I Tried To Re-Create This Flaming Cheese Wheel Pasta

- Well, here we are, another episode of Eating Your Feed. Today we're making a

flaming

wheel

of cheesy

pasta

that Adam challenged me to re

create

. There's a place called Le Petit Paris, and you have

this

wheel

of

cheese

where they take off the top, set some liquor on fire, make a cream sauce, pour the

pasta

in, twist it, and that's it. . I think we need a wheel of

cheese

. You can get it at William Sonoma for $2,500, Costco, $900. Okay, let's buy a 72-pound, $900 wheel of cheese. The Costco product description says: "Characteristics, aged 24 months, imported from Italy, extravagant." (laughing) Okay.

Okay, we'll use the cart. (peaceful orchestral music) Well, here's the package, with a £80 warning. So

this

is Rie, producer of Tasty, chef extraordinaire, designated savior of Eating Your Feed. - I can't lift it. (laughs) - Today I think I'll need a lot of help. - Well. - Let's open it. - It's like Christmas. That? - Is this a shitty brand? Zanetti? - It says typical parmesan. - Typical Parmesan. No, this is good, this is the good. - Oh. - Wow. - We have a big wheel of cheese. The next thing I have to do is cut this cover.

Any doubt? - Just don't hurt yourself, it's very difficult to cut. - I would be worried that it would slip and cut my finger. - Yes, that's my biggest concern with this. (laughs) - Well, third day of the cheese adventure. There are some very specific tools that are typically used to cut one of these. Instead, we have many other tools. This is more like a sandwich basting knife, an oyster shucker, a basting knife, a tasting hammer, you know, and we have cut-proof gloves. (laughing) Where do you start? I'm going to go to this little serrated blade and just try to mark it up.

This will take hours, just this. Oh, (bleep). (metal hitting metal) Oh God. We put cheese on it, mmm, it smells good. Let's try to make oyster fish... And then, oh God, like Leonardo da Vinci. (metal hitting metal) (metallic noise) Broken cheese. Oh, this cheese is so good. Oh, the smell is like an explosion of smell. We'll have to take the edge off this bad boy. Alright, we've got it, look, I'm Cheesus. Also something like a toilet seat. It's okay though. Yes, now it's a matter of cleaning it. Look at this, so pure. (inhaling deeply and with satisfaction) We have removed all the top layer.

I'm going to start forming the bowl. Adam, stop eating cheese, we're ready. We're ready to start making cheese here. I want to do a test before eating pasta. How much cognac do you think I should use? - Let's make a quarter cup. - Only a quarter? - No, half a cup? - Half cup. Seems like a good amount. Why is cognac good for flambéing? - It has a higher alcohol percentage, it has a mild sweet flavor. - Then I have my blowtorch. - Have you made flambé before? - No never. (clicking) Is that on fire? - Mmmm mmm.

No. Oh, it's burning! - It is? Haha, it's gone. You want to dip it a little bit, so I like to... - Soak a wheel of cheese with fire right now, Adam. Well, there it is a little on fire. I want to take it out, I'm afraid we're ruining the cheese. Can you see the flame? This is a lot of fire. - What should we do? Do you want to turn it off? - Yeah, I'm just going to put this on top to turn it off, okay? It smells like a cheesy alcoholic concoction. - We can use it for later. (laughing) - It tastes so bad!

Yuck! Alright, I'm going to shave some of this cheese off. Try two. - Raise it, little by little. - Well. (dramatic music) Now I'm just going to... - Oh, yeah! - spread the cheese, ooo. Oh man, it's like salty alcohol. - Ugh, more cheese and less brandy. - I want to carve the bowl so that it is shallower and that way all the alcohol can burn at the same time. Okay, a tablespoon. - It's very little? - Two spoons. - Oh yeah. - So I'm weighing my pasta, because I always want to make the same amount.

So this time I'm going to scrape up a little more cheese, turn it on, and pour it in now. Is it extinct? It seems that it is. - I mean, the pasta is hot. - Okay, I'll continue with my pasta here. Well, that seems a little twisted right now. I think I ate too much cheese. Okay, I'm going to take it out. Ugh, it's just pasta with alcohol. - Should I fry it and see what happens, for example, once we have completely removed the alcohol? - Oh, it looks much better. - Look at that creamy shine.

Hmm, basically perfect, Rie did it, then. - I think you can come up with this, right? - Maybe you want to flambé longer before adding the parmesan cheese? - Okay, this is what's going to happen. We cook the pasta, and then we put it in a pan with butter. Too much butter? - No, there is no such thing. - That's what I like to hear. And a little water with starch, so that it remains in good condition. You know how in Western movies there's always a bartender cleaning a cup behind the bar? I'll start heating the cognac, two tablespoons, I'll heat it before it lights. (laughs) Okay, it's on fire, we're going to spill it, yeah! - Hairless. - Can you see that?

You can see the charred parts. Alright, the pasta goes there, mix it a couple of times and put it in my bowl with a little pepper. - It's good. - Yes, it's actually very tasty. - Oh, although there is still a little alcohol. - It's time for the best version yet. I made the bowl a little shallower, hopefully that will help keep the flambé alive. This time I think we're going to use three tablespoons of cognac. I'm going to pour it on my spoon, oh yes! Look at that, this time it's more alive. So I think keeping the cognac moving is important to make sure all the alcohol burns off, because when it builds up, some of the alcohol gets trapped. 'Well, yeah, that smells good.

I think the cheese actually had more opportunity to flambé. Oh yeah, look at that! It just needs a little salt, actually, how did I say that? Well, now we're on the last try, which is why I'm wearing a hat. This time we are going to make a cream sauce. They also do it in the video we refer to. So here you have some chopped shallot, grated garlic, add a little cream, ooo, yeah. This will bind together to make it a little more flavorful and to give the cheese a little more bite. In the video, he actually adds a little bit of parmesan to his sauce, so let's do that too.

I'm going to lightly scrape the wheel here to get more cheese crumbs. I think my chunks were too big. Four tablespoons for this portion. And then once people get here and we're ready to light the flames, we'll dim the lights a little bit so they can see the flames a little better. Oh, that's too much. Well, the lights are off, the sauce is delicious, people are coming. Okay, everyone back off. Oh yeah! - Is working? - You tell me. - Nice! (screaming) - Yes, pasta with cheese, what do you think? - It looks crazy in the dark. - Good, now he will go there. - Wow. - Oh yeah. - And yes, now it all comes together. - It sounds like mouth sounds. - Everyone is silent. (squeaking) Okay, I gave a thumbs up, so here it comes... - Ahh, brilliant. - Well, here's a cheesy pasta, made on a

flaming

cheese wheel.

It's really nice? - Mmmm. - Okay, I have to find out. The first time you pour a bunch of liquor into a $900 wheel of cheese and it just sits there, it's a pretty dark moment. It's a long way back from there. You can definitely achieve the same thing without doing it in a cheese wheel, but come on, cheese wheel that's on fire, little spoon action, the pasta goes in there, it's a lot of fun and I think it tastes pretty good. We figured out how to do this. Now I have a lot of cheese to share with everyone.

Should we put the bowl away so we can make more? You want to see more, right? - Yeah! - Okay, let's do it. - Hurrah! - Oh yeah! (opening and closing of the camera shutter)