- It's 10:00 AM. Try to butcher a lot of
the product in house before
a lot of the staff gets in.
Once they get here it starts to
be a little bit more chaotic.
So I like to have a
little bit of quiet time before,
before they arrive.
We use hiramasa 'cause it's really, really fatty.
We're gonna separate the top and bottom line.
This dish has been on for about a year now.
It's one of those dishes
that it's hard to take off
'cause people are excited to see it.
We break it down.
We freeze it, and right before service
we shave it very thinly on a meat slicer,
and to create these very fine curls
that we then freeze into liquid nitrogen.
And the liquid nitrogen is meant
to just hold those curls.
It would be too easy just to
slice this and put it on the plate.
We have to be a little bit more creative than that.
I don't owe anybody anything.
I owe it to myself to be that way.
Like I always say,
"You owe to yourself to be great at something."
No one's gonna push you to do that other than yourself.
That's the way I, I approach food.
If I could sit and, like I said
just serve sashimi-style slices all day long,
that's, that's easy,
but that's not really challenging for me to do that.
So at this point, we would cut it into a place
where it's manageable for us,
and we would freeze this.
And once it's frozen, we do that a day in advance.
So we ensure that it's,
it's nice and frozen.
Day-of, we'll take it out and slice it like so.
When we slice this, we let it really
take an organic shape.
We're not trying to force anything.
So you would see pieces like this elegantly plated.
We try to do this as close to service as possible.
We're not slicing this at 10 in the morning.
We're doing this closer to like
5:00 PM when we open the doors.
Minu's been doing this,
what, 15, 20 minutes now
to get, to get all this.
By the time it's presented to the guests,
it comes out of the nitrogen onto the plate.
And there's an experience behind that process.
When the guest first gets it, it's frozen.
So the base of this dish is built,
and then the final touch is putting
the frozen hamachi curls
straight from the liquid nitrogen.
- Through the time they start eating it
to the time that they're finished, it changes.
It thaws out.
It becomes a normal piece of sashimi, if you will.
For me, it's gotta be familiar to the guest.
We can't be so far out of the box
that they're not understanding what they're eating,
but it's also our responsibility
to give them something
that's different and unique
within that dish as well.
And that could be from a textural moment.
(intense musical buildup)
The first step is
leading the guests down this hallway.
It's very cave-like.
It's very cold.
It's echoey. And it's meant for that purpose.
This room was meant to
have that first pause moment
when the guests would kind of get here,
enjoy a bite that would be hanging from the ceiling
or on the shelf here.
The idea is to really just capture your
two-and-a-half hour experience here,
and just let us do what we do.
You don't have to worry about anything.
Just let us pamper you and take care of you.
And this is, this is what the space was built for.
- So we got some of the first of the season
sweet corn coming in from southern Illinois.
- So now we've got the team
starting to arrive for the evening.
- We kind of get everyone together,
just to get it all shucked and out of the,
out of the cobs, so we can get it processed later.
So just more efficient.
Everyone kind of knocks it out as a team right now.
We utilize corn for our canape dish.
Since you get three different bites,
obviously the Midwest is known for corn,
so why not start with
one of the best products that it can produce.
- Any time we put a dish on the menu,
we try to explore as many different ideas as we can,
utilizing that single ingredient,
especially when it comes to vegetables,
where there's multiple pieces
of the vegetable that can be used,
we try to utilize that in its full entirety.
So the corn, you'll see in
three or four different varieties,
and it's always changing.
It could be something different tomorrow than it is today.
- We took all that corn that we shucked earlier,
we take all the kernels off,
we run 'em through just a juicer.
We take all that juice,
and then cook it in a pot
until it becomes nice and thick.
So that's what this, this mixture is here.
Just like a corn soup essentially.
We pour it into the molds here.
So this is one of three corn bites you get
in the first canape.
And then this just simply goes on here
and then these will go into the freezer.
Typically try to be a day ahead on these,
just so that you have enough time to set up.
So here we have some, some of the corn balls
that have already frozen here.
And then from here,
is where we'll pin 'em.
And just go for a quick dip in the
white chocolate and cocoa butter solution here.
This just has a little bit of charcoal powder in it
just for the color.
Just make it a little bit more interesting.
This dish still being fairly new,
it's important for me to
get my hands on this process at this point.
We have to kind of figure out
all these things beforehand
before I to give this to someone under me
so that I can show them all these nuances.
If I were just to give this project to somebody
and said "Make corn balls dipped in white chocolate
and cocoa butter,
they might come back looking very different
from the perfected item that we're trying to execute here.
Chef Richie's working on some of the baby corn.
We wanted to be able to keep the baby corn in the husk
and kind of use the husk as a handle.
Again, something that seems very simple
as say, with our grilled baby corn,
there's so many steps that go into it.
We like to go through and kind of trial and error
the best way to do everything.
And then once we figure that out,
then we'll then pick the person
that the course is going to,
and then slowly show them.
- Something that's always important to me,
is giving the guests something that's very familiar.
And obviously corn is very familiar,
but it's our challenge,
and our responsibilities is to give them
something new and unique.
- So just below the hay
we put a little bit of a dry ice,
and then we have a hot tea here
made from all the corn cob scraps.
When the, all the bites are on there
and the canape is ready to walk,
we'll pull the hot corn stock over the plate,
and that dry ice will release a little bit of aroma.
So you'll get aromas from the hay and from corn
to kind of welcome you into the dining room.
- We don't wanna be taken too seriously either.
So fun little bites in the beginning
should be fun.
It's as corny as it can get.
- The first dish that you see, which is corn,
it sets the tone for the night.
It's engaging. It's interactive.
That's what we are.
- Produce
- [Staff] Produce.
So we just got all the produce in.
A big rule of the house here,
is any, any fruit or anything
that comes in with stickers,
all those get removed and and peeled off.
So you see all the,
get all the stickers off the fruit,
and then it, and then it's able to go into the cooler.
It's like most restaurants have
walk-in coolers and stuff like that,
but here we just have the, the one, the cooler.
It's a reach in.
So we have to very precisely
get all of our produce to fit
into these two little areas right here.
So this is Chef's Garden located in Ohio.
They grow a lot of petite micro greens and stuff
for our garnishes.
We get this delivery two times a week.
Very expensive.
We bought farmer Lee a couple Lamborghinis at this point.
- It's like almost $50 for each.
- Yeah, each one of these little packs of 50 count.
- Each of these clam shells.
- Everything's handpicked and...
little perfect plooshes of everything.
Every dish on the menu
probably has something that's in this box.
- A lot of people just kind of dismiss the garnish.
They're like, "Oh, it's just green."
And we don't just put things on there
just to put them on there.
- This is sous chef Richie Farina here.
He's helping Jack out
with the breaking down the rabbits.
All the rabbits you see here.
This will be about a week's worth.
- I also kinda like to try to time myself per rabbit
to see how fast they can get each one done
but still have the same,
obviously end goal of not destroying it.
Oh my god, you actually busted out the timer.
All right. - Are you ready, Rich?
- Sure.
- All right. Knife in hand.
Sorry. - Oh god.
Getting stuck on the bone there.
That's always good.
(upbeat music plays)
Everyone's watching, lots of pressure.
Don't mess it up.
All those good things.
(upbeat music plays)
All right, go. (indistinct)
(laughing)
- Kind of just following
the philosophy of the restaurant,
we'll take every bit
of the rabbit here and utilize it.
Take the legs.
They're pounded out and rolled into
little torchons essentially.
Goes into a bead and then roasted hole.
This all comes together into a very small, petite dish.
- We have a lot of people
who will come in and say, "I don't like peas
I don't like beets.
I don't like asparagus."
And the beauty of it is,
is we're able to change the way people think about it.
Yeah, you probably don't like beets
because you had beets as a kid.
They were forced upon you.
They were coming from a can.
They were pickled.
But when it's done,
roasted and done beautifully and served properly,
it's enjoyable.
And same thing with rabbit.
(upbeat
music plays)
- Sorry. Sous Chef, Tyler.
We got some beautiful lamb here
coming from the Elyesian Field down in Virginia.
He's just gonna start to kind of process it
and get it to where we need it to be.
- So here, I'm removing the tenderloins.
These will get cleaned up.
We'll then both grill as well as roast them for sauce.
Next up, I'm removing the bellies.
We'll trim these up really fine,
and then we'll cure these, smoke them, poach them,
and then cook them into little bacon lardons.
- Every dish that we conceive
that starts with ideas written down,
and then a sourced product
create the dish that we see on paper,
that we envision in the beginning.
And it could be right on, it could be not.
And most of the time it's not.
- So then here's the main loin part of the saddle.
We're gonna trace along these short ribs here.
Once these have been removed,
we like to let him rest for a day
so that the muscle relaxes.
And then we'll clean him up,
taking off all of the silver skin and fat.
- The way we handle things...
Maybe the lamb loin was meant to be fully clean.
But then as we started to break it down,
we said, "Okay, well the fat cap on it
is thin enough and we can get it thin enough,
let's roll it in its own fat
and roast it that way.
- So this will then be dusted in a coffee rub
and then roasted in its own fat gently.
- Then it's just about eating the dish
over and over until you're happy with it.
Because, not from an ego standpoint,
but I cook for myself only.
First and foremost.
If I'm happy with a dish,
I don't really,
I'm not really concerned what anybody else thinks about it.
And that's just the confidence that I have
in my style of cooking for so many years,
that if I'm not happy with it,
I certainly wouldn't serve it.
So it has to get to a point where I'm happy with it.
-
All right, so this is Rodrick and Brian.
They work at Rare Tea Cellar here.
We do order some very specific things from them,
but they're always kind of bringing in new stuff
for us to kind of check out
and keep, keep our ear to the ground
of what's going on in the world.
A lot of times we're just kind of
executing the menu here
and just kind of keeping up with day-to-day service.
And it really helps out
for these guys to bring by new stuff
to kind of get the wheels turning
and get us thinking about what's,
what's gonna be next.
The last of the Australians.
- Last of the Australians.
- Wow. Yeah, these are, these are great.
- Beautiful.
- For me, every time truffles come around,
I, that's what I wanna reach for.
And these truffles are coming from Australia right now.
They're the winter truffles.
- We got a black truffle risotto right now
with maitakes and the Parmesan tuille
kind of goes over top.
- But we decided this time, let's,
again, let's do something different
other than just the truffled risotto.
- It's about 2:30 right now.
Prep's in full swing.
A lot of projects starting to come to fruition.
We, we act as a silent kitchen,
even, even through prep.
So any loud machinery, juicers,
blenders or anything, we keep behind this door
to kind of keep that noise
and vibration out of the kitchen
so everyone can continue to focus
on what they're doing.
It's pretty much chef's mentality.
He prefers silence.
Any noise that would typically
be in a kitchen is not here.
It's not the place.
Anytime we close a door,
anytime you put a pan on the stove,
everything is done with a finesseful
and purposeful way.
Chef Beto here,
will, will take the Parmesan
that's frozen in liquid nitrogen here.
He'll take that and put it into the
vitamin mix blender here.
Blend it to a powder.
And you can kind of see in here
it comes with just a super fine powder.
It's like almost what you would get in a Parmesan shaker.
- Sure. - And then he's
gonna tap it out over this,
this mold here.
And that'll give us a nice shape
of the Parmesan when we go to bake it.
So that it fits the bowl properly.
- We try to create something that's
very classic in terms a flavor profile,
but in a unique way.
So the Parmesan is turned into a crispy shell
that is something that you will break through,
but it's covered in truffles
so you don't really see it.
You're forced to kind of dig and explore.
With most of our dishes,
I try to, try to pinpoint three or four ingredients,
and leave it at that.
A rule of thumb for me is kind of
let them explore on their own with the dishes.
If they want more information,
they're gonna ask.
Just say black truffle and risotto and walk away.
'Cause you see all kinds of stuff.
You see 'em try to lift up what's underneath it.
What are they doing?
There's no right or wrong way of eating that dish.
It's just, as long as you're having fun
and enjoying it, it's all that matters.
- Yep.
- So at 3:15 we'll call five minutes.
The whole kitchen will stop what they're doing,
put everything away,
and then scrub the,
scrub the kitchen top to bottom.
- Five minutes.
Five!
- These are silicon mats that we put down
on top of the Taj Mahal Courts.
Just to eliminate a lot of the
the noise and stuff from the China
going on to the
the pass as well as insulating the plates.
There's no heat lamps or anything here.
So when we put a hot plate up
we're gonna put that right onto the, the quartz.
The quarts would just suck all the heat outta the plate.
- It's about 4:30 right now.
Doing a lot of final steps to tonight's dinner service.
First reservation's at 5:00.
So we're about a half hour away.
Everybody's honed in, just running.
This is kind of like their sprint moment, which it's good.
It's a good feeling.
Gives a good energy going into service.
- Yours? - Yours!
- The way I run my kitchen is very quiet.
We have an expediter that
really runs the entire kitchen during service.
Meaning he gets the information from the front staff.
The ticket is turned in,
say table 21, two people, he'll call out
order for two.
The entire team will call that back as well.
- Pickup three lamb. - Three lamb.
- Very minimal communication.
Talking in the kitchen is needed beyond that.
- Order in. Two. - Two!
- Pickup two canape.
- [Staff] Two canape.
- Pickup two tomato.
(violin music plays)
Pickup two caviar. - Caviar.
- I never thought in a million years
that I would receive Michelin Stars
and all these other awards that we've achieved.
But again, I never set out to do it for those.
That's just somebody saying,
"Hey, you're doing something extraordinary."
- Take out two tinies.
- So Chef Lucas, right now is making,
we're actually making a plate for our final bite,
the "tiny" of the evening.
So essentially we take, beeswax,
melt it down,
and then really just pour over ice.
You see he kind of gets
his fingers nice and cold
and then let's it organically form a new shape.
- I could easily just not do this
and open a very less demanding restaurant,
a very casual restaurant and be successful
and not have to probably work as hard.
Would that be satisfying for me?
Absolutely not.