The Chef Show

- Welcome to our kitchen. - Thank you.

- Thank you. -Cheers.

This is your wine?

This is my wine, yeah.

I make it with Paul Lato,

a pinot from north of Santa Barbara.

-Ooh, it's good. -Yeah, no, it's good.

What do you think, we're gonna sell shit here?

No, not at all. Not with your name on it.

I know.

So when were were preparing for making the movie Chef...

Yeah.

...my last big lesson was coming to the Bel-Air and cooking,

-and you made me cook an omelette. - Yeah.

And it didn't go so well.

I saw you sweating. I remember.

- You threw it in the ice bucket. - Yeah?

I still remember that.

So, I've been working on my omelette skills since then.

-Yeah? -So I'm going to cook you--

-Can I cook you an omelette now? -You should make another Chef movie,

not work on your omelette skills. Let us do that.

What's the matter with him? He's gonna take our business away?

Should I...

Do you want to try?

-I want to try. -Okay. Do it.

-You like it soft, I remember. -I like it soft.

In France, we call it baveuse.

-Baveuse? -Baveuse.

With a name like Favreau,

-it's almost a French name. No? -I should know.

-Yeah. -Yes.

When you first went to France to cook, did you speak French?

-I did not speak French, really, no. -Yeah.

But I think I learned pretty fast the kitchen French,

and then I had to do the rest.

But I want an omelette with morels, okay?

I don't want just an egg omelette.

- I don't know that. Okay. -Well, uh...

Get another pan over there, heat it up.

-Here's the morels. -Here you go.

They are just in season now.

I knew he couldn't stay out.

All right.

Okay, let me clean the pan. Get this one.

All right.

Need a little oil in there?

First we have to cook the morel. First, a little oil.

-A little shallot. -A shallot.

Whatever ingredients you put in, you cook them first,

-because the eggs cannot wait. -Right.

-It's nice to watch him, huh? - Yeah.

And see the progress our student made.

Season in the beginning.

All right, well, okay.

No? That's what Roy taught me.

No, we season it when we put the food in,

-but it's okay. - Okay.

And we don't cook with plastic.

-Not this? -No.

-Wanna have something taste like plastic? -No.

-Throw it away. -How am I going to cook the eggs?

How am I going to cook the eggs?

-With the fork. -Oh, boy.

-Oh, boy. - Oh, boy.

The French style. Okay, throw in the morels.

He thought it's going to be so easy, huh? Just make an omelette?

I was practicing with--

A little more. Little more. Don't be cheap.

Jon.

All right.

Come on. Here. Voila.

I love morels.

And butter.

All right.

So you have to cook the morels really--

-They're gonna render some water... - Uh-huh.

...and cook until the water is gone,

so that way it's gonna intensify the flavor.

Okay. Oh, he trained.

-Yeah. -He worked hard.

And I'll use a fork.

All we us is a fork or a spatula, whatever.

But not plastic.

-Yeah, you can get a big spoon for later. - Spoon's good for the morel.

What is the most important thing a chef does?

-Taste the food, season. -Good. Yeah.

Okay.

Good.

More butter? Yeah?

No?

I think it's okay. Maybe a touch of salt and pepper. Little bit.

You taste it, the way you like it.

Okay, so,

we season it after. As you can see, the morel reduces in size.

So if you season them all at the beginning...

-Too much, too concentrated. -Yeah.

- That's ready. - Okay.

Little herbs in the morel, chef?

-If you want to. -Yeah.

Little more.

There you go.

Okay. Now I'm going to do it without a spatula.

-With a fork. -Gonna be new for me.

-Now put a little... -A little butter.

Put a little touch of oil first.

Why? Because you don't want to make the butter burn.

-Okay. -So in case your pan is too hot...

I got to be honest, I never cooked an egg without... with just a fork.

Well, it's always a first.

You have to learn now.

I never did a movie, so it's okay.

So what we're gonna do is put the morels in the middle of the omelette.

-Okay? -Okay.

And as you know, I like mine soft.

A little bit more, chef.

Okay.

Careful there, the fire is hot.

Nice.

Remember what we taught you last time.

Yeah.

Hit it hot.

-First put it all the way down. -Yeah.

So then it's easy to pull it together.

So now you have that.

Where's my plate?

All right. All right.

-Where's the plate? -Behind you.

- Right here. -Oh.

Just fold it nice and have two points here.

Yeah, pointed like a football.

Yeah, exactly.

Wow!

All right.

Wait.

- You know-- - I finish it. A little gloss.

- Okay... - No?

Yeah, a little butter, it's good. Why not? Yeah, okay.

Where's that-- Where's the greens?

-There we go. -Now you know what you do.

So now you have a few morels left.

- Yes. - Garnish.

You put them nicely on top of your omelette here.

So that way you have color.

Okay, do.

-More. -More?

Yeah.

Now you can charge ten more dollars.

- Yeah. Now it looks like a-- - Looks like a morel omelette.

Looks like a Favreau omelette.

Okay, just down the middle, nice down the middle, okay.

No? How do you do it? Show me. Like that?

- Yeah, just put it-- Like that. - A row?

Color is important, like in a movie.

Yes.

Not soft enough...

for you.

You know, the Americans like their eggs really cooked too much.

The mushrooms threw me off.

The cooking speed, the cooking time.

Pretty good.

Could be a little softer in the middle,

but you did a great job.

Yeah.

It's tasty with the morels.

I have this for dinner, I will be happy.

Good, now that won't haunt me anymore.

-Now you can sleep. -Now I can sleep at night.

Without waking up in the middle of the night

-and dreading. -Hearing your voice.

"You fucked up the omelette again!"

-Shall we cook some steaks? -Yeah.

So we have all kinds of meat,

basically from all over the world,

just like the way you would make your wine list.

-Wine from France, from Chile, wherever. -Yes.

This is one of my favorite ones.

This comes from Snake River Farms in Northern Idaho.

This is a cross in between the Black Angus and Wagyu beef.

This comes from Hokkaido, from the snow cows.

You know, Hokkaido is very cold, the weather, so they are extra fat there.

It's a bit like me, probably,

if they were to use a piece of my gut here.

And this here is the Kobe.

You can see it has a little more red already.

It's not as fatty as this one.

And then you look at this one,

a grass-fed fillet.

A lot of Americans start to like grass-fed.

You can see how lean it is.

No fat, yeah.

Very little fat.

-So... - So less flavor.

-It's a different flavor. -Yeah.

You know, it's different, it tastes more iron-y.

You know, it's more blood and less other stuff.

So let's put on

our côte de boeuf here.

So I season it really simple.

Sea salt and cracked pepper.