- [Narrator] We are Sorted,
a group of mates from London exploring the newest and
best in the world of food whilst trying to have a
few laughs along the way. (group laughs) We've got chefs, we've got normal (bleep) and a whole world of
stuff for you to explore but everything we do starts with you. - Hello, I'm Barry and this is Jamie. - And this, well this is the
bible of French classical cuisine, it's called Le
Répertoire de la Cuisine and it was written in 1914. - And it pretty much assumes that you know all the cooking techniques of that time before you've read it. - Should we see how our chefs get on? Boys, I love these. You have absolutely no idea
what's about to hit you, do you? - You're not in a gimp
suit so that bodes well - Not yet! - Aww I don't get to unwrap it! Got that one at home. - I have heard of it, I've never
read it, I've never seen it I've never held it. I've heard of it. - Well, I'm scared. - It is a reference book for chefs. - From the 1900s. - [Reads Aloud] Le bon cuisine le bast-- - Oh no! It's French - It sounds like the kind
of book you guys should have and should use and should
be able to use very well as classically trains chefs yourselves. - Obviously, you've never cooked from it. You've just referenced it, don't you? - So the reason they can fit
6000 recipes into this book, is because there are no ingredient lists, there are no weights and
measures, there's no method, it's just a list of elements on a plate that you're expected to have to make, and, I assume, interpret
how to plate yourself. - We're all on the same page. - [James] Which page are we on, Jay? - [Jamie] 108. We're into the fillet of sole, or sole category. - So the recipe here: Poached and coated with white wine sauce, garnished with small heaps
of carrots, balls of turnips, green peas, cauliflowers, asparagus heads, noisette potatoes, alternate the colors. - I think we've got this.
I feel this is fine. - [Jamie] Ozzie, who's
working with us at the moment, and goes to your college -- - UCB, yeah - -- he was actually challenged
as one of his assignments to cook the sole renaissance. - Oh really? Oh, nice.
- Oh interesting. - And so, because of that,
we have his interpretation. We have the lecturer's interpretation, we've got other images
of the way other people have interpreted this dish. So boys, we've given you
pretty much everything we think that you'll need, there's just one thing
missing to make this incredibly authentic. - Silly. I feel silly. - Now you're real chefs. - How do you want to divide this out? - What if I just pass you
ingredients and you cook them? - Noisette potatoes,
let's get those in the go. - Yeah, we're going to
turn these aren't we? - They aren't Noisettes, potato nuts. - Okay, I have misinterpreted
this recipe then. - Oh! - 'Cause I thought it would be potatoes cooked in brown butter. - Well I thought they were nut-shaped. - You really think Escoffier is like "make some nut-shaped potatoes." - Beurre noisette means butter
that's become nutty brown. - Yeah - So, it's a shade of color. - But why are you? - James, when was the last
time you turned a potato, - Don't know, don't want to say 10 years because that'll age me. - What is turning a potato? - Isn't it better when
potatoes all look like barrels? And for that reason,
there's a turning knife that looks a bit like this, and you use it to prepare potatoes so they
don't look like potatoes anymore in fact, they look like barrels of spud. - How you doing? - I've turned two nice
ones, and one's terrible. But I'm also going to do some of this because I'm pretty sure
this is also a thing. I'm waiting to see if you
can turn some potatoes better than I can because
mine are terrible. Mise en place, getting there, few discussions, this is where we've ended up. Potatoes. I've done this to
them, kind of ball-shaped. You've turned them, much
better than my two turned. Which one are we going to go for? - My ones. - [Jamie] My ones - [Ben] My ones Turn the potatoes is,
either way, part boiled in salted water and then
pan-fried in brown butter. Also got a pan of salted
water coming up to a boil. For those things grown above the ground, we will do those last. Peas,
asparagus, cauliflower. Turnips are also done. - [James] They look good. - Under the ground, cold
water. In with the potatoes. And we're gonna risk. - Escoffier wouldn't like you. - No, I know. But he's
doing the washing up, so This is fish stock that we've heated up. Now we're going to poach the
sole. Are we doing fish stock? Or are we doing court-bouillon? - Oh. Let's add a few flavors to it. - Bay, peppercorn, parsley stalks, lemon into the fish stock so you're
poaching in a court-bouillon. - [Mocking] Court-bouillon - Herbs and stuff - Cheers, mate, thanks. - But we're not going to
cook the fish yet, right? - No. Last minute. A la minute. Last thing is our white wine sauce. We're doing a beurre
bouillon kind of reduction. So white wine, reduced down,
with a little bit of vinegar, and then you whisk in cold
butter to create a classic beurre blanc. But the book
says white wine sauce. What are we going to do instead? - Is it a veloute? Go on, do it. - [Jamie Mockingly] Is it a veloute? - Do we just make a roux?
Cook it off, cream at the end - I think all of that
white wine reduced down with cold butter whisked in
to emulsify it or thicken it, then you nappe over the
fish at the last second. These are all words I
haven't used for decades. They're coming back to me.
- Nappe over the fish? - James, your knife technique
is exceptional as always. - It is not. - What are you going for? - Going for a very small dice.
Something that we can heap. So it still looks smart-- - but heap-y - -- but heap-y. - So in that extensive recipe
that we've talked through, it doesn't mention
anything about the fleuron, there's nothing about puff pastry. How do you know it's supposed to be there, other than us putting the
puff pastry there for you? - Seeing the puff pastry
that you had prepared for us reminded us of dishes that included it. - [Jamie] So the fleuron
was a disc of puff pastry. It was just assumed to be there. And the reason was to show off. You didn't have pre-packed
puff pastry back then. You had to make it yourself. And because it was such a
difficult thing to make, it was there to show off
the skills of the chef. Just as a little by the
way I'm very very good. - Gute! Or bonne! - Gute! I am so bonne! - Are we going to glaze our puff pastry? I think the answer's yes. - I thought they were fried, not baked. I really think they're fried. - You fry too. I'll bake one. It doesn't really matter
because there's nothing to say we're really right or
wrong. It's just a guide. - No, no. That's the
whole point of the video. They're going tell us that
we're wrong at the end. - Well, exactly. It
doesn't matter what we do. They're going to tell us we were wrong. - No. Not if we did it right. - And this is how a
10-year friendship ended. [Mocking] No! We should
fry the puff pastry discs No! We should bake them. - Why has this turned into a battle? - [Ben] It's not a battle,
we're working together on this. - [James] I don't feel like we are. - [Ben] Reduction. Into that,
we can whisk cold butter and finish with cream. Rechauffee? Is that it? - Oui. - We can rechaufee at the last second. So our turnips are nearly
done. We can take them out, they can cool down, that's fine. - [Jamie] What's your problem? - Ben speaking French. - Right. - Sorry, Ben, sorry. - I don't think you are. - I am. - Je suis desole - Just stop. Stop - Excusez-moi! - Stop. I'm frying off my fleurons. Because that's what I
think I remember doing. But Ben assures me that it's wrong. - Not assure, I just remember
the heart-shaped ones being baked. - [James] But these
aren't heart-shaped, Ben. - [Ben] Correct. Brown
butter, potatoes going in. Carrots, going into cold
water. The beurre blanc has only a little bit left. Cold diced butter, a little
bit at a time, gets whisked in. - [James] These are looking nice. - Oh! Potatoes cooked in butter. - Sole filets. Thicker at
one end than the other. So traditionally, I remember
them being folded over and cooked like that so
you end up with something that's more even and cooks more equally. This is a very very fine white fish. I don't know whether it's
supposed to be poached in a court bouillon, but we've
done that because we know that is a classic option at times. Taking a lot of care
with poaching the fish because we don't want to boil it, so just leaving that
water just below boiling. - [Jamie] All right,
you've got five minutes of cooking remaining. Getting very hungry. - And for our next
disagreement, I've got a plate. - Only thing I was
thinking of, is we now know that the reference to
what we're doing has been provided to us by UCB and
I know the plates they use are just classic round whites. - [James] Ben, we're using this plate. I'm going to put some peas in here. - Reheating the perfectly
cooked mise en plate veg in a pan with some water,
little bit of butter, little season, just brings
it back up to temperature. Gives it a nice glaze. - [James] Now, alternating
colors. How's the fish? The fish has been in
there for [Bleep] ages. - [Ben] These two are good. [Electronic Riffs Play] - [Jamie] Five...four...three...two...one. - Gorgeous. Glad we don't cook like that anymore. - I really enjoyed that. - It was good fun. - The best bit is, it now
has to be tasted by probably the least qualified person
available to know whether this is exactly what it should have been. - [James] I think you're
going to enjoy it. - [Jamie] Do you want to
talk me through what we got? - [Ben] The centerpiece
is our sole fillets, poached in a court bouillon and
coated in a white wine sauce made from a beurre blanc reduction. - [James] We have some noissette potatoes, and then we have some
very simply treated veg. We've got asparagus, we've
got carrots, we've got peas, we've got cauliflower and we have turnip. - [Ben] And we have got a fleuron which is a crescent of puff
pastry which was cooked in a pan and dipped in chopped herbs. - I'm actually super happy with
it. I think it looks great-- - This is really unusual for you - --and it tastes good. Yeah I know but I think
it looks really good. - Well, here I have a
few different versions that were made at your old university. Let's start with the
lecturer's interpretation. - Interesting. - Very similar elements. Some
elements completely different. The sole looks very similar,
folded over and poached. And the fleuron looks very similar. - [James] The sole is grilled as well. - I wouldn't say that's a heap of -- - That's not a heap of
carrots, is it? Come on. - All right, just have
a go at your lecturer. - Sauce consistency is very similar. - This is Ozzie. This is his
interpretation of the dish. - [Ben] Crispy skin. They
are very different potatoes then I was expecting from a noisette. - [James] There's no pastry
underneath the asparagus. - [Ben] With stuff in it. Interesting. - We went-- - Very different - This, we're going to
have to zoom in a bit. Because this is a group
shot of all of the groups . - [Ben] Interesting, so
this is like a leaf-shaped puff pastry disc. - The thing I find most fascinating about this whole exercise is you've made this plate out
of that 20-word description, and then looking at everyone else's, they've made completely
different looking tasting dishes, using the same ingredients
and using the same guideline. And if that is not a summary
of what food actually means, then I don't know what is. - [James] We're not judging, are we? - [Ben] Yeah, but you're judging yourself. - [James] Yeah. - Cheers. - Oh Oh, buttery potatoes. I have to say that sauce
is lovely and sharp. You get the slight herb,
the herbiness in there, so creamy, so buttery, slight acidity sharpness from the wine reduction,
but that is great. - We did a great job. - [Ben] I'm chuffed with that. - And you know, that I would
say if we didn't do a good job. - [Ben] I know you would. Good job, team. - Well done, boys. That
is absolutely awesome. Are you going to recommend
that book to the audience? - Yeah. The brave ones. - The brave ones. We've made these two chefs
cook from a few different cookbooks now, ranging from the serious
to the not so serious. We've put a playlist of
all of them in the link box down below, and we'd love to know from you what other cookbooks we should
get them to cook from next. Because I really like these, and people seem to like them as well. It takes you outside of your comfort zone. - More classics. - That's why we love it too! - Not just classics, novelty. - That's a classic. - Well, you see, that generally
involves. Oh yeah, we have fancy dress in this one as well. - If you're enjoying these
videos and this channel, then make sure you
subscribe and, of course, ring that notification bell. - Pause the video and do it now. - Our latest book, Hero-Veg, is shipping at the end of this week,
so there's still time to get yourself a copy. - Find all the information you
need to sign up to the club in the box downstairs. - I must say, I got
really arty with this one. - You did, didn't you? So macro. - It is macro. Oh! Look
how close up we are. - You've got some really
great apertures in there. - Shut up. - Breakfast in bed. One of the nicest things you
can do for someone. Right? - Yeah! - All it needs is a thank
you at the end of it. Not a "how did you get into my house?" - Very Jamie, very Jamie. - [Jamie] Yeah, tell me about it. As we've mentioned we don't just make top quality YouTube videos. We've built the Sorted Club,
where we use the best things we've learned to create stuff
that's hopefully interesting and useful to other food lovers. Check it out if you're interested.
Thank you for watching, and we'll see you in a few days. - I know there was a video
recently where you and I stood next to each other. I don't think it's aired
yet, but God I look short.
