Freddie Prinze Jr. has a cookbook out this week called Back to the Kitchen that promises “75 Delicious, Real Recipes (& True Stories) from a Food-Obsessed Actor,” and it’s also worth mentioning that the cover photo is pretty hilarious. Sitting down with Jimmy Fallon Tuesday to promote his new book, Prinze Jr. was asked to explain the story behind a veal piccata recipe found within it.
Sounds boring enough, right? Wellllll…it all started when Prinze Jr. was doing a play in London with Chris Klein at some point in his 20s, which he somehow agreed to because Jimmy’s dad got him drunk or something, which is also the least essential part of this story. While in London working on the play, Prinze Jr. took Klein to his favorite restaurant, and over the course of what sounds like a booze-soaked evening, the two became friends with the chef who taught him how to make the veal piccata dish.
But apparently that was only the beginning of the pair’s eventful night out, because in the elevator on the way down from the restaurant they encountered a British man with his girlfriend, who asked them if they were Americans, to which Klein responded — and I wish I were kidding — “U.S.A., baby!” For some reason the British dude must have thought Klein was screwing with him (for some reason!) and scoffed something about their phony American accents, which set Chris Klein the hell off.
Unfortunately for the couple, they were headed in the same direction as Prinze Jr. and Klein, down a footpath along the Thames River, and Klein decided to resolve the dispute by chasing after the poor guy and chucking him over the railing into the river. LOL, cool story bro. Here’s an alternate headline for you: The time Chris Klein drunkenly assaulted a man in London for no reason and was lucky enough not to have been recognized at the time, but not lucky enough that his buddy wasn’t above telling the story on television 10 or 15 years later. Fixed it for you.
