In the morning, when I come in, most of the time I'm with Agustin here, breaking down something probably twice a week
we're breaking down ducks. When we have big, big jobs like this as a team we come together and to them. A lot of places, nobody really
pays attention of butchering anymore. And I think it's one of
the skills that the chef needs to know, These are from Long Island, duck breast. It's one of the the
staples of the menu now that sticks alone. It came down to to really be
a...people love it basically. So we don't take it off. (upbeat music) So we smoke it for one
hour with hay smoke, we let them age in the
cage at least two weeks. The aging really softens the meat and makes it silky. And that's Chef Joe - Hello. - He started with me as a
line cook like eight years ago now right? - About that time. - Eight years ago. - [Chef Joe] You could feel
and see the moisture content from a younger one, and
it starts to get drier and drier as it goes up. Here's one of the fresher ones
and you can see that it still has like the moisture content
there compared to a drier one, where this skin almost starts
to pull back a little bit. (upbeat music) So, some of the thicker portions
of fat actually had that water content that inhibits
it from actually getting that crispiness. So that's what Thomas is
doing here he's removing that extra kind of moisture fat in there. - In the restaurant
people that really want to learn how to cook, they also
want to learn the steps of what it takes, to break down a
duck, to break down the whole fish, to break down a
lobster, in how to actually be creative, and that's the fun of cooking. (upbeat music) - Go in, the trouts are here guys, trouts. - When did you get them out, those guys? - These guys were still
swimming at 9:30 this morning. - Really? Let's look at this. - This is Ty from
Green-Walk Trout Hatchery we really love his fish and it's it's become
another staple on our menu that we can't just take off. - And it really talks to
who we are because where, the region I come from trout
is like one of the main fish. And that product is really amazing. Fresh, I mean, you know. - Every single fish I raise
from an egg, and I've been doing this my whole life. So seeing
the finished product and seeing the passion that the
chefs have makes it all worth it. - You see here how it's like
literally straight like a plank and the reason it's like that
is because they have been killed this morning. So the meat has not had
any time to relax enough, so it doesn't get soft. If you buy the trout in the store, you hold it on the head, it flops down. See, look at this one. So
I put them flat somewhere. There we go. Agustin and I, we're gonna
break them down and get them ready and once we nicely
fillet on sheet trays, we're gonna let them rest in the
fridge for at least 24 hours and then it's ready to go
in the kitchen upstairs. Taking the skin off a la
minute and then they cook them on a cedar plank. Really, really simply
enhancing the product. (upbeat music) - So we're currently
working on a new dish here. The inspiration came from
kind of like an old classic Alsatian recipe called a Fleischnecke. Fleischnecke actually
translates to meat snail. So we're going to do a take on it, by actually serving it raw. And we're going to measure this off, put the langoustine starter
inside and wrap it up. And we've tried these
components individually. And we believe that they'll come together, or we're going to find
out if they come together, I guess today after the the final testing here. For me personally, this is
the appeal of being a chef and putting in 12 to 15 hours
a day, whatever it may be. I think when you see a dish
start to create from beginning it's a beautiful moment if it works out. It's important that you get
whatever you're feeling is, for the Fleischnecke
to be completely smooth so you can get that nice
shape as it curls around, then you have your roll. So now what we're going to
do basically is roll this in plastic wrap, and let it
really just solidify together in the fridge. And then we'll take it to the band saw, get even slices and that'll be one of the first components on the new dish. (upbeat music) - Mike's here? Tell him to come back. Why are you so scared over there? - What's up Mike, how you doing? These are the crabs? - Yeah, this is the crab. - So one of the great things
that Mike supports us for in these tasting menus is he knows
that we can change a lot of things. Like right now we're
getting the live king crab. We're going to cook that off today. And then you know, we
can give it to a guest. A lot of tasting
restaurants have a set menu, we wanted to be able to be a
little bit more free in our structure, meaning if we could get special products in and we could only get a
limited amount that we would still be able to put that on the menu. You gonna take the legs off first. Crab just comes right out. (upbeat music) Basically you've just brought
this up to a gentle poach just to warm the crab up again. So first, a little bit of the
hedgehog mushrooms and then cook with shallots, little bit of garlic. This is the egg custard, which
is just egg yolks, full egg and a little bit of mushroom stock. Next we're going to do a pile
of picked crab, crab cooking liquid and we'll pour
the broth table-side. (soft music) - Squab dish is a dish that,
over time became a signature. Tonight we have regular
people that are coming in and they have asked to get the dish again. They had it before, and
our menu is very flexible. And it's always fun to do it. Very straightforward application. It's foie gras with squab but then doing it almost like basically a spring roll
bringing the excitement in from the crunchiness. As a cook you don't really choose your own signature, it
happens by people liking it. So we have the breasts, we have the legs. Now we have the foie gras. I feel good about foie gras.
I grew up with foie gras. My grandfather was a farmer, a goose farmer, and a
duck farmer for foie. You're going to see the squab breasts. Agustin he's the one who knows
this squab dish probably the most, 15 years right Agustin? - I stopped counting at 15,
it's got to be more than that. - Already more than 15? He
became the specialist in making them now. - So the foie gras we see
it, we give it a nice color and have it the hand of some fat, but also that color on the foie is going to help us to build
the nuttiness, that flavor. - Those little fillets, we
cook them also on the side and those are little snacks
while we making them. There are some nice little
perks when you cook also. - So what we need now is
a little bit of cabbage. - So we're good on that. - What we're gonna do next
step is blend them together, - Like a sandwich basically. - So we're going to put the
foie gras in the center. And now we take that and go. - So the importance is that
when it's soft like this is to wrap it now, and then we're going
to put it in the fridge until it's colder, to wrap
in the fueille de brick. That, and it sticks nicely together. And here we go. So now we're going to
press it, making sure we control the pressure. What we want is that
it sticks together now. - The most important thing is flavors. But then when we achieve the
flavor, we want to also make sure that we get to the
presentation that shows effort for the work that goes in, we're going through all those years of work and going to culinary
school and I think it's important that at the end the result is there. You know, when people say,
why do you even bother to present that so nicely on the plate? Well, this really gives it
justice to the chef that really spends his time and put money
into learning his craft. If you go to a dentist and
you have your tooth fixed, you want him to finish it nicely. So we finish the dishes nicely. Just natural to me. (classical music) - So we're going to test
the langoustine dish that we were trying out earlier and we're gonna, we're
gonna see how it plates up. Yeah, this is all all
visualized in my head right now, but once we actually put it on the plate, we'll get a better idea
of what we're looking for. So we have the langoustine. We have the hamachi that's
been cured in citrus salt. And also shiso, langoustine,
and uni is a very nice combination. So we're just trying to
build in flavors here. So this is finger lime, and you could just kind of
squeeze it out of the pods and the pearls come out. Citrus caviar is what they
call it, the sea lettuce, and for the last thing they
make it all come together really is a sauce made from uni and yuzu. What we'll do is we'll put the cloche on and this will go out to the guest. I think it looks good for a starting. - It needs a little bit
more finesse and refinement. The most important thing from
a chef is to get to the point where you can create dishes, but it takes a lot of
work to get to that point. And people usually want to go too fast. They don't understand the
complexity that it takes to put this successful dish together, but this is this is the beauty, this is this is why we're doing that. How we want the guests to eat that? - Basically at the end of the
day the sauce is going to be the carrier for all the ingredients. - The driver. Really nice. In some way I would love to
have a little bit of something crunchy on here. - Okay. - I don't know if it's the
legs of the langoustine, fried. - Yes, sure. - And crumbled and put a couple on it or something like that maybe. - Yeah, yeah. - Something of citrusy here. - Yep. - In my opinion, something of crunch here. - Yup. - But we have beautiful
flavors, nice umami going on. It lingers nicely. A beautiful wine with this and I think you're in heaven here. As long as we follow all the
parameters that define us. The door is open, and the fun can start. - Thank you cherf. - Very nice, looks good. (classical music) - It's approaching 4:45 when
all the chefs are expected to have their tastings up. We do this thorough tasting
every single service to make sure that the quality is where
we want and we make the last minute adjustments where we need to be. Make sure you're putting a
little more lemon on the fish. Oh, very nice otherwise. (classical music) Foie gras is always good, right? - Cooking in an environment like this. It's really the quintessential thing is, is working as a team. Asking questions can be
a treasure for you guys. Because you have a lot
of knowledge around you. Use it to your advantage. Nobody is going to knock
on your door and say, hey, I'm going to teach you something. You actually have to
knock on the door and say, show me something today. When you crave for learning, you learn and that's really what it is. Get the knowledge and then have fun. There's a lot of fun in what we do. Have a good service guys. - [Chef Joe] Three, two, one.. Genuine passion and relentless
pursuit of excellence drives us to create an authentic
and memorable experience. - Pick up, three caviar,
pick up two foie, hamachi - Yes chef! (piano music) - Right. - Yeah, we're going to put a
little bit of a fleur de sel and mignonette. So we actually had a repeat guest come in. So we wanted to give
them something different. So we're going to ask his
opinion on the langoustine dish that we created. So we're using a repeat
guest as a guinea pig here, especially the regulars we
trust them and we want to hear what they're saying. Right? And just a side component here
is the Kaluga caviar, nori cornbread and scallion crema. (utensils clattering) - Perfect. See it's nicely encased now. And what's nice on that
dish is you have this completely worked out nicely. And then you have that leg that
you're supposed to take with your hand and just eat it with your hand. To me it's very important to,
to be close to people, to be accessible. And being with them in the trenches and showing and leading
them, showing them the way how it's done and give them something so that they can take that and enhance it for the next generation. (soft music) - Nice. - On, two duck, one no goat. - That people don't
get the special dishes, the squab and everything, everybody happy? - Very happy. - Good. It's about 9:15 right now
and all the tables are in. Service went smooth so far. And we have those tables
to take care right now. Tomorrow's another day. (light chuckling) (music playing)
Rally great, positive atmosphere there. So far from the angry, melodramatic Gordon Ramsay bullshit. This is how a high quality restaurant actually runs.