- 8 months ago
Join the cast of Chef’s Table: Legends—Jamie Oliver, Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, and José Andrés—as they sit down with Condé Nast Traveler to share their favorite restaurants around the world. From hidden gems tucked away in Tokyo to LA’s best fried chicken and waffles, these legendary chefs reveal the restaurants that inspire them, feed their creativity, and bring them comfort.
Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill photo courtesy of the Corrigan Collection
Contramar photo courtesy of NatalieJames
Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill photo courtesy of the Corrigan Collection
Contramar photo courtesy of NatalieJames
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm Jamie Oliver. I'm Thomas Keller. I'm Alice Forrest. I am Jose Andres. And this is where we like to eat when we're traveling.
00:11For me, Lamy-Louis. That's my... Lamy-Louis. Yeah, for us, Lamy-Louis. I always love the terrine.
00:19Foie gras. Which is absolutely delicious. I agree. I agree. They do a leg of lamb there. I carve it at the table. I'm not having my leg of it. I'll try that.
00:25But it's all good, isn't it? So good. And so historical. I'd love that.
00:29What do you have when you're there? I have the terrine foie gras and roast chicken.
00:32The next time I'm going to have the terrine foie gras and leg of lamb. It's not really good.
00:36One of the chefs I love is Pierre Gagnier. He's one of the guys early on in my life that I saw he had such a sensitivity for cooking. It's a place I love.
00:45The semilla of Rue Saint-Germain. I just had a river trout in Roxwell. He brought it out and showed us.
00:54This fish really took my breath away. I have forgotten what cooking of fish in Roxwell can be like.
01:04Especially an oily fish like that. What a joy.
01:07It was a joy.
01:08Beautiful.
01:09Ooh, London.
01:13I'd go for Clark's.
01:16Clark's. Sally Clark.
01:17Because she became a friend when she came and worked at Chez Panis. And then she took all those ideas back. She has a fixed price menu. Knows all her farmers. And it feels like you're eating in somebody's home.
01:32I like Fergus Henderson a lot.
01:34I do too.
01:34I agree. Yeah. I've been going there for years.
01:36I also like this gastropub called Bentley's.
01:40Yeah, yeah, yeah. Richard Corrigan.
01:41Richard Corrigan.
01:42Very good.
01:43Really good fish and chips.
01:44And Jamie, you? Your favorite?
01:46Oh, it's a tricky one. I mean, I think.
01:47You're the expert.
01:48Well, it's my hometown. But I kind of think in the spirit of young talent, Wildflower is a new one in West London.
01:54And Aaron is a great chef, cooking over fire, farm to table, organic produce, buying direct from suppliers, which I know many do, but it's just so beautiful to see the next generation of great cooks doing it.
02:06It's his life on the line, right?
02:07So I love that vulnerability. I love that youth. And I love that commitment.
02:11So tell me about Indian restaurants.
02:14Oh, yeah.
02:15Pally Hill, Avi, who is like ex-10 years at the River Cafe, cooking his mother's food from India.
02:22But the reason that this plug is worthless is that he's just left after five years and he's about to open a new one.
02:29So for London, I'm going to bring it to my native Spain.
02:33And it's this amazing chef, Jose Pizarro, who he's been bringing for years now, decades, the best of Spain in the heart of London.
02:39And you've seen English ingredients in the Spanish traditions.
02:43And another restaurant that was also Spain meets North Africa, Moro, which also was delicious.
02:50X-Men market, yeah.
02:52It was just unbelievable.
02:53Yeah. Sam and Sam Clark, they do a great job.
02:55And what's beautiful about Moro is that street used to be rough as old boots.
02:59And they opened that restaurant and started cleaning the windows.
03:03And everyone copied that passion and that respect.
03:07And now the whole street is like one of the hottest streets.
03:09I love Tokyo.
03:14I used to go there a lot, but I couldn't possibly remember one name.
03:18I can't either.
03:20Tokyo is a place to love, but it's one place that is called Mibu.
03:25Mibu.
03:25And has only four tables.
03:27And you eat what he has.
03:30Yeah.
03:30Yeah.
03:31Menu forever changing.
03:32He's probably in his mid-80s right now.
03:38And so what Chef does there is just, for me, unbelievable.
03:42In a second floor, in an entrance that you will not even recognize as a restaurant.
03:49But once you are in there, every single thing, from the chopsticks to the flowers to minimalism,
03:56and then the food just speaks by itself.
03:59Mibu is, for me, unbelievable.
04:00It's really difficult to get in some of the finest restaurants in Tokyo.
04:05And some really wonderful experiences there.
04:07But I do have to call out Daniel Calvert, who worked for us at Per Se, who now has Cezanne.
04:13It is a French restaurant, so it's not going to be Japanese.
04:16But he's a wonderful young chef.
04:18He does a terrific job.
04:19Is this a place in the subway, Jiro?
04:23We'll know it by the documentary.
04:24But across the street, it's a great thing when you know where the place is.
04:28Almost you don't even remember the name.
04:30Yeah.
04:30But it's a place used across the street, from the entrance to Jiro, that specializes in the
04:35jacuitori, and especially every single part of the chicken.
04:38The skin from here, the oyster, the sottiles from there.
04:42And that place alone is one of those places that sometimes you will not read in the guides,
04:46but you just go to that subway.
04:48Find it.
04:49Find it.
04:50Wait online until you get your seat at the bar or anywhere, and you just start getting one
04:54by one piece of chicken.
04:56That one, for me, was one of my biggest surprises.
05:00That's what I love about Japan.
05:01I mean, there's artisans who are doing one thing.
05:03A person just doing tempura, right?
05:05They specialize in just this one technique or this one ingredient, and it's just breathtaking.
05:10For me, I love Pizza Bianco.
05:18It's an incredible pizza.
05:19Chris Bianco's pizza crust is utterly delicious.
05:23And they have a pizza on there called Arosa, which is so good.
05:28Pine nuts, rosemary, red onions.
05:32We were lucky to have it last night, weren't we?
05:34Agreed.
05:35So that's definitely...
05:36I have to go for one of my guys, Itor, Diopensomni, one of the most creative chefs you will ever meet.
05:44And I love him, and I love what he's doing right now.
05:46He changes the menu every other week, so whatever I recommend you today, there's no way Jose you're
05:52going to find it again.
05:53I have to say, I'd like to eat in my own restaurant.
05:57Here in Los Angeles?
05:58Do you have a restaurant here in Los Angeles?
05:59I do.
06:00You do?
06:01You are opening restaurants beyond?
06:03Oh my goodness.
06:04Oh my God, she's a sinner.
06:06This is a restaurant called Lulu, and it's at the Hammer Museum, and it's part of UCLA.
06:14I love that.
06:15Mine may surprise you.
06:16My favorite restaurant is Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
06:19On a Sunday morning, you know, fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup.
06:24I know it sounds crazy.
06:25It sounded crazy to me the first time I had it, but I just fell in love with it.
06:29So when I'm in Los Angeles, I'm at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles whenever I can.
06:33That's good information.
06:37Madrid?
06:39Jose, he can speak for all of us.
06:42I don't want to talk about Madrid.
06:44It's like, go to every restaurant, people.
06:46You go to every restaurant.
06:47I'm going to get in trouble in Madrid.
06:49There's no way I can't say Madrid.
06:51It's one place, but there is more, but there's a chef that's so, so talented.
06:55And the name of the restaurant is Bistronomica.
06:57What he has, you see it.
06:59He has a little grill right in front of the fish.
07:03A few catches that he buys in the seafood market in the morning.
07:07You order, and he's throwing it into the grill as you speak.
07:10It's just fascinating.
07:11But he makes one thing.
07:13It's called a traditional hilda, which is this kind of a skewer, this pincho that you have in the Basque country that usually is with an anchovy and an olive and a green pepper.
07:23But he's transformed that and he does it with tuna.
07:27That bite alone is just a bite that you want to keep having all day long.
07:31All day long.
07:32So tell me your favorite roasted baby pig or baby lamb.
07:37Well, there you have to move away from Madrid.
07:39Okay.
07:40Madrid has good ones.
07:41To find the places, I would say, are unbelievable.
07:43Yeah.
07:44And I went a half away from Madrid for baby lamb.
07:47It's a place called Manix.
07:49It's not the most beautiful restaurant in the world, but it's the restaurant with the most heart in the world.
07:54And Marco is the owner.
07:55You will see him in the morning, two hours before service, with all the baby lambs.
08:02That they are no more than three weeks old.
08:05So good.
08:06Only with water.
08:07So good.
08:08And fire and smoke.
08:09He'll put it there.
08:11And he's there watching.
08:12When I go to his restaurant, I try always to arrive two hours before to see everything that goes before the dish is finished.
08:21And he's a guy that listens to the lambs, to the fire.
08:27He cooks with his ear.
08:28You ask him, what temperature?
08:29Like, this is the right temperature.
08:32What wine do you drink with that?
08:33Heavy wines because I like my mouth to be fresh.
08:35Yeah.
08:36But me, I will go with a menfía from Bierzo.
08:40There's one guy called Raúl Pérez, and he's making some of the best reds, new reds, I would say, for what everybody thinks of Spain.
08:47Good luck on that one, guys.
08:53It's hard.
08:54It's amazing.
08:55I have to mention Puyol.
08:56Puyol.
08:56Because Quintanil.
08:58Quintanil.
08:58Yeah, those two.
09:00They're really as good as you read.
09:02Yeah.
09:02And then there is a churros stop.
09:04It's called Morro.
09:05You've been to Morro?
09:06Yes.
09:06I have.
09:07Yeah.
09:07The best churros I've ever had.
09:09It's Gabriela's.
09:10Contramar.
09:10Gabriela's is Contramar.
09:11Contramar.
09:12It's your first day today, I think.
09:15Last time I was in Mexico, it was during the mashup season.
09:17We don't think about why mashups in Mexican cooking.
09:20You see it in photos and books.
09:22But when you're in mashup season, September, October, and Morro's and chanterelles and seps.
09:27It's just astonishing.
09:32One of my favorite restaurants is a small yakitori restaurant, Yakitori Toto.
09:36Simple.
09:37Easy.
09:38They don't recognize me.
09:39So, you know, the quality of the food is the quality of the food.
09:42The quality of the food is excellent.
09:43Well, I have to mention Gravensey Park.
09:47Okay.
09:47Because he recognizes me.
09:50Michael.
09:51Yeah.
09:52Totally.
09:52And when I was there last time, it just felt like everything that I love about Chez Panisse.
09:59He saw that and made it happen for me.
10:03New York.
10:05So hard.
10:06I like a hot dog in the streets.
10:08The first thing I ever did, and I know this is like, really?
10:12I was off a boat, 30 days on the sea, I'm walking in the streets, I'm a young sailor,
10:19and still I remember that moment, that smell of the hot dog, the ketchup, the master.
10:24I say, put anything you have.
10:26If it's included in the price, I'll take it all.
10:28And for me, that bite of hot dog is still, I close my eyes, it's like, okay, this is New York.
10:33This is my head.
10:34Lovely memory.
10:35Organic, you think?
10:36I don't think so, but that's okay.
10:38The one I'm going to mention is a place called King.
10:41It's run by three wonderful women.
10:44I always get so excited when strong women can make it in New York, right?
10:50Like, as they should be.
10:51Like, we need more women in the industry, and they cook so beautifully.
10:54Great ingredients.
10:55The menu changes every day, twice a day, as far as I can work out.
10:58So you never know what's on the menu.
11:00I was there just last week, and it's really exquisite cooking.
11:03It's kind of, I'd say, sort of French, rustic, a little bit of Italian in there as well,
11:10and a little bit of English, because there's a mix of ladies running the kitchen.
11:14So, yeah.
11:15What is the place of Marcus up in Harlem?
11:17Red Rooster.
11:17Red Rooster.
11:18The fried chicken there is great, because when, especially as a tourist, you go and you go Manhattan, right?
11:24Midtown, Soho, we don't move from there.
11:28Go Harlem, to go to Red Rooster, see what he's done there, which I think is unbelievable.
11:33And the fried chicken there, and many of the dishes, the fried chicken there, is just astonishing.
11:39Beautiful.
11:40Well, one thing is true.
11:42We don't have enough time in our lifetimes to enjoy the amazing bounty of cities.
11:48So me, sometimes, I like to go to that city that seems it's not in any guide, in any magazine,
11:53because they don't seem that city is cool enough.
11:56And you land there, and all of the sudden, what you find is just amazing people with amazing things
12:02and traditions that you had no clue, because nobody ever has written about it.
12:06So we all need to move away from our comfort zones, and move beyond that horizon, because
12:12we're going to discover things that are going to be blowing our minds away.
12:16Every day I do that, I keep learning so much.
12:19Oh, we need to do that more often, I think.
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