---
title: 'The Foods From TONY | Binging with Babish'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=xFG_hyO0yTY'
video_id: 'xFG_hyO0yTY'
date: 2026-08-22
duration_sec: 729
channel: 'Binging with Babish'
---

# The Foods From TONY | Binging with Babish

> Source: [The Foods From TONY | Binging with Babish](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xFG_hyO0yTY)

## Summary

In this episode of Binging with Babish, the host recreates the iconic dishes from the A24 film 'Tony', including a Portuguese squid stew, lobster thermidor, and a classic lobster roll. The video provides step-by-step cooking instructions, personal insights, and taste tests, all while highlighting the culinary details that make these dishes memorable.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Tony-inspired cooking** [00:06] — Babish introduces the episode, mentioning the A24 film 'Tony' and his podcast interview with the movie's star, Dominic Cessa. He sets up the cooking segment by preparing to make dishes from the film.
- **Sponsor segment: Helix Sleep** [00:28] — Babish discusses his partnership with Helix Sleep, highlighting the Midnight Luxe mattress and Comfort Adjust Cooling Pillow, which have improved his sleep quality. He mentions a Labor Day sale with up to 30% off select mattresses.
- **Preparing the squid stew: potatoes and aromatics** [02:04] — He starts the squid stew by peeling and cutting six potatoes into 1-inch pieces, then finely chopping a large Spanish onion, green and red bell peppers, and a large clove of garlic. The potatoes are kept in water for up to 24 hours.
- **Spice mix for the stew** [02:42] — He grinds fennel and cumin seeds, then combines them with crushed red pepper flakes, sweet paprika, and other spices to create a flavorful base for the stew.
- **Preparing the squid** [03:11] — Babish separates the squid tentacles from the bodies, slices the bodies into rings, and dries them thoroughly to ensure proper sautéing. He notes the importance of not overcooking squid to avoid a rubbery texture.
- **Cooking the stew base** [03:38] — In a Dutch oven, he heats vegetable oil, cooks Portuguese-style linguisa until crisp, then sets it aside. He then sauté the onions and peppers until translucent, and adds the squid to the pan to get a nice sear.
- **Adding liquids and seasonings** [04:14] — He adds garlic, the spice mixture, black pepper, Spanish Rioja, Madeira, tomato passata, clam juice, squid ink, water, more wine, apple cider vinegar, and bay leaves. The stew simmers for 1.5 to 2.5 hours.
- **Finishing the stew** [05:11] — With 20 minutes left, he adds potatoes to thicken the stew. After tasting for seasoning, he serves it, noting that the squid turned out tender and the stew had a gumbo-like flavor.
- **Lobster thermidor: preparation** [06:19] — He prepares a lobster by slicing it in half, removing the tomalley and roe. He par-cooks the meat by broiling for 3 minutes, then removes the meat and broils the shells again for the sauce.
- **Making the thermidor sauce** [07:22] — He combines egg yolk and heavy cream, then makes a roux with butter, shallot, and flour. He adds brandy, milk, sherry, the egg mixture, mustard powder, tarragon, and tomalley to create a rich sauce.
- **Assembling and serving lobster thermidor** [08:28] — He chops the lobster meat, mixes it with the sauce, spoons it into the lobster shells, tops with Gruyère cheese, and broils until golden. He serves it with parsley, noting the dish's luxurious taste.
- **Lobster roll: steaming and preparation** [09:47] — He steams lobsters with peppercorns, lemon, bay leaves, and garlic for about 20 minutes, targeting an internal temperature of 139°F. He then removes the meat and chops it into bite-size pieces.
- **Assembling the lobster roll** [10:56] — He toasts a top-sliced roll on all sides, then heats butter and lobster with lemon juice until creamy. He fills the roll, noting the dish's elegant simplicity and lobster-centric flavor.

### Conclusion

Babish successfully recreates the dishes from 'Tony', demonstrating that with careful technique and quality ingredients, even complex seafood dishes can be made at home. The episode emphasizes the importance of proper cooking times and flavor balance, offering viewers both inspiration and practical guidance.

## Transcript

a kid. I said they taste like the future. >> [music] >> Sorry, what is your name?
Now, I've got the mic set up so it's going to sound like the olden days because I'm making food from a very important food movie, A24's Tony, which is in theaters now. I'm even joined on my podcast in the booth with Babish by
the movie's star, Dominic [music] Cessa. Check that out if you want to see what If you haven't seen Tony yet, I highly recommend it. It's an incredible coming-of-age story that is not as much about food as you might think, but there
>> let's start with one of the most conspicuous ones, the Portuguese squid stew prepared as the family meal for employees of the flagship restaurant. this episode. I've never been particularly good at sleep, so when
Helix asked me to revisit their sleep quiz, I figured it was worth another mattress for your body type and sleep preferences, and mine confirmed that I'm Midnight Luxe, which has been ranked the best overall mattress by both Forbes and
Comfort Adjust Cooling Pillow for a while now, and it's become just as much itself. You can customize it to your preferred firmness and height, and it has made a real difference with some neck stiffness I used to just live with.
Between the two, I'm falling asleep faster and waking up without the aches I used to accept as normal. Helix ships free anywhere in the US, offers a mattress with a limited lifetime warranty. Right now, you can save up to
30% off select mattresses during their Labor Day Sale at helixsleep.com/babish. pinned in the comments. Good sleep is the foundation of everything else you do. So, thanks again to Helix Sleep for sponsoring. We're going to start as any
restaurant would by peeling and prepping the [music] potatoes. So, I've got six cutting into 1-in pieces, [music] which I'm then going to put into a large container and cover with water, where they can stay for up to 24 hours before
[music] use. Next, I'm going to pretty finely chop a large Spanish onion. I want small pieces because I don't want them to be big crunchies in my stew. I'm also setting more of you going to finally chop both a green and red bell
and slicing out the ribs before chopping. I'm also going to prep one is one big clove of garlic that I was not expecting. So, I'm going to cut it into garlic clove-size pieces and use as many as are necessary. Next up, I got
about 1/2 tsp each fennel seed and cumin seed that I'm going to grind. This is brighter, more floral flavor. And I'm going to use them as the base for a spice mix, adding about a 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes, a 1/2 tsp of
a tablespoon of normal sweet paprika. Make sure you use the high-quality stuff spice mix. Next, we have to prepare our squid, and I was surprised to see squid stew because I've always thought if you overcook squid, it'll turn into rubber
bands that you have to sort of gum down rather than chew and swallow. So, I got going to separate their tentacle sections from the tubular bodies and then slice those bodies into rings, same way you would for calamari. Then, I'm
towels to get it as dry as I can because I want to sauté it before I stew it. I have here some Portuguese-style linguisa Dominic in the [music] podcast interview, so I apologize ahead of time.
In a large Dutch oven, I'm heating 1 tbsp [music] of vegetable oil until it's cooking until some of the fat has rendered out and it's starting [music] to crisp. Then, I'm scooping that out with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in
the bottom of the pan as well as that fond. Adding my onion and my peppers and quick note, I had to have this recipe at the last minute cuz I didn't have enough squid. So, the recipe on the website will reflect the proper amounts, but I
which is why I didn't use all of my pepper and onion just then. We're sauteing that for 3 to 5 minutes until they're nice and translucent and we're Then, I'm pushing aside the peppers and onions and making a space in the center
of the pan into which I'm going to drop my squid, letting it get some nice dry around and sauteing with everything else. Once that's been going for 2 to 3 cloves worth of garlic, normal size cloves that is, our spice mixture, a
freshly ground black pepper, about a half cup of Spanish Rioja, maybe make it 3/4 of a cup, maybe make it a cup, and about a quarter cup of Madeira. Then, 1 cup of tomato passata, that's basically smooth blended tomatoes, and 12 oz of
juice. I'm also going to add about a quarter cup of squid ink. The stew in the movie looked pretty dark, [music] pretty muddy, so I want to darken the I'm also adding a few cups of water and why not some more wine. [music] Then,
along with 1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar. Whoop, almost forgot two bay leaves. Bringing this mixture up to a bare simmer, partially covering, bare simmer for anywhere from 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours. Make sure that you
do not overheat, otherwise you are going to end up with rubbery squid. You want [music] low. Once we have about 20 minutes left to go on our cook, I'm things were getting a little thick and our potatoes. This is going to be just
and help further thicken [music] the stew. Taste for seasoning, yank out necessary, and dole out into your did in the movie. So, how's this stuff taste? I have to be honest, I was not
much looking forward to this. I like squid, kind of, and I did not imagine that it would be very tender, but I was completely wrong. This stew ended up of like a gumbo, like a really well-spiced gumbo. The squid was
beautifully tender, the potatoes were soft and satisfying, and the whole [music] thing was just dripping with flavor. I can't imagine a better way to end a long shift at a restaurant, hungover as hell, jacked up on [music]
coke, than a steaming mug full of this stuff. But, let's also do it classy. lime zest and parsley, particularly for our thumbnail. Mostly for our thumbnail, deserve it. Next up, there were two forms of lobster highlighted in the
rolls, for both of which we're going to need a lobster. I have this freshly killed lobster that my fishmonger was kind enough to dispatch for me, who I am slicing in half lengthwise. This is
going to give me the opportunity to pull out its giant sack, like the biggest sack I've ever seen, and the green tamale at the top of the lobster. This to come in handy later. Now, I'm going to start by par-cooking the meat,
broiling the lobster for about 3 minutes, being careful not to overcook it, cuz it will happen fast. I'm also going to dump its drippings into the tamale, which is admittedly a strange sentence. Then, I'm going to gently pull
out all the lobster meat and remove the legs and antennae. Set the lobster meat aside, and then I'm throwing the shells under the broiler one [music] more time, cooking it, because we basically have raw shell underneath, and it is our
going to let those cool completely before we start building our sauce. I'm starting by combining one egg yolk with a quarter cup of heavy cream, tiny aside, and we're headed over to the stovetop, where we're heating 2 Tbsp of
butter until foaming. Then, I'm adding one small, finely chopped shallot, until it's nice and soft, starting to pick up some color. Then, I'm sprinkling >> [music] >> toasting that for 1 to 2 minutes. This
like a roux, but you're using vegetables to disperse the flour throughout [music] the liquid, so it's a little bit more foolproof. Once the raw flour smell tablespoons of brandy, sheepishly try to flame it, think that we failed, only to
in there. Be careful. And then we're adding a half cup of milk, one little splash at a time, whisking constantly, building basically a de facto béchamel. I'm also going to add 1 Tbsp of dry sherry, and with the heat as low as it
will go, I'm adding our egg yolk cream mixture, whisking constantly to don't scramble. In fact, you might want to kill the heat at this point if your warm enough that the egg yolks thicken the sauce. I'm also going to add a
quarter teaspoon of mustard powder and 1 Tbsp of chopped tarragon. Then tomalley. Not everybody's a big fan of this flavor, but I think it works in this context. Season to taste with kosher salt and set aside until ready to
serve. Now, we got to chop up our lobster meat into bite-size pieces. I've got both the body and claw meat here. And then once the sauce is not hot, but lobster, mix it to make sure that it's evenly coated, and then spoon it into
grate some mild Gruyère cheese right underneath the broiler again to catch some color, to melt the cheese, and to heat the lobster through. These halves are served back-to-back, so to speak,
parsley. And there you have it, the lobster thermidor from Tony. >> Interesting fact about this, in the movie, he specifically references an Escoffier recipe from the Escoffier cookbook. I could not find a recipe for
lobster thermidor in this cookbook, so I don't know if it was some old edition or something, but I basically just had to go off what I thought Escoffier very wouldn't have been mad enough to kill his own lobster. [music] But how does it
taste? And the answer to that is divine. I love lobster thermidor. I've [music] DiGiovanni. It's one of the most luxurious, delightful lobster dishes mac and cheese without the mac, which you think would be a downgrade,
>> but especially the tarragon turns it into something really really special and lobster roll. There were no actual lobster rolls in the movie, but they were named as a very popular dish at the flagship restaurant where the movie
takes place. This time we're going to steam our lobster. So I've got a couple a big stock pot to which I'm adding a handful of whole peppercorns, a couple squeezed lemon wedges, two bay leaves, and three cloves [music] of garlic. I'm
Don't forget to salt the water. Bring that up to a simmer and slowly nestle inside. Make sure you kill the lobster before you do this. It's the most humane claws from the other lobster because I didn't cook them under the broiler, so
after about 20 minutes, we're going to temp it at its thickest point. [music] We're looking for 139 according to Thomas Keller, so who I trust in this context. Then I'm going to cut this lobster in half and I'll tell you why.
pull out the lobster meat, but [music] I burned the shells for the lobster left them under the broiler by accident. lobster shells, so I'm using this one. I'm pulling out all the meat, cleaning
the claws. You do this by pulling off the smaller claw, cracking the larger likewise, we're chopping everything up into bite-size pieces. Then I'm heating so I can [music] toast my top sliced roll on all sides, wiping out the excess
burn. You especially want to toast the sides. It's one of the most important indicators of a lobster roll. Then we're making these lobster rolls hot. As far as I can tell, this is the more popular option [music] in Provincetown, and I
look forward to hearing how wrong I am about that. So I got about 3 tbsp of foaming, adding the lobster and the juice of half a large [music] lemon, tossing everything together until it becomes almost creamy and emulsified.
toasted [music] roll, marveling at its elegant simplicity, and serving with something really fantastic about just a lobster roll. It is one of the purest expressions of lobster and especially
expressions of lobster and especially with just butter, it is lobster-centric. Lobster is really the star of the show. I really highly recommend trying any of especially the squid stew. And if you're curious what Dominic Cessa himself
latest episode of In the Booth with Babish, available now on YouTube or Babish, available now on YouTube or [music] wherever you get your podcasts.