- 1 week ago
Chef Jernard Wells at 2019 Essence Eats
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00I know Essence, New Orleans is all about eating good, cooking good, and taking the whole lot
00:08back home with you. Exactly. And what we got here, we're going to hook up a new soul kitchen,
00:15creamy garlic parmesan chicken, finish it off with some mushrooms, to give it a little love.
00:23Now, I know if y'all have seen my new show, that's on TV One's sister network called Cleo Network called New Soul Kitchen.
00:33And what it's about is showing you how to take, this is that you would normally eat on a regular basis
00:39and make it more healthier. I mean, and it's all, and it's all, it looks, it's all fresh and it's good
00:48and it's natural. And that's what it's about, you know, really knowing what you're eating,
00:53seeing what you eat, while at the same time, still enjoying those great flavors that you grew up on.
01:00Yeah, and trying to get away from the processed stuff. That's like they always say,
01:04if you can eat the outside of the grocery store, as opposed to the middle, you'll be better off.
01:09Yeah, that's what they say, but I still like the inside too.
01:12That's what a little Debbie is on the inside.
01:14Everybody like a honey ball in every now and then.
01:17That heifer call me every time I walk by.
01:19I know it, right?
01:20And really what it's about is, it's taking everyday dishes, things that you're familiar with seeing.
01:30You know, tell me, who don't have some chicken breasts in the refrigerator?
01:34Or see it, you know, in your local grocery.
01:37And you ain't got to do a lot.
01:41We got a little kosher salt, got some minced garlic, mushrooms, some green onions, some olive oil,
01:47a little chicken stock.
01:49Then we got some Italian seasoning.
01:52So, Noah, you're getting ready to throw down in the pans and heating up.
01:55Tell us about that new show.
01:57All right, New Soul Kitchen comes on every Saturday at 2 o'clock.
02:00Me and them, my co-host, Portia Thomas, actually is a vegan chef.
02:05So, everything that I fix the regular way, she makes it vegan style.
02:09Yeah, so we give you the best of all.
02:11I heard somebody making noise, so I said, we got one vegan out here.
02:13Wait, wait, you're trying to get the fingers in the wrong hole.
02:15You're missing the...
02:16Brothers, D-Glove begin.
02:17You done danced.
02:18D-Glove begin to be trouble all day long.
02:21See, you done danced.
02:22And it's like, wait, wait, where are my fingers at?
02:26D-Glove, man, I thought it was an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen.
02:30Sure, I used to be on the Food Network.
02:31D-Glove begin to throw.
02:33So, what you do is, can y'all see what's going on back here?
02:37You can't see what's going on?
02:38Wait, look out.
02:39Look out.
02:40See?
02:41See?
02:43All right, so, okay, keep watching me, because everything that I do, I'm going to bring some samples out there as well,
02:48so you get a chance to try it.
02:49Then we're going to see who's going to dance with me, because I still got a little bit more in me.
02:54Oh, you're the vegan?
02:55Oh, so we'll just serve you mushrooms then.
02:59So, what you do is, you take two teaspoons of salt.
03:04We got black pepper and Italian seasoning.
03:10And what you do is, ahead of time is, you take a tablespoon of olive oil.
03:16And the reason you do it, you're going to rub it down with the olive oil ahead of time is,
03:21so when you have your skillet nice and hot, you put them in, you don't have to worry about it sticking.
03:27You know, because that's one of the things when people are using skin-free chicken,
03:32it always sticks to the bottom of the pan, where you get that skillet hot first.
03:35And that creates a crust, because once you put something down,
03:40you have to let it create that crust before you can pick it up and move it.
03:43That's what it's about.
03:44Now, do you like to go ahead and throw this in the fridge and maybe marinate it overnight?
03:48When I add this garlic to it, what you do is, you're marinated.
03:52You can marinate it for as short as 30 minutes or overnight, 24 hours,
03:57depending on how strong you want those flavors in there.
04:00And that's always the key.
04:03So what we do is, after you get it going, for the sake of time, we're moving a little fast.
04:09We ain't going to do the overnight marinade on them.
04:12But you get your skillets to a nice medium temp.
04:15You're going to take them.
04:17You're going to lay them down.
04:18I don't know if y'all can hear that sizzle through the mic,
04:21but it's a great sizzle going right here.
04:25Can y'all hear that?
04:27That's what you want to hear in your kitchen when you're cooking.
04:30Gary, if you hear that in the kitchen, that's significant.
04:33Oh, they ain't going to go nowhere.
04:35That's right.
04:38So you're going to get those going in your skillet.
04:41Now, when you have those going, always like, you know, with chicken,
04:46you want to make sure you cook with gloves because you'll be touching everything else.
04:50You mosey on to your second skillet.
04:53This is where you get your sauce going.
04:55Now, first, what you're going to do is you're going to melt your butter.
04:58Now, can anyone tell me whenever you're using real butter,
05:05not that margarine or anything like that,
05:08what you want to do is you want to add some olive oil to it.
05:13The reason why you add the olive oil to your butter is to keep your butter from browning,
05:19like when you see that dark butter.
05:20Now, it's good to cook with certain things if you're going for more of a clarified feel,
05:26but for this one, we want to still keep the richness of the butter.
05:28So what you want to do is you cut it with that olive oil to control the temperature
05:37and also the color of it.
05:41Now, inside of there, go ahead and add your mushrooms
05:47because you want the mushrooms to start wilting down a little bit
05:51so that the flavor of them, because mushrooms are really like sponges,
05:55but they hold great flavor.
05:56Look like you're using baby portabellos.
05:59I am.
05:59So can you do other mushrooms, your favorite mushrooms?
06:02Yeah, you can use creminis, shiitakes.
06:04Depending on any kind of mushroom that you like,
06:06that's the mushroom that you can roll with when cooking.
06:09And see, cooking is really meant to bring people into your world.
06:13You know, when you eat my food, it's about experiencing who I am.
06:16When someone eats your food, they should experience who you are.
06:19Never let anyone tell you how you should cook
06:22because cooking is about them experiencing who you are.
06:25When did you first realize that cooking was in your blood?
06:31I think I was about nine years old,
06:35and I cooked just a little small dish, not really knowing what I was doing.
06:40And my next-door neighbors, who were young girls who stayed next to me,
06:45told me my food was good.
06:46And I said, boy, I must be on to something.
06:48And I've been cooking ever since.
06:51Because you grew up right next door in Mississippi.
06:53Yeah, right across the bridge in Mississippi where I grew up.
06:57And a lot of times, you know, our food and our dialect tends to be a little similar
07:01in each other, how we're really heavy on the flavors, the spices and the seasonings,
07:06and bringing things together to actually bridge the gap between people and food.
07:12See, food is the ultimate unifier.
07:14I don't care where you go.
07:17When you all are eating today, everywhere you're eating,
07:19or just look around right now, anybody you eat, and look at how they're smiling.
07:23It's hard to eat and frown.
07:26Try it.
07:27And look, and that's what's nice is, look over this entire room.
07:32Yeah.
07:32Nobody is eating by themselves.
07:34Nope, they're not.
07:35It's all about that visit.
07:36Now, what we have here is some chicken stock.
07:39That's to enrich that flavor.
07:41You want to add that in after a lot of mushrooms to cook a little while,
07:45just to make those flavors a little more enriching.
07:47Then we got some green onions that we're going to fold in.
07:51Really naturally bringing all the flavor to play, bringing everything to life.
07:56Now, I'm going to ask you a question that I always get as a chef.
07:59Uh-huh.
07:59And I say, oh, man, they come with this question.
08:02I'm going to ask you this.
08:03Yeah.
08:03So after cooking all day, or not cooking, you have a day off,
08:08what's your go-to food when you're sitting at home?
08:11Ha-ha.
08:12You know, real talk, what's my go-to food is a hot link.
08:15I love some hot links, nice hot links,
08:17and I like caramelizing onions with some brown sugar Worcestershire sauce
08:21put over the top of it, some Dijon mustard, and I'm good.
08:24And when I eat that movie, eat that dish, what I'm normally listening to,
08:28the Dijon already know what I'm listening to over there.
08:31What you got from?
08:32Any of y'all ladies can tell me if y'all have heard this song.
08:43See?
08:44Where your hips at?
08:50So we got to get a little Spanish and a little...
08:54Going to the islands.
09:02Now, you ladies don't know how to move to this.
09:14So this is cooking and working out at the same time.
09:16Ha-ha.
09:17Ha-ha.
09:17Ha-ha.
09:18Ha-ha.
09:18Ha-ha.
09:19Ha-ha.
09:19Ha-ha.
09:20Ha-ha.
09:21Ha-ha.
09:21Ha-ha.
09:22Now what you want to do is two parts.
09:24Once you're going to have your Parmesan cheese, you add one part to your sauce and the other
09:30part of that Parmesan cheese goes over the top of that chicken.
09:34Janard, I didn't mean to cut y'all off.
09:39There was a young guy just here, I don't know if he's still around, Zachary.
09:43He's in culinary school at the CIA.
09:45And I hope he's still around watching how much, as chefs, we have fun.
09:49Yes.
09:50Because we make people happy with food.
09:51That's what it's about.
09:52You know, being a chef is truly an art form.
09:57And as I always tell people, it's about truly paint a picture with your plate.
10:02You know, people really should fall in love with the way your dish looks, the way your
10:06dish smells, then at the end, the way it tastes.
10:10But it's all about bringing that piece of art to life.
10:14And I think the secret to a good chef is we're talking and you're cooking, but you're still
10:21putting a whole lot of love in that skillet.
10:23I can tell.
10:24Oh, yeah.
10:25You know, and that's what it's about.
10:26When I tell people food and love goes hand in hand, it really does.
10:30That's why you find yourself in love with that significant other.
10:33Your grandmother's cooking, your mother's, your dad is somebody special in your life.
10:38You think about a meal, you think about them.
10:41And that's what it's about when you taste that dish, you enter into their world.
10:47That's why you always find yourself wanting that special dish.
10:50Or you may be that person that creates that special dish and everybody turns to you.
10:55But you know, a lot of people didn't really understand what we meant when we said we cook
10:59with love.
11:00And really, that's what soul food is indigenous about.
11:04When you hear the name soul food, it's not only about the culture of us that create the
11:09food, but it's all about the culture of who we are and where we came from while creating
11:14that food, what made the dishes so great.
11:18No two people cook the same.
11:19I can get two people the same exact recipe, and I guarantee you it'll taste different
11:23every time.
11:24Exactly.
11:25But that's what's great about cooking, because you've got to go to your taste.
11:29Always.
11:30Always.
11:31Always.
11:32Now, we're going to add some more of our onions there.
11:36Onions really naturally bring out the flavor because of the acidity in them.
11:41And a lot of people think, oh well I don't want a lot of onions, I'm worried about my breath.
11:45What you do is, of course, keep a lot of gum on you.
11:49And secondly, as you cooking, cooking with them, this right here, that actual potent thing
11:57that normally makes your breath, the taste buds react, it's milded down.
12:02So it changed the experience of it.
12:04But I tell you what, I hate to say this because my wife is around.
12:08I walked past a young lady the other day, she smelled like garlic.
12:10Stopped me in my tracks.
12:12Look, we love food, and if you smell like food, I almost followed that woman.
12:19Hey, it'll happen, it'll happen to some of the best of us.
12:22She walked by and I'm like, wait, that's garlic.
12:25Oh.
12:26Hey, you got a point there.
12:28Look, when I first met my wife, that's the first thing I asked her, hey, I asked her could
12:33I feed her, man, because one of the things, she smelled like strawberries and cinnamon.
12:39I don't know what it was, this kind of lotion of what she was using at the time, but I said
12:43if you meet a woman that smells like strawberries and cinnamon, you need to stick with them.
12:47That's right.
12:48That's right.
12:49You lady is laughing.
12:52But we appreciate, we appreciate when you all get all dolled up and when you smell good
12:58for us.
12:59Yes.
13:00So we try to reciprocate by smelling good in the pan.
13:02Can you guys see what this chicken is looking like in this skillet up there?
13:07And see, this is what you want your chicken to look like because what happens is, as it's
13:11cooking and you're searing it, you start getting that nice caramelization on the outside of it,
13:17which is a nice sweetener to balance it out.
13:20Yeah, let me take this over here.
13:21You know what?
13:22I could have held it up, but I'm going to bring it up close in person.
13:25Can you all see that right there?
13:27I'm still, you can't see it.
13:30She said she can't see it.
13:31What?
13:32I'm working.
13:33Say what?
13:34Say what?
13:35Say that.
13:36I can't.
13:37Wait, I tell you what.
13:38Just hold it up.
13:39Dillon, come on, get a shot of this.
13:40Dillon's going to get a close up of that from that camera.
13:41Dillon's coming with it.
13:42Dillon's coming with it, DJ.
13:43Once your chicken is seared good on each side of you, make sure it's done.
13:45It's always about the plate up, ladies.
13:47The plate up is always appealing depending on what you're going for.
13:49And the key is, is to stack from the center.
13:52When you stack from the center, that makes for a pretty presentation.
13:57And the key is, is to stack from the center.
14:02When you stack from the center, that makes for a pretty presentation.
14:08At the same time, when you get that stack from the center.
14:21DJ, I need some pouring music for this.
14:24Give me some of the pour this one.
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