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GREG GROSSMAN: My name is Greg Grossman and I'm 16 years old.
TERRE GROSSMAN: Greg was very young and people were calling him the prodigy chef and I just
wanted him to be a happy kid. GREGG GROSSMAN: We have an hour til the tasting
starts. We're just finishing up some final proteins.
SCOTT FELDMAN: I do think that you'll be reading magazines like Bon Appetit's Best New Chefs issue and
a Greg Grossman could pop up for sure. GREGG GROSSMAN: It wasn't just a job on the
side. It wasn't just a hobby. It wasn't just something I was interested in. Food really
became my life.
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GREGG GROSSMAN: [On the phone] It's an 8 course tasting menu but I'm sending someone out—someone's
already out now buying backup wine. Right now we're at six courses and two desserts.
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GREGG GROSSMAN: So he needs to do a cognac bar blanc and a sherry reduction and a rosé sauce.
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GUNTHER BILALI: Hey Greg. GREGG GROSSMAN: How's it goin' boss?
GUNTHER GILALI: My friend Greg. GREGG GROSSMAN: Pleasure. It's great to meet
you. GUNTHER BILALI: I'm looking forward to see
if he could handle it quite frankly. This is the first time that I'm tasting his food.
GREGG GROSSMAN: A piece of trout in the bottom, some of the raisin around it, olive oil...
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GREGG GROSSMAN: We're definitely putting our all behind this tasting and we're hoping that
his reactions are going to be positive. GREGG GROSSMAN: [To sous chef] Use the aromatic
veg, infuse the liquid. GREGG GROSSMAN: We're gonna try to give Gunther
a large spectrum of what we would like to do in the restaurant space, so we're going
to be covering seven courses and two desserts. All classic dishes from the 1920s reinvented
and reimagined in new ways.
GUNTHER BILALI: Have you noticed anything about the chef?
GUEST: That he's young? GREGG GROSSMAN: Sixteen.
GUEST: Sixteen? Really?
TERRE GROSSMAN: Greg was always doing things that surprised us as a young boy. The only
TV show on in his room was Cartoon Network and all of a sudden the Food Network was running
constantly. GREGG GROSSMAN: One day I came home from school
and told my mom to get out of the kitchen and said that I wanted to make her dinner.
I remember her popping in like every five minutes to make sure that I wasn't burning
the house down. TERRE GROSSMAN: I think that was the point
when I realized that he was amazing at cooking. GREGG GROSSMAN: I actually went into a kitchen
that was near me and asked to start dishwashing and bussing tables. My parents were definitely
a little wary at first. They didn't want their 8, 9 year old kid where there was knives and
fire as my mom would say. Or if the state liquor authority or child services came in
the restaurant probably would have been closed down.
GREGG GROSSMAN: It was sort of that spark of this is what I want to do. I was really
driven to just go forth and learn as much as I possible could about food and cooking.
Someone from the New York Post actually came into my school. It ended up being a full page
which I was shocked at. There was definitely a turning point. After that, I had a lot of
people asking me to do things for them like getting to cook for Martha Stewart and all
of these amazing people was just a once in a lifetime opportunity. I mean, really for
anybody.
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GREGG GROSSMAN: How much is it? VENDOR: Like $200.
GREGG GROSSMAN: $200? VENDOR: I'll email you an invoice.
GREGG GROSSMAN: That would be awesome. Thank you man.
VENDOR: Thank you. GREGG GROSSMAN: I appreciate it.
TERRE GROSSMAN: Greg has basically become a businessperson at a young age.
GREGG GROSSMAN: I go to the professional children's school and my schedule changes on a day-to-day
basis depending on what I'm doing at work. It's a mix of working in kitchens and being
a chef, I'm always pursuing new opportunities, helping people who are trying to start restaurants...
GREGG GROSSMAN: [To agent] Thank you. SCOTT FELDMAN: I do worry sometimes are we
pushing him too hard? Is he pushing himself too hard?
GREGG GROSSMAN: We do need to figure out someone to go in a cab to the hotel in Reddington
right now. Ugh, you're killing me. GREGG GROSSMAN: Can we start rendering the
skin side now? TERRE GROSSMAN: I'm always in awe of the amount
of pressure and details he handles. GREGG GROSSMAN: [To Greg] Something burning?
GREGG GROSSMAN: Why is my mother here? I'm very confused.
GUNTER BILALI: His age was kind of a road block in the beginning but when I took the
time to get to know him, I saw his character and his level of maturity and all the factors
that made him special.
GREGG GROSSMAN: We decided to serve a seared New York strip that has a pommes sal vi goat
which is a very old French recipe. SCOTT FELDMAN: You don't realize that he is
16. You really do think you're talking to a very mature adult who's been in the business
for years and years. GREGG GROSSMAN: Oh, we need to caramelize
the baby fennel too. GUNTHER BILALI: The Bowery bought him all
this kitchen equipment and all these chefs are coming up to him. I was like—I was shocked.
It really was wild. GREGG GROSSMAN: I think it needs a little
acid, though. You agree? Rice wine vinegar or—lime!
[Chefs discussing flavor]
GREGG GROSSMAN: I love this! I just wish it was for 30 people instead of 6.
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GREGG GROSSMAN: There is freshly caught and smoked trout smoked over cherry and apple wood and
on top there's a potato tuile. On top, the trout is covered in some vanilla oil. Enjoy.
[Laughing]
GREGG GROSSMAN: It's going very well. We've been on time with everything. I'm very happy
with all the food that's going out. Everyone seems to be happy with it.
GUEST: It's fantastic. The trout is excellent. GUNTHER BILALI: Great dish. The fish is great.
GREGG GROSSMAN: It was a lot of hard work to put the tasting together in a very short
period of time. We were very concerned in the beginning about Gunther and his team's
reactions to our food. GUNTHER BILALI: I thought the food was very
creative. Cooked perfectly. The presentation was excellent. It was a great meal. I think
that we have an excellent foundation to build from and take it from there.
GREGG GROSSMAN: Obviously it's an amazing opportunity for someone my age to do something
like this and I'm very very happy, trilled in fact that they enjoyed it like they did
and we'll be able to move forward with Gunther on the new restaurant project.
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