The Chef Show (2019) s01e08 Episode Script
Hot Luck
1
-I remember this plate. Wow!
- I know, right?
So, we got forks, use your hands.
-We got bread coming.
- Eat off of there?
It's beautiful.
That's the espresso,
kind of for the brisket.
Um, this is the vinegar sauce
um, for the pork.
- What am I eating? Okay.
-And that's the Texas-y sweet sauce.
I love what you did with your campus here.
-Yeah, right?
-'Cause when we were here for Chef,
we were just sitting
right next to the smoker.
Yeah, we were right over there,
in front of a trailer.
Whoo.
- Nice.
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Oh, there we go.
- Oh, man.
- Hmm.
That was my best acting
I've ever done, was eating that brisket.
-"Oh!"
I've been smoking brisket on my own.
I love doing it. It's great,
but there's something
about what you do here.
I don't know what it is.
-Well--
-It's just one little extra--
The cool thing is,
is that with a stick burner,
like, if you want it sweeter,
you can control
your combustion temperature,
get more vanilla flavor.
Just like oak barrels
-for whiskey or something like that.
-Right.
It's the flavors that you get
out of that certain type of fire
that is, like, unparalleled.
You can't match that.
And once you really get a feel for it,
and kind of know how to work a fire
and stuff, and what size wood,
and how to pick a piece of wood,
and stuff
I don't think I could cook on anything
but a stick burner.
Now, where do you stand on the
-lefty-righty thing?
-That's such BS!
-You know about this?
-No.
-So--
-I've heard it briefly,
-but I don't know about it.
-So, cows, like humans,
-are lefties, or they're righties,
-Okay.
and there are more righties
than there are lefties.
Yeah.
So, if they're a righty,
they get up using their right arm
when they get up off the ground,
so it's more--
Their right side's more built-up.
And so, you want the left--
-So, always the left brisket's gone.
-Yeah.
Because all the chefs buy
the left brisket.
You know what's weird, though?
When all--
Looking at all the ones--
We do about 106, 110 a day,
and looking at all the briskets
that go on,
I bet 60% of them are lefties.
-It's just that they randomly come in,
-So you get the good ones?
you know?
-They're pulling the good ones for you.
-They're pulling the good ones.
And they're selling me the righties.
That's great. Wow.
That's the thing with that outside,
how it's all crunchy and stuff.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause you want to get it crunchy
and then wrap it,
so it steams out the crunch,
but you get that chewy,
kind of tacky texture.
-You talk a lot about--
-It's faster.
-About feel.
-Yeah.
Like, with ribs, too.
-Yep. Yeah, the ribs are all feel.
- Just being able to pick it up--
'Cause the science of it is that it--
You're basically turning it
into jello, right?
-Gelatin.
-Yeah.
Well, you're breaking down the collagen,
the, you know,
the connective tissue, and everything,
and, you know, rendering the fat.
But all those things happen
at different times and at different rates.
But when you hit, like,
around 195 to 205, right?
That's when all of it starts
-to get soft and--
-That's when it starts to get jiggly,
but the problem is, is that depending on,
you know,
if you're cooking a prime, or a select,
or a Wagyu, that fat render,
you've gotta time that,
so that kind of gauges how hot you cook.
-Right.
-I normally cook at 275, 285.
-In your smokers?
-Yeah.
Two seventy-five is always my go-to
for everything.
And, oddly enough,
there's a lot of people that think that,
you know, you've got more fat,
so you cook hotter,
but we tend to cook hotter
-the leaner our meat is.
-Yeah.
-You go lower on the flat.
-'Cause you gotta blast it.
But then, you're right,
at the end, it's just craft.
-It's like, "Is it tender? Feel all right?
- Right.
Smells right. I like it." Poke at it.
You're like, "Man, it must be ready."
It's delicious.
How you feeling about the festival?
Yeah, I feel pretty good about it.
Well, what is this?
Tell me what this festival is.
It's like
an anti-food festival festival.
It's kind of like a food festival
for cooks.
-Yeah.
-So I really just invited people that,
you know,
I'm really into that make great food.
I was like, "Hey, let's come--
Let's make a bunch of food."
-And this is your first one ever?
-Yeah, first one ever.
Tomorrow night's the-- like,
the first event we've ever done.
-Hot Luck.
-Hot Luck.
-Hot Luck Fest.
-I like it.
And-- Yeah, so we built the grills,
and, you know, like,
I've really been encouraging people.
It's like, well,
don't try to do anything fancy.
You know,
if you just want to grill hot dogs
and, like,
cook like you're cooking for your friends.
- Uh-huh.
-That's what I want.
-How long did these go for?
-Uh, about five and a half hours.
-We cook our ribs a real long time.
- 'Cause I'm trying to think,
for my ribs tomorrow,
I'm gonna try to smoke it in the morning.
Yeah, cool!
'Cause Korean barbecue
normally is not smoked.
Yeah. See?
That's what I want out of this thing.
-Yeah.
-I want people to have fun.
And, like, go like, "Oh, I got an idea.
Let's try this."
Mm-hmm.
Gonna need a couple rubber spatulas here.
I'll steal this one.
And this will all be set for me
-when we come back.
-That's it? That's all you need?
-That's all you need to go into battle?
- I travel light.
I could defeat a whole army
with this stuff over here.
All we're gonna do is make the two sauces,
the kimchi sauce and the kalbi sauce.
Then we're gonna get the meat,
get the pickles, get the kimchi,
and we're gonna marinate them all,
wrap them up, put them away.
Come back tomorrow,
hopefully no one ate it.
-You know, that's really--
So, we have soy sauce,
the orange juice.
Working on the sesame oil.
- Is this gonna be the marinade--?
-This is the kalbi, the short rib.
And then the mirin will go in.
"Thirty-eight onions each."
Um, we already chopped them up,
so I have no idea.
So, let's say that's an onion.
-That's one onion?
-Yeah. So, count 38 of those.
Okay.
One, two
three seven--
Don't anybody say your phone number.
Eight
All right, Chef. There you go.
It should be 38-ish.
Sesame seeds.
And sugar.
Let's put a little black pepper in there.
-We're in Texas.
Scallions.
Jon, you can start blending it all.
- Ladle?
-Yes.
So this is kind of--
It'll be kind of a slow process
because they don't have a stick blender.
Otherwise, I would just stick a blender
in here, and then
and burr the whole thing.
But, we're gonna have to go
container by container.
This what you do on holidays?
-Yeah.
-Right?
My mom-- This is what my mom would make
for a party of 12.
-Yeah?
-Send everyone home
with ten pounds of leftovers each.
-Your mother ever cook with you anymore?
-I try not to.
'Cause we're kind of like oil and water.
-Yeah? Your cooking styles are different?
-Yeah. Totally different.
Just--
It's safer to just stay out of her way,
and then she stays out of my way.
-And does she eat your food, too?
-Yeah.
So she likes your food,
and you like her food,
-but you don't like to cook together.
- Yeah.
We-- I think the feeling's mutual.
Is she proud of you?
Yeah.
Yeah, she's definitely proud,
but it's borderline kind of weird
because she--
She has a shrine built at her house
around-- for me.
So, you walk into her house,
first thing you see on the wall,
the whole wall,
from here to all the way over there,
are pictures of me
and articles
and then, like, life-size things of me.
And so, it's really, like, uncomfortable.
It's almost comedic, Jon, like a
almost like a sitcom parody.
Because her friends are
deliberately invited over,
and when they walk in,
she stalls them at the front door.
So what percentage
of being a chef is this,
-what we're doing now?
-This is 100%. This is like,
you know,
Final Fantasy advanced-level stuff
because what you're doing now
is you're coercing the flavor
out of the marinade.
You're creating kind of, like,
spells around this right now,
-trying to make it--
-It's like a ritual, yeah? Like ayahuasca.
It's like an ayahuasca--
You're right.
We're doing the magic.
-Making the magic concoction.
- That's what I mean
by advanced-level cooking.
-Same thing Aaron does with the briskets.
- Yeah.
- You know?
-Although, he's not big on the marinade.
No, I mean as far as, like, the process.
-Going by feel.
-Getting the magical flavors out.
And knowing when to stop, when to push.
You know. Like, I'm sticking my hand
in this thing, feeling it.
- Uh-huh.
-Making sure
You taste with your--
- I could taste--
-You taste with your hands.
Yeah, I taste with my hands.
Is there more kiwi?
No, I'm gonna use that in the kimchi.
I feel good about the flavors right now.
-Do you? So you're tasting as we go?
- Yeah.
-Yeah. That's delicious, right?
- It's really good.
-You could taste every little thing in it.
- I know, right?
Now, when your mother was growing up,
they didn't have Vitamixes and stuff.
How did they do all these marinades?
That's a good question.
Before blenders
-they would just chop them by hand.
- Just chopped?
Yeah. Mincing by hand.
Using a mortar and pestle.
So instead of being bummed out
that we don't have an immersion blender,
-we should be grateful we have a Vitamix.
- Yeah.
I thought we'd never finish this, Chef.
So now we're gonna make the kimchi.
So you're gonna have young pickles,
-you're gonna have young kimchi?
- Yep.
I'm gonna, kind of, like,
speed up the process, basically.
So you could do that in a lot of ways
without sacrificing food.
You can leave things out
instead of putting it in a refrigerator.
It'll ferment faster.
-You can add more flavor,
-Right.
use less product,
and then salt it a little stronger,
and then just push the process further.
I'm gonna make that kimchi paste
really pungent,
and then kind of, like--
I'm gonna kind of, like, cheat the kimchi,
but in a good way.
There's my vinegar.
I like to do all the liquids first,
or the solids first.
- So what's in there already?
- Soy sauce, oyster sauce.
So we're gonna add the water,
fish sauce.
It's gonna take a while, Roy.
- No. Go like this.
-This is the patience, and then
- Is this part of the lesson?
-Yeah.
There you go.
Like a Shake Weight.
-Is that what's known as umami?
- It's-- That's umami.
-That's what I'm smelling right now?
-Yeah, most umami doesn't smell good.
We take-- They take the anchovies,
and they salt them,
and then they dry them,
and then ferment them. Um
On a-- There's an island in Vietnam
that makes just fish sauce.
-The whole island smells like fish sauce.
-Like this?
Yeah.
That doesn't smell like anchovies or fish.
It smells like the bathroom.
So now we're gonna go do
the dry ingredients.
Twenty-two and a half pounds of onion.
Okay. Let's just add all this onion.
-Now you're adding onion and green onion?
- Yeah.
I'm kind of improvising now
'cause we have leftovers.
I don't want anything to go to waste.
Uh, two and a half pounds of salt.
Two-point-two pounds of sugar.
So now we just gotta add gochu garu.
This is the powder that makes it spicy.
And we're gonna cheat the process
a little bit, like we said,
so let's just add pretty much everything.
The mirin. And go ahead
and open another fish sauce bottle.
- Right in?
-Yeah.
Okay. Got those kiwis.
All right, now you can start blending.
I've turned into Dexter.
Yeah, it should
look dirty like that, in a way.
Mmm.
So you guys are good, right?
- Yeah, we're good.
-We'll be back.
Move over to the meat marinade now.
- Roy, how's it going?
- Hey!
-Good to see you.
-What's up?
-Making kimchi. Come try.
-Yeah.
-This is Jon. That's Daniel.
-How's it going, Daniel?
How you doing?
Daniel Vaughn,
barbecue aficionado.
It's like the set
of a science fiction movie.
-Zathura. It's like Zathura.
That's gonna be our smoker tomorrow.
Look at this magic.
They're wrapping them.
They take the fire down,
and then they wrap them.
- We're in your way.
-We're wrapping the Christmas presents.
Yeah, it's amazing. This is amazing.
- I like it.
- It's like being on Deadliest Catch.
-You know, it's like really
- Crabbing!
All right.
We're gonna take this meat outside.
All right.
So let's start with this one.
Move it all to the side. Coat each one.
All the pieces are coming together now.
The thing about cooking,
it's like gambling.
You could cook another 12 hours.
-It's so addictive.
-You're in the zone now?
Yeah.
And we got one more right there, Jon.
We sure do.
You want to bury it?
Well, not super buried.
-Does the skewers have to stretch across?
-Well
I just want the flames to, kind of, like,
crawl out and not be too cray.
The fireplace.
Yeah, right?
I haven't really tried this out yet.
This is kind of a maiden voyage.
Yeah, I don't know of any other, like,
silly little festival
or anything that people would go to
this much trouble just to make s'mores.
Yeah. It's your festival. That's why.
I get to get nerdy on stuff.
Here we go, Mr. Science.
Yeah.
Yeah, y'all better run.
There it is.
Ah!
- That kind of works.
- I like it.
-It's great.
- Totally works.
Okay, so what we're gonna do is this.
Everybody's gonna get a cup like this.
Graham cracker, Honeycomb,
and chocolate-covered Cocoa Pebbles.
Ooh. What've you added now?
Chocolate Pop Rocks.
So, that's Pop Rocks
like the Pop Rocks that we grew up eating?
Yeah, but they're covered in chocolate.
Just don't swallow them, right?
Um, don't drink a Coke
while you're eating them,
'cause that's how Mikey died.
Not funny.
The first one's always hard to get out.
-It's like the first piece of pie.
- Yeah.
So, go put it in the fire.
And if they want hot fudge,
I brought hot fudge.
So, you put the fudge on top.
So it's a little bit
of a deconstructed s'more?
Yeah. I didn't want to be regular.
But the hot fudge needs to melt a little.
I'm not dogging on
your great marshmallows.
I just want to see
if the flame actually works.
You are. You're totally dogging me.
No, I don't want to waste the good ones
on just an experiment, so
-Here you go.
- Sure, thank you.
That's delicious.
I like the Captain Crunch.
That's a nice, unexpected twist.
That is some cereal.
Ooh, look at that one. Yes!
-It eats like an ice cream sundae.
-Mm-hmm.
Now, you--
In your professional opinion,
does the marshmallow benefit
from having a little crust on it
like that?
-Yeah.
- Yes.
Here, boss.
Thank you.
That's pretty awesome.
It's more fun than regular s'mores.
-It's cleaner, too.
-Yeah, and I didn't-- This is news to me.
I didn't know
that it was gonna be a cup thing.
You never know what I'm gonna do.
Well, and I never know what I'm gonna do.
So, this is a perfect relationship.
Were these the exact specifications
-that you required?
-I didn't even know this was being built.
-Here, you wanna try this?
- Yeah!
- Do you want chocolate sauce?
- Yes, please!
- What?
Dude, that's awesome.
And it's not as messy as the other ones.
You're right, they're way easier.
Was it worth all the hours
in the welding mask?
-Yeah.
- Totally awesome.
- That's a very manly s'more.
-It really is.
This is great.
That's really cool.
- Good luck today, baby.
- Hot luck.
Break a leg today, man, on everything.
- Thank you.
-We're gonna rock it out.
Yes, we can!
Our day looks like this.
Test the rib, smoke the ribs,
and then what we're gonna do is
we grill and then baste
with more marinate as it's grilling.
-And that'll give it that nice coating
-Yeah.
-and more like traditional kalbi.
- Hi.
- Hey. How are you guys?
-Hi, hi!
- Howdy!
- Yeah.
- Morning.
-What's going on, Benji?
Good to see you, guys.
Nice to see you all too.
-Feeling good?
- Oh, yeah.
Cool. Well, anything y'all need,
just let us know.
Thank you.
You know,
we can just start taking the meats out.
Try to scrape off as much as you can.
For when we put them on, yeah.
Where's our sampler?
What do you think, Chef?
It's a little tough,
but I think if we go
a little longer on it
It's a nice piece of meat,
though, huh?
This one's barely marinated,
so this is gonna be great.
-It's not bad.
- That's delicious!
You don't mind
if they're touching, yeah?
Smoke's coming out, huh?
- Two more pans, total.
- Oh, really?
We better push this together more.
We'll make it fit.
Whoo.
Last one.
All right,
close that door as soon as you can.
-I have a new respect for you guys.
-Man, like,
in the summertime, it's probably--
It really clocks in about 150 degrees.
And it's just, like, dudes walking around
with wet ice towels
-over their heads.
-Yeah.
-It is rough.
-They're in here all day.
Everybody loses, like,
sweats out so much weight every summer.
Yes.
How much cornstarch you go through here?
Uh, we've switched to Gold Bond.
Are you guys good on, like, placement?
Yeah, peek in there.
It's starting to creep in a little close.
-You don't think they're too close?
-They are, but what are we gonna do?
What I would do
So we need to go get
a couple pieces of wood,
and we're gonna put wood
-right in front of these ribs.
-Yeah.
Then we'll push the log in back
a little bit.
'Cause you don't want any flame in this,
since you're so close.
You want to have a low, ambient heat
that kind of goes through.
And keep it smoky. That way,
you get the smoke flavor,
and then if you need to cook it,
you can just fire it up longer, later.
And as for fire
Let the flames die out,
so you can have some real low, radiant,
kind of low, steady heat.
You're gonna want to pull everything back
a little bit.
Okay. Thank you, Aaron.
I would love to. Sure.
This is the pièce de résistance, Jon.
Hey, Roy,
I brought in the heavy artillery here.
- Hey!
- How are you doing, man?
Just flew in. I saw the pictures,
I'm all pumped up, man.
I'm gonna give you a hug.
That looks so good.
Five whole hour marinate,
five hour smoked.
Now, we're gonna go over the charcoals
and glaze.
-Hey, Jon.
- Yeah?
Eat this with Adam.
There's a knife and a cutting board--
We'll go in the other room.
It's a little cooler in there.
In here.
Behind.
-This one, it has a lot of fat.
-Yes.
Here you go.
So, these are still not done yet,
so they've still gotta be grilled.
But you know this thing,
'cause you're a chef.
Yeah. You know where we're at right now.
Not bad.
I love it.
One more.
-Love the fatty ones.
-Oh, yeah.
Excellent. Yeah.
This is excellent.
-Yeah, right?
-Yeah.
I'm thinking I'll put it on the menu.
I'm gonna show you guys
how to grill this.
I'm gonna baste it.
Let them get caramelized.
Put more logs on, yeah?
Probably go lower, just a little bit.
- You wanna go lower?
- Go lower, just a little bit.
Driving wheel's stuck!
It gets jammed in this corner back here.
Okay.
It's still stuck.
We should've lowered it
before it got hot.
It's going up or down?
We're trying to get it to go down.
All right, Thor.
I think that was it.
-There it is.
- Thank you.
Yeah. You're gonna mop them.
You're gonna turn them.
Mop them again.
And every time you flip it, you baste.
Now let it caramelize and mop
about three times.
Ooh, baby!
Can I do a little bit, Chef?
Flip that one, right there.
There you go.
See how it's caramelizing there, Jon?
Flip those around.
Go all the way on the inside.
Yeah. There you go.
Now, baste them.
Baste them. You can't let it burn.
Keep an eye on them,
just as soon as they get caramelized,
put them on a tray
and bring them down to me, okay?
Yeah, you guys, go ahead, do it.
Get all of those. Flip those around.
You just can't let it burn, okay?
Send me that.
That flame's real high.
More baste.
Don't wanna burn them.
The flame's real hot.
Uh, I'll pull them off.
We're giving this right back to you.
-Hi, how you doing?
- Good.
Let's mop those.
I don't know if we should've left it,
but it's looking like it's a little hot.
I think we're good, actually.
Hello. Korean barbecue?
Smoked Korean barbecue?
Here you go. Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Thank you. Need more tongs here.
That's looking good.
Benji!
I need you to eat this.
-Cheers! Thank you.
- Cheers!
Take these to the chefs.
Let's go over there.
Give Ivan a little bit.
Oh, thanks.
- That's a nice piece of meat.
- Why is it red?
It's red from the smoke
and then it, actually--
It got redder as I put it over the grill.
-Well, it's nice.
- Exactly.
-Hey, Ivan? May I try?
- Please.
It's dripping with duck fat,
so get it up off your chin and
Yeah. The whole thing, man. Yeah.
Great. And what's that?
It's confit, duck leg?
Yeah, we cured them, then I smoked them.
-Then we cooked them in the fat.
-Nice.
-Are you allowed to have two? Or is it--
- As many as you want.
-Have lots.
- I'll go for another one.
Awesome. Thank you.
That kimchi looks rad.
A little canapé.
I think you kind of nailed it
on the smoker thing.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I cooked overnight on Sunday
for Hot Luck stuff.
Man, I hadn't stayed up all night
watching the fire
in a long time.
Just grabbing a shovel, it was like,
"Man, this is like riding a bike."
-It's awesome.
- Not since when I had a baby
did I feel the way when I have a brisket.
Like, changing your baby in
the middle of the night.
-I remember this plate. Wow!
- I know, right?
So, we got forks, use your hands.
-We got bread coming.
- Eat off of there?
It's beautiful.
That's the espresso,
kind of for the brisket.
Um, this is the vinegar sauce
um, for the pork.
- What am I eating? Okay.
-And that's the Texas-y sweet sauce.
I love what you did with your campus here.
-Yeah, right?
-'Cause when we were here for Chef,
we were just sitting
right next to the smoker.
Yeah, we were right over there,
in front of a trailer.
Whoo.
- Nice.
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Oh, there we go.
- Oh, man.
- Hmm.
That was my best acting
I've ever done, was eating that brisket.
-"Oh!"
I've been smoking brisket on my own.
I love doing it. It's great,
but there's something
about what you do here.
I don't know what it is.
-Well--
-It's just one little extra--
The cool thing is,
is that with a stick burner,
like, if you want it sweeter,
you can control
your combustion temperature,
get more vanilla flavor.
Just like oak barrels
-for whiskey or something like that.
-Right.
It's the flavors that you get
out of that certain type of fire
that is, like, unparalleled.
You can't match that.
And once you really get a feel for it,
and kind of know how to work a fire
and stuff, and what size wood,
and how to pick a piece of wood,
and stuff
I don't think I could cook on anything
but a stick burner.
Now, where do you stand on the
-lefty-righty thing?
-That's such BS!
-You know about this?
-No.
-So--
-I've heard it briefly,
-but I don't know about it.
-So, cows, like humans,
-are lefties, or they're righties,
-Okay.
and there are more righties
than there are lefties.
Yeah.
So, if they're a righty,
they get up using their right arm
when they get up off the ground,
so it's more--
Their right side's more built-up.
And so, you want the left--
-So, always the left brisket's gone.
-Yeah.
Because all the chefs buy
the left brisket.
You know what's weird, though?
When all--
Looking at all the ones--
We do about 106, 110 a day,
and looking at all the briskets
that go on,
I bet 60% of them are lefties.
-It's just that they randomly come in,
-So you get the good ones?
you know?
-They're pulling the good ones for you.
-They're pulling the good ones.
And they're selling me the righties.
That's great. Wow.
That's the thing with that outside,
how it's all crunchy and stuff.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause you want to get it crunchy
and then wrap it,
so it steams out the crunch,
but you get that chewy,
kind of tacky texture.
-You talk a lot about--
-It's faster.
-About feel.
-Yeah.
Like, with ribs, too.
-Yep. Yeah, the ribs are all feel.
- Just being able to pick it up--
'Cause the science of it is that it--
You're basically turning it
into jello, right?
-Gelatin.
-Yeah.
Well, you're breaking down the collagen,
the, you know,
the connective tissue, and everything,
and, you know, rendering the fat.
But all those things happen
at different times and at different rates.
But when you hit, like,
around 195 to 205, right?
That's when all of it starts
-to get soft and--
-That's when it starts to get jiggly,
but the problem is, is that depending on,
you know,
if you're cooking a prime, or a select,
or a Wagyu, that fat render,
you've gotta time that,
so that kind of gauges how hot you cook.
-Right.
-I normally cook at 275, 285.
-In your smokers?
-Yeah.
Two seventy-five is always my go-to
for everything.
And, oddly enough,
there's a lot of people that think that,
you know, you've got more fat,
so you cook hotter,
but we tend to cook hotter
-the leaner our meat is.
-Yeah.
-You go lower on the flat.
-'Cause you gotta blast it.
But then, you're right,
at the end, it's just craft.
-It's like, "Is it tender? Feel all right?
- Right.
Smells right. I like it." Poke at it.
You're like, "Man, it must be ready."
It's delicious.
How you feeling about the festival?
Yeah, I feel pretty good about it.
Well, what is this?
Tell me what this festival is.
It's like
an anti-food festival festival.
It's kind of like a food festival
for cooks.
-Yeah.
-So I really just invited people that,
you know,
I'm really into that make great food.
I was like, "Hey, let's come--
Let's make a bunch of food."
-And this is your first one ever?
-Yeah, first one ever.
Tomorrow night's the-- like,
the first event we've ever done.
-Hot Luck.
-Hot Luck.
-Hot Luck Fest.
-I like it.
And-- Yeah, so we built the grills,
and, you know, like,
I've really been encouraging people.
It's like, well,
don't try to do anything fancy.
You know,
if you just want to grill hot dogs
and, like,
cook like you're cooking for your friends.
- Uh-huh.
-That's what I want.
-How long did these go for?
-Uh, about five and a half hours.
-We cook our ribs a real long time.
- 'Cause I'm trying to think,
for my ribs tomorrow,
I'm gonna try to smoke it in the morning.
Yeah, cool!
'Cause Korean barbecue
normally is not smoked.
Yeah. See?
That's what I want out of this thing.
-Yeah.
-I want people to have fun.
And, like, go like, "Oh, I got an idea.
Let's try this."
Mm-hmm.
Gonna need a couple rubber spatulas here.
I'll steal this one.
And this will all be set for me
-when we come back.
-That's it? That's all you need?
-That's all you need to go into battle?
- I travel light.
I could defeat a whole army
with this stuff over here.
All we're gonna do is make the two sauces,
the kimchi sauce and the kalbi sauce.
Then we're gonna get the meat,
get the pickles, get the kimchi,
and we're gonna marinate them all,
wrap them up, put them away.
Come back tomorrow,
hopefully no one ate it.
-You know, that's really--
So, we have soy sauce,
the orange juice.
Working on the sesame oil.
- Is this gonna be the marinade--?
-This is the kalbi, the short rib.
And then the mirin will go in.
"Thirty-eight onions each."
Um, we already chopped them up,
so I have no idea.
So, let's say that's an onion.
-That's one onion?
-Yeah. So, count 38 of those.
Okay.
One, two
three seven--
Don't anybody say your phone number.
Eight
All right, Chef. There you go.
It should be 38-ish.
Sesame seeds.
And sugar.
Let's put a little black pepper in there.
-We're in Texas.
Scallions.
Jon, you can start blending it all.
- Ladle?
-Yes.
So this is kind of--
It'll be kind of a slow process
because they don't have a stick blender.
Otherwise, I would just stick a blender
in here, and then
and burr the whole thing.
But, we're gonna have to go
container by container.
This what you do on holidays?
-Yeah.
-Right?
My mom-- This is what my mom would make
for a party of 12.
-Yeah?
-Send everyone home
with ten pounds of leftovers each.
-Your mother ever cook with you anymore?
-I try not to.
'Cause we're kind of like oil and water.
-Yeah? Your cooking styles are different?
-Yeah. Totally different.
Just--
It's safer to just stay out of her way,
and then she stays out of my way.
-And does she eat your food, too?
-Yeah.
So she likes your food,
and you like her food,
-but you don't like to cook together.
- Yeah.
We-- I think the feeling's mutual.
Is she proud of you?
Yeah.
Yeah, she's definitely proud,
but it's borderline kind of weird
because she--
She has a shrine built at her house
around-- for me.
So, you walk into her house,
first thing you see on the wall,
the whole wall,
from here to all the way over there,
are pictures of me
and articles
and then, like, life-size things of me.
And so, it's really, like, uncomfortable.
It's almost comedic, Jon, like a
almost like a sitcom parody.
Because her friends are
deliberately invited over,
and when they walk in,
she stalls them at the front door.
So what percentage
of being a chef is this,
-what we're doing now?
-This is 100%. This is like,
you know,
Final Fantasy advanced-level stuff
because what you're doing now
is you're coercing the flavor
out of the marinade.
You're creating kind of, like,
spells around this right now,
-trying to make it--
-It's like a ritual, yeah? Like ayahuasca.
It's like an ayahuasca--
You're right.
We're doing the magic.
-Making the magic concoction.
- That's what I mean
by advanced-level cooking.
-Same thing Aaron does with the briskets.
- Yeah.
- You know?
-Although, he's not big on the marinade.
No, I mean as far as, like, the process.
-Going by feel.
-Getting the magical flavors out.
And knowing when to stop, when to push.
You know. Like, I'm sticking my hand
in this thing, feeling it.
- Uh-huh.
-Making sure
You taste with your--
- I could taste--
-You taste with your hands.
Yeah, I taste with my hands.
Is there more kiwi?
No, I'm gonna use that in the kimchi.
I feel good about the flavors right now.
-Do you? So you're tasting as we go?
- Yeah.
-Yeah. That's delicious, right?
- It's really good.
-You could taste every little thing in it.
- I know, right?
Now, when your mother was growing up,
they didn't have Vitamixes and stuff.
How did they do all these marinades?
That's a good question.
Before blenders
-they would just chop them by hand.
- Just chopped?
Yeah. Mincing by hand.
Using a mortar and pestle.
So instead of being bummed out
that we don't have an immersion blender,
-we should be grateful we have a Vitamix.
- Yeah.
I thought we'd never finish this, Chef.
So now we're gonna make the kimchi.
So you're gonna have young pickles,
-you're gonna have young kimchi?
- Yep.
I'm gonna, kind of, like,
speed up the process, basically.
So you could do that in a lot of ways
without sacrificing food.
You can leave things out
instead of putting it in a refrigerator.
It'll ferment faster.
-You can add more flavor,
-Right.
use less product,
and then salt it a little stronger,
and then just push the process further.
I'm gonna make that kimchi paste
really pungent,
and then kind of, like--
I'm gonna kind of, like, cheat the kimchi,
but in a good way.
There's my vinegar.
I like to do all the liquids first,
or the solids first.
- So what's in there already?
- Soy sauce, oyster sauce.
So we're gonna add the water,
fish sauce.
It's gonna take a while, Roy.
- No. Go like this.
-This is the patience, and then
- Is this part of the lesson?
-Yeah.
There you go.
Like a Shake Weight.
-Is that what's known as umami?
- It's-- That's umami.
-That's what I'm smelling right now?
-Yeah, most umami doesn't smell good.
We take-- They take the anchovies,
and they salt them,
and then they dry them,
and then ferment them. Um
On a-- There's an island in Vietnam
that makes just fish sauce.
-The whole island smells like fish sauce.
-Like this?
Yeah.
That doesn't smell like anchovies or fish.
It smells like the bathroom.
So now we're gonna go do
the dry ingredients.
Twenty-two and a half pounds of onion.
Okay. Let's just add all this onion.
-Now you're adding onion and green onion?
- Yeah.
I'm kind of improvising now
'cause we have leftovers.
I don't want anything to go to waste.
Uh, two and a half pounds of salt.
Two-point-two pounds of sugar.
So now we just gotta add gochu garu.
This is the powder that makes it spicy.
And we're gonna cheat the process
a little bit, like we said,
so let's just add pretty much everything.
The mirin. And go ahead
and open another fish sauce bottle.
- Right in?
-Yeah.
Okay. Got those kiwis.
All right, now you can start blending.
I've turned into Dexter.
Yeah, it should
look dirty like that, in a way.
Mmm.
So you guys are good, right?
- Yeah, we're good.
-We'll be back.
Move over to the meat marinade now.
- Roy, how's it going?
- Hey!
-Good to see you.
-What's up?
-Making kimchi. Come try.
-Yeah.
-This is Jon. That's Daniel.
-How's it going, Daniel?
How you doing?
Daniel Vaughn,
barbecue aficionado.
It's like the set
of a science fiction movie.
-Zathura. It's like Zathura.
That's gonna be our smoker tomorrow.
Look at this magic.
They're wrapping them.
They take the fire down,
and then they wrap them.
- We're in your way.
-We're wrapping the Christmas presents.
Yeah, it's amazing. This is amazing.
- I like it.
- It's like being on Deadliest Catch.
-You know, it's like really
- Crabbing!
All right.
We're gonna take this meat outside.
All right.
So let's start with this one.
Move it all to the side. Coat each one.
All the pieces are coming together now.
The thing about cooking,
it's like gambling.
You could cook another 12 hours.
-It's so addictive.
-You're in the zone now?
Yeah.
And we got one more right there, Jon.
We sure do.
You want to bury it?
Well, not super buried.
-Does the skewers have to stretch across?
-Well
I just want the flames to, kind of, like,
crawl out and not be too cray.
The fireplace.
Yeah, right?
I haven't really tried this out yet.
This is kind of a maiden voyage.
Yeah, I don't know of any other, like,
silly little festival
or anything that people would go to
this much trouble just to make s'mores.
Yeah. It's your festival. That's why.
I get to get nerdy on stuff.
Here we go, Mr. Science.
Yeah.
Yeah, y'all better run.
There it is.
Ah!
- That kind of works.
- I like it.
-It's great.
- Totally works.
Okay, so what we're gonna do is this.
Everybody's gonna get a cup like this.
Graham cracker, Honeycomb,
and chocolate-covered Cocoa Pebbles.
Ooh. What've you added now?
Chocolate Pop Rocks.
So, that's Pop Rocks
like the Pop Rocks that we grew up eating?
Yeah, but they're covered in chocolate.
Just don't swallow them, right?
Um, don't drink a Coke
while you're eating them,
'cause that's how Mikey died.
Not funny.
The first one's always hard to get out.
-It's like the first piece of pie.
- Yeah.
So, go put it in the fire.
And if they want hot fudge,
I brought hot fudge.
So, you put the fudge on top.
So it's a little bit
of a deconstructed s'more?
Yeah. I didn't want to be regular.
But the hot fudge needs to melt a little.
I'm not dogging on
your great marshmallows.
I just want to see
if the flame actually works.
You are. You're totally dogging me.
No, I don't want to waste the good ones
on just an experiment, so
-Here you go.
- Sure, thank you.
That's delicious.
I like the Captain Crunch.
That's a nice, unexpected twist.
That is some cereal.
Ooh, look at that one. Yes!
-It eats like an ice cream sundae.
-Mm-hmm.
Now, you--
In your professional opinion,
does the marshmallow benefit
from having a little crust on it
like that?
-Yeah.
- Yes.
Here, boss.
Thank you.
That's pretty awesome.
It's more fun than regular s'mores.
-It's cleaner, too.
-Yeah, and I didn't-- This is news to me.
I didn't know
that it was gonna be a cup thing.
You never know what I'm gonna do.
Well, and I never know what I'm gonna do.
So, this is a perfect relationship.
Were these the exact specifications
-that you required?
-I didn't even know this was being built.
-Here, you wanna try this?
- Yeah!
- Do you want chocolate sauce?
- Yes, please!
- What?
Dude, that's awesome.
And it's not as messy as the other ones.
You're right, they're way easier.
Was it worth all the hours
in the welding mask?
-Yeah.
- Totally awesome.
- That's a very manly s'more.
-It really is.
This is great.
That's really cool.
- Good luck today, baby.
- Hot luck.
Break a leg today, man, on everything.
- Thank you.
-We're gonna rock it out.
Yes, we can!
Our day looks like this.
Test the rib, smoke the ribs,
and then what we're gonna do is
we grill and then baste
with more marinate as it's grilling.
-And that'll give it that nice coating
-Yeah.
-and more like traditional kalbi.
- Hi.
- Hey. How are you guys?
-Hi, hi!
- Howdy!
- Yeah.
- Morning.
-What's going on, Benji?
Good to see you, guys.
Nice to see you all too.
-Feeling good?
- Oh, yeah.
Cool. Well, anything y'all need,
just let us know.
Thank you.
You know,
we can just start taking the meats out.
Try to scrape off as much as you can.
For when we put them on, yeah.
Where's our sampler?
What do you think, Chef?
It's a little tough,
but I think if we go
a little longer on it
It's a nice piece of meat,
though, huh?
This one's barely marinated,
so this is gonna be great.
-It's not bad.
- That's delicious!
You don't mind
if they're touching, yeah?
Smoke's coming out, huh?
- Two more pans, total.
- Oh, really?
We better push this together more.
We'll make it fit.
Whoo.
Last one.
All right,
close that door as soon as you can.
-I have a new respect for you guys.
-Man, like,
in the summertime, it's probably--
It really clocks in about 150 degrees.
And it's just, like, dudes walking around
with wet ice towels
-over their heads.
-Yeah.
-It is rough.
-They're in here all day.
Everybody loses, like,
sweats out so much weight every summer.
Yes.
How much cornstarch you go through here?
Uh, we've switched to Gold Bond.
Are you guys good on, like, placement?
Yeah, peek in there.
It's starting to creep in a little close.
-You don't think they're too close?
-They are, but what are we gonna do?
What I would do
So we need to go get
a couple pieces of wood,
and we're gonna put wood
-right in front of these ribs.
-Yeah.
Then we'll push the log in back
a little bit.
'Cause you don't want any flame in this,
since you're so close.
You want to have a low, ambient heat
that kind of goes through.
And keep it smoky. That way,
you get the smoke flavor,
and then if you need to cook it,
you can just fire it up longer, later.
And as for fire
Let the flames die out,
so you can have some real low, radiant,
kind of low, steady heat.
You're gonna want to pull everything back
a little bit.
Okay. Thank you, Aaron.
I would love to. Sure.
This is the pièce de résistance, Jon.
Hey, Roy,
I brought in the heavy artillery here.
- Hey!
- How are you doing, man?
Just flew in. I saw the pictures,
I'm all pumped up, man.
I'm gonna give you a hug.
That looks so good.
Five whole hour marinate,
five hour smoked.
Now, we're gonna go over the charcoals
and glaze.
-Hey, Jon.
- Yeah?
Eat this with Adam.
There's a knife and a cutting board--
We'll go in the other room.
It's a little cooler in there.
In here.
Behind.
-This one, it has a lot of fat.
-Yes.
Here you go.
So, these are still not done yet,
so they've still gotta be grilled.
But you know this thing,
'cause you're a chef.
Yeah. You know where we're at right now.
Not bad.
I love it.
One more.
-Love the fatty ones.
-Oh, yeah.
Excellent. Yeah.
This is excellent.
-Yeah, right?
-Yeah.
I'm thinking I'll put it on the menu.
I'm gonna show you guys
how to grill this.
I'm gonna baste it.
Let them get caramelized.
Put more logs on, yeah?
Probably go lower, just a little bit.
- You wanna go lower?
- Go lower, just a little bit.
Driving wheel's stuck!
It gets jammed in this corner back here.
Okay.
It's still stuck.
We should've lowered it
before it got hot.
It's going up or down?
We're trying to get it to go down.
All right, Thor.
I think that was it.
-There it is.
- Thank you.
Yeah. You're gonna mop them.
You're gonna turn them.
Mop them again.
And every time you flip it, you baste.
Now let it caramelize and mop
about three times.
Ooh, baby!
Can I do a little bit, Chef?
Flip that one, right there.
There you go.
See how it's caramelizing there, Jon?
Flip those around.
Go all the way on the inside.
Yeah. There you go.
Now, baste them.
Baste them. You can't let it burn.
Keep an eye on them,
just as soon as they get caramelized,
put them on a tray
and bring them down to me, okay?
Yeah, you guys, go ahead, do it.
Get all of those. Flip those around.
You just can't let it burn, okay?
Send me that.
That flame's real high.
More baste.
Don't wanna burn them.
The flame's real hot.
Uh, I'll pull them off.
We're giving this right back to you.
-Hi, how you doing?
- Good.
Let's mop those.
I don't know if we should've left it,
but it's looking like it's a little hot.
I think we're good, actually.
Hello. Korean barbecue?
Smoked Korean barbecue?
Here you go. Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Thank you. Need more tongs here.
That's looking good.
Benji!
I need you to eat this.
-Cheers! Thank you.
- Cheers!
Take these to the chefs.
Let's go over there.
Give Ivan a little bit.
Oh, thanks.
- That's a nice piece of meat.
- Why is it red?
It's red from the smoke
and then it, actually--
It got redder as I put it over the grill.
-Well, it's nice.
- Exactly.
-Hey, Ivan? May I try?
- Please.
It's dripping with duck fat,
so get it up off your chin and
Yeah. The whole thing, man. Yeah.
Great. And what's that?
It's confit, duck leg?
Yeah, we cured them, then I smoked them.
-Then we cooked them in the fat.
-Nice.
-Are you allowed to have two? Or is it--
- As many as you want.
-Have lots.
- I'll go for another one.
Awesome. Thank you.
That kimchi looks rad.
A little canapé.
I think you kind of nailed it
on the smoker thing.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I cooked overnight on Sunday
for Hot Luck stuff.
Man, I hadn't stayed up all night
watching the fire
in a long time.
Just grabbing a shovel, it was like,
"Man, this is like riding a bike."
-It's awesome.
- Not since when I had a baby
did I feel the way when I have a brisket.
Like, changing your baby in
the middle of the night.