How One of the World's Best Chefs Makes a Perfect Lobster Roll (Michelin Star)

Bon Appétit

Bon Appétit joins world-renowned Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten at his NYC seafood restaurant, The Fulton, to share his take on the perfect lobster roll recipe. Using only the freshest lobsters and homemade mayonnaise, Chef Jean-Georges shares his secret to building a gourmet lobster roll that’s bursting with flavor.

Transcript

00:00I'm Chef Jean-Georges, the chef at the Fulton New York City, and today I'm

00:09doing my favorite lobster roll. The Fulton is our first seafood restaurant we

00:13opened about five years ago, and it's all based on East Coast seafood. Today we

00:18are making a lobster roll luxury sandwich. This one changes during the

00:21seasons. The tomato makes it pop. Homemade mayonnaise, different spices. Everything

00:26has a bit spicy for me in the summertime. One and a couple chips next to it. But

00:30first, let's cook the lobster. So this lobster is about a pound and a half, and you

00:36get two lobster rolls out of this. This is the fermetal. They have smaller claw, larger tail.

00:41I like the tail meat better than the claw meat. Lobster has to be really moving a

00:44lot when you hold it. Many times you can see all the claw, all the membranes.

00:50When you have a dead lobster, the meat usually gets very mushy and soft. You can

00:55buy lobster meat if you like, but it's probably been on ice or in the fridge for

00:58a long time. You can see how shiny it is. The antenna. It's not been in a tank for

01:03sure. It's been a live lobster from the wild. So the best way to cook a lobster is

01:06to really to either steam it. The steaming sometimes they empty themselves. When you

01:10boil it, it sears the meat. It really cooks perfectly. It stays perfectly moist.

01:15Are we ready? Are you ready? Heads on. Here we go. Fast boil. You can see it's already red.

01:21And it's going to cook for about eight to ten minutes. Here we go. Here's a beautiful

01:28lobster. Nice and steamy. Never saw the fridge and never will. To see if the lobster is cooked,

01:34it would be to crack open the tail, but then you put it back in the water, you wash the

01:36flavors away. So in the summer, the shell is a little more tender. Trust me, eight minutes

01:41is a good time. We're going to let it cool in the shell, so it's going to continue to cook

01:45all the way through. In the meantime, I'm going to show you how to make my spicy mayonnaise.

01:49There's so many types of lobster roll, but I like the mayonnaise one. You don't have to

01:55do your own mayonnaise, but it's so easy to do. So it's two egg yolk, a bit of a mustard.

02:01I start with a pinch of salt, and then some grapeseed oil or sunflower oil, something neutral.

02:07So it's like an emulsion. Emulsion is when you really mix something solid or something liquid.

02:12You can do this in a blender, but by hand is easy as well. Even lemon juice and olive oil

02:16is an emulsion. You can make a vinaigrette, which is nice and tight. But this is an ancient recipe,

02:21mayonnaise, egg yolk, mustard, oil. You have to mix constantly. You can see, otherwise it would break.

02:26You want it smooth, thick, but not too thick. I'm going to add a little olive oil for flavor.

02:31So I mix both oil. You see, when you put the oil in there, it breaks, and then you have to emulsify it.

02:36A little more salt. What's important to really make it lighter, a little bit of lemon juice.

02:42So the acid really balances the oil, the yolk, the heaviness of the yolk.

02:45As soon as you add an acid, vinegar or lemon, it changes color a little bit. It gets lighter.

02:50And now we're going to spice it up with a Thai chili sauce, sriracha, some Old Bay.

02:54This is classic American from the South. You know, you do a pre-fish boil without reading.

03:01I smell the cayenne pepper, clove, allspice, star anise, maybe a little cinnamon. Delicious.

03:12Here we are. So this is good on anything, even on a burger, I think.

03:16Mayonnaise is done. Now we're going to prep the lobster.

03:20I usually remove the claw. Like this. A little twist on the tail.

03:32Here we are. You can use a scissors if you like. I'll just push it out.

03:36Here we go. Then I'm going to just cut it. Remove the intestine here. I'll cut it in nice chunks.

03:46It's not too small. I like to use all the meat. I'm going to remove the claw.

03:52Tell me it is more meaty. This is a little more rubbery. So I'll remove this.

03:58I like to remove the other part of the claw. So when you do this.

04:07I'll remove the claw. So the claw meat is a little firmer. This piece is almost like a rubber,

04:12but it's delicious to eat.

04:17The meat, when it's cooked, it just falls well out. Cut in big chunks as well.

04:21I like to use a scissors for this part. This is the knuckle meat. So just to open up. Remove the meat.

04:35It's a nice bite. You want to use everything from the lobster. There we go. Yeah, this part is really

04:43delicious. You can use a hammer. You can use something to crack it a little more. Or we'll use

04:49probably 50, 60 lobsters a day. So this is like really a popular dish. Takes time, you know,

04:56to do all this. But we cook it every day fresh. I like to just eat some of the legs.

05:03There's not much meat in there, but a lot of juice. You can see that much meat. Probably eight ounces

05:08from a pound and a half lobster. And we're going to make my salad. We're almost ready to eat it.

05:13In the summer, I like to use tomato because it really brings a nice burst of freshness. You know,

05:20when you bite into a lobster, which is meaty. And then you have a half a tomato. Wow. It's like

05:26very sunny. I call them sun gold. I cut them in half. And then the larger one, I cut them in quarters.

05:31Some tarragon. Not too small. You just want to chisel the leaves because you want to taste it as well.

05:37Tarragon is a very unique herb. Very anise flavor. Lots of aroma. It makes your tongue tingle.

05:44It's a great herb to have. Here we are. I'm adding a little lemon zest. It's just

05:51burst of summer. Then the mayonnaise. A couple tablespoons. I'm going to mix it up. A little more.

05:58I'm going to try the tomato. Wow. I need to put a little more lemon juice in there. It's so rich

06:06with the mayonnaise that you want to make sure the flavors are bright with the lemon, the spices.

06:13The tarragon, the sriracha, the mustard, tomato. It's magic.

06:21So we're making here some potato chips, but a little fancy. I could have put a dog au fret.

06:25It's just a great contrast to have potato chips with a lobster. I use amadolin. So you go one way,

06:30the other way. Beautiful lacy goffrettes. This is similar to waffle fries, just a little thinner.

06:39You get it very crunchy because it's a lattice. The oil goes through it and they get much crispier.

06:45So you have to wash them to get the starch away and then dry them. And then we just fry them.

06:49In clarified butter. It's a butter that you melt until you remove the buttermilk from it.

06:55So it's pure fat, but it's butter. You can use oil as well, but I think the flavor of the

06:59clarified butter is very tasty. So when you do potato goffret like that, the little holes,

07:04the oil goes through and it really makes it a crisper chip. It dries faster too. See, this one is ready.

07:11You can do a shallow fry like this. This is like a home technique. You can tell when they start

07:16getting ready. The edge is crispy. You don't want it too dark. I think it's important for a restaurant where you

07:21try to be as artisanal as you can. From the mayonnaise, to the chips, to the cook your own lobster.

07:26We could open a bag of chips. We could buy the mayonnaise. We can buy the lobster meat. But

07:30I think people come to us for homemade quality ingredients. But they smell like butter now.

07:36So it's a different potato than a regular chip, you know. Just drain them a little bit.

07:39The smell of butter. My god. So we're going to season with some salt. I like to use kosher salt. And then

07:46some malt vinegar. I'm using potato rolls. Martins. Very simple. Classic. It has to be soft. You know,

07:55you could use brioche, but it becomes very rich. I want to feel like I'm somewhere in Maine.

08:02I think a little butter with the lobster. It makes a big difference. So I like to toss my buns.

08:08You could put it in the oven, but it dries really fast.

08:10I just want the edge to be crispy. The flavor of the butter inside the bun. Here we are. Very quick, simple.

08:24Magic.

08:28So now it's time to add our lobster salad into the roll. So much goodness here. You can see the tomato,

08:35lobster. And I always leave a little bit for myself. A couple leaves of tarragon. Extra flavor.

08:43Some chips. Here we have a little bit of a malt vinegar for our chips. Voila.

08:52Here we have a lobster roll, tomato tarragon, and a goffered potato chips.

08:56Wow. Circulent. Really good. Creamy lobster. Tomato. I think what jumps out is really the tarragon.

09:08Sriracha. I see the mayonnaise with the old bay. Lemon. Mustard. Yeah, it's probably not the

09:13fanciest way to do lobster, but the most delicious. Can't go wrong.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended