MALE SPEAKER: All right, thank you
guys for coming to our Guest Chefs @ Google LAX program.
We're super, super, super excited
to have chef Dakota Weiss of NINETHIRTY and The Backyard
here with us today.
And in true "Top Chef" fashion-- I don't know if you guys know
she was a competitor on "Top Chef"--
she just whisked in like 10 or 15 minutes ago and put all this
stuff together for you guys.
So again, thank you for joining the demo.
And without further ado, I'm going
to send it to chef Dakota.
DAKOTA WEISS: Hi guys.
So I wanted to do something today that
is reminiscent of Thanksgiving, given that that's coming up.
And I don't about everybody else, but being a chef,
Thanksgiving's a big deal, because it's
revolves around food, which is awesome.
So I created the morning after Thanksgiving breakfast.
And this is something hopefully you guys can take home and kind
of-- because everybody's like, what do you
do with all leftovers?
Everybody's tired of turkey sandwiches with the cranberry
sauce.
So what I created is a pumpkin pie smoothie.
And really that's just an excuse to have pumpkin
pie for breakfast, to be honest.
And it is literally just the whole pumpkin pie
with some fun ingredients.
And then we're going to make french toast with cranberry
sauce, with shredded up turkey meat, and smothered in gravy.
So kind of a play on chicken and waffles,
a little bit, but a little more refined.
So let's get started with the pumpkin pie smoothie.
Does anybody here not like pumpkin pie?
That's funny.
I am kind of the same way.
I don't like pumpkin pie in this format, but I love pumpkin.
The texture is really strange to me.
It's one of those weird texture things.
So I'm kind of the same.
I wouldn't eat pumpkin pie like this,
but throw it in a blender with some yogurt and honey?
We've got a party.
All right, so, we're literally going to take our pumpkin pie
and throw it straight into the blender.
I mean, does this already look good, or what?
It is a little messy.
Yogurt, to make it somewhat healthy and breakfast-y.
And we're going to add milk, that's
another part of our healthy part of it.
Smidge of cinnamon, let's see-- vanilla.
I like to go two capfuls.
And then I'm going to add a little bit of honey
to it, just because the crust of it, I noticed yesterday
in my experimentation phase, makes it a little bit savory.
And so the honey kind of sweetens it up a little bit.
And then I'm going to add a little bit of ice.
And then have the milk handy, just
in case you need to thin it out.
Because obviously pureeing a whole pie kind of
makes it a little thick.
Who thinks I can do this without a lid?
We're going to start with-- stand back.
So we're going to keep the milk here.
Give it a little stir.
Little spit, all right.
We're almost there.
Voila, first recipe done.
OK, who wants to try?
All right.
I don't know, do you want to come up and get it?
Do you want me to bring it to you?
I don't know how that works.
But it's pie for breakfast.
AUDIENCE: Should have done this for Halloween.
This is really the most terrified
I've been at a cooking demonstration.
Sitting in the front--
AUDIENCE: Scott, sit over there.
DAKOTA WEISS: You're like, oh, my goodness.
AUDIENCE: Everything we've been taught not to do.
DAKOTA WEISS: We like to break rules in the kitchen.
How is it?
Tastes like--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: Pumpkin pie.
Well, it absolutely tastes like pumpkin pie.
For me, it's a texture, though.
If you don't like the flavor of pumpkin, then yeah,
you're going to be like, meh.
AUDIENCE: Chef, chef-- [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: Vitaprep all the way.
Vitamix, yeah.
I mean, in my opinion, it's the best.
I mean, you just saw-- it took an entire pie, crust,
everything, with a little bit of work with a spoon or a spatula.
I would recommend maybe at home using a rubber spatula, not
a metal spoon.
But Vitamix, absolutely.
How is it?
All right, cool.
So now we're going to make our french toast.
So has everybody made french toast before?
Pretty easy, right?
Start with awesome ingredients, such as cream, eggs.
And then I add a little bit of brown sugar.
I don't want to add too much, because it
is kind of a savory french toast.
But a little brown sugar will help
caramelize the french toast part of it.
I'm going to whisk that up.
I like to use brioche, and I slice it about an inch thick.
And then you're just going to put that in the bowl
and let that egg mixture really soak up into it.
Butter, hot pan.
And basically for the gravy part and the turkey part,
all I did was-- the great thing about this
is all this stuff is already cooked.
So I just took the gravy, heated it up.
Shredded up the rest, especially picking off
all that good part of the turkey that's
left on there, if you didn't eat it in the middle of the night,
that is.
Shred it all up, throw it right into the gravy
as the gravy's coming up to temperature.
And basically you just kind of make
like a turkey gravy, more or less.
You can put this in the pan.
When you see this butter start to foam like that,
that's a good sign that your pan is ready.
And then the cranberry sauce, obviously,
is already made as well, which is super awesome.
Give that a stir.
So I kind of just-- with french toast,
it's really easy to make.
The trickiest thing to me is when the french toast
is kind of raw in the middle.
That's not super awesome, in my opinion.
So what I like to do if it's really, really
thick French toast, I'll cut it in half
and then sear the insides of it.
I'll show you that in a second here.
Then we get nice little brown caramelization.
Has anybody ever had gravy-smothered french toast
before?
Sound fun or it sounds weird?
I think it sounds fun.
Especially since being in LA, we've
got Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
It's similar.
So you see we start to get the little brown color
on the french toast.
It takes a little bit of time, but patience is a virtue.
Does anybody have any awesome plans for Thanksgiving?
Going anywhere?
Cooking anything?
No plans?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: That's always a good thing.
Anybody a football fan?
Don't the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving every year?
I'm not a huge football fan.
I think it's a big deal for most people.
And you can see on the french toast,
we're starting to get that really yummy brownness,
and that's really crispy.
And the butter from it adds a really nice
like toasty nuttiness to it.
So once you've got that on both sides, what
I was talking about earlier is, kind of just take it out.
And I like to cut it like so.
See how the inside's kind of raw inside still?
You just kind of slice it, put it right on like that.
That way you avoid raw egg in the morning,
because nobody really likes raw egg.
AUDIENCE: Do you prefer ceramic knives?
Or is just for small--
DAKOTA WEISS: For small stuff these
are really kind of fun knives.
Plus they're pink, and I love pink.
But they're really lightweight.
And when you're cooking all day long
and you've got a super heavy knife,
after a while your arm is just like, ugh.
It's very tiring.
Just depends on what I'm doing, honestly.
Something like this-- perfect.
So see how we get a nice cool little caramelization
inside there?
Yum.
I'm just going to kind of beautifully
place these on our plate.
That one needs to go a little longer.
And then you've already got your chicken, sorry chicken,
turkey-- it is Thanksgiving, right?
In a pot, heated for you.
Cranberry sauce-- I heated this up a little bit,
just because I think it'll taste a little better.
But really you're going to kind of just load it up.
Top like that, and we're going to add our delicious gravy
mixture.
Voila, breakfast is served.
Does it look good?
I think it's going to taste delicious.
So I'm going to make some smaller ones for you guys.
Any questions?
AUDIENCE: What are you guys doing
at the restaurant for Thanksgiving?
DAKOTA WEISS: At the restaurant we
do a family-style Thanksgiving, just
because-- since I have to work on it,
I want to pretend like I'm having
a normal Thanksgiving like most people.
So we have a pretty traditional Thanksgiving menu
with the turkey.
We're doing a Seckel pear salad, a sunchoke parsnip bisque.
Let me think what else we've got.
Pretty much normal, pumpkin pie, of course.
Pumpkin creme brulee, as well.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: A pie besides pumpkin?
I have a favorite that I make every year.
It's my favorite, since I'm not a pumpkin pie fan.
I make a buttermilk rum soaked raisin pie.
And they're really, really easy.
And then I think another great traditional one is pecan pie.
Those are my two go-tos, since I'm not a super huge pumpkin
pie person.
What's that?
AUDIENCE: Do you do the pie crust?
Do you make the pie crust?
DAKOTA WEISS: Well, it depends on if I have the time.
AUDIENCE: Do you make the crust [INAUDIBLE]?
DAKOTA WEISS: It just sticks together.
Because you do it when it's really cold,
and it's kind of like-- I'm trying
to think something to relate it to.
It just does.
Because it's like the flour and the butter and everything
has binded together.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: Yeah, you can roll it.
I think that's a like super awesome Martha Stewart trick.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: It does require patience.
And especially with baking, I don't have a lot of patience.
And I'm not the best baker.
It's a lot about measuring everything, weighing everything
out.
And I get a little too antsy and I want it now, now, now, now,.
I'm not super huge on like, clearing off the teaspoons.
So it is tricky.
But like she said, the rolling pin method is great.
But as long as it's cold and it's made properly.
But if I'm at home usually I just buy frozen pie crust.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: Exactly, exactly.
Are there any vegetarians?
Because I can make it minus the turkey.
AUDIENCE: Do you have any tips for the perfect turkey?
Is it buying the right turkey, or cooking it right?
DAKOTA WEISS: It's still a little of everything.
For me, the most important thing about having your turkey come
out moist, which I think everybody-- that's
kind of their biggest thing, like it's always so dry--
is to brine it.
You know, put it in a salt, sugar mixture.
I like to put a little bit of scotch
in mine, just because it makes it so much better, and lots
of thyme, lots of garlic.
It's basically just equal parts sugar and salt to water.
Let it sit overnight and then take it out and roast it.
I always shove a little butter under the skin,
because butter makes everything better.
AUDIENCE: Butter and scotch.
DAKOTA WEISS: Butter and scotch, right?
What else could you ask for?
AUDIENCE: Bacon.
DAKOTA WEISS: Bacon, good one.
All right, I don't know if you have-- oh yes,
forks, right there.
Here's the morning after.
I think I made enough.
Please come up and try, or I could bring it to you.
Whatever's easier.
There's lots, yes-- absolutely.
AUDIENCE: You can eat this for breakfast
and then a turkey sandwich for lunch.
DAKOTA WEISS: Probably, yeah.
Does it taste like Thanksgiving?
AUDIENCE: What were the proportions of [INAUDIBLE] egg?
DAKOTA WEISS: I usually go almost equal.
And then sometimes if I'm feeling super saucy,
I'll add a little extra egg yolk just
to give it more of a custardy feel.
AUDIENCE: Do you put the [INAUDIBLE]?
DAKOTA WEISS: You said Alton Brown said that?
He's a genius.
So I normally listen to everything he says.
I don't know.
I also don't like it, though, when
it gets really, really soggy.
And brioche is very absorbent bread.
So if it gets too soggy, it literally just
like crumbles to pieces.
And then you've just got, like, bread pudding so to speak.
But I mean, he's pretty smart.
And most of the time he knows what he's talking about.
I've not tried that technique.
But I'm going to tonight.
How is it?
AUDIENCE: Delicious.
DAKOTA WEISS: Would you have that?
It's easy to make for breakfast, right?
Everybody goes back to their family
and wake up the next morning and surprise your whole family.
Look what I did.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]?
DAKOTA WEISS: Bread pudding, absolutely.
Nothing wrong with bread pudding.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAKOTA WEISS: If you don't have plans,
then definitely come to the W. We've got a fun menu.
We've got a turkey burger that we're serving out
in our backyard restaurant in case
you don't want to do the whole big dinner thing.
But we have everything.
AUDIENCE: Are you at the [INAUDIBLE]?
DAKOTA WEISS: There's two.
I'm the one in Westwood, which is on the UCLA campus.
Well, near UCLA campus.
It's kind of tucked right between now
Wilshire and Sunset.
And we've got a huge backyard, lots
of outdoor seating with a tent, given our cold weather.
So, excellent-- thank you guys.