- [Andrew] Hey, guys. Welcome back to Botched by Babish. A show where I revisit mistakes of old, speak with experts, and take a feeble crack at redemption. And today I have a very expert expert joining me from Italia Suicita. His name is Luciano Monosilio. He was one of the
youngest Italian Michelin star chefs at the tender
age of twenty seven. His restaurant in Roma is
Luciano Cucina Italiana, and he is also known for his
absolutely savage take down of my Carbonara video
on Italian squisita . Luciano, thank you so
much for joining me today. I appreciate it. - [Luciano] Thank you. Me too. - [Andrew] So today I'm trying
to redeem my Cacio e Pepe, which probably not the worst
of the Italian dishes that I've done on the channel, but definitely not quite
where it needs to be to be traditional Italian,
which as I understand, there is some flexibility
to the interpretation, but I'd love to hear exactly
what is the traditional Italian interpretation of Cacio e Pepe. - [Luciano] So in Italy, we have tradition only the oral tradition. The recipe is changing. My grandma was making
Cacio E Pepe in this way and maybe another grandma
was making Cacio E Pepe in other ways. In the beginning, was using only the Pecorino cheese in Roma and the areas close to Roma. - What are your thoughts on
the preparation of Cacio E Pepe in the wheel of parmesan? - Ah, I think this is nice to see, no? Very good entertainment. - But just to be authentic to
every imaginable technique, I had to do something a little drastic; I had to go out and get this. - You're ready to go. - And it was $1,000. So I'm
going to crack this open. - [Luciano] Expensive. - Yeah. - So you know, before making
pasta in the parmesan, you have to put some alcohol inside and then you have to start the fire. - Is it Brandy or what's the... - Whatever you want because
the cheese is going to melt it. - Is it still Cacio E
Pepe if you use Brandy? - No, no, no, no, no. - So You would say that buying this was entirely unnecessary then. - This is better. Its better. - Okay (laughing) All right. Well, Hey,
it'll be, it'll be cool. Luciano just so I have a reference and a guide while I'm making this. Can you explain to me step-by-step
what I need to be doing to make your Cacio E Pepe? - I can send you the link
when I'm making Cacio E Pepe, and then you can see
everything in the process. Its traditional flavor, but
not traditional technique. - I love it. That's the
Italian way. I think. Well, I'm going to take a crack at the traditional
technique, your technique, the incorrect technique in
the, in the wheel cheese. Well Luciano, thank you so
much for joining us today. Thank you very much for
your words of wisdom. ItaliaSquisita their first cookbook, Original and Gourmet, is out.
Now, check it out on Amazon. And most importantly, before I go out and spend a
thousand dollars on a wheel of cheese call you first . (dramatic fast paced music) First things first. We have to, you know, I spend a thousand dollars
on a wheel of cheese. If you see a show up in
an episode of binging, it's because I need to
figure out a purpose for it. But regardless I figure it's
going to be hilarious to watch me try to crack open this wheel of cheese. So it's, let's see what happens. First, I have to get it over here. Oh, it's so greasy. It's okay, Kendall. I'm fine. It's okay. Kendall, Kendall. I'm fine. Kendall. Its heavy. Jesus. This guy has been hanging
out for a bit unrefrigerated, which is fine, but ideally you're supposed
to keep it refrigerated. Show me a fridge that this
would fit in and I'll show you my privates. (Classical music) - Come on daddy up. Okay. To enter the mind of the cheese wheel, we have to undergo a multi-step
process for which I watched many YouTube videos. What one must first do is score the outside of the rind in a circle. Oh my God. Oh. Okay. I'm very scared that
I'm gonna screwed it up. I'm gonna make people mad, and I'm going to waste a
thousand dollars worth of cheese. Boom. Okay. So now we must insert
these knives at intervals. Basically shove a knife in, shove a knife in right next to it, and keep going until it
effectively cracks the wheel open. Here we go. I feel like I'm
assassinating someone right now like at the end of gladiator, when he, when he has got the knife up against Joaquin Phoenix's throat (choking noises) Just cheese guys. Just cheese. All right. This is back where I started. My knife is inserted
and comes out with ease. It seems to be almost three on this side. Let me just get in here
and try to tweak it. And now the most magical
part of a young Italians life when they've turned 12,
it's called a parm mitzvah. Wow. Woah That is the funniest thing I've
ever said in my entire life. Anyway. Enough tomfoolery. Oh, there she goes. Oh, look at, look at that. Look at this. Look at the
crystalline structure. Oh my God. (fast paced violin music) That's Parmesan cheese. All right. So we only need one of
these for making the pasta. So I'm gonna throw the
other one way obviously. Oh, you're filming me. I'm obviously not throwing
it away. I was making, I was giving you a sound affect. It would have been really funny. Brad. (fast paced classical music) So its the same day and the same time as the footage that you just watched. First up, we're going
to make a super simple, super traditional Cacio E Pepe, and it takes a whole lot of care. So if you overheat it, the
cheese is going to break. If you under heat, it's not going to melt. And it's also going to turn into a block of immovable pasta in about
30 seconds after you serve it. So you want to serve it in a warm bowl. So we keep the sauce from
coagulating for as long as possible. I think I just
slobbered all over the cheese. That's where the mold came
from. All right. So. Hey. - [Brad] Wait, the cheese is moldy? I haven't included that in the edit. - Oh no. The size of the colonies on this thing, we're not putting this in Brad. This is just for you to enjoy it. Cause people will be too mad at me. If I allowed this to happen, which I did. - [Brad] They'll understand.
You got to engaged Andrew. I mean you didn't! (screaming) - [Kendall] It's not good. - What do you mean it's not good. - [Kendall] The mold situation. - Yeah, I know. I'm an
idea. I have an idea. I have an idea. You're not supposed to finish
Cacio E Pepe in these anyway. Swear to God. Oh, I just ruined a thousand
dollars worth of cheese. - [Kendall] No, we scrape
it. I wanna pet it. (phone ringing) - [Andrew] Don't pet it. - [Jess] I wouldn't recommend that. - [Andrew] Who is this? Who's calling me? Where's my phone? What's happening? All right. Did you pet it? - No, I didn't. I blew it in the wind. - [Andrew] Eww. Okay. Well, all right. So here's my thinking for the actual edit. I hate that you're recording
this and still putting effort into the cinematography, which indicates to me that it's
going to end up in the edit. - [Brad] It is. - All right. Well, at least
it's not like, I don't know. I can't put a positive spin on this. - [Brad] At least someone painstakingly made that cheese over the
course of years in Italy. - Brad, I hate you more than I hate most anybody. Who are you? Hello? - [Woman on the Phone]
So your car is done. You can pick up whenever you're ready. $2,812.84. $622.50 and then you have a one thousand
dollar deductible as well. So you will owe three amounts
when you come pick up, when you come pick up the car. (fast paced music) - So we have here some
Pecorino Romano cheese. Now this is the only cheese
that goes into traditional Cacio E Pepe because Cacio literally translates into
Pecorino Romano cheese in a certain dialect. Pretty interesting fact, if you asked me, this is going in for 10 minutes,
five, six ounces of cheese, we're going to make a paste
out of it by mixing it a little bit of cold water. That's the beauty of
how simple this dish is. It's only taken us an hour to
get started, and we're already almost done with the
first iteration of three. To ensure our sauce does
not coagulate too soon, I'm going to grab some of
this here, pasta water, and I'm going to put it into
our intended serving bowl. It's going to keep it nice and hot. It's going to keep help,
keep our sauce looser longer. To see when your pasta is done, there's a really great trick. You just grab a strand
like this, and you wind up and eat it. And you see if it's done. You don't throw it against a wall. What's that telling you?
Is your pasta sticky? Is it if it sticks it's done or if it, or if it doesn't stick, it's done? - [Kendall] I think it's
if it sticks, it's done. - I think that's utter nonsense. - [Brad] If it explodes, it's a Molotov. - [Kendall] Have you ever done it? - Brad, that doesn't make any sense. So straight out of here. And I'm just going to
turn this on very low. Again, do not want to break the cheese and then a quarter cup of
this pasta cooking water. And this guy is getting
all tossed together. So you can see it's kind of watery sauce down there on the bottom, and that is going to set right up. And then if you can do
it, I recommend tossing. That's getting everywhere. Okay. My plan is coming apart. You know, I don't think this is working. I got a lot of separated cheese, not emsulsifying the sauce. What the devil have I done wrong? I've made Cacio E Pepe a million times. I've never seen this happen. I really spl... I really splashed it. I didn't sploosh it.
That's disgusting Brad. Let's try that again. ( fast paced music) So the was an abject failure, and I think it happened
for a couple of reasons. First off, I think I put
the cheese inside the pan, and I think that that exposed
it too much heat too quickly, and it stuck to the bottom of the pan and just ended up melting
and didn't emulsify. So I'm going to heat the
pan just a little bit. I still think that that's
the right thing to do because that way the pasta doesn't
cool off too quick, but I'm going to put the cheese over top. (suspenseful classical music) Oh my god. The same thing is happening. Is this cheese for some reason but that's the only
thing I can think that. Look at that. - [Kendall] Yeah. - I've never seen this. - [Kendall] This is the
worst than last time. - [Andrew] Oh my god!
Look at this nonsense. I've never seen Percorino do this. This one looks different.
It's a different color. - [Kendall] This on has the label on it, and the rind looks different. - This is definitely from
a different manufacturer. Let's try it with another cheese. I don't trust this cheese
as far as I can throw it. (fast paced music) Here goes attempt number three. I'm not going to blame it on myself. I am, but I think it was the cheese. I genuinely think it was the cheese. ( suspenseful music) What is happening? What am I doing wrong? Holy. - [Kendall] That is what
I do when I make it, but also I don't use Percorino. - [Andrew] Look at this.
Can Pecorino do that? It looks like mozzarella.
What's happening? Where am I? Who are you people? (fast paced music) My theory right now after
doing a little bit of Googling is either that we have crappy cheese, which I don't think is the case. It seems to be okay or I'm
applying too much heat, which seems crazy to me because when you watch Jay Kenji
Lopez all make this stuff, it's like blasting hot like he cooks it. But now what we're going to do is try emulsifying the sauce
in a pan with zero heat. This is not hot. You think this is fake Pecorino, or are you thinking pecorino in general. All right. Well, can we get you on record saying
that for all the Italians that are going to dismantle you? - [Kendall] I love pecorino. I always said how much I love Pecorino. I don't know what anyone
else is talking about. (upbeat music) - [Andrew] I can't quite tell, but I think it might be doing
the same thing again. Look at that. It's doing it again. - There's no heat on this
pan. I think this cheese. - [Kendall] I think I know why. - [Andrew] Why? - [Kendall] Most things
are fat and water emulsion. But I think cheese is a
water in fat emulsion, just like butter is. So I think there wasn't
enough fat, you know, when, when like a ganache or
something separates, you need to add more water
because it's fat and water emulsion I that this is the opposite. That might speak to the fact that it might not be good quality cheese. - Oh so it's the cheese. Okay. - [Brad] So Kendall are you
saying it's not Andrew's fault. - [Kendall] No, it could
never be Andrew's fault. ( fast paced music) - There's no way that high
quality Pecorino Romano. So one thing we do have in
spades is high quality Parmesan. So we're going to use that instead, and look at that. Look at that. It's already. Yep. That's the stuff. That's
what I like to see. Maybe not. - Is this sticking to
the bottom of the pan? Am I losing my mind? Okay,
so it's not the cheese. Something's wrong with me as a person. There's no heat on this
pan. What's happening? I been botched. I been botched. I am a botched man now, and there is no escape from being botched when one has been botched. I'm botched. All right, let's try the bowl. I have no other solution
other than let's try the bowl. I have no idea what else to do. I might as well eat my
mistakes. Am I right? What a way to celebrate. ( fast paced music) There it is folks. The Pecorino Romano. The absolute bane of
my god damn existence, what am I trying to do is do it in a bowl. I'm going to do it in
a bowl. This is a bowl. I'm going to do it in here. I'm thinking that maybe
the heat is the problem. Hope I think and I'm just
hoping that that really does it. Cause I'm really tired of doing this. I'm going to get me a trivet, preferably one with my face on it Is this weird? I think it is. Hey, what's up guys. Welcome back to binging
with Babish with this week. (hopeful classical music) Floppity, flippity, floppity, poppity Come on, come on guys. I can't do it again. I can't do it again. I don't want to. I don't want to. Oh is it working? Seriously. I'm running out of will to
move or live even. Come on. I really don't have
another one of these in me. I can't do it. My spirit dude, it's working,
it's working, it's working. It's working. We might have a functional
Cacio E Pepe here. As long as you guys
don't stop holding hands for even one moment. I think we got it. I think we got it. It only took five tries and
has officially been one of the most difficult and unpleasant
experiences in my life. I'm kidding. That's not true. I think this is a moments worthy of John Fabrice's carving fork.
Well, maybe not actually. - [Kendall] Where has it gone? - I don't know. Kendall lost
John Fabrice's carving fork. It's official. It's okay. I'm already
serving it. It's fine. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. It's okay guys. It's working.
It's okay. It's okay. Here we go. And we got Cacio E Pepe made the traditional stupid way. Easily one of the
hardest things I've made. because you've got to
nail the temperature. I'm going eat it now,
enough talking about it. Let's eat it. ( fork drops) (music abruptly stops) It's not even that good. This is so harsh. The cheese is harsh. The Pepper's harsh. It sucks. I'm kidding. It's good. I do think the addition
of fat is necessary because it's just, it is very harsh. You're on camera. ( fast paced music) - So you might know that I look different and that's because last
night was so disheartening. I had to go to sleep. We're going to make this
next batch of Cacio E Pepe virtually the same way, but we're going to make
it a whole lot easier. How? We're going to use
a whole bunch of fat. The addition of fat not only tastes good, I t's going to make our
lives a whole lot easier. Follow me. Won't you? Before the pasta is done,
we're going to melt together The fat, the booter, a levorum. Oh my god! All right, we are making Cacio E Pepe. Yeah, that's what I wanted. Just a little sizzle.
Let's toss this around. Make sure everybody's well coated in fat. pasta water in there. Pecorino Romano. Doing half Pecorino
Romano and half Parmesan and a whole lot of pepe. Get the heat all the way
down. There we go folks. Form a nice sauce. As
you can see first try, it's already doing a lot
better than the last time That's looking nice. Okay. You know what? I take back every bad thing
I've ever said about your Brad. - [Brad] Thank you. - Not have said many
bad things. A nice man. Let's put it in a bowl. A little bit of freshly
grated Pecorino Romano. There we go. That is a successful bowl of Cacio E Pepe, and now I'm going to
prove it by eating it. Oh god. There it is. There it is. There's the Cacio E Pepe. It's super creamy. The
sauce is nice and glossy, and it's stuck to every
bite of delicious spoo gets. All right. So now let's see what Luciano Monosilio's method does. He pre emulsifies the sauce in a blender. So it should be in theory, foolproof. That's Italian for theory. - [Kendall] It attracts. - [Andrew] Your mics a little goofy. - [Brad] Your mics a little goofy. - That's my joke. I invented that joke. All right. We've got our pasta boiling. It only has a few minutes left, so this is the time that we make sounds. We're going to use the scale of make this measuring out one cup of our
finest pasta cooking water, 2.5 ounces of Pecorino.
This was a miscalculation. I should've pre graded this for sure. Damn. Yeah. Damn. (screaming) - [Brad] I thought, I thought
you just cut your face. - [Andrew] No! Cheese everywhere. Wait, wait, wait. Grabbed me our shredded Parmesan. I could blend that. The chunks. Give me the chunks. Give me the chunks. All right. We got it.
We got it. We got it. Zambonis in. - [Kendall] I think it's
more like curling ya know? - [Andrew] No. Okay. Just got to turn it on. I'm kidding. - [Kendall] It's unstable. - [Andrew] You're unstable. - [Jess] You're not wrong. - [Andrew] You're right there. We're good. - [Jess] I'm stable. I am. I am. - [Andrew] Let's emulsify. It's very thin, more cheese. This pasta gotta be
way over cooked by now. I'm going forward. Oh, look at that. Look at that. You could tell me that
that was a cream sauce, and I would defend you with my life, your right to say it, Look at that, it didn't break. we boiled that, and it didn't break. That is great. Luciano Monosilio knows exactly what he's doing
cause that is brilliant. Even though we, I added way
too much water to the sauce. It did not break when we cooked
it for a solid three minutes at a boil. Oh, look at that
sauce. Luciano Monosilio. Everyone in America is going
to know your name by heart because you have perfected
the act of Cacio E Pepe. Little extra grading on
top. Surely I think so. Scoot, scoot. That is perfect. Cacio
E Pepe creamy, cheesy not a hint of melted cheese
at the bottom of the pan and quite foolproof. We put way too much water in that sauce, and it's still cooked down
to a perfect consistency. No wonder this guy got a Michelin star. Oh, look at that. Look at how glossy that is. That's unbelievable. Like that is the best Cacio E Pepe I've ever had by a country mile. Chef Monosilio, my hat
is literally off to you because this is great. It's better than any Cacio
E Pepe I've ever had. It is easier to make than any
Cacio E Pepe that I've made over the past 36 hours. Thank you so much for helping
me unbotch my botchedness. Somebody came up with a
great catch phrase for botch. - [Brad] You stupid botch. - Bradley. (soft classical music)
