"California Pizza Kitchen 2 with Avital Ash" is Episode 443 of Doughboys, hosted by Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell. "California Pizza Kitchen 2 with Avital Ash" was released on April 25, 2024.
"Tomorrow… with Avital Ash" - @doughboyspod
Synopsis[]
Avital Ash (@avitalash, Avital Ash Workshops Her Suicide Note) joins the 'boys to talk overseas travel, wedding food, and blended soups before a review of California Pizza Kitchen. Plus, another edition of Cake It Off.
Nick's intro[]
Wolfgang Puck
In 1982, the restaurant Spago opened on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, quickly becoming a Mecca for celebrity diners like Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, and Sylvester Stallone, and making a celebrity chef out of founder Wolfgang Puck. Puck’s then novel fusion approach of merging cuisines from different cultures birthed one of his signature dishes: salmon and crème fraîche pizza, a mash-up of a bagel with lox and a Neapolitan-style pie purportedly created to satiate a ravenous Joan Collins.
In 1985, dismayed after an unresolved trial outcome, federal prosecutors Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax abandoned the courtroom in favor of an even tenser biome: the kitchen. And while they didn’t have much expertise in the restaurant business, they had a focused concept — a California-style pizzeria in tony Beverly Hills — and made a savvy hire, poaching Puck’s pizza chef, Ed LaDou, to oversee the menu. While Spago’s salmon pizza appealed to Hollywood elites like Burt Reynolds, Rosenfield and Flax’s barbecue-chicken pizza appealed to the masses, and in the ensuing four decades, the chain has grown to nearly 200 locations in eleven countries, not just as sit-down chain restaurants, but as kiosk versions in stadiums and airports.
Today, Puck’s once artisan pizzas are produced in factory kitchens and sold in the frozen-foods aisle of grocery stores — as are those of Flax and Rosenfield’s simulacrum. The natural progression of restaurant success: from fine-dining destination to mass-market microwave meal. As for these lawyers’ now forty year old concept, the verdict is in: guilty of having staying power.
This week on Doughboys… we return, to California Pizza Kitchen.
Fork rating[]
The Doughboys previously reviewed California Pizza Kitchen way back in January, 2016 (ep. 34). Nick gave it 3.5 and Mitch 2.5 forks. CPK also made a little run in the Munch Madness: The Slice is Right tournament; it initially lost to Costco, but then won in Fat Chance Kitchen, and then lost in the next round of Fat Chance Kitchen. They also tried a frozen CPK item during the Doughlympics.
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
4 forks |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
4 forks |
| Avital Ash |
|
4 forks |
| shared |
|
Nick went to CPK on his own for lunch, and then The Doughboys all ordered together and shared some items. Emma also got a California Cobb Salad.
Wiger's Little Nibbles at Noon note for best lunch item goes to the small piece of bread and olive oil.
With these scores, California Pizza Kitchen joins the Golden Plate Club!
Cake It Off 🍰[]
Taylor Swift "Shake It Off"
In Cake It Off, Nick presents a mystery cake and offers increasingly-obvious clues about what it is. There are two lifelines, Ask Emma Casey and a Frosting Reveal.
| “ |
'Cause the baker's gonna bake bake bake bake |
” |
For this episode, the mystery cake was a Coffee Cake.
| guest / host | clue / guess | result |
|---|---|---|
| If a delicate plant hadn't been shipped from East Africa to South America in the 18th century, we wouldn't have this cake. | ||
| Mike Mitchell | Frosting Reveal: typically no frosting.
Guess: Hibiscus Cake |
incorrect |
| Don't be misled by the name, this sweet cake does NOT include its name ingredient. | ||
| Avital Ash | Ask Casey: coffee maybe
Guess: pass |
- |
| Cake for breakfast? Yup! | ||
| Mike Mitchell | Guess: pass | - |
| Many cakes already include these ingredients, but it's fair to ask if you take your cake with sugar and cream. | ||
| Avital Ash | Guess: tea cake | incorrect! |
| It's not toffee cake... | ||
| Mike Mitchell | Guess: coffee cake | correct! |
Mitch is the winner of Cake It Off!
Roast Spoonman[]
Big Trouble in Little China
| “ | Tummy Trouble in Little Studio | ” |
–Giselle | ||
Quotes[]
| “ | I went to London when I was a boy. Just for vacation... I didn't attend Hogwarts or anything like that. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell, clarifying | ||
| “ | Mitch: I like a pink Starburst every so often. Avital: That sounds like a gross euphemism. |
” |
–pink Starburst | ||
The Feedbag[]
| “ | Our son plays Snack or Wack and Drank or Stank with us. We go to a gas station and get a snack and we all try it together. Recently, we found our son plays it at school with his friends. They lay their snacks on a table and rate them Snack or Wack. So it's a sort of origin story of the next generation of Fuckstons and Wootangs. | ” |
–Andrea | ||
| guest / host | kids listening to Doughboys | favorite school lunch snacks |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
|
| Mike Mitchell |
|
|
| Avital Ash |
|
Restaurants[]
| official visits | location | notes |
|---|---|---|
| California Pizza Kitchen | downtown LA | Amelia picked up their order from this location |
Drops and Plugs[]
| reference | notes |
|---|---|
| 100 Most Beautiful Melodies | in Mitch's drop (by Jeremy) |
| Avital Ash Workshops Her Suicide Note | Avital's plug |
Related Episodes[]
| California Pizza Kitchen episodes | Avital Ash episodes |
|---|---|
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Photos[]
