in the morning when i when i come in
most of the time i'm with augustine here
breaking down something probably twice a
week we breaking down ducks
when we have big big jobs like this as a
team we come together and do em a lot of
places nobody really pays attention of
butchering anymore and i think it's one
of the skills that the chef needs to
know this is from long island duck
breast
it's one of the the tape the stables of
of the menu now
that
sticks on it came down to uh
to really be a
people love it basically so we don't
take it off
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so we smoke it for an hour with with his
smoke we let them age on the cage at
least two weeks
the aging
really softens the meat and makes it
silky and that's
chef joe hello that
started with me as a line cook like
eight years ago now right about that
time eight years ago
you could feel and see the moisture
content from a younger one and it starts
to get drier and drier as it goes up
here's one of the fresher ones and you
can see that still has like the moisture
content there compared to a drier one
where the skin almost starts to pull
back a little bit
so some of the thicker portions of fat
actually have that water content that
inhibits from actually getting that that
crispiness so that's what he tom is
doing here is he removing that extra
extra kind of moisture fat in there
in restaurant people that are really
want to learn how to cook they also want
to learn the steps of what it takes
to break down a duck to break down the
whole fish to break down a lobster and
and how to actually be creative and
that's the that's the fun
of of of cooking
hey go ahead go and go in here the
trouts are here guys cows
when did you get them out those guys
these guys are still swimming at 9 30
this morning really
let's look at this huh yeah this is a
tie from greenwalk trout hatchery we
really love his fish and it's it's
become another staple on our menu that
we can't just take off and it really
talks to who we are because where the
region i come from tron is like one of
the main fish and that product is really
it's really amazing
fresh i mean you heard
you know every single fish i raised from
an egg and i've been doing this my whole
life so seeing the finished product and
seeing the passion that the chefs have
makes it all
worth it
you you see here how it's like literally
straight like a plank and the reason
it's like that is because they have been
killed this morning so the meat had not
had any time to relax enough so it
doesn't get soft you buy at the target
in the store you hold it on the head it
flaps down
see look at this one so i put them flat
somewhere
here we go
augustine and i we're going to break
them down and get them ready and once
they nicely uh what we put them nicely
in philly on sheet trays
and we're going to let them rest in the
fridge for at least 24 hours
then it's ready to go in the kitchen
upstairs we're taking this kind of
alaminus
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and then they cook them on the cedar
plank
really really simply
enhancing the potting
so we're currently working on a new dish
here the inspiration came from uh kind
of like a an old classic alsatian recipe
called uh fleischnecken twice necking
actually translates to meat snail so
we're going to do a take on it
by actually serving it raw
and we're going to measure this off
put the langoustine tartare inside and
wrap it up and
we've tried these components
individually and we believe that they'll
they'll come together or we're going to
find out if they come together i guess
today after the the final testing here
for me personally this is the appeal of
being a chef and putting in the 12 to 15
hours a day whatever may be
i think when you see a dish
start to create from beginning it's a
beautiful moment if it works out
it's important that you get whatever
your filling is for the flesh neck and
to be completely smooth so you can get
that nice shape as it curls around then
you have your roll so now what we're
going to do basically is roll this in
plastic wrap and let it really just
solidify together in the fridge and then
we'll take it to the bandsaw and get
even slices and that'll be one of the
first components on the new dish
mike's here
tell him to come back
why are you so scared over there what's
up mike how you doing is that the crab
yeah this is the crab so one of the
great things that mike supports us for
on this tasting menu is he knows that we
can change a lot of things like right
now we're getting the live cane crab
we're going to cook that off today and
then you know we can give it to a guest
a lot of tasting restaurants have a set
menu
we wanted to be able to be a little bit
more free in our structure meaning if we
could get special products in and we
could only get a limited amount that we
would still be able to put that on the
menu
we're going to take the legs off first
crab just comes right out
we basically have just brought this up
to a gentle poaching just to warm the
crab up again
so first a little bit of the hedgehog
mushrooms that have been cooked with
shallots a little bit of garlic this is
the egg custard which is just egg yolks
whole egg
and a little bit of mushroom stuff and
next we're going to do a pile of the
thick crab
the crab cooking liquid
and we'll pour the
broth tableside
this cobb dish is a dish that over time
became a senior tour tonight we have
regular people that are coming in and
they have asked to get the dish again
they had it before and our menu is very
flexible and it's always fun to do it
very straightforward application it's
for
foreign but then doing it almost like
basically a spring roll bringing the
excitement in from the crunchiness you
don't really as a cook you don't really
choose your own signature it happens by
people liking it so we have the two we
have the breasts we have the legs
now we have the foie gras
i feel good about foie gras i grew up
with uh my grandfather was a
farmer a goose a goose farmer and a dog
farmer fought four
we're gonna see
the squab breasts
augustine he's the one who knows the
scrub dish probably the most
15 years right augustine
yeah probably more than 15. he became
the specialist in making them now so the
foie gras is here we give it a nice
color
and have it render some fat but also
that the color on the foie is going to
help us to build
the nuttiness that flavor those little
fillets we cook them also on the side
and those are little snacks while we're
making them there are some
nice little perks when you cook also
so what we need now is a little bit
cabbage
so we're good on that what we're gonna
do next step is link them together
like a sandwich basically so we're going
to put the foie gras
in the center
and now we take
that
and go
so the importance is that it's when it's
soft like this
is to wrap it now and then we're going
to put it in the fridge until it's
colder to wrap in the foil break
that
and it sticks nicely together
and here we go
so now we're going to press it making
sure we control the pressure
what we want is that it's see it sticks
together now the most important thing is
flavors but that's when we achieve the
flavor
we want to also make sure that we get to
the presentation that shows off also the
work that goes in
we're going through all those years of
of work and going to culinary school and
i think it's important that at the end
the result is there
you know when people say
why do you even bother to present it so
nicely on the plate
well this really
give it justice to the chef that really
spends his time and put money into
learning his craft if you go to a
dentist and you have your tooth fixed
you want them to finish it nicely so we
finish the dishes nicely
just natural to me
[Music]
so we're gonna test the langoustine dish
that we were trying out earlier and
we're gonna we're gonna see how it
plates up yeah this is all
all visualized in my head right now but
once we actually put it on the the plate
we'll get a better idea of what we're
looking for so we have the langoustine
we have the hamachi that's been cured in
citrus salt and also shiso langustine
and uni is a very nice combination
so we're just kind of building flavors
here so this is fingerline and you can
just kind of squeeze it out of the pods
and the pearls come out
citrus caviar is what they call it the
sea lettuce and for the last thing to
make it all come together really is a
sauce made from uuni and yuzu
what we'll do is we'll put the clothes
on and this will go out to the guests
i think it looks good for a starting it
needs a little bit more finesse and
refinement
the most important thing for a chef is
to get to the point
where you can create dishes but it takes
a lot of work with it to that point
and people usually want to go too fast
they don't understand the complexity
that it takes to put a successful dish
together but this is this is the beauty
this is this is why we're doing that
how we want the guests to eat that
basically at the end of the day the
sauce is going to be the carrier for all
the ingredients
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really nice
in some way i would love to have a
little bit something crunchy on here
okay and i don't know if it's the legs
of the langoustine fried yeah sure and
crumbled and put a couple on it you know
something like that maybe
something of citrusy here yep
something of crunch in my opinion
something of crunch here but we have
beautiful flavors nice umami going on it
lingers nicely a beautiful wine with
this and
i think you're in heaven here
as long as we follow all the parameters
that define us the door is open and the
front can start
[Music]
yeah very nice looks good
[Music]
it's approaching 4 45 when all the the
chefs are expected to have their
tastings up we do this thorough tasting
every single service to make sure that
the the quality is where we want and we
make the last minute adjustments where
we need to be
[Music]
make sure you're putting a little more
lemon on the fish huh
very nice otherwise
[Music]
fall grill is always good right
cooking in in an environment like this
it's really the quintessential thing is
is working as a team asking questions it
can be a treasure for you guys
because you have a lot of knowledge on
you
use it to your advantage
nobody's gonna knock on your door and
say hey i'm gonna teach you something
you actually have to knock on the door
and say show me something today
when you pray for learning you learn
and that's really what it is get the
knowledge and then have fun it's a lot
of fun in what we do
have a good service guys three two one
genuine bachelor of elections
pick up free caviar pick up too far
matchy
[Applause]
[Music]
yeah we're going to put a little bit of
florida salmon in it
so we actually had a repeat guest come
in
so we wanted to give him something
different so we're going to actually ask
his opinion on the langostein dish that
we created so we're using a repeat guest
as a guinea pig here especially the the
regulars we trust them and we want to
hear what they're saying ready
and just a side component here is the uh
kaluga caviar nori cornbread and
scallion crema
[Music]
very nice
see it's nicely encased now and what's
nice on that dish is like you have this
completely walked out nicely and then
you have that leg that you supposed to
take with your hand and just eat it with
your hand to me it's very important to
to be close to people to be accessible
and being with them in the trenches and
showing and leading them showing them
the way how it's done and give them
something so that they can take that and
enhance it for the next generation
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nice oh and two dark one no goat the
people that get the special dishes
they're scrubbing everything everybody
happy very happy
yeah good very good
it's all right it's about 9 15 right now
when all the tables are in
service went smooth so far
and
we have those tables to take care right
now tomorrow another day
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