Recreating Bobby Flay's Macaroni & Cheese Carbonara From Taste | Bon Appétit

hi it's Kerry I'm here in the Test Kitchen today to have a secret conversation about Chris Morocco once again we're going to put Chris supertaster abilities to the test this is bobby flay's mac and cheese carbonara we're challenged increased to replicate this dish with all the ingredients in Shutts today's he will be able to smell it touch it and taste it but at no point you will be able to see it so at the end of a second day I'll come back and I will be the judge Oh God is this like some weird like Phantom of the Opera it can't be something that's gonna freak out my kids okay who can certainly smell a it smells intensely cheesy like sharp cheese's mac and cheese like in that world it's reminiscent of bacon but there's something so firm and so dense and so salty about it and also quite porky there's a lot of it kind of dotted around on the top here I'm thinking it has to be a cured pork product something in the realm of like guanciale there's also kind of a layer of very assertively flavored cheese seem to be little bits of pasta little elbows here we then have a bechamel based sauce you know maybe started with a base of butter flour a roux that's then cooked out and with milk or some combination of dairy products added I feel like there's gotta be some pecorino in here there's just so much kind of umami and sort of peppery bite to it one possibility I'm thinking through that there could be egg in this as well and that this is some kind of like riff on pasta carbonara there could also be a softer more meltable cheese like fontina in here something that's sharp the cheese that's on the top of this mmm I don't know Dairy Dairy is my downfall I'm not guaranteeing a fontina nor am I really frankly guaranteeing new parm for that matter yeah I can live with that make the graphics go away by this but you know honestly I would call this carbonara mac and cheese and I would say it's no idea I mean I feel like I know what's happening here I feel like that's a dangerous situation to be in though you know main elements are elbows I would be slightly surprised to see guanciale there black pepper gonna go in hard with a bechamel butter flour dairy and I would be tempted to try just all heavy cream pecorino harm I'm gonna look for a couple other options like a fontina wow this pens just like really let me down man another cheese like an Asiago then egg yolk so I've got my list seems deceptively simple could be good could be bad I'm gonna head to the supermarket [Music] we've got a lot of important decisions to make about dairy here it's probably one of my least favorite things to do oh god oh god there's literally so much cheese in this supermarket this is terrible just when you think you're done with the cheese section it continues what's a Danish fontina Asiago everybody's heard of it nobody knows what it is I'm gonna get a couple chunks of pecorino we're gonna get some parm as well do you guys sell guanciale ah interesting it's probably all back in the Test Kitchen no you guys probably bought it all in that case just a big chunk of pancetta you think you're so slick all you I forgot to brush my teeth this morning so this is gonna be my office toothbrush dan said he'd buy it for me I don't have time to go to the drugstore later all right she's got eyes on cream eggs butter pasta oh say we're on the tight timeframe you really want to say something just like literally just sitting there watching me be a jack all right just got back from the supermarket I'm gonna start making some blender cheese's so here is our pecorino the classic cheese used in a traditional carbonara next cheese is parmesan Danish fontina I feel like there's like better things that have come out of Denmark this is fontina Valdosta this is richer it's nutty herb it was like a higher-quality volcano and then we're gonna crack the code on this here Asiago I'm calling bullsh on Asiago so I don't know here we got our pecorino textbook carbonara and you got the parm which is like so rich so nutty and then the fontina maybe to round it out let's see how wrong could we be so I'm gonna start with the bechamel base butter flour this is a cup and a half of heavy cream I feel like the pasta was cooked not even like two minutes shy about then tails I just need to finish out a little bit I'm throwing in a half a cup of milk here's our pecorino so this is parmesan this is fontina the one that we liked throwing in about a quarter cup some salt we can start to see it get that like kind of row penis that's stretchiness this is at four minutes I am gonna run this under some cold water just to stop the cooking you know what we actually need to be doing is cooking some guanciale this is pancetta it's an unspoken fork belly doesn't particularly feel like the right texture here so this is guanciale piggy guanciale just has way more personality absolutely leaning towards the guanciale they're gonna cook these off side by side so you see the amount of fat that came off that guanciale it seems a little bit weird not to use this fat but then again I just don't know that we need it I know this will be like one of those things where like oh well of course you use the fat and just dump it right into the dish and then this is pancetta this pancetta doesn't taste as good however it is saltier I don't like pancetta sometimes one got sin to sometimes pancetta - it's like know where it's coming unless you know where I'm sadqa' it's just a sad battery or a pig okay you're gonna be wrong it's right Chris thank you thank you you know what I can live with that I've been going back and forth but I think I'm still sticking with guanciale here so I'm just preparing my pan I don't know that there's necessarily butter in it but it's just a good policy to add a little bit of fat to your pans so I'm just folding the pasta in with our sauce I'm gonna throw some black pepper in there but I'm not gonna overthink it fontina has a little bit of gym locker and I'm getting a big whiff the pecorino is not helping let's be clear I have not yet put in our egg yolks I'm gonna put in a couple now oh man I'm gonna put in two yolks and see what happens it's definitely changing the color I'm not feeling a terrific sense of clarity about the cheese that goes on the top of the dish I'm gonna do a combination of the two parm and pecorino we're just we're just going in hard why not a little bit more black pepper in the oven 375 because why not and I'll see you guys in like 30 minutes I mean I think we're kind of there okay we're calling it I do wonder if like maybe we had baked it closer to the top if we would have gotten a little bit more browning the texture of the cheese on top hasn't formed those kind of like stretchy tendrils of cheese that I've tasted in the original dish this looks like mac and cheese but with something else going on and to that end that seems correct like this is giving me mac and cheese but it's not quite delivering perhaps on the promise of you know kind of like carbonara mac and cheese which is what I believe it to be let's check in on our nugs of guanciale feel good about that ingredients I'll say 80% taste look honestly I'd say like we're at 75% the technique I'll go back up to 85 appearance eighty-eight so that basically averages me out to an 82 I've got one more chance to try the original dish before I really have to make some tough decisions and I guess we'll just see how it goes tomorrow [Music] we're watching the Top Gun 2 trailer than newer one well now we're gonna flip it okay okay cuz top guns probably the greatest film of all time and they took an extra year so that Tom Cruise could learn to fly a MIG for this so I think maybe he deserves our attention ok ok that we live in a world that is so cruel that we have to wait until June to see that movie I just don't know that I can take it's ok it's gonna be here before you know it is it though Mike can you hear this one of the more interesting things about this dish is just how sharp and distinctive the aroma is you get that salty peppery funky cheesiness I'd like if it were broiled it would be more of a defined top kind of crunchy layer and I don't really get that right now now I'm like having guanciale doubts I suppose you could have like a reasonably high quality pancetta you get such an intensity of flavor that it almost reads as though it were kind of like a red chili pepper you know in bechamel often I'll put like a pinch of cayenne in there thank you ah hold that thought I think I just got a piece of parsley that was buried down in the dish itself it just isn't following the carbonara rules could there be some like cheddar or something that's just kind of like a little bit milder but like kind of nutty and still with a sharpness yeah I don't know this one down so I've got version two about to come right up here I'm doing it for you Brad so just a tiny bit of olive oil just to get the guanciale started while the guanciale is cooking I'm gonna work on my sauce here now we've got our butter so we're gonna go down to one tablespoon of flour just got a little too much thickness yesterday's so heavy creams going in I'm gonna go with a little bit more today using a little bit of milk to thin out the sauce I said yesterday that I wanted more pecorino and I'm putting in more pecorino parmesan using just a touch less than yesterday get in there salt I'm gonna put in a pinch of cayenne and I'm gonna give a generous amount of black pepper the cheddar honestly I could go either way I feel like it's 50/50 so imagine you have carbonara mac and cheese but some you know genius has put parsley in it so clear so clearly they're not playing by the carbonara rules whose rules are they playing by do you add cheddar just for the sake of it for the sake of okay well maybe if we're in the world of my ingenious baby uh okay this is a tricky one right now I'm calm saying no no fontina no cheddar all right pasta was in for about four and a half minutes here I'm gonna stir it around I'm gonna taste it season it like we still need more pecorino carbonara and parsley are two very different things mac and cheese and parsley are two very different things I just don't think you need it I don't think you want it and yet here we are this time is I'm doing three yolks instead of two definitely noticing some more sauciness I'm gonna push some down in so for the cheese on top really like honestly I've got nothing here this is some pecorino and I think I'm gonna do a little parm as well so this is gonna go in a 325 oven that's been 20 minutes we're getting some you know gentle bubbling this is it version two I feel like we've got like a good blend of kind of saucy creamy I feel like I just want a little bit more from the cheese call it cheddar regret halt it the ghost of what might have been I'd like the pepperiness I like the heat I think that Cayenne helped just kind of bring everything together and amplify all the elements we have here and taste good and it almost tastes like too good there's still a little bit of a gap you know between this dish in the original dish but I'm just not sure how to account for the difference for ingredients that say I may be at a tea taste I think we went from 75 to an 82 uh-huh 85 technique I'm going back down to an 81 there's something about the texture on top that's bugging me I still feel good about appearance holding holding firm at 88 we're gonna call that an 84 overall I have one more chance to get this right before I serve it to Gabby last chance coming right up I still feeling good about guanciale now we've got our butter going in start our base for the sauce I'm gonna go with a mix of cream and milk I just want to balance the fact that the cheddar is gonna make it a little bit tighter so I've got 1/2 cup of pecorino Reggiano parmigiano let's talk about cheddar so here we have two cheddar options oh maybe I'll throw a little bit in there a little bit milder so Inns gonna come the cheddar once this goes in can't come back you can't unring the bell what so the cheese's are in there the flavor has not come out yet because nothing is seasoned so we need to kick this up a notch sorry I'm roll where's my pepper mill remember that video where he's just walking around the office sprinkling salt on people that was the best thing we've ever done was a good one damn so I've got salt black pepper cayenne pepper shibam in the immortal words of Tupac only god can judge me man just don't tell Gabi how many yolks I put in okay can we just leave it that some of our guanciale so I ended up going with a blend of parm and pecorino on the top it's bubbling all the way through still wish I had a little bit more color on it I don't know we'll see we'll see what happens when we get inside this thing but that's it version 3 done in the bag Tom Cruise here we go how do you feel feel okay Ches okay yeah just okay I wanna pretend you bobby flay's mac and cheese carbonara Bobby he does have some melty cheese Bull on top is that pancetta yes Bobby's not following the rules here okay say you don't mean our the end I have to be saying I've read and I was a walk I'm also just struck by like how blond it is yes yeah more coiler I mean looking at the top you've been more generous with the bacon alright whatever circulation yeah I used guanciale I went back and forth and now it is not rude big all over again that is not what this is why not these Bobby Flay's first okay just to refresh your memory hmm was there garlic in here he adds garlic into the fat into the fat and is he using the fat from the pancetta yeah you know I questioned it I just felt like it was overkill and I was concerned about adding too much fat to this mixture all right going for it Oh hmm I really like yours better over here but how many how many cheese's you anything I have pecorino parmesan and I ended up going with sort of like a mild cheddar he also had a second trailer and Asiago and no pecorino no pecorino yes I'm sorry that's not a carbonara yeah I think I just like was like sort of locked in the carbonara paradigm a little bit too much and tried to interpret it a little bit too literally I can like live with like the wrong dairy I mean whatever like the blend of cheeses but just like you know just like missing you know just like the overall balance like that's that's what kind of dogs named wait 40 ingredients I'm gonna give you 86 okay happy with that laughter I cried for a few minutes in the walk-in I'll be all right for technique I want to give you a 95 your technique is correct you did the right way you just use a different type of fact sure the next one is taste yeah and I was told it has to be how close you got to these yeah no okay okay you don't have to you have to butter oh I know but I want to you know the extra fat mean taste I'm gonna give you 78 okay you get that sharpness but from their own right yes ingredients appearance um you are a far cry from this one but I love yours you're missing the parsley that's inside it's in silence all right 82 okay easy to live with it you got a total of 85 oh okay all right thanks guys until next time oh thank you I feel drained I feel spent um I just like you know the cheese's I just feel like you with cheese's in in a blend like this you're just guessing and anybody who says otherwise is crazy it's gonna take me a little bit to kind of recover from this you know I don't want to get a trophy every day like I want to get better like I want to learn more you know I want to fly faster than I've ever flown before I'm just not gonna be happy unless I'm going Mach 2 with my hair on fire and that's a fact you know [Music] BAM

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 2,702,992

Rating: 4.9452815 out of 5

Keywords: reverse engineering, chris, chris morocco, chris bon appetit, chris makes, chris reverse engineering, chris test kitchen, blind cooking, blindfood cooking, cooking challenge, blindfold cooking challenge, taste testing, macaroni, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese, macaroni and cheese carbonara, chirs makes macaroni and cheese carbonara, macaroni and cheese makes carbonara, bobby flay, bobby flay macaroni and cheese carbonara, make mac and cheese, food, bon appetit

Id: i3diNx1fV7E

Length: 22min 43sec (1363 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MisterScruffy_]

Episode filmed a couple of weeks ago:
Do you guys have Guanciale?

Episode being filmed right now:
Do you guys have any Pasta?

[u/Alpha-Trion]

Oh Chris. I'm sorry for your loss of Top Gun. It's definitely not happening in June.

[u/lunarblossoms]

I could watch a whole episode of Chris just scooting around a grocery store getting angry at cheese.

[u/LouBrown]

A dish with a five cheese blend?

I think they're pretty much just fucking with Chris on purpose at this point.

[u/treetyoselfcarol]

Chris is coming for Bobby’s neck. Lol.

[u/xopenguin]

Maaaaan those dishes look delicious. I want them both.

[u/_McDrew]

I totally want someone to illustrate the "This one? Dan?" moment.

[u/yakusokuN8]

So, does the initial taste test, between the comments on the mask potentially scaring his kids and the meta comment about the ingredients graphic on the screen confirm that he watches these episodes later at home with his family?

Edit to add:

Also, is that a Pilot G2 pen he switched to? That's probably my second favorite pen, although I do like the basic utility of the Pentel R.S.V.P.

[u/lagavulin92]

I wonder how mad he will be if he hears top gun will be delayed because of corona