benny blanco and Jimmy Fallon Eat a Steak Dinner, Talk Cooking for SZA and Cuddling with Ed Sheeran

benny blanco shares a steak dinner with Jimmy while talking about the entertainment components behind his cookbook Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends, SZA raiding his leftovers while working on her album and cuddling with Ed Sheeran in a cabin on a boat.

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benny blanco and Jimmy Fallon Eat a Steak Dinner, Talk Cooking for SZA and Cuddling with Ed Sheeran
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-Benny, congrats on the book,
"Open Wide."
Welcome to the show.
You’ve produced and written
some of the most popular songs
of our time,
but this is an entertaining book
and a guide
to dining,
and wining and dining.
And so I thought it’d be fun
to have a little —
a little kind of dinner
with you.
It’s like —
-[ Munching ]
Yeah, okay.
Yeah. Perfect.
It’s going out to dinner.
What do we —
What are we doing tonight?
-What do we got?
-Yeah.
-Oh, my God, that was good.
-It was good?
-Oh, my gosh, so good.
-Are you a big entertainer?
-An entertainer? Yeah.
I don’t want to go to
a nightclub or anything.
First of all, yeah, I’m way
too short to be in a nightclub.
Like. No —
[ Laughter ]
I can’t be in a nightclub.
It’s too loud.
I want to be at home
with my friends.
I want to drink
until I can’t see anymore.
-Yeah, okay. Okay.
That’s good. This sounds fun.
-Yeah. It’s amazing.
Okay.
Basically, what this book is,
is, it’s
"How do I throw
the perfect dinner party?"
Okay? How do I —
What do I drink?
How do I —
What do I smoke?
What music do I play
while I’m just chilling?
Oh, yeah, you put
some QR codes in here.-
-Yeah, we put QR codes.
We have a playlist.
It’s "How do I kick
my friends out when it’s 12:00
and I want to go to bed?"
[ Laughter ]
-How do you —
how do you do that?
-Okay, okay.
Here’s my two rules.
One, I sit down on the couch
and I just close my eyes,
and then that one kind of works.
But number-one way,
number-one way —
-You just close your eyes
while everyone’s having dinner?
-No, no. After dinner,
when we’re chilling.
-Oh, you’re chilling out.
You go…
-Kind of lean back and you’re,
like, drifting in and out.
-That’s pretty good.
-But number-one way,
every single time, I just go,
"Hey, does anyone
want to help me clean up?"
Instantly, instantly.
[ Laughter ]
-Everyone leaves,
everyone leaves.
That’s kind of genius.
That’s brilliant.
-I leave my own house.
-[ Laughs ]
You’re like,
"I don’t want to help."
-Yeah, yeah.
-Uh, what are we having tonight?
This is one
of your favorite dinners
that you like to prepare.
-All right, we got steak.
-Yeah.
-We got — these potatoes
are the greatest potatoes
on planet Earth.
We got — Look at this bone-in.
Look how beautiful this is.
We got some whipped cream for us
for later
with some strawberries.
-Strawberries.
[ Laughter ]
We got — We got — We got a —
We got a nice salad.
We got some red wine.
-And what is this guy?
-Okay. Biggest trick.
Okay? Olive oil.
You take a shot.
My friend —
My friend Nino taught me this.
These old guys from Italy
came in.
They said, before you drink,
you take a shot of this.
You can’t get hungover.
Impossible.
-Have you ever heard of this?
-No.
-It coat — Who said yes?
[ Laughter ]
-That’s Nino. Nino!
-Nino!
-What’s up, man?
-Um, okay, we take it.
-Take a shot —
-Yeah. You go 1, 2, 3, bam.
-Do it.
[ Audience groans ]
-Whoo!
-It’s — I love it.
-That could’ve been —
That could’ve been fake,
by the way.
-Oh, my God, it’s spicy.
This one’s a —
-That’s a little peppery
olive oil.
-This is like classy olive oil.
-Wow. Yeah.
Now I need this one.
-Yeah. Now you get drunk.
It’s actually just
to get you drunk.
-But one of your, uh —
one of your things
that you do with your artists
when you work with them
is you use food
to start a relationship.
-Of course.
-So, like, what does that mean?
Like, what artist comes in —
Like, SZA comes in and goes…
-Yeah. Okay, first time SZA’s
ever at my house…
-Gotcha. Here we go.
-…she goes to the kitchen.
-Yeah.
-She’s getting a glass of water.
There’s like a small Tupperware
of something.
She’s like, "What’s that?"
And I was like, "Oh, it’s
just like some banana pudding."
She takes a bite.
Before the end of the night,
pudding’s gone. Okay?
-Wow.
-And then, the next day,
she comes in, she’s like,
"Ooh, is there any more
banana pudding?"
And I was like, "No, but I
did eat some lasagna yesterday."
So she’s eating lasagna.
By the time
we finished her album,
I was a full-time restaurant.
She wouldn’t come over.
She bribed me.
She was like,
"I’m not coming over
unless I got the banana pudding,
the lasagna,
I need a Caesar salad.
-Is that right?
-Yeah.
-But that’s how you just —
You just get in there and start
to get to know them?
-I’m not even good
at making music.
I just — When you —
[ Laughter ]
-I don’t know about that.
-Wouldn’t you keep coming over
to my house if I was just giving
you amazing food every day?
-Yeah, that’s all I wanted.
-Yeah, of course.
Come over.
-So music is
like a side hustle for you?
-No, honest–
-Food is your main thing?
-No, it’s like —
it’s the perfect —
It’s the perfect introduction.
Are we eating?
-Yeah.
-How does it even happen?
I just want to eat potato.
-Yeah. How did —
What’s the secret
to these potatoes?
Do you know?
-No. Yeah, I do know.
Of course I know. No.
See how crispy they are
on the outside?
-They really are.
-The inside is soft,
just like a pillow.
-Yeah. This is gorgeous.
-Yeah. You love this.
Don’t you want to come over
and make a number-one song
with me now?
-Yeah, I really do.
You know what I want to hear?
I want to hear —
Because I know
you worked with Rihanna.
You were with our pal
Ed Sheeran.
And Ed Sheeran, you did the
album "Divide" on a boat?
-We literally —
Mmm!
-This is good.
-Wow, that’s [bleep] good.
-That is good.
-Um, okay.
-We both shouldn’t have eaten
at the same time.
-Yeah, I know, all right.
That was good.
Okay, literally, I don’t fly.
-You don’t fly?
-I took a boat to Europe.
I literally take the Titanic
to Europe.
-That’s not true.
-No, it is.
It’s the same — when you’re
on the boat, like day three,
they’re like, "This is where
the Titanic sank,"
and you’re just in
the middle of nowhere.
-They shouldn’t say that
to anyone.
-What do you mean? It’s amazing.
Me and Ed Sheeran watched it —
watched Titanic in bed,
cuddling, on the fourth night.
[ Laughter ]
And it was —
-You did not.
-I swear.
-You did, with Ed Sheeran?
-I swear.
-Writing the album "Divine"?
-Yeah, we literally wrote
the album, and Ed’s so nice.
The funniest thing —
-He’s the best, dude.
-He’s the nicest guy
in the world.
We would — they gave us,
like, a room to write it in.
It was the same room that, like,
There was, like, a daytime
pianist that was like this,
like 85-year-old woman.
And she would come in
to practice every day
and had no idea
who either one of us was.
And she was like, "Hey,
it’s my time to practice,"
and we’d be like, in
the middle of writing, like…
-She’d throw you guys out?
-Yeah, we were, like,
in the middle of, like, writing,
like, "Perfect" or "Happier,"
and she was like, she was like,
she was just like, "Oh."
And Ed’s so nice.
He’s like, "Okay."
And he would, like, sit there
and just, like, wait, just wait.
She was a great pianist,
I’ll tell you.
-She didn’t know it was you
or Ed Sheeran?
-No, she didn’t know anyone.
I loved her.
-How did —
[ Laughter ]
I love the story.
When you’re there, I mean,
now you know how to do it.
I mean, you’ve written
so many great pop songs,
songs that are the most
popular things on the radio.
Do you —
do you have a routine?
You go, "Jimmy, I know what
we would do if we got together"?
How much time do you get
with an artist?
Like, you spend a lot of time
with Ed on a boat.
We’re together, we have
15 minutes to write a song.
What do we do?
-Me and you?
-Yeah.
-We call someone up
who’s better.
[ Laughter ]
We call up The Roots
and have them write this.
The Roots, they gotta help me
out, exactly.
-That’s what we do.
-But say a real —
You’re with a real artist.
-Okay, okay.
Here’s what I do.
-Yeah.
-Basically, I’m a therapist.
So, immediately,
the artist comes in.
-Yeah.
-I gotta figure out —
I gotta pull out their deepest,
darkest secret
and then make —
make them feel comfortable
enough to tell me.
Then we have to write
a song about it.
Then we have to figure
out the melody for it.
Then we have to make sure
the rest of the world
likes it, as well.
-It’s kind of —
-I don’t really care what
the rest of the world likes,
but for some reason,
sometimes when we make
the songs, people like them.
-Yeah, you make
really great songs.
-No, no.
-You really know
what you’re doing, bud.
-I don’t.
I really don’t.
Honestly, I kind of black out,
and then I wake up,
and there’s just, like,
crumbs over me
and a song’s done.
[ Laughter ]
-You have —
By the way,
I saw your mom backstage.
I’m so happy
that Sandy was here tonight.
-Oh.
-Thank — Thanks —
Mom, thanks for being here
and supporting your kid.
[ Cheers and applause ]
He’s done pretty well.
So the book is called
"Open Wide."
I just want to tell you one
thing, ’cause I love the book.
I love the photos, but
I also like your sense of humor.
It’s really good.
Some of the chapters — ready?
Here’s some of the chapters.
Uh, "I wish I was
an Italian Grandma."
That’s pretty good.
"Take Me to the Cheesy Rodeo."
Uh, "Why do we only
have Thanksgiving Once a Year?"
That’s a great question.
-Yes, a question.
Yeah. I love that food.
Uh, I like this one.
"Stop Asking Me Where to Eat
in New York and L.A."
[ Laughter ]
I swear to —
-Everybody?
"Where do we go, Benny?"
-Every —
And it’s always like —
Someone’s like,
"Hey, I’m in New York
on 32nd Street,
and I need a restaurant
in the next 15 seconds."
[ Laughter ]
And then —
And then I’ll get my friend —
you know, one of my friends —
You know Eric Andre?
-Yeah.
-Eric Andre will ask me
for a reservation,
like the hardest reservation
to get.
And then I’ll — I’ll —
I’ll pull all the strings.
I’ll get it for him,
and then he’s like,
"Ah, we just went
to Denny’s instead."
[ Laughter ]
It’s crazy. It’s crazy.
That’s very him.
He’s super funny.
-He’s the sweetest man.
-He’s the funniest dude ever.
But how do you go, like,
from this to, like —
and doing what you’re doing,
to go, like,
"I’m gonna write a book"?
-Honestly, it kind of happened
by a mistake.
I was just throwing the —
I started throwing
dinner parties in L.A.,
like, just with my friends.
And my other friend was having
a, like, book release,
and they did it at my house,
and it was in "The L.A. Times."
And then, the next day,
my agent who’s actually here,
called me and she was just like,
"Hey, do you want
to make a cookbook?"
And I was like, "Yeah."
It was like a —
No, it was like a dream —
You know
how you have those dreams
that you don’t tell anyone about
and you never think
they could actually happen?
I feel like my whole life is
like that sort of dream,
and I’m just, like,
pinching myself.
Literally, this morning,
I was like, "I — what?
I’m gonna go see Jimmy?"
Like, that was —
that was literally my —
This morning, I was waking up,
I was brushing my teeth,
and I was looking in the mirror,
and I was like,
"I’m going to see Jimmy."
-Here we go.
You’re on "The Tonight Show."
-You’re okay.
-Yeah. I’m all right?
[ Cheers and applause ]
I’m so honored to have you here.
Thank you for the meal.
-Thank you.
-Benny Blanco — "Open Wide"
is available everywhere.
right now!
We’ll be right back
with stand-up from Todd Barry.
Cheers.