Watch Ayo Edebiri Discover That She Kind of Has a Catchphrase in Now Serving

[Ayo giggling] [bag thudding]

Having fun, for Vogue.

[mellow jazzy music]

Hello, Vogue, I'm Ayo Edebiri,

and tonight, or today,

whatever time it is when you're watching,

I'm gonna be cooking you dinner.

Okay, so we're gonna start with a miso butter pasta

with furikake breadcrumbs.

It's very good.

You'll see.

You'll all see [chuckles].

The ingredients for this recipe,

you're not gonna believe it, but pasta.

We're gonna be using a spaghetti.

Spaghetti.

The things that make the sauce.

We've got some olive oil.

Oh, just kidding, it's not olive oil, it's rice vinegar.

You can edit anything in any order you want to ever,

so there's also rice vinegar.

We've got some butter, we've got some miso,

we've got some parm, and then the furikake breadcrumbs.

Also, a little bit of lemon zest.

You'll see.

So let's get started.

I'm often wearing Valentino dresses

when I'm cooking things casually in my home,

and Sydney's gonna look like this

for season three of The Bear.

We're gonna start with the chilies, we're gonna chop 'em up,

and I brought my cleaver.

Her name is Donna, and I love her.

I just wanted to cut stuff.

Even though this is like a really easy recipe,

and also everybody here was like, We'll do this for you,

I was like, Please let me just like, cut things,

'cause I enjoy knife work. [giggles]

Kitchen lingo that I learned.

Mostly, I don't think I learned lingo.

Mostly I just, I mean, like, swearing,

a lot of swearing.

I think it was mostly just like,

knife safety and like, knife skills.

Bing bang bong, okay.

Sorry, I'm looking to throw this somewhere.

I'm just gonna sort of like, throw it on the floor,

'cause I don't live here.

Now we're done with these chilies,

we're gonna get started on the breadcrumbs.

SNL was like, amazing.

I love the show, I'm a comedian, I grew up loving it,

but also, it was very special

because I have a lot of friends who work there now

because of just like, the nature of comedy.

My parents were there and my parents were acting crazy.

My mother stayed out until 5:30 in the morning

and was taking shots,

and my dad, like, was there

but he was like, fully falling asleep,

like eyes open at the club.

It was actually pretty sick.

So we're gonna put the butter in.

I like when butter's a little brown.

It gets like, a little deeper, a little, like, nuttier.

The next step is we're just gonna wait

for the butter to brown.

It'll happen.

Don't worry.

It'll happen.

Just patience.

One of the things that I learned during Bear prep

that was really important wasn't just like,

the ability to cook and all these things,

but like, how do you move like a chef and act like a chef?

But when we were at culinary school

and also when I was doing my training,

everybody was just like, You're so afraid of heat.

You kinda need to like, grow up.

If you're frying something, you can't be like,

hopping back 'cause like, the oil is popping.

I just had a day where I literally was like,

putting my face [laughs] in an oven and stuff.

I feel like that sounds like, really intense,

very methody or whatever, but it's not.

It was fun, I swear.

The breadcrumbs are starting to brown pretty nicely,

so we're gonna add the furikake.

Dump.

And add a little bit of parm,

just to like, help bind it all together

and make it all taste really nice.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, you're gorgeous.

I'm gonna take off the heat.

This is for sure one of my like,

invite a friend over or whatever and make this

and I know it'll be like, delicious and easy.

And it like, feels fancy, even though it's not.

Like, it is, but it isn't.

Anyway, that's that.

We're gonna put this in a bowl.

And also, I forgot to add salt and pepper,

but that's okay, 'cause this is still hot.

Bam.

I like, don't really have dinner parties often,

I think 'cause I get kind of like, stressed

[laughs] when I cook and there's an audience.

Which is perfect for me doing this video.

But like, I can cook for like four or five, and I feel like.

I guess that's a dinner party.

Okay, I'm lying.

Also, you know what it's like

when you like, make something for somebody,

and it's not like 10 outta 10, it's like 8 outta 10.

This is like me just slowly becoming my mother,

but you're like, It's so weird,

'cause normally this is like, perfect, and you'd be crying.

So now we're gonna do the pasta.

We're gonna get some water, we're gonna get it boiling,

and while that happens, we're gonna make a little drink.

So yeah, I'm gonna.

Oh, there's the water.

Okay, so for the drink I'm gonna make,

it is an umeshu highball.

I don't really like drinking alcohol,

and when I do, I prefer that it tastes like juice,

so like, plum wine is kind of like a dream

for me in that instance,

and we're just gonna make it right in the glass.

So we're just gonna start with some ice.

[ice rattles]

Pow, okay, so,

to start, umeshu.

Why am I pretending to be Australian?

[chuckles] Who can say?

Bing.

Then a little bit--

[plastic rustles]

Drama.

Drama.

What just happened?

An assassination attempt on my life.

No, a light fell. [laughs]

A gel fell off the light.

Every day in front of the camera is an exercise in humility.

A little bit of whiskey. Bong.

Then, it feels like sort of more though maybe, right?

Shouldn't I add more?

Crazy.

What time is it?

A little bit of ginger juice, just a splash.

I'm very excited to go back to Chicago.

I'm very excited to get back to work.

And then top it off with some club soda.

Bong.

Put a little garnish on it.

Why not? Bing.

Cool. I grabbed two pieces.

Who's gonna tell? What are you gonna do?

Bong. Garnish. Done.

Straw. Mix it up.

I don't know why I keep saying bong.

It might be something that I say

when I'm alone in my kitchen,

and I just realized [chuckles] now

because I'm doing it in front of several people

and ultimately the internet.

Okay.

[smacks lips] Yeah, we're happy with this.

We're gonna take a little look at our pasta water.

Okay, loving what that's looking like.

We're gonna add some pasta,

and then we're gonna work on the sauce at the same time,

because it basically takes the same amount of time,

and then you're eating.

By the way, I lied.

The water wasn't boiling.

I lied again.

I've been lying this whole time.

[Ayo laughing]

Okay, now that the water's boiling,

we're gonna put the spaghetti in the pot.

This is like, my system of measuring

that I completely invented and I patented obviously,

but like, this to me, I go, This is enough pasta for me.

Pasta go in.

Cooking.

I'm gonna start by browning some butter.

The thing about this dress

[laughs] that obviously is really amazing and gorgeous is

that I can only move my arms like [laughs] this.

But we love the dress.

We love to cook in feather.

We love Vogue.

I have these, like, giant chopsticks

that I just like, love.

I'm gonna put this in this little tiny strainer thing,

'cause miso can be sometimes hard to mix.

Yeah, bing bang bong.

Bing bang bong.

Mix up the miso.

How long am I gonna be in Chicago filming?

Months. Months in Chicago.

But we're grateful for the city.

We love it, even when it's winter.

I really do love Chicago, though.

I'm from Boston, and I feel like,

people get mad at me when I say this, but whatever,

I feel like they're very energetically similar cities.

We're gonna dump this into the butter,

then we're gonna have a little whisky moment.

Whisk, whisky.

As in, we're gonna whisk.

Anyway, you get it, okay.

Bing bang bong.

And also I'm looking at the pasta,

and it's like, we're almost there.

[mellow jazzy music]

When I was at school, I was initially studying teaching,

and then I changed my major,

and I changed it to dramatic writing.

Practically, I was like, I'm spending all my time like,

doing improv and open mics.

If I am going to be a teacher,

because it's literally like,

the most important job in the world,

I have to be giving all of my energy to these kids,

and I was like, it doesn't make sense,

both energetically and also just like, logistically,

so I was also like, if this doesn't work out,

literally I have enough credits to finish my major,

I'll just finish it and then I'll go to grad school,

and I gave myself like two years.

I'm telling you, I'm delusional, dog.

I'm delusional.

But yeah, sometimes you gotta bet on yourself,

and it's like, if it doesn't work out,

then there was something that was supposed to happen.

That's how I believe.

I think everything happens for a reason

and you gotta kinda like, listen to those cues from life.

Speaking of the cues from life,

this pasta's about done

and we're gonna put it in the fricking pot,

get it all sauced up.

This is just about done, so it's plating time.

Bam.

Tongs.

I'm just gonna go ahead and dump this.

You could do the whole thing,

you could get the big spoon and you can twirl it

and you can make it beautiful,

but isn't beauty in the eye of the beholder?

You know what I mean?

We're just gonna, you know, breadcrumbs.

Okay, bing.

Damn, I really do say bing and bong a lot.

I probably am saying it all the time

and I just like, don't realize,

'cause it's just like, my behavior.

But also, I like, feel empathy for Emeril now,

like, that I've never felt before in my life.

Like, I feel like people were,

Oh, he's just saying a catchphrase, blah blah blah.

Like, maybe that was just his thing.

Boom.

And just for fun, a little cracked pep on top.

[Ayo mimicking pepper pot grinding]

That's my fricking pasta.

Mm.

My feathers got in the bowl,

but [laughs] it's really good.

Okay, well, that's it for me and this pasta.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Yeah, goodbye.

[mellow jazzy music]