-I only have "Star Wars" Band-Aids
'cause I have a 10-year-old boy.
Is that okay? -That's why I did this.
-All right, I'll be right back with the Band-Aids.
Oh, look, it's a lightsaber.
-I was debating when I should tell you, and I was like,
"Ah, probably when people see blood on camera."
Hi. I'm Dave.
-And I'm Mary Beth.
-I'm just a guy who shoots video for the Washington Post
and brave enough to take on any role.
But the one thing that scares me -- cooking.
-And I'm the food host of the Washington Post,
which means I get paid to cook.
And now I get to do my dream job with a friend.
It's time to "Teach Dave to Cook."
Hey, Dave! -Hey, Mary Beth!
-How are you? -Good!
Hi, Zelda!
-Yeah, she's very excited to see you.
-Oh, my gosh. I'm excited to see you, too.
-Yeah! -Teach me how to cook?
-Yeah. -Okay.
Yeah, that's how you clean the plates.
-All right, yeah, wash your nose first.
-All right. -Okay.
-So, Mary Beth, this isn't my kitchen.
-This is my kitchen.
-And I like it. -I like it, too.
I love your kitchen, though. -I do, too, but unfortunately,
you can't stick three cameramen inside of that kitchen.
-Wait, there are cameras here?
-Thanks for having me here, by the way.
-Oh, Dave, thanks for coming!
We're going to make a salad, as we talked about.
Let's start with the croutons.
-Croutons? !
-Okay, so, the first thing I've done is heated the oven
to about 300 degrees, maybe 250, 300.
Really low because you don't want the croutons to,
like, you know, toast too much.
You just want a nice golden crouton, right?
The thing to remember about this bread is that it's stale.
So, what I would like for you to do is cut these up
into squares that look generally like croutons.
Perfect. -Okay.
Should I bear-claw any part of this?
-Whatever works for you that doesn't cut your fingers off.
A lot of the reasons that people say, like,
"This is the way to hold a knife," is --
What? -I cut my thumb.
-Oh, my God! Oh, no!
It's okay! -Ow!
-No, you're fine.
The things that people remember when they come over
to your house are the things that you made yourself.
So if you just serve a salad and you say,
"Oh, I made the croutons,"
even if you don't make the dressing,
even if you buy the pre-cut salad greens,
you made your own croutons.
That's cooking.
Now put them on this baking sheet.
So, do these look like the kinds of croutons
that you would put in your mouth?
-Absolutely.
I feel like, if I wasn't clear, I love croutons.
If we had, like, an extra box
in the back of my kitchen, like my parents',
I would just eat the box of croutons.
-Can I just tell you I do that, too?
-Yeah, they're delicious.
-This is, like, embarrassing eating behavior.
-That's the thing is, like, if I had to guess,
I would say at least, like, 40% of the population has,
like, at one point, eaten out of a box of croutons.
-Croutons are a delicious snack. -They're so good.
-Let's make some that are snack-worthy.
-Yes.
-Put the oil on first so that the cheese,
when we put the cheese on, has something to adhere to.
So, you might feel like you're putting
too much oil on these -- -But I'm not?
-You're not.
You just don't want them to be soggy.
Okay, so, here's some Parmesan cheese.
Why don't you take some of that and toss it on top?
Oh, baby, no.
-Oh, oh, okay. -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Of course. -Now mix it up with your hands.
There you go! Nice!
-That also feels -- That's very satisfying.
-Okay, so, Dave, you want to put some salt and pepper on here?
-Sure.
-Great, so, just put them in the oven.
-Okay.
-All right, and we'll keep an eye on them.
-I've got two eyes on you, buddy.
-Okay, so, let's make a salad.
This is called Belgian endive.
Or some people call it "ahn-deeve."
-You could have made that up. I would have no way of knowing.
-This is called "torpedo lettuce."
This is radicchio. -That's ridiculous.
-You can buy regular green kale, of course.
This is red kale.
Or you can buy dinosaur kale.
Okay, so, what we do is we take the sharp tip of the knife
and cut out the rib.
Last time I saw so many ribs removed, I was in Hollywood.
Slice all of the leafy things into bite-size pieces
and put them in a serving bowl.
Are you ready to make a vinaigrette?
-I better be. -I know!
'Cause what are you gonna do? Eat that?
It's rabbit food without a vinaigrette.
So, why don't you pour out 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar?
All right, so, put that vinegar right in this bowl.
So, the reason that I like to use this kind of mustard,
the grainy kind, is because it adds a nice texture.
So, why don't you put in about a teaspoon of that mustard?
So, whisk it up and just combine it.
Nice.
Now what we like to do is measure out a cup of olive oil.
With a standard vinaigrette,
it's three parts oil to one part vinegar.
The flavor of olive oil that you use
in a vinaigrette really matters
because it's one of only a few ingredients.
This one says that it's complex and nutty.
That and "Hot Italian" were my nicknames in college.
-Mine was "Virgin Oil." I'm sorry.
-Okay, so, this is where you need to use two hands.
So, you're gonna whisk the vinegar,
and you're going to drizzle the olive oil in pretty slowly
so that it gets incorporated while you're whisking it.
-Interesting. Oh, I'm gonna do it now?
-Of course you are. Slower vinegar and wider whisk.
Yeah, you want to get in there.
You want to get into the cracks.
You can also pour a little, whisk a little,
pour a little, whisk a little.
-Sure. That's my motto.
-This is very advanced. -Okay.
This is actually weirdly difficult
after watching you do it.
-Okay. -Ooh, look at that.
-If you whisk it really fast, it comes together,
and it's called emulsification.
-Right. -Taste it.
-Ooh! -Now, do you feel like
you want it to be more oily?
-No. -No?
Okay, great.
-I feel like -- I mean, maybe it was where I picked up,
but I got a lot of oil there. -Okay, great.
Let's put some salt and pepper in here.
-Okay. Pinch.
-And you're gonna taste how the salt and pepper
makes it different, sort of rounds out the flavor.
-Ooh!
-You taste how that brings out the flavors?
-Uh-huh. -You just made a vinaigrette.
-I did! With help.
But I feel confident making it myself now.
-Okay, go ahead. Get in there!
-I'm so scared!
-Hey, Dave. -Hey, Mary Beth.
-You want to add your croutons? -Oh, my God!
I forgot!
I genuinely forgot about the croutons.
This is the best.
Okay.
Let's see what we got here.
-Dave! -Look at that!
Oh, my God.
-Here, let me try it. Oh, my God, yeah.
So, you definitely want to put these in at the last minute,
right before you serve it.
-I'm gonna do, like, most of them, but not all of them.
-Now, do you like cheese in your salad?
-I do. -You take a paring knife.
You can shave off little bits of Parmesan.
Let's do it.
-Oh, my God. -Mmm!
That crouton. -It's so crunchy.
I can taste now all the things we tried, having cooked them.
-Well, you and I sometimes go to that salad place
down the street from the Washington Post.
We buy those salads, and they're like $13.
-I don't know what's in those salads,
but I know what's in this one 'cause I can identify it
'cause we tried every flavor.
And every once in a while, you can see you get
a little pop of the mustard.
-Right. -So that's another part of it.
Texture is such an important part of eating
that people don't think about.
Okay, Dave, so, what did you learn today?
-I learned how to make a salad. And not just how to make it,
but the various ingredients you can choose to put in it.
Vinaigrette -- I never would have attempted to even try that,
but now that I know how to
and it's, like, that easy, absolutely.
There's something exciting about each part
of this that I learned.
So you've learned that once you've done this once,
you can do it over and over again.
You can make so many different variations of things,
depending on what you put in.
So this is very basic, and now you know.
-And even as basic as it was, it was delicious.
-Dave. -Yes?
-Are you ready for the main course?
-Yes.
-I think we can make it together.
It's Pam's chicken. -Yes, with --
Because it's Pam's chicken, I can do this.
-Okay, we trust Pam. -I trust her.
-Do you trust me? -I trust Pam.
So let's make it.
-You know, I'm the one with the knife.
-Okay, I trust you.
-On the next "Teach Dave to Cook."
Today we're going to make our entrée.
Chicken Scarpariello.
Dave's now ready to take on one of my favorite dishes.
It's, like, a beautiful contrast of flavors and textures.
And learn a couple more of my kitchen secrets.
-Whoa!
-Does he have what it takes to put it all together?
-Oh, my God!