01x04 - James Marsden's German Dish-Up

[bunniefuu]

[Antoni Porowski]

I'm Antoni Porowski.

-[worker] Hello, friend.

-Hello.

And as a son of immigrants,

-I know that food

-Whoo.

can tell you more about who you are

Nothing makes me feel

more Polish than this.

and where you've come from

-This is it.

-than you ever imagined.

So now, I'm leading six

curious Hollywood stars

-Are you excited for this?

-Yeah.

on their very own

journeys of a lifetime.

I've been waiting for

this moment my entire life.

I'll be delving into

their family histories

[gasps]

-Florence?

-Yeah!

and tracking down culinary clues

Oh my gosh, it's so good.

to unlock the past.

It almost feels unreal to think

that I descend from a king.

[Antoni] And it all begins

-Yeah!

-For you, Nonna.

-with just one

-[laughter]

family recipe.

-It's crispy.

-Mm!

[Antoni] This time, James Marsden,

star of Enchanted, Jury Duty,

and Westworld,

heads to Texas.

Your family is part

of a very dramatic story.

[Antoni] And Germany.

[James Marsden] If you'd have told me

we were coming to have dinner

with a royal German family,

I would not have expected that.

[Antoni] To get the full flavor

I would never have tied

German immigrants to barbecue.

[Antoni] of his family's history.

I actually only stand on the red.

Well, this is getting interesting,

-and maybe dark.

-[laughter]

♪♪

[birdsong]

[knocking]

-What's up?

-That was a solid door knock.

-How are you?

-I try.

-Good to see you, James.

-Thanks for coming.

-Come on in.

-[door closes]

-Welcome to Mom's house.

-[Antoni] Thanks!

-Hi, Miss Marsden.

-Hi.

-[James] This is Mom.

-So nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Thank you so much for having me.

Mom, this is Ant. Kathleen, Ant.

[Antoni]

James and his mother Kathleen

have invited me over

for a home-cooked meal.

I'm already distracted,

there's so much going on here.

-Welcome to Meatville.

-You can turn that on for me.

Yeah, let's see here.

Oh, that's the back burner.

Chaos and madness. Come on, cook already.

[laughter]

Okay, so what is it

that we're making today?

We are making well, my mom

is making chicken fried steak.

[Antoni]

It's a Texan classic which is made

with tenderized beef

that's fried like chicken

in a thick coat of buttermilk and flour.

I was gonna ask you, like, why this dish?

This is one of those dishes that when,

once she started cooking it,

we had a two-story house,

and the smell from the kitchen

would start to waft up the stairs.

-Yeah.

-We were upstairs

playing Nintendo or whatever,

and we'd smell it,

like, "Oh, Mom's cooking

chicken fried steaks."

It's taking me back.

I'm 12 years old again.

The thing we always wanted,

and we always wanted it

-overdone a little bit.

-Yeah.

So, there was a little extra crunch.

Yeah.

[Antoni] A single mom with four kids,

getting homemade food on the table

wasn't always easy

in the Marsden household.

[Kathleen] I worked a lot.

I had two jobs at once.

I was busy, busy, busy.

[James] You know, we had

a pretty humble upbringing.

But when she would cook,

it would be a rabid dash

-to the kitchen table

-[Antoni] Yeah.

to, like, claim your bits of steak.

[Kathleen] Who gets the crustiest one,

who gets the biggest piece?

But when your mom made that meal, like,

that's something that stays with you.

Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause there is extra love

that goes into that

when it's homemade like that.

-Wow, look at that.

-[Antoni gasps]

-Wow!

-Beaut.

-Nice work, you.

-Help yourself.

-[Antoni] This one's for you.

-[Kathleen] Oh, okay.

[James] Look at that perfect golden brown.

That's it right there.

Dig in.

-Yes.

-Oh, I get it. I get it.

There's something about

the shell of fried flour.

You get to have more gravy

'cause it just goes in between

all the little crevices.

[Antoni] Like the gravy, I want to get

to the nitty-gritty

of how chicken fried steak

made its way into

the Marsden family repertoire.

Kathleen, who taught you how to make this?

I had some guidance from my mother,

and she used a different kind of meat.

It was not tenderized,

so it was a thicker steak.

-Yeah.

-And it was a little

-[James] Tough?

-Chewy. [laughter]

[Antoni] Kathleen learned

the recipe from her mother,

James' Grandma Scholz.

This is my mother and my father

on their wedding day.

-Aw.

-[Antoni] Wow.

-[James] Grandfather Scholz,

-your father

-Yeah.

was half-German?

-Half-German.

-Half-German.

[Antoni] Mom Kathleen even knows

the name of one of her

father's German ancestors,

Adolf Scholz, James'

great-great-great-grandfather

who was well-known in

these parts in the mid-1800s.

Adolf Scholz had a beer garden

in San Antonio.

That's a beer gard Are those palms?

That's why it was called the Palm Garden.

That looks like a Gatsby party

or something.

[James] What events would

happen at the Palm Garden?

Beer fests, I guess, Oktoberfests.

You know, there's a lot

of Germans in Texas.

[Antoni] There were,

and it does make me wonder

whether chicken fried steak

would have been on the menu

all those years ago.

I'm convinced this dish holds the key

to something much bigger.

What's the pull for you

to do this right now?

-What excites you about this?

-As you get older,

you just get so curious about,

like, where did I come from?

Where did you come

Where did we all come from?

-How far back do you go?

-Mm-hmm.

And how did your ancestors live,

and what were they eating?

Do you have anything that's

been sort of passed down?

[Antoni] It's sort of like,

we do these things,

we have these rituals

when we're growing up,

and all of these family traditions.

You know, your face really did light up

when you were talking about,

like, you and your siblings,

running in when she was making this meal.

This is what we grew up eating,

but is there any connection

between this dish

and our great, great,

great, great whatever?

It's just finding what it is, right?

So, James has some big questions

about what he's inherited

from his German ancestors.

With that in mind, I've done some digging

through the archives to find out more.

And what I've discovered brings us here,

to the vast open country of central Texas.

♪♪

So, you're probably wondering

what the hell we're doing

-out in a field on horseback.

-[laughs] You could say that.

So, your four-times

maternal great-great-great-

great-grandfather

-Right.

-Hermann Conring and his wife Georgina,

they immigrated here from Germany in 1854.

-Whoa!

-With five kids.

-That's back to 1854.

[Antoni] So, James is more

German than he ever realized

because it wasn't just Kathleen's father

who had German ancestors.

Her mother Mary did too.

And they made their home out here.

They came here with their clothing,

their language, their customs,

some recipes, and like, that was it.

And they actually took

over 640 acres of land

and basically started populating

it with horse and cattle.

Did they know what it was gonna be like?

Why Texas?

All I can say is, more will be revealed.

Okay. All right, way to stay cryptic.

[laughing]

[Antoni] Just as I thought,

James is champing

at the bit to learn more.

And luckily, I've arranged

to meet someone to fill in the gaps.

Just the man we were looking for.

-Hi, Jim.

-Hey, welcome, fellas.

Glad to see you. Welcome to my ranch.

[Antoni] Jim Kearney's family

have been ranchers

for over 140 years.

Like James, his ancestors are also German.

Your family is part of

a very dramatic story.

[Antoni]

Turns out, a fifth of all families

in these parts have German roots.

And how many of them

ended up in this bit of Texas,

is a tale of Colonial ambition.

Back in the 1840s,

a group of German noblemen

led thousands of German

immigrants to Hill Country,

in the hope of creating

their own little principality.

But it didn't work out as planned.

It was almost a complete utter debacle,

'cause they ran out of money,

they didn't know

what they were doing,

they had no business acumen.

[Antoni] But what was

a disaster for the nobles

turned into an opportunity

for the German settlers.

[Jim] Somehow, the immigrants themselves

were able to turn things around

and make the transition to a new home

and country in Texas.

[Antoni] The route to their salvation?

Lots and lots of cows

something Jim knows a thing or two about.

[Jim] Well, fellas,

we need to move these cattle

out of here into another pasture.

Maybe you can give me a hand on that.

[laughing] Oh, you're serious?

Yeah, I think you can do it.

Do I know what that entails? No.

But am I down? Absolutely.

Great, and the best teacher is experience.

There you go. And you.

-If you survive it.

-[laughing]

♪♪

[Antoni] Back then, cattle were used

mainly for dairy and to plow fields.

Look, you can go this way,

I'll go this way, how bout that?

-There you go. Race ya.

-Look at that.

[Antoni]

But James' family arrived at a time

when the population was growing,

which lead to an increased

demand for beef.

[cows mooing]

[James] I'm staying away from the mare.

Yep, don't have to tell me twice.

I don't feel like I'm the one

in charge, at all.

[laughing] No, I know.

[Antoni] By the 1860s,

there were five million cattle

roaming the fertile Texas prairie.

-It's so crazy.

-It is wild.

[Antoni] Fifty-one of them

on a 640-acre ranch

owned by James' very own cowboy ancestor,

Hermann Conring.

I really feel like this is in your blood.

I think you're giving me

a little too much credit.

-No!

-But I'll take it.

[Antoni] I mean, it's

literally in your blood,

it's in your genetics, but, like

[Janes] It is and I think

that's the coolest thing,

is like realizing 150, 200 years ago,

that they were out here,

my great-great-great-

great-great-grandparents.

[Antoni] Yeah.

Doing essentially what we're doing now.

You ever get that feeling

like you've been somewhere before?

-100%.

-Yeah.

There's something

about this and everything

we're doing here

that does feel like, "Ah."

It's not I don't feel out of sorts,

I don't feel out of place.

This feels natural.

[Antoni] It turns out,

James has more cowboy in him

than he ever thought.

Let's hope he's got an appetite to match,

because we're heading into town

in search of a world-famous cuisine

that should get James to see

his German immigrant ancestors

in a whole new light.

♪♪

[James] Smells like something's cooking.

-Looky here.

-Whoa!

Real fires.

[Antoni] Jim is taking us to lunch

at one of the many German meat markets

here in central Texas.

Smells really good.

I'm salivating again already.

[Antoni]

Originally set up in Conring's time

to butcher and sell beef

to a growing population,

these places rapidly innovated.

[customer] Can we do

a quarter-pound of the brisket?

[Antoni] Recognizing people's enjoyment

of grilled food at outdoor celebrations,

German entrepreneurs turned

barbecue into an everyday treat

by moving the fire pits indoors,

and threw popular cuts onto the smoker,

like brisket and clod,

seasoned to perfection

with no more than a simple spice rub

inspired by the old country.

[Jim] And look at this sausage.

That was another skill

of the German immigrants.

-Sausage.

-They really perfected,

and usually just very simple ingredients.

Salt and pepper,

sometimes maybe a little garlic.

-That's all you need.

-My mom knows

-those ingredients well.

-[laughter]

[Antoni] Growing up in the South,

James is no stranger to food like this.

But what's amazing is that his

four-times great-grandfather

would have known it

from its very beginnings.

-[James] Texas barbecue.

-[Jim] All right.

-Courtesy of Antoni and I.

-Oh, here we are.

This is what they call

You got something for everybody.

-[Antoni] Whoo!

-[laughing]

[Antoni] And the tale doesn't end there.

So, I've invited barbecue expert

Hoover Alexander to join us for lunch.

You got that crunchy little

pieces of fat on the outside.

-People call it the candy.

-[Antoni] Yeah.

You want it to be moist,

but you want it to be tender.

It's not easy to do.

[Antoni] It really isn't.

So, the Germans teamed up with others.

[Jim] In the meat market,

we have two different

cultures coming together.

German is one thread in that,

and so is the African Americans.

If it fits in a pit, we try to smoke it.

[Antoni] Enslaved African Americans

were experts at cooking meat

over an open flame

and harnessing the flavor of local woods.

After the Civil w*r, many went

to work with the Germans.

[Hoover] What the sl*ves

brought to the game

was the actual skills of using live fire.

So, you know, you've got your pits,

be it shallow, be it deep.

You've got stakes that you smoke on.

All of these things have played a role

into what we know as Texas barbecue.

-[Jim] Yeah.

-[Antoni] "We got the meat.

We know what to do with it.

Let's join forces."

Learning about the Germans

and the Black culture

coming together, gives me goosebumps

-just thinking about it.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-[all agreeing]

And part of it's the food.

-[Hoover] Of course.

-[laughter]

Like, I would never have tied

German immigrants to barbecue.

-[Antoni] Right.

-In any fashion.

[Jim] Food is the last thing to go.

That's what people hold onto

as a symbol of their

-of their former life

-Yeah.

or wherever they came from.

That's my takeaway

from this, it really is.

-Yeah. Agreed.

-Yeah.

[Antoni] James has discovered

a connection to Texas

and its food through his ancestor

that's stronger than he ever realized.

But what's still a mystery

is why James' four-times

great-grandfather,

Hermann Conring,

came here in the first place.

There's only one way to find out

to head to the Old Country.

♪♪

I've taken a look at the records

and discovered that Conring was born here,

in the northwest of Germany

in what is now Lower Saxony.

And our first stop is a palace.

[James] It's beautiful, stunning.

[sighs]

[James] Very different than

riding a horse out in the field.

[Antoni] There's something

about Hermann Conring

James needs to hear.

This is my family's castle.

-[laughing]

-This is your family's castle.

I'm assuming.

I know nothing, I have no idea.

[Antoni] No, Conring didn't go

from being a prince to a cowboy,

but he was no farmhand either.

So, Hermann had nothing

to do with agriculture

or anything like that

when he was in Germany.

He was actually a notary, type of lawyer.

-Really?

-And he was super educated,

came from a really good family,

and they were part of the bourgeoisie.

So, they weren't quite

the aristocrats or the royals,

but definitely on, like,

the higher levels.

His wife's family were

really wealthy landowners

with, like, a huge manor.

Hermann's older sister's godmother

was actually a baroness.

-Wow.

-In terms of, like

-Sounds very fancy.

-Right?

Yeah.

[Antoni] So, a world away from

his life on a Texas ranch,

Hermann Conring was actually

a successful lawyer

with connections to nobility.

And that means he'd be familiar

with palaces like this.

So, you want to go inside?

It just so happens

we're in time for dinner.

What better way to understand

Conring's experience

than by trying it firsthand?

[James] If you'd have told me

we were coming to Germany

to have dinner with

a royal German family

-Yeah!

-not have expected that.

I feel so underdressed, you were

smart to bring a jacket.

♪♪

-Welcome.

-Hello.

-Antoni, nice to meet you.

-Hi, James, how are you?

-Hi, nice to meet you.

-Pleasure to meet you.

I'm Teddy. So, I hear

you have German ancestry?

Yes, I do, and I'm

we're sort of exploring

that at the moment.

I'm just every day is kind of a bit

of a puzzle that we're putting together.

Your name, again? Forgive me.

My name's Donatus,

but most people call me Teddy.

-Okay.

-There's this weird tradition

amongst aristocratic circles

that we have cute-sounding nicknames.

-Okay.

-Teddy, Sharmy, Boopy, Oopy.

-Okay.

-Whatever you prefer.

[Antoni] Teddy,

AKA Prince Heinrich Donatus

of Schaumburg-Lippe, is all smiles,

but his family is no joke.

With a dynasty stretching back 900 years,

his ancestors weren't just

upholders of tradition,

they were holders of absolute power.

And I suspect we'll find out

what that means

for James' ancestor over dinner.

♪♪

[Antoni laughing]

[James] Oh, my lord.

I was not anticipating this.

-Welcome to the ballroom.

-Oh my!

[James] My eyes can't process this.

This is incredible.

[Teddy] You played a prince

in a movie at one point,

-didn't you?

-I did.

Did you have to waltz

as well in the movie?

-I did, I did.

-How's your waltzing?

Learned the whole waltz for Enchanted.

-Oh, good!

-Wait, no, no.

-I just screwed that up.

-[laughter]

-You're already better than me.

-Wow, yeah.

Hermann Conring, I just learned,

is a was a notary.

Back in the day,

there was a pecking order,

whatever you want to call it,

and I was just thinking,

would they have been invited to the party?

-I don't know.

-Yeah, well, most of the people

that came here were

sort of what was considered

-the higher social classes.

-Sure.

But it's not just aristocracy, right?

There's also higher bourgeoisie,

the academics,

the highly educated members

of politics, perhaps.

Given that your ancestor

was highly connected,

there's a good chance

that he might have been

-in this kind of environment.

-Wow.

♪♪

I mean, you've got a half-red carpet.

Oh, yes, yes. Oh, excuse me.

I actually only stand on the red.

[Teddy] So, I'll show you the kitchen.

-[James] Hello.

-[chef] Hi.

-How are you?

-I'm fine, thanks.

[Antoni] Hi, Chef.

Carry on, don't let me stop you there.

[Antoni] Oliver Garasch,

private chef to many

aristocratic households,

is preparing a meal fit for a king.

Well, a prince.

Is that a hollandaise?

That will be a hollandaise, yeah.

[Antoni] Tonight's eight-course menu

is typical of what Conring

would have been served

at a banquet.

We do oysters, we do mock turtle soup,

we do a lobster course.

We have sauce Cumberland

for the venison dish, the main course.

Don't say something wrong, please,

-I am the man with the knife.

-[laughter]

The sweetness, I already taste

what it's gonna be like

with the venison, I love it, 10 out of 10.

Mm, that's exceptional.

-Yeah.

-That is so good.

[Antoni] It all looks delicious.

But English Cumberland sauce?

French lobster Thermidor?

I'm not seeing a lot

of sausage or sauerkraut.

Is there a dish here

that is specifically German?

So, specifically German, um

-No.

-So, they were plucking

these cuisines from different cultures.

Yeah.

[Antoni] It seems that

when it came to dining,

German aristocracy thought

their own country's food

was beneath them.

-Thank you, Chef.

-Thank you, we can't wait.

-This looks delicious.

-Bye.

♪♪

Another beautifully ornate room.

Um

I don't think I've ever seen

this many place settings.

[laughing] Whoa, yeah, that is a lot.

[James] I feel like this

is where I'm so ill-prepared

to know the actual etiquette,

what goes first, what goes second,

what to touch, what not to touch.

Well, what I learned from Pretty Woman

is that you work your way out

and you go in.

-Oh, oh.

-Good evening, gents.

Good evening.

[Antoni] Tonight, our hosts

are Prince Alexander

and Princess Mahkameh.

Lovely to meet you.

They've graciously agreed

to give us an insight

into the dining etiquette

that James' ancestor

would have been expected to know

Welcome to our humble abode.

[Antoni] when invited

for dinner at a palace.

So, toast goes on the side

on the side plate here.

-Great.

-That's what it's for.

This knife is also meant for the toast.

-[Antoni] Great.

-[James] Yeah, okay.

As for the cutlery,

the one that comes first

is on the outside,

and then you sort of work,

work your way towards the inside.

[Antoni] Thank you, Julia.

Use this fork to cut the oysters.

-[slurping]

-[Antoni chuckles]

It's very fresh.

-Briny.

-Mm-hmm.

[Alexander] I say, I drink

to our lovely guests today.

-Cheers.

-[glasses clinking]

[all toasting]

Lovely to meet you all,

thank you for inviting us

-into your home.

-And you guys are doing well,

because you're supposed to look

each other in the eyes.

It's so many rules to take in.

[Antoni] And I guess that was the point.

Every extravagant foreign dish,

every piece of etiquette,

reminded the likes of Conring

that although they were

offered a glimpse of power,

they would never wield it.

[Alexander] In those days,

I mean, you know,

society was a pyramid.

Everybody was locked

in their place, more or less,

with very, very few exceptions.

[Teddy] Oh, yeah, it's the venison.

[Antoni] So, even if this food

tastes delicious to us now

-[James] I'm astounded by it.

-[Antoni] Yeah.

It's really tasty, really flavorful.

[Antoni] The rule-bound

hierarchical society

it symbolized may have been tougher

for Hermann Conring to swallow.

-That was pretty surreal.

-Yeah.

But incredible. I mean, it's just

Again, this whole process is processing,

you know, kind of taking all that in.

It's a lot, absolutely.

The food was obviously incredible,

and I'm thinking, like, what my ancestors

were doing back in the day

and what where they sat

-in that hierarchy.

-Mm-hmm.

Where they were, the Conrings,

it felt like they were in

a pretty comfortable place.

-Mm-hmm.

-And what was going on

with that family that

why was everyone moving to Texas?

[Antoni] It's a very good question,

and I know just the place

to find out more.

♪♪

I'm just gonna ask

everyone that passes me,

like, "Do you know the Conrings?"

"Sorry, do you know the Conrings?"

Hermann?

-Hermann Conring?

-Five kids.

[Antoni] There are tried and tested ways

to research your family history.

But James, he's got his own methods.

James Marsden. X-Men, Notebook.

[Antoni] I've brought James to Hanover,

the state capital of Lower Saxony,

because I've found

something in the archives

that might explain

why his family left Germany.

So, Hermann Conring,

I have a bit of, like,

physical information.

That's his handwriting.

-No way.

-Yeah.

Wow, they did know how to write in

-Beautifully.

-in beautiful penmanship

back then. This is December 15, 1837.

"To the royal Hanoverian Ministry,

"for nine years, I've been

settled in this town

"as a lawyer.

I hope that I'm not to be blamed

"for my moral conduct of life

"since I have always

made it my business to act

"in an orderly and lawful manner

in my field of activity.

"Therefore, I dare to address

"the most humble request

to Your Excellencies,

"that you will graciously deign

to appoint me as notary.

Your Excellences most wise

and well-born." Boy.

Okay, hold on, let me figure out

what to make of this.

So, he's basically going, "Hey, hire me."

-Mm-hmm.

-"I'm reaching out to you."

I feel like there's ambition and drive.

But I'm guessing the tone

is that he's being denied this.

[Antoni] Conring's letters show a man

who was ambitious, but frustrated.

There's clearly something going on here,

and I found a clue from 17 years later

that sheds light on this.

The plot thickens.

"Annual report for 1854,

Office of Internal Affairs,

"immigration to America.

"In this year, 22 persons

emigrated to other parts of the world.

"Among them were the lawyer

Conring with his family

"known from the year of 1848,

"and in 1853 again,

imprisoned for a long time

because of demagogic activities."

Well, I need to decode that.

So, basically he was arrested twice.

-My family.

-[laughing]

-You got the right guy.

-Can you relate to that one?

You got the right guy. Wow, okay.

This is a lawyer who was imprisoned.

Yeah, exactly.

Wow, I wonder what

I wonder what that was about.

Well, this is getting

interesting, and maybe dark.

Well, let's go talk to someone

who's gonna help us out a little.

And also, I'm getting

a little hungry, so I thought

we could maybe go meet him,

and he can kind of unpack all this for us.

Oh, sorry you're getting hungry.

I'm just, like, unfolding my whole history

of my family. Let's get you a bagel.

[Antoni] My contact, and lunch,

is another bike ride away.

"Arrested twice

-for demagogic activity."

-Uh-huh.

[James] I'm not sure what that means.

But if it's anything fun, we should do

some demagogic stuff

while we're here in Hanover.

[Antoni] Gaststätte Kaiser is one

of the oldest taverns in town.

I'm not sure I want

to get this information.

[Antoni] Just the kind of place

where bourgeois intellectuals

like Hermann would hang out.

And the same is true today.

We're meeting journalist Heiko Randermann,

in the hope that he can explain

what happened to Hermann.

-Prost.

-[all] Prost.

Oh, that's very good.

[Antoni] Time to get down

to the matter at hand.

-"Demagogic activities."

-"Demagogic activity."

Oh, right. That sounds dangerous.

'Cause it's a terrifying word.

It is a terrifying word,

but demagogic activities back then

could have been anything.

Let's go back 200 years.

Germany was not one country.

It was dozens of them, maybe 40.

Everywhere, the aristocracy was ruling,

but then, French Revolution happened,

and people in Germany get the idea,

a country does not belong to the king,

it belongs to its people.

-Okay.

-Of course,

the ruling class felt threatened.

So, many people back then were

accused of demagogic activities,

meaning they were looking

for a liberal society.

They might be in favor

of a unified Germany.

It could mean you speak your mind.

It could mean you're wearing

the wrong clothes,

singing the wrong songs.

-And they were put into prison.

-[exhales sharply]

[Antoni] So, it's kind of

a blanket accusation

to ensure that they got

to maintain their palaces

and their way of life, and the rules.

Sure, sure.

[Antoni] One surprising way

people showed their support

for a new democratic Germany was food,

taking humble local ingredients

like bacon,

pickles, and mustard, and turning them

into an unlikely call

for political change.

[sizzling]

-Danke schoen.

-Thank you.

That's delicious.

The sauce that is in this dish reminds me

of the brown gravy that my mother

-put on the chicken fried steak.

-[Antoni] Sure.

[James] Remember when we were

riding horses back in Texas,

I said something along

the lines of [clears throat]

feeling like you've been here before.

This dish, the flavor,

the feel, all of this

-kind of does the same thing.

-Yeah.

It makes me feel like I've been here

before having this dish before.

[Antoni] A world away

from last night's fancy foreign food,

this was traditional German

fare that people like Conring

didn't just eat, but started to celebrate

as a symbol of the more equal

Germany they wanted.

People were looking for, you know,

the German soul, right?

Like, what is it that we all can agree on?

-[James] What is our identity?

-That's right.

What is our identity. And I have to say,

we all can agree on rinderroulade.

[Antoni] But even

the rinderroulade was no match

for the might of the ruling class.

[Heiko] In this document,

the year 1848 is mentioned.

That was very important in German history,

the year of the German revolution.

-Okay.

-In '48, the aristocracies

put troops on the street,

they shot down everyone.

-Shot people?

-Hundreds of people dead.

That was it. The movement was over.

Your ancestor very likely

was part of that movement.

Wow.

It kind of gives your family's history

this nice theme of bravery.

Yeah, yeah. I was yeah, well put.

And I feel the same way,

that they were leaving oppression.

And that, to me, yeah, there's

a lot of courage in that.

[Antoni] It's not surprising

that after getting out of prison,

Hermann Conring wanted to say

auf wiedersehen to Germany

and try his luck

in the Land of Opportunity.

[James] It's great,

it makes you feel proud.

His behavior, his imprisonment,

to come pushing against the class system

and wanting to find

a different way of living.

He just wanted a better life for him,

-for his family, for his kids.

-Yeah, that's I mean,

that's what I'm that's my takeaway.

[Antoni] But our journey

doesn't end with Conring.

I've uncovered another of James' ancestors

who lived in the fairytale

scenery of southern Germany,

but whose life would have

been far from magical.

♪♪

♪♪

[James] Can you believe we started

-all the way from Hanover?

-By foot.

-By foot.

-[laughter]

[Antoni] We are hiking up

to Germany's highest castle,

Falkenstein, where I'm going to give James

some new information about his family.

[Antoni] Bavaria in southeast Germany

is an area as rugged as it is beautiful

defined by the majesty of the Alps

and the pristine valleys below.

I was expecting more goats.

You were? Well, we're the goats today.

[Antoni] Fortunately for James,

I've provided him

with some classic Bavarian footwear.

[clearing throat] Look at us,

-just mountain goat-ing it.

-Oof.

-In these

-What are they called?

I think they're called haferlschuh.

[James] Whoo! Who needs oxygen?

This is incredible.

Yep. It's the scale of it, it's

I mean, look how it just

goes for miles and miles.

-Yeah.

-That's insane.

-Ooh, nice.

-[sighs]

-[Antoni] Cold.

-We

-Yeah.

-[bottles clinking]

[Antoni] Other than being

the perfect setting

for a local beer, this is the best place

to see the old stomping ground

of James' long forgotten ancestor.

Early 1800s, your mother's

paternal side of the family

were actually here in Bavaria.

There was a man

by the name of Johann Dittler.

He was a journeyman

and he was a shoemaker,

and he went into towns and

he would repair people's shoes.

And shoes that were

very popular at the time

whoo, that's a stretch

are these haferlschuh

-which are like hiking

-No way.

-Hiking shoes, I swear.

-Wait, so these babies?

Yeah. So, they look like

a fashion statement,

but they were actually

very useful for people

who were hiking in these mountains.

[Antoni] Born in 1819, Johann Dittler

is James' four-times great-grandfather

on his mother's paternal side.

So, he's traveling around Bavaria.

Fixing these and making these.

-Very rural part of Germany.

-Yeah.

As opposed to

a stark contrast to Hanover.

Much more humble background.

Two completely different Germanys there.

I think I prefer this.

When I'm in this type of landscape,

it does something to me

in a very positive way.

It's a fascinating thing to explore,

like what stays with you,

even over the course of,

you know, several, several generations.

-Mm-hmm.

-I do believe that things

-are passed down.

-Oh yeah.

And imprints that are made, you know,

two centuries ago, can still surface

-in certain ways.

-Right.

[Antoni] Well, with that in mind,

I think walking in

his ancestor's footsteps

might help reveal some of those imprints

James is talking about.

Journeying through Bavaria

in the first half of the 1800s,

Dittler would have encountered

an impoverished isolated kingdom

compared to the tourist

brochure perfection

-we see today.

-[cowbells ringing]

The cattle!

[James] And each one of them have a bell.

It's almost a little too cliché, guys.

Right? [laughing]

[Antoni] The lower classes

would have scraped by

on a meager diet, so our first stop

is restaurant Schlossanger Alp,

which specializes in something

Dittler would have eaten.

"Meet by the back door,"

Chef Bastian said,

I didn't know he meant that literally.

[laughing] I just thought of Westworld.

I was thinking the cold storage unit.

-[Antoni] Sorry to interrupt.

-[laughter]

-No problem.

-On this very intimate affair.

Can I ask what what it used to be?

-It was a deer, yes.

-It was?

A male deer, yeah.

-A male deer.

-Wow.

-Yes. Yes.

-My gosh.

She's the hunter.

-[James] The hunter?

-[Antoni] You hunted this?

-Yes, I shot it.

-Like you shot it with a g*n?

-Yes, with a g*n.

-Okay.

-I normally just work here.

-Okay.

-At the reception.

-She's our reception.

-But you work at the reception?

-But you're a secret hunter.

-Aren't you? Look at that.

-A secret hunter

-in my spare time, yeah.

-Yeah.

[Antoni] This deer looks incredible.

But Dittler wouldn't have been

eating prime cuts of meat.

He would have had the parts

Chef Bastian likes best.

We use everything the heart,

tongue, the back, everything.

-Ear to hoof.

-Yeah, sure.

'Cause in this region, we don't have

so much money in the past.

I'm excited to see

what you make with this.

Yeah, sure, let's go inside.

[Antoni] And that's why we're here,

because Chef Bastian Ebert makes food

using offcuts, innards, and organs.

This is our kitchen.

These are my sous chefs. Hello.

[Antoni] The only sort of meat

a poor shoemaker like Dittler

would have been able to afford.

[Bastian] We have here

the heart and the tongue.

[Antoni] For me, this all sounds

like a culinary wonderland.

But I'm not convinced James has inherited

his ancestor's taste buds.

My usual rule is that I won't

I don't typically get into

eating organs of animals.

[Antoni] But Bastian does things to offal

which Dittler could have only dreamed of.

So, the tradition is basically

-using ingredients

-Yeah.

that were kind of like

less favored or desired.

-Yeah. Yeah, right.

-And kind of, like,

highlighting them in

a contemporary way, yeah.

[Antoni] Today, Bastian is

preparing us a specialty,

croquette of minced tongue and heart,

deep fried

laid on a bed of crushed bean salad,

garnished with freshly

picked alpine wildflowers.

[Bastian] We add some

mayonnaise of rosemary,

and then sauce,

and green oil of parsley,

the taste of the herbs, yeah.

Yeah, a bit of that sharpness.

I almost don't want to touch it,

'cause it's such

-it is a piece of art.

-You have to, you have to.

-I do. [laughing]

-It's a work of art.

Let's just leave it like this,

I just want to look at it.

I'll consume the art.

So delicate.

I think you're really gonna like it.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime

thing, so, let's just

You're also on the roots of your family.

-That's right, exactly.

-So, you have to.

-To honor you

-Yeah.

-[Antoni] I like that.

-To honor you,

to honor my family.

Mm.

I actually love that.

-Yeah, that was amazing.

-Right?

-Perfect.

-And that sauce is insane.

I need to recalibrate my dining rules.

-Right?

-Yeah.

You got a little something there.

-There. There we go.

-Oh, thanks so much.

See, we're like a little

married couple now.

-Oh, look at that, yeah.

-[laughter]

[Antoni] Obviously, offal as haute cuisine

would have been unrecognizable to Dittler.

But he would have known

the key ingredients.

Thinking about the pride

and the usage of the offal

as Bastian was showing us,

200-plus years ago, it came

from a place of necessity,

'cause that's all that these people

who were on the impoverished

side had to rely on.

I imagine Johann as a shoe cobbler.

-Mm-hmm, yeah.

-You know, it's like,

how simple his life must have been

-Right.

-compared to Conring's.

-You know?

-Mm-hmm, sure.

They were rubbing elbows

with the high society there.

-Yeah.

-And, just complete

stark, stark contrast there,

it's really interesting.

I'm really excited for tomorrow.

Yeah, yeah, me too.

I wonder what what part of the animal

and what animal we'll be eating tomorrow.

[laughing]

♪♪

[James] It's pretty cool to know

that my great-great-

great-great-grandfather

invented the shoe that got us

up a mountain yesterday.

[Antoni] Tight little edit.

So, he was fixing and making them.

-But I think somebody else

-[James] No, he invented them.

That's the narrative you want to go with?

-He invented them.

-You know what, you write

-your own history books, yep.

-Don't change my mind on this.

[Antoni] Whether he invented them or not,

with so few records about Dittler,

we're trying to learn more about him

through the food he would have eaten,

maybe even uncovering some links

to James' own food memories.

Along with offal, Johann Dittler

would have relied on two things

still very much present in Bavaria.

Bread and beer.

So, I thought it'd be nice to celebrate

this journey that we've been on,

and go to a beer garden

a little later today.

-Twist my arm.

-[chuckles]

But as local tradition has it,

you have to bring something,

something that you can kind of

like share with everybody.

-Um, so

-Food?

You have to bring something food to 'em?

-Exactly.

-To a beer garden?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Oh. That's tradition.

Yeah, 'cause we're gonna

have like a proper meal.

-Are you a baker?

-No.

-Okay, great, me neither.

-No, but I enjoy baked goods.

[Antoni] Like most town folk back then,

Dittler wouldn't have an oven of his own.

Instead, he'd use a communal one.

-Hi, how are you?

-I'm Antoni, this is James.

-[overlapping greetings]

-James. Hi.

[Antoni] And that's a tradition

the good residents

of Ollarzried don't intend

to stop anytime soon.

Today, they're baking something

Dittler would certainly have eaten,

and James will no doubt enjoy.

We will make German beer brot

beer bread.

Oh, I'm so happy this exists.

-[laughter]

-Great, I'm in.

[Antoni] Just like in Dittler's time,

Teresa and Ulli are using barley beer.

[Antoni] And rye flour

crops that can actually grow

this high up in the mountains.

[laughing]

[Antoni] But the real secret to this bread

lies in the care with which you work it.

-Twist too much.

-Love it slowly.

-Too much power?

-Love it slowly, not quickly.

Okay, imagine it's a woman.

-I was.

-[laughter]

Okay. First time.

Super.

Okay.

[Antoni] While the bread bakes,

I want to show James

how to make another regional specialty

which I have a hunch is gonna

feel pretty familiar to him.

If you don't mind cracking these eggs.

[laughing] Give me the hard part.

[Antoni] We're making schnitzel,

a dish that would have been

popular in Dittler's time.

It's a cutlet coated

in eggs and breadcrumbs,

and awfully similar to a dish

we made in Texas

with James' mom.

-With love.

-With love.

Love. With love.

[Antoni] I'm just wondering

when he's gonna catch on.

-These are nice and thin.

-Yeah.

[Antoni] Maybe when the meat hits the pan.

-So, this one's gonna go in.

-[James] Delicate.

[sizzling]

[James] See, that smell remind

-Right?

-It's that same smell

that we had in the kitchen in Texas.

Bringing me back.

This is the the smell of my childhood.

-Aw, that's nice.

-Going onto the next one here?

Yes, sir.

Perfect. Beautiful.

-Look at that.

-There you go.

[Antoni] It's just a small leap

from schnitzel to chicken fried steak,

but for James, it's a powerful link

to a treasured family recipe.

Look at me, cooking like

my ancestors here.

[Antoni] And a different version

of what your mom made.

It's all coming full circle. I love it.

[Antoni] Germans like Dittler

took this schnitzel recipe

with them to the states, where over time,

the meat of choice became all that steak

being reared on vast Texas ranches.

-Look how golden they are.

-Golden brown.

See, I liked the little

charred bits in there.

-I love a good little char.

-Just a little

-A little more crunch.

-Mm-hmm.

It's crazy, this is so similar

to what we made in Texas

and now here we are in Bavaria

making essentially the same thing.

-But just

-In like the same territory

-that like your ancestor

-No, I know. It's crazy.

-journey-manned on his way.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Should we check on the bread?

-Let's investigate it.

Hello!

Mm.

That's maybe the freshest bread

I've ever had.

Mm-hmm.

[Antoni] Food prepared, we are ready

to hit perhaps Bavaria's

greatest gift to the world,

and the missing piece

in James' family history.

[people chattering]

A beer garden.

-Wow, man.

-It's so cool back here.

-It's like an old

-These trees.

[Antoni] Brewery, drinking hole,

and communal eating place.

-Keep doing this.

-[indistinct chatter]

-Yes.

-[Antoni] Whoa.

-Oh, wow.

-Oh, okay.

-Yeah, yeah.

-[beer pouring]

[Antoni] For old and newfound friends.

-Let's make some room.

-Hey, guys.

[Antoni] Beer gardens are a Bavarian

summertime institution

[James] We have enough

Schnitzel for everybody.

[Antoni] dating back to the 1600s.

Prost. Prost.

Now, I'm supposed to have more power.

-What happened to love?

-[laughing]

[James] What's so funny about that?

[Antoni] What's so funny

about how I said it?

[Antoni] Stephan Albrecht

is the master brewer here

at Rossle Biergarten.

-Oh, wow!

-Whoa.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-[James] Oh, wow.

-[Antoni] Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's make some room.

[Stephan] Hey, guys,

it's great to have you here.

You prefer dark or a blonde one?

-I'm gonna try both.

-[laughter and chatter]

-[all] Prost.

-[glasses clinking]

[James] My four time grandfather

lived in these areas

I'm imaginging he might have even been here.

-Eating schnitzel.

Propped up against the wall

after about too many of these.

[Antoni] Along with their butchery skills,

baking, and schnitzels

Oh, that's good!

[Antoni] these leafy beer

gardens were one more thing

the Germans took with them to the U.S.,

leaving a lasting impression

on their new home.

[James] Oh!

[Antoni] When we started this journey,

the extent of your knowledge traced back

to the Scholz family, right?

And they had the beer garden

in San Antonio.

Right.

[Antoni] We know Scholz's

beer garden is long gone.

But there's a connection to Dittler

that James knows nothing about.

Dittler, the shoemaker,

he basically emigrated

to Pennsylvania around 1850-ish.

And later on, his granddaughter

married into the Scholz family.

-So, that's the connection.

-Johann's granddaughter

married into the Scholz okay.

-Ah, okay.

-And she helped run

-the beer garden.

-You're kidding.

-Yeah.

-Wow, that just blew my mind.

[Antoni] Johann Dittler's

granddaughter, Ava,

married Adolph Scholz's son

William in 1890

and worked in the Palm Garden

serving beer.

And who knows, maybe even

a chicken fried steak

to a passing demagogue.

That's way further back

and way more information

than I ever, ever had.

And one of the cool things about this trip

has been kind of discovering

what was coming

from all of this 200, 300 years ago,

and you know, what became

an Americanized version of it.

There are elements

that have been passed down

that sort of make their way

through the generations.

-[Antoni] Yeah.

-I just find that fascinating.

It's just kind of blowing

my mind, the whole thing.

And I appreciate you

taking me on this journey.

-Oh my gosh, of course.

-It's been really special, yeah.

Yay, I'm glad. This was so much fun.

Brother. [chuckles]

Shall we go back to our friends?

-Absolutely.

-Okay.

[Antoni] They ate all the schnitzel

while we were chatting,

there's no more left.

[man] First eat, and then talk.

[all] Prost.

[overlapping chatter]

-[James] To all of you.

-[Antoni] Prost. Prost.

♪♪