And now we're obviously in the
kitchen with the Seattle chef wo
is about to be on Hulu's new sh,
Secret Chef. So, so cool.
The show debuts tomorrow,
Thursday, June 29th,
and we're excited to learn more about it.
Stephanie Simmons joins me right now. Oh my
God, you're a star. Like you'ren
Hulu's new show. That is so coo.
But before we talk about the sh,
because I'm clearly very excited
to talk about that. Yeah.
What are What's in front of us today?
What? What are? Cooking up?
Yeah. So today we are making a wildflower
salad with some local produce fm
Black Farmers Collective Herbs sourced
in our Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette.
And then I've also got some locl
Willappa Bay oysters as well.
They're gonna fry up.
Oh, my gosh. OK, so is this
what's in front of me here?
The oyster? Yes.
What are they in?
I can't even see that.
So the oyster is
somewhere deep, deep down.
It's a mix of both cornmeal flo.
And then I like to add some
Tony's Creole seasoning,
which is listed over there,
as well as some cayenne for that cake.
Oh, nice. OK. And then this is e
situation with the frying I nee.
Any tips for this?
I'm not a good cook.
We all y'all learn this very quickly,
so I'll just stand over here.
Stand back. OK Don't wear linen.
Don't. Wear white. Exactly.
And don't really have everything out,
essentially. But OK,
we're going against the rules.
It's OK Hey, we're living on the
wild side today.
I like it.
OK, so here we go.
So
I just like to take them and
then make sure I get the oyster.
They're somewhere hidden in her.
And then I get all of that extra
cornmeal and flour off of them.
Before that, they go ahead and .
And how long are you frying
each one for? For about like
3 to 4 minutes.
I want to get this, like,
nice golden color on there.
And then, you know, with seafoo,
it doesn't take forever.
You don't want it to get too to.
So just a few minutes. But yeah,
make sure you're checking on it.
OK, Here we go. Popping in.
Yes. You see the bubble smell t.
I love it. So what do you say
for people This has like.
Quite a kick with what you put n
there with the seasoning or whas
what's the level of spice For m,
I like some extra spice, so this will
definitely have some like kick to it.
And then you can definitely go
without the cayenne and still ha
really great fried oyster. I love it.
OK, so as we're cooking. You're
on Hulu. I mean, how cool is th?
What is this show?
Secret Chef or someone that haso
idea what we're talking about? .
So Secret Chef, I like to
describe it as a mix between, l,
love is blind and then also Top Chef.
So we've got chefs from
all different backgrounds,
and you don't know where they're from.
So we cook in secret.
We judge in secret,
And there's no, like,
official host besides chefy,
this kind of mysterious hat
that gives us the challenges.
And then we just kind of figure it out.
Oh, my God, you.
You clearly can't probably tell me who.
One yet, so we won't put
you on the spot with that,
but did you ever find that people were
like playing the game pretty intensely?
Like they would maybe taste test
what they think is the best mead
maybe rate it poorly because thy
didn't want to go after that, I think.
For me, I'll speak about my experience.
For me, I was just like,
this is a new experience.
I'm here. What's going on?
I definitely saw as the game progressed,
like how people were playing
the game to their advantage.
There's a really cool moment kif
later where someone calls me oud
they're like, hey, Steph and I'm like,
oh, you found out my alias,
like, oh, this is a game.
Game like this is no joke.
So it's a lot of kind of myster,
fun and just really a lot of creativity
At the end of the day, that's so amazing.
Okay, How are we doing on the oysters?
How do we know when they're don?
Well, they're frying up pretty fast today.
So we're getting there.
They're nice and crisp.
You can see like, the boiler th.
Yeah.
And then also that color,
I mean,
about a few more seconds and the
can go ahead and pull them right on off.
And then we taped that.
So how did you get picked for the show?
Yeah.
So they actually were in my DN's
letters. Yeah, I love
that. And they just reached
out to me and we're like,
we've seen your tacos, seen somf
the stuff that you've been doin.
We're really interested.
And I was like, why not?
So yeah, I love it. Any. Any.
Regrets or or tips for anyone that goes
on a show like this that you wod
give anyone not that like nices,
but like make sure your
stomach is taken care of.
You eat a lot of food and for me
honestly my tummy was hurting le
experience and I was like
I can't eat anymore, it's
like too much.
But so I would say that and then make
sure you have a good meditative practice.
It's a really stressful environ.
It's really fun and remember why
you're there and I think that wl
keep you grounded and experienced and
what was your why, why were you there?
Don't get me crying. No,
definitely my over cried oysters. I cried.
My thing is like anytime I'm like oh,
a meal's going to be really goo,
I like start to tear up a little bit.
So yeah, but for me, my reason y
was just to really prove it to myself.
You know, I'm a nontraditional k
and so it was a new experience for me.
I was living in New Orleans,
living in Chicago and when I
came back to Seattle, I was lik,
I'm going food all the way.
And so this opportunity came
up about a year into that and.
I just went for it and always
bet on yourself.
Really.
You're gonna make me
cry? I love that. That's so
amazing. Yeah. Did you feel
like you had enough sleep there?
I mean, two when you were talking about
meditating and taking care of yourself?
Or was it just too stressful?
I mean, you might find clips
where I'm definitely, like,
on the couch and knocked out.
They're like wake up having at
that moment very
much so. But yeah, even then,
I mean, it was nice.
I never really had that experience of
being in a hotel and having peo,
you know, help you out. It was great.
So. Yeah, that's amazing.
OK Are we feeling like these ar?
Yeah, I think so. We're going to play them.
This is looking absolutely gorg.
So these ones are fried a
little extra hard today.
OK, We like that. Perfect.
Delicious, Nice and crunchy.
OK, And then you have quite a fw
things going on here with the s.
OK, so we're going to. Yeah, so I have
my signature dishes,
kind of like a Cajun pasta.
I love anything with like heavy
cream and cheese, onions and Peppers.
Yeah, he's very New Orleans.
And then I also did that with
some crab cakes as well today.
And I also made a buttermilk biscuit.
I used to work at Communion and family meals.
Is like one of my favorite
things to do in the morning.
And I got really good at
making biscuits and making,
like, puff pastry.
So this will kind of
pick that up and eat it.
It's massive. Do you want to.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it. Yeah. Yeah.
As soon as we'll go to break.
Get me the biscuit. Yeah.
And so my biscuit,
I've got some hot honey.
I've got some smoked sausage
as well, Turkey sausage.
So those are my two dishes.
And then today we have the
wildflower and oysters as well.
Amazing as you're plating and I'll watch you.
Kind of plate. I mean,
how would you describe your fooo
someone that doesn't know Steph?
Like, is there New Orleans S,
Pacific Northwest? Yes,
exactly. I would say it's a mix of New
Orleans, a mix of the Pacific Northwest.
Both of my parents are from New Orleans,
so I grew up eating a lot of ok,
a lot of gumbo. My grandmother ,
like, the best gumbo in the wor,
and my dad makes the best
red beans in the world.
Can you compete? So yeah,
I grew up eating a lot of that stuff.
But growing up here, you know,
we also have similar ingredients
like oysters and things like th.
So I as I got into my food care,
I really just started playing ad
with what's local, what's fresh,
and I started working with the k
Farmers Collective where I saw e
of the wildflowers that we have today.
So I've got some bachelor's but,
I've got borage,
I've got calendula,
and then also nosotium.
They're edible flowers.
Yeah, they're beautiful,
but they're edible. They're
edible too. And I just really ey
more than anything about. My fo.
I love creating beautiful food.
And I think you'll see
that on the show as well.
You absolutely, Neal, that I could not
wait to see how you do in the s.
I'm so excited. I'm rooting for.
And you're going to eat an
oyster as we go to break?
Yeah, I'm going to eat this
biscuit and an oyster.
So here we go, Buttermilk oyste.
You can find all of this on our
website or you can just text the word
recipe to two O 64484545 and wel
send the link straight to your phone.