“I used to make this Tuscan bread soup all the time while I was working for Marco Canora,” Chang says. “Marco’s one of the best chefs America has ever produced and someone I’ve looked up to since I first started cooking. ‘Ribollita’ means reboiled, and refers to how cooks used to make a big batch of this soup one day then boil it again the next day, and it’d be just as good — if not better.

Adam Rose/Netflix

“It’s a dish of simple, affordable ingredients: Aromatics, cabbage, cavolo nero (black kale), cannellini beans, and a few herbs. You can definitely make this soup vegetarian, but I used chicken stock in the show, because I wanted to demonstrate how one chicken can give you three or four different meals. If you really want to know how to make this soup properly, you should ask Marco or buy his cookbook. All I’ll say is that the sofrito is super important. Cooking the aromatics and tomato paste slowly in lots of oil is key. Oh, and make sure you smash some of the beans into the soup to thicken it. Beyond that, it’s hard to really mess this up. Cook the cabbages until they’re tender. Pour it over toasted croutons. Finish with Parmesan cheese.”

“Here’s what I know about making a great salad: Meat helps. I learned this trick early on when I wondered why the salads were so good while I was working for Daniel Boulud. The secret, as revealed to me, was a healthy dose of veal or chicken jus in the vinaigrette. If you’re already roasting a chicken, you can use the pan drippings. Otherwise, reduce a cup of stock until it’s almost syrupy, then whisk it together with a little Dijon mustard, minced shallots, sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper for a simple, delicious dressing. My other favorite move with salads is to add even more richness in the form of a poached or slow-cooked egg. I like to poach eggs in a microwave. Use this egg poaching method to figure out how to calculate the perfect recipe for your home microwave.”

“My Parisian gnocchi recipe is actually Wylie Dufresne’s recipe, which he shared on our podcast, Recipe Club.”

• 2 cups whole milk (450 milliliters)
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter (100 grams)
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour (300 grams)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (9 grams)
• 1 1/4 cups Parmesan cheese, grated (300 grams)
• 6 eggs

1. Bring the milk and butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the flour and salt all at once, and stir together with a wooden spoon. Continue cooking the dough, stirring constantly, for 6–7 minutes or until the dough reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to completely cook the flour before proceeding. If you’re using a stainless steel pan, you’ll start to see the dough leaving a film on the surface of the pan.
3. Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the paddle attachment. Start the mixer on medium-low, and mix in the Parmesan cheese. Follow with the eggs — one at a time.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, transfer the dough to a pastry bag outfitted with a large pastry tip. (Or not. You can also just cut the tip off the bag). Squeeze out and cut the dough into 1-inch pieces, directly into the boiling water. Work in batches to avoid overcooking any gnocchi. Cook for 2 minutes, then fish out the gnocchi with a strainer. Once the gnocchi have been boiled, finish them in a hot pan with butter and chopped chives. Garnish with more Parmesan and a few twists of fresh cracked black pepper. 

“Cooking chicken under a brick is an excellent way of achieving crisp skin and juicy meat. The only trick is that you need to debone the chicken first. I’m not even going to try to describe the process of deboning a chicken. (We’ll post a video of me doing it on the Majordomo Media YouTube.) Suffice to say, use a sharp knife and take your time. Once you’ve deboned the chicken, season the meat and skin liberally with salt, and place it skin-side down on a well-greased sheet pan. Place a baking rack flat on top of the chicken, then top with something heavy, like a Dutch oven. Carefully slide the whole thing into the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, or until the skin is crunchy and golden, and the meat is cooked through. I served mine inside the Dutch baby, on top of the charred cabbage, with a piccata sauce.”

“Something about the sweetness in cabbage stands up to really deep browning. There’s nothing too complicated to it. First, slice some bacon into 1/2-inch pieces and render in an oven-safe pan. Use a slotted spoon to remove and reserve the bacon, leaving the fat in the pan. Slice a head of savoy cabbage into 4 or 6 wedges. Place the wedges in the pan, season with salt, and slide the pan into a hot oven. Let them get deep brown, almost black, then flip onto the other cut side, and continue cooking until tender.”

• 5–6 Yukon gold potatoes
• 1 stick butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt

1. Peel and cut the potatoes in half, then cook them however you like. I prefer the microwave, because it’s fast, clean, and just as good as boiling. Ten minutes in a microwave-safe bowl with a lid, and they’re perfect.
2. Mash the potatoes with butter, then fold in the cream, olive oil, and salt to taste. 

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 3 eggs
• Pinch salt
• Small pinch MSG

1. Add everything to a blender, and blend until smooth. Let the batter rest in the fridge for a few hours, or better yet, overnight.
2. Bring the batter back to room temperature, while you heat an oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a skillet, then pour the batter in and slide the whole thing into the oven. Don’t open the door until you see the Dutch Baby puffed up and golden, which should take 10–15 minutes.

“I wish I could take credit for this, but a friend invented this dessert and it changed my life. I think if you remove the cultural biases around cooking with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and store-bought ice cream, this dessert could go toe to toe with anything in a Michelin-starred restaurant. It works with any glazed yeasted doughnut, but I do prefer Krispy Kreme. I keep a box of them in the freezer, so I can pull this out any time.” 

• 1 glazed yeasted doughnut, preferably Krispy Kreme
• 2/3 cup vanilla ice cream

1. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Drop the doughnut in the pan, and cook for a few minutes on each side. Once the sugar begins to pull like caramel, and the doughnut is crisp on both sides, it’s done.
2. While the doughnut cooks, melt a couple spoonfuls of ice cream in the microwave. Boom, you’ve just made the very fancy-sounding crème anglaise, which is what melted ice cream really is. Place in the bottom of a bowl. Top with the doughnut, and the rest of the unmelted ice cream. Enjoy. 

“I saw the original version of this technique at a Buddhist monastery in the mountains of Korea, where the nuns do nothing but pray, meditate, forage, and cook beautiful food,” Chang says. “They have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and one of the coolest was a crispy gim (Korean seaweed) chip. To make them, they would carefully paint a thin layer of rice-flour solution onto sheets of seaweed, then let them dry on the roof. It’s incredibly delicate, precise work. The hacky version I made on the show tonight, I learned from social media.

Adam Rose/Netflix

First, take sheets of rice paper — available at most Asian markets — soak them briefly in water, then press them onto sheets of nori (Japanese seaweed) or gim. Let them dry on a cooling rack for a few days (or overnight in a super-low oven). Once they’re completely dry, you can fry them in neutral oil into crisp, puffy chips. Use a pair of tongs or extra-long chopsticks to keep the chips submerged in oil, as they have a tendency to curl up and float. Season with salt and you’re ready to go.”

“When I’m in Tokyo, I’m probably good for two or three convenience-store (konbini) egg-salad sandwiches per day. The difference between an American egg sandwich and a Japanese one really comes down to two things: Kewpie mayo (Japanese mayonnaise with MSG) and shokupan. Shokupan is milk bread, and it’s basically the Platonic ideal of white bread. Squishy-soft, bright white, sweet, and perfect for sandwiches. If you can’t get ahold of shokupan, substitute the fluffiest white bread you can find.”

Adam Rose/Netflix

• 8 eggs
• 2/3 cup Kewpie mayo
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream (or half-and-half)
• Momofuku Savory Seasoned Salt (or substitute salt and pepper)
• 6 slices milk bread (shokupan)

1. Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer, then gently lower in the eggs. Set 2 timers, one for 6½ minutes and another for 8½ minutes. Continue simmering. After 6½ minutes, use a slotted spoon to transfer two of the eggs to an ice bath to stop the cooking. Let the others cook for the full amount of time, then transfer to the ice bath.
2. Once cooled, peel the eggs and separate the soft-boiled from the hard-boiled ones.
3. Gently break open the hard-boiled eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. Use a rubber spatula to pass the yolks through a fine-mesh sieve. Finely chop the whites.
4. Combine the whites and yolks in a bowl and add the Kewpie mayo and cream. Mix well and season to taste with savory salt (or salt and pepper). You might also add a little mustard or rice wine vinegar to taste. You do you.
5. Cut the crusts off the bread and make sandwiches. Slice on the diagonal and serve.

“This is a classic Japanese confection, usually filled with red bean paste. I hate red bean paste. Instead I’m filling my dorayaki with matcha cream, which is way better.”

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons matcha powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 2 tablespoons all purpose  flour
• 2/3 cup half and half or milk
• 2 cups heavy cream

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup agave
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs

1. To make the matcha cream, add the egg yolks, ¾ cup sugar, agave syrup, matcha powder, salt, vanilla, flour, and half and half in a nonstick saucepan. Set over medium-low heat, and whisk together into a Kermit-green mixture. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often to avoid scrambling the eggs. Nothing will happen for a while, then all of a sudden, the mixture will begin to thicken into a custard. At this point, immediately pass the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl set over an ice bath.
2. Allow the custard to cool while you add the heavy cream to the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk for a few minutes, then add ½ cup sugar and ½ teaspoon salt. Continue to whisk until the cream has reached stiff peaks. Fold the cream into the matcha custard, then allow to cool in the fridge.
3. To make the dorayaki, whisk together all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. You’re looking for pancake-batter consistency. Cook into small pancakes in a lightly greased nonstick pan. Allow to cool, then sandwich two pancakes around a generous amount of matcha cream. Wrap in plastic and freeze until ready to serve. 

“Fried chicken arrived in Japan via Portugal, and like they so often do, Japanese cooks acted like the Borg in Star Trek,” Chang says. “They assimilated it, improved it, and gave us karaage.”

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs; sliced into chunks
• Neutral oil for frying
• Lime wedges for serving

• 2 tablespoons Momofuku Savory Seasoned Salt
• 1/2 cup potato flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 2/3 cup rice flour (mochiko)

• 2 tablespoons Momofuku Chili Crunch
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon agave
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Prepare the dredge by mixing together all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Combine the marinade ingredients and coat the chicken. Marinate for a few hours.
3. Heat a few inches of oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
4. Working in batches, shake the marinade off a few pieces of chicken, and coat in dredge. Fry until golden-brown and cooked through. Season with salt straight out of the fryer, and serve with lime wedges. 

“For the tuna rolls, I marinated dry-aged akami (the lean part of the tuna, which I like better than toro) in soy sauce and pickled Thai-bird chilies. Not much else to tell you, except that you can get great dry-aged fish from The Joint Seafood in Sherman Oaks, if you live in LA.”

“I worked at a restaurant in Tokyo that served kakuni (braised pork), where my only job was to skewer cubes of pork, char them, plunge them into ice water, and then peel off most of the char. The idea is to get just the hint of charred pork in the final braise, which is matched with the smokiness of dashi and balanced with lots of sweetness from sugar.” 

• 2 pounds pork belly, skinless
• Salt and sugar
• 3 quarts dashi
• 1/2 teaspoon MSG
• 9 cloves garlic
• 1 white onion, sliced into quarters
• 6-inch piece daikon, peeled and sliced into 1-inch rounds
• Boiled udon, for serving
• Scallions, sliced thin for garnish

1. Rub the pork generously with salt and sugar, then allow to cure overnight in the fridge.
2. Sear the pork in a large skillet over high heat (or in a 400 degrees Fahrenheit oven) until dark brown — seriously, you basically want it black on one side. Add the pork to a large Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pan. Cover with dashi, and bring to a boil. Add the garlic and MSG, and season to taste. You want the broth to taste exactly like you want the final soup. Note the liquid level in the pot. This is where you want your final liquid level to be. No matter how much liquid evaporates during cooking, the seasoning will remain perfect so long as you replace water to the original level.
3. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and braise for an hour. Add the onion now — I don’t like onions that are completely disintegrating in a braise — and continue to cook for another hour or two. You want the meat to be tender but not falling apart.
4. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork. Check the seasoning of the broth and add the daikon. Cook until tender — about 30 minutes.
5. To serve: Cook the udon and top with the broth, a few thick slices of pork, and a piece of daikon. Garnish with scallions, and serve. 

“I once had a job in Japan where my only job was to spritz raw vegetables to make them glisten and shine on the plate,” Chang says. “Fast-forward about 15 years to opening Majordomo in LA, where we really wanted to feature the insanely beautiful produce we get in California. I loved how beautiful the spritzed vegetables looked on the plate in Japan, but I didn’t want to just spray ours with water. Enter MSG spray. It seasons the vegetables with salty savoriness, while retaining their raw qualities. Try it out next time you’re making a crudités plate, or your side of carrots and celery with Buffalo wings.

“If, for some reason, you’re apprehensive about MSG, know this: Ranch dressing is really just a vehicle for MSG. If you don’t believe me, have a look at your bottle of ranch. It’s definitely in there. If not, it’s got nutritional yeast, which is hippie MSG. My only other tip for crudités is to steam/microwave heartier vegetables like cauliflower or romanesco for 90 seconds before serving.”

• 10 grams MSG
• 10 grams salt
• 15 grams agave
• 1 1/2 grams xanthan gum

1. Start by adding 300 milliliters water to a blender. Add the MSG, salt, agave, and xanthan gum, and blend well. Xanthan gum is a common ingredient that thickens and stabilizes mixtures like salad dressings. Transfer to a food-safe spray bottle, and deploy when ready.

“Usually I add Worcestershire sauce to my ranch dressing,” Chang says. “But since Nick has a shellfish allergy, I’m omitting it today.”

Adam Rose/Netflix

• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup Kewpie mayo
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Momofuku Savory Seasoned Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon MSG
• 2 tablespoons minced chives
  
   Mix everything together, and adjust the seasoning to taste. 

“While they might be distant cousins to Mexican chiles rellenos, jalapeño poppers are as Americana as it gets.” 

• 4–6 jalapeño peppers
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch (or substitute sweet potato starch)
• 1/2 cup potato flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 can regular or nonalcoholic beer
• Salt
• Neutral oil for frying

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces pork sausage (I like Jimmy Dean)
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons Kewpie mayo
• 1 tablespoon Momofuku Chili Crunch
• 1 teaspoon Momofuku Savory Seasoned Salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Pinch MSG
• Big pinch salt

1. Split the jalapeños in half lengthwise, keeping the stems on. Use a spoon to scoop out most of the seeds, but leave some if you want the peppers to retain some heat. Technically you could also just splice open the peppers without splitting them, but I find that for peppers with thick flesh like jalapeños, they cook better when fully split in half. Set aside.
2. Combine the flours and starches, along with a big pinch of salt. Split the mixture into two mixing bowls and set aside.
3. Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix together well. Microwave a small portion to taste the seasoning and adjust as necessary.
4. Use a spoon to fill each jalapeño half. Be generous, but don’t heap so much filling on top that it will fall apart in the fryer.
5. Heat 4 inches of oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a tall, heavy-bottomed pot.
6. Add half the can of beer to one of the bowls of flour mix. Whisk together until you have a pancake batter consistency, adding more beer as necessary.
7. Working one at a time, dredge a pepper in flour, shaking off any excess. Holding the pepper by the stem, dip it in the batter, and then carefully lay it into the fryer oil. Cook in batches, frying until the peppers are golden brown and crisp—about 3–5 minutes. Scoop each pepper out with a slotted spoon or metal strainer, and allow to drain on a cooling rack set over a sheet tray. Season with salt.
8. Serve while hot, with a side of ranch for dipping.

“We just don’t get these often enough in the states, but I love hot, freshly fried potato chips. I think they’re even better than fries as a side to burgers. Plus, I know Nick Kroll really loves salt and vinegar potato chips, so this was a no-brainer for the menu.”

• Russet potatoes, peeled
• Salt
• Oil for frying
• 100 grams red wine vinegar
• 10 grams MSG
• 5 grams salt

1. Slice the potatoes to 1/16-inch thickness on a mandoline. Soak the sliced potatoes in cold water to wash off starch, then dry between dish towels.
2. Heat 4 inches of oil to 325 degrees Fahrenheit in a tall, heavy-bottomed pot. Set up a cookie sheet with a wire cooling rack nearby.
3. Working in batches so your oil doesn’t bubble over, fry the potatoes for 1 minute. Use a metal strainer or slotted spoon to stir the potatoes and prevent them from sticking. You’re just blanching the potatoes at this point. They shouldn’t be crisp or browned. You just want them a little floppy. Transfer to the wire rack and allow to cool.
4. While the potatoes cool, blend together the vinegar, MSG, and salt, then transfer to a food-safe spray bottle.
5. Heat the oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Fry the chips again, this time until they’re lightly browned and crisp. Drain on a cooling rack. Just before serving, spritz them with the vinegar mixture. 

• 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 12-ounce package frozen spinach
• 12-ounce package frozen artichokes
• 5 ounces grated Parmesan
• 3/4 cup Kewpie mayo
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine everything in a mixing bowl, then transfer to a baking-safe dish. Bake for 15–20 minutes, or until bubbly and brown on top. Serve with your choice of dipping vessel — chips, bread, crudités, whatever.

“What’s next for burgers? They’ve been done low-brow and high-brow. They’ve been topped with everything. They’ve been griddled, grilled, steamed, and fried. So where else can the burger go? I’ve thought about this for a long time, and I think the future of burgers is the side dip. That’s the only way to integrate some customizability and novelty into the world of burgers. Tonight, we served our burgers with two dips: cheese sauce and peppercorn sauce.

Now, whether you’re talking burgers or charcuterie, the golden rule of deliciousness is 70% meat, 30% fat. Grinding my own beef allows me to choose which cuts I like, and stick to that ratio. For tonight’s show, I ground a mixture of dry-aged brisket, chuck, short rib, and beef fat. I prefer Hawaiian rolls for the bread, and the only vegetable I need is onion. Smashing the burgers is all the rage, and I hate to admit it, but it’s the right move. It helps the Maillard reaction, yielding crispier, browner, more savory burgers. Once you’ve flipped the burgers, top with a big handful of sliced onions so they can sizzle and steam in the beef fat. Serve on toasty Hawaiian rolls, with sides of dipping sauce.”

“Sodium citrate is a salt that helps cheese from splitting. It’s what makes American cheese possible, and is also the key to a good cheese sauce.”

Adam Rose/Netflix

• 350 grams whole milk
• 7 grams sodium citrate
• 500 grams melty cheese

1. Combine the milk and sodium citrate in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. You can use all kinds of different cheeses for this sauce, but I chose cheddar and American. Add the cheese and whisk until melted and smooth. Season to taste, and keep warm until ready to serve. 

“You don’t want to learn au poivre sauce from me. I did it in the least correct way possible. You’re supposed to use the pan drippings from a freshly cooked steak. I used beef bouillon, bacon scraps, and ground beef instead. You’re supposed to use brandy or cognac — I used nonalcoholic beer. Basically, I rendered the bacon and beef in butter, then sweated some garlic and shallots in the fat, then added the beer, mustard, cream, and lots of fresh ground, high quality pepper. If you want to learn au poivre sauce the correct way, look elsewhere.”

“We first started serving bing at Majordomo, our restaurant in LA. The name is Chinese, but the bread is also inspired by Korean breads like bbang and hotteok. Tonight, I served bing with nice butter, country ham from Lady Edison in North Carolina (in honor of Fortune), and a queso fundido inspired by my friend, the great chef Akhtar Nawab.”

• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup neutral oil

1. Add the yeast and agave syrup to a small bowl, along with 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the two flours and salt in a large mixing bowl. Use your fingers to create a well in the center of the flour, then pour in the yeast mixture. Add another 1 cup water to the center, and begin stirring together. Keep stirring until the dough comes together, then move to a cutting board and begin kneading. If the dough is looking too wet, add a little more flour. Knead for 7–8 minutes or until the dough is relatively smooth.
3. Coat the mixing bowl with olive oil and return the dough ball to the bowl. Cover loosely with a towel or plastic wrap and allow to proof for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
4. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
5. Break off a piece of dough that’s slightly smaller than a baseball. Place it on a well-oiled surface and use your fingers to gently spread and flatten the dough into a large disc.
6. Coat the pan with oil, and carefully lay the flattened dough onto the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until the dough is cooked through and some dark spots appear — like a leopard print flatbread. Repeat until you’ve used up your dough.

• 2/3 cups grated 30-day-aged Pecorino Toscano
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon chili oil (preferably skimmed from the top of a jar of Momofuku Chili Crunch)
• Sea salt

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Shred the cheese on the fine side of a box grater and deposit in an oven-safe casserole dish. Pop it in the oven to melt.
3. Rough chop the hazelnuts and toast in a dry pan. Once the nuts are toasty, add the honey.
4. Pull the cheese out of the oven and top with the hazelnuts and honey. Drizzle with chili oil, sprinkle with salt, and serve hot with flatbread.

“Tataki is a Japanese preparation where thin slices of meat or fish are quickly seared. Tonight I made a hay-seared tuna tataki I first saw done by the chef Masamichi Amamoto in Tokyo. I don’t recommend doing this at home, but it’s a really delicious way of cooking — and, to be honest, it makes you look super cool. The hay comes from a wheat farm. The tuna is dry-aged chutoro (medium-fatty tuna) from The Joint Seafood in Sherman Oaks. Before cooking it in hay, I paint on some tare — a Japanese sauce made with sugar, dashi, mirin, sake, and soy sauce. To serve, I made some pickled spring onions and a charred-scallion sauce with fresh wasabi, soy, garlic, and olive oil, inspired by my old colleague Peter Serpico.”

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup dashi
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 3 tablespoons sake
• 1/4 cup soy or tamari

Add everything to a pan, and bring to a simmer. Keep simmering until the liquid is reduced by about half and it looks slightly syrupy. Paint it onto meat or fish before grilling or broiling. Tare will hold in the fridge for about a week.

• 12 spring onions (with bulbs)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Big pinch MSG
• 4 turns of fresh cracked black pepper

1. Lop off the green parts of the spring onions and save for another use. Trim the bulbs, then split in half lengthwise. Peel off the outermost layer and discard.
2. In a saucepan, bring the vinegar, sugar, MSG, pepper, and 1/2 cup water to a simmer. Add the spring onions, then dump into a heatproof bowl. Allow to marinate for a few hours before serving. 

“Ian at Regalis Foods hooked us up with a beautiful piece of A5 Wagyu from Miyazaki Prefecture, but if I may be so bold, I think the sauce is the real star of this dish. I think it’s the best sauce I’ve ever made. The nice thing is that you can make it using super common ingredients. The recipe is based on the true story of Alain Passard’s vin jaune sauce he serves at L’Arpège in Paris, but instead of oxidized white wine from the Jura, I made it with cheap chardonnay. Everything else you can find at most grocery stores. Even katsuobushi is pretty readily available these days.”

• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 4 thin slices ginger
• 6 small cloves garlic
• 4 cups katsuobushi
• 1 bottle white wine
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup butter

1. Add the shallots, ginger, garlic, katsuobushi, and white wine to a large saucepan. Set over medium heat and reduce until only about 2/3 cup of liquid remains. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the ingredients with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as you can.
2. Return the sauce to a pan over medium-low heat. Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, whisking constantly to form an emulsion. Use your judgment about how much butter to add — you want a sauce with some body, but not anything too thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve. 

• 12 dates, pitted
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup barley malt syrup
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place the dates in a microwave-safe bowl with 1/2 cup water. Microwave for 90 seconds to soften, then transfer to a blender. Blend with 4 tablespoons butter until smooth.
3. Add the brown sugar, barley malt, agave, salt, baking soda, 1 cup all-purpose flour, vanilla, and eggs. Blend until smooth.
4. Use the remaining butter to grease a bundt pan. Sprinkle with the remaining all-purpose flour, and shake out the excess.
5. Pour the batter into the bundt pan, and tap the pan against a counter to remove air bubbles. The batter should come about halfway up the side of the pan.
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10–20 minutes, before attempting to invert the cake onto a plate. Cover and allow to cool before slicing. Serve with salted caramel and ice cream.

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• Big pinch salt
• 2/3 cup heavy cream

Add the sugar, butter, and salt to a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking often, until the sugar has fully melted. Add the cream little by little, whisking constantly, until the sauce has reached your desired consistency. Keep warm before serving.

• 2 1/2-pound lobsters
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 sprigs tarragon
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 1 tablespoon Pernod
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
• 10 cups dashi
• Big pinch MSG
• 15 turns of black pepper
• 2/3 cup cream

1. Dispatch the lobsters humanely, then break them down into claws, tails, and bodies. Remove the gills, antennae, and eyes. Place the bodies and legs into a large, heavy-bottomed pot with the olive oil. Set over medium heat and cook, using a wooden spoon to break up the shells. Stir in the tomato paste, then add the carrots, celery, onion, thyme, tarragon, parsley, and Pernod.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the claws for 2–3 minutes, and the tails for 4–5 minutes, then immediately transfer to an ice bath.
3. Peel the claws and tail. Splice the tails along the top and devein. Set on a paper towel and reserve in the fridge. Add the shells to the pan with the rest of the shells.
4. Turn the flame up and add the brandy (careful as it will likely catch flame). Once the alcohol has burned off, add the chicken bouillon, dashi, MSG, and black pepper. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 hour.
5. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve, and return to the heat. Continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by about half. Check for seasoning, then add the cream to taste.
6. Slice the reserved lobster meat, and reheat in the soup before using to garnish. If you like, you can use an immersion blender to froth the soup like a cappuccino. 

“Korean Fried Chicken (aka chikin) comes in different varieties — sometimes with a sweet-and-spicy glaze, sometimes naked — but it’s always super crisp and crunchy. Before we went live, we served Seth and Ike spicy glazed wings. The chicken crown (both breasts, still attached to the ribcage) received the same batter as the wings but no glaze, because I wanted to slice it like Peking duck and then top it with caviar like some kind of perverse chicken-skin taco. 

“To be totally honest, I don’t remember what I put in the dredge or the batter, and I wish I did because it was awesome. It was so intensely crunchy — I think you can really hear when Ike bites into his chicken-skin taco. I know the dredge was a mixture of all purpose flour, Wondra flour, rice flour, tapioca starch, corn starch, a little chicken bouillon powder, salt, and MSG. The batter is also a mixture of flours and starches, but the key is vodka and beer. Vodka batter is a technique pioneered by the great chef Heston Blumenthal. The logic is that moisture is the enemy of crunchiness, and since alcohol evaporates much faster than water, you get this extra-crispy shell of deliciousness around the chicken.

Adam Rose/Netflix

“I experimented with a bunch of different times and temperatures, but found that a single fry at lower temp (325 degrees Fahrenheit) is better than a double-fry at a higher temperature. As for the glaze, I made a mixture of Momofuku Sweet & Savory Korean BBQ Sauce (coming soon!), Tabasco sauce, and agave syrup. 

“Lastly, I made a couple pickles on the side. First, some Persian cucumbers marinated in the brine from the spring-onion pickles I made for Terry and Fortune on last week’s show. The other pickle is thin-sliced daikon marinated in lots of salt, sugar, MSG, and rice-wine vinegar.”

“This dish might seem totally insane, but it’s actually inspired by some truly classic fine-dining dishes as well as the Mexican classic chilaquiles. It’s also a riff on one of the first dishes I ever made for Momofuku Ko, where we did a slow-cooked egg over potato chips and onion soubise, with purple sweet-potato vinegar, caviar, and fines herbes. 

For the show, I dumped a mix of regular and salt-and-vinegar potato chips in a bowl. I fried eight eggs in olive oil (using a lid to steam the tops a bit), then slid those over the chips. After that, a few big spoonfuls of slow-cooked onions cooked in butter (soubise). Finally, a spritz of vinegar, a mountain of caviar, and some fines herbes. You can absolutely enjoy this without the caviar, or with a more affordable roe like salmon roe. I’ve always felt that a runny egg is its own kind of luxury, and combined with the crunch of potato chips, it’s really spectacular.”

• 2 yellow onions
• 1 stick butter (OK, maybe 2)
• Salt
• Vinegar (rice wine, red wine, whatever you like)

1. Thinly slice the onions and add them to a microwave-safe bowl with a lid. Slice the butter into chunks and add to the onions. Season well with salt and a splash of vinegar. Cover and microwave for 7 or 8 minutes. Remove, stir, and return to the microwave. Keep cooking and stirring in 3–5-minute intervals, until the onions are super soft and barely just starting to brown. Remove from the bowl and give a rough chop. Season again with salt and vinegar. The soubise will hold in the fridge until you’re ready to use. 

Adam Rose/Netflix

“At the end of the day, I think one of the nicest ways to enjoy caviar is simply with some perfect Japanese short-grain rice and seaweed. I happened to have some A5 wagyu beef leftover from last week’s episode, so I couldn’t help but pan-fry some and add it to the rolls. But honestly, if you’re lucky enough to have access to caviar, you could do much worse than to serve it with rice and seaweed.”

“The day before the show, during rehearsal, I tried to freestyle a batch of biscuits that turned out much closer to scones than biscuits. Don’t get me wrong, they were still pretty delicious, just not the fluffy, buttery pillows I was hoping for. So I asked Chris Ying to put a call out on the internet for a biscuit recipe I could use. A lot of people sent in recipes they’d found online, but only one person gave us an original recipe and it happened to be Joshua Skenes, one of the best chefs America’s ever produced. You’ll have to ask him for the recipe, if you want it, but it’s seriously so good it makes me mad.”

“Cometeer is an incredible advancement in coffee. It’s turned me from a non-coffee-drinker, to a full-on addict. But the thing I might like most is this trick. Open a Cometeer pod (preferably Seth’s brand, Houseplant!). Pour it over some ice cream. Boom: affogato.”

“This dish is based on the true story of a dish my friend Claude Bosi makes (and another one we used to serve at Café Boulud while I was working there). Nine times out of 10, I opt for frozen peas. Perfect fresh peas are superior, but frozen is just a more consistently good product.”

• 300 grams double zero flour (also known as chef’s flour)
• 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk, beaten

• 1 bag frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lemon’s zest
• 3–4 mint leaves
• 1 pint mascarpone
• As many egg yolks as you want
• Butter, cream, salt, and more peas for serving

1. To make the pasta, add the flour to a mixing bowl. Use clean fingers to create a little well in the center of the flour, then add the eggs. Use a fork to start working the flour into the eggs. Continue mixing until the dough begins to come together. Transfer to a cutting board, and begin kneading with your hands until the dough is smooth — about 5–7 minutes. Wrap in plastic and allow it to rest for an hour.
2. To make the filling, blanch or microwave the peas just so they’re defrosted. Please don’t overcook them. Transfer to a blender and puree with the olive oil, lemon zest, mint leaves, and a pinch of salt. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can pass the puree through a fine-mesh sieve. Fold in the mascarpone, then the ricotta, working a spoonful at a time. You want a relatively tight filling that can be piped out, so if the ricotta starts to loosen the filling too much, stop adding it. Transfer to a piping bag outfitted with a large tip.
3. Once the pasta has rested, roll it through a pasta roller. Progress from the thickest setting to the thinnest. You’re looking for a few long sheets of dough.
4. Use a 4-inch round cookie cutter to punch out bottoms for the raviolo. Pipe a circle (technically, a torus) of filling into the center of each dough circle, leaving about half an inch around the edge. Carefully place an egg yolk in the center of the filling.
5. Use a slightly larger cookie cutter to punch out tops for the raviolo. Use a spray bottle to spritz the bottoms with water. (If you don’t have a spray bottle, just use your fingers to wet the edges.) Carefully place the tops on the raviolo, and press around the edges to seal.
6. Cook the raviolo two or three at a time in boiling water for 2–3 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a handful of peas in a (un)healthy dose of butter. Season with salt, and finish with a little cream. Slide the cooked raviolo into the sauce, stir to coat, then carefully transfer to bowls. 

• 8 ounces beef tenderloin
• 1/4 cup fried onions
• 1/4 cup fried garlic (available at Asian grocery stores)
• Handful truffle-flavored potato chips
• Nice olive oil
• Chives and parsley, chopped
• 1/2 lemon’s worth of zest
• Salt

1. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap onto a clean surface and coat with oil. Slice the beef against the grain into 1/4-inch rounds. Place on the plastic wrap in a slightly overlapping single layer. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap, then use a meat mallet (or the bottom of a pan) to pound the meat (firmly but not violently) into a thin layer. Peel off the top layer of plastic, then flip the meat onto a plate. Let sit in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
2. Crush the fried onions, garlic, and potato chips — either by hand or with a food processor. When you’re ready to serve, remove the plastic wrap from the meat. Dress with nice olive oil, then chips, fried onions, and fried garlic. Finish with zest, a sprinkle of salt, and the herbs. Serve.

“I learned this salad from Marco Canora, who got it from the restaurant Cibrèo in Florence. Ideally, you’re taking the time to get fresh fava beans from the market, peeling them, blanching them, and shucking them. But if you don’t feel up for it, or you can’t find fresh fava beans, sugar snaps are a great substitute. This episode took place in late February, which is a little early for favas, so I used a combination of favas, sugar snaps, and frozen peas.”

• 20 fava bean pods
• 1 cup sugar snap peas, cleaned
• 1/2 cup green peas, blanched
• 1/2 cup pecorino romano, diced very small
• Olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• Chili flakes
• Salt

1. Clean the favas (remove the leathery pod), then briefly blanch the beans within. Now, painstakingly shuck each bean so all that you have left is a small pile of perfectly tender, green favas. Slice the sugar snaps on the bias. Combine all the greens with the cheese. Dress with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a pinch of chili flakes, and salt to taste.

“The collar and the secreto come from two nearby parts of the pig. The collar’s part of the shoulder, and the secreto is a large, flat strip of meat between the shoulder and the loin. Or something like that. It’s a secret. With a really nice piece of pork like we had on the show, I just season with Momofuku Savory Salt, some ground fennel, and a decent amount of sugar. Let it cure for a few hours or overnight, and then roast at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 2–3 hours. Finish it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the last half hour if it needs more color. Rest for at least 30 minutes before serving.”

“During rehearsals, I made three of these completely from scratch: rolled pasta dough; braised meatballs and sausage in homemade sauce; fried cutlets of chicken, veal, and eggplant; cooked rigatoni; boiled eggs. All in, each one was six to eight hours of work. I just felt like I needed to feel the experience of making them from scratch. Here’s what I’ve found: If you want to make this, you should not make it from scratch. Buy at least some of the components premade.

“For the show, we got meatballs from Marc Vetri in Philadelphia, mozzarella from Nancy Silverton in LA, eggplant parm from Jon & Vinny’s in LA, spicy rigatoni alla vodka from Carbone, veal cutlets from Dan Tana’s in LA, chicken cutlets from Pizzeria Bianco, and pasta from Evan Funke. To assemble, I grease a big Dutch oven, then line with a big sheet of pasta (or multiple sheets — just make sure it won’t leak). Next, the rigatoni. Top that with a single layer of pasta. Follow with a ladle of red sauce, then a layer of meatballs, split in half. Top with shredded or fresh mozzarella. A few leaves of basil. Repeat with each ingredient, taking care to make even layers. Finally, wrap the pasta over the top to form a sealed drum. Use extra pasta if you need to make it airtight. Bake for 60 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, covered with the pot lid. Remove the lid and continue to cook until the top is browned. Let rest for at least 2 hours before inverting and slicing. Alternatively, don’t try this at home.”

“This is a mash-up between the thin onion soup you get at the beginning of the meal at a chain teppanyaki restaurant and a classic French onion soup. 

Start by seasoning and slowly browning 2 or 3 thinly sliced onions in a big glug of olive oil or a few tablespoons of butter. Take the time to really brown the onions.

Add a dozen stemmed and thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, 4 cloves of minced garlic, and a big pinch of Momofuku Savory Salt.

Once the garlic and mushrooms have broken a sweat, add 6 cups of dashi. We use a lot of dashi on the show. It’s a Japanese broth made from kombu and katsuobushi, but you can also buy instant dashi that will work perfectly well. Bring to a simmer, and season with fish sauce and black pepper. 

Simmer, covered, for 30–45 minutes, then add sake (2/3 cup) and a package of trimmed enoki mushrooms. Bring to a boil and let the alcohol cook off. Adjust the seasoning and serve. If you like, you can toast a piece of mochi and float it on top to recreate the effect of a crunchy, cheesy crouton.”

“Yoshoku refers to Western dishes that have been reinterpreted — and usually improved— by Japanese cooks. Classic Japanese cooking, on the other hand is known as washoku. If you’ve ever had Japanese curry or tonkatsu, you’ve had yoshoku. If you’ve ever been to a teriyaki restaurant or an izakaya that serves one of those delicious, crunchy savory-sweet salads, you’ve had yoshoku. I really like yoshoku salad dressing. Maybe the most classic is carrot-ginger dressing, but I also love the sesame-soy version. For the show, I blended together ginger, half an onion, a squeeze of Momofuku Sweet and Savory Korean BBQ Sauce, a squeeze of soy sauce, a couple tablespoons each of sesame seeds, sesame oil, rice vinegar, black pepper, and agave syrup.”

“My gyoza filling was a mix of ground chicken (pork is traditional), minced cabbage, scallions, Shaoxing wine, fish sauce, a little minced ginger, and soy sauce. A lot of recipes will tell you to salt the cabbage first to remove moisture, but I didn’t bother. The key is to cook off a little bit of the filling to check for seasoning before filling your dumplings. As for wrappers, our local Japanese market had these extra-large wrappers that I really liked, but you can use whatever you like. Cooking gyoza on a teppan is about alternately browning them so they’re nice and crunchy, while also making sure they steam so they cook through. I used a squeeze bottle to wet the dumplings, then covered them with an upside-down pot to trap the steam. Of course, this works just as well with a nonstick pan and a lid.”

“I actually don’t really like the creamy white sauce  — they call it Yum Yum Sauce — at teppanyaki restaurants, but this is what the people love, so here’s my version. Blend together a big glug of heavy cream with whole grain mustard, black pepper, sesame oil, garlic, a squeeze of lemon, a little piece of onion, soy sauce, Momofuku Savory Salt, MSG, and a little sugar.”

“Here’s another quick dipping sauce that works just as well as a salad dressing. Blend together a chunk of onion with sesame oil, a handful of sesame seeds, soy sauce, agave, Momofuku Sweet and Savory Korean BBQ sauce (or substitute gochujang if you want something a little spicy), and a splash of water.”

“I’m no expert, but having done it a few times (and watched a lot of teppanyaki cooking), the keys are 1) lots of butter, 2) proper seasoning for your meat and veg, and 3) a hot, well-seasoned teppan. Otherwise, cooking on a teppan uses the same principles as a pan or griddle. Since there’s so much surface area (and moisture evaporates so quickly on the teppan), you can generate a lot of Maillard reaction (browning). Like a French-top stove, you can also create/find hot zones that help you manage your cooking. If something’s getting too dark too quickly, move it to a cooler zone. Seafood does really well on a teppan. Steak, too, of course. And fried rice or noodles are great on a teppan, because you’re basically cooking on a gigantic, flattened wok.”

• 1 habanero chili, seeded
• 2 tablespoons allspice
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoons vadouvan spice
• 1 teaspoon ground kaffir lime leaf
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 3 charred scallions
• 1 1/2-inch piece ginger
• Splash soy sauce
• Splash fish sauce
• Salt and MSG, to taste

Blend everything together, then transfer to a saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes to thicken, then season to taste. 

“This dish is a blend of Sebastian’s Chicago upbringing, Bach’s love for teppanyaki, Italian-beef sandwiches, Asian flatbreads, and LA taco culture. Basically, it’s an Italian beef on yeasted flatbread (bing) with a griddled-cheese costra, topped with giardiniera and Momofuku Chili Crunch. You dip the whole thing in beef jus, and then we roll you out of the kitchen. 

For the beef, I trim and aggressively season a strip of tenderloin or chuck shoulder, then sear it hard on all sides. It won’t be cooked all the way through, but that’s OK. I let that rest, while I make a jus of browned beef scraps and drippings, Brandy, mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery), oregano, thyme, dried basil, garlic, and water. I fortify the beef flavor with some beef bouillon paste, then season with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and Maggi (or whatever umami-rich liquids I have nearby).

When you’re ready to serve, slice the beef very thin and then heat through in the jus. 

To assemble, I make a bing dough using the same recipe from the ‘Surf and Turf’ episode. I stretch out the dough, then put it on a well-oiled griddle. Once the bread is nicely browned on both sides, I move it to a cooler area to rest. Onto the griddle go two big piles of shredded mozzarella and provolone. Lay the flatbreads onto the cheese piles, and allow the cheese to melt and brown. Use a spatula to flip the cheesy flatbreads over. (A well-seasoned or nonstick pan/griddle are crucial to prevent the cheese from sticking.) If you’ve done this right, the flatbread should have a nice, crunchy, brown costra. Top one flatbread with chopped giardiniera, beef, Momofuku Chil Crunch, and the other piece of bread. Slice into wedges and serve with bowls of jus for dipping.”

“I knew I’d like Nicole when I heard that she’s a fan of ranch dressing. Specifically, the holy trinity of chicken, bacon, and ranch. In honor of her very good taste, I’m making this riff on larb. I say “riff” because larb is the national dish of Laos — as well as a very popular dish in northern Thailand — and this is by no means an authentic larb. But… is it delicious? Yeah, it is.” 

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pound bacon, sliced into thin lardons
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 cup green beans, cleaned and sliced into 1-inch pieces
• 1 head iceberg lettuce
• 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced thin
• 3 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar (or substitute brown sugar)
• Fish sauce, to taste
• Handful mint and cilantro leaves (and tender stems)
• Chicken jus (if you have it… see the Mixed Grill recipe)
• Sliced scallion greens for garnish

• 100 grams Kewpie mayo
• 100 grams sour cream
• 125 grams buttermilk
• 5 grams Worcestershire sauce
• 6 grams paprika
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 6 grams onion powder
• 6 grams garlic powder
• 5 grams fresh chives (1 tablespoon chopped), chopped
• 5 grams fresh parsley, chopped
• 5 grams fresh dill, chopped

1. For the ranch dressing, combine the mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, lemon juice, onion powder, and garlic powder in a bowl. Whisk together, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the herbs and store in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Heat a large sauté pan or wok over medium heat and coat with 1/4 cup olive oil. Add the bacon and cook until crisp and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the fat behind. Add the chicken to the pan and season with salt (and Momofuku Savory Salt if you have it). Use a spoon to break up the meat and cook for 5–6 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked through. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the larb.
3. In a separate sauté pan, toast the rice over medium heat until golden brown. Set aside.
4. Add the green beans to a microwave-safe bowl, and season with salt. Cover and cook for 2 minutes, or until just tender.
5. Peel off individual leaves of the lettuce and use a pair of shears to trim off the tough bottoms and any browned bits. You want nice, beautiful lettuce cups.
6. Add the toasted rice to a mortar and pestle and pound into a coarse powder. Add the ginger, garlic, and shallots, and keep pounding into a paste. Now add the lime juice, sugar, chicken, tomatoes, and green beans. Mix and pound, but just enough to break up the vegetables a little bit and incorporate the paste into the salad. Season with fish sauce to taste (and add the chicken jus if you have it!). Finally, add the herbs and give one more pound/grind to combine.
7. Transfer the larb to a serving vessel, and top with bacon. Garnish with scallions. Serve with lettuce cups and ranch dressing.

“In our pre-interviews with Joe and Nicole, the word meat kept coming up. And when I think of meat, my mind goes to Istanbul, where they take meat-eating to a whole new level. I just love the way you can get a whole assortment of meats and vegetables, served on flatbread that soaks up all the delicious juices. For tonight’s show, I wanted to pay homage to the Turkish style of meat eating, while also infusing a little bit of personality from our guests. 

Joe Manganiello is a son of Pittsburgh, and has the distinction of having his picture on the wall of Pittsburgh’s most famous sandwich shop, Primanti Bros. So in honor of Joe, I added a little Primanti–style flare to this mixed grill.” 

The bread is a riff on the Majordomo bing bread I’ve made on previous episodes. It’s a 50-50 blend of AP flour and bread flour, leavened with yeast and a little sugar. Other than that, it’s just water, olive oil, and salt. This time I rolled it out extra thin and cooked it in big sheets on the griddle. 

Just like in our first episode with Steven Yeun and Rashida Jones, I deboned a whole bird in order to minimize cooking time and maximize what I got out of the chicken. I browned the chicken bones in a pan, then added a few aromatics, covered with water, and cooked it over high heat to extract as much flavor as possible. I let the liquid reduce until nothing was left but an almost-syrupy chicken jus — that’s liquid gold and the secret ingredient to the Chicken Bacon Ranch Larb. 

As for the chicken itself, I employed the easiest/best method I know. Sheet-pan cooking has been all the rage for the past couple years, but we’ve been doing it for family meal in restaurants for years.  Simply season the chicken (I used Momofuku Savory Salt), and let it dry out in the fridge for a couple hours. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary along with a few cloves of garlic on a wire rack, and then top with the chicken, skin-side-up. Set the rack on a sheet tray, and pop it in the oven on the second rack from the top for 40 minutes. You will not burn the chicken. The skin will be crisp. The meat will be perfect. This is the way. 

I’m again invoking the quotation marks, because this is not authentic at all. I truly love the entire genre of ground-meat kebabs. But I also had an extra package of Marc Vetri’s meatball mix from the Timparmo episode in the freezer. I defrosted that, shaped the meat into logs, and griddled them. And you know what? They’re delicious.

The veg component of tonight’s mixed grill was just roma tomatoes, a mix of sweet and spicy peppers, and sliced onions. I coated everything in olive oil, seasoned with kosher salt, and popped it in a hot oven with the chicken until everything was blistered and bursting. 

The inspiration for the pork was the capicola you get on a Primanti Bros. sandwich. I took a whole pork secreto (the same cut we served in the Bert Kreischer–Bill Simmons episode, but you can just as easily use pork shoulder), and seasoned it with salt, garlic, oregano, thyme, fennel seed, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon. I popped it in a roasting pan, covered it, and cooked it for about an hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point, I uncovered the meat, and basted it with its own juices, then put it back in the oven and finished it at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for another hour.

The signature ingredients on a Primanti Bros. sandwich are coleslaw and french fries. Rather than making coleslaw, I opted for charred cabbage dressed in coleslaw vinaigrette. I quartered a head of cabbage and trimmed off the toughest part of the core, then simply let the cabbage char on a hot, dry griddle. Meanwhile, I mixed together olive oil, rice wine vinegar, dried oregano, dried thyme, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Once the cabbage was charred, I tossed it in the vinaigrette while it was still hot, then wrapped it in plastic to let it steam. 

• 1 1/2 packages graham crackers
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter, melted

1. Blend everything together in a food processor until it looks like wet sand. Pack it into a 9-inch Pyrex pie tin, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20–25 minutes or until brown and fragrant. Allow to cool completely.

• 1 1/2 packages peanut butter chips
• 1 package milk chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 stick butter
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 3 cups whipped cream

1. Add the peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and salt to a nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Stir until everything is melted and combined.
2. Meanwhile, add the butter to another saucepan over medium-low heat. Melt, then continue to cook (stirring constantly) until the butter is browned (but not burnt!).
3. Add the browned butter to the peanut butter–chocolate mixture, along with the heavy cream. Whisk to combine, then transfer to a bowl and allow to cool completely.
4. Add the peanut butter–chocolate mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk until fluffy, then fill the pie shell. Top with whipped cream, then chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

“J.B. mentioned before the show that he loves chicken-fried oyster mushrooms. To tell the truth, I’ve never fried mushrooms, but I have fried a lot of chicken. These mushrooms get a karaage-style marinade, then a quick dredge, and a slow fry until they’re crispy-chewy. If you close your eyes, you can almost imagine you’re eating the real deal. Almost.”

• 4 cloves garlic
• 2-inch piece ginger
• 1/4 cup tamari
• 1/4 cup sake
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 1 tablespoon agave
• 1 teaspoon MSG
• 1 teaspoon Momofuku Chili Crunch
• 1 oyster mushroom, cleaned and cut into big chunks
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• Oil for frying
• Salt

1. Make the marinade by blending the garlic, ginger, tamari, sake, mirin, agave, MSG, and Chili Crunch in a blender until smooth.
2. Add the mushrooms to a large mixing bowl and cover with the marinade.
3. Heat three inches of oil to 325 degrees Fahrenheit in a large pot over medium heat.
4. Mix together the flour and starches, with a pinch of salt. Working one at a time, coat the mushrooms in the dredge, then deposit into the oil.
5. Fry the mushrooms until they’re crisp and chewy. It can take a while for mushrooms to give up enough water to have a meaty texture — hence the slightly cooler frying temperature. Big shrooms need about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels, and serve hot.

“I’m sorry but the first thing I think of when I think of vegan food is salad. I’m sure there are vegans who don’t like salads, but it’s hard for me to think of anything else. And my personal preference is for salads with the least amount of lettuce and most amount of croutons. Preferably, fried croutons. This salad is a combination of two of my favorites: Lebanese fattoush and Italian panzanella. They share a lot of the same ingredients, in fact, so this hybrid isn’t that much of a stretch. I call it… the Fatzanella.”

• 2 Persian cucumbers
• 1/4 red onion, minced
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained well
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 2 cups torn flatbread (use the Bing recipe from our previous episode)
• 2 cups mixed lettuces (arugula, little gems, mizuna, whatever you like)
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
• Handful of basil leaves
• A few sprigs mint leaves
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper
• MSG
• Mixed herb oil (from the Peas and White Chocolate recipe; optional)

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1 teaspoon za’atar
• Juice of one lemon
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Mushroom-chickpea extract (from the Peas and White Chocolate recipe; optional)

• 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon sumac
• 1/2 teaspoon za’atar
• 1 teaspoon Momofuku Savory Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Make dehydrated tomatoes. Score each tomato with a small X, then briefly blanch them in hot water. Drop the tomatoes into an ice bath to stop cooking, then carefully peel each tomato. Dress with olive oil, salt, and black pepper, then lay the tomatoes in a single layer on the rack of a dehydrator. Dehydrate at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 2–3 hours. You’re not looking for tomato leather — you just want to get rid of some moisture and concentrate the flavor of the tomatoes.
2. Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together the garlic, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, za’atar, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. If you happen to have some of the mushroom-chickpea extract from the Peas and White Chocolate recipe, add a little spoonful for a hit of umami. Set aside.
3. Fry the chickpeas. Heat a couple inches of olive oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a large pot. Carefully add the chickpeas (they will splatter) and fry for 5-6 minutes, or until crisp and golden brown. Drain on a paper towel, then toss in the chickpea spice mix.
4. Assemble your salad ingredients. Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise, then into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and MSG and let sit. Dress the chickpeas with rice vinegar, salt, and olive oil to taste. Wash and dry the lettuces. Pick the herbs.
5. Fry the croutons. Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a large skillet, then fry the flatbread pieces until golden-brown on all sides.
6. Assemble everything. Add the tomatoes and croutons to a mixing bowl. Dress liberally with vinaigrette, toss, and allow the bread to soak up the dressing. Add in the pomegranate seeds, chickpeas, and cucumbers. Finally, add the herbs and lettuces. Finish with a little drizzle of the mixed herb oil, if you have it. Season to taste, and serve. 

“Poor Jeremy Fox will never escape this dish. He’s one of the greatest chefs America has ever produced. He’s got three great restaurants in Los Angeles. But he’ll always be known for the vegetarian cooking he did between 2007 and 2010 at his former restaurant, Ubuntu, in Napa, California. And for good reason. Ubuntu was revolutionary, and the dishes Fox came up with there were incredible. Peas and White Chocolate is the perfect example. It’s unnervingly simple, but so smart. Now, let’s be clear: I did not make the real version of this dish. I love Sarah and J.B., but I’m not double-shucking peas for them. This is the B-movie remake of the original (but it’s still really good).”

• 1 cup green peas (I used frozen)
• 1 cup sugar snap peas
• 1/2 cup snow peas
• 1 cup pea shoots
• 1 cup cooked peas (fresh or frozen)
• 3 sprigs mint (or substitute mint tea bags)
• 1 ounce vegan white chocolate (substitute regular white chocolate if you’re not vegan)
• 3–4 macadamia nuts
• 2–3 shiso leaves
• Salt
• MSG

• 16 ounces button (or white) mushrooms, cleaned
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas
• Kosher salt

Weigh the mushrooms and chickpeas, then add 2% salt by weight. Pulse everything in a food processor until you have a fine chop (not a puree). Wrap in cheesecloth, place in a fine-mesh sieve, and set over a bowl to drain overnight. 

• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
• Handful mixed green herbs (parsley, basil, shiso, perilla leaf, arugula) 

Heat the grapeseed oil to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit in a small saucepan over medium heat. You don’t want the oil so hot that it’s going to burn the herbs — just hot enough to awaken some of the aromatics. Toss the herbs into the oil — they should pop lightly but not explode everywhere. Cook for about a minute, stirring, then remove from the heat. Allow to cool, then pulse smooth in a blender. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, and reserve.

1. Clean the sugar snap peas, reserving the stems and stringy bits.
2. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Season with salt, but not as much as you’d add to blanching water. You’re aiming for a seasoning level you’d like to eat. Drop in the snap peas, snow peas, and snap pea trimmings. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and deposit into an ice bath. Do not discard the poaching broth!
3. Season the broth with a pinch of MSG, then add a few mint leaves or a mint tea bag and allow to steep while you prepare the rest of the dish. (Alternatively, you can use a French press, to make straining easier later.)
4. Retrieve the snap peas from the ice bath and thinly slice half of them on a bias. Leave the others whole.
5. Arrange an assortment of sliced and whole sugar snaps, snap peas, pea leaves, and peas in bowls.
6. Season the broth with mushroom-chickpea extract and a little mixed herb oil to taste. Top the peas with a few big spoonfulls of broth. Top with torn shiso, then use a Microplane to garnish with a generous dose of white chocolate and macadamia nuts. Serve.

“Aglio e olio is a really delicious, inherently vegan dish. It’s a perfect example of a dish that is greater than the sum of its parts. In addition to pasta, it has only three ingredients: garlic, good olive oil, and chili flakes. I, of course, am terrible at making things the authentic way, so I’ve changed my version up a little bit. For one thing, I don’t like to cook my pasta in a big pot of water. I use just enough water so that by the time the pasta is done, there’s only a little bit of starchy water left in the pan. That starchiness adds a lot of body to the final sauce. More importantly, it means I don’t have to use (or clean) a colander.”

• 1 cup olive oil
• 10 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Momofuku Chili Crunch
• 1 pound dried spaghetti
• Salt

1. Add the oil and garlic to a saucepan over medium-low heat, and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1–2 minutes, but don’t let the garlic brown. Remove from heat, and stir in the Chili Crunch. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, bring 6–8 cups of water to a boil in a large skillet or wok. (You’ll need to practice this a few times — or become one with the Force — to dial in the exact amount of water.) Season with salt, but not as much as you’d traditionally use when cooking pasta. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring often. The hope is that by the time the pasta is perfectly cooked, enough water has been absorbed/evaporated so that all you’re left with is about 3/4 cup in the pan. If you’ve got too much water, pour some out.
3. Once the pasta is cooked, turn the heat down to medium and add the garlic-chili-oil mix. Stir to emulsify the oil and water into a glossy, rich sauce. Season with salt, and serve. 

“Chickpeas are an incredibly versatile ingredient, and something I’ve used a lot over the years. But one of my earliest exposures to chickpeas was in a classic panisse —chickpea-flour fritters from southern France that are sliced into thick fries and fried crisp. They’re often flavored with Parmesan cheese, which makes them not vegan, but I think nutritional yeast can give the same cheesy, umami notes without the dairy. For the show, I chose to bread the panisse before frying, so that I could treat it like a chicken or veal cutlet and give it the piccata treatment. (If you’re not vegan, you can just as easily make this dish with a pounded meat cutlet.)”

• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2/3 cup vegan egg (use real eggs if you’re not vegan)
• 2/3 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup capers
• Suprêmes from 1 lemon (segments without pith)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup vegan butter (or real butter, if you like)
• Olive oil
• Salt

1. Make the panisse. Combine the chickpea and almond flours, nutritional yeast, and a big pinch of salt in a saucepan. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil and just enough water to form a paste. (Add a little bit at a time until you have a consistency like mashed potatoes.) Set the saucepan over medium heat and cook for 3–4 minutes, just to cook the flour a bit.
2. Spread the paste into a 1/2-inch-thick layer on a Silpat-lined baking sheet, then transfer to the refrigerator to set.
3. Once the panisse is firm, set up a breading station: one pan with flour, one with vegan eggs, and one with breadcrumbs. Coat the panisse in flour, dusting off then excess. Follow with a dip in the egg, and finish with a coating of breadcrumbs.
4. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and coat with a healthy dose of olive oil. Slide the breaded panisse into the pan and cook until attractively browned on both sides — about 3 minutes per side. Slide onto a plate.
5. Return the pan to the stove and add 2/3 cup olive oil. Toss in the parsley, capers, and lemon zest. Follow with the butter, and stir to combine. Pour everything over the panisse cutlets and serve.

“Aquafaba is the viscous cooking liquid that’s leftover from cooking chickpeas. Because of its high starch and protein content, it’s often used as an egg white substitute. For the show, I thought we’d try and make a pavlova — the traditional New Zealand dessert of meringue and fruit. But … we had some trouble getting the aquafaba meringues to stay puffy, so we pivoted to a safer option: Eton mess. Eton mess is literally just a big messy bowl of crunchy meringues, whipped cream, and fruit. It’s ideal for hiding poorly baked meringues …”

• 2 cups ripe strawberries, trimmed and halved
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 cups aquafaba (about two cans’ worth; or substitute egg whites)
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries, pulsed into a powder with a spice grinder
• 2 cups whipped coconut topping (available in the freezer section)

1. Add the berries to a bowl and add 1/2 cup sugar. Stir to combine, then allow to macerate in the fridge.
2. Make the meringues. Add the aquafaba, cream of tartar, and cornstarch to the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium until the aquafaba gets foamy and begins to look meringue-ish. Add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the strawberry powder, and continue to whisk until the meringue holds stiff peaks. Transfer to a pastry bag outfitted with a large tip.
3. Pipe the meringues into 1-inch domes on a Silpat. Slide into a dehydrator (or very low oven) and dry for 2 hours at 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep in the dehydrator until ready to serve, or store in an airtight container.
4. Add a big scoop of whipped coconut topping to each dessert bowl, then add a few meringues. Top with a big scoop of macerated berries and their juices. Serve immediately. 

“The bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich (on a kaiser roll) is a NYC staple — a bodega classic. For tonight’s dinner, I wanted to honor the BEC without necessarily re-creating it exactly. I also wanted to try to integrate a few other breakfast items that didn’t make the menu cut. When I think of breakfast, one of the first things I think of is a crepe. This crepe is a hybrid, however. It’s somewhere between a French crepe, Vietnamese bánh xèo, and a South Indian dosa (assuming it worked properly on the show). Finally, I also wanted to stir the pot a little bit and use Taylor Ham/Pork Roll as a substitute for bacon. If you’re from New Jersey, you have very strong opinions about what this meat product — basically Spam in a sock — should be called. If you’re not, well, you’ll still find it delicious.” 

• 280 grams rice flour
• 220 grams coconut milk
• 220 grams sparkling water
• 10 grams chicken bouillon powder
• 3 grams salt
• 8 grams vadouvan spice
• 5 thin slices Taylor Ham/Pork Roll
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (or other melty cheese)
• Olive oil

1. Whisk the crepe ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, then coat with a thin layer of olive oil. Add the Taylor Ham/Pork Roll to the pan, and cook until lightly browned on both sides. Remove and set aside.
3. Pour a thin layer of crepe batter into the center of the pan and tilt the pan in a circular motion to coat. Set back on the burner and add the two eggs. Sprinkle with cheese, and let the crepe cook until it begins to crisp on the bottom — about 3 minutes. Add the slices of Taylor Ham/Pork Roll back to the crepe, and fold the crepe in half to create a half moon. Continue cooking, flipping once, until crisp on both sides. Transfer to a cutting board, slice into wedges, and serve.  

“Chilaquiles are the greatest breakfast food on earth. There, I said it. It has everything you want in a dish: textural contrast, temperature contrast, umami, fat, acidity. In the underrated world of wet-crunchy foods (General Tso’s chicken, agedashi tofu, buffalo wings), chilaquiles reign supreme. Usually you have to choose between the red and the green, but for the show, I served Cord and Aziz both because two is better than one.  

Two final notes: When it comes to tortillas, I really trust Javier Cabral (the editor of L.A. Taco). Javier recommended tortillas from Caramelo in Lawrence, Kansas. They use heirloom corn from Mexico, sourced by the company Tamoa. They are really incredible tortillas. Lastly, this was my first time making chilaquiles. They are by no means authentic. If you want a real recipe, Javier’s wife Paola has you covered.” 

• 1 onion, quartered
• 3 tomatillos, halved
• 2 jalapeños
• 10 garlic cloves
• 1 serrano pepper
• Juice of 1 lime
• Half bunch cilantro
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder 
  Salt
• MSG
• Grapeseed oil

• 3 chiles de arbol, seeded
• 4 anchos chiles, seeded
• 1 guajillos chile, seeded
• 1 japones chile, seeded
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 white onion, quartered
• 4 Roma tomatoes (or 1 large can of crushed tomatoes)
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 20 corn tortillas
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• Olive oil
• Oil for frying
• Salt

• Fried eggs
• Cilantro
• Sliced avocado
• Crema
• Crumbled queso cotija

1. To make the green salsa: Fire up the broiler and place a rack on the second level from the top. Toss the tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapeño, and serrano pepper in grapeseed oil, then season with salt. Place on a baking sheet with the tomatillos cut-side down. Slide under the broiler and cook for 8–10 minutes, or until everything is blistered and bursting. Transfer to a blender and puree with the lime juice, cilantro, and chicken bouillon. Loosen with water if it’s a little bit thick, then season with salt and MSG to taste. Reserve.
2. To make the red salsa: Heat a skillet over medium heat, and coat with olive oil. Add the chilies to the pan and toast the chilies for a couple minutes. Don’t burn them. Add the garlic cloves and cumin. Continue to toast for a minute, then transfer to a blender. Add the onion, tomatoes, chicken bouillon, sugar, and vinegar. Blend until smooth, then season to taste. Move to a saucepan and thin with 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Reserve.
3. Slice the chicken into bite-size chunks, and season with salt.
4. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, then coat with olive oil. Add the chicken to the pan, and cook until lightly browned. Pour in the green salsa, cover, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender — 15–20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, fry the chips. Heat a few inches of oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a large pot or Dutch oven. Make sure you leave a few inches of space at the top, so the oil doesn’t boil over. Slice the tortillas into 6 pieces, then fry until crisp — about 5 minutes. Remove with a spider strainer or slotted spoon, and drain. Season with salt.
6. Heat the red salsa in a large skillet, then add half the chips. Stir/toss so that the chips are fully coated in sauce. You’re not dipping chips in salsa. They need to be saturated and served at that exact moment when they’ve begun to soak up the salsa but still have crunch. Transfer to a serving platter.
7. Add the rest of the chips to the green salsa. Stir/toss as you did with the red salsa. Transfer to the same platter as the red chilaquiles.
8. Garnish with crema, cotija, cilantro, and avocado. Heat a frying pan and coat with a big glug of olive oil. Crack a couple eggs into a small bowl, then slide into the oil. Cover and cook for 30–45 seconds or until the eggs are over-easy. Place onto the chilaquiles and serve. 

“These waffles are inspired by a trip I took to northern Sweden with the chef Magnus Nilsson, where Magnus introduced me to his dairy farmer. She was an incredible woman, who worked her ass off, consumed colostrum pudding to keep up her strength, and made the finest waffles I’ve ever tasted. In my memory, she used nothing but whipped cream and flour. My food writer friend Mattias Kroon said they tasted like “eating clouds,” and he’s not wrong. Mine will never live up to hers, which she cooked over a wood fire with fresh cream. But these are pretty damn good.” 

• 115 grams cake flour
• 165 grams ice cold water
• 2 grams kosher salt
• 160 grams whipped cream, whipped into stiff peaks

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cake flour, water, and salt. Set aside in the fridge for about an hour. This will allow the flour to hydrate properly.
2. When you’re ready for waffles, heat a waffle iron. Fold the whipped cream into the waffle batter, and fill your waffle iron. Cook until crisp. Serve with whatever toppings you like. Or none at all. 

“If fresh peas are in season — a very small window in the spring — go with those. If not, frozen peas are more than adequate as a substitute. For the mint, use whatever cool, fancy fresh mint you can find. Except peppermint. Peppermint is too strong. For the show, we used chocolate mint leaves from the farmer’s market.” 

• 3 strips bacon, sliced thin
• 1/2  pound fresh or frozen peas
• 20–30 small mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• Small, thick-cut rounds of bread, for croutons
• Sour cream or crème fraîche, for garnish

1. If you’re using fresh peas, shuck the peas and reserve the shells. Toss them into a big pot, cover with water, and boil for 10–15 minutes. Strain and reserve.
2. Meanwhile, render the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat. Scoop out the bacon, leaving the fat in the pan. Toast the bread rounds in the fat until brown on both sides and set aside.
3. Add the peas, mint leaves agave and cream to a blender, along with 3 big ladlefuls of the pea-shell broth. (If you didn’t use fresh peas, just add water.) Blend until smooth, then transfer to a pot. Bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 15-20 minutes.
4. Whip some sour cream or crème fraîche to soft peaks.
5. Check the soup once more for seasoning, then garnish with croutons and whipped sour cream. Eat the bacon, or use as a garnish.

“This dish is inspired by the signature dish at ’Inoteca, one of my favorite restaurants in New York. At the restaurant, they used truffle oil, but for the show I used truffle butter from Regalis. It’s not complicated, but takes some doing (and some shopping) to execute. 

I start by taking thick slices of white bread (we used milk bread from a local Japanese market), and used a spoon to press a little nest for the eggs into the center of each slice. Lay the bread slices on a sheet tray, then slather with truffle butter and top with grated fontina cheese.  Slip an egg yolk into the center of each slice of toast, then slide the sheet tray into the oven. In a separate pan, I sauteed sliced asparagus in olive oil, with a little salt and pepper. Once the cheese is melted (and the egg yolk is warm but not cooked through) pull the toast out of the oven. Transfer the toast to plates and surround with asparagus. Season with salt and pepper and serve.” 

“I hate when crab cakes are more filler than crab, so I tried to make this one without any breadcrumbs or egg to bind it. That means the probability of total collapse is high, but I’m willing to take the risk.” 

• 1 pound picked crab meat (preferably blue crab)
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup Kewpie mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay
• ½ teaspoon MSG
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs.

1. Combine the crab, Worcestershire, Kewpie, Old Bay, MSG, and mustard in a mixing bowl. Stir gently to combine, then season to taste with salt.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, and coat with a hefty glug of olive oil.
3. Gently form baseball-size crab cakes, then carefully roll each crab cake in panko.
4. Carefully place the crab cakes in the pan, and cook for 3–4 minutes, or until brown on one side. Flip and continue to cook, adding a big knob of butter to the pan to keep things fatty and lubricated. Cook until brown on all sides, then transfer to a plate. Serve with a lemon wedge and a side of artichoke salad.

Cleaning fresh artichokes is restaurant work. It’s a pain in the ass, and I’m not even going to bother telling you how to do it, because I discovered in the lead-up to the show that frozen artichoke hearts not as good but still passable. (If you really want to use fresh, you can look up how to clean them. That’s what the internet is for.)

Toss a bag of frozen baby artichoke hearts into a hot pan with lots of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and cook for 8–10 minutes, or until the artichokes are nicely browned. Add a fistful of ramp tops and toss to wilt. Add the juice of 1 lemon, and shower with grated Parmesan. Season to taste, and serve. 

“There are a lot of moving parts with this dish, so I’ll give you the broad strokes. Start by making the spätzle batter. As always, I have a hard time keeping track of proportions, but I always remember my cooking-school classmate telling me that the right ratio to make spätzle is 1:1:1 (flour: egg: milk). That’s a rough guide, but it’s close. For the show, I used 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of flour, and 2 eggs. You’re looking for pancake-batter consistency. Season with salt and MSG, then bring a few inches of salted water to a simmer. Fill a perforated pan or spoon with a scoop of batter, then use a plastic bench scraper to press the batter through the perforations into the water. As the batter drips into the water, you’ll produce small, uneven noodles. Cook for 2–3 minutes, then scoop the spätzle out with a strainer or slotted spoon. Set aside. 

Next, heat three frying pans over medium-high heat. Season lamb chops with salt and pepper. Coat all three pans with olive oil, then add the lamb chops to one, a big handful of morels to another, and the spätzle to the third. Add a few cloves of garlic, and a couple sprigs of rosemary and thyme to the lamb. Add a fat knob of butter to the morels, and season with salt and pepper. Toss the spätzle, and add some butter there, too. Season. Keep the heat high on the lamb chops, and flip once they’re browned on one side. Turn the heat down on the other two pans so that everything cooks at the same time. You want a little color on the spätzle, and for the morels to be tender. Add some ramp tops and bulbs to the morels and toss. Ideally, everything comes together at the same time. Plate the morels and ramps on a plate, and top with the lamb chops. Plate the spätzle separately. Now do all this on live television.” 

“There are actually two strawberry seasons in California, and we’re  at the beginning of the first. The berries aren’t super sweet yet, but a little Balsamic vinegar will heighten their sweetness. Toss the berries in good balsamic and serve with buttermilk cookies.” 

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• Freeze-dried strawberries and powdered sugar, for garnish

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Continue to mix until combined. Turn the mixer down and add the dry ingredients. Turn it back up and mix until combined. Chill until ready to bake.
2. Scoop the cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10–12 minutes.
3. While the cookies cool, add a handful of freeze-dried strawberries and ½ cup powdered sugar to a blender. Pulverize to a powder and use to dust the finished cookies.

“Banchan is the Korean name for side dishes that are served along with cooked rice. If you’ve ever been to a Korean restaurant, maybe you’ve had the experience of being flooded with a bunch of small plates of kimchi, sautéed veggies, salads, and maybe some dried or salted fish. That’s banchan. It’s all made ahead of time, ready to serve, and the assortment you get can be a good indicator of the kind of diner the staff thinks you are. If you’re a VIP, you might get some marinated crab (gyejang), an egg soufflé, maybe a savory pancake, and some extra-aged kimchi. If you’re a normal civilian, you’ll probably get a few bowls of kimchi, maybe some potato salad, and a little acorn jelly. The more you go, the more variety you’ll see. 

In any case, a good amount of banchan is based around vegetables, and some of it is vegan, so I thought that would be a good place to start with this episode. For Nikki Glaser and Pete Holmes, I served bean sprouts and flowering bok choy briefly cooked in sesame oil; shishito peppers; spinach leaves sautéed with garlic; quick-pickled kohlrabi and daikon; greens in sesame dressing; spicy cucumbers; tomatoes with shiso and sesame; sugar snap peas tossed with horseradish and lemon; and pan-fried tofu with a pickled Thai-bird chili vinaigrette. Plus, a little bowl of dongchimi (winter water kimchi) that we made this week.”

The kimchi for tonight’s show is different from the kimchi most people are familiar. That’s baechu kimchi: Napa cabbage fermented with gochukaru (Korean chili flakes). Dongchimi is made by soaking radish and other fruits and vegetables in a salty brine. In this case, I thinly sliced daikon radish, apples, Asian pear, Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, cucumbers, carrots, and scallions. Then, I layered it in an onggi (a Korean fermenting vessel) with salt, then topped it all off with salted water. You don’t want it to be so salty that it’s not palatable — half the reason you make dongchimi is for the liquid. Season it so it’s a little less salty than ocean water. I put that in the onggi on Friday. By Tuesday it was perfect.

“Tangsuyuk is a Chinese-Korean dish. Basically it’s sweet-and-sour pork: crunchy fried meat with a cornstarch-thickened sauce. For this episode, I made it with fried oyster mushrooms, which I’ve really come to love. In fact, the first time I ever fried mushrooms was for the J.B. Smoove and Sarah Silverman episode. I don’t even think it’s a step down from meat. If you’re not vegan, you can make this same recipe with slices of pork tenderloin, but you should give this version a try.” 

• 1 lb oyster mushrooms
• Oil for frying
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup mochiko (sweet rice flour)
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoon potato starch
• Salt
• MSG

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 Asian pear, peeled and cored
• 2 tablespoon agave syrup
• 1-inch piece ginger, peeled
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

• Rice wine vinegar
• Sugar
• Soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
   

1. Trim the oyster mushrooms and break them into manageable pieces. Each should be two or three bites, tops.
2. Make a dredge by combining the flours and starches, and seasoning with a bit of salt and MSG. You don’t have to stick to these exact proportions. Honestly, I just grabbed whatever flour and starch was nearby and eyeballed it. The starch gives a crispier fry while the flour gives more body. Set aside.
3. Make the marinade by combining all the ingredients with a splash of water. Puree in a blender, then pour over the mushrooms. Allow to sit for 30 minutes, but not longer. The mushrooms will soak up flavor quickly.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by combining rice wine vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and a splash of water in a saucepan. Do this to taste. If you like things a little more acidic, use more rice wine vinegar. As a rough guide, I’d say about 2:1:1 rice wine vinegar, to soy sauce, to sugar. Give it a taste, then bring to a simmer. Add a couple teaspoons of cornstarch slurry (2:1 cornstarch to cold water). Allow to thicken, then turn off the heat.
5. Heat a couple inches of neutral oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot.
6. Working a few at a time, coat the mushrooms in the dredge, shaking off the excess. Fry for 3–4 minutes, or until the mushrooms are browned and crunchy. Retrieve with a slotted spoon or spider strainer, and allow to drain over a rack. Season with salt, and serve with the sauce. 

“These are not really bindaetteok. They’re not dosas. They’re not crepes, either. They’re somewhere in the middle of all that. There are probably some people who will be driven crazy by this, but it’s what I love about food. The more you look around, the more you realize that everybody wants to eat the same thing. A thin, savory pancake — crispy or not — wrapped around delicious fillings. That’s universal. What we served on the show tonight started as bindaetteok — a Korean mung bean pancake typically filled with pork, beansprouts, and kimchi — but I wanted to make something crispy, with more structure, like a South Indian dosa. I filled it with Korean flavors and some of the ingredients you’d see in a bindaetteok, but I made it more of a salad for my vegan friends. 

I’m really happy with how the cone turned out. It’s savory and crunchy. Wrapping it as a cone is a pain in the ass, though, so if you make it at home, I wouldn’t necessarily bother. Also, if you’re not vegan, you can fill or top these with whatever meaty treats you like.” 

• 1 1/2 cups dried, shelled mung beans
• 1/4 cups short grain rice
• 1/2 cup mochiko flour
• 2 cups mixed lettuces
• 6 scallions, greens only, sliced thin
• 2–3 ripe tomatoes, quartered
• Salt
• MSG
• Olive oil
• Small Silpats (silicone baking mats)

• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-inch piece ginger
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoon kochukaru (Korean chili flake)
• 2 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
   

1. Place the mung beans in a bowl and cover with a couple inches of water. Cover and let soak overnight. In a separate bowl, soak the short grain rice in water as well.
2. The mung beans should have doubled in size overnight. Strain the mung beans and rice, and add to a blender, along with the 2 cups of water Add the mochiko, along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then blend until you have a smooth, crepe-batter consistency. If it looks a little too thick, add more water. Season with salt and a pinch of MSG.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat, then coat with a layer of crepe batter. You don’t want it quite as thin as a French crepe, but definitely not as thick as an American pancake. Once the crepe is set, lift up the edges with a spatula and add a little oil to the pan to help crisp things up.
5. Cook the pancake on one side until mostly cooked through, then flip and finish on the other. Once the pancake is browned on both sides,  transfer to a cutting board. If you like, you can roll a small Silpat into a cone, and drape the pancake around it. Otherwise, just lay it flat on a sheet pan. Repeat with the remaining batter, then slide the sheet pan into the oven for 25 minutes or until the pancakes are browned and crispy-crunchy. Let cool before filling.
6. Make the vinaigrette by blending together all the ingredients with a splash of water. Check for seasoning, then dress your salad greens, scallions, and tomatoes. Stuff into the bindaetteok cone and top with any leftover dressing. Serve. 

“I love eating cold noodles. When I was a kid traveling around to play golf tournaments with my dad, sometimes we’d stop after matches for mul-naengmyeon — cold buckwheat noodles in beef broth. Kongguksu is another chilled noodle soup I love, and it happens to be vegan. Full disclosure: I was a little worried about serving this one. I never want our guests to feel uncomfortable about what I serve them, and few non-Koreans are accustomed to eating cold noodles in soy milk. But I think the deliciousness of kongguksu is undeniable. Hopefully they like it.” 

• Somen noodles, cooked, strained, and rinsed in cold water

• 1 quart dried soybeans
• Salt
• Sugar
• MSG

• Cucumbers, sliced into batons
• Shiso oil
• Cherry tomatoes, peeled and dehydrated at 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 1/2 hours

1. Make the soy milk. Start by soaking soybeans overnight in water. By the morning, they should have doubled in size.
2. Add the soybeans to a saucepan and cover with 3 quarts of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. As the beans simmer, some of the shells will rise to the surface, along with a good deal of foam. Keep a close eye to avoid spillage. Allow to cool, then transfer the beans and water into a blender.
3. Blend until smooth, then pass through a fine-mesh strainer or chinois. If it looks more like cream than milk, thin it out with a bit of water. Skim off any foam, then season to taste with salt, MSG, and sugar. You don’t want it to be overwhelmingly savory or sweet, so just season enough to enhance the flavor of the soybeans and to make the milk a bit savory. (Keep in mind that cold broth takes more seasoning than warm.) Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
4. Add the noodles to bowls and top with soy milk. Garnish with cucumbers, tomatoes, and a little drizzle of shiso oil. 
    

• 10–15 shiso leaves
• 5 Tbsp grapeseed oil

1. Roughly chop the shiso leaves.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, then coat with oil. Add the shiso, and wilt for 30 seconds, then transfer to a blender canister. Top off with the remaining oil, and blend until smooth. Pass through a fine-mesh strainer, and reserve until ready to serve

“I make this dish at home all the time. It’s incredibly satisfying, and suitable for all ages and diets (except mine, because my doctor says I can’t eat so much white rice anymore). Basically, you cook some really nice short-grain rice. Ours came from The Rice Factory in New York, where they mill the rice to order, and it’s incredible. Then you buy really nice avocados. Ours came from the farmers market and were perfectly ripe. Then you dress it all with a soy-sesame-scallion vinaigrette that’s a bit like yangnyeom sauce — the spicy dressing you get on Korean fried chicken. Finish with some roasted seaweed, and some (really nice) pickled ginger. What’s not to like about that?”

• Garlic
• Vinegar
• Sesame seeds
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Kochukaru
• Scallions, sliced thin

“Shaved ice is a hugely popular dessert in Korea (bingsu), Japan (kakigori), Taiwan (baobing), and Hawaii (shave ice). It can be insanely elaborate, or very simple. (Check out Little Meg’s Instagram feed if you want to see the full range of kakigori in Japan.) For tonight’s dessert I kept it simple with an Asian pear shaved ice. First of all, I think Asian pears are the ultimate pear: huge, crunchy, sweet, floral, juicy. All I had to do was puree some peeled pear with a bit of agave syrup and lemon juice to make a pear syrup. I bought the cheapest ice shaver in the world to shave some ice into a bowl, then topped it with the syrup, slices of pear, and some condensed coconut milk.” 

“Nobu Matsuhisa is a force of nature. He’s a huge reason why Japanese food has the foothold it does in America. But the truth is, he’s not really cooking purely Japanese. He spent his formative years cooking in Peru, and a lot of his most popular dishes are a blend of international influences. Tempura itself is a fusion food. The Portuguese introduced battered, fried foods to Japan in the 16th century.  

Spicy tempura rock shrimp is one of the most popular Nobu dishes of all time. For Jay Pharoah and Lil Jon, I wanted to produce an ode to Nobu, while merging it with one of my favorite things to serve with fried foods: salsa seca. 

If you can’t find rock shrimp, you can cut up larger U15 or U20 shrimp. Dredge in flour, then coat in a batter of AP flour and soda water. For a hacky version of Nobu’s spicy mayo, I just mixed Kewpie mayo with sriracha. Don’t tell Nobu-san.”

David Chang’s Salsa Seca

“This is salsa seca in name only. It’s the best descriptor for this dry, crunchy, spicy mix, but in actuality, the recipe is a combination of seven or eight overlapping dishes and memories. My whole career has been about swimming in these intersecting currents of deliciousness. I love seeing that Korean anjou (drinking snacks) have the same crunchy, savory appeal of Indian chivda — or that Sichuan cooks have the same fearlessness about cooking with whole dried chilies that Mexican cooks do. 

You can’t make this stuff up. Everyone wants to eat delicious things, and no matter how different you think we are, a lot of our tastes overlap. This recipe is a combination of the many crunchy-spicy-savory-sweet combinations of chilies, seeds, nuts, and spices I’ve encountered in my life. There’s a bit of influence from typhoon-shelter crab (fried garlic and jalapeños), la zi ji, and kung pao chicken (two Sichuan chicken dishes with lots of fragrant dried chilies). All the various seeds and nuts makes me think of savory granola. The shredded nori brings furikake to mind. The puffed rice reminds me of Indian chaat. And all the dried seafood recalls Korean anjou. There’s really no wrong way to make this, so you should adjust as you see fit. 

Note that these instructions have you make the salsa in different stages so that you can customize your blend at the end. You can also just throw all of this into a pan and stir-fry, if you prefer.”

• 10 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeño, sliced thin
• 1 cup fried onions (available at Asian markets)
• 1/2 cup fried garlic (available at Asian markets)
• 20 chiles de árbol, rough chopped (or left whole)
• 10–15 chiles Japones, rough chopped
• 3 chiles guajillos, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon Momofuku Tingly salt
• 1 cup pepitas
• 1/2 cup poppy seeds
• 3/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup fried garlic
• 1/4 red onion, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 cup shredded nori
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons perilla seeds
• 1/2 cup puffed rice cereal
• 1/2 cup masago rice crackers
• 1/2 cup shell-on roasted peanuts
• 2 tablespoons dried shrimp (optional)
• 1 piece dried filefish, chopped fine (optional)
• 1/4 cup dried squid, chopped (optional)
• Salt
• Sugar
• MSG
• Black pepper
   

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and coat with a good dose of oil. Sweat the jalapeños and garlic, then add the fried onions and 1/2 cup fried garlic. Season with salt, sugar, and MSG, and stir-fry for a minute. Give it a taste, then transfer to a clean bowl. Set aside.
2. Return the skillet to the flame and coat with more oil. Now fry the dried chilies for a minute, and add the peanuts, scallions, Momofuku Tingly salt, and a three-finger pinch of sugar. Fry for a minute, give it a taste, then dump into another bowl and set aside.
3. Here come the seeds. Return the skillet to the fire and coat with a hefty glug of oil. Add the pepitas, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds, along with another 1/2 cup fried garlic and 1/4 cup sugar. Add the red onion and sweat for a minute. Follow with the rice wine vinegar, tamari, and a few turns of fresh cracked black pepper. Season to taste, sauté for a minute, then transfer to a bowl and set aside.
4. Return the skillet to the heat once more. Coat with oil, then add the shredded nori, pine nuts, and perilla seeds. Season with salt, sugar, and MSG. Fry for a minute, then toss in the puffed rice, rice crackers, and dried seafood. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
5. Now, in a large bowl, customize your mix. Add some or all of each of the various elements. Each component makes a nice rice topping or snack on its own, so don’t worry if you don’t use it all. 

“This flatbread recipe began in northern China, then traveled to Istanbul, before somehow making its way to New York’s Jewish appetizing stores. It’s essentially the same dough as the bing dough I served in the “Surf and Turf” episode, except I laminate it with butter so it comes out flaky, season it with everything-bagel spice, and bake it in a cast-iron pan. I serve it with my favorite hot-smoked salmon in the world, from Zabar’s in New York City, hand-selected by David Zabar.”

• 1 bing dough recipe from “Surf and Turf”
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup everything-bagel spice
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped
• Olive oil
• Cast iron skillet
   

• Smoked salmon
• Whipped cream cheese
• Capers
• Pickled red onions
• Lemon wedges
• Sliced tomato
• Chopped chives
• Everything-bagel spice 
   

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
On a well-oiled cutting board, roll out the dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Use your hands to smear on the butter in an even layer. Sprinkle with everything-bagel spice and chopped scallions.
Next, roll the dough tightly like a cigarette until you have one long cylinder. Next, coil the dough like a snake. Use your hands to flatten until it’s the same diameter as your cast-iron skillet.
Heat the skillet over medium-high heat, then coat with oil. Slide the flatbread into the cast-iron pan and cook for 2 minutes, then slide the pan into the oven. Bake for 5–7 minutes, then carefully flip the flatbread over and return to the oven. Continue baking until browned on both sides and cooked all the way through.
Cut the flatbread into wedges and serve with the garnishes. 

“I love this dish because it’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to do with a chicken. Roast chicken with browned skin is sexy. Boiled chicken is so uncool that I think it’s cool. The meat comes out juicy and tender, even the breast meat, which I ordinarily detest. In this case, I serve it like Hainanese chicken on a bed of seasoned short-grain rice. In this case, instead of a classic chili sauce or ginger-scallion sauce as condiments, I went a North African/Middle Eastern route, because Lil Jon says he likes that. Specifically, I made two riffs on the Yemeni sauce zhug. 

The other big benefit of boiling chicken is that you don’t lose any juices like you do with roast chicken. Instead, you get a beautiful broth, which I turn into a riff on chicken and dumplings for the second course. For the dumplings, I used leftover bing dough from the Everything-Spice Flatbread.”

• 1 whole chicken, about 4 pounds
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2-inch piece ginger, sliced
• 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
• Fish sauce
• 1 bunch scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 1 yellow squash, sliced thin
• 1 zucchini, sliced thin
• 1/2 pound oyster or maitake mushrooms, broken into large pieces
• Leftover bing dough
• 4 cups cooked short-grain rice
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Sesame oil
• Salt
• Black pepper
• MSG
• Soy sauce

Green and red zhug

1. The night before you plan on cooking the chicken, season it well with salt, set it on a rack-lined sheet tray, and let it cure overnight in the fridge.
2. Place the seasoned chicken in a large pot or Dutch oven and fill halfway with water — about 8–10 cups. Drop in the garlic and ginger, along with the Shaoxing wine, then bring to a boil over high heat. Season with fish sauce, salt, and black pepper, to taste. The seasoning level is important here. You don’t want it salty like pasta water, but rather exactly the way you want the final soup to taste. Note the water level.
3. Cover and boil the chicken for 40 minutes. Try not to peek. After 40 minutes, turn off the heat, and replenish the water with fresh water to the original level. That way, the soup should be seasoned perfectly, regardless of how much water evaporated during cooking.
4. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, slice off the breasts. Whether you keep the skin or feed it to your pup is up to you. I tend to like plain, unadorned breast meat. Slice the breast into thick slices.
5. Season the rice with butter, sesame oil, salt, MSG, and a splash of soy. Lay it on a plate, and top with the chicken breast. Cover one breast with red zhug and the other with green. Serve.
6. While your friends are eating the chicken breast, pull all the dark meat from the chicken bones and reintroduce to the soup. Add the sliced red onion, scallions, squash, zucchini, and mushrooms. Bring to a simmer and cook until the veggies are cooked through. Tear the leftover bing dough into small pieces and toss into the soup. Cook for another minute or until the dumplings are cooked through. Adjust the seasoning once more, and serve. 

“This sauce is a little free-form riff on zhug and really just came from what we had laying around the kitchen. Essentially, it’s a handful of green peppercorns, blended until smooth with a pinch of kaffir lime powder, a few shakes of garam masala, a little chicken bouillon, 8 or 9 cloves of garlic, and a big fistful of fresh herbs: chives, parsley, mint, and cilantro. A little hot oil poured straight on top brings out some of the aromatics. A couple tablespoons of chopped peanuts add body, and the juice of a lime adds acidity. Season to taste and serve within a couple days.”

“This is another totally improvised sauce. I seeded a couple red bell peppers and tossed them in the microwave with two whole, small carrots for 90 seconds. I’d literally never done this before, but it worked out great. The microwave steamed some of the rawness out of the vegetables and made them the perfect base for the sauce. I blended the peppers and carrots with 8 cloves of garlic, a habanero pepper, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt. Additionally, I cooked a spoonful of ground allspice in oil and mixed that in as well. Season to taste with vinegar, sugar, salt, and MSG.” 

Steamed Chinese buns are fluffy and light. Ours is basically a version of the one in Modernist Bread, which you should definitely check out if you want to make your own buns at home. Essentially, you just bloom yeast in water and a little heavy cream, then add sugar, salt, and flour. Mix. Proof. Shape. Proof. Steam. We substituted cake flour for Hong Kong flour and reduced the proofing time a bit, but the recipe is really great. And to give it a little crunch, we pan-fried the buns after steaming. You can also buy steamed buns in the freezer section of most Chinese grocery stores. They fry up almost as well as the homemade one.

For each sandwich:

• Chinese steamed buns
• Grapeseed oil
• 8 thin slices mortadella
• 4 slices provolone
• Hot mustard of your choice

1. Pan-fry the steamed bun in a frying pan coated with grapeseed oil, then transfer to a cutting board. Slather with hot mustard.
2. Spread the mortadella into the frying pan. Brown on both sides, but don’t get obsessive about it. It’s going to be delicious no matter what. Stack up the mortadella and cover with cheese. Allow the cheese to melt and drip down over the mortadella, then deposit into the bun. Slice in half and serve immediately.

Flashing back again to that first preproduction call for this episode, the whole DTL crew was blown away when Terry showed up with all sorts of ideas and research about what he wanted to cook. He noted that I love to serve chicken on the show and that he’s a huge fan of eggs and the luxury they bring to a dish. They toyed with the idea of making a frittata, which is one of Terry’s favorite things to cook, but ultimately landed on oyakodon because Dulcé’s palate veers toward Asian cuisines and a lot of my comfort foods are Japanese. 

Oyakodon translates to “parent and child bowl” and refers to the main ingredients: chicken (the parent) and egg (the child). Chicken thighs and sliced onions are simmered in seasoned dashi, then covered in egg, which forms a custard-y blanket to be served over rice.

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sliced into bite-size pieces
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 2 scallions, greens only, sliced into 2-inch pieces
• 1 cup dashi
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 3 tablespoons agave syrup
• 5 eggs, beaten
• Salt
• Grapeseed oil
• Steamed rice, for serving

Garnishes:

• Chicken crackling
• Scallion greens, sliced thin
• Togarashi
• Soy-cured egg yolks

1. Set a medium saucepan over medium heat and coat with oil. Add the chicken, season with salt, and cook for 2–3 minutes.
2. Add the onions and scallion greens, and continue to cook for another couple minutes. Once the onions have softened a bit, add the dashi, mirin, soy sauce, sake, and agave. Bring to a simmer, drop the heat to low, and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken and onions are tender.
3. Drizzle in the egg and stir with chopsticks. Cover and cook for 2–3 minutes, or until the egg is almost completely set. Scoop over rice, garnish, and serve.

Soy-cured egg yolks:

Too cure egg yolks, all you have to do is cover the yolks in soy sauce for about an hour. They should firm up a bit but still be runny on the inside. 

David’s a noodle guy, and watching him eat noodles is a thing of joy. So, for his comfort menu, even though this will be the third consecutive starch course, we couldn’t resist serving noodles. The noodles we chose are called biang biang mian in Chinese. They’re hand-pulled and slapped dramatically against a countertop as they’re being pulled. Chris has been making them for years and wanted to introduce them to Terry, who, of course, immediately became a pro at it. The guys are serving them with a braised pork sauce, made extra-spicy for Dulcé, who’s a confirmed lover of chili and heat. (The key to the pork is good pork, doubanjiang, and really rich chicken broth.) On top of everything sits an herb salad with lots of Chinese black vinegar to cut through the fattiness of the dish.

For the noodles: 

• 560 grams 00 flour
• 15 grams parmesan cheese, grated on a Microplane
• 3 grams kosher salt
• 300 grams water
• 10 grams neutral oil 

For the braised pork shoulder: 

• 3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into chunks
• 4 large button mushrooms, diced
• 3 Chinese sausage links, diced
• 2-inch piece ginger, sliced thin
• Stems from a bunch of cilantro, sliced thin
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup doubanjiang
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon allspice berries, ground
• 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 2 star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon white peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• Grapeseed oil
• Salt
• Momofuku Tingly Salt

For the meatballs: 

• 450 grams ground pork
• 40 grams scallions, minced
• 20 grams ginger, minced
• 20 grams garlic, minced
• 20 grams cornstarch
• 35 grams soy sauce
• 200 grams egg white
• 15 grams fish sauce
• Salt
• MSG

For the salad: 

• Thai basil, picked
• Cilantro, picked
• Mint, picked
• Persian cucumbers, sliced into thin ribbons
• Jalapeño, sliced thin
• Bitter greens, cleaned
• Spring onions, sliced thin
• Radishes, sliced thin
• Celery, sliced thin
• Peanuts, crushed
• 3 tablespoons black vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons of agave
• 1 teaspoon of chili oil
• Sprinkle of MSG
   

1. Make the noodles: Combine the flour, parmesan, and salt in the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer outfitted with a paddle attachment. Pulse or mix to combine, then add the water and oil. Pulse or mix until a dough forms, then transfer to a cutting board. Knead for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer to a mixing bowl coated with oil, cover, and allow to rest for an hour.
2. After an hour, roll the dough into a log and cut into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten and coat with oil. Cover and let rest for another 2 hours.
3. Braise the pork: Season the pork with Tingly salt and kosher salt, then brown in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Once browned, transfer the pork to a pot lid or plate, then add the onions, sausage, garlic, ginger, and mushrooms to the pot. Sauté for a couple minutes, then add the doubanjiang and Shaoxing wine. Stir to combine, then cover with chicken broth. Season with soy sauce, sesame oil, and agave. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 2 hours.
4. Meanwhile, make the meatballs: Combine all the meatball ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until smooth. Microwave a small piece to check for seasoning, then adjust with salt and MSG. Form into meatballs and drop into the braise.
5. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and season with salt. Working with one piece of dough at a time, gently pull the noodles out as far as they’ll stretch, waving them up and down to slap them against the countertop. (Look this up online. It’s hard to describe). Once the noodles are as long as they’ll get, use your fingertips to split the noodle down the middle into two pieces. Deposit into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Keep pulling and boiling noodles as you go, then transfer them to the hot gravy.
6. Make the salad: Combine the salad ingredients in a mixing bowl and toss to combine.
7. Continue to cook the noodles in the sauce for a minute, then transfer to a platter along with plenty of sauce/meat/meatballs. Top with salad and serve. 

• 1 pound skirt steak
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 scallion whites, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeño, minced
• 2 tablespoons ginger
• 2 tablespoons lemongrass
• 2 teaspoons cilantro
• 2 teaspoons agave
• 2 teaspoons soy
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• Bamboo skewers, soaked in water
   

1. Butterfly the skirt steak, then pound thin. Marinate with the remaining ingredients for 2–3 hours.
2. Slice the steak into thin strips, then skewer. Grill until browned/charred on both sides and cooked through. Serve immediately.

“I love banh mi, but I don’t necessarily think the crusty baguette is the best part of the sandwich. Putting it on soft, fluffy milk bread was a revelation. If someone else has done this before, I apologize, but I’ve never seen this before in my life. Now, if someone wants to make these, and sell them for, like, $4.75 each, I’ll be your customer every day.”

• Make a spread of Kewpie mayo (the Japanese kind with MSG, not the Western one with nutritional yeast) and Maggi. If you like, you can blend some chicken-liver paté in there, too.
• Spread that onto slices of milk bread.
• Layer on thin slices of fresh cucumber with slices of daikon and carrot that you’ve quickly pickled with rice vinegar, salt, and sugar.
• Top with a slice of pastrami. (If we weren’t doing a beef menu, I would have opted for mortadella).
• Close the sandwich, trim off the crusts, and enjoy.

“Originally our menu included a course of potted beef, which we harvested from the oxtails used in the pho broth, but then I thought, ‘No one is going to eat this.’ So we scrapped the potted beef course, but kept the oxtails as the backbone of our super-simple pho (which was inspired by Regency-era consommé). Oxtails are probably my favorite cut of beef. They’re super flavorful and gelatinous and they used to be relatively cheap because nobody ate them. 

To start the pho broth, set about 30 oxtails on a sheet tray lined with a roasting rack. Season with salt, then pop into an oven heated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 35–40 minutes or until they’re deeply browned.

Toss the oxtails into a pressure cooker and cover with water. Throw a chunk of ginger and an onion that you’ve peeled and cut in half directly onto the stovetop over a medium flame. Give them some char, then toss into the pot with a piece of star anise, a spoonful of black peppercorns, a little white pepper, some rock sugar, and a few black cardamom pods. Cook at full pressure for 90 minutes, then release the pressure naturally. Pull out the oxtails and reserve. (You can toss them in with the pho, or pull off the meat for the Beef Stew recipe, or an Italian ragù, or a quesadilla filling, or whatever you like.)

Season the broth to taste with fish sauce, sugar, salt, and black pepper. (If you like, you can cool the broth down, then skim the fat, but remember, fat is flavor.) Boil some rice noodles, then pop them into the broth with a squeeze of lemon and some sliced scallions.” 

“Chuck roast is one of my favorite pieces of meat, and hugely underrated. It contains a number of different muscles and lots of collagen, so when you roast it slowly you get this unctuous, fatty, super tender, super flavorful result. I think a lot of people have negative associations with chuck roast because they grew up eating chewy, gray pot roasts, but this is not that, I promise.

For this stew, you’re going to get a 4-pound piece of chuck roast and season it well with salt and pepper. Toss it into a Dutch oven, cover, and roast at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 hours. Pull the meat out, but leave the drippings. Add chunks of carrot, onion, ginger, lemongrass, and a handful of garlic cloves. Add a few tablespoons of tomato paste, and a couple teaspoons of Chinese five-spice (star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, clove, and fennel). Add a couple cups of beef broth (preferably the pho broth from earlier in this menu), a spoonful of sambal, 3 quartered tomatoes, and a cup of chopped Thai basil and cilantro. Season to taste, thinning out with water if it’s too potent, then add the meat back to the pot. (Add some meat from the pho broth, too, if you made it.) Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Serve with chunks of crusty baguette.”

“This is maybe the only way I like to eat beef tenderloin. Marinate chunks of tenderloin for a few hours with a couple cloves of garlic, chili, soy sauce, sugar, Maggi, rice-wine vinegar, and scallions. 

Toss into a hot wok (or a cast-iron pan) with butter, chunks of tomato, and sliced red onion. Cook through and serve over jasmine rice.” 

“I feel like a lot of people who say they don’t like anchovies aren’t aware of the role they play in Caesar salad. I understand that, on their own, salt-cured fish fillets can be intense. But whether they’re in fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or pounded into a Caesar dressing, anchovies are a weapon of mass umami. 

For my Caesar, I like to use the mortar and pestle to build the whole dressing. First, I pound a couple cloves of garlic, a few anchovies, and a spoonful of mustard. To that, I add black pepper, a pinch of MSG, and the juice of 1 lemon. Pound, grind, pound, grind. Then about ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil and an egg yolk. Work it until the fat and liquid emulsify into a creamy dressing. Toss with romaine leaves and croutons (which I made by coating some supermarket French bread with garlic oil* and baking it until crisp). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Oh, and because my guests this week— Reggie Miller and Mark Jackson — are athletes, I know they’re always looking for a protein hit, so I added some chopped chicken breast that I seasoned with Momofuku Savory Salt and seared in a cast-iron pan. 

*To make garlic oil (and garlic confit), throw a handful of whole garlic cloves into a small saucepan and cover with olive oil. Set over low heat and cook for about an hour or until the cloves are soft (but not falling apart). Be sure not to let the oil rise above the barest simmer — you don’t want to burn the garlic or let the delicate aromas of garlic dissipate by heating it too much.”

“Although I think the clear, brothy Rhode Island–style of clam chowder is severely underrated and needs more attention, my two guests for this episode are specifically fans of New England–style chowder. You gotta give the people what they want! 

The key to good clam chowder, in my opinion, is more clams than you think you need. You want plenty of the clam juice to season the soup, and there’s nothing worse than clam chowder without any clams. For the show, I sped things up with the help of the microwave. In a microwave-safe bowl with a lid (I use Anyday bowls, specifically built for microwave cooking). First, I sliced six strips of bacon into lardons, then cooked them in the microwave for about 4 minutes. To that, I added diced potato, onion, and celery, then popped it back in the microwave to soften the veg.

Meanwhile, I steamed open a couple pounds of littleneck clams in a Dutch oven with a good splash of white wine. (Remember to wash and soak the clams for at least an hour before cooking to extract as much sediment as you can.) Once the clams open, pull them out of the pot and discard any clams that didn’t open. Shuck the clams and reserve. Strain the liquid left in the pot and don’t you dare throw that away. That’s liquid gold. I padded my clam liquor out with the juice from a can of clams, which I find to be really delicious. 

Now, in the same pot, I melted a big knob of butter, then whisked in an equal amount of flour to make a roux. (You could also use bacon fat to make the roux, if you render the bacon in the pan first.) Cook the roux just until the rawness of the flour is gone, then add a couple cups of milk and allow to thicken. Thin it back down to the consistency you like with clam juice. Add the veg and the bacon, season to taste, and serve with oyster crackers.”

“Before each episode, we do a deep dive into our guests’ social media. Not gonna lie, I saw a lot of creamy pasta on Mark’s Instagram. Not all of it was fettuccine Alfredo, but … a lot of it was. Who can blame him? Fettuccine Alfredo is great, although most Americans like it creamier than they serve in Italy. I’m not being a snob about it — I like it with a little cream, too. I’m just saying…

For the show, I made a dough with about 4 cups of 00 flour and 6 eggs. I rolled it out to order, then sliced it into thick fettuccine noodles. For this dish in particular, I think it’s important not to oversalt the pasta water. You want to season it, but you also want to use the starchy water to give your sauce that silky texture everyone loves from Alfredo. If it’s too salty, you’ll end up with overseasoned sauce. 

While the noodles cook, melt a big chunk of butter and add a fat handful of Parmesan in a separate pan. Deposit the cooked noodles in the butter, along with a ladleful of pasta water. Add an egg yolk and a splash of cream, then stir vigorously to emulsify the sauce. Season to taste with salt, and serve immediately.”

“Here’s the other thing we saw a lot of on Mark’s Instagram: salmon. My man likes a nice piece of fish. For the episode, we got ahold of some really nice aged Ora King Salmon from The Joint Seafood and seasoned it ahead of time with salt. 

Early in the episode, I started a potato rösti to accompany the salmon. A rösti is basically a fancy-sounding Swiss-German term for hash browns. Grate potatoes, coat with potato starch, and pack into a cast-iron skillet with … a lot of butter. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes, then pop into a 400-degree Fahrenheit oven and cook for another 10 minutes. Carefully flip over, then continue to cook until crisp and brown on both sides.  

To cook the salmon, I pan-roasted in a cast-iron skillet with … a lot of butter. No other way to put it. Just a lot of butter, that I use to arrosé (baste) the salmon. For the sauce, I set a metal bowl over a steaming pot of water (the same one I used to cook the pasta in earlier) and melted … a lot of butter. I whisked in capers and the caper liquid. Cooking over low temperature helps the fat and liquid emulsify into a uniform sauce.

Finally, the only vegetable Reggie says he’ll eat is green beans. So, as a little vegetable side, I steamed some cleaned green beans in the microwave, then garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and some garlic confit (see above).” 

“The guys are huge fans of chocolate, so I scrounged around the studio and found a bag of fun-size chocolate bars in the kitchen. I melted a whole bag of those (about 500 grams) with half a  stick of butter and about ½ cup cream. Separately, I whisked together 6 eggs with two fistfuls of sugar and a pinch of salt. I combined the two mixtures to make the filling, then poured that into a blind-baked tart shell. Honestly, I’d tell you how I made the tart shell if I remembered, but I basically did it the least technical, most inane way you could. It was basically 50:50 flour and butter. Once filled, I baked the tarts for 20–30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and let it cool. It turned out great, which is annoying, because I have no idea how I did it.”

“When the guys sat down, I served them a few super-quick cucumber pickles I made just before the show. Just chunks of Persian cucumber, salt, agave, rice wine vinegar, MSG, and a squeeze of lime. All they need is about 30 minutes to marinate and they’re ready to go.” 

“The first proper course utilized that smoked whitefish that we’d bought when I was messing around with an everything-spiced flatbread for Jay Pharoah and Lil Jon. I peeled off the skin, flaked the meat, and mixed it with mayo, cream cheese, queso fresco, and a bag of frozen artichokes. Popped it in the oven and served it as soon as it was bubbling and brown on top.”

“When I first saw the pork belly, I thought about making my grandfather’s favorite dish: pork belly braised in soy and sugar. But then the head of cabbage caught my eye, and in my mind, I pictured a bowl of pozole topped with shredded cabbage and a squeeze of lime. I love pozole, and hadn’t made it for a long time, so that’s where we went. 

I cut the pork belly into cubes and rendered them in a Dutch oven, then added two sliced onions. Meanwhile, in a blender, I combined about 10 cloves of garlic with a handful of dried chilies that we always have on hand (chile Japones, chile de árbol, chile pasilla), rice wine vinegar, oil, chicken bouillon, agave, dried oregano, maggi, fish sauce, and water. Blended that and then added to the pot, and brought everything to a simmer. Toward the end of cooking, I added a can of garbanzo beans left over from the Nikki Glaser and JB Smoove vegan episode. (Ordinarily, you’d add hominy, but we didn’t have any.) 

To finish, I garnished with thin-sliced radishes and that shredded cabbage. Not bad for completely off-the-cuff pozole, I have to say.”

“We were originally going to serve softshell crabs with our spring menu for Maya Rudolph and Ron Funches, then I decided at the last second they weren’t going to be delicious unless I fried them. At that point, I didn’t have a fryer, so I bailed. But we kept them in the freezer for a rain day. 

Well, that day arrived with Joel and Harvey. We had leftover spring roll wrappers from the “Steak and Sensibility” episode, so I wrapped the crabs and fried them. I tucked those into a maki roll with Kewpie mayo, a squeeze of lime, and some sliced jalapeño for a quick take on a spider roll. It turned out great, but I have to warn you: if you’re going to fry softshell crabs, you need to be prepared for splatter. They’re ticking time bombs. I purposely positioned the fryer as far as possible from the guests, so they’re not in the splash zone. Good thing, too, because Joel nearly got popped a few times during the episode.” 

“In honor of Harvey’s love for Boiling Crab, I decided to improvise a seafood boil that’s a little bit Cajun and a little bit Chinese shui zhu yu. We had leftover Chinese sausage, doubanjiang, and Sichuan peppercorns from the episode where Terry Crews and Chris Ying cooked for me. Turns out the piece of Taylor ham I had in the fridge had been aged for a little too long, so that unfortunately had to go in the garbage. But we still had black cod, shrimp, and SPAM, so it was gonna be fine, protein-wise.

For the soup base, I combined Sichuan peppercorns, a handful of dried chilies, garlic, butter, doubanjiang, crab paste, Momofuku Tingly Salt, the shrimp shells, and a quart of dashi I found in the freezer. That was the flavor base, in which I cooked the black cod, shrimp, SPAM, and Chinese sausage. At the very last second, some boiled vermicelli went in. It looked insane, but I swear it tasted really spectacular.” 

“Wish I could tell you how I made fruit tart, but again, I eyeballed a pie crust at the last second. I remember there was a lot of butter and actually whole cubes of ice that I tossed into the food processor. (Ordinarily, you use ice water to keep the butter from melting, so why not just ice cubes?) The filling was some nice stone fruit, which is coming into season in California, a squeeze of lemon, sugar, and a sprinkle of cornstarch. Turned out pretty well, actually.”

“Hwe means ‘raw’ in Korean. Saengseon-hoe is raw, thinly sliced fish. And while there’s plenty of resemblance to Japanese preparations, there are important differences. Koreans are all about texture and prefer their fish to have crunch, which you can get from slicing extremely fresh fish —like, straight out of the tank or ocean. The rice is seasoned with sesame oil rather than vinegar. And Korean hwe dishes are often dressed with a gochujang-based sauce rather than soy. 

For Lily and Ashley, we got a beautiful marbled flounder that had been dry-aged by our friend Liwei at The Joint in Sherman Oaks. I sliced one of the filets from the belly side, as well as a piece of salmon that I cured for about an hour before the show. (See below for more about the cure, which I used multiple times in the episode.)

The first hwe course was just the sliced fish with a plate of lettuces, Korean chilies, tomato ssamjang (sent to us by Corey Lee from his restaurant San Ho Won in San Francisco), gim (seasoned seaweed), sliced cucumbers, kimchi, sliced garlic, and daikon. Before serving, I spritzed the lettuces and vegetables with the same MSG water I used for the crudité in the ‘Burger Party’ episode earlier this season. The idea was for them to make their own wraps (ssam), customizing each bite however they like. 

The second hwe course was hwedupbap, which translates to ‘raw fish on rice.’ I seasoned some really nice short grain rice with sesame oil and salt, then topped it with sliced fish (the flounder and salmon, along with lean tuna, fatty tuna, and amberjack), thinly sliced cabbage, cherry tomatoes, shredded seaweed, pickled daikon, and cucumber. On top, I drizzled a sauce of gochujang, sesame oil, sesame seeds, agave, and a splash of water. 

Fish cure:

For both the raw salmon and the roasted flounder, I made a cure of salt, sugar, MSG, and dried seaweed that I quickly blitzed into a fine powder in a blender.”

At the last second, our friend Liwei from The Joint showed up at the kitchen with a tray of uni, so as a starter course, I decided to make a riff on a classic course from Momofuku Ko: chickpeas and uni. Back in the day at our culinary lab in New York, I think we were the first people to try to make miso from chickpeas. The result was amazing: nutty, slightly sweet, with tons of umami, and the flavor of aged cheese. We called it Hozon, and it became the basis for a lot of dishes at the various restaurants. At Ko, we blended Hozon with chickpeas, lemon, and olive oil, and served it with uni as an early course. We don’t make Hozon anymore, so I had to get some store-bought chickpea miso (which wasn’t as good as Momofuku’s) for our dish. It wasn’t the same, but when life gives you uni… 

“Lily loves Noma, as she should. It’s one of the greatest restaurants in the history of the world. But nobody’s as old school of a Noma fan as me. I’ve been eating there for almost 20 years and consider René Redzepi to be one of my best friends. It’ll probably pain him to see me dragging out this dish from almost 15 years ago, but that’s what friends are for. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever eaten at the restaurant, and I think it’s hugely influential. The original dish is langoustine tails (the huge, beautiful kind they get in Scandinavia) served with an emulsion of oysters and fresh parsley and a sprinkling of toasted rye crumbles.

For the show, I substituted lobster tails for the beautiful langoustines we don’t have access to. They’re nowhere near as good, but you can’t have it all. I pulled the tails out of their shells, skewered them so they’d stay straight, then cooked them in a cast-iron pan (with some lobster shell–infused butter). To finish, a drizzle of Noma’s ‘Dashi RDX’ to stay on theme. For the oyster-parsley emulsion, I still don’t believe that René didn’t add any stabilizers or gums, but he says he didn’t. Just fresh oysters, fresh parsley, oil, and what Rene calls “the touch.” For the show, I had some xanthan gum standing by in case my ‘touch’ failed me. The rye crumbs are just dark rye bread from Tartine, toasted, crumbled, coated with olive oil, and toasted again until crunchy.” 

“I love whole roasted flatfish, whether it’s flounder, turbot, or fluke. I left the back filets on the flounder so we could roast them on the bone. There’s really not much to it. I cured it in the fish cure described above for a couple hours. Then placed it in a pan and roasted it in a hot oven (400 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 20–25 minutes. That’s it.” 

“I hate waste, especially when you have really nice ingredients, so we used every scrap of the fish we bought. The bones, fins, and skin all went into a stock pot with a couple pieces of kombu, salt, MSG, and a splash of Corey’s anchovy sauce (aekjeot). After straining the broth, I dropped in the last filet of flounder to poach for a couple minutes. This is the kind of dish I love to eat — super flavorful but clean broth, nice fish, a bowl of perfect rice, and some pickles on the side.” 

“Someone at Netflix asked for a French dessert in honor of Emily in Paris, and for some reason, my mind went straight to the flottante (or oeufs à la neige). It’s basically ice cream before the advent of freezer technology: a pool of crème Anglaise with an ‘island’ of meringue floating on top. Essentially, I made a crème Anglaise with 6 egg yolks, vanilla, a cup of milk, a cup of cream, and a whole mess of sugar. Cooked it slowly and gently until thickened, then flavored with matcha. The island is a sweet meringue that I poached in milk and flavored with yuzu. The last touch is a sprinkling of crushed caramel shards (microwave sugar and agave for two minutes until caramelized, pour it on a sheet tray to harden, then break it into pieces).

“When the guys sat down, I served them each a bowl of matzo ball soup, which I think is the greatest of all chicken soups. I’ve tried many times in the past to freestyle a matzo ball soup, and I’ve failed every time. So for the episode, I went by the book. This is more or less exactly a Joan Nathan recipe for matzo balls, with boxed matzo meal, eggs, fat, a little nutmeg, and chopped dill. The key seems to be resting the matzo balls before cooking, which I’m usually not patient enough to do. As for the soup, it’s a classic chicken stock that I finished with thyme, thyme, parsley, dill, and a little chicken bouillon because that’s really the flavor most of us associate with diner chicken soup.”

“I love to wrap. In Korean, we call it ssam — wrapping meats in lettuces or herbs with aromatics and sauces. My second restaurant, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, was based on the way I used to eat Chinese takeout, which was to wrap everything — rice, noodles, stir-fries — in a mu shu pork pancake. In the diner, you’ll see people wrapping sausages up in pancakes, but that’s about as fast as most people are willing to go. For this dish, I wanted to make something like a Denver omelet — ham, peppers, onions, cheese, the whole kitchen sink, basically — while spreading the wrap gospel. So, I expanded the Denver omelet to include a few more ingredients, including chopped up tater tots. Then I made mu shu–style crepes for Tony and Sam to wrap everything up. During rehearsal, we started calling it the ‘Mu Shu Denver,’ as a tongue-in-cheek nickname. 

But then Chris came with this crazy revelation. He found out that the Denver omelet is actually a direct descendant of Chinese egg foo young. Egg foo young is a fluffy omelet with pork and vegetables that apparently Chinese laborers in the late19th-century would place between two slices of bread and eat as a sandwich. It wasn’t wrapped in a pancake, but it’s basically the exact same idea. I live for this kind of discovery, when you realize the things you think you’ve invented are actually 150 years old, and that deliciousness can unite us across time, space, and culture.” 

For the Mu Shu Denver filling:

• 6 strips bacon, sliced into lardons
• 1/2 log bulk breakfast sausage
• 2 chilies of your choice, sliced
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 can Spam, sliced into 1-inch pieces
• 8 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups tater tots, fried crunchy
• Salt
• Black pepper

1. Render the bacon and sausage in a large pan or wok over high heat, then add the peppers and onions. Cook until the veg has softened a bit, then add the Spam, garlic, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper, then add the eggs. Cook, stirring constantly, until the eggs are cooked through.
2. Toss in the cheese and tater tots and use a spoon or spatula to break up the tater tots. Transfer to a platter and serve with mu shu pancakes, “plum sauce,” and maple syrup for dipping. 

For the Mu Shu crepes:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch baking powder
• Pinch baking soda
• Salt
• 1 3/4 cups milk

1. Combine everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Allow to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat, then coat with a thin layer of batter. Cook until lightly browned on both sides — about 2 minutes per side — then transfer to a plate. Repeat until you’ve used up the batter.

For the plum sauce: 

Mix grape jelly (or whatever jelly you like) with a splash of soy sauce and some Momofuku Sweet and Spicy sauce in a saucepan. Stir to combine, adjust for seasoning, and serve. 

“For the patty melt, I smashed a couple burger patties (a blend of short rib, brisket, and chuck) in a cast-iron pan, then topped them with onions I softened in the microwave (two onions in a large Anyday bowl with a fat knob of butter for 7 minutes). The bread was marbled rye. The cheese was Swiss. The sauce, special. 

Disco fries are a New Jersey specialty. The gravy was a super-quick, super-hacky version made by melting half a stick of butter in a pan, then adding flour to make a roux. To that, I added a big spoonful of beef bouillon, water, a garlic clove, and sprigs of parsley and thyme. Once it thickened, I strained it through a fine-mesh sieve. If it’s not thick enough, add a sprinkle of cornstarch. The French fries were fried from frozen and topped with cheese.” 

For the special sauce:

10 gherkins, chopped

1/2 cup Kewpie mayo

Squeeze of ketchup

1 teaspoon hot mustard

1. Mix everything together. 

• 160 grams flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 95 grams butter
• 100 grams sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
   

1. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl and set aside.
2. In a stand mixer outfitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar. Once smooth and light, add the egg and vanilla, then continue to mix.
3. Add the dry mixture and the buttermilk to the mixer in three stages. Don’t overmix!
4. Allow the cookie dough to rest in the fridge while you heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Portion out 6-7 cookies and bake on a silicone baking mat for 12–14 minutes. Remove from the oven, and invert the cookies on a cooling rack. Wait until fully cooled to ice the cookies. 

For the frosting:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
   

1. Combine the powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Add 2 tablespoons water, and whisk until smooth, adding more water if necessary. Separate into two bowls and add the cocoa powder to one bowl, stirring until combined. Frost the cookies with a piping bag and allow to set before serving. 

Little-known fact: Jimmy Kimmel’s dad is actually the master of egg creams. Somehow, he’s able to elevate chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer to something that’s greater than the sum of its parts. I tried to get him to come on the show to demonstrate, but unfortunately he wasn’t available, so the guys had to make do with the version I served them. The nice thing is, there’s a high floor for egg creams. 

At the last second I decided to switch up the disco fries by adding a Coney dog–style chili in honor of Sam’s Detroit roots. The Coney chili is classically a bean-less, mild, slightly sweet, rich meat sauce. Mine is… not classical. And spicy.

1 pound 80-20 ground beef

1 pound brisket, cut into small pieces

1 large onion, diced

8 cloves garlic

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 dried chilies (I used chile guajillo), seeded

1 star anise

1 serrano chili

2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 can nonalcoholic beer (I used a dark beer from Athletic Brewing)

2  tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoon tamari

3 tablespoon tomato paste

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

Salt

MSG

1. Brown the ground beef and brisket in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and sweat. Add the tomato paste to the Dutch oven and stir to combine. Toast the tomato paste in the rendered fat for a minute
2. Meanwhile, combine the garlic, cinnamon, onion powder, cumin, chilies, star anise, serrano, oregano, NA beer, Worcestershire, and tamari in a blender canister, then puree until smooth. Add to the pot, along with the crushed tomatoes.
3. Bring to a simmer then season to taste with salt and MSG. Lower the heat and cook for about an hour, partially covered. Use to drench fries, hot dogs, or whatever else could use a blanket of meat sauce. 

“White gazpacho is probably the most obscure of the cold, bread-based soups. It lives in the shadow of its much more popular cousin, tomato gazpacho, and it’s pretty rare to find out in the wild. But I like it. It’s like sipping on salad dressing and salad all blended together — in a good way. Traditionally, it’s made with day-old bread, almonds, garlic, and a little sherry vinegar. And while it doesn’t always include grape juice, I’ve always had it garnished with green grapes, so I made ours with fresh-squeezed grape juice. (I tried using bottled grape juice, but it was too sweet.) Just puree green grapes, then let the liquid drip slowly through a fine-mesh sieve. Finally, for some reason, white gazpacho (ajo blanco) reminds me of jatjuk, or Korean pine nut porridge, so I made mine with pine nuts instead of almonds. Basically, all you have to do is puree everything with olive oil, a little cucumber, salt, and MSG. Pass it through a fine-mesh sieve, and chill until ready to serve. Serve a small portion — a little goes a long way — and garnish with olive oil and a few pine nuts.” 

“This salad is based on a dish I used to make at Café Boulud, although my version is much less complicated. One reason I wanted to make this dish — in addition to it being light and refreshing — is because it really highlights the difference between home and restaurant cooking. If you make this at home, you can simply cube some watermelon and toss it with everything else. In a restaurant, a cook would spend hours and hours with a tiny melon baller, scooping perfect tiny marbles of fruit for the dish. I still made the fancy version for the show, but only with help and only for two people.

To start, shell 2 or 3 lobster tails. Deposit the shells in a saucepan with 1/2 cup olive oil. Set over medium-low heat and cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring often. You’re looking to infuse the oil with the flavor of the shells. Strain and return the shell oil to the pan. Sauté the lobster tails in the lobster oil along with a little bit of julienned makrut lime leaf, then remove and chill until ready to serve. 
 

For the salad, slice or ball a few different varieties of melon until you have about a cup per serving. (I used three different melons from the farmers market.) Puree the rest of the melon with a splash of rice wine vinegar, a touch of fish sauce, salt, a tiny bit of chili, a squeeze of lime, and MSG. (For the show, I also hydrated .5% xanthan gum by weight, then blended that in, too.) That’s your dressing.

Combine the melon balls with an equal amount of fresh corn kernels, thinly sliced shallot, thinly sliced makrut lime leaf, and the dressing. Season to taste, then top with sliced, chilled lobster.”

Fish en Papillote

“Cooking en papillote means to wrap food in a parchment pouch and bake it. You really don’t see it very often anymore, but I think it’s great. It’s a really nice presentation, and the parchment pouch traps steam and creates a moist cooking environment. 
 

For the episode, I wanted to serve the fish with ratatouille, which is one of the first dishes I think of when I think of summer. Mandy doesn’t love eggplant, so I left it out, but otherwise all the typical ratatouille ingredients are here. First, I cooked down some fresh tomato with diced bell pepper and garlic in olive oil. I laid a layer of that onto a sheet of parchment, then shingled thin slices of zucchini and yellow squash on the tomato. The fish (rockfish) went on top, along with a sprig of thyme. I wrapped it all with another sheet of parchment, crimped the edges, and sealed it with a staple. It all comes together in a hot oven in about 20 minutes. 
 

While the fish cooks, puree a few jarred, roasted piquillo peppers with garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar, and a little agave. That’s your sauce. 

Pull the parchment package out of the oven and slice open immediately. Top the fish with sauce and serve.” 

Fish en Papillote

“Cooking en papillote means to wrap food in a parchment pouch and bake it. You really don’t see it very often anymore, but I think it’s great. It’s a really nice presentation, and the parchment pouch traps steam and creates a moist cooking environment. 
 

For the episode, I wanted to serve the fish with ratatouille, which is one of the first dishes I think of when I think of summer. Mandy doesn’t love eggplant, so I left it out, but otherwise all the typical ratatouille ingredients are here. First, I cooked down some fresh tomato with diced bell pepper and garlic in olive oil. I laid a layer of that onto a sheet of parchment, then shingled thin slices of zucchini and yellow squash on the tomato. The fish (rockfish) went on top, along with a sprig of thyme. I wrapped it all with another sheet of parchment, crimped the edges, and sealed it with a staple. It all comes together in a hot oven in about 20 minutes. 
 

While the fish cooks, puree a few jarred, roasted piquillo peppers with garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar, and a little agave. That’s your sauce. 

Pull the parchment package out of the oven and slice open immediately. Top the fish with sauce and serve.” 

“I know very little about this dish outside of the Italian-American context, so I don’t know how authentically Italian it is. But that’s one of the reasons I love it. It’s so simple that it feels universal. With a few very small tweaks, you could imagine it as Chinese. It comes down to fresh clams, the liquor within, fat, umami, and noodles.

Boil some spaghetti. If you’re me, use the least amount of water possible so you don’t have to strain the pasta. All you want is a little bit of very starchy water to help give the sauce body.

Meanwhile, steam a couple pounds of clams with minced garlic in white wine. As soon as the first clams open, remove from the heat or else you’ll definitely overcook them. Shuck half the clams and puree with the cooking liquid and a stick of butter. (This is a trick I first saw the great chef Alain Ducasse do with oysters.) Season to taste with a splash of fish sauce. That’s your clam sauce.

Add the sauce to the pasta (and starchy water), along with a handful of fresh parsley. Stir until the sauce reduces and coats the pasta. Add the rest of the clams and serve.” 

For the roasted plums:

15 large plums

Sugar

1. Slice off the top of the plums, then harvest as many nice, 1/2-inch-thick rounds of plum as you can, working around the pit as best you can. Save the trimmings — you’ll need those for plum syrup! Lay out the sliced plums on a silicon baking sheet, and roast in an oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15–20 minutes. Save any juices that leach out, as well!
2. Combine the plum trimmings with an equal weight of water and sugar in a medium saucepan and simmer for 30–45 minutes or until the liquid becomes thick and syrupy.

For the cake batter: 

9 1/4 tablespoons butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1 1/2  teaspoons vanilla powder

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

270 grams cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1. In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, then add the egg, egg white, vanilla, and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet, then set aside.
2. Coat the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform cake pan with butter, then lightly dust the sides with flour. Arrange the roasted plum slices on the bottom of the cake pan in a circular pattern. Do a little Tetris to make sure the plums cover the whole pan.
3. Next, evenly distribute the cake batter on top of the arranged plum slices. Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 60–70 minutes. Let the cake cool for at least 10 minutes, then run a thin spatula or paring knife around the edges of the cake. Place on a serving plate, then quickly and confidently flip both upside down. Remove the springform pan, and finish by pouring the plum syrup over the top of the cake. Serve with whipped mascarpone.

Whipped mascarpone: 

60 grams powdered sugar

200 grams mascarpone cheese

80 grams heavy cream

Combine ingredients and whip to stiff peaks in a stand mixer. 

“Saweetie loves Boiling Crab, so I decided to make a version of a seafood boil crossed with the flavors of Sichuan hot pot. Start by getting the biggest pot or Dutch oven you have. Set it over high heat and coat with neutral oil. Toss in a big handful of roughly chopped garlic, and a sliced onion. Sweat the aromatics, then add a handful of dried or fresh chilies, according to your spice preference. I like habanero for its nice round heat, and Thai bird chilies for their sharp spice. Chiles de arbol have really nice warm heat too. Along with the chilies, you need a big fistful of Sichuan peppercorns to balance the spice with numbing. Add a single star anise, along with 3 big spoonfuls of chicken bouillon paste or powder, ¼ cup doubanjiang, a few big oily spoonfuls of Momofuku Chili Crunch, and a dozen turns of white pepper. If you happen to have access to pickled mustard greens, toss some in as well. Add a couple smoked turkey necks and 2 or 3 links of chicken andouille that you’ve cut into big chunks, cover with a couple quarts of water, and bring to a simmer. Add a squeeze of agave to round things out, then adjust for salt, spice, sweetness, and umami (MSG). Simmer for a few minutes. This is the beginning of your very potent seafood boil, as well as your hot pot broth.

Add a handful of whole red potatoes and hunks of corn on the cob, along with 4 or 5 chicken legs, and simmer until everything is tender. 

Now, in a separate pot, melt a stick and a half of butter, and add a few clusters of snow crab legs and a big handful of shell-on shrimp (or whatever nice shellfish you have access to.) Strain a few cups of the broth and add to the pot. Stir, cover, and steam until the shellfish is cooked through. Transfer everything to a large turkey-roasting bag, along with the potatoes, sausages, and corn from the big pot. Tie the bag closed and let sit for 10 minutes, or until you’re ready to serve. 

Reserve the rest of the broth, along with the aromatics for hot pot.”

“When I heard that Saweetie likes to put ramen seasoning on her oysters, for some reason my mind went to Oysters Rockefeller. Classically, Oysters Rockefeller involve topping oysters with spinach, Parmesan, butter, and breadcrumbs before baking them. Instead of breadcrumbs and Parmesan, I chose to pulverize a packet of instant ramen (along with the seasoning packet). It might sound weird, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The noodles are going to provide the same starchy crunch, and the seasoning packets are full of MSG, which stands in for the Parmesan.  

Render some thinly sliced turkey (or pork) bacon, then add half a diced onion and a stick of butter. Sweat, then turn off the heat. Add a half cup of chopped, frozen spinach. Separately, add a packet of instant ramen, along with any dried seasoning packets, to a blender and pulverize. (Dump any little packets of dehydrated vegetables in with the bacon and onions.) Add the pulverized ramen mix, and stir to combine into a chunky-sandy mixture. 

Shuck fresh oysters, and top generously with the ramen mixture. Carefully set the oysters on a bed of rock salt or rice in a pan, and pop into a hot (400 degrees Fahrenheit) oven for 5 to 7 minutes or until the tops have browned. Serve.”

“It would be such a waste to toss all that delicious broth from the seafood boil, so I figured we’d turn it into a hot pot. I love hot pot. It’s the kind of communal, experiential dining that’s worth going out for. Making it at home isn’t difficult, but there’s a lot of shopping involved. You need to gather together thin-sliced meat (whatever you like), fish cakes and fish balls, various forms of tofu, mushrooms, napa cabbage, and noodles from the Asian market. Slice everything into manageable bites, then lay out on big, communal platters. Next, you’ll need a portable (butane or induction) burner and a shallow pot. I like the kind of pot that has two separate wells, so you can offer people two kinds of broth. One one side, I poured in the the leftover seafood boil soup. In the other, I added a milder chicken broth seasoned with mushroom powder, garlic, and Shaoxing wine. 

Set the pot over the burner, then let your friends cook whatever they like in the hot broth.”

“So, we’ve had these Stranger Things–inspired Surfer Boy Pizzas in our freezer for a couple weeks, and I figured having Saweetie and Blake Anderson was exactly the right special occasion to bust them out. I wanted to make a sandwich inspired by the wedgie sandwich — a specialty of certain East Coast pizzerias. It’s basically an Italian sub, but with pizza crust as the bread. Since I used Stranger Things pizza, I’m calling our version The Mind Flayer.

But first, I needed to make some chicken tenders. Take two chicken breasts, and slice each into 4 or 5 strips. Marinate for an hour or so in buttermilk, seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, cayenne, salt, and MSG. Next, make a dredge of AP flour mixed with a small scoop of baking powder, Momofuku Savory Salt, Momofuku Spicy Salt, MSG, cayenne, onion powder, and garlic powder. 

Spoon enough of the chicken marinade into the dredge to form a thick batter, then coat the chicken. Fry at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown and fully cooked.

OK, now, here’s where things get kooky. Par-bake the pizzas so they’re nice and crisp. (I used Surfer Boy BBQ Chicken Pizza, because Blake and Saweetie both love barbecue sauce.) Top one pizza with chicken fingers, thin sliced shallots, pickled jalapeños, and provolone. House it all with ranch dressing. Crush a bag of hot cheese puffs on top, then close the sandwich with the other pizza. Pop it back in the oven to melt the cheese and heat things through. Retrieve, slice into thick wedges, and serve.”

“Blake says he has a crazy sweet tooth, so for the last epic combo of this meal, I toasted some breakfast toaster pastries. (You know, the kind that’s loosely inspired by Austrian strudel and comes with packets of frosting … .) Then I sliced a pint of ice cream into thick rounds, peeled off the packaging, and placed pucks of ice cream between the hot pastries. That’s it. Thank me later.”

“In honor of Dulcé’s perfectly appropriate name, Tosi made a three-layer dulce de leche cake. If you’ve ever eaten an unfrosted layer cake, you can thank Tosi for being a pioneer in how she assembles and decorates cakes. The flavors vary, but the structure stays the same. 

She starts by cutting three rounds of rainbow-sprinkle birthday cake. To assemble, she uses a cake round lined with acetate, so she can get really clean layers. Each layer of cake gets soaked in vanilla-scented milk, then topped with a generous layer of dulce de leche (straight from the bottle). Next, a layer of crunchy milk crumbles. Then, dulce de leche cream-cheese frosting. Repeat for two more layers, then top with birthday-cake crumbles. The whole thing goes into the freezer to set up for a few hours before serving. 

Or you can just order one from Milk Bar, which is what I would do.”

Makes 1 drink; scale up as needed.

2 oranges, juiced (save the juiced oranges) 

1/2 cup ice 

2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

1/4 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

1. Cut the juiced oranges into eighths and place into a large drinking glass.
2. Combine the orange juice, ice, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla, and blend on high until smooth and creamy. Pour over the orange pieces in the drinking glass. Close your eyes and sip — die dreaming, it’s SO good.

Makes 1 giant cookie; serves 8–10.

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1 large egg 

1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon milk powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat your oven (or grill, or bonfire) to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Stick a 10-inch cast-iron skillet in to start heating up.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugars. Stir in the egg and vanilla, then the flour, milk powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the chips, but don’t overwork the dough! Just enough to combine.
3. Carefully remove the skillet from heat and spread the dough evenly to the edges. Bake until the cookie is golden brown and just set in the center, about 18 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing, then spoon or slather with ice cream.

Makes 1 loaf.

This recipe doubles amazingly well. Plus, 2 loaves is always better than 1. Plus, what are you going to do with the remaining 1/2 packet of yeast anyway?! Plus, why choose between sausage and pepperoni, when you can just make both? 

1 teaspoon (1/2 packet) active dry yeast

1/2 + 1/3 cup water, warm

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage

1 onion, diced

OR 

6 ounces sliced pepperoni

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a bowl, whisk together yeast and warm water until yeast is dissolved and foamy. Mix in the flours and salt until they form a mass, then knead for 7 minutes to form a smooth ball. Put the dough in a well-greased bowl; cover; and let rest, rise, and expand for about 2 hours or until it doubles in size. (It takes a bit longer because of the heft of the whole wheat flour.)
2. If going for sausage bread, cook the sausage and onions in a frying pan over medium-low heat, stirring intermittently, until caramelized.
3. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
4. Punch down the dough and roll out into a 12 x 12-inch square. Spread cooled sausage mixture or sliced pepperoni on top. Top with mozzarella cheese, then Parm. Fold the sides of each square in to make a long stretch of dough 9 inches wide, then roll the dough from top to bottom to make one 9-inch log. Place the log seam side–down into the greased pan and cover for 45–60 minutes to rest, rise, and expand anew. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Brush the top of the bread with a little oil, then bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 minutes. Cool completely out of the pan before slicing and serving.

Makes 1 pie, serves 8–10.

4 cups puffed rice cereal

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 cup peanut butter 

2 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar 

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 cup chocolate chips 

1. Grease a 10-inch pie dish and set aside.
2. In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, toast the rice cereal until  fragrant and deep golden brown, tossing intermittently with a sturdy, heat-safe spatula — about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the coconut oil in the microwave in 30-second spurts until liquefied, about 60 seconds. Stir in 1 cup peanut butter and mix with a sturdy spatula until smooth. Add in the toasted rice cereal, confectioner’s sugar, and salt, and stir until well combined.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and press down firmly with the spatula to ensure a flat, solid layer all around. Pop in the freezer to chill.
5. In a microwave-safe medium bowl, melt 1 tablespoon peanut butter and the chocolate chips together in the microwave in 30-second spurts, stirring with a sturdy, heat-safe spatula after each spurt, until smooth, about 60 seconds. Pour this chocolate/peanut butter mixture over the top of the pie and spread into a smooth layer all around.
6. Freeze for 30–40 minutes or until firm to the touch. Slice and serve out of the fridge or freezer. The pie will keep fresh in an airtight container for up to 1 week at room temp, 2 weeks in the fridge, and 1 month in the freezer. 

I knew I’d like Gabriel when he mentioned before the show that he’s not a big fan of vegetables. Me too, Fluffy. That being said, I wanted to start the guys with something light and refreshing. For me, that’s a plate of smashed, seasoned cucumbers. Cucumbers barely count as vegetables, so I think it’s OK.

To make smashed cucumbers, slice 5 or 6 small Persian cucumbers in half lengthwise, then again into 1-inch chunks. Use the flat side of a knife or cleaver to “smash” each cucumber piece. You don’t want to puree the cukes — just crack and break the flesh up a bit so they can release their juices and absorb flavor. To that, I added a few minced, pickled Thai bird chilies, and a sliced shallot. Season with lime juice, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, salt, MSG, and mushroom salt to taste. Let marinate for half an hour.

Meanwhile, heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a pan and fry a big handful of shelled peanuts until they start to brown. Drain, then return the peanuts to the pan. Season with chamoy, salt, chili crunch, and sugar. Serve with the cucumbers.

“I ate a lot of tacos for the first season of our Netflix series, Ugly Delicious, and one of the most outstanding was the crispy shrimp taco from Mariscos Jalisco. They’re famous for this dish, and rightfully so. It’s extremely delicious. Inside crisp little pockets of masa, you get a farce of shrimp, starch, cilantro, and seasonings that the Internet has been trying to figure out for years. The thing is, when I tasted my first one, the overwhelming sensation I got was that I was eating har gow — the classic Cantonese shrimp dumpling you’ll find at every dim sum restaurant in the world. I don’t know what it was, exactly, and I highly doubt that the owners of Mariscos Jalisco were trying to replicate a dim sum flavor. It’s just one of those beautiful things that happen in food. Deliciousness knows no bounds. Dishes separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles will sometimes hit on the exact same flavor and feeling. Case in point: how far apart, really, is a crispy taco from a Filipino lumpia? Crispy shells filled with a delicious, meaty mixture. A bright, spicy, acidic sauce/salsa to balance things out. I know they’re completely different, but they both appeal to the same basic human likes. 

Anyway, I wanted to recreate this dish as a celebration of those connections before we got into some headier mash-ups. To start, pulse about a cup of frozen shrimp in a blender or food processor with an egg, a few dashes of Maggi sauce or fish sauce, a splash of Shaoxing wine, a clove of garlic, white pepper, salt, MSG, chopped cilantro, and about 1/4 cup potato starch. You want a smooth paste, to which you’re going to add more chopped chunks of shrimp. Spoon that mixture into small tortillas, roll or fold over, and pan-fry until crisp and cooked through — about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. You can serve with salsa, black vinegar, or sweet and sour sauce.” 

“Let me be clear: This is not authentic sinigang. I’ve never made sinigang, but I wanted to give it a whirl because it felt like the perfect connection between Mexican and Filipino cuisine. If you’ve never had it, it’s a quintessential Filipino dish — a sour, savory stew that’s usually made with pork or seafood and lots of vegetables. The sourness sometimes comes from tamarind, which reminds me of the fruity sourness you get in Mexican chamoy — the spicy-sour paste that’s often served with fruit or drinks in Mexico. Funnily enough, both chamoy and tamarind arrived in Mexico via the Manila Galleons, which carried goods from Asia to the Americas via the Philippines. For that reason, I wanted to try making sinigang using Mexican chamoy, and seeing if the sinigang lovers on our crew would approve. They were suspicious, but ultimately, I think I won them over.

To me, sinigang is as much about the rainbow of vegetables as it is the meat, so start by prepping a whole slew of vegetables. I wanted to blend the vegetables usually found in sinigang with vegetables you’d get in a Mexican soup like caldo de pollo: long beans sliced into manageable lengths; quartered tomatoes; sliced red onion; halved radishes; Anaheim chilies; sliced garlic and ginger; Chinese eggplant; carrots; taro; sliced daikon; corn on the cob; water spinach; yu choy. Like I said, a rainbow. Sweat all the vegetables for a good 10 or 15 minutes in a large pot, then comes time to season. My sinigang seasoning paste was made by roasting and grinding shrimp shells into a powder and combining it with tamarind, a little chili, sugar, fish sauce, citric acid for added sourness, and a good dose of chamoy. That mix went in with the vegetables, along with a quart of dashi. I seasoned that with lime juice, salt, and MSG, then added the seafood (scallops, shrimp, and a whole branzino cut into pieces). Once the seafood was cooked through, the sinigang was ready to serve (with a side of white rice, of course).” 

“Although Gabriel’s more of a Long Beach guy, he was born in San Diego — a city I’ll always respect for their liberal use of French fries. Carne asada fries, to me, are the signature dish of San Diego. But like I said, this episode was all about finding those unexpected mashups. In this case, I looked at a plate of fries smothered in meaty, fatty, umami-rich, texturally varied toppings, and thought, XO SAUCE. If you’re unfamiliar, XO sauce is a savory, slightly spicy sauce from Hong Kong made from dried seafood, ham, shallots, and chili oil. It’s one of my favorite condiments in the world. But then, I couldn’t stop there. I was inspired by one of the great restaurants on Earth with one of the greatest restaurant names ever: Fishman Lobster Clubhouse in the Toronto suburb of Markham. They’re famous for serving a mountain of lobster, prepared in different styles, including “Typhoon shelter” style (lots of garlic and chilies) with French fries. And thus, XO lobster fries were born.

To make XO sauce:

Rehydrate…

1 cup small dried shrimp

1 cup dried scallops

…in hot water. 

While those soak and soften, pound 

1/2 cup garlic cloves and 

a big knob of ginger 

4 chopped shallots

… in a mortar and pestle. I used a mortar and pestle to make XO, because texture is super important, and using a blender or food processor would create something way too smooth.

Now, heat a large skillet over medium heat and coat generously with oil. Dump the contents of the mortar and pestle in, and begin to swear. Then add:

Whole tube of chorizo (optional)

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

Splash of Shaoxing wine

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

… and a big dose of chili oil. Separately, pound the seafood in a mortar and pestle, then add to the mix, along with…

2 cups fried shallots and garlic

Stir, check for seasoning, and serve or store for up to a week.

Now, to put it all together, I broke down two huge (4-pound) lobsters. To make things easier to eat, I took one tail and all the claws out of the shell and dredged them in cornstarch and flour. Those got stir-fried with shallots, garlic, red onions, scallion, jalapeño, sliced ginger, and XO sauce. The other tail, I broke into huge chunks, then battered and fried them along with a heap of fries. The fries got tossed in Momofuku Tingly Salt, then topped with the stir-fried lobster and all that oily XO. Lastly, I piled on the fried lobster along with the roasted heads for effect.”

“Flan is probably most closely associated with Mexican cuisine, but there are actually sweet egg custards around the world. What is an egg tart, really, but flan in a pastry crust? At least that was my logic in making this sort of hybrid flan and Portuguese-style egg tart.

Defrost a large frozen sheet of puff pastry. Once it’s pliable, roll it into a log, then flatten again into 1/4-inch thickness. Line a few small tart molds or a pie tin with the pastry, using your fingers and a knife to smooth and trim the edges. Pop into the fridge while you make the custard. 

Whisk together 8 egg yolks with a heap of sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Add 2 heaping teaspoons of cornstarch and continue whisking. Separately, combine 1/2 cup half-and-half, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 1 1/2 cup milk, a pinch of salt, and a stick of cinnamon in a saucepan. Add .5% agar agar by weight. Scald the milk, then slowly introduce into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken. Allow to cool, then pour into the tart shell, passing the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Bake for 15–20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool, slice, and serve.” 

“To ‘devil’ eggs (or ham or crab) means to season them with cayenne pepper and mustard. Evidently, in the 18th century when this term was coined, mustard is what people in the Western world considered extremely spicy — as in, the fiery flavors of hell and the devil. As dumb as that might sound now, deviled eggs are a classic appetizer and I was happy to serve them as a snack for the guys.

There are a million ways people boil their eggs, but for this particular recipe, I put 10 eggs in a saucepan and covered them with cold water. Bring the pot to a boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. The eggs go into an ice bath, then get peeled and sliced in half. Mix and mash the yolks with Kewpie mayo, dijon mustard, paprika, and minced parsley and chives, then transfer to a piping bag and fill the whites. Garnish with sprigs of dill.” 

“I really respect Adam Scott. I think he’s a great actor, hilarious, and genuinely kind. But he also loves ants on a log, so I’m torn. Nobody’s perfect, but really, Adam? Ants on a log? The combination of celery, peanut butter, and raisins makes no sense whatsoever. I’m convinced that it was the product of a secret marketing scheme to sell celery in the ’50s, and that we’re all being tricked. Of course, there’s no evidence supporting this theory whatsoever, but I’m putting it out there in case anyone wants to investigate. Just remember to thank me when you win your Pulitzer. 

Anyway, to show Ken and Adam what a truly great ‘ants’ dish is, I made ‘ants climbing the tree.’ First of all, I love the name. I like to say it’s an example of ‘culinary onomatopoeia.’ Chris Ying says that’s not really what onomatopoeia is, but who cares what Chris thinks? 

The ‘ants’ in this dish are little bits of ground pork. They ‘climb’ the branches of a tree, which are long strands of clear mung bean vermicelli. It’s spicy, savory, and incredibly delicious. I’d take this 100 times over a plate of cold celery and peanut butter with dried up grapes. 

To make my version of ‘ants climbing the tree,’ I made a sauce of 6 cloves garlic, a piece of ginger, a couple tablespoons of Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and a heaping tablespoon of doubanjiang. To make things easy, I blended that all together until smooth as part of my mise en place, along with chopped scallions, pickled chilies, and pickled mustard greens. To prepare the dish, I stir-fried a pound of ground pork, then tossed in the scallions, chilies, and mustard greens. In went a heap of soaked mung bean vermicelli, then the sauce. Stir-fry until the noodles are cooked through and everything is sauced, then plate and garnish with scallion greens.”

“In New Orleans, you’ll find fish prepared ‘Amandine’ at some of the classic Creole restaurants like Galatoire’s, Brennan’s, and Arnaud’s. It’s usually prepared with drum or trout or redfish. To scratch Ken’s New Orleans itch, we got a nice snapper from our friend Liwei at the Joint, sliced off whole filets, and removed the pin bones. I dredged the filets in flour, salt, and pepper, then pan-fried them in a ‘healthy’ amount of clarified butter. (Most people don’t realize just how much clarified butter gets used in New Orleans. It’s impressive.)

After a couple minutes on each side, the fish was cooked through, and I added a handful of lemon supremes (segments of lemon without any pith or peel), a heap of slivered almonds, and chopped parsley. The bones and body of the fish went into a fish stock, which I splashed into the pan, too. Season with salt, pepper, maybe a little sugar and a splash of fish sauce. Stirring helps to emulsify the sauce. A quick taste to adjust seasoning, then the fish and that whole mess of buttery, lemony, crunchy almonds goes on top.” 

“The French dip is a Los Angeles invention, made famous by restaurants like Cole’s and Philippe the Original. It’s part of a small but mighty category of soaked sandwiches like the Italian beef and the torta ahogada. They exist in a fleeting dimension between wet and dry, where the bread is saturated but not mushy. They have to be eaten quickly, which isn’t a problem. 

To make the French dip for the show, I started by salting a 5-pound rib roast, seasoning with black pepper, and searing it on all sides in a cast-iron pan over high heat. I set it on a rack on a sheet tray, and roasted it at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour, then let it rest for another 40 minutes. That’s the filling. The bread was just a nice crusty French roll from the bakery, and the sauce was a mix of horseradish, sour cream, salt, and pepper. 

For the jus, I threw a piece of chuck roast into a pressure cooker with salt, pepper, MSG, parsley, thyme, a stalk of celery, a couple small carrots, and 2 onion halves that I charred on the stovetop. I let the pressure cooker do it’s thing for about 45 minutes, then released the pressure, and strained the broth. If you like, it wouldn’t hurt to fortify the jus with a little beef bouillon. 

After that, it’s all just assembly. Toast the bread in the oven. Slice the rib roast thin and pile it up on the bread. Serve with jus and horseradish cream for slathering and dipping.”

“This episode’s dessert was the New Orleans classic: beignets. I love beignets, which are basically dense, yeast-leavened doughnuts. Generally speaking, I never use recipes for dessert, and whenever I try to make doughnuts they come out square-ish and dense anyway. 

To make beignets, bloom a tablespoon of instant yeast with a scoop of sugar and about half a cup of warm water. After 15 minutes, combine the yeast with a can of evaporated milk, a big scoop of sugar, a pinch of salt, and about 4 cups of bread flour. Combine to form a dough, then cover and allow to proof somewhere warm for an hour. Punch the dough down, roll it to 1/2-inch thickness, and slice squares. Proof again for another hour, then fry at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until browned on both sides and cooked through. Allow to cool slightly, then dust liberally with powdered sugar and serve.”

“If you asked 100 people to name a layered food, lasagna would probably be what 90 percent of them said first. I learned to make lasagna from a Tuscan (Marco Canora) so even though it’s in the style of a traditional lasagna from Emilia-Romagna, it might be different from how they make it in Bologna. I don’t really care. I’m just telling you to try and head off any complaints about authenticity down the line. I know I won’t stop you, but I may as well try….

Anyway, our lasagna begins with ragù Bolognese, which I made by first starting a sofrito. I blitzed 2 pounds of celery and carrots and about the same amount of red onion. All that goes into a pan with an unseemly amount of olive oil. Season and let it cook over low heat for as long as it takes to get nice and golden. Take your time. Put on The Godfather. Settle in. This is gonna be a lot of work.

Once the sofrito’s done, you can add the meat: an equal blend of pork, veal, and beef. (If you can’t find veal or don’t want to use it, you can substitute more pork or beef. Or mild Italian sausage.) About 3 pounds total. Cook that down, breaking up the chunks with a wooden spoon or spatula. Add half a bottle of wine, a bouquet garni of mostly thyme and a little rosemary, and a can of tomato paste. Cook that until everything’s bubbly and happy together. Then add about 4 cups of milk. Simmer for an hour or so. 

While the ragù works, you can work on the pasta. The ratio I ‘stick to’ is a little more than one egg per cup of 00 flour. So, if you’re using 10 cups of flour. Maybe 13 eggs. Or, you could look up a more accurate recipe. (Andrew, our culinary producer, for instance, uses 2 cups of AP flour, 2 cups of 00 flour, 20 egg yolks, and 2 whole eggs. Can you tell that he used to work for Thomas Keller?) Work that, rest it, and roll to the third thinnest setting on your pasta roller. The benefit to rolling your own pasta is that you can cut it to the exact size you need for your cooking vessel. I also like to roll out a couple extra large sheets by hand to wrap all the way around the lasagna.

Finally, get working on the bechamel. Make a roux by melting ¾ of a cup of butter in a pan, then whisking in the same amount of AP flour. Cook out some of the rawness, then whisk in about 8 cups of milk. Season with salt and a teaspoon of nutmeg. God, when you look this dish as a whole, you realize how rich (and bad for you) it is. A ladle of tomato sauce will help cut through the richness, so you might as well make that too. I made a quick one by sautéing half an onion in olive oil, then simmering it with a large can of crushed tomatoes with 2 sprigs of basil, and a teaspoon of dried oregano.

To assemble, grease your lasagna pan and lay down one of the long sheets. When I say long, it should have the length to cover the pan, the sides, and then fold over to envelop the whole lasagna. Lay another one cross-wise so that it can cover the other way. Imagine wrapping a gift in the dumbest possible way. Next, ladle in some ragù, then sprinkle with parm. Then a ladle of bechamel. Top with pasta sheets, then repeat until you reach the top of your lasagna pan. Wrap the long sheets around to close it in. Bake for 50–60 minutes at 375 F. 

Let the lasagna cool before attempting to slice it, or you’re going to end up with a total mess. If you want to cut wedges out that you can pan-fry (which you should), you’ll need to let it cool overnight so that it firms up to a point where you can pop it out of the pan and slice it.”

“Remember the Double Down? Everyone was so scandalized by this fast-food creation where the bread of the sandwich was made out of fried chicken. But it keeps coming back, meaning people can’t possibly hate it that much.

Anyway, when I found out that both Ben Schwartz and Blake Griffin were fans of chicken parm, my first thought was to make my version of a Double Down, but with the flavors of chicken parm. In my head, I imagined perfectly round discs of chicken, so to achieve that I bought some transglutaminase, a naturally occurring enzyme that can be used to bind proteins together. It’s also known as meat glue.

First, I placed chicken breast between plastic wrap and pounded it out to about ½ inch thickness. A sprinkling of the “meat glue” helped to bind stray pieces together and maintain a uniform thickness, so that I could cut discs using a large ring mold. It’s… not pretty. 

Anyway, I double-breaded the cutlets with flour, egg, Italian breadcrumbs, egg again, then breadcrumbs again. Pan-fried those in olive oil and butter until crisp and golden, then topped one piece with tomato sauce, prosciutto, basil, and cheese. Closed it in with another chicken cutlet. Now do it again to make it a triple down. Then bake it for a couple of minutes to let the cheese melt. 

So, I made that during our rehearsal and realized that… it just looks like chicken parm. So, the guys are getting straight-up chicken parm, because sometimes you give the people what they want, and you don’t try to get too cute.”

“With this being the season finale, I wanted to bring things full circle to the first dessert we ever served on the show: pan-fried glazed doughnuts with melted ice cream. But since this is the Multi-Layered Menu, I wanted to try something I’ve never done before. 

Even though I’ll never be able to pronounce it correctly, I really love the pastry known as kouign-amann. It’s basically a laminated bread dough, with lots of butter and lots of sugar. You end up with an exterior and all these crags that are super crisp and crunchy. Laminating dough is a pain, though, so I wondered what would happen if you just used already-made Krispy Kreme doughnuts instead of making your own pastry. 

For the show, I pressed glazed doughnuts in a tortilla press (you can use a rolling pin), then spread butter and sugar between each doughnut. I packed/squished/maneuvered three layers of doughnut into silicone baking molds, then baked at 400 F for 20–30 minutes or until well browned. 

It’s super important to let this cool before serving, because it’ll get extra crisp as it cools. Otherwise, it can be a little chewy while still warm. The point is, it totally works in a way that simultaneously made me happy and really scared.”