The Mind of a Chef (2012) s04e19 Episode Script

1 Support from viewers like you makes this program possible.
Please give to your PBS station.
The atavistic desire to spend time with the community gathered around fire and the food it cooked is deeply ingrained in our DNA.
In these decidedly hurried and unreflective times, the role of a modern chef is that of a great unifier.
They help enhance the dining experience into an act of camaraderie, community, and sharing.
- You know what they call that smell? - What's that? The Lowcountry cologne.
I love that.
So, many of our fondest personal memories revolve around food or music.
And often times at the intersection of both.
Fewer senses are as evocative as smell, taste, and sound.
And fewer pursuits are as creative or as fueled by passion.
The act of celebrating isn't meant to be analyzed or critiqued.
It's meant to be enjoyed.
It-It's very easy to just, like, kind of go through the motions.
And I did that.
I didn't know what I always wanted to be.
I was washing dishes.
And I just would play the drums.
It's like that was a good escape for me.
Music was my first voice.
But I saw the reality of the situation.
I had to make a decision.
Do I wanna keep going for music? It kinda helped me realize that I can start really finding out what I wanted to do with my life.
Going to culinary school is really just a means of getting out of Oklahoma.
That's why I think the rubber hit the road, and I was like, "This is a tangible opportunity here.
" And I really grabbed on to that.
When I was a kid growing up in Oklahoma, potlucks were taken very seriously.
People wanted to make sure that they brought the thing that best represented their household.
Check out this little piggy, Danny.
- No joke, that's amazing.
- Meep Meep.
Oh, my God.
How are you? - Good, how have you been? - Great, great, great.
The biggest benefit to any potluck is that you wanna put your best foot forward.
- Darling - What's up? How are you? But, as chefs, we know, it's okay to let your guard down a little bit.
Have you guys met? You guys have met before, right? I don't know.
Uh, no we hadn't it's our first time.
Oh, man.
The legend.
- I'm happy to meet.
Happy to meet you.
- The legend The legendary Inaki.
The idea behind the whole potluck is just fun.
Do you guys know what he's doing? - What this? - You know what he's doing? Are you jealous? - What's this? - He's making a It's a butterfly.
- Butterfly chacuterie.
- Yeah.
It's amazing.
Like, it's This is like the best.
This is so good.
I'm so happy this is happening right now.
That's what I go for.
Coming in with the idea of fun.
What I'm gonna make for this dinner, I wanted it to be something kind of unexpected, but also something that there's this alarming response to.
So it's like this, when you do, like, a dinner party, you wanna come strong.
You wanna come prepared.
It's all about sandbagging it to where it's ready to go.
So you show up with your A game.
You show up with, like, what you're known for.
What can you do? I'm making this dish because it's meant to be shared.
It's our version of a Beggar's chicken, we do with a duck.
So what we decided is that we would just confit a whole duck.
We dropped in duck fat.
Lots of duck fat.
Enough duck fat to cover, and cooked it for a couple of hours until it just gave way.
It was very tender.
Here's is where you cue the duck-fat-dripping music.
There's a Korean soup that I love called samgyetang.
That Korean soup is a whole chicken that's stuffed with rice, ginseng, dates, and chestnuts.
This part of the dish is based off that Korean soup.
We omitted the ginseng, but we have rice, then we have some of the duck glaze.
The duck glaze is just Shaoxing wine, sugar, soy sauce, that kind of stuff all reduced down till it gets really thick and syrupy.
And some dates.
Make sure you take the pitt out.
That's a very rookie move, not pitting your dates.
Chestnuts, these are cooked.
These have been steamed.
Really, really, really, simple.
It's just a rice stuffing.
While this is hanging out here, I'm gonna start rolling out the clay.
This is just potter's clay.
It's good for the Good for the pecs.
It has a hermetic seal, it creates, like, this chamber where this whole duck like steams.
All the flavor from the rice, goes in the duck.
All that flavor from the duck goes in the rice.
It's super awesome.
This is pretty even now.
You want it to be, like, that temperature where you put your hand on it and it kinda leaves a mark.
Put a clean piece of parchment paper down.
This is going to make it really clean for when you break through the clay.
It doesn't go all into the duck.
Oh, we struggled with that in the beginning and we were, like, "Oh, we should just wrap it in paper.
" Lotus leaf has been soaked in water.
Right.
So when you place the duck, you want to put it down smack-dab in the middle.
Right.
Wrap it up really nice and tight like some Christmas package.
Then this part, flap it over.
You want this thing sealed.
It's like you're wrapping something in a bunch of Play-Doh.
So that's that.
All right.
Duck's in.
It takes about 45 minutes or so.
You'll know, the clay will tell you because the clay will be hardened.
When it's hot, it's really, really, hot.
The easiest part of this whole process is this cracking open.
I like to cover it with a towel first.
It kinda adds to the mystery of what's gonna happen.
So, I like to hit it a couple of times.
Hit it in each corner.
And then right in the middle.
Right.
This is the temperature of hell.
It's so hot I don't understand.
Clear all this debris away.
And the duck, because of the intense heat, uh, it just kind of, like, darkens.
The skin doesn't get crispy.
So, if you're looking for Peking duck I actually hate Peking duck.
The flesh gives away and you just kind of barely push it.
This is really tender.
This is just a reduction of, like, wine and duck bones, duck stock.
I like to sauce the rice.
Again, what's cool about it is this rice and chestnut in here, just gets super tasty.
You get this kind of, like, rendered, super delicious skin.
You get this really soft meat that you can just pull apart with your fingers.
That's so good.
It's not about impressing anyone, it's about exciting people, like, getting people really in the mood to party.
- What are you doing Sean? - I thought it would be fun to serve some Charleston food.
So this is a dish that I've eating like once a week for the past couple of years.
Yeah, - it's called crab rice.
- Right.
So, when you went to culinary school, did you wear the big toque? - Do you have it still? - I used to sweat through like six of those a day.
They're paper.
- Really? - Yeah.
Oh, man.
So, we had these hats that were, like, cloth hats, that we were responsible to launder.
You could tell who's doing well in school just by the condition of the hat they wore that day.
Mine was always crumpled up and, like, dirty.
That's because I would, you know, stuff it in my bag at the last second.
But it's funny, like, some people would press their hat with a little thing.
That's one of the reasons why I wanted to go to culinary school, - is to wear the hat.
- To wear the hat? - Yeah.
- Oh, man.
Sean Brock, I met at the first Mission Chinese food.
He had come in town for Big Apple BBQ.
The positive thing about being a chef that participates in these things, is that you can just go behind the scenes and just, like So he had curated this sheet tray of like the best of everything.
And we were working lunch going into dinner service.
And he walks in, dropped a bottle of whiskey, dropped a plate of food on the pass.
And, you know, I was, like, "That's the coolest thing anyone has ever done.
" I grew up in the coal fields of Virginia, bluegrass country.
Growing up in such a rural place, we didn't have restaurants to go see live music.
Like, we had to entertain ourselves.
There's always someone picking guitar, cooking non-stop.
That's just what you do when you live in such a backwoods area.
Two things that provide comfort and enjoyment.
That's the beauty of soul food and that's the beauty of soul music.
My grandmother and my mother, were enormous, crazy, crazy, hard-core Willie Nelson fans.
I grew up listening to Willie Nelson.
But I'd never been to an actual concert.
I was eleven years old and Willie Nelson was playing his IRS tour.
Of course, it's the West Virginia State fair, so the smell of funnel cakes is in the air.
Willie Nelson comes out.
I'd never seen or heard music that loud.
It was filling the air.
I sat there in awe, seeing these songs that I grew up listening to.
It was just so captivating.
Have I told you He started playing, "Have I Told You Lately," and I never really paid much attention to that song.
I was eleven.
But I'd look over, my mother and grandmother in tears.
Without you anyhow It was the first time I had actually seen music touch someone that way.
Have I told you lately Really move someone.
That I love you I've paid a little more attention to lyrics ever since that day.
Well, darling, I'm telling You now I just bought this new house.
It's completely empty.
Tomorrow we're gonna christen the kitchen and the fireplace.
Cook a meal amongst friends and celebrate a new home.
So, this is the beginnings of your dining room table here.
We got all this wood out of a house built in 1930s originally.
What's cool about it is, it's already almost a 100 years as a dead tree.
- Yeah - I can't even imagine how old the tree was when - it was cut down.
- This is the kind of wood that you can't go to the store and buy because it's antique hard pine.
This is probably 200 to 300 years old before it was even chopped down.
- That's amazing.
The pine is so dense, isn't it? - I know.
It's so cool, it'll last forever.
Oh, yeah.
I think this stuff actually came out of the kitchen, which is the coolest part of it.
These are the four-dressed People shared meals over it, for what, the last almost hundred years.
So cool, man.
This is unbelievable.
So, we're gonna finish it up.
We're gonna do a really cool process, where we char the whole top of it.
And then kind of take it down until it finds, like, the perfect tone of How're you gonna do that? Blowtorch or something? Really big blowtorch, yeah.
It's like a jet engine that we hook up to a propane tank.
And then just pray that we don't burn the shop down.
Man, this is going to be cool.
One of our prized possessions in the Lowcountry.
Blue crab.
This showcases the waterways and the traditions.
Certainly one of my favorite ingredients.
This dish means a lot to me.
I enjoy sharing it with other people, so this is the perfect occasion.
This is my favorite celebratory dish to make.
You've really gotta love someone to pick that much crab for them.
It's a lot of work, but it's worth it.
It's so decadent and luxurious.
And the technique is what gives this beautiful depth of flavor.
One of the tricks is putting the crab in a nice thin, even layer.
And you don't want to mess with it.
This beautiful round crust will form on the bottom, and that takes a little bit of patience.
And here I have onions, celery, pepper, bacon, and crab roe.
I stew it down separately.
What I call a crab roe sofrito which will give it that soul.
The equally important part of crab rice is the rice.
I have some Carolina Gold rice cooking, one of our coveted ingredients in Lowcountry.
Fresh bay, that's very, very important.
So, if I can peek.
See, I'm starting to get these crusty pieces on that crab right there.
Another little pat of butter, tiny bit of salt and lemon juice.
To complete this, I like hiding lots of flavors.
This is tomatoes that get cooked down for a few hours with a little bit of tomato vinegar.
Beautiful Charleston ice cream.
This is lovage, tastes like really fresh celery.
Crispy crab.
Lightly smoked and sundried oysters.
I grind that into a powder with a little bit of crab roe.
And to lighten it up, egg yolk that I've salted and cured for a few days.
Gonna add a layer of complexity.
And the last thing, one of my favorite ingredients, benne seeds.
Beautiful, floral and earthy and grassy.
It also adds a really nice texture.
And that's it, Lowcountry crab rice.
Damn, I wanna eat that.
The kitchen in this house I've been dying to cook in there.
I wanna smell it up.
The first fire is the most exciting.
I'm going to cook some potatoes in the coals.
We're gonna wood fire some Bear Creek ribeyes.
Heaven.
The dining room table, that's the most important place in the house.
- Looks like the inside of a whiskey barrel.
- Yeah.
It's awesome.
- That's incredible.
- Thanks.
It's a perfect mix of my personality, modern and redneck.
It's the new thing.
The table is a sacred thing.
It's where we spend a lot of time, it's where we celebrate, enjoy ourselves and where we relax.
Dude, that is so cool.
Really good day.
I'm like mesmerized.
Music, celebration, and food.
We can all find excuses to enjoy those things on a daily basis.
And you should.
Dig in.
We can have all those things together in one room when it's for people you love being around and your family.
Man, that's the greatest feeling in the world.
That's what heaven's like.
Every time I tell this story, I'm like, "Oh, you know, one, in like X amount is, like, actually spicy.
" And for some reason, recently, every time I say that, I'm the one who gets the spicy one.
They're like, "Oh, mine's not hot.
" - This is so nice, huh? - Yeah.
I wish you get, like, the shoots.
Oh, the black gloves, dude, I want the black gloves.
- Yeah.
- I got those from Carlo at Blanco the other day.
- Yeah.
- Those are like tattoo artist gloves, aren't they? Yeah, I know or BBQ pit master gloves.
Yeah.
Totally.
Oh, April, what are you doing? What are you making? I'm doing a whole roasted suckling pig and a little salsa rossa.
It's starting to get cold outside.
Bit of cinnamon 'cause it's nice and warm, little bit chilly, and a slice of garlic, tomatoes stewed down.
This is like my go-to sauce for pork.
So, it's gonna go well, you know, 'cause it's nice and sweet and sour - at the same time.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
- So, kind of like a sweet and sour suckling pig.
- Yeah.
- Cuts all that fat, you know.
- Yeah.
I'm doing duck tonight, so, it's kinda, like, "What can we do that's gonna counter all that, like, richness" With Beggar's duck I like to have different condiments that can add different, like, contrasts of flavor, texture, color.
The first one I wanted to do is this ginger scallion sauce.
This is based on a super, super, super traditional Chinese sauce.
Take some grape-seed oil Smoke is a good thing.
You wanna see a little bit of smoke happening.
Thinly sliced scallions.
At most Chinese restaurants I would ask, like, "How do you make this sauce?" They would not tell me.
It's a very guarded thing.
So, took me a long time to figure out how to make this sauce.
Most of the ginger scallion sauce they have at Chinese BBQ shops, is, like, four ingredients, oil, scallions, ginger, and MSG.
So, I have ginger, scallions, oil.
And in place of MSG, we're using a little bit of really awesome fish sauce, made with fermented anchovies and mushroom powder.
That's gonna help, kind of, add that umami, that typically MSG would.
And on record, I don't have any problem with MSG.
I grew up eating lots of powdered soup mixes, lot's of French onion dip.
This is something that's amazing 'cause it keeps for a long time in your refrigerator.
I think that's pretty much done.
I've eaten duck with like really rich sauces or something that's, like, really pungent, like the ginger sauce.
But I've never really eaten duck with, like, cream or something like really pickled.
And so, the idea with this was like, "Well, let's just make a pickled cream.
" I have some crema cultured with a little bit of kefir.
And then, I'm just gonna ribbon in some of this pickled beet puree.
It really, really works.
Really works for the duck.
So, the idea with this is also like asking, why hasn't this been done, and then doing it, going for it.
Yeah, it's good.
The acidity from the vinegar pickled beet and the crema is really nice.
I want to offset that with salt, salinity.
I like to use salt of the sea, so I used salmon roe.
You're gonna be eating this cream and have these little pops of salinity and that's what we want with the duck.
People get really excited if you're throwing a party when you put fish roe on something.
What I wanted to achieve with this condiment is to add acidity, vibrancy, and color.
You know, I mean, you eat with your eyes.
This is gonna add the pop to the duck.
For real.
This next one's gonna bring the heat.
These are red shishito peppers, which have lot's and lot's of flavor.
You can do this over an open flame.
I like to just use a blow torch because it's fun.
I think there should be more blow torches used at dinner parties.
You really wanna blacken this.
And then, I got some peaches.
Pinch of salt here.
And I'm just gonna chop it together.
So, this should be really salty, spicy, sweet, sour.
Everything I want on the food really.
This is brown rice vinegar.
Really kinda wanna hammer this with that.
Fish sauce.
Tomorrow when people are eating this, it's really like kind of a choose-your- own-adventure thing.
The best thing about this supermarket is that it opens, like, super-early.
Because I was adopted and grew up in Oklahoma, I didn't know anything about Korean food at all.
It's been quite a journey, it's fun to kind of decode what all this stuff is.
These kind of even classify into a These are kind of, like, drinking snacks, right? So, for the potlucks we have to have, like, this much of this.
Because So basically it's fried peanuts, fried, dried anchovies.
Sweet, salty, sticky, chewy.
You know, I've been in situations too with friends and chefs, that like, they don't even know what they're eating.
We'll be at, like, a thing and they'll be eating it.
Just talking to me, like, "Oh, this is really good.
" And I'm like, "Oh, that's 'cause there are a ton of dried, little anchovies and there's tons of imami.
" So, these guys, I'll grab a couple of these.
If you go to an Asian market and you think it looks good, take a chance, you know.
I like that toastiness and I like getting it nice and brown, the garlic.
So, it gets really warm.
That's nice.
I like a lot of garlic.
Maybe a little past toasty.
- Oh, really? - You really want to smell that warmth.
- It really makes it a little more complex.
- Yeah.
- Here you can see it's kind of happy right now, isn't it? - Yeah, totally.
Check this out, see how dark that is? - It's gonna spatter a little bit.
- Yeah.
But the tomatoes, they stop the cooking of the garlic.
April, she's very much old-school, she'll get in there.
She'll get her hands dirty.
I see the way she, like, works on her team.
So, this is like serious business.
I mean, someone blanched, chopped, peeled, seeded Yeah, somebody blanched and peeled all these babies.
But, all this is gonna melt away.
It's just gonna become really warm and delicious.
She knows flavors.
She won't over-complicate it for the sake of that.
She'll just put out food.
There's no question that it's delicious.
You know, all the skin here is gonna get tough.
And once it's cooked, I'm just gonna pull it away and just mush it all in.
- Oh, wow.
So it just disintegrates.
- Just disintegrates.
- This is gonna be a little spicy.
- Oh, good.
It's still extremely hard for me to put aside how big of a fan I am of hers.
And how much respect I have.
Like, it's hard to not just fan-boy out.
The whole time.
I think we tie food and celebrating together because it's a very intimate moment.
You can have that with yourself, but it's so much better to share with other people.
So, we invited some friends to have a feast.
Gonna do a slow-cooked ribeye, have some wine veggies grown on the farm.
We'll get this hint of this sweet smoke.
Is that for billowing? Yeah.
We are not using a service tray to light a fire, don't worry.
That isn't happening.
Tom Adams is my business partner.
It's getting raging.
Tom wanted to remove himself from London and be in a more rural setting.
And for me, I have a busy life in New York, and I just kind of wanted a contrast.
Somewhere where I could be inspired, and inspire others.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Do you have any marshmallows? We've realized that we are very similar.
So we purchased Coombeshead Farm where people could come in and have that intimate relationship and connection to the earth.
Whenever I've cooked over fire, everybody comes and just takes a moment and just kind of zones out.
Conversation stops and they just look at the fire.
wondering and daydreaming together.
It's what I wanted to give other people.
The birds.
You know It's amazing.
There is nothing like an English songbird or You know just being in a country.
It wouldn't take me long To tell you how to find When I was younger, we used to come to Devon and Cromwell a lot to go camping.
I remember this van my dad used to call Chug-a-boom.
It was an old British Telecom van that he painted royal blue.
And me and my sisters used to sit in the back.
I just remember hearing "Under the Ivy" by Kate Bush.
I could listen to that track and it just makes me take stock.
There is something very special about driving down the country lane.
The hedgerows being really high, the canopy of the trees making a tunnel, and all of a sudden we'd get to the sunshine.
And you're like "wow, that's magical.
" I sit here in the thunder The green on the gray Morning, ladies.
Go into the garden Go under the ivy Under the leaves My mum did a bit of gardening.
She'd have tomatoes, and cucumbers, lots of salad.
Hmm.
To plant the seed and being able to harvest something, and then cook it and serve it, it's very special.
It's like a whole cycle.
Cause I'll be Waiting for you It's soulful, calming.
I have to tie that gate because you ladies will decimate those veggies.
You know I've got your number, ladies.
You know, you don't want it too hot.
If you can't hold your hand there, it's too hot.
You can see it's not full on smoke.
It's just kind of being kissed very gently by the wind.
Beef and rosemary are like a great combination.
It's a little brine.
Rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, garlic, salt, and I'll just dip and baste.
Probably like every half an hour, keep it a little bit moist, give it a nice salty crust.
So when you carve, you'll get this, kind of, nice saltiness.
So, in about seven hours it's going to be ready.
Here's a bit of rump to hang.
Let this just slowly cook all day.
A little kohlrabi, celery root.
The rocks are nice and hot right now.
So, uh, I'm just gonna let them cook real slow.
Bonny, bonny fire.
Look at the smoke on there.
It's like perfect.
Just think in about four, five, six hours, somebody is going to be nibbling on that big, fatty, salty bone.
My nan used to cook the best Sunday roast.
Such fun, fun memories.
She used to listen to old cronies on the radio.
"Spanish Eyes" by Al Martino.
Spanish eyes Teardrops are falling From your Spanish eyes She loved that song.
Sometimes I listen to it and it reminds me of her.
Please don't cry I remember being very, very young and just coming down in the morning and smelling the roasted pork with sage Ugh, it's just so good And applesauce.
And all the windows with steam dripping down.
Bringing you all the love Your heart can hold I didn't know it was mise en place at the time, but little pots of like peeled potatoes and sliced carrots with nubs of butter and water, or parsnips in a roasting pan, and stuffing all made.
Will wait for me It was a very intimate setting.
Just family.
So my mom, my dad, my sisters, my granddad, my nan, sometimes uncles and aunts.
It was very comforting, it was very inviting.
It was a time to kind of sit down and just talk and eat a lot.
I mean, the plate was like this big that would be like piled high.
You'd have a pile of mash potatoes.
Like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where Richard Dreyfuss is just like piling up these mashed potatoes.
And it was all covered with delicious gravy.
And that was what my nan's Sunday roast used to be like.
It was just It was epic.
You and your Spanish eyes Will wait for Wow.
I miss that.
Yeah.
I've got a little trencher on there.
All the juice and the fats from the ribeye will kind of soak into that bread.
This is a medieval dish, basically.
Noble, rich people would have a roast joint resting on a piece of bread.
The noble people would eat the beef and then the poor people would eat a kind of plate the vehicle for the resting of the beef.
It's ready.
Feels kind of medium rare.
These are ready to come off.
So, you can see the salt 'cause I've basted these in the salty brine.
Mm.
It kind of tastes like seaweed.
I think I'm gonna leave some of that char on there.
Give it a little contrast.
Celeriac is fully soft, creamy, kind of like a potato.
Peel these kohlrabi.
They kind of taste like turnip.
Fruity, earthy, and clean.
So, you can see this is like a little It's a little smoky on the outside and nicely steamed in the inside.
So, we'll just kind of chop this up.
Dressing It's a little fermented tomato, tarragon, lovage oil, red wine vinegar.
It makes things very morish.
You wanna eat more.
You wanna like pff.
Shove it down your neck.
We're gonna actually use these instead of the salt 'cause they're really quite umami like.
It's like walking through a forest on a fall day with the leaves.
Great match for the meat.
Oh, this looks fantastic.
Nice to see you.
- How're you doing? - All right.
Your Birmingham accent is long gone.
Yeah, no, I know.
How thirsty are you? - Oh! - Beautiful.
See the color of that fat.
It's one of these old British dairy breeds, so they convert the grass into super buttery yellow fat.
Who wants a little bit of this bit? Come one, Jay.
You should taste that, darling.
Oh, boy.
I've got your number, baby.
Yeah, just help yourselves, guys.
Look at that, get that fat crispy.
Excuse me, Peter Peg, meat needs to be passed down.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, sorry.
Is it fingers, or do we Well, we're all friends, right? We can use our fingers.
- The trencher is good, huh? - Absolutely delicious.
It's funny how something can take so long and then it's just gone in a second.
To be all together, everybody, and have a celebration around a fire Cheers, guys.
and having friends around that know all about you.
You're in that moment together.
To be able to share that connection with this big feast, you just can't beat it.
This one, yeah? Or do you like the other one? I don't know.
I prefer the - The electric? - Yeah.
That's faster.
But for your apartment It's modern, you know.
It's modern.
Oh, yeah.
I forgot.
No, it's good.
- It's nice, though.
- Yes.
Inaki Aizpitarte, he's arguably one of the chefs I draw the most inspiration from.
Because of his approach on how he cooks food and just how he is as a person.
He's one of the funnest people I've ever met.
You can tell, he puts it all out there.
April, did you go to culinary school or not? I did, yeah.
I did two years.
- You didn't go to culinary school? - No.
What did you do before you started cooking? Trying to work in a garden.
Uh-huh.
How old were you when you started cooking? I start 27.
Wow.
- That's late, huh? - That's late.
You started at 27? - Yeah.
- That's crazy.
In a lot of ways, Inaki broke a lot of rules.
But not for the sake of breaking rules.
It was just an organic thing.
How we eat food today, a lot of people drew influence from you.
'Cause you were just doing the opposite of what everyone else was doing.
You were being your own thing.
It's because you had a different eye on things.
Yeah, because no school and, um And start late.
And you do what - How you feel, you know? - Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the best.
Yeah.
Like that.
How's the charcuterie butterfly coming along? This is amazing.
It's very retro, isn't it? This would be an amazing lower back tattoo.
Oh, stop.
Where's the nearest tattoo place? Tonight we go.
Mmm.
This is good.
Danny, taste this.
- Oh, yeah.
- It's like warm, right? Yeah.
It's so good.
In your kitchens, do you allow people to listen to music when they're prepping? As I'm getting older, I'm like, "Yeah, it's good.
" - I have to.
I have to.
- Yeah? - Really? - I can't operate without it.
Yeah.
But not during service.
When you're prepping and Well, both Husks are open kitchens.
So, I like to listen to what the guests - are listening to.
- Okay.
I'm very strict about the playlist.
You know, now you've your own business, you have your own restaurant, it's nice, it's like you're home.
You're always at home.
It's nice to be able to hear what you wanna hear.
When we opened McCrady's Tavern, I wanted to feel like Van Halen was there, you know? Really? And we are playing so much Van Halen, so loud at brunch Oh, my gosh.
that people were saying, "If you don't turn the Van Halen off, I'm leaving.
" What? Really? - That sounds less amazing.
- A couple of people left.
No way, no way.
Because brunch needs to be loud.
And the servers were like, "You're gonna have to talk to Chef Brock about that.
" - Did you go talk? - And I'm like, "You don't like Van Halen? Who doesn't like Van Halen?" I don't know.
I don't wanna talk to that person.
I was brought up in a very Christian, like fundamentally Christian household.
I went to church, not once or twice a week, but like four or five times a week.
My parents were like really into church.
I wasn't allowed to listen to, like, secular music growing up.
I was only allowed to listen to Christian music which is horrible.
The first time, I bought a CD, I think I was 15 or Maybe younger than that.
I got a gift certificate from my grandma or something.
So, I went with my parents and my dad ran in with us.
He was like, "That doesn't look Christian.
" I am like, "It's Christian, Dad.
It's Christian.
" So, I sandwiched in between the two Christian CDs, a Van Halen Greatest Hits album.
I get into the car, get in the backseat of the minivan, strap myself in.
The moment I put it on There was this, like, crazy sensory experience.
It was like that moment for me, like when I eat food and I'm like, "What did I just taste?" Like the first moment when I had Szechuan food, I was like, "How do I get more of this?" Eddie Van Halen, playing that solo, it was challenging me in a way I had never been challenged before.
I really think that moment that I started to push play on that CD player, something clicked.
Any event we do, it's like music is just as important as food.
It's about setting a tone.
Whoo! Give it a nice Thor, right there.
There you go.
It's like a duck that's cooked in clay.
As a chef, my job is to provide an experience for someone.
It's like music.
You go to see a show, and for a couple of hours lose yourself, and on a sensory level, experience everything you can.
We need some kind of a bucket or something I can put this in.
You know what they call that smell? What's that? The Lowcountry cologne.
If I can get a bunch of people around a table, eating food with their hands and unbuttoning the top button a little bit that's what food is to me.
It's really about flavor and deliciousness and then, also, sharing an experience in that moment.
And really just relaxing.
That's the best kind of party you can throw.
It's when people are leaving, they don't want it to end.
Hopefully, we've to kick everybody out.
And also, people are like, "When do we get to do this again?"