Anthony Bourdain A Cooks Tour Season 1 Episode 18: The French Laundry Experience

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As someone who moved to the Bay Area in 2018, it's fascinating seeing how everything was in 2002. It breaks my heart a bitโ€“โ€“it's so different. It feels so much more like a community than it does now.

That said, I've been to Bouchon down the street from The French Laundry, but now I feel I need to complete the circuit ;) The tobacco custard is brilliant.

๐Ÿ‘๏ธŽ︎ 3 ๐Ÿ‘ค๏ธŽ︎ u/535188b17c9374367bca ๐Ÿ“…๏ธŽ︎ Aug 27 2020 ๐Ÿ—ซ︎ replies

RIP

๐Ÿ‘๏ธŽ︎ 5 ๐Ÿ‘ค๏ธŽ︎ u/RAINBOW_DILDO ๐Ÿ“…๏ธŽ︎ Aug 27 2020 ๐Ÿ—ซ︎ replies
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(gentle music) Welcome to my world. (energetic music) Two escargots ponte frisee. Two green salads. Okay, (mumbles) here. Lamb chops, steak frites. Shouldn't you be doing something? Two smoked fillet, and a pepper steak. Come on, make the dessert. Chocolate tart, please. As a cook, taste and smells are my memories, and now I'm in search of new ones so I'm leaving New York City, and hope to have a few epiphanies around the world. And I'm willing to go to some lengths to do that. I am looking for extremes of emotion in experience. I'll try anything, I'll risk everything. I have nothing to lose. (ambient music) Before I came to San Francisco, I thought it was all hippies and vegetarians, but it's not like that at all. I'm liking this town, I'm liking this town a lot. It's a little rundown. Everybody's drunk, I like it. I came here because I'm on a mission. I'm going to the mountaintop. I'm gonna eat at the world famous French Laundry in the Napa Valley, about an hour north of here. It is my life-long dream to taste the food of Thomas Keller, the owner and chef of the French Laundry. He's the man. There's nobody who can touch him. I can't even describe how much I'm looking forward to this meal. My reservation isn't until tomorrow, so while I anxiously await guaranteed bliss, I gotta eat. I just want to keep it simple, and light, in anticipation of tomorrow's meal. First stop, Swan Oyster Depot, for breakfast. A classic seafood hangout in a town famous for great seafood. The stuff is fresh. [Server] Hey, how you doin'? What's good, what do you recommend? We've got nice oysters, clams on a half-shell. We've got west coast little necks. Oysters man, the perfect food. Don't have to do anything to 'em, they come great. Okay. A really great oyster tastes like the deep ocean, flesh, brine, and there's something there that's just impossible to describe. The texture, the sense that it was alive seconds before it went into your mouth. This is living. You don't have to do anything to an oyster other than crack it open, squeeze a little lemon on it, and eat it, that's it. I'm a purist when it comes to the oyster, but I can't help wondering what Thomas Keller does with them. I guess I'll have to wait to find out. What's the most popular item here? This time of year, the most popular thing that we sell are our dungeness crabs. Really? Yeah, and they're caught from roughly California-Oregon border, all the way down to about Monterey, California. We're gonna pick him up a nice hot one, right now. Comin' up. [Anthony] Lovely. The carapace of the crab contains the fat and everything. If you take a peek, we call it the crab butter. I'm gonna give this to Tony right now. Oh, outstanding. Incredible. Who said back fat was a bad thing? Maybe if you see it on some hairy guy in a Speedo at the beach, but in a crab, it's good. This is the kinda place you wish you could find in New York. Beautiful, fresh seafood, served by a bunch of regular Joes who are proud of what they do, and have been doing it this way for nearly 100 years. [Chef] Thanks, man. Hey, thank you. That was damn near a religious experience. (laughing) Thanks, Tony. Okay, Tony. Remember, keep it light, keep it simple. Next, I'm headed out to the sunset where I've heard they're whipping up some pretty kooky ice creams. Charlie, hi. Pleased to meet you. You too. Polly Ann's is well-known in San Francisco, particularly among the Asian community for their unusual ice cream flavors. Pumpkin, red bean, interesting. Tarot. You got the American beauty? Oh, it's a rose? Too strong. Yeah. [Charlie] Too strong. Reminds me of kissing my grandmother. (laughing) Lychee, that's great. Some great flavors. Thank you. These are all very good, but not strange enough. Hmm. Then, I see it. Durian looks really interesting. [Charlie] You want to taste that? I think maybe a little cup of durian. A cup? [Anthony] Yeah. Not a spoon? No no, I think I'll take a whole cup. [Charlie] Okay. (Laughs) Now I've had durian in Asia. It's a fruit with a smell so strong and offensive airlines prohibit bringing it on the plane. Try leaving cheese or a dead body out in the sun, and you're in the same neighborhood as the smell of durian. This is durian ice cream. It's the real thing, man. (energetic music) It's almost like a smokey camembert, avocado flavor. There's just nothing like it. I don't see Carvel's stocking this. One internal belch and you've pretty much destroyed the lives of innocent citizens around you. Charlie, thank you very much. Thank you. It's wonderful. I'll be back. I have some chef friends coming into town. I think I'll bring them by for this. Thanks. (Laughing) [Charlie] Okay, bye. I love the wackiness of Polly Ann's, and the purity of Swan Oyster's, but I can't wait 'til tomorrow when I head to Yountville to meet my idol, Thomas Keller, and eat his food. The day finally arrives, and not a moment too soon. (energetic music) I'm nervous. I feel like I'm going to the prom. I'm very, very psyched about this. I mean I'm spectacularly impressed by this book. I mean I'm really, really looking forward to this in a big way. You know, I see him as absolutely the most exciting chef in America at the top of his game. He's a notoriously driven perfectionist, and just the book, it's brilliant. If you read the recipe for this simple-looking garnish of garlic chips, it requires a level of skill, diligence, and exactitude one would expect of a neurologist. I just, I like seeing the look in other chef's eyes when you bring up the name Keller, and you talk about the book. Oh yeah, you know, I want to see that. This morning, I'm extremely fortunate that Thomas Keller has invited me to see one of the local organic farms where he and his staff get their produce. Chef. Very pleased to meet you. Good to meet you. How's it going? Really good. Been looking forward to this. Thank you for enduring this, and having this. We'll do our best, we'll do our best, we'll do our best. How many fruit trees approximately do we have? We have about what, seven, eight, varieties of fruit between that? Figs, apples, pears, peaches. [Male] Everything here, except cherries and apricots. [Anthony] Peter Jacobson is just one of dozens of purveyors that Thomas Keller works intimately with in order to obtain the most exceptional products. The great thing about the relationship is we're so close to the staff, the cooks get to come over and actually harvest. While these guys were young, just getting out of school or doing externship, were actually coming over here and realizing where all this stuff comes from. It breathes a different kind of respect for food that typically doesn't happen in restaurant kitchens. I'm ashamed to say that after a lifetime of cooking and banging around kitchens it's only been in the last year that I've really started to see where food comes from. You know, I've been ordering up food over the phone... Comes in boxes. Yeah. Those are our fava beans this year. They're growing really well right now, you can see. [Anthony] Now anybody who knows me knows my indifference to vegetables, but this guy's got me drooling over fava beans. And I just love opening that up. Just the way they're cradled in there. You know, the way nature just kind of packs them in this cotton. I just love that. He's cool. Isn't he cool? (Laughs) I cannot tell you, there was like an electric shock of seeing a chef, and a chef to cuisine yanking vegetables right out of the ground. It's just mind-blowing to me. I have never, ever in my life done that, or even considered doing it. The road not traveled. (energetic music) I'm not dining alone tonight at the French Laundry. I have to say that I've deliberately made up a guest list in a shameless attempt to make up for my own deficiencies in prestige in the business. These are people Keller has every reason to respect. Michael Ruhlman, co-author of the French Laundry Cookbook. A writer I really admire. Eric Ripert is the chef of the four-star restaurant. Le Bernardin, in New York. Scott Bryan, chef-owner of Veritas, maybe my favorite restaurant in New York. It is beautiful though. God, look at this. It looks so much like France. It's unbelievable. Even the trees. So you think we're gonna get the cone, to start? Is that like a signature thing every time? I think it's just too well-known now. The cone? Oh yes, I like that. [Michael] I do, too. Yeah, I like that very much. Gives an introduction. I think it's, you know, you have the one meal of your life that changes forever how you see food and understand food, and it happened at the French Laundry when I first ate there. We must like a bunch of Goodfellas on a way to meet the boss, only I'm the guy that gets whacked in the first reel, but at least I'll die in luxury. The one compliment that I enjoy the most is someone saying, this reminds me of, and they'll tell you of this wonderful experience that they had somewhere else. I hope they go somewhere else and say, this reminds me of the French Laundry. 'Cause you know, it's those memories that I think are the most important, the most important things. We have typical French Laundry experience. Michael knows a little bit about it. [Michael] Yeah, we have the highest expectations. (laughing) [Thomas] Well, we'll do the best we can. I'm giddy. I'm nervous. I'm excited like a 16 year old girl on the way to her first date. I just hope I'm up to the task of appreciating what I'm about to experience. Alright. I'm ready. [Anthony] Me too. Same here. I'm presenting menus for you, but there aren't any decisions to make at all tonight. Chef Keller's gonna send you quite a variety of dishes. It starts off with his famous coronets with salmon tartare scooped on top, like an ice cream cone. Keller likes his food to evoke memories. You don't hear a lot of chefs talking like that. Playing with magical forces like memory as if they were ingredients. I didn't see this cone on the menu at Polly Ann's. (laughing) (soft jazz music) Sesame coronet with marinade salmon tartare. Inside the cone, a little red onion creme fraiche. [Michael] Great. Thank you. It make you feel like you want to eat 10 more, you know? (laughing) You're like, wow. Really truly, inspired by a Baskin Robbins cone? Most food is an evolution, or inspiration. There's very little creativity in anything. The coronet is about as close to creation as I've gotten, but of course, it was inspired by an ice cream cone. So, there you go. Cool. This coronet is so playful, and so tasty. I gotta wonder, what's next? This is a roasted (mumbles) shallot soup. Braised scallop belly soup. We have the Maine Lobster consomme. Vichyssoise. [Michael] There's something in here that I can't identify. Yeah, let me taste soup. [Anthony] The four of us suddenly start playing detective. Trying to solve a mystery. [Michael] Can we pass? It should be pointed out that there are four of us at the table, and that all four of us are getting a completely different tasting menu of about 20 courses. Which if you're a chef, will make you shudder with fear and terror to even contemplate. Of course I'm thinking we're all gonna get the same, because it would be much easier for the kitchen to do, okay send out the oysters and pearls for the four top. [Michael] Right. Who would deliberately choose to... [Server] We'll do a sorbet course for you now. It's a yuzu sorbet with a little bit of coconut. We also have a cucumber sorbet and a roasted red pepper sorbet. Beet sorbet. If I didn't taste it, I wouldn't believe it. Like you tell me you're gonna eat beet sorbet, I'm like, (beeping). (laughing) I don't eat beet sorbet. But this is so good. And this is... [Michael] Red pepper. Red pepper. Instantly I realize I'm in a whole other realm. That this guy is thinking things that wouldn't occur to me if I devoted my whole life to coming up with just one of his dishes. What sorta will must it take to accomplish each of these intricate dishes? Thank you, take your time chef. Make 'em perfect. From the stories I've heard, there is no extent to which he wouldn't go to achieve his ideal. If he thought it would increase your dining pleasure to have one of his staff cover a leaf of the Acropolis into each and every fava bean, he might well do it. Please, look at my face. Just so beyond happy that... I think I promised you stunned silence. So far, so good. I'm beginning to realize this is gonna take a while. I'd been warned. Keller told me earlier, don't eat, and I obeyed. I'm on board for the full ride. I'll eat whatever he sends for as long as he sends it. I wonder if I'll get a cigarette break. Look at this special custard for Tony. Coffee and cigarette. [Male] How'd you make it? Marlboro cigarettes crunched up into a cream. (people talking over each other) Foie gras mousse. Tell him that's his cigarette fix. We never made that before, and we made it in his honor. The new custard the chef came up with tonight. It's a coffee custard infused with Marlboro tobacco. (laughing) Served with foie gras mousse, and... (laughing) Good, good. I needed a shot around now. [Server] Cigarette break. Thank you. He knows I'm a degenerate smoker. This embarrassed the hell out of me, but it was utterly delightful. (laughing) It's terrific. Marlboro-infused coffee custard. I did get a nice nicotine buzz off it, and it tasted delicious. Ugh. [Thomas] The Marlboro man? Let me see that. He got a big kick out of it. Did he? Did he like that? Good, good. He got a big kick out of it. I guess I expected the flavors to be a little shier than they are. You know, they're assertive. He's not shy about flavor. [Eric] No. [Michael] Why would you think... Because the portions are so refined. God help us, this is a marathon event. After three hours, we're only halfway through nearly 20 courses, and seven bottles of wine. Keller's tasting menu is many, many small courses of intensely flavored items. Just enough to surprise and delight, then leave you wanting more. (mumbles) we have the pasta course of the tasting menu. We're serving the English pea agnolotti. Here we have the hand-cut tagliatelle. I'm gonna grate some (mumbles) truffle on top. Do me a favor. Can you hold that magnificent beast right up to the lens? Look at the size of this thing. This is amazing. As each course arrives, I'm nearly giddy with delight, yet still trying to look cool in front of my chef pals. Squealing at the table and clapping my hands just wouldn't do. I'm a New Yorker, for God's sake. I have a reputation for cynicism to live up to. The garnish. Is this dried, or cut fresh? [Scott] I think it's dried. [Anthony] But it's hard to stay cynical at the French Laundry, about anything. I feel like Keller is really playing with our minds. [Server] Finally we have the Atlantic salmon chop. [Anthony] Salmon chop. Fiendish. There aren't chops on a fish. He's got the chop. Were you the one asking about the chop? Don't even look at my chop, okay? Forget about it. He's made one. Perfect example of the master at work. Just gorgeous. Who would think of this stuff? I wouldn't. The only criticism I have, I want like one of each. (laughing) Yeah. Caviar course (mumbles). Chef, for you we have a panna cotta. Lightly cooked cream, cauliflower mousse. [Anthony] So this is what he does to an oyster. [Server] We have a pickled belon oyster. This is a gratin. Each course is an almost bittersweet experience. I know I could never have done what Thomas Keller does. This is decadence. It hurts to look at other plates. It's a humbling experience to be confronted with every bite by one's own limitations. Yukon gold potato blini with shiitake mushrooms and chive butter. There's an impish humor that runs through this whole menu. He's using a lot of old, lumbering, classic terms, with very, very new presentations. (playful music) Lobster Navarin. Navarin is generally lamb shoulder. He's coupling a lot of words with foods that are not traditionally done this way. Wow. This is like driving a Rolls Royce naked in mink underpants. (laughing) You're just so over the top, luxurious. You're eating this gorgeous food. You can sense his focus on the ingredients. So we're gonna do two more meat courses for you. This is the shoulder of the Bellwether Farm, baby lamb, spring lamb. We'll get these for the next two months, and that's it. I just think this is phenomenal. Bellwether Farm's baby lamb. We're serving the rack, the saddle. Braised shoulder, with kidney, with the sauce. This is lamb reduction. [Anthony] You can die after eating this 'cause it just ain't gonna get any better. Selection of salts here, gentlemen. A couple from the island of Maui here from the same clay pool there. The darker of the two has a higher minerality. [Anthony] How much more luxurious do you get than being offered a selection of salts? And finally Jurassic salt from Montana. It's been excavated from the dead sea there. Said to be 200 million years old. (laughing) Yeah, I'll go with the 200 million year old stuff. [Eric] Maui is where? Color? Mm-hmm. But that one is nice. They're interesting, but the gray salt is, I guess it's because my palate. The soups, the seafood, the pastas, the meats. Keller dazzles on every level physically and emotionally. I almost feel like weeping. I'm not sure how much more of this I can handle. So, let's guess how much more is coming. [Michael] Probably a couple desserts. [Eric] The dessert, and then couple desserts, and... [Michael] Perhaps, yeah. [Eric] And then some cookies, and then... (laughing) (soft jazz music) Exceeded my expectations. Amazing. He's not compromising anything. When we were looking at him in the kitchen from outside, we could see it, we were far away, we could see a happy man. What is the value of that feeling of being happy? How many chefs get to work in a kitchen like this, with a staff like this, with the products that we have? We're just really lucky, you know? Really lucky. And I don't forget that. It's all about integrity. Quality to food product. [Eric] Intent and talent. And talent. [Anthony] While this is all true, I'm just thinking one thing. I can't eat another bite, and the waiter is setting out dessert forks. I think we're all thinking the same thing. The stomach is like... (laughing) All extended. (mumbles) I stepped over the line somewhere. It was a lot of course. No one can eat anymore. We've had enough. We're fini. [Anthony] Which is a problem because back in the kitchen they're just putting the finishing touches on a whole fleet of desserts. Doing a bunch of stuff tonight that I've never seen before. This particular course... [Anthony] They start us off easy. Mini-presentation of the coffee and doughnuts. His signature dish. It's been on the menu since day one. [Anthony] But then they just go nuts. [Server] Chocolate ravioli filled with the sauteed bananas. French Laundry ice cream with a chocolate tuile. I like the salt on the chocolate, too. Crepe Suzette with a lemongrass ice cream. Lime sorbet served with Hass avocado. I don't get it. It's way over my head. Granted, I'm not that bright. (pleasant music) [Anthony] We've been beat, but we flew all this way and we're not missing a bite. I wanted to food to look like it did in the book, and it does. We all agreed the experience is absolute perfection. Well, not everyone agrees. Perfection is something that you never actually obtain. It's only something you search for. 'Cause once you reach it, it's not perfect. You've lost it, it's gone. Can never be perfect. The stars! (Applauding) You have a very evil streak. That tobacco thing was very shrewd and brilliant. Thank you guys. Thank you, chef. We had a good time, we had a good time. Well boy, so did we. We were all like little kids on Halloween looking in from the outside for a moment there. Eating here and meeting Thomas Keller has changed the way I look at food. It's also bittersweet. It's made me a little sad to think of all the things I've missed. But mostly I've learned what's possible. It was great. (energetic music)
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Channel: GoTraveler
Views: 410,758
Rating: 4.9052134 out of 5
Keywords: travel, anthony bourdain, bourdain, master chef, cooking show, a cook's tour, asian cuisine, anthony bourdain japan, anthony bourdain a cook's tour, anthony bourdain food travel, Bourdain Day, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, A Cook's Tour Netflix, cnn anthony bourdain, travel off the beaten path, A Cook's Tour Season 1, the french laundry anthony bourdain, french laundry san francisco, bourdain san francisco, sf restaurants no reservations, san, local san francisco food
Id: sYjZpfr6JQ4
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 21min 24sec (1284 seconds)
Published: Sat Jul 18 2020
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