-Welcome back to "Late Night."
We're here with James Beard Award-winning chef
Michael Solomonov!
His new restaurant, K'Far, is now open at
The Hoxton Hotel in Brooklyn.
Thank you so much for being here.
-Thanks for having me. I'm so excited.
Look at this audience you guys have.
-It's a wonderful audience. Should we toast them?
[ Cheers and applause ] -We should toast them.
Yeah, so, we have an Avner Palmer.
This is, like, our passion-fruit-iced-tea situation
so you can drive home after this.
-That's wonderful. I love it. -Cheers to all of you.
Normally, I have my
very, very disappointed kids when I cook, you know?
And they're really, like -- They scrutinize me and --
-Do they not appreciate they have
a James Beard Award-winning father?
-They send back my food and give me terrible reviews
on Yelp all the time. -That is -- Children!
-But not you.
You guys wouldn't do this, right?
-You guys wouldn't do that.
This is very exciting.
You opened -- Let's get started,
and we'll talk about your new project.
So, you're going to make one of my favorite meals right here.
-You're going to make one of your favorite meals,
which is schnitzel.
Let's go over here. -Alright, perfect.
-Alright, so, listen, schnitzel is the best.
-Yep. -Chicken schnitzel is the best.
-It is the best.
-And in Israel, you eat it a bunch,
whether you're taking, like, a tour on a bus,
whether you're standing in a kiosk.
My dad used to make it back in Pittsburgh.
-Alright. -My dad's, like, Israeli.
-Go, 'Burgh. Yep.
-And my mom would make
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches every day,
and when she was traveling, he would make
a schnitzel sandwich for me, on, like, Wonder Bread with butter.
-Did you love when your mom traveled?
-I was so so embarrassed, and now I'm like,
that's all I want to eat.
-Alright, so, we're going to flip it around and put --
-Yeah, so, this is chicken that we've brined.
We're going to bread it with flour.
-Okay.
-We're going to go into egg wash.
-Okay. Is that enough flour? -That is enough flour. Good job.
-Okay, great. Egg wash? -Egg wash. Yeah, drop it in.
-Alright.
-Alright, we're going to shake it around a little.
-Okay, great. -Shake it.
-Both sides?
-Yeah, you can shake your body, too.
-No, thank you. -Shake the hips.
Alright. They want you to shake it.
There it is.
-I don't think it's helping the chicken.
Alright. -Woot-woot!
Alright, so -- And then we're going to take it out,
and try to get the egg wash off of it.
So hold it up a little bit. -Yep, yep, yep. Alright.
There we go. -Okay, great.
And then we're going to drop it into kataifi.
-Oh!
-Alright, do you know what this is?
-I don't. -Alright.
This is like phyllo's very fancy cousin.
It's like shredded wheat.
It makes the most incredible, incredible dessert
called knafeh.
We're going to give it a flip.
And then we're just going to... Alright.
-Alright, tell us about your new --
While you're doing this real quick,
tell us about your new bakery.
-New bakery. -Bakery/café.
-Bakery/café at K'Far, which is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,
in The Hoxton Hotel.
-Alright. -And it is amazing, really good.
We have amazing pastries. We've got, like, great lunch.
We have schnitzel. We've got this lamb.
-Can I have a bite of an amazing pastry while we talk?
-Eat, eat. -Okay. I thank you.
-This is like a love language for us.
You know, you need pastry and flakes all over your mouth.
-This is very good.
-Yeah, so, we're just gonna fry this up.
And then we're just gonna talk about
K'Far because it's amazing.
We're going to talk about Pittsburgh, too, which you love.
-It breaks my heart. You're from Pittsburgh.
-Yes. -But you're an Eagles fan.
-Israel. Born in Israel, grew up in Pittsburgh,
back to Israel, ended up in Philly.
I've been in Philly for 20 years.
-Alright, fair enough.
-So you have to be an Eagles fan.
-You have to be, yeah.
-They don't know, but I still --
I had my Bar Mitzvah at Three Rivers Stadium
in Pittsburgh, okay?
So I'm also -- -Very nice place.
Very well-connected if you're having a Bar Mitzvah
at Three Rivers.
-Exactly. I'm very closeted Yinzer, you know?
-Okay, that's allowed.
-Alright, so, listen, we're frying this in olive oil
at sort of a medium-low temperature.
Everyone gets weird about frying in olive oil,
but I feel like, at a low temp, it's actually really --
-Okay, great. -Alright?
You know what we're going to do, actually?
We got some time, and you're doing a really good job,
so we're gonna --
-Thank you. I feel really great about it.
-You're on the schedule next week at K'Far, okay?
-Whoo! -So come on down, everybody.
Alright, so, we're going to make a little bit of tahina sauce.
-Okay, great. -Alright, so, I like this.
We get some ice water.
We got our tahina. How do you say tahina?
-How do I say it? -Yeah.
-Well, you're doing such a good job.
-We're going to say tahina, okay?
-Tahina. -Yeah. Alright?
And then just wait till we get to schug,
which is the Yemeni chili paste
that we're going to have with this.
I want to ask real quick,
'cause, obviously, based on what you're saying right here,
you spent some time in Israel.
You worked at a bakery in Israel.
-Yeah, I did.
-And, so, obviously, you could speak the language.
You could find your way around. -Yeah, my Hebrew kind of sucks.
But, you know, I dropped out of college,
moved back to a town called Kfar Saba,
which is what K'Far is named after.
I got a job working in a bakery named Ma'afiya Kfar,
which is village bakery.
My Hebrew was so bad.
The manager asked if I would close the bakery.
But the word for bakery is "ma'afiya."
-Uh-huh.
-And I thought he was asking me to be, like, part of the Mafia.
And I was like, "Yes! Bring it."
So, instead, I, like, scrubbed sheet trays,
but it was still amazing.
And, you know, when you get to work with your hands
and when you get do do things that you love for other people,
it's the best feeling ever.
So, you know, after working there for a little bit,
I got a job cooking and I really fell in love with it.
And I moved back to the States, and 20-something years later,
we have a bakery and café called K'Far.
-Alright, well, there you go.
-Not connected to anything illegal either, which is --
-Yeah, not in the Mafia.
-Alright, Chef, can you flip this over?
-I will happily flip this over. I was just about to say that.
-Yes. I was distracting you.
Oh! -Look at that.
-Look at that. -Beautiful.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Come on.
-And now -- Alright, so, you're putting ice water in here.
-So we're putting ice water.
So, here's the thing about tahina.
It's all sesame paste, it is amazing,
but looks terrible, right?
-Yeah. I'm so glad you said it.
-I did. I mean, it looks gross.
So, Chef, can you pour some water in there while I do this?
-Yeah, of course. -Alright. Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Oh! Oh! -No, that's good. Trust me.
Trust me. You're gonna be happy with it.
-Alright, good. I am.
And then we're going to throw a little
lemon-garlic situation in there, too.
-Alright, great. -Alright.
You want to mix this up or what? -I do want to mix this up.
-Let's throw in some salt. -I'm going to mix this up.
And do we have some chicken that I can try?
-We do. -I'm kind of desperate to --
-You like the chicken, I heard, right?
-I don't like to be this close to chicken without eating it,
so there we go.
-Yeah, we got plenty of chicken right over here.
We've got one that's already prepared.
Let's get into it, alright? -Alright, let's get into it.
Okay, great. -Alright, good.
-Do you mind? -Please, after you.
-Alright. -This is our schnitzel.
We've got some pickles, and then dip it in
the tahina and the schug.
-The tahina and the schug. -Tahina and the schug.
-Yep. -My last name is Solomonov.
-Solomonov, tahina, schug. -There we go. How is it?
-Mmm! You can taste the schug.
-Yes!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Amazing. -Amazing job. Thank you so much.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you so, so much.
-Chef Michael Solomonov.
Be sure to check out his restaurants,
K'Far and Laser Wolf, in The Hoxton Hotel.
We'll be right back. Mmm!