- 1 year ago
The Food Truck NZ - S03E01 - Taste Of France
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00:00Chef Michael van der Elzen is taking to the streets of New Zealand for a tiki tour of
00:06taste buds.
00:07His goal?
00:08To transform some of the world's most popular fat-filled dishes into healthy gourmet truck
00:13food.
00:14Well done, me.
00:15This time on the food truck, Michael attempts to improve on the world's most respected cuisine.
00:24Could you swap that for a wholemeal flour?
00:26Oh, if you want to make your life very miserable, yeah, you can try.
00:29But he discovers the French resistance is still a force.
00:32Would you buy those?
00:33What goes in a cassoulet, boy duck or girl duck?
00:41Can Michael take French food, make it healthier and still hit the spot?
00:46Find out on the food truck.
00:55The French.
00:56They virtually invented the concept of fine dining, and shortly afterwards, they invented
01:00the phrase, ooh la la, to describe it.
01:03Snails.
01:04A lot of pastries.
01:05Crepes.
01:06And let's not forget the humble French fry.
01:07French is the gold standard in fine cuisine, you know, it's what we're taught as trainee
01:14chefs at college.
01:15The thing is, you don't normally associate it with fast food, because you mainly eat
01:20it in restaurants.
01:21You could say it is the ultimate in slow food.
01:27It's not only slow food, it's notoriously rich food.
01:31The problem with French cuisine is the vast amounts of bare, naked fat.
01:36Loads of butter, loads of cream.
01:38You know, I've got to work out a way of removing some of that fat without losing the character
01:44of French food.
01:45In just a few days, Michael must sell his healthier take on French cuisine to New Zealand's
01:50toughest crowd when he visits the World Buskers Festival in Christchurch.
01:55To have any chance of pleasing people who only pay for what they like, Michael must
01:59first get in touch with his inner frog.
02:03For a few pointers, Michael has come to Auckland's popular French market, La Cigale, to survey
02:08a panoply of poncy nosh.
02:10He's like a kid in a candy store, and not in a good way.
02:14Bacon baguettes.
02:15Those are so cool.
02:16But we can't put that back.
02:17I'll have to buy this.
02:19This is probably as French as you get.
02:20You know, it's a French thing.
02:21It's a baguette.
02:22The baguette is the most popular bread product in France, where 23 million are consumed every
02:23day.
02:24Look at that.
02:25This is a great baguette.
02:26Really chewy.
02:27Better buy this one as well, I think.
02:28The French love their wheat products.
02:29And here's another.
02:30The most popular is definitely Nutella, which is my favourite because I'm French.
02:31Is that French?
02:32It's not French.
02:33It's not French.
02:34It's not French.
02:35It's not French.
02:36It's not French.
02:37It's not French.
02:38It's not French.
02:39It's not French.
02:40It's not French.
02:41It's not French.
02:42It's not French.
02:43It's not French.
02:44It's not French.
02:45The grape doesn't actually have any flavour.
02:53It's just a vessel for holding whatever you put in it.
02:56And now Michael is becoming a vessel for holding whatever you put in him.
03:01These are amazing cheeses.
03:04Wow.
03:05Delicious.
03:06That is something else.
03:08That's just gold.
03:09That's pretty raw.
03:11It's a buffet bonanza until Michael runs into a real French bastard.
03:15So what's that called?
03:16French?
03:17French Batard.
03:18Batard.
03:19French Bastard.
03:20Really?
03:21Yeah.
03:22So it's really soft bread.
03:23French people would eat white bread more than they would the wholemeal bread, but the French
03:26people on whole are far skinnier than us Kiwis.
03:30We only eat three times a day.
03:32We don't eat in between, don't snack.
03:33Three times a day?
03:34Those poor people.
03:35I just love croque-monsieur.
03:36So it's bread, ham, bechamel sauce.
03:37Which is a white sauce.
03:38Dijon mustard and Emmental cheese.
03:39It's a really fancy French toasted sandwich.
03:40That rich bechamel is just awesome.
03:41But it's the cheese that's coated all over the bechamel that's quite a hard barb.
03:42That is so good and so French.
03:43But there's one French baked good that's more French than a pash at the Eiffel Tower.
03:44Just the smell of croissants is so unique.
03:45You don't really need to put it with anything.
03:46It's so good.
03:47It's so good.
03:48It's so good.
03:49It's so good.
03:50It's so good.
03:51It's so good.
03:52It's so good.
03:53It's so good.
03:54It's so good.
03:55It's so good.
03:56It's so good.
03:57It's so good.
03:58It's so good.
03:59It's so good.
04:00It's so good.
04:01It's so good.
04:02It's so good.
04:03It's so good.
04:04It's so good.
04:05It's so good.
04:06It's so good.
04:07It's so good.
04:08It's so good.
04:09It's so good.
04:10It's so good.
04:11It's so good.
04:12It's so good.
04:13It's so good.
04:14It's so good.
04:15It's so good.
04:16It's so good.
04:17It's so good.
04:18It's so good.
04:19It's so good.
04:20It's so good.
04:21It's so good.
04:22It's so good.
04:23It's so good.
04:24It's so good.
04:25It's so good.
04:26It's so good.
04:27It's so good.
04:28It's so good.
04:29It's so good.
04:30It's so good.
04:31It's so good.
04:32I'm so glad to be here.
04:33Where owner Louis Buket is waiting to take him through the 36-hour labour of love
04:34that delivers the perfect croissant.
04:35Once you taste these ones, you know you hit the spot.
04:38And they won't taste as good if he's not wearing a beret.
04:41Very sexy.
04:42Oui, oui!
04:43OK.
04:44Let's start the croissant, shall we?
04:45First, the dough is mixed.
04:46You've got flour, you've got salt, sugar, yeast and a tiny bit of butter.
04:51Looks simple, but Michael is already thinking up ways to make things more complicated.
04:55This is pure white flour.
04:56Could you swap that for a wholemeal flour or a rye flour?
04:59Oh, if you want to make your life very miserable, yeah, you can try.
05:02Oh, le macaroni, eh?
05:04That's a heavy dough.
05:08OK, you have to win.
05:09I have to get a bit more angry.
05:13Oh, beauty.
05:15That's not quite like yours.
05:16I got your phone.
05:17How'd you do that?
05:19Into the fridge it goes, and that's stumped on day one.
05:22I'll give you your hat back.
05:23Bloody hell, it was black this morning.
05:27Day two dawns, and begins with some grievous buttery harm.
05:36The butter is inserted into the pastry.
05:42It's man's work, but Louis lets Michael have a go anyway.
05:45So we just have to attach.
05:49The dough must be folded and rolled several times.
05:52Dough, butter, dough, butter, dough, butter, six times.
05:55That's what creates the flakiness of the croissant.
05:57After another 30 minutes in the fridge, the dough is rolled once more,
06:01and is finally ready to assume that familiar crescent shape.
06:04The French for which is, of course, croissant.
06:07I always pull them a little bit, and just roll them.
06:10Wow, look at that.
06:14It's a bit stumpy.
06:16The more you do, the better you get.
06:18Do a few more thousands and you'll be fine.
06:21So we're not quite finished, are we? We've still got to put that curl.
06:24It's like you break a chicken's neck, you know?
06:26The not quite finished product is now left to stand.
06:29So they go into there for how long?
06:31Three to four hours.
06:32It takes longer, it costs more, but the quality is by far better.
06:41Just time for a glaze of egg.
06:43It's like a woman without lipstick if you don't put it on, physically.
06:47The actual baking is the speediest part of the process.
06:50Fifteen minutes later.
06:54Finally, they're ready to eat.
06:59Not only do they smell good and look good, they even sound good.
07:07The truth is, these croissants are actually a bit crummy, and that's a good thing.
07:17They're beautiful. Merci, merci.
07:19I don't want to make them without butter.
07:23Those croissants are just wonderful.
07:25They're flavoursome, they're flaky, and it's the butter that makes it so good.
07:30If I take the butter out just for the sake of health, do I have a croissant?
07:33I don't know.
07:34In French we say impossible n'est pas français, which means impossible is not French.
07:39But Michael is not from France.
07:43I can't give up. I've got to give it a whirl.
07:48Chef Michael van der Elzen believes he can tell the French how to improve their own food.
07:54I don't want to make them without butter.
07:57In just a few days, he'll be peddling his own cuisine a la Michel at the World Buskers Festival.
08:03But first, he has to create it.
08:05So, in search of inspiration, the food truck has come to the former French settlement of Accra,
08:11the oldest colonial town in the South Island.
08:14Here, Mike's going to trial his nouveau croissants without the main ingredient.
08:19What I want to try and do is to make a croissant using no butter at all.
08:23Michael is going against centuries of French tradition by using wholemeal flour.
08:28Well, he is Dutch.
08:30OK, so I've got some coconut oil.
08:32Problem is, coconut oil melts really easily, so what I've got to do is try and make it as fast as I can,
08:37and in between each fold, just refrigerate my dough to keep the temperature down.
08:41Into the fridge she goes while Michael prepares his dough.
08:45We've created our doughy band-aid.
08:48Beautiful.
08:50We're going to protect this coconut oil in the centre.
08:53Before this dough gets too warm, I'm going to pop this into the fridge for 20 minutes,
08:56just bring the temperature down.
08:58Michael spends the afternoon rolling and folding.
09:01Oh, and blow-drying.
09:03This is a first.
09:04It's unconventional, but Michael must control the temperature of the coconut oil.
09:08Oh yeah, it's working.
09:10After still more rolling and folding and another visit to the fridge,
09:14the moment of truth is still a few hours away, actually.
09:18You can see the layering through there.
09:21Put it in the fridge, come back tomorrow, make croissants.
09:23I'm pretty stoked that at this part of the day she's got this far, because I was really nervous.
09:28In the morning, Michael's dough is ready to assume the position,
09:32so he jumps in the truck for final preparations.
09:35All it takes is a bit of baker's origami, an eggy glaze,
09:39and Michael's croissants are beginning to look the part.
09:42Oh, look at that. Coconut oil croissants.
09:4520 minutes, I think these will be cooked.
09:47Hopefully.
09:49While the croissants bake, Michael decides to get his nuts out.
09:52Apparently the French love Nutella, so I want to make my own Nutella in the food truck now.
09:58The base for Nutella is roasted hazelnuts.
10:01You want to remove the skin as much as you can.
10:04Put your roasted nuts into a tea towel, and then just rub your nuts.
10:08I'm particularly good at this part.
10:10They just smell awesome.
10:11The hazelnuts are combined with cocoa, vanilla, salt, and soy milk in the blender.
10:16A dash of maple syrup finishes the flavour.
10:18That is delicious. Homemade hazelnut spread. Beautiful.
10:23A chocolate spread is one thing, but can the coconut croissants cut it?
10:27Afternoon, are we well?
10:29I'm going to give you some croissants, and I want you to tell me honestly what you think.
10:33See if they're as good as this morning's.
10:35Did you have croissants this morning?
10:38The competition has already set the standard, and they use butter.
10:41They're a wee bit doughy.
10:43A wee bit doughy?
10:44Yeah.
10:45The pastry's not as flaky as a croissant.
10:48So you wouldn't call that a croissant?
10:49No.
10:50Very nice flavour, but I'd say it's more of a bread than a croissant.
10:53Yeah.
10:54I would call that a cross roll.
10:56Cross roll?
10:57Cross roll.
10:58That's great.
10:59Michael wasn't intending to invent a whole new type of baked good.
11:03Still, he's not done yet.
11:05I've made some what you could call Nutella.
11:09It's nicer.
11:10It's nicer than the croissant though, do you not think?
11:13Yeah.
11:14Does it make the croissant taste better?
11:15Yes.
11:16It does?
11:17Slightly.
11:18Do you like the Nutella?
11:19It makes it more moist and a bit more flavour.
11:21Do you like my hazelnut spread more than you like my croissant?
11:24Yes.
11:25There you go.
11:27Would you buy those?
11:28Mmm.
11:29The umming and ahhing says it all.
11:31Sort of.
11:32Michael's not prepared to make something he can't be confident of selling.
11:35Yeah, the croissants didn't work.
11:36Yeah, unfortunately, because it was a real pity because I put so much into them.
11:40But I did like that hazelnut spread and I really want to use that in game day somehow.
11:44But as for everything else, I've got to go back to holiday house.
11:47I've got to rethink my game day.
11:49Got to be a lot of work.
11:51With just hours before game day, Michael sets his sights on something less time consuming
11:57than fancy pants croissants.
12:00I've decided to go for crepes because they're very French and they're a hell of a lot easier
12:04than making croissants, but I'm going to do three different crepes with three different fillings.
12:09Michael's hazelnut spread was a hit, but he still needs to create two brand new fillings
12:14for his crepes, which are getting a tweak themselves.
12:17The thing is I want to make a crepe mix with a little bit of character,
12:19so I'm going to use three types of flour.
12:20The first one's going to be a coconut flour, tapioca flour next.
12:23Finally, I've just got plain white flour.
12:25Cooking the crepes could not be easier or faster.
12:28The idea of crepes is to keep them as thin as you can.
12:31There we go. Super fast, super easy.
12:33I'm going to try and make a croque monsieur, but I want to make it in a crepe form,
12:37so I want to replace that wonderful bechamel centre made from all that cream and butter
12:41with a cauliflower puree.
12:43Cauliflower?
12:44It's white, it's hopefully going to have the same consistency, and it's healthy.
12:48Unlike Michael, who sounds like he's caught a bad cold stressing over his menu.
12:53Don't worry, he does wash his hands.
12:57The cauliflower is first boiled, then seasoned and roasted,
13:00before being reduced to a sauce.
13:02So to this I add a little bit of olive oil,
13:04and with any croque monsieur there's a certain amount of heat that comes out of it.
13:08That is generated from Dijon mustard.
13:13I take my crepe, thin layer of my mustard cauliflower,
13:17second part of my croque monsieur, and probably the most important part is the ham.
13:21So what I've gone for is just a real thin bit of air-dried ham.
13:25The final component is gruyere cheese, which is a French cheese,
13:28and it's actually very low in fat.
13:31So we fold this over then once again into a triangle,
13:33touch more cheese on top,
13:35and then you just want to melt the cheese a little bit under the grill
13:37until it just starts to bubble.
13:39Oh, that looks delicious.
13:44This is one flavoursome crepe.
13:46I think these crepes are going to work really well for lunchtime.
13:48For his last crepe, Michael is turning to an old French favourite.
13:52There's nothing more traditional than a good duck cassoulet.
13:55A duck cassoulet is a duck and sausage lentil stew.
13:59So what I want to do is rethink my cassoulet.
14:02I'm going to increase my vegetables.
14:04I'm going to use just a little bit of chorizo,
14:06which is going to give me that flavour, but minus the fat.
14:09Michael first pan fries the duck and drains off the fat.
14:12That's hot, man.
14:14You can already see there is so much fat that's come out of these duck legs.
14:17Next up, to make our cassoulet itself, we start off with a little bit of chorizo.
14:21So to this, we're going to add some onions, followed by some carrot and some celery.
14:26Then we've got some garlic.
14:28Then we go for a little bit of bay leaf.
14:30A little bit of fresh thyme, just to give it a nice, robust flavour.
14:33Then we need a little bit of tomato. Pop those in. Beautiful.
14:36The duck is added to the vegetables with a vegetable stock to stew.
14:40The lentils are added later, followed by white beans.
14:43So to finish my cassoulet, I want to add some wickedly vibrant spinach.
14:47So we've got our finished cassoulet mix.
14:49You've got all that texture in those beans and the duck.
14:52Fold over, and there we go.
14:55It's all packaged up in there.
14:56OK, let's try this.
14:58This one is a winner for me. This is my favourite.
15:01It's quite exciting to go on a game day tomorrow, because apart from the Nutella one,
15:04my croque monsieur and certainly the duck during a cassoulet are pretty damn tasty
15:09and they're just not what you'd normally associate with a crepe.
15:12That's what I'm excited about.
15:15Chef Michael van der Elzen has started his own French revolution.
15:19This is the best.
15:20His wholemeal butterless croissants were a near miss.
15:22They're a wee bit doughy.
15:24A wee bit doughy?
15:25Yeah.
15:26But he's determined to make French food healthier.
15:28So today, he's attempting to steal the show at the World Buskers Festival in Christchurch
15:32with not one meal, but three.
15:35I'm going to do a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner service.
15:39So it's kind of like a whole day in a restaurant.
15:41Yeah, I'm going to be in my food truck.
15:43The croissants have given way to three crepes.
15:45I actually feel really good about the crepes today, because they're quite simple to make.
15:48I think I've worked them enough to make them different,
15:51yet they're still simple enough for people to understand.
15:54The World Buskers Festival is the largest outdoor event in New Zealand,
15:58attracting hundreds of performers from all over the world.
16:01But this year, only one act features a truck.
16:04And like any good street performer, Michael's not charging a thing for his wares.
16:09For the first time in food truck's history, I'm going to change my payment scheme.
16:12I'm going to open my crepes up to whatever people think they're worth.
16:16Michael's always said he doesn't do this for the money, but now he really isn't.
16:20But even without charging, he's taking a risk by offering only one choice for breakfast.
16:25This is probably the first time I've gone into game day, and I'm only offering one thing.
16:28My hazelnut crepes, that's it.
16:30If they don't like hazelnuts, damn, I'm out of luck.
16:34It's all or nothing from the minute we open.
16:36The food truck opens to huge anticipation.
16:39Here's hoping people like hazelnuts around here.
16:42Do you like hazelnut spread?
16:43Oh, try and avoid it.
16:45Do you like hazelnut spread?
16:47I'm not normally a sweet tooth.
16:49I guess I can't offer you any choice.
16:51No.
16:52Hazelnut or hazelnut?
16:53Hazelnut will do.
16:55It seems Michael has devised a simple way to make people try something they don't want,
16:59by giving them no choice.
17:01That better be good, Michael.
17:02I'm not normally a sweet tooth.
17:04That better be good, Michael.
17:05I'm not normally a chocolate peanut type of person.
17:08To be perfectly honest, I don't even really think about crepes as an option,
17:11but it is very nice.
17:13I've never ever had hazelnut spread, but it was very, very nice.
17:17It's really, really good.
17:18How many would you like?
17:19Two.
17:20Two? No problem.
17:21Can we get three, please?
17:22Three, no problem.
17:23The crepes are flying out of the pan.
17:25By the end of the day, I am going to be a crepe master.
17:28And despite not asking for any, the money is flying in.
17:32Five each.
17:34That's very generous.
17:35We bought three today, and we paid $15 for them, so we thought they were delicious.
17:39Paid $10 for three crepes.
17:41I'm happy with $3 each.
17:42Definitely tastes healthier than Nutella or spread you buy from the supermarket, I think.
17:46There's no doubt the sugar-free hazelnut is a healthier option,
17:50and for some, Michael's crepes are a significant improvement to their diet.
17:54Awesome.
17:55I swallow a lot of different crazy things, swords, light bulbs,
17:59but this one is delicious.
18:02I'm absolutely exhausted.
18:04That was breakfast service.
18:06I think I must have sold maybe 40 or 50 crepes.
18:10Now I've got to get ready for lunch.
18:12God.
18:13Are you all ready for lunch?
18:15Yeah!
18:17I would send some kids to the food truck, but I think this is by far the longest.
18:21Worth the wait, you reckon?
18:22I hope so, sir. I hope so.
18:24Enjoy.
18:25These are going to be really hot.
18:27There you go.
18:28It's very fresh and crispy.
18:29Probably one of the best crepes I've ever had.
18:31Taste the cauliflower, which I'm not a fan of,
18:33but in this it's really nice, really fresh and tasty.
18:36Is it yummy?
18:38But just when he's getting on top of the crowds...
18:41I'm halfway through service.
18:42It's going really well, but I've lost power.
18:45There's nothing. The truck's dead.
18:47I've got to serve these people.
18:48They're going to get pissed off if they keep standing there.
18:50What do I do?
18:51Before long, Michael runs out of his hot crepes.
18:54Any electricians?
18:56So with no power to cook, Michael starts serving something else.
19:00Can we take a photo?
19:01Absolutely.
19:02You want a photo? Come out.
19:03There's nothing else I can do.
19:04Himself.
19:06But then Michael has a bright idea.
19:08Hi. Hi. Sorry.
19:10Oops, sorry.
19:11It's called outsourcing.
19:12These are my final crepes.
19:14Any way I can bang them in your pizza oven?
19:16Yeah, bang them in.
19:17Great, great. Thank you.
19:18Straight in.
19:20And it's a chance to make some new friends.
19:22Oh, look at these little meatball pizzas.
19:25Thankfully, the power cut is short-lived.
19:27I can hear a fridge.
19:29Ah, the food truck lives again.
19:32Here you go, sir.
19:34Hope it was worth the wait.
19:35Thank you. Thank you for waiting.
19:37With the truck back online, the money comes flowing in again.
19:41But in the spirit of the Buskers Festival,
19:43there's always someone who wants to sing for their son.
19:46How about today, since we're both busking,
19:48I do a little bit of juggling for you in exchange for a crepe?
19:50That sound fair?
19:51OK, it goes a little like this.
19:55This is one reason people charge for food.
19:58That's fantastic.
20:00Better have an encore.
20:01It's delicious.
20:02You can do a little song on the paper and foam like this.
20:13I know I sold less crepes for lunch than what I did for breakfast,
20:16but people paid more for the ones for lunch.
20:18Maybe they feel like it's a little bit more substantial,
20:20maybe because I've got the ham in there.
20:22So now I've got to get them to dinner,
20:23and dinner, I really want it to be my big one.
20:26Michael's piece de resistance, his duck cassoulet,
20:29is about to be unleashed on the good people of...
20:32Oh, where'd everyone go?
20:34A lot of the food places are actually starting to close,
20:36so the crowds are going.
20:38I may have missed my opportunity.
20:40How are we?
20:41Good, thanks.
20:42One?
20:43Awesome.
20:44There you go, sir.
20:45You do enjoy that.
20:46Appreciate it.
20:47The queue may be smaller,
20:48but the dinner service brings out plenty of keen diners.
20:53Including the more discerning customer.
20:56It's a bean, sausage, and duck stew, I guess.
20:59Is it boy duck or girl duck?
21:01Uh...
21:03I don't know, you've got me there.
21:04Michael considers many things when selecting his ingredients,
21:07but gender is not one of them.
21:09I think the crepe is absolutely fantastic, yes.
21:12But I'm still wondering whether the duck is male or female.
21:15We have to know what's in our food, don't we?
21:17No one knows for sure whether the duck was male or female,
21:20but they do know it tasted good.
21:22It's very good, very moist.
21:25I really like it. It's a really nice crepe.
21:27The return business proves it.
21:29Hello, ma'am. How are you back there?
21:31Definitely. The last one was good that I had,
21:33so I've come back for a second one.
21:35I could go for a third.
21:37You could go two.
21:39Michael's ambitious breakfast, lunch, and dinner service
21:42has been a hard-earned success, and the proof is in the pot.
21:45I think today was a huge success for me because I really enjoyed it.
21:49As much as I love making those croissants and it was a great challenge,
21:52I'm glad I went with crepes.
21:53He served a grand total of 113 crepes in just four hours.
21:57Today was more about actually making the crepes individually
22:01and serving them and getting the reactions from the people.
22:04I think they tasted pretty damn good.
22:06They were certainly healthy.
22:08And just like a good basket, I even made a bit of money.
22:11Oh, yeah.
22:13Next time, Michael takes the knife to Japanese seafood...
22:16That looks pretty average.
22:18That's very average, to be fair.
22:20..and goes in search of yakitori glory.
22:22Sesame seed dressing.
22:24Sesame seed and garlic.
22:26Teriyaki, sake, and malarkey at the seafood festival.
22:30That's the most fun I've had for 40 bucks, I tell you.
22:32You make it seem so simple.
22:34Yes, that's because it is.
22:36That's next time on The Food Truck.
22:38It just feels so healthy.
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