‘Dinner Time Live’: David Chang’s Netflix Cooking Talk Show Needs Better Ingredients

Nobody can accuse David Chang of resting on his laurels. The chef, who came into prominence on the strength of his Lower East Side ramen spot, Momofuku, in the mid-Aughts, has launched a daunting variety of ventures in the years since. He’s gone Per Se-style upscale with Ko, stared down Chick-Fil-A with his own fried chicken chain, Fuku, not to mention other restaurants in the US, as well as Canada and Australia. He wrote a cookbook, a memoir, and help launch Lucky Peach, a cult food magazine. Of course, there is a podcast. Decider readers will probably know him best from his TV shows, including Ugly Delicious, The Future of Food, and The Mind of a Chef. 

With Chang’s newest venture, Dinner Time Live with David Chang, streaming live on Netflix, the restless cook sets himself a new challenge, which is to combine the vibes of an old-school live stand and stir cooking show – think OG Julia Child, with a talk show. It is an interesting idea, but this time the cook has bitten off more than he can chew. The format is simple – Chang cooks a series of dishes for two guests while they all chat. 

Watching a small group of people talk and eat can be entertaining — think Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s The Trip — but it takes something special to pull that off. For last night’s episode, at least, the guests were not special. Chang is joined by Iliza Shlesinger, a Netflix comedian specializing in grossout humor, and Paul Scheer, a comedian who has appeared in several cable sitcoms. Shlesinger cultivates an edgy vibe and has come under fire recently for her political commentary, but neither of them seems to have much chemistry with Chang. Shlesinger does have several comedy specials on Netflix, which explains her presence here, and she seems chummy with Scheer, but the chemistry with Chang just is not there. Dinner Time Live, is a Netflix property, and Shlesinger is a Netflix comedian, to the suits may have been chasing some synergy. However, just like the episode of CBS’s Hawaii Five-O when McGarrett and Danny are excited to attend the Pro Bowl, airing on CBS, the synergy is more cringe than compelling. 

As someone who likes to cook, I confess the premise of this show gives me hives, as I usually ask my partner to steer guests out of the kitchen when I am trying to finish a meal, so the thought of a TV show of someone interacting with the people they are cooking for is daunting. To be successful, however, that format demands the very particular skills of a talk show host, which Chang just does not have. Doing a standup set and cooking a meal are both performances of sorts, but the conversation the host and his guests have about their work does not tell the viewer much about either. 

A surprising bright spot of the show is longtime Chang associate Chris Ying, I know his name because he is the author of The Wurst of Lucky Peach: A Treasury of Encased Meats, a cookbook popular with sausage making nerds like me. He plays the wisecracking sidekick role inaugurated by Ed McMahon on the Tonight Show, and refined by Andy Richter with Conan O’Brien. Honestly, the show would be more entertaining with less from the guests, and more banter between Chang and Ying. 

What about the food? It looks delicious, in a way that feels very on-brand for Chang. The theme for this episode is Japanese Convenience Store, and the courses are: 

• First: Egg salad sandwich and Japanese fried chicken
• Second: Spicy tuna with seaweed chips and maki rolls
• Third: Braised pork belly with noodles
• Dessert: pancakes stuffed with matcha cream. 

As someone who has cooked with pleasure from Chang’s cookbooks and magazines, and enjoyed visiting his restaurants, the food was the part I was the most interested in. Live TV has its appeals – various sitcoms have done live episodes as a stunt, and SNL has been on TV nearly long enough to qualify for an AARP card. The problem with a live cooking show is that cooking takes time – this is why recipes will tell you both active time, and how long it takes from start to finish. A show about making pizza, for instance, will not include 6 hours of live shots of dough rising – at least not until Terrence Malick gets a cooking show. What this means for Chang’s show, however, is that we are seeing mostly the final stages of his prep – I would have loved to know more about how Chang braised the pork belly for the main course, but it’s not part of the show. It was impressive to watch Chang roll out udon, but again, I wish he had told us more about what he was doing instead of chatting with his guests. 

Throughout his career, David Chang has been laudably unafraid to take on new challenges. For better or worse, a different chef would have parlayed the popularity of Momofuku into a nationwide ramen chain by now. Not every venture of his has been a success. As I described the premise of this combined cooking show and talk show to my partner, she invoked a live TV moment that lives rent-free in our house, which is an SNL sketch where Daniel Radcliffe attempts to combine his passions of Irish step dancing and Japanese calligraphy. As you might expect, it goes poorly. It is possible that David Chang might have both a Seth Meyers and an Emeril Lagasse inside of him – but not at the same time. 

Jonathan Beecher Field was born in New England, educated in the Midwest, and teaches in the South. He Tweets professionally as @ThatJBF, and unprofessionally as @TheGurglingCod. He also writes for Avidly and Common-Place when the mood strikes.