The Mind of a Chef

From PBS - Ed returns to his roots in East Brooklyn, where as a Korean kid in New York, he was surrounded by an eclectic mix of cultures and cuisines that inspired how he cooks today. Spending time with other chefs who have roots in one cuisine but have veered away from their assumed culinary paths, Ed explores the meaning of origin in the city where his life and career began. Ed and Ivan Orkin stop by one of the city’s oldest “appetizing” stores and head back to the kitchen to cook their versions of American cuisine (Japanese-Jewish and Korean-Southern). Alex Stupak shows why a white kid from Boston should be cooking Mexican, and Ed pays a visit to his mom in New Jersey for a lesson on how to cook Korean comfort food.

From PBS - American cuisine has come to be known as much more than just burgers and hot dogs. Ed and Pok Pok’s Andy Ricker head to Sunset Park — Brooklyn’s Chinatown — for some exotic ingredients, then head to the kitchen to make jop chai, a Thai stew. Ed plays with some local by-catch in that most American of cities, Houston, Texas, with chefs Chris Shepherd and Paul Qui, making a crispy fish fresh from the gulf and Filipino kinilaw. A sweat-inducing crawfish dinner in a Vietnamese joint exemplifies how Creole, Cajun, Mexican, and Asian flavors blend with the gulf’s bounty, effectively creating an entirely new American cuisine.

From PBS - Fire is the most elemental part of a kitchen — without it, food would simply be eaten, never “cooked.” And yet in the post-Nouvelle-Cuisine age, food and fire have become distant from one another. Ed travels to Argentina to visit Francis Mallmann, the country’s most esteemed chef and the godfather of open-flame cooking, on his private island nestled in the foothills of the Andes. While on La Isla for three days, Francis and Ed create a feast that reunites the simplest — and arguably the best — ingredients and cooking techniques. Armed with fire, smoke, meat and salt, Ed relishes this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

From PBS - Ed got his start in NYC, but now calls Louisville home and home is where the heart is. He discusses how living and working in Louisville have inspired, influenced and changed him over the past decade — Louisville is where he gently put aside his classic French technique and decided to do something all his own. Working with chef Kevin Ashworth from Ed’s restaurant Milkwood, the chefs experiment with farmers market finds, allowing a view into how a new dish is created. Ed then delves into Louisville’s fried chicken scene and cooks up his own version with North Carolina chef Ashley Christensen. Finally, honoring the woman who kept him in Louisville in the first place, Ed uses the city’s German heritage as inspiration to cook hasenpfeffer for his wife, Dianne.

From PBS - The Bluegrass State offers a rich culinary history that rivals that of America’s more well-known food destinations. A few ingredients come to Ed’s mind when he thinks about his adopted state: country ham, sorghum and smoke. Ed visits Nancy Newsom, still making her family’s ham with their century-old recipe, with Southern food historian and Atlanta chef Linton Hopkins. Then it’s off to Owensboro with homegrown chef Ouita Michel to make a dish featuring two more local ingredients: smoke and spoonbill caviar. Yes, caviar from Kentucky. And finally, Ed places Kentucky’s most prized crop — sorghum — on a pedestal and creates a decadent ice cream with the viscous, sweet, earthy amber syrup.

From PBS - In many ways, cooking with southern ingredients feels like second nature to Ed, and for good reason — South Korea and Kentucky both lie along the same latitudinal line. The 38th parallel also spans southern Spain and Italy, San Francisco and generous portions of the American South. A similar terroir translates into some interesting culture crossings for chefs like Ed, as well as State Bird Provisions’ Stuart Brioza, who prepares a salad inspired by San Francisco and the Mediterranean, and Hog & Hominy’s Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, who cook Memphis favorites imbued with Calabrian family traditions. Ed collaborates with Andy Ricker on a pancake that ties together the influences of China, Korea and Kentucky.

From PBS - The more things change … the more they continue to change. So much of cooking, writing, art and music is based on what came before. First there was meat. Then there was fire. Then came sous-vide. Ed dissects the evolution of a dish and the public’s changing tastes. He tries his hand at cooking alternative meats (like alligator); enjoys a recipe that has stood the test of time, Maw Maw’s Ravioli from Hog & Hominy’s Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman; and creates a quickly disappearing dim sum dish with Stuart Brioza, as he looks toward the future of the food chain.

From PBS - What makes bourbon the classic American spirit, and why is it so closely associated with Kentucky? Ed and his band of merry men and women, including whiskey patriarch Julian Van Winkle, Matt Jamie from Bourbon and Barrel Foods, chef Paul Qui and special guest and bourbon-lover Aisha Tyler, set out to distill this prized and often misunderstood liquor down to its many parts and enjoy it both in the glass and on the plate.

From PBS - Over generations, preservation techniques developed to help humans cope with the scarcity of the season. The adherence to seasonality at Magnus Nilsson’s Fäviken means that these techniques are maintained and the restaurant can continue serving food throughout the barren months. This episode explores the ways that the Scandinavian people have survived winter through the practice of preservation and aging.

After a long winter, the arrival of spring awakens the delicate flavors of young herbs. The sun remains perched in the sky until midnight, the temperature climbs and life returns to the once snow-covered landscape. This episode takes advantage of this brief window of time to explore the ingredients of spring in Sweden. .

When Chef Nilsson develops a dish at Faviken, he pays careful attention to the unique properties of an ingredient. Through research and recipe testing, the components of a dish are combined with the aim of preserving their natural quintessence. "The Creation of a Dish" follows the life cycle of an ingredient as it transforms from is organic state into a dish at his restaurant.

As a young cook, Magnus Nilsson was living in France and looking for a job. He eventually convinced Paris chef Pascal Barbot of l’Astrance to give him a chance. Once there, Magnus was introduced to new techniques and flavors, but the most valuable lesson he learned was how to care for ingredients. This episode explores his time in France and visits with the people and places that had a profound impact on his cooking philosophy.

Before moving to France to learn about cooking professionally, Chef Magnus Nilsson’s main culinary influences were his mother, aunt and grandparents, who cooked traditional dishes for family dinners while Magnus observed. When he returned from France to begin working at Fäviken, the influence of traditional Swedish cooking remained. In this episode, examine the bonds of tradition that help to forge the identities of families and individuals.

Chef Nilsson depends on his network of local purveyors to keep the restaurant supplied. If there is a shortage of one ingredient, they work together to find a more abundant alternative. Because everything is sourced in a 100-mile radius, the seasons play a big part in availability. As a result, the needs and supply constantly shift between the restaurant and purveyor, but their close relationship ensures that diners are never left hungry. This episode examines the connection to locality that Chef Nilsson views as a staple of his cooking philosophy.

Outside of running the kitchen at Fäviken, Chef Magnus Nilsson devotes his time to researching Nordic cultures. He travels throughout Scandinavia meeting people whose means of subsistence is tied to the past. This episode examines Chef Nilsson’s motivation for documenting and preserving cultural heritage through writing and photography as he visits the Faroe Islands.

This episode explores a day in the life of chef Magnus Nilsson as he and the staff at Fäviken prepare for a night of service. We follow Magnus from the early morning when he forages for spruce branches for his scallop dish, through the heat of service when every detail is timed-out. At the end of the night, we understand how and why the experience at Fäviken is meticulously choreographed and executed.