Alessia Cara Tries to Keep Up with a Professional Chef | Back-to-Back Chef | Bon Appétit

hey I'm Carla and I'm here in the bon appetit Test Kitchen today with Alessia Cara and today we've got 20 minutes to make a lobster pasta with Calabrian chili and we're gonna see a Valecia can follow along with me through verbal instructions only my family's from Colombia so maybe I'll have the Calabrian gods that's what we were hoping yes I think the Angels yeah that's the Angels all right so on a scale of one to ten how would you rate yourself as a cook I'd say between like a two and a six Oh all right we're getting to nine today yeah okay first sure I'm trusting you you ready yes okay on three and two and one okay so Alessia on the tray in front of you you've got a two pound lobster okay so in front of that there's a little tray with some tools okay so you have everything you need to take this guy apart okay so the first thing I want you to do just grab the body of lobster in one hand and the tail in the other and just twist the tail off and just pull it I mean this is the tail oh nice I heard good like a horror movie noise yeah oh my goodness all right so now go up to the claws and the part of the claw that connects to the body just twist that off as well and it's a little spiky on the claws or if you want you can use your towel and and that'll help you grab that leg and twist the other one off as well who's my goodness and if any stuff comes out like I had some tamale and stuff come out just let that hit the tray and don't worry about it yeah mine has a lot yeah oh really it's just like green or is it more big it's like green oh yeah that's okay don't worry about it okay all right your claws are off yes all right so now use the towel to protect your hand again okay and you want to grab the lobster arm and then you're just gonna twist that off so then you have the claw in one hand and the arm in the other then do the same thing on the other side and now you should have five pieces of lobster you got two arms a tail and two claws I'm weak sanga's got it all right so then you'll notice you've got that Clause one is the crusher and one is the pincer-like one is really big and kind of burly and the other one is more delicate yeah so pick up your delicate one and sort of holding it straight up and down open up like pull back the thumb just to like break that joint and then instead of having it move up and back like the claw is biting kind of wiggle it towards you and away from you until you hear it snap and that should loosen that nice and then pull the thumb out okay okay and then what I want you to do is take your claw put it on that dish towel and then just kind of fold the dish towel over it this is just gonna protect it a little bit and pick up that black mallet okay all right yes and what we're gonna do next is we're gonna hit like the widest part of the claw sort of towards the end that was attached to the arm so not the pointy end but the wide ends okay put the kitchen towel over and just give it some solid wax until you hear the shell break okay so Alessia did you get a good crack in that claw so I think so I don't know if it's enough - do you feel like you could pull it open if not give it another couple of whacks I think I'm gonna try to do it a couple yeah yeah I think I got it yeah yeah we're good all right so pull this try to pull the shell away from the meat and hopefully you'll pull out the claw yes and then we'll do the other claw yes so then you want to do the same thing with the next claw so just open up the claw and this guy might be a little tougher on this side because this is the crusher so the shell is a little bit more intense but pull the thumb back until you hear it crack got and then wiggle it towards you and away from you got it and then just take it off again and that kind of opens it up and then you have your second claw so you're gonna put that again wrapped in your kitchen towel okay fold it over and use your mallet again this side might take a little bit of a stronger whack so until you see a big enough crack that you can kind of pop the shell open I think I I think I ruined the meat did the meat get a little bit mush it did get a little much but it's still intact I mean I took it out all right so now we're ready to move on to the tail yes so I want you to hold the tail so that the red side of the shell is facing up and wrap your towel around it again and what we're gonna do is we're gonna squeeze the outside edges towards the center sort of like you're gonna wring something out so that's okay it's a little extra stuff makes it a little easier to get out of the shell but just oh there you go I come out these are really horror film sounds and then you want to slide the shear in between the meat and the shell just like right down the middle right down the middle just try not to cut through the meat and then you can just open that shell up like a buck and take that tail out it looks like a something bad happen like oh looks like a murder scene well it kind of wound it kind of was murder scene it wasn't early I feel so bad okay well well I mean a murder is a strong word but we did dispatch the lobster god that sounded finally we got it just put that over on the parchment and we're gonna do one last like extra credit thing which is cracking the knuckles okay okay so now pick up one of those arms again and you're gonna notice it's got like a really skinny flat end and kind of a the very top part it's kind of a wide squared-off knuckle looking thing just try to get those two set pieces separated and then you want to open that top nugget and like get that top lobster knuckle out which is just like the perfect little bite it doesn't look like a perfect little bite all right well that's fine I think you're like stronger than I think you aren't you're stronger than you think that's what are they laughing it with the mallet that's what it is it's I'm too strong you do the other one and just get the other knuckle out yes cool yes I can oh my god we're very close are you done already um I'm waiting for you to catch up Oh might get these head so I don't know my own strength so we go to her to knuckles and the next thing we're gonna do is dice the lobster meat so on the tray now should just be like your shells the body the carcass all of that and we can just like get rid of that and the towel so now grab the bigger knife and whichever claw you think is prettier just leave it whole cuz that's gonna be your like presentation claw and then the other one just cut kind of into 1-inch pieces and then take the tail and just cut it in half lengthwise and then you can just cut from there crosswise into 1-inch pieces okay go Alessia was that your first time taking a lobster out of the shell it was the first time yeah I don't even know how to eat a lobster like every time I try to eat it I don't know how to do it so making it that much harder well now you know now I know done great finish all the meats on the tray just grab that plastic wrap and now weigh the lobster me it won't dry out while we're making our pasta perfect oh my god you did the hardest part is this the hardest part that was by part of the hardest part all right and now we don't need you safety tools so you can just push those away you should have a square dish with three tomatoes and a grater yes okay so take the tomatoes onto the cutting board instead of dicing the tomato we're gonna do this cool thing where we're gonna actually grate the tomato for the sauce so fine not the stem end but like the little pointy end and just slice off a really thin little slice to expose the tomato means God okay so now find the largest holes of the box grater so hold the tomato in one hand and hold your grater in the other hand and though as though you were grating cheese you're just gonna grate the tomato okay and all of the tomato flesh this is where I was gonna get graded and most of the skin is going to just get pushed back so it doesn't see how that's working yeah nice but it's great cuz like a fresh tomato sauce you want it to be fresh and this way you don't have to cook it for very long okay all right man Oh number two yes so take your second one cut end against the grading holes and just great all right my number ten tomato is done okay are you getting close yours your second ones done yeah and I do this a couple times okay I think we're good I don't know if I need to get all of it I think this looks like a lot so do that third one and when you're done with that you can put your grater and all of those tomato scraps and your clear Bowl I've never heard of this trick this is it's a cool trick really Saurus one tell me when you're ready we might have to edit this part she's grating he's great at grading yeah I think this is okay yeah if this is good so now we're gonna make the sauce and cook the pasta and then we're gonna do you have your grated tomato yeah then over on the other side you should have half a stick of butter some sliced garlic yes there's olive oil and some like nice coarse flaky salt and then hit the power on that saute pan and hit rapid boil okay so add your butter and let that start to melt okay and while that's melting let's season our pasta water a lot of salt and once the salt is in just go ahead and add your pasta hits turn on your timer and we're purposely gonna cook the pasta little extra al dente because it's gonna cook more in the sauce okay how's your butter it's almost there great so go ahead scrape the sliced garlic into the pan and give that a little stir so as soon as the garlic look kind of translucent I can already smell it grab that pan of tomatoes pour them into the butter and garlic okay that's all all right so let's season that a little salt and a few cracks and pepper and give it a little stir alright so now we're just gonna get our basil ready so this is one of those dishes that as long as you've got your Lobster out of the way the whole thing happens in the time it takes to make the noodles so now grab a couple of what are these called sprigs yeah a couple Springs sprigs of garlic I mean oh my god a couple of these sprigs of basil and just pluck the leaves off onto your cutting board joy sure is that you're from reggio calabria yes both my parents both of your parents yes were you born there are we born in Canada I was born in Canada okay my mom was born in Italy and my dad was kind of went back and forth like born and born in Canada raised in both places do you speak Italian at home I do ya do ya do you speak it - are you Italian I didn't even I'm Italian American but I'm like a few a couple generations behind you so my Italian is pretty bad yeah that's okay but when I'm in Italy you know as long as there's like food and wine on the table I feel like my Italian is really good yeah there's no time to talk he just should exactly about the stuff food anything no time to talk I'm eating cannoli exactly exactly all right so once you've got like I don't know do you have a nice little pile of basil happening yeah okay I'd say so then any leaves that look big to you just tear them in half so one of my favorite foods comes from Calabria it's really a Calabrian chili so that we have a jar of those and we're gonna use that to spike our sauce oh yeah my dad has like 80 jars of these and really yeah so this is really to taste so it depends on how spicy you like it but I'm gonna add about a teaspoon worth of chili right into the sauce and give that a stir and then we can give it a taste and see my toes are so good like this they're really really good I'm such a good cook the only reason I'm good is because you're telling me what to do I mean that's half the fun but you still it would be like if you tried to teach me a thing it would be a nightmare I think you could do it know my last name might be music but it's like the joke of all time because I can not hold the note and see if you can get a spaghetti out of there it is pretty al right where do you go yeah Sam do you ever do this thing where you throw it against the wall no do you do that thing no why did I miss that people are like throwing spaghetti on the ceiling let's say weird you have to try it just one strand wait wait but if it but then if it's ready in its weight or then go knows it is stick that's what they say if it sticks it's ready alright I'm throwing one up well did you throw it yeah landed on my face nope not ready yet and already yet oh no certain of that one that's hilarious I'm tracing another one this is the best part of cooking I don't think it's ready yet no me neither let's see how lottery the sauce looks there's like a lot of sauce and it's not that thick yet yeah when we add the pasta to the sauce we're gonna keep cooking it for another minute or two so all the flavor of the sauce is gonna get like sucked into those noodles and then there would be plenty of sauce to coat the noodles and the lobster and the whole kit and kaboodle Oh oh sorry I could have done okay okay so all right let's grab another noodle okay hmm I feel like those are credit you do uh-huh it's still pretty out it is but I feel like she might be ready yeah I feel like once once they're in the sauce laughs are you gonna throw one out ready ready oh man rice cake I don't believe in this trick all right so now grab your tongs the master becomes the claw and just go right in and grab that spaghetti and put it straight into your sauce there's always gonna be a couple of protestors down there and they're doin no matter what you do they're not coming I think we got all right so now use your tongs like really stirring and tossing and coding the noodles in the sauce and getting all that like spaghetti starts to release and then when you feel like the sauce is really nicely coating the pasta let's give it a taste make any adjustments if you feel like you need salt or pepper or more chili half of your basil just eyeball it and put half of the basil into the pasta okay ready Alessia yes it's lobster time okay grab your tray with the lobster and then all the lobster is going into the sauce even the nice claw that you set aside and then one last toss because the lobsters already cooked through we don't really want to cook it now we just want the residual heat in the sauce should just heat it okay so now using the tongs still go right onto that platter oh great half of it fell out okay and just do that until you've got all your noodles you're gonna have pieces of lobster in there too for sure I have a lot of sauce down here you have a lot of sauce I have a lot of sauce I don't you know what went wrong I think I rushed you with the tomato it was the tomatoes it was the tomato I knew it I had felt it in my heart I'm giving you my sauce are you sure but are you gonna happen I have so much sauce okay good I don't even know what to do with my sauce okay that'll have that'll be helpful okay there you go I can look at you right yeah thank you I think I'm gonna redeem myself here I think so too I feel it and then the last couple things just the nice basil that you saved hmm you can add a few of those until it looks the way you want it to now take that bottle of olive oil and just a couple little drizzles and there should be some nice flaky salt just a little pinch of that and then I like it a little extra spicy this is optional but I'm just gonna dribble a little Calabrian chili oil over the top you don't have to I'm gonna do it but I like it spicy and I'm gonna eat yours so I'm going for your eat you have to eat mine yeah no I'm so sorry that you have to eat this okay on a count of three okay we're gonna turn around grab your platter yes we're gonna turn around and it's gonna be amazing okay okay yeah all right one two three you're so much better than mine make good clothes perfect I'm gonna put mine down for you okay and then you take a menu perfect I feel like we're on a date we are I'm getting a good piece of the lobster tail hmm all of your flavors came together perfectly we're mean amount of salt perfect amount of space really would you lie though I love how the tomatoes coating the pasta instead of swimming in the pasta you know what I mean be sure you're not lying no never wouldn't you say that in force I mean if it wasn't it would be like it was pretty good what I'm telling you is pretty great then the eggs look again so where are you now on your scale one to ten you know I said two to six I'd say I'm on the six side I think you're like the six flips I'm giving you a nine full nine full nine and that's right leave that like you have something to strive for you come back again really yeah you'll have me back I would love to we just have to make farfalle I know we have to do that so you can wear a little bow ties is perfect

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 2,478,868

Rating: 4.9499688 out of 5

Keywords: back to back chef, celebrity, food, how to, how-to, alessia cara, bon appetit, test kitchen, back to back, lobster pasta, how to make pasta, alessia cara 2018, alessia cara interview, carla, carla bon appetit, alessia cara cooking, alessia cara bon appetit, carla music, kitchen challenge, cooking lessons, alessia cara funny, pasta recipe, lobster pasta recipe, how to cook lobster, making pasta, make pasta, making lobster

Id: 1v4sTqiRUtc

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 26 2018