I would never describe
my food in public

as but that's precisely

what it is.

They channel my inner
grandmother so when Janet said,

hey, you're cooking is

and I was like you got a deal.

‐ [Reporter] Funke says
that if all goes well

he'll be cooking
inside by summer.

Soon enough, one of LA's
most celebrated chefs

will be making pasta once again.

‐ I cannot wait to build
a kitchen in this space.

‐ All of my restaurants
that I've opened

have been super successful.

It's not only serving food.

I'm passionate about food.

I've lived in Italy
for eight years.

A little vino, a little .

Overlooking piazza.

My father was
essentially a chef.

‐ Jacamo brought the first
espresso machine to Canada.

They had no appreciation
or understanding

what an espresso was and
Janet worked for his company

at selling coffee.

She helped create
that with her father.

‐ I had this connection
to eating well

that is in my genes.

This is .

It took us like three
minutes to get it,

an amazing experience.

It looks fantastic.

‐ She's got her MBA.

She lived in Rome.

Janet is one of the
first women in Canada

to be certified by the
Neapolitan Pizza Association,

which is amazing in a
male dominated industry.

She's a certified pizziola.

‐ So there's one thing
to open your doors

and sell food but can you
make money doing that?

This is Kiin.

It's our opening night tonight.

And that gets me creatively
very, very stimulated.

‐ [Juanita] She's one
of the most successful

restaurateurs in Canada.

‐ Luigi, busy night right?

So I haven't had, let's
call it a failure, yet.

‐ So we've got five restaurants
opening in one year.

‐ Welcome to Chubby's Jamaican
Kitchen, opening soon.

I'm funding this all cash
by selling pizzas in Toronto

and using every penny
to open up Felix.

Such a beautiful sky.

What do I need to create
to actually survive

on Abbot Kinney, which
is the best street in LA?

Backing somebody and
building an entire brand

around somebody I essentially
don't know at all,

again, is a risk,
but you don't know

until you work with someone.

So again, it's a roll of a dice.

I feel good about
Evan and I think

that we're gonna have a long

and fruitful
working relationship

and that's what my gut tells me.

I don't have red flags.

‐ Ransom, polenta
burger, medium.

We require pork bellies.

‐ [Man] Coming.

‐ Order in, a chicken branzo.

86 the branzino, papa.

‐ I remember in the beginning
he worked so many hours

that he crashed his car and
his mom, I think, called us

and was like, you need
to work my son less.

Like, we tell him go home.

Let your sous run it for today.

Like, you know?

But he was really
committed and dedicated.

‐ I was a maniac,

driven purely by
the fear of failure.

That fear, that motivation,

is a very powerful
driving force.

‐ To vent his anger, he
took a half sheet tray

and bent the shit out of it.

‐ Grabs me by the shirt,
pushes me into the corner

and tells me to unfuck my
station before he kicks me out.

‐ [Man] We would have
ran into a wall for him

at any point in time.

Knowing that you would
die for this guy, like,

that's how much you wanna
work for this guy, you know?

‐ I worked at Rustic
as if I was the owner.

This was the entirety
of my pursuit in life.

I wanted partnership
in Rustic Canyon.

I would have been perfectly
happy to stay as chef partner.

Unfortunately, that
was not on the table.

‐ [Zoe] When Evan chose
to leave Rustic Canyon

and not tell us anything,

it was really, really hurtful

and it really, really sucked.

‐ What?

They were like blindsided.

Everybody was blindsided.

‐ [Josh] This was
something that he had

in the works for a while.

Secretly.

He didn't have to
be secret about it.

‐ And I was just so surprised
when he didn't like us

because I felt like
we were so close.

‐ [Farley] When he
split off to do Bucato,

it made all the
sense in the world

that he was gonna be a star.

‐ I'll give my absolute
best this last night.

Good to be off.

Thank you very much.

‐ Thank you.

‐ My pleasure.

‐ [Josh] There was a sweetness

and there was a
tremendous insecurity

that's at the core of who he is.

I do think it's been his‐‐

‐ [Zoe] Angel and devil.

‐ [Josh] Angel and his devil.

I think it's what
provides the vulnerability

in his food and the
ability to get in touch

with the subtleties
of certain dishes.

And I think it's also gotten
him in a lot of trouble

where he's needed some
kind of validation

and that's made
him make decisions

that are not necessarily
the best for him.

‐ I think the stakes are
always high in a restaurant,

especially with a guy like Evan.

You've got him on Abbot
Kinney in one of the busiest

and highest rent areas
in all of Los Angeles

and you've got him who's
as uncompromising as ever.

If it doesn't succeed,
what you end up with

is another failed enterprise.

‐ [Interviewer] Where are we?

‐ This is Joe's.

This is not yet Felix.

Joe was very successful here

but now is my time.

This is my restaurant now.

My hiatus was a little bit
like a medieval catapult.

You see the guys like
cranking it and cranking it

and cranking it and
cranking it and cranking it

and pulling back
and pulling back.

I'm like right fucking here.

And demo is gonna be
the day when we release.

This restaurant
is a manifestation

of all the hard work since I
set foot in culinary school.

It wasn't Bucato.

It was this restaurant.

‐ [Interviewer] What
if it doesn't work?

‐ See, here's why I
don't think about that

because I've already died.

You see this fire
damage right here?

At some point in time
they had a grease fire.

It's like carbonized.

‐ [Janet] Right now I
think we're probably

at least a week behind.

‐ [Evan] This space
is absolutely rotten
down to the bones.

‐ We lost two weeks, $65,000.

So we've got all these
delays and that sucks.

Have guys been in the restaurant

in the last week or two?

‐ No, we haven't even started.

It's a little frustrating.

‐ In any demo, you
don't know exactly

what you're gonna find.

‐ [Evan] Secret water damage,
fire damage, dead pipes.

‐ You have a plumbing delay
and you're at a standstill

for five weeks.

‐ This is a fucking
piece of plumbing.

That's insane.

‐ [Janet] We just keep,
we just keep paying money.

‐ We really don't know
what's underneath there.

‐ [Interviewer] How's
it going so far?

‐ I think it's going well.

‐ Missy.

Missy.

He would come out in
the kitchen and help me

at a very tender age of
like three, two and a half

and be very inquisitive
about what I was doing.

And, when I would put
him in a high chair,

he'd try everything and it was,

he'd sit there with a
big smile on his face.

Evan was always interested

and he liked the
flavors of things.

But he was the only one that
would pause over his food,

you know, and mmm.

Taste it, taste it.

Mmm.

It's good, mom.

‐ You mean I wasn't
just inhaling it?

‐ No.

You were also, you
were inhaling it too

but you were working on
what was it tasting like.

‐ The family didn't fall
into any neat category

and everybody's doing
something creative.

Graham's doing crazy DJ life.

I'm doing music stuff

and my sister went
to fashion school

and Andy's into all this
vintage eyewear stuff

and they weren't the
normal kids growing up.

♪ My dog has fleas ♪

It was always like, yeah,
the Funke family is just,

they're a little strange.

‐ I went to art school
when I was 11 years old.

I sold vitamins.

I was a towel boy at a gym.

I joined the Marine Corps.

All of these things
that I did in my life

never made me happy.

‐ [Jens] I always kinda
knew Ev was gonna come back

to the food at some point.

He liked food growing up,
there's no doubt about it.

‐ He's made a couple,
he entered a pie contest

one time with me and
I don't remember‐‐

‐ [Evan] What?

‐ Oh yes you did.

Evan decided he was
gonna make a cherry pie.

I said, cherries
are out of season.

No, I'm gonna make a cherry pie.

It was horrible.

‐ It was horrendous.

‐ [Emily] It was horrendous.

‐ It was so bad.

I remember that.

‐ You were no baker.

‐ Thank goodness I found pasta.

I'd be up shit creek right now.

‐ [Emily] Yes, you would.

‐ There's a lot of
chefs that I respect

but there's no one that
I ever wanted to be like

except for my dad.

Because my dad is a true
master of his craft.

‐ [Woman] And the Oscar goes to.

‐ [Man] And the Oscar goes to.

‐ [Woman] Alex Funke for
the Lord of the Rings,

The Return of the King.

‐ [Man] Alex Funke for Lord
of the Rings, The Two Towers.

‐ As you're watching your
old man like in person

walk up there and get an
Oscar, it was like, wow.

This is really something.

You know, you're
supposed to, you know,

not be better than your parents

but your parents are
providing you with life

so you can surpass them.

You know, and that's a
really, really tough thing

like looking up my dad, like,
I'm never gonna get that far.

‐ I'm the last person to
say, yes, I'm a perfectionist

and you have to do it perfectly

but I like to
encourage them to think

that that's a great goal.

It's a wonderful goal.

‐ He's the best at what he does.

That's what I want.

When you think about pasta,

I want you to think
about Evan Funke.

These are all my mom's recipes

so if you're talking
about how long

you've been cooking for
all of us, 43 years?

‐ Mmm hmm.

This is not about what
I cook though Evan.

‐ Oh yes it is

because what you cook
ultimately inspired what I cook.

In my memory of my childhood,

there's certain iconic
images that I remember

and it was this
Morwear Paint Manual

and I knew this was
where mom held the gold.

You know, like I would
see it in the kitchen

and be like, that's
where the gold is.

I knew that there was
love in this book.

When I would pass by
it in the kitchen,

when I saw my mom open
it up, read a recipe,

and make us something.

I knew that there was
love inside of this thing.

It still holds that same,

it still has the
same gravity to me.

It's a time capsule from
where I first started to

develop a personality, an
openmindedness of food.

‐ I think when he went to
Italy and studied there,

I think that was a kind
of magical transformation

where he said,

this is the most important
thing in the world.

We can't explain why it happened

but suddenly he became
this messiah of pasta.

‐ When I went to Bologna,
I had never traveled

outside of the U. S. by myself.

In LA, I was this guy.

I was a cook, whatever.

I was a chef.

But in Bologna, nobody
cared who I was.

I'm just some American there
to learn how to make pasta.

So I could be whoever
I wanted to be.

This type of pasta, the pasta

and Bologna is very special.

Not very many restaurants
make this type of pasta.

It was a very
liberating experience

to be on my own and not
speak the language whatsoever

but somehow, some way,
still communicating

very effectively through the
emotion behind making pasta.

It was never you're
doing it wrong.

It's more about
communicating with the pasta

and allowing yourself
to find your own way.

‐ I had a special techniques.

I taught the techniques to Evan

but other student, no, I didn't.

He was so polite and a
funny guy, shy, you know.

He has big body but
the heart is so warm.

He learned pasta
so quick, so fast.

Alessandra loves him.

Yeah.

‐ She really made it
easy in learning this,

unfortunately dying
craft, of handmade pasta,

pasta .

It was Valentine's Day, 2008.

I don't know, it was
like so effortless.

Everything was in unison,
everything was fluid.

I looked at the pasta
and it did exactly

what I wanted it to do.

I held it up to the light and‐‐

‐ [Alessandra] Bravo.

Perfecto.

‐ [Evan] And it was
perfect and that was it.

There was no turning back.

The centuries old process
of making pasta by hand,

everything went out the window.

It just became my whole life.

It penetrated my whole life.

‐ You walked into Joe's.

You take a look at an
existing restaurant

and you say, we're
gonna paint the walls.

We're gonna, you know,
rip out the carpeting.

He had carpeting .

You know, can we save a hood?

We can save a hood.

So we just do an analysis

and at that point
we thought $600,000.

‐ [Juanita] Here we are, Janet.

‐ Well, it looks like two weeks
of work has happened in here

and I know it's been
weeks of work but‐‐

‐ 11 weeks.

11 weeks in.

‐ Yeah it looks
like, I mean, fine,

they did demolition but
to say that they're gonna

hand the keys over
to us in a few weeks

is absolutely unrealistic.

‐ So what's interesting in
the evolution of this project

is initially our intent was,
we have an existing restaurant.

We're buying an
existing restaurant.

We're gonna put
lipstick on a pig,

for all intents and purposes
and before we know it,

we're rebuilding
from the ground up.

‐ We salvaged zero.

When we thought we could
salvage a few things,

we just gutted the entire place,

which guts to me to gut a
building that's not mine.

I normally come in and
purchase the real estate

and then I have no
problem dumping millions

into my own building.

This is something new for me.

Every project is is it
gonna make us our money back

in three years?

Like, it has to make
sense financially.

‐ [Juanita] Yeah.

‐ And I think this
will in the end,

especially Evan is
projecting bigger sales

than we are right
now, which is great.

So I hope that happens.

‐ Yeah, I'm not using his
projections for our forecasting.

I'm using our projections.

‐ [Janet] Yeah, yeah.

‐ We'll keep that between
you and me right now.

‐ You have to just keep
finding more and more money,

more and more time,
more and more money

and that kind of
stuff is stressful.

‐ It is and at some point
it doesn't make sense

so I'm keeping a close eye
on what that looks like

so that this doesn't
become a vanity project.

‐ [Interviewer] Is
there still a point

where you pull the plug?

‐ Pull the plug and
don't open Felix?

No, no.

Failure's not an option.

No way.

No.

No, not gonna pull the plug.

No.

‐ The value of doing a
collab with Nancy Silverton

and Ryan of Chi
Spacca, it's huge.

On many different levels.

It's amazing for PR.

It puts us in connection
with the national stage.

Gain recognition with the
people who frequent Chi Spacca,

which tends to be a
higher end clientele.

Ugh, my God.

‐ You take a double or if
anybody else wants one.

‐ Just, yes.

‐ Go for it.

‐ Thanks, dude.

Thanks Ryan.

I appreciate it, Chef.

It gives me an opportunity
to see how Fred and Andrew

work together in a
real restaurant setting

around real professionals.

Don't worry about the edges

because we're making .

We have plenty, plenty of dough.

Just make sure
that it's uniform.

Don't worry about
it being round.

Just uniformity is
where we're going.

‐ [Interviewer] What
prompted you to invite Evan

to Chi Spacca?

‐ Well, firstly you
have to remember

that he was between restaurants.

I knew that he had a following

so it would be be a hard sell.

‐ First course we're
gonna do a Tagarene

with white truffles.

It's very, very rich.

Very, very delicate.

Rolled out by hand and
also cut very, very thin.

Second one, the agnolotti is
a very special shape to me.

It's the first shape I
ever learned at Spago.

It was the shape that drove
me to go move to Italy

to go study handmade pasta.

My shape, it's like
my own fingerprint.

I can tell my agnolotti
from every other pasta maker

in the entire world.

‐ I knew that it would
be great for our staff

to be influenced by somebody
that's as passionate as he.

‐ Machine made pasta
is like pound cake.

Handmade pasta is like a wafer.

You got the difference?

‐ Close your ears.

Paul, it's not true.

Machine made pasta is fine.

But also, I like him
and I wanted to help him

and I had been talking to him

and he was complaining how
bored he was not doing anything.

So.

Let's all welcome Evan Funke.

Is anybody an investor
in Felix here?

‐ Nope.

‐ That's good
because none of you

will ever make your money back.

He has been rolling
pasta out all day long

because it's so much easier
to put it in a machine

but, you know what,
he's a purist.

I'm a capitalist.

‐ I'm finally done.

‐ And he's finally done.

‐ Chef Ryan, we're ready.

Obviously I want to be known
as the best pasta maker

in the U. S., of course.

Once it has cheese, please go.

Via.

I want that recognition.

I want that justification.

I want that accolade.

I don't go looking for it.

It comes looking for me.

Pull it, pull it, pull
it, pull it, pull it.

Fred, 90% in the water.

10% in the sauce.

Make sure there's
enough jus in there.

Add some water to it.

Don't overwork it because
it'll get too cold.

‐ [Nancy] Have you
been ever fired?

‐ I've been fired once.

I got fired from
teaching culinary school,

all of that.

‐ Why, too passionate?

‐ [Evan] Yeah.

‐ Too particular?

‐ Basically I can't
talk to people that way

and there's no place for that

in the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum

and I was fired for being a
little bit too aggressive.

I was just out of Spago so I
was full of piss and vinegar.

Go, go, go, go.

Go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go.

‐ It's unreal.

‐ Thanks.

‐ It's like, I mean,
you are such a master.

‐ It's the last 10 years of
my life devoted to that so.

She understands this business
as much as any veteran

of this business
can understand it.

If you take the approach of
making everything by hand,

it seems as if financial
success is unachievable.

Okay?

Thanks.

So her saying that,
I totally get it.

I get where she's coming from

but I disagree.

With everything
going on in Venice,

restaurant building and the
delays and everything else,

taking myself out
of that environment,

very much a
re‐centering of energy.

It's back home.

The culinary archeology
associated with pasta

is my life's work.

‐ That's incredible.

It's incredible.

Rather hypnotizing.

The only way for me
to study the technique

is to watch her hands repeatedly
go over the same point.

It's like a machine.

I mean, this is the
reason why this whole city

comes to the Arco Basso
to buy orecchiette.

Wow.

Ah.

The ridges on the knife
create this texture

on the inside which would
otherwise be smooth.

She's tearing the gluten to
create a very ridged texture

in order to grip sauce.

All of these little torn
pieces are gonna come off

and help emulsify whatever sauce
you're gonna put this into.

It's brilliantly engineered.

‐ So just tell me where
the budget's at today

and then taking us
through to opening.

‐ The overall budget
is sitting at 2.7

and this does not include
the opening operating cost

which would be neighbor
and opening inventory.

‐ When you're
opening a restaurant,

if you're not nervous then
you really have a problem.

No matter how many
you've opened,

how many experiences you've
had opening a restaurant,

it's like whenever you're
putting yourself out there

you should feel a little
anxious, a little nervous,

a little bit scared.

‐ The restaurant business
is the riskiest business

to get into in the world.

You know, you have such a
high likelihood of failing.

‐ Hey, I got this opportunity
to invest in this restaurant.

I always tell 'em
the same thing,

if you're willing to
invest in a restaurant,

be willing to know you're never
gonna see the money again.

‐ John and I won one
of the biggest awards

in our profession last year.

‐ John Shook and Vinny
Dotolo, Animal, Los Angeles.

‐ [John] We won the
James Beard award.

It's been the slowest
year we've had.

Isn't it crazy?

'Cause most restaurants,
in most cities,

like count that as like almost
a million dollars in sales.

LA it's like, people
don't even know

what James Beard is here.

They don't even know what it is.

They don't even know what it is.

‐ There's no restaurant
growth in Los Angeles

with restaurant death too.

You see places every
single day that disappear.

‐ Willie Jane just shut down.

Like, just shut down
within our little parcel

of real estate so they're
three doors down from us.

It's like overnight shut down.

‐ The statistics are alarming.

Like, 60% of restaurants will
not survive the first year.

You can understand why
because the margin of error

is so small.

For every dollar
that is being spent

30% of it goes to labor.

30% of it goes to cost
of food and drink.

Six percent of it goes to rent.

Six percent of it
goes to utilities.

Another 10% goes to
admin and general.

Another six percent
goes to debt management.

Two percent to
advertising and marketing

and at the end of the
day if you're lucky,

you'll have anywhere
from five to 10% left

to put in your pocket.

‐ [Interviewer] Explain to me
what this would be used for.

What is that?

‐ This, this is
to roll out pasta.

‐ You go back to
the story of Occhi

and the first time I
went to Occhi's workshop.

This is it.

He grabbed my hands, felt them,

gave me a super hard
slap and he said,

come back tomorrow.

They take the wood
and they dry it

in the over at 90
degrees for a month.

Mmm hmm.

These are all Mattarelli.

Each one of these is gonna be

turned into‐‐

‐ The famous Mattarelli
of my father.

‐ This is what mine looked like
when I got it the first day.

It's like totally
raw and over time

the fat from the yolk
and oil from the hands,

it changes the color.

There was a time where
everyone made pasta by hand

and then the
machine was invented

and people went away
from making it by hand.

‐ When you go to Italy now
and especially when you go

to the big supermarkets,
I mean, the freezer shelf

is filled with frozen pasta.

It's convenience, just like
every where else in the world

and Italy is no different.

‐ Vinny and I are looking
to invest in this company

that like everything's
made from a machine.

You dump the ingredients in.

It not just makes the pasta

but it also portions the pasta.

‐ [Vinny] It's the
antithesis of Evan.

‐ It's gonna be interesting
to see how he balances that,

you know here on the
second restaurant.

‐ [Evan] But then, for some
reason there was a revolution

back to making it
the traditional way.

‐ What most restaurants
do that make fresh pasta

and they are
sheeting their dough

is they use a hand
cranked mechanism.

You get something done
maybe in five minutes

where this could certainly
take 20 plus minutes.

‐ You work so hard kneading
all these beautiful

air pockets into your dough
and then what do you do?

Put it into this machine.

It smashes all
the life out of it

just so you can make it flat.

No way.

That's what the
Mattarello is to me.

You can capture the life
with the Mattarello.

You capture life by
spreading the air pockets

with the Mattarello instead
of smashing them out.

‐ [Nancy] You're
gaining a better texture

and a better flavor.

‐ Perfectly straight.

There's no variation
in the wood.

There's nothing.

That's the difference
between what Occhi does

and what everybody else does.

That's why you can't
buy a Mattarello online

and hope that it
gets to you straight.

‐ [Evan] Making pasta with
her, it's a total gift.

‐ She's so busy now

and she's got so
many things going on.

Alessandra's skill is
literally priceless.

She's been making pasta
since she was six.

She cooks like a chef but
she thinks like a mama.

She is the best cook in the .

I'll put her up against anybody.

She's like the prize fighter.

She's like the heavy
Mike Tyson of Bologna.

And if it wasn't
for the Maestra,

I don't think that I would
have followed this same path.

‐ A lot of people are used
to looking into a restaurant

and say, okay, pasta,
it's over 10 bucks?

I can go get a $10
pasta anywhere.

Pasta that you make by
hand might only have

a few ingredients semolina
and some of it has

a lot of egg yolks
but it's the labor

that's very expensive.

‐ [John] You know, in Bucato,
everything was handmade.

‐ Super.

‐ Super labor intensive to be
doing the hand rolled stuff.

In my mind, it's like
you think you would learn

from the first time.

‐ The type of pasta that I
make is readily available

on the street.

You can walk by here and you
can study these techniques

and they've been
doing it this way

for hundreds and
hundreds of years.

But you see how small it is.

Like this is like the
size of my lab at Felix.

This is like 150 square feet.

If they can do it, I can do it.

‐ From the day that we start
selling Evan's first pasta,

what's gonna be the
total of the budget?

‐ [Juanita] We must round
it up to three million.

‐ Right.

‐ And the big priority
is moving the funds

from your bank account
to the Gusto 54 account.

‐ When I start
hearing about you need

to put your house on the line
to open up this restaurant,

that may affect me
for a little while,

a couple of days
of not sleeping.

This is the crown
jewel of Felix.

This is the pasta lab

and you're gonna see
hand rolling out,

all the different pastas

that we're making
for the restaurant.

‐ Just a concept on paper
of hand rolled pasta

on Abbot Kinney,
I wouldn't invest.

Oh it's like taking your
child to get Christened,

baptized, for her to use it.

It's like the ultimate blessing.

I mean, come on.

It's near perfect.

She kneaded it less
than five minutes.

She does it so fast

but it's really, she can
do it in three motions.

One, two, three.

But I have to do in like four.

I could study my whole life
and not get it, you know?

‐ Okay, perfecto.

‐ I think the Maestra saw
something very different

in Kosaku and it didn't
have a place in her school.

He was the one to teach me,

you have to pay attention
to every single detail,

from the selection of the flour

to the weight of the
eggs to the hydration

to the temperature of the room.

Everything has a
compounding effect

on your ultimate product.

His method of kneading the dough

changed the way I look at pasta.

Imagine that your
body is a machine.

Think of your hands and your
shoulders as a piece of metal.

There is no move
that insignificant.

Kosaku thinks of his
body as a machine

because machines
are very precise.

Precision leads to excellence

and excellence
leads to perfection.

The strictness and the
unwavering standards

of Kosaku versus the soul
and heart, love and tradition

of Alessandra.

Those are the fundamentals
that define the way

that I make pasta now.

The art and the science.

The soul and the technique.

‐ You know, you're
coming into the building.

We're not quite finished
but this has been one year

working kinda around the
clock to create this brand

and this is a restaurant
built around Evan Funke

and his cooking.

I know that we have
something super special

and I know that you are
the guys that are gonna

bring it to life.

So, it's a honor and
I'll get a chance

to meet you all individually

but thank you for being here.

I'm honored that you
chose to come to Felix.

Thank you.

‐ As far as we know right now,

we're gonna be opening
the last week of February

so this is an impending
day that is upon us

and we're going hard.

So, make sure that you
guys show up focused

and you guys are ready to go.

All right?

This training is gonna fly by.

All right?

Anybody nervous about that?

I'm am.

It's good.

You gotta harness that stuff.

At Felix, we're going to
create our own traditions.

We, as a group, are
stewards and guardians

of the traditions of Italy.

Mezze maniche.

Mezze is half.

Maniche, what's maniche?

This is a maniche.

So it's half sleeve.

Mezze maniche.

‐ [Man] Balanzoni.

‐ Balanzoni.

‐ [Man] Balazoni.

‐ Balanzoni.

It's okay.

Yes.

‐ [Evan] We're
storytellers through food

and that's it, as
simple as that.

That's what this
restaurant's about.

‐ Ultimately the
way that things go

with restaurants in Los
Angeles is that time and money

become your enemy, frankly.

The city has a multitude of
ways to make your life hell.

‐ [Man] Health
Department requirements,

Building and Safety requirements

which include ADA requirements.

Evan is dealing with
the Coastal Commission

in how close he is to the beach.

‐ Turn on our gas so
we can start cooking.

Like, this restaurant
I keep walking in.

We're done, we're done.

The restaurants done.

Turn on the gas.

Help us out.

‐ I didn't anticipate
opening a restaurant

in California to be
this bureaucratic.

‐ It's so frustrating.

You get told one thing when
you're getting in plans check

and then when the
inspector comes out,

it's a completely
different story.

‐ We, last week, did not pass

in part because some of the
items were not ADA approved

which is obviously
very important

but we had to move things around

and it wasn't matching
the floor plan.

So now we are
MacGyvering a little bit

of our floor plan now.

‐ Between three and
five we're gonna

get the Health
Department out here.

Everybody have their
fingers crossed.

Good energy, good thoughts.

Let's make sure we get this,
Jessie, the grease that's here.

Everything.

It's gotta look like
we were never in here.

I'm just looking for violations.

Just keep it where it is.

‐ If we don't
pass, I don't know.

I don't know what will happen.

I don't know.

‐ Every time I open
another restaurant,

I'm like, I'm never
doing this shit again.

But here I am.

I'm doing it again

because this is
what I love to do.

‐ [Interviewer] How did it go?

‐ I'm sorry?

‐ [Interviewer] How'd it go?

‐ Oh, it went well.

No problems.

‐ [Interviewer]
Great, thanks man.

‐ We've passed the final marker.

We've jumped through
the last hoop.

‐ Let's do it guys, let's do it.

Oh boy, oh boy.

‐ Now the actual work begins.

Now the real work begins.

We've got to open
this restaurant in
less than six days.

If this was my restaurant
and I had to incur

the costs that Gusto has eaten,

I would be out of business.

I'd have to sell this place.

I would never open.

It would be impossible.

Impossible.

‐ [Interviewer] Did you
know that when things

started running over,
she put her house up

against the restaurant?

‐ I didn't know that.

I do know that,

yeah.

Serious.

That's obviously
an amazing thing.

It shows her resolve
and her faith in me

but she's betting
on this restaurant

just as much as I am and
that's a real partnership

and if she wins, I win.

And if I win, she wins.

That's what it's about

and that's what I
was searching for.

Someone to go at it with
the same intensity as I do.

‐ You know, obviously
there's a lot of things

going on in the world and
this is not huge tragedy

but it's just emotional for me

because when you put
your all into something,

that's when you get
emotional about it.

I could be detached if I
didn't put 1,000% into this

but I put it all in and
emotionally and creatively

and then also financially,

just absolutely to the max.

‐ Fire rigatoni orecchiette.

Fire Gemma, fire Mark.

Runner.

Three, four, five, six.

‐ How you enjoy
your diablo pizza?

‐ It's very good.

‐ Buena.

‐ Table 91, focaccia, blood
seat one, ricotta seat two.

Table 91, go.

Seat two, 74, go.

What is this?

Don't call me
expo, call me chef.

Where's the fucking Post‐it?

Put it right here.

Is the information
on the Post‐it?

Put it on the fucking Post‐it.

Let's go, come on, come on.

Everybody listen,
everybody listen.

Everybody in this room,
I need to see up tempo.

Up tempo, okay?

Otherwise, I'm
gonna lose my shit.

Sense of urgency, okay?

If you don't train as fast
as you're going to go,

you will be slow.

Okay?

Let's fucking move.

‐ [Man] Yes, Chef.

‐ Runner please.

All right, who's excited to
actually talk about this food

and get this going?

Tutta la pasta fatta
in casa which means

all pasta is made in house.

I've been waiting years
to make these pastas

in a true authentic manner.

Okay, first off, pappardelle.

This will be rolled on this
singular table in the front.

So this is Masetra
Alessandra's bolognese recipe.

It's over 200 years old.

This is like a star.

People are gonna be
ordering pappardelle

through the roof here.

And any Ragu bolognese
that you've had

that is red, it is
not Ragu bolognese.

That's meat sauce.

Or gravy as those guys call it

over on that side
of the country.

We're using the finest black
pepper that we can find

from Southeast Asia
and Pecorino Romano.

I spent a little
over three weeks

eating just this.

I ate it about 32 times.

In order to completely
saturate myself

with this simple dish.

It's super impolite
to look at people

when they eat spaghetti.

Don't look at me.

In Bari Vecchia there's a
street called the Arco Basso.

I spent some time with a woman,

an amazing woman named
Nunzia who can literally

make this shape
100 times a minute.

Orecchiette, which
means little ears.

Very, very simply spaghetti .

The magic of this pasta.

Is the essence of the ocean.

Super delicate.

Very simple.

Look at that smile
on DiMezzio's face.

He knows.

This is your pasta eaters pasta.

Trofie is a twisted
pasta that's made

with the side of your hand.

Anybody take a stab
where trofie is from?

‐ [Audience] La Giulia.

‐ La Giulia.

Pesto Genovese.

So this pesto is very,
very close to my heart.

This is one of my first
culinary memories.

I can go back until
I'm like years old.

I've eaten this
pesto my entire life.

Rigatoni .

One chile, cured
pork cheek, pomodoro,

and Pecorino Romano.

Everybody say it.

Means sponge.

This is a focaccia,
typical of Sicily.

Everyone needs to realize,
this is the reason

why put this lab
in front everybody,

one of the reasons anyway,
is that I want people

to have a connection with
what's on their plate.

If they have a plate of
trofie with pesto Genovese,

they can see there's like
100 of them on the plate.

That means that
this guy or that guy

has to do that 100
times just for you.

‐ Today Eater LA dropped one

of the most beautiful profiles‐‐

‐ Boom!

‐ I think anybody has written
on any new restaurant.

‐ [Tyler] The title
of the article

is Evan Funke Chases Pasta
Perfection at Felix in Venice.

‐ Lofty goals, I tell ya.

‐ If there's a more
compelling Italian restaurant

in Los Angeles than
Felix at the moment,

good luck finding it.

Felix is, frankly,
a game changer

for the modern Italian
movement in Los Angeles.

Funke has been out of
the consistent day to day

restaurant game for two
years since departing Bucato.

His comeback tour now
includes a stand alone

temperature controlled
pasta laboratorio

that acts as a focal point

for the entire
primary dining room.

‐ You know, the truth is
it's absolutely taking away

table space for a restaurant
that could desperately use it.

‐ That seat is worth $70 a night

times seven days a week
times 30 days a month,

365 days later this is
how much that seat needs.

‐ For me, it's a no brainer.

To do 144 square feet exactly,

which is around 20 seats.

20 seats for me times 50,
that's a lot of bread per year

but‐‐

‐ Right.

20 seats, $51,000 a seat.

I don't have a calculator.

‐ I don't want to do that.

‐ Ding, ding, ding,
da, ding, ding.

‐ As great as it is to
walk in there and see that

and kinda that wow factor,

it doesn't make the
food taste any better.

That pasta could be made
in the corner of a kitchen.

‐ But it sets us apart from
everyone in the United States.

Nobody has this.

I think the value is
worth the real estate

that we've dedicated to it.

‐ We both walked
into this restaurant

and we saw Joe's wine storage.

‐ [Evan] Wine storage.

‐ And you know‐‐

‐ [Evan] It was immediate.

‐ We were like‐‐

‐ It was immediate.

‐ Pasta lab.

‐ You would lose a
little bit of the heart

of what Evan has
always been about

if you didn't have that
room in the restaurant.

‐ You know, it's
also an education.

‐ We always wanna drag this

this way.

‐ Some people might
think that pasta

grows on trees,
you know, and so,

I think at the same time
he's also educating people.

‐ Even pressure,
roughly 60 degrees.

Pull back, invert.

If we're all three of
us making orecchiette,

they all have to
be the same size.

‐ And, if it's something
that doesn't work,

I mean, we can change it.

I'm just saying, like.

I'm gonna hand you the hammer.

Take it down.

‐ [Evan] Call Juanita.

‐ [Siri] Calling Juanita.

‐ Dee?

‐ [Dee] Yes sir?

‐ Did you check your email?

‐ [Dee] No.

What happened?

‐ [Juanita] Hi Evan.

‐ Hi.

Today's been very interesting.

What the actual fuck?

This is like a kick in the face.

Fred crashes his
bicycle this morning.

He fractured his collarbone.

He's got three stitches
in his face and now this.

I don't know where
it's coming from,

whether it's coming
from the community

or whether it's something else.

Wrap our heads around what
our contingency plan is

because we're completely booked
through the entire weekend.

If that happens, we have
to call like 400 people

and say, you know, guess what?

We're not opening.

Thank you.

What the fuck?

‐ What the fuck is going on?

But okay, they're complaining
so we can't open a restaurant?

‐ The city's saying
we can't open

because he's gotten additional
complaints regarding Felix,

the city's not going to
allow the restaurant to open.

‐ This is bad.

This is really bad.

‐ Let's just keep this
between this circle

so that they don't freak out.

I need them focused tonight.

‐ [Man] So, in your experience,

if you're in violation,
what happens?

‐ [Man] Um, I guess the
fire marshal could come

and potentially
shut the place down

and then people
would have to leave

and I think that would be the
absolute worse case scenario.

‐ This whole project has
been like one step forward,

kick in the balls.

Another step forward,
kick in the balls.

And it's been like that

and I thought we were
out of the woods.

‐ Yeah, we don't know
what the complaint is.

Somebody in the
neighborhood complained.

‐ We have everything in
order so it's the weekend

and nothing is stopping
us from opening

so I don't even wanna
hear any more of that.

We're opening.

‐ Someone or some people
don't want us to be here.

I mean, listen, they can't
stop the progression.

We are going to
open no matter what.

This restaurant is
unstoppable at this point.

They're just fucking
with my money now.

‐ Chef said I was
out for a month.

Yeah, he came up to the
hospital and was like,

oh, it's all good.

We'll open the
restaurant without you.

I'm not having that so.

I still got one good arm.

I can make pasta with one arm.

I got the codeine.

Never taken codeine before.

It's pretty good.

‐ [Interviewer] First in line?

‐ First in line.

I came here at 4:30.

‐ [Interviewer] But why?

‐ Because I'm a huge
fan of Chef Evan Funke.

I ate at Bucato two years
ago for my birthday dinner.

It blew my mind and
I'm just so excited

to have him in Venice and
to have this restaurant

on Abbot Kinney, adding to
the whole food scene here.

You know?

‐ Okay guys, 30 minutes.

This is our first shot so
let's make it a good step

in the right direction.

Creating a group of people
that are all on the same page,

that all understand
the philosophy.

It's team, it's
family, it's community.

That's what we will have here.

Love each other
and love our guests

and we'll be totally fine.

‐ 19 minutes until
those doors open.

‐ There's this like
palpable energy

that you can feel the
calm before the storm.

Just like pushing to get
all of the prep done.

Everybody's getting
hopped up on caffeine,

smoking their last cigarettes.

Everybody's in their own mind.

Getting their focus
ready and you walk up

to each and every line cook
and you look 'em in the eye

and you say, show me
something tonight.

Let's go.

‐ [Man] Number one!

‐ Longing to start cooking again

is not the correct phrase.

I've been through
so much fucking shit

the last two years.

I'm lusting after

the moment when I get

to begin,

when I'm allowed to begin.

First ticket in guys, listen up.

Fire .

All right, Santi,
moment of truth my man.

‐ Down here we
have the spaghetti.

This is gonna be done
with oil and garlic

and shaved with targa.

‐ A lot of these chefs in LA,
they haven't had failures.

They've had wins.

But they haven't tasted
what I've tasted.

Hey I need a vodka and a cacio
with a chicken right now.

‐ And then orecchiette.

‐ Orecchiette.

‐ The wolf that's climbing
the hill is way hungrier

than the wolf at
the top of the hill

and I'm fucking starving.

‐ After what happened to Bucato,

I would never be surprised
if Evan just got up

and left again.

‐ Is this where Marty
fucking went down?

‐ [Man] Yeah.

‐ Nothing like a nice
kick in the teeth

in the beginning.

‐ [Farley] The worst
mark for any chef

is to have the
greater population

start to feel like
you're the guy

who goes and closes places down.

‐ Get in that box.

Somebody get in that box.

Two ori, one
spaghetti, one trofie,

one big and one vodka.

Let's go.

We gotta push.

Failure gives you a
very unique perspective.

I'm going down on the
fennel parm, guys.

On why, what, and
how you failed.

That's who I'll be here.

A little older, a lot more wise.

L22.

More black pepper.

But way more intense.

I need a fucking meatball
my way right now, right now.

How long?

‐ For Evan it's been
about pasta for so long.

‐ This is balanzoni
with crescenza inside

with .

A la Maestra Alessandra.

‐ [Farley] Chasing
seems like a really big

and important part
of that story.

‐ Butter and gold.

The Bolognese called
the pomodoro gold

because they only make
it one time a year.

‐ And to create a restaurant
that truly feels like his,

I think he's searching for
perfection, absolutely.

I don't know if
he'll ever find it.

‐ There is a part of
him that really wants

a lot of attention and
obviously that part

derails all of us when
we get wrapped up in it.

‐ I've never had a

as good as that and
this one is definitely

as good as that.

‐ I like it.
‐ Yeah.

‐ Awesome.

‐ So, if he focuses on his craft

and he focuses on
what he does well,

people love it and
he's really good at it.

‐ But that's where he's so happy

when he's just doing his thing

but then he's got
like the hype of it.

‐ This feels like home.
‐ Thank you.

‐ Congratulations.
‐ That's the best compliment.

Thank you so much.

‐ A full restaurant
actually doesn't mean

that it's a
profitable restaurant

so don't let that fool you.

You probably hit
your best stride

when you're six or
seven years old,

if you even make it
six or seven years.

‐ I came tonight to
see Chef's vision

fully realized, you know?

The guy deserves everything
that's happening in there.

That's what Bucato should
have been in every single way.

‐ He wants to make food
that people will enjoy.

I think he finds a
lot of frustration

because there's always
the business part of it,

the finance part of
it, all of the things

that have to be gotten
over in order to do that.

That was brilliant.

I mean, it's just, everybody's
having such a fantastic time

and it's just so cool.

‐ I'm glad you're here, man.

‐ I am very glad to be here.

‐ I think that the dream is easy

but to sustain the
dream, that's the work.

‐ Handmade pasta dies

if you don't pass on the
knowledge and the technique.

But maybe one day if you look
through the glass at Felix

and you see the pasta
maker, you see me in there,

maybe you'll ask me a question.

Hey, what's the story
behind this shape?

Tell me something.

Then I got 'cha.

And you'll never look
at pasta the same.