Dish It Out

Hey, y'all.

I'm just kidding. I can't do an American accent.

And that was terrible.

I'm Tilly Ramsay.

I love to cook, and I have a passion for mastering new dishes.

Yum.

From recipes I discover on social media,

to cooking alongside anyone who will join me.

-My mom. -This is nice in the kitchen together.

I love the chance to discover new ingredients...

That is a massive ear.

...and tools.

It's not often I see a tartlet mold on a stick.

Of course, my dad was my first teacher,

but it's time for me to step out on my own

and really learn what it means to be a chef.

-Going to culinary school. -Oh, my gosh!

But before I start school, I want to immerse myself.

So I put out the call.

-Hey, Tilly. -Bonjour, Tilly.

And you've all sent me loads of recipes

and boxes of mystery items to help me pull it off.

I can't wait to get in the kitchen with you and dish it out.

Today is going to be an interesting day.

The brief is floral cuisine.

I've only ever cooked with squash blossom,

so I have no idea what I'm doing today.

And here with this huge box for my first cook

is Nigel Kabvina.

Famous for incorporating award-winning mixology into his delectable dishes,

he's known by his millions of followers for always bringing flowers.

We became fast friends,

collaborating on one of his decadent brunches.

Nigel!

Oh, Tilly, my love.

-How are you? -I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Good to see you. Got something special.

Oh! Didn't have to.

I had to.

- That is very kind. Thank you. - Extra from the heart.

Extra from the heart.

These are lovely!

-There we go. -Stunning.

Thank you.

So this box is enormous.

-Shall we have a look inside? -Of course.

Whoa, okay, so first off, right on theme, you're known for your beautiful flowers.

-Of course. -And these are gorgeous.

And then I've got...

Wow.

-Some mushrooms. -Yes.

So this is something truly special I've been working on.

These are bleached mushrooms from Japan,

and they're fermented in a sweet vermouth.

And this one right here is actually a month old.

That's amazing.

The second one is a year old.

Wow.

Would you like to try a bit? It's fascinating.

It hopefully should fall apart in your mouth.

And it's just something you don't expect.

-Whoa. -How insane is that?

-It literally melted in my mouth. -Melted in your mouth.

You can taste that vermouth,

but that umami mushroom flavor's coming through.

Wow. It's crazy, really.

And then I've got... Wow, what have you brought?

-Early Christmas present. -Special for you.

So right here, we've got an amazing rib eye.

I love this. Wow.

Steak and flowers.

You sure know how to treat a girl.

Okay, now, this is a bit...

This is a bit I'm more puzzled at. I mean...

From my little mixology world, every single mixologist

always has a sous vide, as if it's the be all, end all.

-Really? -Of course, who doesn't? You know?

-Me. I don't. -

-Look at that. -And this is a fax machine.

-I'm joking. This is... -

This is actually a vacuum seal.

This usually goes in hand with the sous vide.

We're gonna be sealing in all those flavors.

I love kitchen gadgets that I haven't used before,

so I'm going along the lines of steak with maybe a mushroom sauce.

But I don't know where the flowers come in.

-Do you have the recipe? -Absolutely.

Okay.

This is...

Rib eye steak and fermented mushrooms.

That's amazing.

Oh, yum.

Some thyme. Orange peels?

-Orange peel. -Oh!

To serve with those edible flowers.

I mean, you've really taken the floral brief and just elevated it.

-Absolutely. -This is amazing.

-Shall we get started? -Absolutely.

Okay, Nigel, this is the kind of dish where you have to lead me through.

So this is quite similar

to your standard way of making a steak in terms of the preparation.

Of course, we've got the salt, we've got the garlic, we've got the thyme.

The only difference is we're gonna start with the sous vide machine.

You can use any container that you'd like, and you've got that screwed in place.

And it's gonna keep a consistent temperature throughout.

Think about how many people will overcook their steak

because sometimes it goes higher, lower, sometimes it's gas.

So we're kind of bypassing that and just allowing people to enjoy steak

-that's not overcooked by doing this. -That's amazing.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna season our steak.

- Shall I go for it? -Yeah.

And while you do that, I'm gonna add this orange peel,

just for some aroma.

I never do orange with steak.

Recently, I was asked what my favorite seasoning is.

I actually said citrus because it's such a broad world

in terms of what you can actually do.

Now I'm gonna put this within this vacuum seal bag.

-This feels wrong. - It feels so...

So unnatural. You said it's your classic steak.

-This is not my classic steak. -I completely understand that.

-We're gonna put our peel in. -Yep.

And then we're also gonna do some of this thyme.

I mean, that already smells so good.

-So good, right? -So fragrant.

And then, of course, our garlic.

So we're gonna leave the skin on and we're just gonna give it a little...

Ooh!

Crushed is such a good way to release those flavors.

-So good, right? -I love it.

And right before we seal it as well, we gonna do a little bit of butter.

- And butter. -Butter.

-Now, this is our vacuum seal. -Amazing.

It's so simple. So you're gonna place that just inside these clips.

Like so.

And all you're just gonna do is press "seal."

And you're just gonna hear this magical...

- -

...sound.

And then you can see it shrinking.

-Compacting it. Perfect. - Wow.

Look at that.

-Pop. -Wow.

-Amazing. -Perfect.

-And that's ready? -And that's ready.

-And from here, it just goes into our pot. -Wow.

And we're gonna leave this in here for one hour.

-That's ridiculously easy. -Ridiculously easy.

So would you say that your knowledge with being behind the bar and cocktails,

has really changed the way you make food and develop different recipes?

I think I actually started off in the realm of cooking,

so I was determined to be a chef.

And as everyone with parents who were chefs,

they told me, "Absolutely don't do it."

-"Don't do it, don't do it." -Opposite to mine.

-Oh, really? -My dad's like, "Do it. Go for it."

But yeah, my parents, who are chefs, they almost steered me away from it.

But it's so funny how you almost end up on the path that you try to avoid to take.

I then could use my culinary skills

to then infuse into creating cocktails.

Which just makes you super creative, you know.

Orange peel in the steak, vermouth-infused mushrooms.

I mean, these are things that no one comes up with apart from you, right?

Don't flatter me. Oh, my God.

Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?

So what we're gonna do now

is we're infusing our vermouth with the mushroom.

How easy is it?

So easy. You don't have to have specialist skills.

Just leave it, forget about it, and it does its little dance.

Wow.

So we've our mushrooms. We're just gonna half it.

Like so.

And then we're just gonna cut off the ends right here.

You'll notice a lot of them are different sizes. That's okay.

We're gonna plop a little bit in there.

If you wanted to add new flavors,

have you experimented with vermouth plus something in the mushrooms?

-Or are you keeping it simple for now? -For now, I'm keeping it simple.

I wanted the vermouth to stand on its own.

But once you do the first version, you can then play around.

You can change vermouths.

You could use just a white wine.

You could use a rum if you wanted something a bit more tropical.

-Boozy mushrooms. -Boozy mushrooms are the best way to go.

So with this shiitake mushroom,

-we're just gonna cut it in half. -Yep.

And we're just gonna put one of these in here.

That's just gonna add a little bit more of an umami punch.

But it's not gonna overpower the entire dish.

And then finally, we've got our vermouth.

Have you ever tried this?

This is one of my favorite ones.

It's Lillet vermouth.

-It's a mixture of sauvignon blanc... -Okay.

...and then a Sémillon. It's a fortified wine.

So it's got some of the characteristics that you would expect of a sweet wine.

But it's a little bit more boozy coming in,

you know, in the low 20%.

-So, bottoms up. Cheers. -Amazing. Cheers.