The Chef Show (2019) s01e17 Episode Script
Best Friend
[upbeat salsa music playing]
[engine revving]
-[tires screeching]
-[slot machines beeping]
-[Jon] All right, this is it. This is--
-[Roy] Welcome.
-[Roy] Best Friend at the Park MGM.
-[Jon] From the outside, it looks like--
-A real liquor store.
-A real liquor store.
Should see this place after midnight.
Like, pretty much after 10:00, when
everyone's starting to feel pretty good
-Yes.
-you know, they come in here
and then, you know, like,
they can't decipher it.
No, and by the way,
it doesn't say "restaurant."
It just looks like a place
that you'd have on a casino floor
where you'd buy sundries.
It's like a little bit
of an art installation.
It feels a little like the Kogi truck
with all the punk rock stickers.
Anybody who knows you knows
this is like looking into your brain.
[Roy] Yeah, the whole place is designed
not to be a fake liquor store,
but it's like an integrated,
like you said, art installation.
So the cashier is the host stand.
I wanted to bring back
a little bit of mystery.
So, once you pull back the curtain
-Literally.
-all of a sudden-- Yeah, literally.
Well, here's the curtain.
All of a sudden, it becomes
a three-ring circus.
So this looks like it's just a--
This is like the plastic from a walk-in.
[Roy] Yeah.
You may be under the impression
that this is
-everything Best Friend is.
-Right.
[Roy] But then we transport you
through this red tunnel.
Hopefully this place discombobulates you
just enough, and then boom.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
[Roy] This is my whole life
in a restaurant.
[Jon] It looks like Commissary,
with all the plants.
You got the kimchi pots.
[Roy] There are hidden touches
to everything that
my life has been up until this point,
especially the last ten years.
The Commissary, Locol.
Everything's a little high-end, though,
compared to what it had been with you.
Because this is like
opening a Broadway show.
-[Jon] Yes.
-[Roy] Then, on top of that,
we have an open kitchen,
and it smells like BBQ.
[Jon] This is really great.
[Roy] This is kind of like
going back to the roots.
It is actually the soul of Kogi.
[Jon] That's awesome.
[Roy] Gonna cook good stuff today.
We're gonna start
with the Uni Dynamite Rice.
[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] We serve, like,
maybe 30, 40, 50 of these a night.
So you just move quick.
Take this.
-I'm gonna have you mix it.
-[Jon] Yes, chef.
[Roy] We're putting some black vinegar.
-Do you get that in the Chinese market?
-Uh-huh.
[Roy] Soy sauce.
And some sesame oil.
Mix that up really good.
Ooh.
Yum, yum.
Yum, yum.
That's good. We're done.
We're done. That's the whole recipe.
[chuckling]
I told you, my food's simple.
-That's it, man.
-[laughs]
While you're mixing that,
I'm gonna make a little mayo spread.
And we're going to add hot sauce,
fermented hot sauce.
And then next, I'm adding yuzu,
which is a Japanese citrus.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
The inspiration of this is dynamite,
like you get at a sushi restaurant?
Like a dynamite roll, yeah.
[Jon] Where did dynamite come from?
I see it in sushi restaurants,
but I don't see it in Japan.
-Is it American?
-An American thing.
Like California rolls?
It was tricking them
into eating the raw fish.
Not them, us. I'm American.
Tricking us into eating raw fish.
-[Jon] What's going on here?
-[Roy] We're gonna take these
and stuff them.
-So I'll stuff one--
-You're serving these?
[Roy] Yeah.
So I'll stuff one,
and you can stuff the rest.
You don't want to pack too hard,
but then try to get it full.
Like espresso.
[Roy] Yeah, a little bit like espresso.
-There you go. So keep making those.
-[Jon] Yes, chef.
[Roy] Perfect. Perfect.
[Jon] I don't think
we're going to have four.
[Roy] We'll make more.
[Jon] Let's see if I remember.
Why don't you do it to taste?
Kind of think about these two,
the black vinegar and soy, as equal.
A third of that being the sesame oil.
While you make that,
what I'll do here is I'll cover the top.
[Jon] This is the one new menu item
I never saw
-in your other--
-This is a new Vegas one.
[Jon] What's nice is now food is
such a big part of the Vegas scene.
-[Roy] Yeah.
-[Jon] I mean, you know, Vegas,
-I have a lot of history here.
-Yeah.
Were you guys ever nervous at all
filming span style="style2"Swingers out here?
You were so young.
We didn't know
what the hell we were doing.
We shot everything in the casino
in, like, one day,
that walk and talk?
How'd you do the blackjack table?
We had, like, a little closed area.
-So that part was "legit."
-But everything next to us was real.
-Okay.
-And by the way, they can kick you out.
If people wanna play. Oh, yeah.
Go ahead and layer the top
with that stuff.
And so we filmed it, and me and Vince
were in the hallways of the hotel,
practicing, rehearsing.
Was there a lot of rehearsal for span style="style2"Swingers?
You guys seem to be
just talking to each other.
Well, we knew each other really well.
And I wrote a lot of it based
on conversations that Vince and I had had.
And with enough room where,
in the moment while filming,
you guys have a script,
-but can kinda vibe off--
-We didn't improv a lot.
That movie probably had the least improv
of any movie I've worked on.
We just didn't have time.
How's that, by the way?
-[Roy] Perfect.
-[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] We're gonna go up here.
All right, Jon, so put them in there.
-[Jon] In the salamander?
-In the salamander.
We gotta keep an eye on it.
You want it to bubble and caramelize
but not burn.
You gotta kind of look.
[Jon] The salamander,
that's good for chicken parmesan.
Chicken parmesan.
-French onion soup.
-Onion soup, yep.
[Roy] Uh, pull out the front,
put it right here,
and then switch it
with the one in the back.
Then put this one up front
so you can control it.
You're gonna kinda musical chairs.
But the weird thing, it's like that moment
where popcorn goes
from not ready to burnt.
[Jon] It's that one second.
[Roy] We take out the first two.
-[Jon] This one?
-[Roy] That's ready.
Yeah, you want
that little bit of crispiness.
They're beautiful. Look at that color.
-So now, we have to put the actual uni on.
-[Jon] We have to assemble it.
So about four slices of uni.
-I've never handled uni before.
-So use both hands. So, um
Here, show me one piece.
[Roy] You gotta be very delicate.
But try to really get under it.
Some of them are going to break,
and that's okay.
Try not to force it.
If it's gonna fall apart,
let it fall apart
in your arms, while you're hugging it.
-[Jon] Is that Santa Barbara uni?
-Santa Barbara.
If we're lucky, we can get
the stuff from Hokkaido as well.
[Jon] I told you, when I was in Japan,
I ordered the uni,
and they said they were getting it
from Santa Barbara.
[Roy laughs]
And then everyone here
wants it from Japan.
Okay.
[Roy] Perfect.
Continue on.
-Is that one? Is that one monster?
-Yeah, it could be.
[Jon] This one gets three
-'cause that's a lot there.
-Okay.
If they don't like it, you tell them
to talk to me in the kitchen.
[Roy] So we're going to just pretty it up
a little bit.
I'm going to add two forms of nori.
You just go ahead and sprinkle across
and garnish.
[Jon] So this is a
[Roy] It's a powdered nori,
and this is a roasted nori.
[Jon] How's that, chef?
-[Roy] Great.
-[Jon] All right?
[Roy] Uh-huh. Perfect. Go with that nori.
[Jon] Make it a perfect bite
for everybody.
[Roy] It's really important
with this dish,
because it's such a small,
compact kind of burst of flavor,
that you want every bite
to have a little bit.
-These you're just gonna make them pretty.
-[Jon] I like the flower theme.
Microgreens.
-[Roy] Sesame seeds over top.
-[Jon] On top?
-So you go sesame last after the
-Yeah.
[Jon] For the texture,
-you need more of this, huh?
-[Roy] Yes.
Look at that, Jon.
That looks like
a professional restaurant dish, huh?
[both laughing]
-So, I gotta get a piece of uni.
-The goal is to get a bite of everything.
Mmm.
Let it marinate, and you're gonna get
the flavor right here.
There's some crunches from the nori
and from the, uh
Ooh. A lot of flavor.
It's good, right? It keeps going.
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
That's really fresh. The uni's delicious.
It's really good.
[salsa rhythm playing]
-[Roy] Let's make grilled street corn.
-[Jon] All right.
Going deeper into the bench here.
So why don't you peel the husk off here,
but leave it intact.
This is professional restaurant
span style="style2"mise en place,
so we do just a slight kind of blanch.
-[Jon] Just pop the color.
-[Roy] This is part of the look
-of the actual dish.
-Right.
[Roy] So then, now what we want to do is--
-[Jon] Is butter?
-Yeah.
[Jon] So far, we're very much
in my wheelhouse here.
I've done this in Chicago.
Yes, corn on the cob.
So we'll come over here.
What we want to do is we wanna
season the corn, salt and pepper.
Put a touch of oil.
Kind of like Wolf taught you
with the pan and the butter.
Do a little bit of oil,
mix it around like that,
but you don't want it, like, soaking wet.
Throw them right on the grill.
[sizzling]
We don't want to move it too much,
but you wanna kinda really get it charred.
You want it almost black in a sense,
but not burnt.
How did you first taste this, just
Just growing up in LA and around, and
usually it's served on the streets.
The whole setup is on a shopping cart
in most cases, or on a fold-out table.
[Jon] I love all your new equipment.
Does having this make you appreciate
somebody like Wolfgang who has
scaled the operation over decades
-and still is top of his game?
-Yeah.
All of us next-generation chefs, it's like
every time we think we've done something,
then we look up, and then Nobu
and Wolfgang are up there having tea,
saying, "What took you so long?"
-At the top of the mountain already?
-Yeah, yeah.
-[Jon] Is it hot enough?
-Yeah.
The weird thing about cooking,
it feels like it's taking forever,
but then within a minute,
you'll see everything will just boom.
So, then if you miss it, it's popcorn.
Then if you miss it, it's popcorn.
[laughs]
All right, so yours is
actually getting there a lot
-Thank you.
-quicker than mine. Maybe it's the
Gonna blame it on the part of the grill?
Yeah.
That's looking good.
Yours is looking good.
Grab your tray.
Now we're gonna go back here.
We're gonna switch gears,
from the butter to the mayo.
Squeeze a lime over it.
Okay.
That's the real flavor that makes it,
right, street corn, is the lime?
[Roy] And so now what you wanna do,
take your cotija cheese,
and just cover the whole thing.
Just very lightly, not too crazy.
Almost like, um
-the outside--
-Snow on a mountain top.
Snow on a mountain,
or the outside of an ice cream cone.
And then take this chili salt as well.
Keep turning your corn a little bit.
-[Jon] Is this hot?
-No.
[Jon] It's beautiful.
For yours, you can put them on a plate
going opposite directions,
and you're just gonna take some cilantro.
[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] Actually go over the top.
A little sesame seed.
And I'll put mine in a paper basket
'cause we serve it
in the Liquor Store as well.
So how is this different from how it was
when you ate it growing up?
-It's the same.
-Same everything?
-Yeah.
-Chili salt, too?
[Roy] Uh-huh.
Only difference is maybe I grill it.
But other people grill it as well.
So now we can try it.
Go ahead and just bite into it.
-Just go ham?
-Go ham.
-[Roy] That's so good, huh?
-Mm-hmm.
[Jon] Mmm. Mmm.
-Can't stop eating it.
-No.
Not so good for a first date.
[laughs]
This got inhaled.
I'm so glad you like it.
[laughing] Oh, my God!
[Jon] Don't corn-shame me.
[salsa rhythm playing]
[Roy] So we're gonna grill some fish.
[Jon] Look at these.
Now, is this a snapper?
-[Roy] This is a dorade.
-Okay.
[Roy] So we're going to stuff the fish
with these herbs.
We're gonna add salt and pepper.
This is a whole grilled fish,
similar to anything in Asia,
but also you can find it
in the Mediterranean.
'Cause we're the only country
that doesn't really
-Have the head?
-Head on, you know,
even in the market.
And the fishermen,
they all eat the cheek, right?
That's the best piece of meat
in the whole fish?
Yeah. Cheek and along the bone.
Just gonna make slits here.
-[Jon] That's nice.
-[Roy] I forgot to make slits, um,
-before we seasoned.
-Before we seasoned?
-Here, could you slit mine up?
-Uh-huh.
[Jon] What part of the world
is this cooking associated with?
It's a blend.
Basically, like, uh, my version of, like,
-a whole fried catfish.
-I see.
[Roy] But grilled.
We have it nice and seasoned
inside and out.
Gonna take a little bit of the herbs,
we're gonna stuff the inside.
Go ahead and make yours pretty like that.
And be gentle with it.
-[Jon] Sure.
-Stuff it and then refold it back up.
Put some limes inside as well.
[Jon] So you're mixing
a little Mexican also?
[Roy] Yeah.
Baja style. So move your fish over
a little bit, please.
Okay, and then we'll put our fish
inside of this caddy.
And we'll close these up.
Put a little bit of olive oil.
Flip it over.
[Jon] The skin'll get nice, huh?
Beautiful, right?
Then we go right on the grill.
-[sizzling]
-[Jon] What's this called on your menu?
-[Roy] "Grilled whole fish."
-Oh, okay.
[Roy chuckles]
And now we're going to do the sauce.
So if you could slice the onion
really thin, peel it first.
I'm going to make a ponzu sauce.
So we're going to add soy sauce
rice wine vinegar,
water,
-lime juice.
-How do you want these cut, chef?
-I'll show you right now.
-Diced, or--
No, like this.
Really thin.
And we're throwing in ginger.
Lime.
Can you cut that jalapeño?
We have your thin-sliced red onions,
shards of green onion,
cilantro.
Throw a little bit of that jalapeño
in there,
the rest of the jalapeño
I'm gonna put in our ponzu sauce.
You wanna grab a spoon
and taste this real quick?
We'll add a little more lime.
-You want more lime?
-Yeah.
[Jon] So this is what our friends
at Border Grill taught me.
-From the ladies. I forgot about that.
-Work smart, not hard.
-[Jon] What'd you slip in there?
-[Roy] Just a little black pepper, yuzu.
[Jon] A lot's in the sauce, huh?
[Roy] Really, all your flavor's
coming from here.
Mmm. This dish is so good.
Let's not forget about our fish over here.
-[Jon] Oh, wow.
-Put a little bit of olive oil.
-Our fish is looking pretty good here.
-[Jon] Yeah.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
-[Roy] Very flaky, huh?
-[Jon] Yeah.
While the fish is cooking,
let's do our wok vegetables real quick.
[Jon] Okay.
-Is that canola?
-Yeah.
[Jon] Green onions, ginger.
[Roy] Garlic.
[Jon] Garlic. Your holy trinity.
[Roy] You're going to get
the flavor right here.
Salt and pepper.
[Jon] What vegetable is this, Swiss chard?
[Roy] Kale. Purple kale.
[Jon] I'm scared to stop it from moving.
[Roy] You're okay. Rainbow chard.
Can you bring it over here?
Go ahead and put the veg
right in the middle.
Get a little mound going, actually.
Let's go back to the fish now.
Yeah, I think it's looking pretty good.
So
Now what we want to do
-Ooh!
-[Jon] That's nice.
Ooh.
[Roy] Gonna squeeze a lime.
Bit of olive oil.
Salt and pepper.
-[Jon] All right. Now what, chef?
-[Roy] I'm gonna get you a ladle.
-[Jon] Over the fish, chef?
-No.
[Jon] Around.
[Roy] Put a little bit
of this ponzu in there.
And the sesame seeds over the top.
Sprinkle the powdered nori.
Beautiful, Jon. If you need to Instagram,
right now is the moment.
This is the moment.
-The IG moment.
-You just made a whole grilled,
south Asian-style fish
that you could serve
at a Cantonese dim sum parlor
any day of the week.
[Jon] Beautiful.
[Roy] Go ahead and try yours.
This, you just go in.
The idea is to get some of this sauce,
some of the aromatics.
[both] Mmm.
[Jon] Wow.
That's that's so delicate.
[Roy] Remember, there's vegetables
underneath as well.
[Jon] Mm-hmm.
It eats like an Asian dish
-but it tastes like California too.
-Yeah.
[Jon] Boy, this goes fast, huh?
[Roy] Yeah. This is the show stopper.
-That's it.
-Mm-mm-mm.
[Jon] This one's a winner.
We're going to make the spicy pork
marinade which you've made before
-to make pork fried rice.
-What's the dish?
But we're going to make "spicy pork."
-Spicy pork? Okay.
-Yeah.
That's the dish.
Last dish was grilled fish.
-Grilled fish.
-This is spicy pork.
Good. Good to know.
-The next dish is
-Gonna be helpful.
-"hot dog."
-[Jon laughing]
-After that, it's "bologna sandwich."
Go ahead and put all these ingredients
into this blender, please.
-[Jon] All of it?
-Yeah.
Start with kochujang.
[Jon] Just dump it?
-Yeah, and try to scrape everything
-Every last bit.
[Roy]
Yeah. And then all this stuff. Garlic.
And then kochukaru,
which is the chili powder.
Jalapeños,
which I'll just break up like that.
-And then some sugar.
-[Jon] Roy Choi blender cooking.
[Roy] We haven't used a blender
-this whole trip.
-No.
[Roy] This is our kalbi marinade.
Okay, put it all in the blender
right there.
[blender grinding]
[Jon] It's not moving.
We should put the liquid first.
Shit.
Can I do this?
No, you can take the top off.
[grinding continues]
It's not moving.
I'll let the master do it.
[blender stops]
Hold on one second.
-You've lost touch with your roots, Roy.
-Yeah. [laughs]
-This was all you had on the truck.
-All I had.
I've changed.
You had an Osterizer.
So I decided to put the thick stuff first
this time.
-And then this happens.
-All right, let's see.
[Jon] There we go.
[blender whirring]
Pour the rest of that in there.
-[Jon] Get that good smell.
-Perfect, yeah.
Smells like an overheating hair dryer.
[whirring]
[Roy] All right. Beauty.
-Now the marinade, yeah.
-[Jon] This?
[Roy] So the difference
with this spicy pork is
we cut the pork extremely thin
like shabu-shabu,
and then we do a mix of bacon
and pork shoulder.
-So pork shoulder, pork butt, same thing?
-Yeah.
You're gonna get in there and then
Just get in there and make mud pies?
-Yeah.
-Nice.
[Roy] Do your magic.
Okay, and then really separate
in between the layers,
and try to evenly mesh
these two cuts of meats together.
Okay.
So you get the mix of fat and lean, huh?
Like a good burger meat grind?
[Roy] Yeah.
All right. So we're gonna move over here.
Jon, I'm going to have you do the cooking.
Go ahead and take a handful of that
and kinda spread it across the plancha.
[sizzling]
[Roy] There you go.
Now use the spatula
and spread it.
Really, really loosen this up.
Kind of chop it a little bit, almost,
like a Philly cheese steak.
[Jon] Uh-huh.
[Roy] Now grab the other spatula
with your left hand.
-Just move it like this. Like this.
-Show me.
-[Jon] Ah.
-Like that.
I was doing it like hash browns.
[Roy] Yeah. Now we throw the onions in.
Keep moving it. We wanna throw
some more marinade in.
Gotta move fast, move fast.
Now chop it up a little bit again,
pat it down.
You gotta be ambidextrous here, chef.
[Roy] All right, we're all done.
And then, now what we do,
throw a little bit of oil.
-[Jon] On the outside? I see.
-[Roy] To get smoke.
[Jon] For the, uh, presentation.
[Roy] Scallions.
And the sesame seeds over the top.
Spicy pork.
[Jon] You sort of up the presentation
with all the sizzling and the smoke.
[Roy] Yeah, made it into fajitas.
-[Jon] Has a fajitas feel, you're right.
-[Roy] So now we can try it.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
I think this is the best dish we have.
-It's got all your hits in it, too.
-Mm.
All your hit flavors.
Spicy, sweet, fatty, lean.
[Jon] It's very consistent, all the bites.
Nothing wrong with having a hit song,
and this is a hit song.
-So good, right?
-[Jon] Oh, it's fantastic.
[Roy] We're doing a little bit
of speed dating right now.
We're gonna go
right into bologna sandwiches, Jon.
So let's butter.
-Same first step with grilled cheese.
-Uh-huh.
[Roy] Just keep layering flavor.
You're giving it a little more jet fuel.
Two slices of cheese,
two slices of bologna.
I'll cut the pickles up real quick.
That's looking good.
[Jon] Mustard? 'Cause what's bologna
without mustard?
[Roy] Then we're gonna go with mayo,
both sides.
-But a little light on the second side.
-Okay.
[Roy] Come over here.
The first thing we want to do
is put the bologna on.
[Jon] Get that good smell.
[Roy] Let that cook for a second.
Now I'll put the bread.
That's looking good.
Yours is looking good.
Cheese on the bread.
The pickles.
Tabasco sauce.
Black pepper.
Keep an eye on the bread.
It's looking good.
Flip the bologna. Flip it over.
[Jon] Is this off the menu
or on the menu?
-[Roy] It's on the menu.
-Nice.
Can I give a little cut?
[Roy] If you want,
but you don't have to.
[Jon] Yes, chef.
[Roy] Yours is looking really good.
I think you're ready,
so go ahead and put your bologna on.
Here's the Cubano part.
-Put it on the cooler part here. Press.
-[Jon] Uh-huh.
[Jon] Where were you introduced
to fried bologna?
-[Roy] Myself.
-[Jon] You? First thing you cooked?
[Roy] Yeah.
Go ahead, take a bite.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
All right, I like it.
It's really good.
There's a lot happening here.
But it still has the soul
of an after-school fried bologna sandwich.
Mm-hmm. It's a grilled cheese sandwich
mixed with a Cubano.
-Yeah.
-It's half and half.
Yeah. I didn't mean to do it that way.
-It's half and half.
-It's half and half.
So I guess, in a way,
this is span style="style2"our menu item on Best Friend.
-[Jon] I know, seriously.
-[Roy] Yeah.
-[salsa rhythm playing]
-[tires squealing]
[Jon] Now, this was your main competition
when Kogi started, right?
[Roy] Where we first parked with Kogi,
there was, um,
a hot dog lady right next to us.
Oh, I see.
Every night she would look at us
and be like,
just chuckle to herself.
Like, "These idiots
are never gonna make it."
So let's butter.
[Jon] This is the after-club meal.
It's a tough market after last call.
Outside of tacos and, you know, like,
going to a 24-hour diner or something,
this was, and still is,
one of the only things you can eat
after the club.
[Jon] This isn't a New York thing,
or if it is, it wasn't
when I was growing up.
[Roy] This is an LA dog
through and through.
Gonna be the best hot dogs you ever had.
But first, let's start with the bacon.
I'll go ahead and start
layering the bacon down.
[sizzling]
[Jon] What kind of dogs do you use?
[Roy] Hebrew National.
Beauty.
Move those hot dogs around a little bit.
There you go.
You know how to move hot dogs. Nice.
You're getting into my territory here,
the Jewish.
[Roy laughing]
[Jon] Seeing them in a deli.
[Roy] That bacon looks good, right?
[Jon] Yeah.
Don't wanna get 'em too crisp 'cause
you can't wrap 'em then, right?
-No, we're not wrapping. This is my style.
-We're not?
[Jon] Oh. I wasn't expecting
a curve ball from you.
[Roy] Put it right here.
That's good.
[Jon] This looks great.
In the bacon fat,
we're gonna cook the peppers.
[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] Salt and pepper.
Kind of do what we were doing
with the spicy pork.
Jalapeños served as a garnish.
-[Jon] Look at that. There we go.
-[Roy] Look at you.
Coney Island Jon.
Put the peppers in.
Now let's toast these.
Yeah, go ahead, flip it over.
These are plays on the same techniques
from Cubanos.
Mm-hmm. Well, we're making sandwiches,
so basically, yeah.
So now try to give them to me like that.
So put the hot dogs in there.
Put a slice of bacon in there.
Slide it in.
-[Jon] They'll just straight up eat that?
-[Roy] Yeah.
There's still more assembly to it.
And we're going to go ketchup
mustard, mayo.
And put that in there
like Italian sausage and peppers.
There you go.
You did a really great job there.
-The Best Friend hot dog.
-[Jon] Oh, wow.
Do I need a plate?
-[Roy] Here you go.
-[Jon] I think I do.
Looks like it's for
a family of four, but
[Roy laughs]
-[Jon] Oh, you use a knife? Wait a minute.
-Wait a minute.
You didn't tell me about the knife.
This is another one
good for right before nap time.
You just ate a lot of food.
Oh, fuck, yeah.
-So good, right?
-Mmm.
You know, I know today there's been
a lot of recipes that are really simple.
There's no strange ingredient.
But simple doesn't necessarily mean
that the food can't be better.
It's just the way we cooked it,
layering in the peppers,
then layering the butter into the bread.
And then the little crispy nuggets
of the bread when you're biting into it.
It's like the grilled cheese sandwich.
The grilled cheese, bologna,
hot dog Cubano.
[laughing] That should be
our next sandwich.
-Where's Bill Burr at?
-[Jon] I know.
[salsa rhythm playing]
I don't know if we've ever officially
introduced Diego on screen, have we?
No. I don't know that you've ever
introduced him to me in person.
[laughing]
-But I've known you for five years. Hey.
-Jon.
-Pleasure to meet you.
-[Roy] This is Diego, our executive chef.
-Take this dumpling.
-I feel like we're in Vegas now.
Okay, so who's-- Put your chips up.
This restaurant, as we discussed earlier,
every part of it has a little bit
of a reflection of some point of my life,
but also the lives of other immigrant kids
and other friends that have been around.
I grew up in a restaurant,
and every day at 3:00 p.m.,
we'd sit down like this
and make dumplings.
-And the kids would help, too?
-[Roy] Kids would help,
anyone who's working,
'cause usually there's only, like,
five to eight people working
in the whole restaurant itself.
And you'll still see this happen
in many Vietnamese,
Chinese restaurants.
If you go and eat
between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.,
you'll see a lot of people sitting down
either stuffing chopsticks,
making dumplings.
We usually do it sitting down,
eating family meal, talking shit.
-You know, lot of gossip.
-Talk story.
Yeah, talk story. So
go ahead and show him how to fill one.
-Can I wet with my finger?
-Yes.
[Roy] Basically, you want to pinch down
and get all the filling to the center
as much as possible,
and then stuff the inside.
This is my first dumpling ever.
What's in this mixture?
[Diego] Ground beef, ground pork,
minced ginger,
minced cabbage, sesame oil,
oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar,
kochukaru, eggs, tofu,
sesame seeds, scallions.
-[Jon] Lot happening here.
-[Roy] I know.
[Roy chuckles]
Is that a good span style="style2"knedle, chef?
It's nice. Very nice.
[Jon] This must be great with the kids.
This is arts and crafts.
[Roy] Yeah.
You ever make ravioli?
-[Jon] No.
-Really? Okay.
I think the dumpling came
before the ravioli.
-So, we're going in progression.
-[Jon] Well, you know, we could
-And spaghetti. I know.
-[Roy laughing] Yeah.
As you build your muscle memory,
you'll start doing this
without even looking at it,
and you're just kind of making them
and talking at the same time.
Talking shit.
Every dumpling has shit talking.
[laughs] I can taste it.
-A little bit of its own personal
-There's a little bit of shit talking
and gossip mixed into every dumpling
in the world.
-All right.
-[Roy] Now we'll move over and boil these.
So we just want to gently place them in.
What are you looking for, them to float?
-Yes, exactly.
-[Jon] Like pasta?
It takes about three to five minutes.
Now what are you doing there?
Just giving it a little shake
so they don't stick to the bottom.
[Roy] The flame up all the way?
-[Diego] Yes.
-[Roy] All right.
-We're-- These are braised.
-Yes.
-[Jon] What's the name of this dish?
-"Dumplings."
-[laughs]
-You've got a way
-I've got a way with words.
-That's like how I name my movies.
We've got the most complicated names
on this menu.
I like
-'Cause I do span style="style2"Swingers, Made, Chef, Elf
-Yeah, that's right.
-Iron Man.
-Iron Man.
-That's the Best Friend menu.
span style="style2"-Lion King. That's it.
Hot dog, bologna sandwich,
dumplings, corn.
I think-- 'Cause you remember it,
you know what it is,
-and you can make an association.
-Yeah. Grilled fish.
[Roy] You remember it.
We could check one.
Let's throw one on here.
We'll do a tester. Do a test.
[Jon] Little more?
-No, we're good.
-That's good?
You could see, pork is cooked all the way.
[Roy] Try it, Diego.
[Jon] That's good. We're done.
[Roy] So be very gentle
as you take these out.
Now you can garnish.
[Diego] That's sesame oil.
-Put a little bit of
-[Jon] Green onion?
[Diego] scallions around.
-This edible flower?
-Yeah, microblends, some marigolds.
-[Jon] All edible, yeah?
-[Diego] Yes.
[Roy] And sesame seeds over the top.
What's with the flowers with you, Roy?
This is a new thing for you.
Just a couple dishes here
I thought benefited from them.
[Jon] Mm-mm-mm.
-Wow.
-Yeah.
That's good, Roy.
This is probably
one of our biggest sellers.
-I could see why.
-[Diego] Yeah.
No matter how many we make,
we end up selling out every night.
-Yeah.
-We can make 200, 300 more the next day,
and we'll still sell out somehow.
Here. Let's put this in the pass.
-[Roy] So fucking good.
-[Jon] I love it.
And I love the whole thing.
This is such a culmination of knowing you.
It's almost like when you take
a museum exhibit
-[Roy] Yes.
-[Jon] of somebody's life work,
and you get an overview of
not just the artwork, but of the person.
This feels like an autobiography.
[Roy] Most importantly,
it's a new beginning,
and now I wanna do bigger things,
I wanna do more things.
I want to help young entrepreneurs.
Not everyone makes it to be able to tell
your first half of your life story.
[Roy] Did you ever play poker?
[Jon] Not like a tournament.
I don't like a live game.
I don't like losing money.
And I don't like taking people's money
off of them.
-You a poker player?
-[Roy] I used to be.
-[Jon] Maybe we'll do it sometime.
-[Roy] But I think I--
-[Jon] Would our friendship survive it?
-[Roy] I think so.
-[Roy] We'll be like a pro-am tour.
-[Jon] Right.
-[Roy] Like, nothing's at stake.
-[Jon] Yes.
[engine revving]
-[tires screeching]
-[slot machines beeping]
-[Jon] All right, this is it. This is--
-[Roy] Welcome.
-[Roy] Best Friend at the Park MGM.
-[Jon] From the outside, it looks like--
-A real liquor store.
-A real liquor store.
Should see this place after midnight.
Like, pretty much after 10:00, when
everyone's starting to feel pretty good
-Yes.
-you know, they come in here
and then, you know, like,
they can't decipher it.
No, and by the way,
it doesn't say "restaurant."
It just looks like a place
that you'd have on a casino floor
where you'd buy sundries.
It's like a little bit
of an art installation.
It feels a little like the Kogi truck
with all the punk rock stickers.
Anybody who knows you knows
this is like looking into your brain.
[Roy] Yeah, the whole place is designed
not to be a fake liquor store,
but it's like an integrated,
like you said, art installation.
So the cashier is the host stand.
I wanted to bring back
a little bit of mystery.
So, once you pull back the curtain
-Literally.
-all of a sudden-- Yeah, literally.
Well, here's the curtain.
All of a sudden, it becomes
a three-ring circus.
So this looks like it's just a--
This is like the plastic from a walk-in.
[Roy] Yeah.
You may be under the impression
that this is
-everything Best Friend is.
-Right.
[Roy] But then we transport you
through this red tunnel.
Hopefully this place discombobulates you
just enough, and then boom.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
[Roy] This is my whole life
in a restaurant.
[Jon] It looks like Commissary,
with all the plants.
You got the kimchi pots.
[Roy] There are hidden touches
to everything that
my life has been up until this point,
especially the last ten years.
The Commissary, Locol.
Everything's a little high-end, though,
compared to what it had been with you.
Because this is like
opening a Broadway show.
-[Jon] Yes.
-[Roy] Then, on top of that,
we have an open kitchen,
and it smells like BBQ.
[Jon] This is really great.
[Roy] This is kind of like
going back to the roots.
It is actually the soul of Kogi.
[Jon] That's awesome.
[Roy] Gonna cook good stuff today.
We're gonna start
with the Uni Dynamite Rice.
[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] We serve, like,
maybe 30, 40, 50 of these a night.
So you just move quick.
Take this.
-I'm gonna have you mix it.
-[Jon] Yes, chef.
[Roy] We're putting some black vinegar.
-Do you get that in the Chinese market?
-Uh-huh.
[Roy] Soy sauce.
And some sesame oil.
Mix that up really good.
Ooh.
Yum, yum.
Yum, yum.
That's good. We're done.
We're done. That's the whole recipe.
[chuckling]
I told you, my food's simple.
-That's it, man.
-[laughs]
While you're mixing that,
I'm gonna make a little mayo spread.
And we're going to add hot sauce,
fermented hot sauce.
And then next, I'm adding yuzu,
which is a Japanese citrus.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
The inspiration of this is dynamite,
like you get at a sushi restaurant?
Like a dynamite roll, yeah.
[Jon] Where did dynamite come from?
I see it in sushi restaurants,
but I don't see it in Japan.
-Is it American?
-An American thing.
Like California rolls?
It was tricking them
into eating the raw fish.
Not them, us. I'm American.
Tricking us into eating raw fish.
-[Jon] What's going on here?
-[Roy] We're gonna take these
and stuff them.
-So I'll stuff one--
-You're serving these?
[Roy] Yeah.
So I'll stuff one,
and you can stuff the rest.
You don't want to pack too hard,
but then try to get it full.
Like espresso.
[Roy] Yeah, a little bit like espresso.
-There you go. So keep making those.
-[Jon] Yes, chef.
[Roy] Perfect. Perfect.
[Jon] I don't think
we're going to have four.
[Roy] We'll make more.
[Jon] Let's see if I remember.
Why don't you do it to taste?
Kind of think about these two,
the black vinegar and soy, as equal.
A third of that being the sesame oil.
While you make that,
what I'll do here is I'll cover the top.
[Jon] This is the one new menu item
I never saw
-in your other--
-This is a new Vegas one.
[Jon] What's nice is now food is
such a big part of the Vegas scene.
-[Roy] Yeah.
-[Jon] I mean, you know, Vegas,
-I have a lot of history here.
-Yeah.
Were you guys ever nervous at all
filming span style="style2"Swingers out here?
You were so young.
We didn't know
what the hell we were doing.
We shot everything in the casino
in, like, one day,
that walk and talk?
How'd you do the blackjack table?
We had, like, a little closed area.
-So that part was "legit."
-But everything next to us was real.
-Okay.
-And by the way, they can kick you out.
If people wanna play. Oh, yeah.
Go ahead and layer the top
with that stuff.
And so we filmed it, and me and Vince
were in the hallways of the hotel,
practicing, rehearsing.
Was there a lot of rehearsal for span style="style2"Swingers?
You guys seem to be
just talking to each other.
Well, we knew each other really well.
And I wrote a lot of it based
on conversations that Vince and I had had.
And with enough room where,
in the moment while filming,
you guys have a script,
-but can kinda vibe off--
-We didn't improv a lot.
That movie probably had the least improv
of any movie I've worked on.
We just didn't have time.
How's that, by the way?
-[Roy] Perfect.
-[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] We're gonna go up here.
All right, Jon, so put them in there.
-[Jon] In the salamander?
-In the salamander.
We gotta keep an eye on it.
You want it to bubble and caramelize
but not burn.
You gotta kind of look.
[Jon] The salamander,
that's good for chicken parmesan.
Chicken parmesan.
-French onion soup.
-Onion soup, yep.
[Roy] Uh, pull out the front,
put it right here,
and then switch it
with the one in the back.
Then put this one up front
so you can control it.
You're gonna kinda musical chairs.
But the weird thing, it's like that moment
where popcorn goes
from not ready to burnt.
[Jon] It's that one second.
[Roy] We take out the first two.
-[Jon] This one?
-[Roy] That's ready.
Yeah, you want
that little bit of crispiness.
They're beautiful. Look at that color.
-So now, we have to put the actual uni on.
-[Jon] We have to assemble it.
So about four slices of uni.
-I've never handled uni before.
-So use both hands. So, um
Here, show me one piece.
[Roy] You gotta be very delicate.
But try to really get under it.
Some of them are going to break,
and that's okay.
Try not to force it.
If it's gonna fall apart,
let it fall apart
in your arms, while you're hugging it.
-[Jon] Is that Santa Barbara uni?
-Santa Barbara.
If we're lucky, we can get
the stuff from Hokkaido as well.
[Jon] I told you, when I was in Japan,
I ordered the uni,
and they said they were getting it
from Santa Barbara.
[Roy laughs]
And then everyone here
wants it from Japan.
Okay.
[Roy] Perfect.
Continue on.
-Is that one? Is that one monster?
-Yeah, it could be.
[Jon] This one gets three
-'cause that's a lot there.
-Okay.
If they don't like it, you tell them
to talk to me in the kitchen.
[Roy] So we're going to just pretty it up
a little bit.
I'm going to add two forms of nori.
You just go ahead and sprinkle across
and garnish.
[Jon] So this is a
[Roy] It's a powdered nori,
and this is a roasted nori.
[Jon] How's that, chef?
-[Roy] Great.
-[Jon] All right?
[Roy] Uh-huh. Perfect. Go with that nori.
[Jon] Make it a perfect bite
for everybody.
[Roy] It's really important
with this dish,
because it's such a small,
compact kind of burst of flavor,
that you want every bite
to have a little bit.
-These you're just gonna make them pretty.
-[Jon] I like the flower theme.
Microgreens.
-[Roy] Sesame seeds over top.
-[Jon] On top?
-So you go sesame last after the
-Yeah.
[Jon] For the texture,
-you need more of this, huh?
-[Roy] Yes.
Look at that, Jon.
That looks like
a professional restaurant dish, huh?
[both laughing]
-So, I gotta get a piece of uni.
-The goal is to get a bite of everything.
Mmm.
Let it marinate, and you're gonna get
the flavor right here.
There's some crunches from the nori
and from the, uh
Ooh. A lot of flavor.
It's good, right? It keeps going.
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
That's really fresh. The uni's delicious.
It's really good.
[salsa rhythm playing]
-[Roy] Let's make grilled street corn.
-[Jon] All right.
Going deeper into the bench here.
So why don't you peel the husk off here,
but leave it intact.
This is professional restaurant
span style="style2"mise en place,
so we do just a slight kind of blanch.
-[Jon] Just pop the color.
-[Roy] This is part of the look
-of the actual dish.
-Right.
[Roy] So then, now what we want to do is--
-[Jon] Is butter?
-Yeah.
[Jon] So far, we're very much
in my wheelhouse here.
I've done this in Chicago.
Yes, corn on the cob.
So we'll come over here.
What we want to do is we wanna
season the corn, salt and pepper.
Put a touch of oil.
Kind of like Wolf taught you
with the pan and the butter.
Do a little bit of oil,
mix it around like that,
but you don't want it, like, soaking wet.
Throw them right on the grill.
[sizzling]
We don't want to move it too much,
but you wanna kinda really get it charred.
You want it almost black in a sense,
but not burnt.
How did you first taste this, just
Just growing up in LA and around, and
usually it's served on the streets.
The whole setup is on a shopping cart
in most cases, or on a fold-out table.
[Jon] I love all your new equipment.
Does having this make you appreciate
somebody like Wolfgang who has
scaled the operation over decades
-and still is top of his game?
-Yeah.
All of us next-generation chefs, it's like
every time we think we've done something,
then we look up, and then Nobu
and Wolfgang are up there having tea,
saying, "What took you so long?"
-At the top of the mountain already?
-Yeah, yeah.
-[Jon] Is it hot enough?
-Yeah.
The weird thing about cooking,
it feels like it's taking forever,
but then within a minute,
you'll see everything will just boom.
So, then if you miss it, it's popcorn.
Then if you miss it, it's popcorn.
[laughs]
All right, so yours is
actually getting there a lot
-Thank you.
-quicker than mine. Maybe it's the
Gonna blame it on the part of the grill?
Yeah.
That's looking good.
Yours is looking good.
Grab your tray.
Now we're gonna go back here.
We're gonna switch gears,
from the butter to the mayo.
Squeeze a lime over it.
Okay.
That's the real flavor that makes it,
right, street corn, is the lime?
[Roy] And so now what you wanna do,
take your cotija cheese,
and just cover the whole thing.
Just very lightly, not too crazy.
Almost like, um
-the outside--
-Snow on a mountain top.
Snow on a mountain,
or the outside of an ice cream cone.
And then take this chili salt as well.
Keep turning your corn a little bit.
-[Jon] Is this hot?
-No.
[Jon] It's beautiful.
For yours, you can put them on a plate
going opposite directions,
and you're just gonna take some cilantro.
[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] Actually go over the top.
A little sesame seed.
And I'll put mine in a paper basket
'cause we serve it
in the Liquor Store as well.
So how is this different from how it was
when you ate it growing up?
-It's the same.
-Same everything?
-Yeah.
-Chili salt, too?
[Roy] Uh-huh.
Only difference is maybe I grill it.
But other people grill it as well.
So now we can try it.
Go ahead and just bite into it.
-Just go ham?
-Go ham.
-[Roy] That's so good, huh?
-Mm-hmm.
[Jon] Mmm. Mmm.
-Can't stop eating it.
-No.
Not so good for a first date.
[laughs]
This got inhaled.
I'm so glad you like it.
[laughing] Oh, my God!
[Jon] Don't corn-shame me.
[salsa rhythm playing]
[Roy] So we're gonna grill some fish.
[Jon] Look at these.
Now, is this a snapper?
-[Roy] This is a dorade.
-Okay.
[Roy] So we're going to stuff the fish
with these herbs.
We're gonna add salt and pepper.
This is a whole grilled fish,
similar to anything in Asia,
but also you can find it
in the Mediterranean.
'Cause we're the only country
that doesn't really
-Have the head?
-Head on, you know,
even in the market.
And the fishermen,
they all eat the cheek, right?
That's the best piece of meat
in the whole fish?
Yeah. Cheek and along the bone.
Just gonna make slits here.
-[Jon] That's nice.
-[Roy] I forgot to make slits, um,
-before we seasoned.
-Before we seasoned?
-Here, could you slit mine up?
-Uh-huh.
[Jon] What part of the world
is this cooking associated with?
It's a blend.
Basically, like, uh, my version of, like,
-a whole fried catfish.
-I see.
[Roy] But grilled.
We have it nice and seasoned
inside and out.
Gonna take a little bit of the herbs,
we're gonna stuff the inside.
Go ahead and make yours pretty like that.
And be gentle with it.
-[Jon] Sure.
-Stuff it and then refold it back up.
Put some limes inside as well.
[Jon] So you're mixing
a little Mexican also?
[Roy] Yeah.
Baja style. So move your fish over
a little bit, please.
Okay, and then we'll put our fish
inside of this caddy.
And we'll close these up.
Put a little bit of olive oil.
Flip it over.
[Jon] The skin'll get nice, huh?
Beautiful, right?
Then we go right on the grill.
-[sizzling]
-[Jon] What's this called on your menu?
-[Roy] "Grilled whole fish."
-Oh, okay.
[Roy chuckles]
And now we're going to do the sauce.
So if you could slice the onion
really thin, peel it first.
I'm going to make a ponzu sauce.
So we're going to add soy sauce
rice wine vinegar,
water,
-lime juice.
-How do you want these cut, chef?
-I'll show you right now.
-Diced, or--
No, like this.
Really thin.
And we're throwing in ginger.
Lime.
Can you cut that jalapeño?
We have your thin-sliced red onions,
shards of green onion,
cilantro.
Throw a little bit of that jalapeño
in there,
the rest of the jalapeño
I'm gonna put in our ponzu sauce.
You wanna grab a spoon
and taste this real quick?
We'll add a little more lime.
-You want more lime?
-Yeah.
[Jon] So this is what our friends
at Border Grill taught me.
-From the ladies. I forgot about that.
-Work smart, not hard.
-[Jon] What'd you slip in there?
-[Roy] Just a little black pepper, yuzu.
[Jon] A lot's in the sauce, huh?
[Roy] Really, all your flavor's
coming from here.
Mmm. This dish is so good.
Let's not forget about our fish over here.
-[Jon] Oh, wow.
-Put a little bit of olive oil.
-Our fish is looking pretty good here.
-[Jon] Yeah.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
-[Roy] Very flaky, huh?
-[Jon] Yeah.
While the fish is cooking,
let's do our wok vegetables real quick.
[Jon] Okay.
-Is that canola?
-Yeah.
[Jon] Green onions, ginger.
[Roy] Garlic.
[Jon] Garlic. Your holy trinity.
[Roy] You're going to get
the flavor right here.
Salt and pepper.
[Jon] What vegetable is this, Swiss chard?
[Roy] Kale. Purple kale.
[Jon] I'm scared to stop it from moving.
[Roy] You're okay. Rainbow chard.
Can you bring it over here?
Go ahead and put the veg
right in the middle.
Get a little mound going, actually.
Let's go back to the fish now.
Yeah, I think it's looking pretty good.
So
Now what we want to do
-Ooh!
-[Jon] That's nice.
Ooh.
[Roy] Gonna squeeze a lime.
Bit of olive oil.
Salt and pepper.
-[Jon] All right. Now what, chef?
-[Roy] I'm gonna get you a ladle.
-[Jon] Over the fish, chef?
-No.
[Jon] Around.
[Roy] Put a little bit
of this ponzu in there.
And the sesame seeds over the top.
Sprinkle the powdered nori.
Beautiful, Jon. If you need to Instagram,
right now is the moment.
This is the moment.
-The IG moment.
-You just made a whole grilled,
south Asian-style fish
that you could serve
at a Cantonese dim sum parlor
any day of the week.
[Jon] Beautiful.
[Roy] Go ahead and try yours.
This, you just go in.
The idea is to get some of this sauce,
some of the aromatics.
[both] Mmm.
[Jon] Wow.
That's that's so delicate.
[Roy] Remember, there's vegetables
underneath as well.
[Jon] Mm-hmm.
It eats like an Asian dish
-but it tastes like California too.
-Yeah.
[Jon] Boy, this goes fast, huh?
[Roy] Yeah. This is the show stopper.
-That's it.
-Mm-mm-mm.
[Jon] This one's a winner.
We're going to make the spicy pork
marinade which you've made before
-to make pork fried rice.
-What's the dish?
But we're going to make "spicy pork."
-Spicy pork? Okay.
-Yeah.
That's the dish.
Last dish was grilled fish.
-Grilled fish.
-This is spicy pork.
Good. Good to know.
-The next dish is
-Gonna be helpful.
-"hot dog."
-[Jon laughing]
-After that, it's "bologna sandwich."
Go ahead and put all these ingredients
into this blender, please.
-[Jon] All of it?
-Yeah.
Start with kochujang.
[Jon] Just dump it?
-Yeah, and try to scrape everything
-Every last bit.
[Roy]
Yeah. And then all this stuff. Garlic.
And then kochukaru,
which is the chili powder.
Jalapeños,
which I'll just break up like that.
-And then some sugar.
-[Jon] Roy Choi blender cooking.
[Roy] We haven't used a blender
-this whole trip.
-No.
[Roy] This is our kalbi marinade.
Okay, put it all in the blender
right there.
[blender grinding]
[Jon] It's not moving.
We should put the liquid first.
Shit.
Can I do this?
No, you can take the top off.
[grinding continues]
It's not moving.
I'll let the master do it.
[blender stops]
Hold on one second.
-You've lost touch with your roots, Roy.
-Yeah. [laughs]
-This was all you had on the truck.
-All I had.
I've changed.
You had an Osterizer.
So I decided to put the thick stuff first
this time.
-And then this happens.
-All right, let's see.
[Jon] There we go.
[blender whirring]
Pour the rest of that in there.
-[Jon] Get that good smell.
-Perfect, yeah.
Smells like an overheating hair dryer.
[whirring]
[Roy] All right. Beauty.
-Now the marinade, yeah.
-[Jon] This?
[Roy] So the difference
with this spicy pork is
we cut the pork extremely thin
like shabu-shabu,
and then we do a mix of bacon
and pork shoulder.
-So pork shoulder, pork butt, same thing?
-Yeah.
You're gonna get in there and then
Just get in there and make mud pies?
-Yeah.
-Nice.
[Roy] Do your magic.
Okay, and then really separate
in between the layers,
and try to evenly mesh
these two cuts of meats together.
Okay.
So you get the mix of fat and lean, huh?
Like a good burger meat grind?
[Roy] Yeah.
All right. So we're gonna move over here.
Jon, I'm going to have you do the cooking.
Go ahead and take a handful of that
and kinda spread it across the plancha.
[sizzling]
[Roy] There you go.
Now use the spatula
and spread it.
Really, really loosen this up.
Kind of chop it a little bit, almost,
like a Philly cheese steak.
[Jon] Uh-huh.
[Roy] Now grab the other spatula
with your left hand.
-Just move it like this. Like this.
-Show me.
-[Jon] Ah.
-Like that.
I was doing it like hash browns.
[Roy] Yeah. Now we throw the onions in.
Keep moving it. We wanna throw
some more marinade in.
Gotta move fast, move fast.
Now chop it up a little bit again,
pat it down.
You gotta be ambidextrous here, chef.
[Roy] All right, we're all done.
And then, now what we do,
throw a little bit of oil.
-[Jon] On the outside? I see.
-[Roy] To get smoke.
[Jon] For the, uh, presentation.
[Roy] Scallions.
And the sesame seeds over the top.
Spicy pork.
[Jon] You sort of up the presentation
with all the sizzling and the smoke.
[Roy] Yeah, made it into fajitas.
-[Jon] Has a fajitas feel, you're right.
-[Roy] So now we can try it.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
I think this is the best dish we have.
-It's got all your hits in it, too.
-Mm.
All your hit flavors.
Spicy, sweet, fatty, lean.
[Jon] It's very consistent, all the bites.
Nothing wrong with having a hit song,
and this is a hit song.
-So good, right?
-[Jon] Oh, it's fantastic.
[Roy] We're doing a little bit
of speed dating right now.
We're gonna go
right into bologna sandwiches, Jon.
So let's butter.
-Same first step with grilled cheese.
-Uh-huh.
[Roy] Just keep layering flavor.
You're giving it a little more jet fuel.
Two slices of cheese,
two slices of bologna.
I'll cut the pickles up real quick.
That's looking good.
[Jon] Mustard? 'Cause what's bologna
without mustard?
[Roy] Then we're gonna go with mayo,
both sides.
-But a little light on the second side.
-Okay.
[Roy] Come over here.
The first thing we want to do
is put the bologna on.
[Jon] Get that good smell.
[Roy] Let that cook for a second.
Now I'll put the bread.
That's looking good.
Yours is looking good.
Cheese on the bread.
The pickles.
Tabasco sauce.
Black pepper.
Keep an eye on the bread.
It's looking good.
Flip the bologna. Flip it over.
[Jon] Is this off the menu
or on the menu?
-[Roy] It's on the menu.
-Nice.
Can I give a little cut?
[Roy] If you want,
but you don't have to.
[Jon] Yes, chef.
[Roy] Yours is looking really good.
I think you're ready,
so go ahead and put your bologna on.
Here's the Cubano part.
-Put it on the cooler part here. Press.
-[Jon] Uh-huh.
[Jon] Where were you introduced
to fried bologna?
-[Roy] Myself.
-[Jon] You? First thing you cooked?
[Roy] Yeah.
Go ahead, take a bite.
[Jon] That's beautiful.
All right, I like it.
It's really good.
There's a lot happening here.
But it still has the soul
of an after-school fried bologna sandwich.
Mm-hmm. It's a grilled cheese sandwich
mixed with a Cubano.
-Yeah.
-It's half and half.
Yeah. I didn't mean to do it that way.
-It's half and half.
-It's half and half.
So I guess, in a way,
this is span style="style2"our menu item on Best Friend.
-[Jon] I know, seriously.
-[Roy] Yeah.
-[salsa rhythm playing]
-[tires squealing]
[Jon] Now, this was your main competition
when Kogi started, right?
[Roy] Where we first parked with Kogi,
there was, um,
a hot dog lady right next to us.
Oh, I see.
Every night she would look at us
and be like,
just chuckle to herself.
Like, "These idiots
are never gonna make it."
So let's butter.
[Jon] This is the after-club meal.
It's a tough market after last call.
Outside of tacos and, you know, like,
going to a 24-hour diner or something,
this was, and still is,
one of the only things you can eat
after the club.
[Jon] This isn't a New York thing,
or if it is, it wasn't
when I was growing up.
[Roy] This is an LA dog
through and through.
Gonna be the best hot dogs you ever had.
But first, let's start with the bacon.
I'll go ahead and start
layering the bacon down.
[sizzling]
[Jon] What kind of dogs do you use?
[Roy] Hebrew National.
Beauty.
Move those hot dogs around a little bit.
There you go.
You know how to move hot dogs. Nice.
You're getting into my territory here,
the Jewish.
[Roy laughing]
[Jon] Seeing them in a deli.
[Roy] That bacon looks good, right?
[Jon] Yeah.
Don't wanna get 'em too crisp 'cause
you can't wrap 'em then, right?
-No, we're not wrapping. This is my style.
-We're not?
[Jon] Oh. I wasn't expecting
a curve ball from you.
[Roy] Put it right here.
That's good.
[Jon] This looks great.
In the bacon fat,
we're gonna cook the peppers.
[Jon] Okay.
[Roy] Salt and pepper.
Kind of do what we were doing
with the spicy pork.
Jalapeños served as a garnish.
-[Jon] Look at that. There we go.
-[Roy] Look at you.
Coney Island Jon.
Put the peppers in.
Now let's toast these.
Yeah, go ahead, flip it over.
These are plays on the same techniques
from Cubanos.
Mm-hmm. Well, we're making sandwiches,
so basically, yeah.
So now try to give them to me like that.
So put the hot dogs in there.
Put a slice of bacon in there.
Slide it in.
-[Jon] They'll just straight up eat that?
-[Roy] Yeah.
There's still more assembly to it.
And we're going to go ketchup
mustard, mayo.
And put that in there
like Italian sausage and peppers.
There you go.
You did a really great job there.
-The Best Friend hot dog.
-[Jon] Oh, wow.
Do I need a plate?
-[Roy] Here you go.
-[Jon] I think I do.
Looks like it's for
a family of four, but
[Roy laughs]
-[Jon] Oh, you use a knife? Wait a minute.
-Wait a minute.
You didn't tell me about the knife.
This is another one
good for right before nap time.
You just ate a lot of food.
Oh, fuck, yeah.
-So good, right?
-Mmm.
You know, I know today there's been
a lot of recipes that are really simple.
There's no strange ingredient.
But simple doesn't necessarily mean
that the food can't be better.
It's just the way we cooked it,
layering in the peppers,
then layering the butter into the bread.
And then the little crispy nuggets
of the bread when you're biting into it.
It's like the grilled cheese sandwich.
The grilled cheese, bologna,
hot dog Cubano.
[laughing] That should be
our next sandwich.
-Where's Bill Burr at?
-[Jon] I know.
[salsa rhythm playing]
I don't know if we've ever officially
introduced Diego on screen, have we?
No. I don't know that you've ever
introduced him to me in person.
[laughing]
-But I've known you for five years. Hey.
-Jon.
-Pleasure to meet you.
-[Roy] This is Diego, our executive chef.
-Take this dumpling.
-I feel like we're in Vegas now.
Okay, so who's-- Put your chips up.
This restaurant, as we discussed earlier,
every part of it has a little bit
of a reflection of some point of my life,
but also the lives of other immigrant kids
and other friends that have been around.
I grew up in a restaurant,
and every day at 3:00 p.m.,
we'd sit down like this
and make dumplings.
-And the kids would help, too?
-[Roy] Kids would help,
anyone who's working,
'cause usually there's only, like,
five to eight people working
in the whole restaurant itself.
And you'll still see this happen
in many Vietnamese,
Chinese restaurants.
If you go and eat
between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.,
you'll see a lot of people sitting down
either stuffing chopsticks,
making dumplings.
We usually do it sitting down,
eating family meal, talking shit.
-You know, lot of gossip.
-Talk story.
Yeah, talk story. So
go ahead and show him how to fill one.
-Can I wet with my finger?
-Yes.
[Roy] Basically, you want to pinch down
and get all the filling to the center
as much as possible,
and then stuff the inside.
This is my first dumpling ever.
What's in this mixture?
[Diego] Ground beef, ground pork,
minced ginger,
minced cabbage, sesame oil,
oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar,
kochukaru, eggs, tofu,
sesame seeds, scallions.
-[Jon] Lot happening here.
-[Roy] I know.
[Roy chuckles]
Is that a good span style="style2"knedle, chef?
It's nice. Very nice.
[Jon] This must be great with the kids.
This is arts and crafts.
[Roy] Yeah.
You ever make ravioli?
-[Jon] No.
-Really? Okay.
I think the dumpling came
before the ravioli.
-So, we're going in progression.
-[Jon] Well, you know, we could
-And spaghetti. I know.
-[Roy laughing] Yeah.
As you build your muscle memory,
you'll start doing this
without even looking at it,
and you're just kind of making them
and talking at the same time.
Talking shit.
Every dumpling has shit talking.
[laughs] I can taste it.
-A little bit of its own personal
-There's a little bit of shit talking
and gossip mixed into every dumpling
in the world.
-All right.
-[Roy] Now we'll move over and boil these.
So we just want to gently place them in.
What are you looking for, them to float?
-Yes, exactly.
-[Jon] Like pasta?
It takes about three to five minutes.
Now what are you doing there?
Just giving it a little shake
so they don't stick to the bottom.
[Roy] The flame up all the way?
-[Diego] Yes.
-[Roy] All right.
-We're-- These are braised.
-Yes.
-[Jon] What's the name of this dish?
-"Dumplings."
-[laughs]
-You've got a way
-I've got a way with words.
-That's like how I name my movies.
We've got the most complicated names
on this menu.
I like
-'Cause I do span style="style2"Swingers, Made, Chef, Elf
-Yeah, that's right.
-Iron Man.
-Iron Man.
-That's the Best Friend menu.
span style="style2"-Lion King. That's it.
Hot dog, bologna sandwich,
dumplings, corn.
I think-- 'Cause you remember it,
you know what it is,
-and you can make an association.
-Yeah. Grilled fish.
[Roy] You remember it.
We could check one.
Let's throw one on here.
We'll do a tester. Do a test.
[Jon] Little more?
-No, we're good.
-That's good?
You could see, pork is cooked all the way.
[Roy] Try it, Diego.
[Jon] That's good. We're done.
[Roy] So be very gentle
as you take these out.
Now you can garnish.
[Diego] That's sesame oil.
-Put a little bit of
-[Jon] Green onion?
[Diego] scallions around.
-This edible flower?
-Yeah, microblends, some marigolds.
-[Jon] All edible, yeah?
-[Diego] Yes.
[Roy] And sesame seeds over the top.
What's with the flowers with you, Roy?
This is a new thing for you.
Just a couple dishes here
I thought benefited from them.
[Jon] Mm-mm-mm.
-Wow.
-Yeah.
That's good, Roy.
This is probably
one of our biggest sellers.
-I could see why.
-[Diego] Yeah.
No matter how many we make,
we end up selling out every night.
-Yeah.
-We can make 200, 300 more the next day,
and we'll still sell out somehow.
Here. Let's put this in the pass.
-[Roy] So fucking good.
-[Jon] I love it.
And I love the whole thing.
This is such a culmination of knowing you.
It's almost like when you take
a museum exhibit
-[Roy] Yes.
-[Jon] of somebody's life work,
and you get an overview of
not just the artwork, but of the person.
This feels like an autobiography.
[Roy] Most importantly,
it's a new beginning,
and now I wanna do bigger things,
I wanna do more things.
I want to help young entrepreneurs.
Not everyone makes it to be able to tell
your first half of your life story.
[Roy] Did you ever play poker?
[Jon] Not like a tournament.
I don't like a live game.
I don't like losing money.
And I don't like taking people's money
off of them.
-You a poker player?
-[Roy] I used to be.
-[Jon] Maybe we'll do it sometime.
-[Roy] But I think I--
-[Jon] Would our friendship survive it?
-[Roy] I think so.
-[Roy] We'll be like a pro-am tour.
-[Jon] Right.
-[Roy] Like, nothing's at stake.
-[Jon] Yes.