Pro Chef Breaks Down Cooking Scenes from Movies | GQ

Hey guys, my name is Michael Chernow,

chef

and restaurateur, and here's the breakdown. My experience in the restaurant industry is deep. I have worked in restaurants my entire life. I have worked in all positions in a restaurant. there really is nothing that I haven't made food hospitality is part of my DNA today we will start learning how to boil eggs let's talk about this for a second so I remember very clearly the first days in

cooking

school now I went to the French Culinary Institute and it wasn't a joke, the school only heard that, just like the lesson from someone who is incredibly passionate about French cuisine, it's like it's burned into your brain, but you're not an advanced cook, but I know how to boil an egg, so let's pause here for this.

It's another thing that happened over time, so many people go to culinary school today and they think that when they graduate from culinary school as their

chef

, most people, actually, I guarantee maybe some of you know how boil an egg. but if I said, hey, boil an egg for me, I would say that none of you would be able to boil an egg properly, it's definitely a skill set that you need to learn. This is another big thing that I think is very important for people to know. If you don't sharpen your knives regularly, you run a much higher risk of cutting yourself because you want your knife to be able to cut through something very quickly and that's something they'll teach you intensely in culinary school. from people who don't go to culinary school who just work in the field and learn the hard way and most people in the kitchen will actually wait for you to cut yourself to show you how to properly sharpen your eyes, it's not important to cut a onion quickly when you understand how to cut something and usually even some of these guys here they put it a little bit closer like you, the blade of the knife goes through this part of your finger, they hold it like this, so if you hold it like this and you're not really good, boom, you cut, you run the risk of just cutting off the tip of your finger as the onion gets smaller, you have to hold it like this to keep it in place, but I usually cut like this. so there's no chance I'll cut off my fingertips.

I fold these fingers back but you want each piece to be exactly the same size. It's super important, especially in a fine dining establishment. You are dead? I think in culinary school if you would have done it. so many onions in your station kill you they wouldn't let that happen if you have three onions they are in a bowl if you cut those onions in half those onions in mango are in a bowl the only thing that is in your cut The board is the onion you are cutting and the pieces that you already cut, everything is super organized, super clean.

I actually learned those things in culinary school, you know, that's what really helps you be successful as a cook. or a chef culinary school today is a little different, you know, there are a lot more people, but I would say that in terms of the behavior of the chef and the teachers it is very similar, there is no nonsense and this guy was very polite with his chef hat probably that's what chef instructors wore in culinary school that's accurate he wears a lab coat most chef coats are double breasted like the guy on the left here that looks like a typical chef jacket the guy that looks like his chef jacket maybe just a super old school chef coat and to be honest you would never be allowed in a culinary school kitchen without a hat, that's like the biggest nono of all the times, like if you get a hair in your food and it's just game over, the next one is

cooking

up a storm, so basically what that thing does is offer a little bit of sharpening, but ultimately it makes the blade super straight when you're cutting things the blade gets these little Nicks into them and ultimately those Nicks become dull and what this does is it just sharpens the blade.

Filleting a fish is not easy. A knife used to fillet a large fish like that is very heavy. The blade itself is very, very heavy, so it can rest. into the bones and actually cuts weighted down on the bone so it doesn't lift up, so a super sharp, heavy, heavy knife is typically what the Japanese used to cut filleting knives, but when you run your finger for the salmon. it's actually looking for thorns and those thorns are a pain in the butt. You see that bone that just appeared in the experience, people who work with fish do not know that those bones exist because they are not there, in front of them.

They're actually right under the meat, but they're short, that long, and they're incredibly tough. For the most part all fish have them, but in our larger fish they are tough and in some cases you don't get them out. A big problem like a bone in the gum, a problem is not good and he will probably take out a tweezer and start there and say. Wow, look at that, I don't know, I've never seen anyone pull bones out of pins like that, they're actually pretty. It's hard to get them out and they don't go away like that, so maybe that guy has some serious superhuman talents.

You know, he'd never actually seen a traversal technique like that and done it the way he did it, so it looks pretty amazing. I have to say that guy has some swagger, there's no doubt about it, I mean, he's amazing, he's amazing, let's fast forward to the kitchen to make it look like he's working with some, why would you be just like you're incredibly marbled meat greasy? originated in Japan, this beef technique, they massage the cows, they feed the cows, Guinness beer, the cows are literally treated like royalty and if you've never done it, why is it an experience through a hike for all of you? the kudo-kai 32 thermoforming a d1 poodle in a smelly Achieva, so sous-vide is a style of cooking, basically we take a piece of meat, a piece of chicken, a piece of fish, a piece of meat, a piece of pork and we put it in this plastic bag. you put it in the cryovac, you seal it and then you put the protein in this water bath, you can cook it to the perfect temperature and it could cook for 48 hours, but it will stay at the same temperature, you will get a similar temperature. kind of texture with any piece of protein when you subt it it looks very very good which creates fire typically when there is hot oil and water it makes a big boom similarly wine will also cause fire alcohol makes fire rice wine vinegar will create something like Basically, what they have here is what we call cooking sweets, they are very expensive, but usually it is a huge oven or a huge one with a wide range of width and usually there are several different stations above it in a In a establishment of In haute cuisine there are a number of different components that go into each dish and there are different cooks that cook specific things for each dish, so if you have them all in one area and they can all communicate with each other this sweet kitchen makes life a little bit easier yes sir, like what he just did there, like he cut it with a kitchen knife, that would never happen, you wouldn't use a kitchen knife to cut a piece of meat and place it on a plate, you would definitely 100 do it %. use your chef's knife everything else seemed legit until I spent all that so now it's doing a little smoking technique so it's going to put that on and blow smoke in there too to give it a smoky flavor to give that dish a flavor smoked.

It's a storm, it's definitely over the top, I mean it's the dramas that are there, it's great, I like it, but you know they would never cut a beautiful piece of meat like that with a kitchen knife, okay, the guys are about to throw it away burned. Right off the bat, this is intense, there's no doubt about it and like when a restaurant of this stature is in full swing on a Friday night at eight o'clock, there are a hundred and the tapas pointing in the dining room, there is a level intensity sure, however, typically this seems.

It's usually a bit chaotic when you look at a kitchen of that size, it's completely organised, so it feels like an intense moment and there are definitely intense moments, but they exaggerate this a little bit. The restaurant chef always comes up and looks at someone. shoulder and if you see something that is not being done the way he wants, sometimes he will just push you out of the way and take over or tell you, whether in a nice or not so nice way, how to do it the way he wants. wants. Doing it like a chef like this is looking at every dish that comes out of the kitchen as a work of art and they take it very seriously, so you can imagine the level of stress that goes into chefs like that, let's just say they make a hundred, ya you know 102 coverage 100 coverages per night when I say coverage I mean people 100 people per night let's say 100 people that you know and and it is a haute cuisine restaurant where there are five or seven dishes or whatever it is that there are 500 dishes that come out of the restaurant every night, each one of them has to be precisely perfect and if it's not, it doesn't come out and if it comes out and they send it back it's not fun, yes, that's true, there is a moment that I think is incredible that's right, he did it so well If a chef gives you that moment where he says look me in the eyes and he's not going to like annihilate you, that's a chef who says "I like you." I think you're amazing, I'm trying to be your mentor, this is, this is, that's a good thing, that's a good thing, honey, so right there, if anyone saw you do that in the kitchen, what she just did to do is a nightmare problem for you. a tasting spoon in a kitchen like that I always mean that happens all the time just to be honest with you that's the truth but I mean it's disgusting and that's why you always have a tasting spoon with you so if you go To try something you have a spoon that you try and then you throw it away, you know, you pass it through a little water and put it back in your pocket, what's your name?

I mean, next time you make cuts, you'll toast the pepper first and remove it. the moisture and then you want to grind it by hand yeah let's look at that one again so she just took her spoon and tasted it and put it back on the plate if I see you know it doesn't fit so I guess what is? What happens here is that he is her mentor and in the restaurant world, once someone is your mentor, they are always your mentor. It's never like you just emerged and now you're doing your thing and you're and you're everywhere. and you're like on my level, but that's not the way things are, my mentors guy, a guy named Frank, frozen zombies, he was my boss before I opened Seymour's and he's still my mentor and he's coming to any of my restaurants and breaking my balls for everything shows that the co-CEO will applaud, yes, yes, our trick, sure the typical chef has a huge ego and our type A, who is the classic man-woman, it doesn't matter , there are very few things that are understood.

As intimate as preparing something that goes into someone's body, when you look at the role of a chef who has control of feeding hundreds of people a day, thousands of people a week, it is a very, very serious responsibility, as if If you were putting food in people's bodies, I mean, we don't really think about it that way on a regular basis, but it's true, you know, and it's real, so when you're trying to be the best at it, that comes With luggage, you must have the feeling that they are inspecting restaurants to eat and award stars one, two, three or none.

I'll stop here and say that like in the world of Michelin star restaurants, it's the best of the best, the most elite and there are definitely restaurants today that have Michelin Stars, you're actually like a Michelin star, that restaurant , but if you have a Michelin star it is because you have actively sought it, it does not simply depend on the level of intensity that one would have to endure to aspire to a Michelin star or two or three forget anything else in their life if they go for three Michelin stars it is because they live, eat, sleep in their restaurant, okay guys, we'll move on to the chef.

I've been waiting to talk to this idiot for a long time I'm NOT clingy I'm NOT needy I don't care what you think you're not getting with me I'm not needy This is obviously a scene where a food critic walks into Jon Favreau's restaurant and tells him given a terrible review and now he's back for food and I think the chef is getting close to that, you'd have to be drunk, really angry, you know, very high-level prose critics who write for The Times or something definitely know what they're talking about, but You know, sometimes I think you don't have to understand, you don't have to do that.

However, today with Instagram and you know that every dish that comes out of every restaurant goes into a photo shoot. That's how things are nowadays everyone is critical, it sucks, everyone has different palates and you know you have to be prepared for that. I've never seen anything like this before. This is so dramatic. I don't think it was like that. necessarily happens, although I'm sure at some point it was, it wouldn't be good if a critic walked into your restaurant, a very high-level critic walked into your restaurant, it's because your restaurant has a standard that would justify someone. come in and review their restaurant and, generally, a chef who cooks at that level does not want to have a bad long-term relationshipare restaurant critics, so he or she probably wouldn't approach someone like that if they were talking about their long-term career.

I don't think a chef goes after a critic the same way they do because that's like dying by suicide, you know you just don't move on with a critic before you deal with them, it sucks, you take it and pray to God they come back. so you can surprise them and deep in your heart. I know you can hate that person but you can't attack them, let's move forward a little bit, so now all of a sudden you're going to be an artist, you're going to be an artist in your own time, oh man this hits me right in the gut, the business of restaurants is such a tough businessman, it's like you, you, it's like this conversation that they're having right now is so typical, there are so many different ways that kitchens are run, if he's a chef's owner , there is no chance for the pronounced manager to have preference over a chef/owner ideally and in most scenarios the general manager and the chef of the restaurant are in cahoots and have a great working relationship, so although these fights happen, a lost conversation wouldn't happen between a chef and a manager, this would be a chef and owner, next would be one of my favorite ratatouille, so he obviously doesn't know what he's doing, he has a huge pot at his station that would never be well, like you have bowls prepared for uncut vegetables. she cuts the vegetables and then she peels them like onion skins or something so you have your trimmings and your cuts and your cuts and you would never have a stock pot sitting right on your station like that, that's probably why she just flipped this is my kitchen it's Acutes Jobbik leg mommy in the kitchen yes, that's pretty accurate.

I have to say I like it like a beautiful old school French cuisine. I mean, it's a beautiful kitchen. I love this movie. You would never pour anything boiling into another pot of boiling water. anything because you would get burned, you know, and you wouldn't normally hold the handle of the pan without a towel, you know, in your hand because you would most likely get burned specifically if you're dealing with copper pots that get very hot and then you wouldn't stack either your pots on top of each other at the station because they would yell at you like she is about to do now.

Keep your station clear or I won't catch you when your stations are a mess. Everything becomes a disaster. It's like you know, like the old saying goes, like when you walk into a restaurant and if the bathroom is messy, the bathrooms are dirty, you can only imagine what the kitchen is like, it's the same with a cook if a cook sets up all the stations. . It's a mess and this feels like there's no order, you just know it's not like that, it's not happening, it's not going to work, yes please, look like you're throwing up on them, keep your hands and arms close to your body like this, Look, I think that's nice.

It's said a lot like you want to keep everything nice, clean, efficient, you don't want your elbows left at your station to get everything dirty like she was talking about before, if you don't want to get dirty, you have to be organized, you know? that's what she's trying to do, that's what, in fact, with all these clips it's about trying to be organized. I have to say, actually now, looking at this cartoon, they did an amazing job of making a kitchen feel like a kitchen. I mean even the dish station, so there's the dishwasher, like it's perfect, the whole setup and the line there and the dish that's called the dish pit.

Couldn't be more precise. Remember what I said about having different bowls for Muzo applause. Like you know, they're not peeling the potatoes on the cutting board, they're peeling the potatoes on those goals so it's nice and clean and tidy. They have the peeled potatoes in that container. They have the unfilled potatoes in the other container. Peeling them into the bowl, it's pretty good guys, thank you so much for watching me break down these awesome classic cooking clips.