Luke’s Diner: Coffee Guy Meets Cheese Gal

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I am all in. Again, with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.

Hey, everybody. Scott Patterson. I am all in. Podcast 111 Productions, iHeartRadio Media, iHeart Podcasts, We have a Luke's Diner segment for you with a very, very special guest. Somebody that I have just met, but now I feel like I have known her for a long, long time. Courtney LaCourte, and I'm sure you've heard of her. She's an author.

She's a home and entertainment content creator. She's founder of Cheese Gala. She shares easy recipes, entertaining ideas, and her love of a good dirty martini. Got to watch the videos, guys. They're hysterically great. All with a sense of humor. Her debut cookbook, Oversharing. Anytime snacks, everyday dinners, and cooking for company brings together recipes for everyday meals, snacks, and entertaining.

Welcome to Luke's Diner, Courtney.

Thank you. What an intro. Right?

Not bad. Just right off the top of my head.

No, just right out of my head.

That didn't even need any help.

I love the martini bit too. It's my whole personality.

So you gained popularity online with your cheese boards and elevated snack ideas and dinners. Have you always had a knack for cooking?

You know, I would say I always was drawn to more of the like, hosting, entertaining component of cooking. And then which inevitably, you know, kind of led me into the recipes and all of that. I always loved a really good couch snack. Even as a kid, I would famously make queso, Velveeta, of course, right? I'm from Texas, okay?

I'd do a can of Rotel. I'd make my little queso snack. I'd set up my TV tray and I would watch Oprah. So like that was kind of my intro to the couch snacks. But yes, I've always loved food. Every great memory is around the table for me. So- Yeah, I know you like food too.

Oh, I cook every night when I'm home. I cook every night for my family. I love it. It's 5 o'clock. I just love getting everything out of the fridge and getting everything organized and doing my thing.

Are you a snack guy? Do you like couch snacks?

I do. You know what? I've replaced traditional lunches with salads and sort of snacks. Love. I'm kind of in. So I'm going to get, I'm going to get your book. I will.

I think you'd like it.

Yeah.

I think you'd like it.

Yeah. I need ideas. Cause now I'm just sort of doing like, you know, crackers and cheese and that's fine, but I need, I need, I need to up my game.

I was about to say, there's nothing wrong with crackers and cheese, but you know, I need the help of a professional.

All right. So you have a rather large following on social media, over 1 million. Wow. When did you realize you could make this a career?

Honestly, it's been kind of this, the entire thing from start to now, this whirlwind of how the hell did this happen? It started in 2019, started making cheese boards. And actually it'll tie into what we were just talking about. And that's country music. I started in 2019. I was making cheese boards for friends, family, inspired a business. And then I started Instagram and everything blew up overnight. Before I knew it, I was making cheese boards for the McGraws, you know, Keith and Nicole and Casey Musgrave. I mean, everybody in town.

Uh-huh.

And it was just this ride that was so wild. And at the same time, started building my social media platform. It was kind of my website. And I started just making videos showing my personality. And one thing led to the other. And I realized, I was like, wait a second. If I kind of just focus on being Cheese Gal, and maybe I close the storefront, close the actual day-to-day business, I can, I mean, the sky's the limit here. Because this has always kind of been my dream, what I'm doing now. I used to pretend to have my own cooking show when I was a kid. So now I get to have a cooking show on social media.

You're sending that signal out since you were a kid. That's right. And reality answered. All right. So there's a big food scene, as you know, on social media. And how did you figure out your own niche?

I just leaned into how I really like to eat and how I really like to cook. I'm never trying to be somebody that I'm not. I'm not a trained chef. I'm someone that, like we just talked about, I love a couch snack and I love a good dirty martini. I've got two kids at home. I have two little girls that are also foodies, by the way. That's a whole thing. Unfortunately, I'm raising foodies that'll send them right back to the kitchen if they're not vibing. Um, and so, yeah, I've just like leaned into how I really like to eat and cook and it's become my own niche. So yes, it's the couch snacks.

Yes.

It's the martinis, but also it's these really approachable recipes that are flavor forward, delicious, but not chefy or fussy. That's not my vibe.

Right, right, right. All right. So you've made, as you mentioned, you've made the cheese boards and the other boards for Tim McGraw, Shania Twain, Miranda Lambert, just to name a few. Did that feel intimidating at first?

You know, I remember my first few big gigs and actually Tim and his family were like my top clients at one point. But I remember the first few times, yeah, bringing them to the PJ hangar to drop off the board for the flight and just being like, oh my God, like what's happening? And what the cool part is at the same time as I'm sort of, you know, making these boards for all the top people in town, my husband's, career, songwriting and producing was rising at the same time. So then there was a lot of literal accidental overlap. I'm making the cheese boards for the people he's writing with, you know, so it was this really cool moment for us.

But yeah, I mean, the first few times, of course, I was like, Oh, God, hope they're hope they like this cheese. I mean, you know, what do you get?

And they did, right?

They did. They really did.

Yeah. grateful yeah all right so since you started out with your elaborate boards what's the most underrated thing on a cheese board.

Oh god i mean for me oh man um i love my favorite cheese that'll be on every single cheese board and again i am someone that like i'm a i wouldn't call myself a cheese snob by any means but like i love cheese i love good cheese but an aged cheddar is underrated. It should be on every single board. It's the crowd pleasing cheese that everybody likes.

And it is delicious. And it goes with everything. So you can do different amounts, pair it, judge up the bite. And it's great.

Right, right, right, right, right.

That's a good one.

You know, I was just doing cheese boards. Yeah. We took a summer home and at the beach or summer rental at the beach. And we, we invited people down all the time and, So I'm running off to, you know, Ralph's to buy, you know, the fancy cheeses.

Right.

So I just, I went to the fancy cheese section and I just went, okay, I've never heard of this one. There's a goat on it. It's from France. That's gotta be good.

Okay.

And then I looked at another one and I said, well, that's good. That's, that looks good too. Cause it looks very old and there's, there's like another animal on it and, and, and it's, and it's French and it's like 10 bucks for like a tiny little bit.

I was going to say like half an ounce.

Right. So that's, that's going to be good. So I got four or five of those and I got like a really nice blue cheese.

Oh yeah.

Crumble cheese. So I, so I lined it up. I get the rosemary crackers. I get some grapes. Hmm.

Yep. You're crushing, by the way, right now.

Not bad, right? Crushing. And people were like, wow, this is very impressive. I said, what are you talking about? It took 10 minutes. It's not a big deal. But it's kind of fun to put it together. Yep.

It's creative.

Yeah, you know, it's good. All right. That's great.

I love that.

So this is the question. How many varieties of cheese, because I debated this at Ralph's, how many am I going to get? I went with four and added a fifth. You think four? How many varieties of cheese should you have in a bowl? What did you do for Tim? What did you do for Tim the first time?

Three cheeses, but you're good with four. And you do want to give variety. So you're correct with that. Not only in the texture, right? Is it hard? Is it semi-soft? Is it creamy? But also in flavor profile. So Like personally, if I'm just doing like a basic board and actually this is exactly what I did for Tim's board. And I still remember it because I remember going to Whole Foods being like, what am I doing? Like, oh, my God.

So I picked out an aged cheddar. I picked out a goat cheese. So you did get there, too. And I think I just did a brie. And I found these. I remember the olives that I found were like this citrus marinated olive with even had Marcona almonds in it for that crunch. And I think a little bit of chili too. It was like a little spice, a little sweet, nice acid. And I remember it just being really simple.

He liked it. So I guess. Okay.

Yeah. I just went to a restaurant and they said, served that really nice bread with like some, some, some salt. There was a, there was a little pile of salt and radishes. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Was there butter too?

There was butter. Oh yeah. Oh, there was butter. Oh yeah.

Oh, I just got chills.

Yeah. I'm such a foodie. I could just, I just could grind all night, man. Same.

I mean, when you travel, like this is what I do when I travel. I'm where are we eating?

Yeah, that's a hundred percent. That's the only reason to do it. Yep.

I agree.

I was like, I just got back from San Jose and, and there was a, you know, there was a nice steak house next to the hotel. And I'm like, guys, we're there. We're there both, both nights. I already made the reservation. I already ordered the wine. Let's go.

You're my kind of guy.

Yep. I understand. That's my thing, man.

Yeah.

Same. I got to have a nice dinner. I don't care what I do during the day. They can beat the living crap out of me. As long as I can go to a nice restaurant. That's right.

And it's the vibe. It's the food. It's the service. It's all of it. That is what I live for.

Agreed.

So yeah, when you said radishes, I was like, well, there's probably a flaky salt and there was French butter.

I bet.

Cause that's a French snack.

Right, right, right. You know, I have to admit, I watched a video of yours last night. Well, yesterday, because I knew you were coming on. And you were preparing. You had this big pan. You're in your kitchen. You were preparing a bunch of chicken and some sausages and something else. And you put paprika on the chicken. I have to watch it again because I'm going to use your recipe to make it nice and crunchy.

Love it.

Yep. You chopped up some onions, some peppers, some fennel. You put it in there. The only thing that frustrated me. Oh, tell me. Was you told the temperature, 425, which is what I do too. Uh-huh. And it wasn't covered. It was open, right? Right. Yeah.

Yeah.

How long did you put it in? I don't know.

Probably 30, 40 minutes. I didn't say how long.

I'm going to go back and look at it.

I was going to say, if I didn't.

Because I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm like, I'm making this tonight.

I mean, I would think that's like a 34... If it's chicken thighs and we're doing sausages, yeah, probably 35 minutes, I would think, or until the internal temp is done. Oh my God, if I didn't... I think it was breast.

But it looks so good. So this is what I did. So I told my wife, I said... All right. Get me get me some chick. Get the chicken. We're going to have some nice chicken tonight. Nikki wants chicken and get me an onion and get me some peppers. And I didn't even know what to do with fennel. Right. So I didn't I didn't bother. So but I put it in. Right. I cover it for, you know, for.

We had some big chickens. It was too much chicken. It was like almost three pounds. Oh, yeah. That's a lot. Cut in half. It was too much for three people. But we managed to eat it. You'll have lunch. So I stick it in covered for 43 minutes. And then I take the cover off for another 13 minutes. And I got to tell you, the onions and the peppers, oh, they did things.

Caramelize.

Get nice.

Those peppers get a little creamy.

Oh, they did wonderful things through the entire experience.

It's so good.

And I felt so sophisticated. And my kids looking at me like, Dad, this tastes a little different. This is really, really nice. He really likes my cooking. I said, yeah, yeah, I just did a little something. Oh, I love that.

A little sheet pan. A little sheet pan Monday. No, I love that. And see, that's the whole thing, though, is like, I think sometimes we overcomplicate cooking and what we have to put on the table and put all this pressure. And that's what the book is about. It's like, no, no, no, no. Let me show you. It can be simple, elevated and unbelievably delicious. And, you know, like your son is saying, wait, dad, this is a little different and I'm liking this. So I love that. I love it.

Right. I just took two seconds to chop, chop, chop, throw it in. There you go. No big deal. You changed my life. Thank you. Wow.

Thank you so much. I get a great intro when I get that compliment. I'll take it.

You changed my life. All right. So your new book, Oversharing, it's about hosting easy snack and dinner ideas. What surprised you most writing this cookbook?

I think because I come from the perspective of I'm very much so a home cook. Again, I'm not culinary trained. Getting so granular with and how specific the recipe has to be, you know, because I'm like, Cook with your heart. Feel it out. I don't know. Well, you can't do that when you're writing a cookbook. You've got to be so like a fourth teaspoon of kosher salt or full fat yogurt. You know what I mean? You have to be so specific. So I think that was definitely more of a stretching thing for me, but I think we delivered with these recipes. Like it's, they're pretty fabulous, but I would say that was surprising. And also the volume at what I was having to Test all of these. Oh, my God. I will say like doing, you know, there's

over 100 recipes in here. And I cooked through everything, developed, tested in about a six month period. And each one is tested a minimum of three times, upwards.

Of five, six.

It was a lot, but it was fun.

Next time you write a cookbook, let me know. I'd like to test the dishes.

I was going to say, I need taste testers, actually.

I'll fly down and be a taste tester.

There you go. We'll get Jesse to come over.

Oh, yeah.

That we discovered, and we'll do like a little dinner party.

It's a tough job. Somebody's got to do it, though. I want to do it. That's right. That's right. All right. If you were, if you're, okay, let's say you're watching Gilmore Girls late at night, okay?

Oh, yeah.

What would your couch snack be?

Okay, so this is a no-cook recipe, but it's inspired by Gilmore. The Pop-Tarts. Here's what I do. This is what I do, and I've actually done this since I was a kid, and I know that Pop-Tarts are a big sort of cornerstone in this show. I put them in the microwave with a little bit of butter, and they get warm and soft, and that butter melts over the time. You can do a little, depending on the flavor.

A little pinch of salt.

Oh, yeah. That's it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, I used to, you know, I grew up with Pop-Tarts. We used to eat those things all the time. Same. I have had them prepared that way.

Have you?

I have had them prepared that way.

I've never had anybody else that did this.

No, no. You just brought back a memory for me.

I unlocked it. Oh, I love it. I just unlocked a memory. That's exciting. I've never met anyone else who did this.

Somebody did this in the 70s. No, no, no. But we're talking in the 70s. I'm old. So we're talking in the 70s this happened to me. Whoa. I don't think they did it as good as you, though. No way. No way.

I didn't want to say it. You said it.

Because now I get to taste test your Pop-Tart style.

There you go.

How much butter did you put on it?

I mean, again, I don't probably measure that. I would say, you know, a nice little slab. I mean, a nice little puck.

Can I get away with baking, put it in the oven and baking it?

Yeah, totally. I would do it lower. I would do low. I wouldn't do anything crazy.

What, 250, 200? 250, 250. All right, all right.

Yeah, a little sheet.

All right. Hey, hon, can you turn the oven on? 250, thanks. Perfect.

Perfect. You have to report back. I can't wait to hear it.

Rory and Lorelei are big junk food snack ladies. Let me say that again. They're giant junk food snack ladies from Malamars to Pop-Tarts. And now if they were to come over, Courtney, what would you serve them?

I mean, that's tough because obviously it would be the Pop-Tarts I just mentioned. But the thing about the Malamar is that's like the graham cracker marshmallow chocolate thing, right? So what if we did like a deconstructed kind of bougier vibe? So like, let's get a nice graham cracker. Let's put a little... I don't know, to give us that marshmallow. Maybe it actually is a marshmallow situation. I mean, we're going to need flaky salt in there with the chocolate to bring out some of that like saltiness, sweet, crunchy, creamy.

I don't know.

Are we doing fondue maybe?

Oh, oh, look at that.

It's an elevated version.

Nice. Yes. That's what you're doing.

That one's free.

Yep. Yep. All right. All right. You have a lot of ideas for drinks.

I do.

What would be your go-to? If someone fancy, like, let's say, Emily Gilmore were to visit, what would you do?

I feel like she would appreciate a really good martini. I don't know if she would like a dirty martini, though. Something about her sort of refined, we could call it, palate and vibe.

Well, I think she would accept now that she's separated in the beginning of season five. She's separated from Richard. And she's you know she's gonna get her her party on in.

Paris martini i think i think so i think that's exactly as soon as you say the word dirty to her she goes i'm in yeah i think that that's what we do because it's i mean truly it's just a classic and it's a really good recipe you know i recipe tested for a month on instagram to get this recipe tried a every different vodka, gin, vermouth, no vermouth, stuffed olives. How do you do it? And I came to this, you know, very important research.

Right.

I got this recipe.

So call me if you need to do that research ever again, you call me too. Yeah.

We have a lot of, yeah. Taste testing.

That's important. That's, that's important stuff.

Someone's got to do it.

You got to do it. If you were to go into Luke's diner now, okay. Yeah. And add snacks or appetizers to my menu.

Oh, God.

What would it be? And I just had an idea. But go ahead. Oh, no. Okay.

This is pressure. This is pressure.

This is... Now you're stepping into the big time.

I'm stepping in.

Luke's Diner.

I'm locking in.

You have an opportunity to alter the menu. Okay.

Can I... Riff, and it not just be a snack or an appetizer. Can it be part of the menu? It's something that you did well.

Okay.

Well, the burgers, right?

Yeah.

So there's a recipe.

In the book.

That's something I make often. It's a meatball smash burger with Caesar salad on the burger.

Wow. Wow.

Just saying. I feel like that would be a great addition with the cheese gal flair.

That's ambitious. It is.

And I think it would be great at the diner.

My word.

It's actually pretty easy.

I might have to talk to my people.

Listen, that one's free. I'll just, there you go.

All right. So, okay. Now you're a customer. Okay. It looks okay. You're not changing the menu. Now you're coming in the diner. I say, Hey, what's up, Courtney? What's going on? What would you order? Where do you want to sit?

I want pancakes and I want it at the counter.

Yeah.

I want coffee.

Do you know that you can actually get Luke's pancakes and Luke's maple syrup now? No. You can go to the Warner brothers tours website. And I think now maybe if they've migrated it over to the Warner brothers studio store website, which is fancier, you can order, all kinds of Gilmore Girls coffees and baking mixes. And it's my, I have a coffee company. So I have a co-branding deal with Warner Brothers. So we're developing all of these breakfast skews.

Incredible.

And the maple syrup is divine. The pancakes are divine. Yeah. There's, you know, there's, there's cookie mixes and bake all kinds of stuff. Jellies, jams, honeys, teas, coffees.

Oh, my gosh. I had no idea. That's incredible.

Oh, yeah.

Well, now I know I need to get some.

Yeah, you got to get it. All right. So pancake. You got them.

I mean, they always just look. Yeah, that's what I would do. I'm a pancake.

I make those pancakes for my son on Sunday mornings and his eyes roll back in his head. I bet. When he takes the first bite, he's like, oh.

That's when you know it's good.

Uh-huh. You know what? There's more here. There's just more here. You got to come back. Right. I would love it. I mean, you know that, you know, this is the, to, to be continued. This is part one. I don't know how many parts are going to be, but you got to come back.

I would, I'd be honored. This was a blast. We have a lot in common. I mean, we're old friends at this point.

It's like, you know, all right, but you know, I got to go. You got to go. Everybody's busy, but you're coming back. Thanks for chatting. Everybody, I want you to go out there right now and not only order my cookbook, Scott Patterson's Dishes from the Diner, but I really want you to get Courtney's book, Oversharing Anytime Snacks, Everyday Dinners, and Cooking for Company now. They can go Barnes and Nobles. They can go anywhere. Anywhere. Go check it out. Courtney LaCourte. Thank you so much. Uh, hang, hang, hang around a little while.

Yeah.

We get off. Cause I gotta, I gotta tell you something. Um, uh, but thanks for coming back and we'll see you soon. Hopefully.

I'll see you.

All the best. And to, and to, to y'all out there. Okay. In honor of my Nashville roots, um, best fans on the planet, keep the cards and letters coming. We appreciate it. We read every single one of them out loud to each other all the time. Um, And we do appreciate your thoughts. And remember, where you lead, we will follow.

Stay safe, everyone. Hey, everybody, don't forget, follow us on Instagram at I Am All In Podcast and email us at gilmore at iheartradio.com.

Luke’s Diner: Coffee Guy Meets Cheese Gal

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