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[soft music playing]

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[Evan] Few people realize
what it actually takes

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to be really good at making pasta.

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It's very tough on your body.

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You're standing in one place,

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repetitively making thousands

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and thousands and thousands
of things with your hands.

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It's tough on your joints.

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It's hard.

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And that's why I chose it.

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Less and less people
are willing to pay the time cost

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associated with real mastery.

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[music continues]

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[Evan] I wanted to do something difficult.

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I found it.

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And

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I never looked back.

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[theme music plays]

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[music stops]

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[man] Los Angeles is one of the greatest
food cities on the planet.

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But I will tell you, they don't eat pasta.
They don't eat gluten.

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They're zealots about it.

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So it's unexpected
that in the capital of gluten aversion,

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you have one of the great pasta makers
in the world.

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[upbeat music plays]

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[Jeff] The thing to understand
about Evan Funke

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is that he has chosen
the most difficult path.

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He has chosen making pasta by hand,
without a machine.

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You have to roll out every sheet,

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and it requires perfection.

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When you go to Funke,
his restaurant in Beverly Hills,

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he's a gladiator
right in the middle of the restaurant,

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rolling sheets of dough.

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It creates a sense of reverence
for what he's doing.

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He is making pasta in that moment
that you might eat moments later.

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And that's an extraordinary thing.

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Lasagna,

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tagliatelle Bolognese,

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tortellini in brodo.

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His obsession goes extremely deep.

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And he's passionate about sharing credit

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with the people
he's learned these dishes from.

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He understands that handmade pasta
is a tradition that's been passed down

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and that he's one of the latest custodians
carrying this tradition along.

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It's a beautiful thing to see.

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It's a beautiful thing to taste.

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[music continues]

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[music fading]

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[bells tolling]

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[in Italian] Young people
no longer make dough manually.

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Now everybody uses the kneading machine,

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so it's different.

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Yes. Handmade pasta is different.

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[Evan in English]
When you start with flour and eggs,

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and you put them together…

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it's not just pasta.

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[soft music playing]

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[Evan] This is religion.

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[music intensifies]

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[Evan] Every shape you see
in the grocery store

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has an ancestral shape

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that was at one time made by hand,

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from flour and water, by a woman.

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You're eating history.

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Today, a lot of the handmade shapes
are dying with the true masters.

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Less and less young people are willing
to really become a master of it.

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I want to be a protector.

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One little tiny conduit

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in thousands of years of tradition.

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I want to offer myself
as a godson to these people,

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because they've given me
something extremely special.

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[music fading]

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[Evan] I grew up in Los Angeles.

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My dad was in the movie business.

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And my mom was a constant source
of endless love.

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My parents said, "Do what you want."

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"Do what inspires you."

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They were saying,
"I don't care what you do,

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but whatever you do,
you better do it well."

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[piano music playing]

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[Evan] There was always music,
and there was always art.

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So it was a very creative household.

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My brother Jens plays,
like, 13 instruments, all self-taught.

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My sister has a glorious singing voice.

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I wanted that,
but I was never good at anything.

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High school was a disaster for me.

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I was overweight, self-conscious,
and uncomfortable in my own skin.

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I didn't know what I wanted to do.

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I sold vitamins at GNC.

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I was a massage therapist.

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I worked at a gym.

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I tried so many things,

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searching for this all-in-one solution.

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I was really, really lost.

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[music fades]

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[woman in Italian]
I think trofie have gained popularity

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because they represent the perfect shape.

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And this shape retains the pesto well
and allows perfect cooking.

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Is the dough good,
or do you make it softer?

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No, it's perfect.

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-Perfect? Okay.
-Yes.

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Because it depends,

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one can make it stiffer
or a little softer.

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No, no.

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[woman] You roll it
on the kneading trough,

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and when it comes back,
you press it well, right?

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Everyone makes them differently.

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For example, I use this part of my hand.

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And you, Giusy, do you use this one?
The palm always, you too.

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[Evan in English]
Pasta shapes are really personal.

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It's your fingerprint.

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Sofia, she's been making trofie
her whole life.

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And some of the most beautiful pasta

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I have ever seen being made
were made by her.

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[soft music playing]

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[Evan] Leading up to the point
where I met Sofia,

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trofie, for me, was really hard.

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How do you shape it into a corkscrew
that's tapered at each end?

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Watching her make trofie,

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I found she's utilizing the entirety
of the spine of her hand.

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Starting at the very base of the palm
and ending at the very tip,

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within a very short distance.

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Super elegant,
but also looks kind of violent…

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like a captured cyclone.

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If you look at me at face value,
I don't think many people would say,

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"He could probably
make something delicate."

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But seeing her make pasta,
my shape changed.

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And it hasn't gone back.

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[music continues]

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[Evan] Sofia totally changed my whole idea
of what trofie should be.

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Now, it's an extension of her,
captured in each little one.

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[music fading]

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[Evan] After high school,

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I was really dissatisfied
with where my life was going.

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My girlfriend at the time,
she was a great cook,

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and I would cook with her.

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She said,
"You clearly are natural at cooking."

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"Why don't you go to culinary school?"
And I was like, "Oh."

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"That's a great idea."

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[soft music playing]

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[people chattering]

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-[Evan] Hands, please!
-[man] Yes, Chef!

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-One busa.
-[man] Busa.

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-One lemon.
-[man] Lemon.

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-One tag.
-[man] Tag.

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Heads up on a ribby mid-well.

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[Evan] Three months into culinary school,
I got a job with Wolfgang Puck at Spago.

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And that kitchen

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produced some of the best cooks
that California's ever seen.

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[music intensifies]

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[Evan] When I walked in that kitchen,

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it was charged
with kinetic energy, passion, and fear.

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Everyone was propelled at top speed,
every day.

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I was scared shitless.

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I didn't speak. I listened.

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I took copious notes.

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And I learned.

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I threw my mind, body, and soul
into working for Wolfgang.

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It was insane.

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Just go.

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Go as hard as you possibly can, every day.

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Go hard.

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And I loved it.

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[music fades]

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[Evan] I left Spago as a sous-chef.

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I talked my way
into becoming the chef de cuisine

167
00:14:14,144 --> 00:14:16,105
at a hotel in Beverly Hills.

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00:14:17,606 --> 00:14:20,651
It was run by a chef
whose family was from Bologna.

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The chef could make pasta.

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But he wouldn't teach me anything,
and it pissed me off.

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So I was like, "All right, fuck you.
I'm gonna go learn from the source."

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[upbeat music plays]

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00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:44,925
[Evan] I started to look for places
in Italy to learn pasta.

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And I stumbled
on La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese.

175
00:14:48,762 --> 00:14:52,224
It was run by Alessandra Spisni,

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00:14:52,308 --> 00:14:57,062
who is one of the best sfoglini
in the world.

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[in Italian] Fresh pasta
is a system that was the invention

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00:15:00,316 --> 00:15:01,734
of our great-grandmothers

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to put on the table
and make people happy by spending little.

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00:15:06,113 --> 00:15:09,617
[in English] I got on the phone
and got Alessandra.

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She said,
"Okay, we'll see you when you get here."

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00:15:13,579 --> 00:15:14,413
"Great."

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00:15:15,456 --> 00:15:16,916
[music fades]

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[people chattering]

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00:15:29,053 --> 00:15:32,431
[Evan] I arrive in Bologna.
I don't know the language.

186
00:15:33,307 --> 00:15:35,935
I rang the doorbell at La Vecchia Scuola.

187
00:15:36,018 --> 00:15:39,438
Alessandra, she opened the door,
and she goes, "Buongiorno!"

188
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Like, big, boisterous welcome.

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I was like, "This is it."

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00:15:46,028 --> 00:15:49,657
[in Italian] So let's start
from the dough, right?

191
00:15:49,740 --> 00:15:54,620
Make the fountain.
Make a hole that contains the eggs.

192
00:15:54,703 --> 00:15:55,955
[piano music playing]

193
00:15:56,997 --> 00:16:02,127
[Evan in English] Alessandra teaches
with this overflowing warmth.

194
00:16:03,545 --> 00:16:04,672
Make mistakes.

195
00:16:05,172 --> 00:16:07,132
Roll it. Have a good time. Dance.

196
00:16:07,216 --> 00:16:08,634
[in Italian] Are they doing well?

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00:16:08,717 --> 00:16:10,177
-Yes.
-They are doing well.

198
00:16:10,260 --> 00:16:13,472
If they don't do it right,
we tell them off.

199
00:16:13,973 --> 00:16:16,600
Because they have to learn quickly,

200
00:16:16,684 --> 00:16:19,853
or the mistakes start multiplying in life.

201
00:16:21,438 --> 00:16:24,191
You need hands for the dough, not metal.

202
00:16:24,274 --> 00:16:26,402
You need your heart in it.

203
00:16:26,485 --> 00:16:28,237
You have to feel the dough.

204
00:16:29,071 --> 00:16:30,531
That's why you need heart.

205
00:16:30,614 --> 00:16:34,785
Here, flour, eggs and air,
but you need heart.

206
00:16:34,868 --> 00:16:36,245
[music continues]

207
00:16:42,876 --> 00:16:46,130
[Evan in English]
Alessandra was this fountain

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00:16:46,213 --> 00:16:49,508
of everything that I wanted to know.

209
00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:57,307
She recognized that I was so interested
in the cooking processes,

210
00:16:57,391 --> 00:16:59,768
and all of a sudden,
she started giving me tasks

211
00:16:59,852 --> 00:17:02,229
to help her in the kitchen.
And I'm like, "Oh shit."

212
00:17:04,189 --> 00:17:07,276
Everyone was receiving instruction,

213
00:17:07,776 --> 00:17:12,531
but I was receiving
this additional attention

214
00:17:12,614 --> 00:17:15,576
that was more than I expected.

215
00:17:17,995 --> 00:17:21,206
And I just gave myself to the whole thing.

216
00:17:29,465 --> 00:17:30,549
[music ends]

217
00:17:33,427 --> 00:17:34,928
[people chattering]

218
00:17:43,645 --> 00:17:45,981
[Evan] I wanted the craft
of handmade pasta

219
00:17:46,065 --> 00:17:49,735
to be the focal point
of everything that I did from here on out.

220
00:17:51,111 --> 00:17:53,197
[indistinct chattering]

221
00:17:55,783 --> 00:18:00,162
[Evan] But the rolling of the sfoglia
was really awkward for me.

222
00:18:01,455 --> 00:18:03,123
And I kept, like, doing this

223
00:18:03,207 --> 00:18:05,584
and gripping it
and rolling over my fingers.

224
00:18:09,671 --> 00:18:10,756
[wood banging]

225
00:18:10,839 --> 00:18:12,800
[Evan] And I didn't have a mattarello.

226
00:18:12,883 --> 00:18:15,302
I wanted one so desperately.

227
00:18:15,385 --> 00:18:17,137
[banging continues]

228
00:18:17,930 --> 00:18:21,475
[Evan] So Alessandra gave me an address
to go buy a mattarello.

229
00:18:22,768 --> 00:18:26,396
I go inside,
and it smelled of freshly cut wood

230
00:18:27,272 --> 00:18:28,440
and dust

231
00:18:28,941 --> 00:18:30,567
and machinery

232
00:18:31,443 --> 00:18:32,736
and oil.

233
00:18:33,737 --> 00:18:37,491
And out comes Maestro Occhi.

234
00:18:38,033 --> 00:18:39,034
And he's like…

235
00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:42,329
-[banging continues]
-[soft music playing]

236
00:18:58,846 --> 00:19:00,180
[Evan] I picked one out.

237
00:19:00,681 --> 00:19:02,307
I looked at the wood,

238
00:19:04,143 --> 00:19:06,937
and the wood grain was so beautiful.

239
00:19:09,898 --> 00:19:12,609
And I knew that this wasn't just a stick.

240
00:19:15,612 --> 00:19:17,739
This was, like, something special.

241
00:19:21,243 --> 00:19:22,327
[music ends]

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00:19:42,764 --> 00:19:46,476
[Evan]
I fell into this rhythm of waking up,

243
00:19:47,477 --> 00:19:50,272
making pasta as much as possible.

244
00:19:51,106 --> 00:19:54,610
And I kept making dough
after dough after dough after dough,

245
00:19:56,028 --> 00:19:58,405
seeking out the rhythm of how to do it.

246
00:20:00,490 --> 00:20:04,745
One day, I start working the sfoglia,

247
00:20:05,913 --> 00:20:07,915
and there's no hesitation.

248
00:20:09,750 --> 00:20:12,002
It felt natural for the first time.

249
00:20:12,794 --> 00:20:14,796
[soft music playing]

250
00:20:22,512 --> 00:20:27,142
It was talking to me in a way
that I could understand, finally.

251
00:20:31,146 --> 00:20:33,106
We were actually having a conversation.

252
00:20:36,526 --> 00:20:39,112
I was in awe of what was going on.

253
00:20:42,824 --> 00:20:45,535
[chuckles] Like,
"Okay, I guess this is happening now."

254
00:20:52,501 --> 00:20:54,169
It was fresh and thin…

255
00:20:57,297 --> 00:20:59,841
strong and balanced…

256
00:21:02,761 --> 00:21:06,306
and in the end, it was perfect.

257
00:21:09,810 --> 00:21:11,895
It was that defining moment,

258
00:21:13,897 --> 00:21:16,316
"This is who I'm gonna be."

259
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:17,943
[music intensifies]

260
00:21:37,129 --> 00:21:38,547
[music fading]

261
00:21:43,260 --> 00:21:47,848
[Evan] Ragu Bolognese
is a cornerstone of cucina Bolognese,

262
00:21:48,348 --> 00:21:52,728
and for me,
the truest expression of Alessandra.

263
00:21:52,811 --> 00:21:54,813
[violin music playing]

264
00:22:05,282 --> 00:22:07,159
I wanted to capture that…

265
00:22:10,037 --> 00:22:13,415
and I started building up this Bolognese

266
00:22:13,498 --> 00:22:17,377
to become a facsimile of her ragù,

267
00:22:19,212 --> 00:22:24,092
with this big bass tone of umami.

268
00:22:27,721 --> 00:22:28,764
I couldn't get it.

269
00:22:30,015 --> 00:22:33,560
Beef that's raised in California
tastes like dry grass.

270
00:22:34,853 --> 00:22:39,483
So, I added bone marrow
to gain this foundation…

271
00:22:41,860 --> 00:22:44,571
and I put the marrow into pork fat.

272
00:22:47,949 --> 00:22:50,952
I take the sofrito,
and I put it into the pork fat.

273
00:22:52,579 --> 00:22:55,165
I add straight-grind brisket,

274
00:22:56,166 --> 00:22:59,086
and as soon as it starts
to trickle out the juice,

275
00:23:00,045 --> 00:23:01,171
add the wine,

276
00:23:02,714 --> 00:23:03,632
add the tomato…

277
00:23:05,926 --> 00:23:06,843
add the brodo,

278
00:23:07,677 --> 00:23:10,263
and then you bring it up
very, very slowly.

279
00:23:10,347 --> 00:23:11,807
[music continues]

280
00:23:13,183 --> 00:23:16,853
Alessandra taught me you cannot rush ragù.

281
00:23:17,771 --> 00:23:18,772
How dare you?

282
00:23:20,023 --> 00:23:21,733
You just have to watch it.

283
00:23:23,318 --> 00:23:25,529
You have to love it.

284
00:23:27,030 --> 00:23:28,490
It's my favorite thing to make.

285
00:23:32,285 --> 00:23:36,998
And what, 17, 18 years later,
I think I kind of have it?

286
00:23:57,394 --> 00:23:58,979
[music ends]

287
00:24:01,565 --> 00:24:04,025
-[in Italian] There you are.
-Thank you.

288
00:24:08,947 --> 00:24:11,700
[Evan] Do you remember the first time?

289
00:24:11,783 --> 00:24:15,120
[Alessandra] I remember everything
about all my students.

290
00:24:15,954 --> 00:24:19,291
You are aware that you are the only one
who has been in my kitchen.

291
00:24:19,374 --> 00:24:20,208
Yes.

292
00:24:20,709 --> 00:24:24,546
In 35 years,
you have been the only one in my kitchen.

293
00:24:26,423 --> 00:24:30,427
[Evan in English] Italy was three months,
six days a week,

294
00:24:30,510 --> 00:24:33,180
as many hours
as they would allow me to be at school.

295
00:24:38,143 --> 00:24:43,565
I felt myself coming into flower
as a human.

296
00:24:44,983 --> 00:24:46,526
[upbeat music playing]

297
00:24:47,277 --> 00:24:50,489
[Evan] One day Alessandra said,
"We're gonna make lasagna."

298
00:24:51,490 --> 00:24:52,991
"I'm gonna teach you."

299
00:24:54,826 --> 00:24:56,912
[in Italian] This is music to my ears!

300
00:24:59,414 --> 00:25:01,500
A rolling pin should have a name.

301
00:25:01,583 --> 00:25:02,417
[Evan] Alessandra!

302
00:25:02,501 --> 00:25:06,254
[Alessandra] Now you are the only person
with a rolling pin with a female name.

303
00:25:06,338 --> 00:25:07,547
[Evan] Always.

304
00:25:07,631 --> 00:25:09,758
[Alessandra] So we will
always be together.

305
00:25:10,383 --> 00:25:12,385
[music intensifies]

306
00:25:22,062 --> 00:25:25,565
[Evan in English] The way that she made it
was just so beautiful.

307
00:25:27,317 --> 00:25:30,570
The mixture of the besciamella
and the sugo,

308
00:25:31,988 --> 00:25:35,659
this practiced, unmeasured balance.

309
00:25:37,661 --> 00:25:40,038
Even though she had made it so many times,

310
00:25:40,121 --> 00:25:42,499
she recognized
that this was the first time for me.

311
00:25:44,251 --> 00:25:47,212
She took great care
in showing me how to do it.

312
00:25:49,256 --> 00:25:50,882
[music continues]

313
00:25:50,966 --> 00:25:52,884
[Evan] She wanted to give that to me.

314
00:25:56,012 --> 00:25:58,557
Before Italy, I didn't know who I was.

315
00:26:01,309 --> 00:26:06,022
And I found something
that I could shape my life around.

316
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:09,359
This is who I am. I'm a pasta maker.

317
00:26:09,442 --> 00:26:10,610
[in Italian] Perfect.

318
00:26:10,694 --> 00:26:13,196
I must say we are good, we did well.

319
00:26:14,322 --> 00:26:16,032
[Evan in English] I didn't want to leave.

320
00:26:16,116 --> 00:26:21,705
I wanted to rip my roots out of the US
and plant them in Bologna proper.

321
00:26:23,164 --> 00:26:25,166
[music continues]

322
00:26:33,216 --> 00:26:34,593
[Evan] But I was broke.

323
00:26:34,676 --> 00:26:36,678
[sirens wailing]

324
00:26:49,316 --> 00:26:51,401
[Evan] I get back from Bologna,

325
00:26:51,901 --> 00:26:58,033
Los Angeles seems
so unbelievably boring and sad,

326
00:26:59,534 --> 00:27:01,119
and I had to get a job.

327
00:27:02,537 --> 00:27:04,998
I met Josh at Rustic Canyon.

328
00:27:05,081 --> 00:27:07,584
It's this cool restaurant in Santa Monica.

329
00:27:07,667 --> 00:27:09,252
It's struggling.

330
00:27:10,378 --> 00:27:14,132
Josh was very adamant
about being a neighborhood restaurant.

331
00:27:15,342 --> 00:27:16,843
And there had to be a burger.

332
00:27:17,344 --> 00:27:19,346
[soft music playing]

333
00:27:22,932 --> 00:27:26,519
The last thing that I wanted to cook
was a burger.

334
00:27:29,397 --> 00:27:30,357
But I had to do it.

335
00:27:34,235 --> 00:27:37,864
When I took it over,
it was this blue cheese,

336
00:27:38,531 --> 00:27:39,783
confit bacon,

337
00:27:40,617 --> 00:27:43,536
Sysco patty disaster.

338
00:27:43,620 --> 00:27:47,290
And it was cooked in a cast iron,
and it tasted metallic.

339
00:27:51,127 --> 00:27:54,255
If I'm gonna cook a burger,
I'm gonna make it my own.

340
00:27:54,339 --> 00:27:56,466
[music intensifies]

341
00:27:56,549 --> 00:27:58,677
[Evan] So I started to play with it,

342
00:28:00,428 --> 00:28:01,721
get better cheese,

343
00:28:02,305 --> 00:28:03,640
get better meat,

344
00:28:04,224 --> 00:28:05,517
find a better bun,

345
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,478
cook onions down forever
and ever and ever.

346
00:28:09,896 --> 00:28:11,147
Onion fondue.

347
00:28:11,731 --> 00:28:14,109
And it turned into this beast.

348
00:28:20,740 --> 00:28:23,076
It became a cult hit,

349
00:28:23,660 --> 00:28:26,538
the cash cow of that restaurant.

350
00:28:28,248 --> 00:28:31,418
Great. Successful, amazing,
making money. Good.

351
00:28:31,501 --> 00:28:35,839
But it was not my ambition or dream.

352
00:28:35,922 --> 00:28:37,674
[music fading]

353
00:28:40,927 --> 00:28:42,762
This fucking burger,

354
00:28:44,514 --> 00:28:48,977
it wasn't fulfilling this desire
to make pasta.

355
00:28:49,644 --> 00:28:50,895
That's what I wanted.

356
00:28:51,479 --> 00:28:58,236
I needed to make my mark
with my hands, a stick, flour, and water.

357
00:29:05,118 --> 00:29:07,996
The restaurant I wanted did not exist.

358
00:29:09,873 --> 00:29:11,499
I wasn't sure what to do.

359
00:29:12,709 --> 00:29:17,380
When I found my business partner,
I found a way forward.

360
00:29:19,007 --> 00:29:23,344
I wanted this sanctuary
dedicated to handmade pasta.

361
00:29:23,428 --> 00:29:26,765
No machines, just labor.

362
00:29:26,848 --> 00:29:28,266
[upbeat music playing]

363
00:29:30,351 --> 00:29:32,771
[Evan] I got in touch with Kosaku.

364
00:29:33,730 --> 00:29:38,735
Ko was the teacher's aide with Alessandra.

365
00:29:40,236 --> 00:29:44,491
Kosaku is probably
one of the best pasta makers there is.

366
00:29:46,201 --> 00:29:48,703
Extremely focused individual.

367
00:29:49,204 --> 00:29:50,789
Monk-like, even.

368
00:29:58,087 --> 00:29:59,380
[music continues]

369
00:30:00,757 --> 00:30:02,091
[Evan] And when I told him

370
00:30:02,175 --> 00:30:06,471
that I was going to open up a restaurant
based on handmade pasta,

371
00:30:06,554 --> 00:30:10,183
he was like, "I'm gonna come there,
and we're gonna be the best."

372
00:30:10,767 --> 00:30:12,685
And I was like,
"Fuck yeah. Let's do this."

373
00:30:12,769 --> 00:30:14,687
[music intensifies]

374
00:30:20,401 --> 00:30:24,614
[Evan] We made pasta every fucking day,

375
00:30:24,697 --> 00:30:27,867
from six in the morning
to ten p.m. at night.

376
00:30:28,743 --> 00:30:30,620
We were freestyling.

377
00:30:31,204 --> 00:30:32,580
From corsetti

378
00:30:32,664 --> 00:30:34,457
to busa

379
00:30:34,541 --> 00:30:35,625
to tortelloni

380
00:30:35,708 --> 00:30:38,044
to agnolotti to chitarra.

381
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:40,338
It was nothing but pasta.

382
00:30:41,464 --> 00:30:43,383
I didn't even want people to talk.

383
00:30:43,466 --> 00:30:46,386
I wanted them to focus on eating that.

384
00:30:47,345 --> 00:30:48,555
"Eat that!"

385
00:30:51,641 --> 00:30:53,142
"So I can give you another one."

386
00:30:53,226 --> 00:30:54,519
[soft music playing]

387
00:31:01,192 --> 00:31:07,532
Bucato was the greatest singular moment…
in my life.

388
00:31:13,788 --> 00:31:16,207
-Everybody ready to go to church?
-[all] Yes, Chef.

389
00:31:16,291 --> 00:31:19,669
Ori and a lamb, 7-2. Ori and a lamb, 7-2.

390
00:31:21,337 --> 00:31:23,047
Heads up on arrabia, Mark.

391
00:31:24,465 --> 00:31:26,301
Joe, what are you bringing me right now?

392
00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:27,594
[indistinct chattering]

393
00:31:27,677 --> 00:31:28,678
Copy that.

394
00:31:31,848 --> 00:31:36,394
[Evan] One day, Ko comes to me and says,
"I can't work with your business partner."

395
00:31:36,895 --> 00:31:38,354
"I'm going back to Tokyo."

396
00:31:38,855 --> 00:31:40,732
"You should pay attention."

397
00:31:42,025 --> 00:31:45,153
And I'm like, "Whoa. Whoa, what?"

398
00:31:45,236 --> 00:31:49,115
"How the fuck am I going to do this
without you, dude?"

399
00:31:51,117 --> 00:31:53,620
I was still thinking about just the pasta,

400
00:31:53,703 --> 00:31:56,080
the sheer production of the pasta.

401
00:31:56,164 --> 00:31:57,874
Take the cipo. 5-2.

402
00:31:57,957 --> 00:31:59,500
[Evan] Then I started to look.

403
00:32:02,003 --> 00:32:04,005
Paychecks were bouncing.

404
00:32:04,589 --> 00:32:06,633
Vendors were like,
"We're not getting paid."

405
00:32:06,716 --> 00:32:08,259
"You're past 90 days."

406
00:32:08,343 --> 00:32:10,345
So I'm like, "Oh my God."

407
00:32:10,428 --> 00:32:11,930
[dramatic music playing]

408
00:32:13,806 --> 00:32:16,726
[Evan] I had signed personal guarantees

409
00:32:16,809 --> 00:32:22,065
on every single credit app
that that restaurant had.

410
00:32:22,148 --> 00:32:27,654
Everything from china, glass,
silverware, booze, food, dry storage,

411
00:32:27,737 --> 00:32:30,615
everything had my signature on it.

412
00:32:31,908 --> 00:32:34,494
I took a meeting
with one of the investors,

413
00:32:34,994 --> 00:32:40,959
and he said to me, "You need to separate
yourself from this person immediately."

414
00:32:42,210 --> 00:32:43,544
"Immediately."

415
00:32:44,545 --> 00:32:47,090
We draft a separation letter.

416
00:32:47,590 --> 00:32:52,553
We have a courier drop off the letter,
and all fucking hell breaks loose.

417
00:32:52,637 --> 00:32:54,514
The phone starts blowing up.

418
00:32:55,390 --> 00:32:58,059
"What's going on?
We can work this out. We can fix it."

419
00:33:00,019 --> 00:33:01,646
Then it starts getting nasty.

420
00:33:06,734 --> 00:33:08,861
I had been so engrossed…

421
00:33:11,531 --> 00:33:14,951
in the day-to-day of just making pasta…

422
00:33:17,245 --> 00:33:20,957
and so blinded by the craft…

423
00:33:23,084 --> 00:33:27,630
not paying any kind of attention
to what was going on with the business.

424
00:33:28,506 --> 00:33:33,678
And now, I was absolutely fucked.

425
00:33:34,721 --> 00:33:36,806
We get hooked up with a bankruptcy lawyer.

426
00:33:36,889 --> 00:33:42,645
He says, "Well, Evan… it's about
three and a half million bucks."

427
00:33:44,188 --> 00:33:46,357
Bankruptcy was the only option.

428
00:33:46,441 --> 00:33:48,443
[music continues]

429
00:33:57,952 --> 00:33:59,954
[music fading]

430
00:34:01,789 --> 00:34:05,543
[Jeff] Bucato was supposed to be
his dream restaurant,

431
00:34:06,627 --> 00:34:09,756
his temple to handmade pasta.

432
00:34:11,299 --> 00:34:13,051
The restaurant went under,

433
00:34:14,385 --> 00:34:15,970
he declared bankruptcy,

434
00:34:17,346 --> 00:34:18,931
and he went into exile.

435
00:34:20,808 --> 00:34:22,810
[dramatic music playing]

436
00:34:29,317 --> 00:34:30,735
[Evan] I was just lost.

437
00:34:36,407 --> 00:34:37,950
And I was drinking a ton.

438
00:34:42,330 --> 00:34:44,582
I was not in a good space.

439
00:34:47,794 --> 00:34:52,673
I was so pissed that I had failed
because I wasn't fucking paying attention.

440
00:34:54,634 --> 00:34:56,177
Who was going to trust me?

441
00:34:57,386 --> 00:34:59,222
[music continues]

442
00:34:59,889 --> 00:35:03,851
[Evan] In order to overcome the fear,

443
00:35:04,727 --> 00:35:08,231
I had to do the thing
that I dreaded the most.

444
00:35:09,941 --> 00:35:13,611
I had to come to grips with the fact

445
00:35:13,694 --> 00:35:17,865
that I didn't know shit
about running restaurants.

446
00:35:17,949 --> 00:35:19,951
[thunder rumbling]

447
00:35:28,876 --> 00:35:31,629
[Evan] I got in touch with Rich Melman.

448
00:35:31,712 --> 00:35:33,923
He owns Lettuce Entertain You,

449
00:35:34,882 --> 00:35:37,552
one of the most successful
restaurant groups there is.

450
00:35:39,554 --> 00:35:42,807
I needed to go
and learn the business from scratch.

451
00:35:43,307 --> 00:35:45,643
-[thunder rumbling]
-[dramatic music continues]

452
00:35:46,644 --> 00:35:49,230
[Evan] Rich had gone to Bucato,

453
00:35:49,313 --> 00:35:52,024
so he had already known about me.

454
00:35:53,151 --> 00:35:57,071
He said, "Ev, come on out to Chicago."

455
00:35:57,155 --> 00:36:00,324
"We'll see if we can find something
for you to do."

456
00:36:06,372 --> 00:36:08,374
Rich is a master operator.

457
00:36:10,751 --> 00:36:17,633
Working with him, I started to understand
the art and science of this business,

458
00:36:18,217 --> 00:36:23,431
accounting, insurance,
food costs, labor costs, inventory.

459
00:36:23,514 --> 00:36:29,061
But the most important lesson
was how he treated people.

460
00:36:29,645 --> 00:36:34,442
How he grew people…
that showed their worth.

461
00:36:37,111 --> 00:36:42,658
Chicago became this awakening
of a different side of myself

462
00:36:42,742 --> 00:36:44,493
that I did not know existed.

463
00:36:46,495 --> 00:36:49,624
All those things you need to be a leader.

464
00:36:50,917 --> 00:36:52,460
I was like, "Fuck."

465
00:36:53,044 --> 00:36:54,253
"I'm not done."

466
00:37:04,889 --> 00:37:06,807
[Evan] One day, I get an email.

467
00:37:07,308 --> 00:37:12,647
It says, "Hey, Evan,
I'm opening a restaurant on Abbot Kinney."

468
00:37:12,730 --> 00:37:15,399
"Wanted to see
if you were interested in having a chat."

469
00:37:15,483 --> 00:37:17,735
And I was like, "Fuck yes."

470
00:37:19,737 --> 00:37:26,410
Felix became where I could show
Los Angeles that I could be a success.

471
00:37:26,494 --> 00:37:28,120
[soft music playing]

472
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:30,915
[Evan] The new kind of approach

473
00:37:30,998 --> 00:37:35,211
of doing the tortellini,
tortelloni, tortellacci shape

474
00:37:35,294 --> 00:37:40,508
is to just seal the shape
only where it's absolutely necessary.

475
00:37:42,385 --> 00:37:45,680
The first step was to build a team.

476
00:37:47,348 --> 00:37:52,019
Taking five pasta makers
with different size hands…

477
00:37:53,938 --> 00:37:57,942
how do you make them all
form the same size and shape?

478
00:37:59,318 --> 00:38:01,862
I was loving teaching people.

479
00:38:02,363 --> 00:38:04,949
And, man, we fucking took off.

480
00:38:06,325 --> 00:38:08,286
-[music continues]
-[people chattering]

481
00:38:08,369 --> 00:38:12,290
[Jeff] When I first went there,
I see Evan Funke,

482
00:38:12,999 --> 00:38:18,212
and he's in this glass box
in the middle of the restaurant…

483
00:38:20,298 --> 00:38:24,385
and he's making this pasta
with such ferocity.

484
00:38:24,885 --> 00:38:26,095
I was like, "Okay, wow."

485
00:38:28,055 --> 00:38:30,516
Wave after wave of food came out.

486
00:38:31,267 --> 00:38:36,147
The pasta was so exquisite
that I was in that state of delirium.

487
00:38:38,524 --> 00:38:40,860
At the time, I helped put together

488
00:38:40,943 --> 00:38:44,113
Esquire magazine's list
of the best new restaurants in America.

489
00:38:44,739 --> 00:38:46,866
I was like, "This is my number one."

490
00:38:47,825 --> 00:38:52,163
[Evan] Esquire named us
"Best new restaurant in America" in 2017.

491
00:38:52,246 --> 00:38:54,874
And then there was
the James Beard nomination,

492
00:38:54,957 --> 00:38:57,209
"Best new restaurant in America."

493
00:38:59,670 --> 00:39:02,631
Felix was my thesis

494
00:39:03,215 --> 00:39:06,719
of everything that I'd grown to learn
about myself,

495
00:39:06,802 --> 00:39:10,639
and what I really wanted to give.

496
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:13,642
[soft music continues]

497
00:39:15,144 --> 00:39:15,978
It worked.

498
00:39:17,772 --> 00:39:18,773
It worked.

499
00:39:20,691 --> 00:39:21,692
[music ends]

500
00:39:22,485 --> 00:39:24,820
-Buona sera!
-[all] Buona sera!

501
00:39:24,904 --> 00:39:27,823
Welcome to Friday, everybody.
How's everybody feeling?

502
00:39:27,907 --> 00:39:28,949
[all] Great, Chef!

503
00:39:29,033 --> 00:39:29,909
Fantastic.

504
00:39:29,992 --> 00:39:31,702
[Evan] With the success of Felix,

505
00:39:31,786 --> 00:39:34,538
I got an offer
to do a restaurant in Beverly Hills.

506
00:39:35,706 --> 00:39:37,958
They said, "Go ahead and dream."

507
00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:42,421
"Whatever you need.
We're gonna let the artist make the art."

508
00:39:42,505 --> 00:39:44,048
[soft music playing]

509
00:39:45,257 --> 00:39:46,342
[Evan] At the time,

510
00:39:46,425 --> 00:39:49,678
I was going back to Italy
as much as I possibly could.

511
00:39:51,097 --> 00:39:52,640
Seeking out a shape

512
00:39:54,225 --> 00:39:56,977
and finding a person
that would teach me that shape.

513
00:40:03,818 --> 00:40:06,362
I wanted to celebrate these women.

514
00:40:09,115 --> 00:40:11,617
So when I opened Funke,

515
00:40:12,201 --> 00:40:15,079
I listed the pasta shape
with its provenance.

516
00:40:17,123 --> 00:40:18,082
Region…

517
00:40:19,792 --> 00:40:20,793
city…

518
00:40:22,044 --> 00:40:23,754
and the woman who taught me.

519
00:40:23,838 --> 00:40:25,131
[music intensifies]

520
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,887
The real heroes
of handmade pasta-making are women.

521
00:40:33,556 --> 00:40:35,266
And he's standing up for them.

522
00:40:36,267 --> 00:40:40,563
His devotion to them,
his commitment to naming them,

523
00:40:40,646 --> 00:40:42,523
it's a pretty extraordinary thing.

524
00:40:46,318 --> 00:40:49,071
[Evan] We are celebrating their history,

525
00:40:50,823 --> 00:40:53,242
giving the credit where credit is due.

526
00:40:56,537 --> 00:40:59,874
Now their story gets to live on at Funke.

527
00:41:23,022 --> 00:41:24,356
[music continues]

528
00:42:26,669 --> 00:42:27,878
[music continues]

529
00:42:56,156 --> 00:42:57,116
[music fades]

530
00:43:11,338 --> 00:43:13,090
[woman gasping]

531
00:43:13,173 --> 00:43:14,383
[in Italian] Good morning.

532
00:43:15,259 --> 00:43:16,677
[woman laughing]

533
00:43:17,761 --> 00:43:19,096
[Alessandra] Welcome home!

534
00:43:22,141 --> 00:43:22,975
Ciao.

535
00:43:25,269 --> 00:43:26,520
My baby.

536
00:43:27,563 --> 00:43:28,731
[soft music playing]

537
00:43:30,190 --> 00:43:34,862
Guys, he is going to show us
how to roll the dough,

538
00:43:34,945 --> 00:43:36,989
and you will do the same.

539
00:43:37,072 --> 00:43:40,534
Rolling the dough is a dance.

540
00:43:41,702 --> 00:43:43,746
With feeling,

541
00:43:45,247 --> 00:43:46,373
energy,

542
00:43:47,416 --> 00:43:48,792
heart, yes?

543
00:43:48,876 --> 00:43:49,960
[Alessandra] A life.

544
00:44:08,103 --> 00:44:10,522
[Evan in English] Pasta is all about love.

545
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:14,818
It is my guiding light.

546
00:44:17,029 --> 00:44:21,492
It's really important to me
to continue the tradition.

547
00:44:22,910 --> 00:44:24,286
I don't want it to die.

548
00:44:24,870 --> 00:44:27,039
I do not want any of it to die.

549
00:44:27,539 --> 00:44:29,083
[music continues]

550
00:44:38,634 --> 00:44:41,679
[Evan] I'm just like a tiny little spoke
on a massive wheel,

551
00:44:42,805 --> 00:44:46,767
and every sfoglia I roll
is a part of history.

552
00:44:49,228 --> 00:44:51,063
I find that really beautiful.

553
00:44:54,274 --> 00:44:55,734
This is what I was meant to do,

554
00:44:57,778 --> 00:44:59,238
to make pasta.

555
00:45:02,074 --> 00:45:03,409
Make pasta.

556
00:45:06,620 --> 00:45:08,205
Make pasta.

557
00:45:08,288 --> 00:45:09,373
[music fades]

558
00:45:11,834 --> 00:45:13,836
[violin music playing]

559
00:46:12,811 --> 00:46:13,937
[music continues]

560
00:46:38,879 --> 00:46:40,881
[distorted voice] Make pasta.

561
00:47:18,252 --> 00:47:20,254
[music ends]