- I'm allowed to use the recipe, right?
It's not like I'm supposed - Yeah.
to have the recipe memorized?
- No, we're trying to see who can make the best pesto.
We can follow a recipe, we're not monsters.
(jazzy music)
- So Kris and I, we both are like,
we can cook if we have to.
But mostly we like to heat things up.
However, pesto is a dish that can be made pretty simply.
We were talking about this and we realized,
hey we we could cook pesto on our stage.
- Because it only features stuff that
we're legally allowed to operate here.
- We thought about it even more and we said,
"We could turn this into a little competish."
- It's a tiny cooking competition.
So tiny.
- But the food won't be tiny.
- The food will not be tiny, just to be clear.
It's just small in scope.
We're gonna have like 30 minutes to make pesto,
and then our friends are gonna come and judge us.
- And whoever wins gets to pick where they go for lunch.
- I didn't know that was the prize.
- I added it in.
- It's a prize now.
We're gonna go shopping, let's get that pesto.
- Let's get that pesto.
- We wanna see which pesto ...
- Is the besto (laughs).
- I got pink Himalayan salt.
We gotta get a little bit of that pepper, pepper, pepper.
- [Kristin] Put that down.
- Oh I forgot my company card.
- [Kristin] Oh so I'm paying for your ingredients too?
- Yeah, I'm sorry (laughs).
- What does basil look like?
Thanks Jen.
- I uh, no.
Here's the thing, people have
very set ideas about what pesto is.
And I don't think experimentation
is really rewarded in these competitions.
But maybe you're experimenting too
in which case none of us will be rewarded.
- We'll all lose.
Okay, we've gone shopping, we got our ingredients.
- Hm-mmm.
- We have 30 minutes to make this.
- I am more than ready and willing.
Also, may I use your food processor?
- Yes.
- Yay!
I'm using a recipe that I found on bowlofdelicious.com.
Where's your recipe from?
- Uh, I am using a pesto recipe from the New York Times.
- Also Salt Fat Acid Heat (laughs).
- Yes, shut up.
- Kristin watches Salt Fat Acid Heat once.
- (laughs) I watched it like three times, okay so.
- Oh that's true.
- All right, you ready?
- Yeah, alley-oop.
- And start.
- Here's the thing about my recipe, is I'm gonna ...
They told me to use a specific amount of garlic.
I always go over that because I have a heart.
- Whatever garlic is in the recipe,
you take that and you quadruple it.
- Yeah.
- Like I feel like that, is that my hot take?
That like ...
- That's not a hot take for Italians.
- Yeah (laughs).
Time to ground these pine nuts.
- I'm just gonna get ready to mince my garlic here.
- Oh, you're gonna mince it?
- Yeah, I'm gonna mince it but then
I'm gonna put it in the food processor.
I just want an excuse to use
the knife and the cutting board.
- Which way is up?
- That's how you do it, that end goes down.
- This is going off to a good start.
Okay and I'm grinding.
I don't actually know how to use a mortar and pestle.
I just know you're supposed to like grind.
So I hope this is correct.
Ow, my hand already hurts.
You can hear it.
(grinding sound)
- I hate that, stop.
I really don't like that.
- You know what just occurred to me,
I don't know if Devin and Chantel like garlic.
- If they don't like garlic then they don't have hearts.
If you don't like garlic, I'm sorry.
I don't know what kind of person you are
but I'm not sure I trust you.
- Unless you're allergic to garlic.
- Even then, I think that's God's way of saying
I shouldn't trust you.
- Oh, it says medium clove garlic peeled.
Apparently I can just grind it in.
Oh my God, okay.
Okay, we realized we need to stand up
so we had to reframe the cameras.
- I mean, I don't have to stand up.
- Well I do, I need the power of my legs.
When you don't pre-cut garlic cloves,
and just kind of throw them in a mortar and pestle.
- It's a little hard.
- It's a little hard, yeah.
Because I have no idea whether or not it's actually working.
There could just be big hunks of garlic in here.
Okay so it's, add garlic until pound, and pound.
(mortar and pestle pounding)
I think this is working, she said,
not very far into the recipe.
- So much garlic.
- This is more cooking than I've done in like ten years.
- This is the most cooking that I've done
that wasn't meatballs in like awhile.
I just honestly, I keep making meatballs.
I can't stop.
(food processor grinding)
(olive oil glugging)
- Oh I love the sound of olive oil.
- So good.
- Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.
(food processor grinding)
- It smells kind of like a pumpkin which doesn't seem right.
- No, no, not good yet.
- [Jen] Can I confess something?
- [Kristin] Yeah. - I didn't follow the recipe.
I decided to improvise based on what the recipe
told me to do and what I thought would be better.
- What?
- ♪ And now I'm wondering if that was a mistake, ♪
♪ but maybe it wasn't. ♪
♪ Kristin how do I get this on. ♪
- I don't know, I've never used that thing in my life.
- Really, wasn't it a wedding gift?
- Yeah it was a wedding gift, Brian uses it.
I had to ask permission.
(food processor grinding)
I'm just waiting.
(food processor grinding)
I'm definitely just badly making a salad over here,
whereas you're like done.
When I first picked this recipe I was like,
mine will taste better because I'm doing it
with a mortar and pestle.
(mortar and pestle pounding)
It says to pound it.
(mortar and pestle pounding)
(mortar and pestle grinding)
Okay, I feel like I'm breaking down the fiberousness now.
It's getting to the point where I feel like,
this isn't just a nonsense pile of mush.
1/3 cup pecorino, and then 2/3's parmigiano.
Ooh that smells good.
Okay, so we're gonna get that and that.
- [Jen] Can I have some of that parmigiano?
- So you're just full improvising at this point?
- At this point I'm just like, whatever works.
- Okay, so after this it should taste good theoretically.
- Can I try it?
- Uh, sure.
- Oh, maybe this is just what pesto tastes like
when it isn't attached to pasta.
- [Kristin] Is pesto not good?
That makes me think this doesn't taste good.
- No, I think it tastes like pesto.
- Oh (bleep) that's delicious.
- I don't think I like pesto as much as I thought I did.
- I'm like kind of mad I have to give this to other people.
- You can eat it though.
- I wanna just eat this.
No, we have to save it for judging.
Maybe if I have like a little base.
- Now that we have our pestos done,
we are gonna go toast some ciabatta.
And then we are going to serve it to our friends.
- Okay, tiny cooking competition.
- Tiny cooking competition.
- We've made pestos, and now you guys are here to judge.
- [Jen] So let's try this one first,
and then we'll try this one second.
I have already eaten so much pesto and bread today
that I'm gonna refrain.
- [Mike] You know, I love pesto so much.
- [Kristin] Just go crazy.
- [Mike] I'm exicted, oh my God.
- Mm-hmmm.
- [Mike] There's a fun bite to that.
- [Chantel] A little salty, I do like the parm.
- [Freddie] I love how cheesy it is.
- [Mike] Me too.
- It's like I'm here for it.
- [Mike] Moving on to number two.
- [All] Number two.
- [Chantel] Wow, look at this little baby.
- [Mike] I know, I think both of these have
great food styling, it's just they're very different.
- [Chantel] I'm gonna sniff it.
I smell some heat.
- [Mike] I wanna say this one is heavier on the basil.
- [Chantel] Mm-hmm.
- [Freddie] It's the spice, there's a kick.
- [Chanel] I wouldn't mind a little more kick.
If we're doing kick let's go all the way with it.
- There's less parm but it's still delicious.
- [Freddie] I think this one is like, with all the parm
and cheesiness and the bite, this is a fun twist on pesto.
I've never really had a pesto like this before.
This one is definitely more traditional.
- [Mike] I feel like there's healthy amounts of garlic
in both of them and I'm a big garlic lover.
- [Chantel] You two did great.
- [Freddie] Yeah, these are both really good.
- [Chantel] Yeah.
- [Kristin] All right, so, have the three of you all
decided on which one you like better?
It's judging time. - [Chantel] I have, I have.
- [Jen] I know what I like.
- [Mike] This was really tough
but I know I have to declare one.
Because I love cheese so much,
I'm gonna declare this one my personal favorite.
But again, would eat both of these for free.
(laughter)
- [Chantel] Such a high complement.
- [Jen] Would not pay a cent.
- [Freddie] I too am gonna have to go with
the cheesy parm pesto.
Cheesy parm pesto.
But both were so good.
- [Mike] I wonder which was which? (laughter)
- [Kristin] Chantel?
- [Chantel] Ah, this was hard.
This is hard for me.
I love pesto, I love the two of you.
I think you all did a great job.
I do think that I might have to ...
(laughter)
Win the cheesy pesto.
- [Kristin] Whoo-hoo!
- [Chantel] But you both did a great job.
- [Kristin] So the cheesy pesto was mine,
I don't know if you knew that. - [Chantel] I did know that.
- [Mike] What, really?
- [Freddie] Honestly though, I didn't know that
until the end.
- My original guess was that this one was Jen's just
because in my head, mortar and pestle has
the same appeal that a knife has.
It's just kind of like, we're just (bleep) going for it.
- [Freddie] Yeah, it's an active process.
- [Mike] Just really hands on.
I would have declared a tie if that had been allowed.
- [Jen] You never said it wasn't allowed.
- [Kristin] No, it's not allowed (laughs).
- [Jen] Tiny cooking competition pesto edition.
- [Kristin] We'll say it at the same time.
- [Jen] Tiny cooking ...
- [Kristin] No, I was just ...
- [Jen] Tiny cooking ...
- [Kristin] Are you ready? - [Jen] Tiny cooking ...
(laughing)
- [Kristin] Why can't we do this?
- [All] Tiny cooking competition, pesto ...
(laughing)
- [Jen] Okay, one, two ...
- [Jen And Kristin] Tiny cooking competition, pesto edition.
- [All] Lady testo'd, lady pesto'd.
- [Kristin] All right I'm taking the rest of this for me.
- [Mike] I want this one, I didn't get any.
(jazzy music)