WALKER STERN: I'll show you
something we've been doing on our tasting menu. If you can tell me what it
is, you'll get a prize. You know what it is? That's called celtuse. It tastes like a cross between
asparagus and lettuce, and it tastes nutty, too. It's a really interesting
flavor. We braise it with brown butter,
and we start with hazelnuts and greek yogurt. I don't want to even
show this. Roberta's is going to
jump on this, you know know what I mean? [MUSIC PLAYING] WALKER STERN: My name
is Walker Stern. I'm the co-chef / co-owner
of Battersby restaurant in Brooklyn. JOE OGRODNEK: My name
is Joe Ogrodnek. I'm also the co-chef
/ co-owner of Battersby in Brooklyn. WALKER STERN: We met each other
in culinary school. And then probably about four
or five years later, we reconnected. I think the main thing was that
we just didn't really want to be working under
people or for owners. We were like, we can
make this happen. JOE OGRODNEK: We just had us
two and the will to do it. And we didn't have money. We didn't have a location. But we made it happen. WALKER STERN: I think kind
of on the outside we're a neighborhood restaurant, but
when you take another look you can kind of see that there's
a little bit more going on. JOE OGRODNEK: I would prefer to
eat at a restaurant that's a little bit more comfortable
environment like this, as opposed to a three Michelin
star restaurant. And don't get me wrong, I love
fine dining, but this is more a part of everyday life, and
this feels more real to us. This dish, probably more than
anything on the menu right now, reminds me of our
history with it. This is a very traditional way
to serve asparagus and morels, cooked with yellow wine. The morels are simmered
slowly with this wine. Then I'm going to add a little
bit of asparagus puree into the mushrooms and add a little
parmasean cheese. I'm going to finish the morels
with a little bit of unsweetened whipped cream. As the dish comes together, it
has a great combination with the grassiness of the asparagus,
the earthiness of the mushrooms, and that toasty
oxidation of the wine. WALKER STERN: We've been doing
this peekytoe crab parfait for a couple days now. And it's just a really awesome
peekytoe crab meat from Maine which has a really good
sweet flavor to it. And I'm going to layer it in
this glass with crab on the bottom, and then raw cucumber,
green apple, celery that's just marinaded in a little bit
of verjus, salt and pepper, and olive oil. And then on top of that I'm
going to do a fresh gelee made with green apple juice
and celery juice. And then on that I have a little
mousse that's shellfish stock that's acidified
with lemon juice. There's a little
spice in there. So it's got a lot of different
stuff going on in one thing. Definitely people look
at it and are like, what is this, at first. And then they kind of put their
spoon in and, I'm not sure, and then they're like,
wow, that's really good, and then they play with it, and
then it's gone in five seconds, so. One of the good things about
having an open kitchen is you can really watch the guests
consume the food and can see first-hand if they're enjoying
it or what the reaction is. The third man is Michael Sowa,
basically the other cook here. So he's here all the
time like we are. We spend a lot of time together
but we hang out sometimes, too. It's different, hanging out
outside of work and being at work because we take our
jobs very seriously. When we're feeling up to it,
we'll all go out to eat somewhere together. We're going to be going
to Henry Social. Henry and Atlantic, please. JOE OGRODNEK: Henry Public. WALKER STERN: Henry
Public social. Well, we're going to see our
buddy, Marty, who manages Henry Public. JOE OGRODNEK: They've got a
turkey leg sandwich there everybody talks about. It's pretty tasty but they have
really good salad, bar food, oysters, sandwiches,
burger. And I think it's most known
for being a pretty cool cocktail bar. WALKER STERN: Yeah, it's
very cocktail-heavy. [MUSIC PLAYING] [? [TALKING IN BAR] ?] WALKER STERN: Marty McLoughlin,
he's the main guy over there. Runs the show. He's a loyal customer of ours,
too, so he's definitely in our neighborhood clique. Can I just suggest that we all
do a round of fernet, just so we can get us started? WAITER 1: Yeah, absolutely. WALKER STERN: Marty, will
you join us please? MARTIN MCLOUGHLIN: Very nice
to have you gentlemen. WALKER STERN: Alright, Marty,
thanks for having us. Cheers. ALL: Cheers. MARTIN MCLOUGHLIN: Good meal. JOE OGRODNEK: Walker and I, one
of the main things we have in common is that we're
serious cooks. We're willing to sacrifice much
more to get an end result than I think a lot
of people are. We are literally doing
everything from start to finish every single day. There's no prep cook peeling
onions or making the chicken and stuff. We go to the market, pick up
the produce, bring it back, put it away, prepare
everything. There's nobody else. It's just us. And it's kind of daunting. WALKER STERN: It's a really
simple formula. We all arrive in the morning,
we run around like crazy, we cook during service. And the next day
we do it again. There's no time for brunch or
events or anything like that. JOE OGRODNEK: I don't think
we're ever going to do brunch at Battersby. WALKER STERN: We hate brunch. JOE OGRODNEK: Yeah, the food
here at Henry Public is really straightforward, kind
of comfort-y style. We started out with oysters,
which actually I don't recall the name of them right now-- WAITER 1: And the oysters,
if you're interested, are Plymouth Rock. JOE OGRODNEK: --but they
were some of the best oysters I've had. WALKER STERN: These oysters are
great because it has the little handle, you know? Have you ever been in a bar
where they have that toilet seat with that little thing that
sticks out so you don't have to touch the piss cover.? This is like the
the same thing. JOE OGRODNEK: We had the grilled
ram with farmer's cheese, which is really simple
but a great combination. We had the turkey
leg sandwich. It's a can't-miss. We were definitely all talking
about how good that was. WALKER STERN:So this
thing is legit. Turkey leg cooked in milk and
black pepper on a gigantic grilled toast. JOE OGRODNEK: This turkey
leg sandwich is pretty fucking crazy. WALKER STERN: Yeah, dude. It's so good. JOE OGRODNEK: This totally
tastes like Thanksgiving. WALKER STERN: They have
a nice dessert here. JOE OGRODNEK: What's
the dessert? WALKER STERN: It's
called Werthers. They're like little fried donuts
with with a caramel dipping sauce. Wilkinsons. Don't forget about
the Wilkinsons. JOE OGRODNEK: There was a little
bit of a discrepancy on that one but-- WALKER STERN: We
worked it out. JOE OGRODNEK: --it is
the Wilkinsons. WALKER STERN: We're all going
to Brooklyn Social. JOE OGRODNEK: Marty,
it's time. Quit fooling around
back there. WALKER STERN: Bye-bye. JOE OGRODNEK: Brooklyn
Social, baby. WALKER STERN: The first
cocktail bar. MARTIN MCLOUGHLIN: I just left a
full restaurant to go drink. At least it's not being
documented. WALKER STERN: It's very common
to see that kind of cocktail-centric bar, but
Brooklyn Social was definitely doing it there before
that was popular. So it's like that, but it's
not really overbearing. You can get a nice cocktail
there or you can just do beer or whatever. It's a really fun atmosphere. JOE OGRODNEK: Matt Walters,
he bartends for us at Battersby, as well. He's a great guy. WALKER STERN: Can you just start
us out with a round of car bombs, like four
car bombs. MATT WALTERS: Really? WALKER STERN: And then-- MATT WALTERS: Yeah, sure. JOE OGRODNEK: They were out of
Bailey's, probably from too many car bombs there. MATT WALTERS: Do you want to
do a little adaptation? JOE OGRODNEK: There was-- what was the liquor
he used instead? WALKER STERN: I don't know. MATT WALTERS: Jameson,
[INAUDIBLE] and then egg white and sugar. JOE OGRODNEK: Yeah. That's what it was. WALKER STERN: We normally just
do straight car bombs. [MUSIC PLAYING] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER
1: Hey, who knows? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER
1: Cheers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE
SPEAKER 1: Cheers. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER
2: Cheers. WALKER STERN: Cheers, guys. WAITER 2: You said you want
a shot of something? Like, something like a tequila
or fernet or whiskey? WALKER STERN:Ooh, now you're
speaking my language. WAITER 2: I'll take an order
for you, if you like. JOE OGRODNEK: Yeah, I mean,
I guess we could do-- WALKER STERN: We could
do a fernet. JOE OGRODNEK: --could do a
fifth shot of the night. Why not? WALKER STERN: Memory is a little
fuzzy at that point.. JOE OGRODNEK: We came
back to Battersby. WALKER STERN: I was in
good shape, I think, until we got back here. Then it went downhill. JOE OGRODNEK: I don't know, I
just felt like business as usual to me. WALKER STERN: Mike was good. JOE OGRODNEK: Yeah, he
was in good shape. WALKER STERN: Yeah. JOE OGRODNEK: Always. WALKER STERN: You can
always count on him to ground it down. Whoa, whoa, what's
happening here? MICHAEL SOWA: Making
pizza, dude. WALKER STERN: I brought
you a beer. MICHAEL SOWA: Thank you. WALKER STERN: It's
hot down here. You need to stay hydrated. It's so hot down here. That walk-in's really cold. Yeah, we never get drunk
when we're working. JOE OGRODNEK: I think-- WALKER STERN: Mike definitely
doesn't drink JOE OGRODNEK: I think we all
take our jobs very seriously. And Mike probably maybe even
more so, because he started in the career a little
bit later on. So I don't know if he has a
feeling to push harder than most people, but I definitely
see that in him. He does a fantastic job pretty
much all the time. WALKER STERN: Well, Mike
made us some pizzas. JOE OGRODNEK: Some fresh
mozzarella, tomato sauce, pesto, taggiasca olives. WALKER STERN: Mike,
would you like to explain the pizza favors? JOE OGRODNEK: Mike, where did
you come up with the idea for this pizza concept? [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC PLAYING] UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 3: That's
fucking delicious, dude. JOE OGRODNEK: I don't think you
need a big budget or a big space to make great things. I just think you need passion,
and the will to do it, and the love for what you do. This is what we wanted. We wanted this for
a long time. WALKER STERN: This is just
an honest place. We stand behind what we do. JOE OGRODNEK: I think that we
have a good thing going here, and it's just going to get
better and better. [MUSIC PLAYING]
