Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

This is who's cooking for you tonight... Tony Bourdain.

That's got to be a good thing, right?

Tony, we have a lot of people waiting outside, man, huh?

Sorry, Chef.

It's time for work. Duck fat is very hot substance.

So, gentlemen, remember this, please.

When cooking duck, always wear pants.

I've shown you something.

I'm doing a, uh, classic, uh, rosemary

and garlic, olive-oil marinade.

Now it's your turn.

Is there anything you've seen me do so far, with this dish,

you pretty much couldn't train

a reasonably intelligent Yorkie to do?

I don't think so.

Me, in the kitchen, cooking.

Try a little bit more of a stroking action.

More stroking action. You should be used to that.

I'm Anthony Bourdain.

And I'm hungry for more.

Why am I workin'?

This should be the scene where I'm sitting in a lounge chair

and you guys cook for me.

I helped my mom with Thanksgiving supper once.

We like to eat food.

It's time for business.

Uh, I feel like I'm getting back to my pioneer roots.

You know, like Pappy at the chuckwagon.

Do I get to say, "Come and get it?"

The only thing that really

matters is having the energy to get the job done.

You just rest your weary heads.

I'm cookin' tonight.

Somewhere between the Joshua trees is

the legendary Rancho de la Luna, a recording studio

and generally kind of magical space.

The front man and linchpin for Queens of the Stone Age,

my friend, Josh Homme.

Here's the deal tonight... I crank out some food.

And I get busy throwin' together

a little thing I call asparagus risotto

with black truffle and Pecorino cheese.

When you record here, chances are, if you're not playing,

you're cooking for everybody else.

Check your shoes 'cause you just stepped in hit.

And you can eat this with a spoon, with a fork, whatever.

I got those.

Here ya go.

Well done.

By the way, your risotto should never stand up.

- Oh. - Right.

You should never be able to really mound risotto.

- It should be soupy. - Really?

I like it a little thicker. Maybe I'm just a...

Just a country boy at heart.

Enlightenment finally reaches, even this deep, into the desert.

Oh, wow.

Next, I do my best to shamelessly dupe

Scott Conant's recipe for spaghetti al a pomodoro.

Fresh plum tomatoes go right from he boiling water

into an ice bath to help them slide out of their skins.

Some onion and a little garlic

gets sautéed in good olive oil.

Add in your peeled and seeded tomatoes and some fresh basil.

While simmering, perhaps

catch up on some viral videos that you've missed.

Look at the fire extinguisher.

Sneak a little butter

into the tomato sauce for a creamy, rich texture.

Cook the spaghetti until it's almost done.

And here's a step often ignored...

Finish spaghetti in the sauce

so that it absorbs all of that delicious flavor.

And then it's time to feast.

When we sit down to enjoy the fruits of our labors,

Hutch surprises us

with a slow-cooked mesquite pulled pork.

Nice. Whew.

- How long that cook? - I started at 8 this morning.

We started drinking at 8 this morning.

Pretty much.

All right.

When you out... When you work up here,

you end up doing this all the time

because there's nowhere to go.

There's no where to go out and eat.

I think it's cool that, you know, you...

You're makin' music, somebody else is cookin'.

Well, it just... It sort of brings you together,

and you have to kind of pull together.

It's hippyish, but with showering.

When does the hunger hit? It's not right after.

So you still got the adrenaline when you get off stage.

So there's a decompression period,

how long does it take you? It takes me a couple hours.

And when you... when you collectively go somewhere

and start having a dialogue, sitting around eating,

you're able to decompress so much faster.

Nice.

At El Bulli, they may look young,

but this is an elite group of apprentices,

or "stagiaire," as they're called here.

Even among top-tier kitchens of the world,

what is asked of the cooks here is in insanely difficult.

Now I don't know if this was a genuine attempt

at enlightening me or a somewhat perverse impulse

to entertain at my expense.

I'm assigned to another stagiaire, Vishal Khulbe,

whose job is to show me the ropes

and keep me out of trouble.

- Quemo? - Quemo.

Quemo means "somebody is behind you."

- You say it a lot. - Quemo.

- You hear "quemo"... - That's one indispensable word.

Oriol Castro is the long-time head chef at El Bulli.

Judging from the way he's looking at me,

he has a sense of humor.

There are four other chefs... Eduard Xatruch, Mateu Casañas,

Eugeni de Diego, and Marc Cuspinera.

But let me tell ya,

nothin' will make you sweat like having Ferran Adrià

looking over your shoulder. Quemo.

- Quemo. - Quemo.

This hazelnut churro

is one of the most difficult and fragile preparations

on the menu. The base right here.

- You wanna go and try it? - All right.

You got to dip the metal pastry tip quickly

into the liquid caramel,

forming a thin, not-too-thick, just-right coat on it.

Then quickly, 'cause it's hardening up now,

carefully shoot hazelnut espuma with just the right pressure,

and, hopefully, the outer layer

is stretched into a super-thin, rapidly hardening shell.

Whew. Much better.

Okay.

Quemo.

You're doing about 50 to 60 meals a night,

average 30 to 40 courses.

So that's about 1,500 plates leaving the kitchen.

1,500 incredibly precise, fragile plates.

Yeah, very fragile.

Let me ask you a question...

Has a cook ever just broken down in the middle of the shift

and started crying?

You're doin' about 50 to 60 meals a night,

average 30 to 40 courses,

so that's about 1,500 plates leaving the kitchen.

1,500 incredibly precise, fragile plates.

Yeah, very fragile.

Let me ask you a question... Has a cook ever just

broken down in the middle of the shift and started crying,

put their hands in the air and said, "I can't"?

- We haven't seen that. - Okay, good to know.

Teach you one more thing. The wonton. Wonton, oh.

The rose and jamón wonton... easy.

Just remove rose pedals, blanch them three times,

make an actual aspic of intensely flavored stock

from the very best jamón Ibérico in its fat.

Then with long, skinny, never-trembling fingers,

put a precise portion

of same on each gossamer-thin pedal.

And this is the difficult part...

We have to close it without losing the jelly.

Because this turns into liquid, of course, when it's steamed,

so if it's... Any opening and it's just running right out.

Exactly. So now...

Now fold and seal in same identical way.

It has to go right there to the end.

All right. Very simple, but very technical.

Yeah. All right.

- So I could try this one? - Yeah.

This one is... It's a little bigger.

It will be easier on you. Oh, good, please. Look at these hands.

Now how many of these do you produce a night?

- Each customer gets four. - Right.

So 120.

- There you go. - Okay.

This part has to go right along the other one.

First the middle.

- First the middle? - Yeah.

And then you... left side, and then on the right side.

There.

There you go.

- Oh. - You can start.

- Difficult. - Difficult.

They're difficult.

We're gonna get... Muy importante.

He's good.

Mira.

- It's really. - You feel it?

Yeah.

One last dish to plate before my shift ends.

Maybe because it involves both sea urchin and bone marrow,

two of my all-time favorite ingredients,

I rise, somewhat, to the occasion.

All right, goes to the pass.

Take the tray.

Quemo.

Dos nigiris.