- Phil Rosenthal’s new cookbook Phil’s Favorites features global dishes and recipes from friends and family.
- He’s opening a Los Angeles diner with Nancy Silverton serving “elevated comfort food,” including the SPACCA Burger.
- Rosenthal’s Thanksgiving musts include cranberry sauce with vanilla and a turkey leg—stuffing is optional.
You may know Phil Rosenthal as the creator of hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Or, more recently, you might know him as the host of food and travel documentaries I’ll Have What Phil’s Having and Somebody Feed Phil. Aligned with his current stints, Rosenthal just released a cookbook with Jenn Garbee this week titled Phil’s Favorites: Recipes from Friends and Family to Make at Home, which highlights some of the star’s favorite meals from around the world, as well as some recipes given to him by family and friends.
Ahead of the book launch, we chatted with Rosenthal to learn more about the collection. Plus, we got the scoop on his favorite Thanksgiving dishes, including the cranberry sauce upgrade that we need to try. Read the full interview below.
What makes Phil’s Favorites unique from your first book?
The first book was the first four seasons of Somebody Feed Phil, pretty much. And I knew that I wanted to do the next four seasons, but I also wanted to add favorites from places that we haven’t filmed at that I just happen to love. And my friends and family members all have at least one great recipe, and I wanted to put that into because they truly are my favorites.
What recipe in the book holds the fondest memory?
[The SPACCA Burger], Nancy Silverton’s burger. We’re going to have it at the diner as well—we’re opening a diner together here in Los Angeles. I love comfort food, and I love comfort food that’s somewhat elevated, meaning not fancy, but just elevated by great ingredients. And a chef that knows how to cook. So Nancy Silverton and I have teamed up to make this diner, which the goal is to be the best diner in the world.
So, what’s your go-to diner order?
Eggs, bacon, home fries. With toast or a bagel and a sausage or chicken sausage. And I love bagels and lox, I love waffles, French toast, pancakes. I love burgers, patty melts, milkshakes, banana splits. I love the whole diner ethos, and just saying the list of things makes me very happy.
You have a section in the book dedicated to sandwiches, labeled as “the best invention in the world.” What makes an amazing sandwich?
Well, I think you’ve got to start with great bread, because bread is half the sandwich. It’s the first thing your mouth touches when you put a sandwich up to your lips, right? You know if this is a good sandwich or not without even knowing what’s inside the sandwich because the bread is already fantastic. I swear if the bread is great, nothing else matters. It could just be butter in there or a piece of salami.
What dish needs to be on the Thanksgiving table?
The turkey. When the turkey comes out, I say, ‘I call the leg.’ The only possible reason you could get me to a Disney theme park is because they have turkey legs there.
Least favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Believe it or not, I don’t really need stuffing. If it’s just average stuffing, you’re just eating chopped up bread, who cares? But if it’s fantastic, like an oyster stuffing or something really special, you can’t deny it, and it does go great with the turkey. But I’d much rather have cranberry sauce over stuffing.
Homemade cranberry sauce, or from the can?
Never the can, no. It’s always homemade, and it’s delicious with a little vanilla.
What does “eating well” mean to you?
A variety and a diversity of foods from all over the world. That’s what eating well means to me.
Andrea D’Agosto
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
