- 1 hour ago
Vogue Germany cover star Simone Ashley heads to the Vogue kitchen to cook burgers and cookies. Starting off with a vodka martini, the “Devil Wears Prada 2” star talks about her short-lived YouTube cooking career, her upcoming EP, “Songs I Wrote in New York,” and an eye-catching Bad Bunny–esque Momofuku waiter. Simone then gets to baking scrumptious chocolate-caramel cookies infused with cornflakes, before finishing things off with her go-to New York City dinner, a perfectly crispy smash burger.
Director: Nina Ljeti
Director Of Photography: Michael Lopez
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Senior Producer: Bety Dereje
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Assistant Camera: Kahdeem Prosper Jefferson
Gaffer: Eric Hinsperger
Audio: Sean Paulsen
Food Stylist: Jeannie Chen
Production Assistant: Sobrina Neil
Hairstylist: Gonn Kinoshita
Makeup Artist: Keita Moore
Manicurist: Mo Qin
Stylist: Rebecca Corbin-Murray
Stylist Assistant: Bianca Parisotto
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Global Entertainment Director: Caitlin Brody
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Director: Nina Ljeti
Director Of Photography: Michael Lopez
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Senior Producer: Bety Dereje
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Assistant Camera: Kahdeem Prosper Jefferson
Gaffer: Eric Hinsperger
Audio: Sean Paulsen
Food Stylist: Jeannie Chen
Production Assistant: Sobrina Neil
Hairstylist: Gonn Kinoshita
Makeup Artist: Keita Moore
Manicurist: Mo Qin
Stylist: Rebecca Corbin-Murray
Stylist Assistant: Bianca Parisotto
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Global Entertainment Director: Caitlin Brody
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Category
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PeopleTranscript
00:00We need to take the seal off.
00:02Okay.
00:03Oh God, no, the lid's gone and the ketchup
00:06is all going to shit.
00:13Hi Vogue, I'm Simone,
00:15and I'm gonna be cooking for you today.
00:17Cookies, a smash burger,
00:19and my favorite, a vodka martini with a twist.
00:22I found out today that this cocktail is literally all vodka.
00:27That's probably the reason why I love it so much.
00:28You're gonna wanna get a chilled glass.
00:31We shot my Vogue cover in London for Vogue Germany,
00:34and the theme of it was, this is a lot of vodka.
00:38I may as well, there we go.
00:39Let's just finish the bottle.
00:41And the theme was day in the life of a fashion girl.
00:43I'm gonna put a tiny bit of vermouth in.
00:45I don't like too much, so.
00:48And we were like filming on the streets of like central London.
00:53I actually forgot to put the ice in first.
00:55We're gonna put in a couple of scoops of ice.
00:57Wait, I'm putting this the wrong way.
00:59Can you see I've never done this before?
01:01Right, okay.
01:02And now we're gonna shake it.
01:04You're gonna shake it.
01:06It's a good workout.
01:08The arms, whilst that's just chilling.
01:11We're gonna cut a peel.
01:13I'm just gonna get my knife and try my best
01:16to get the majority of the skin.
01:19Oh, actually, kind of good,
01:21but I got a bit of the fruit on it, but it's okay.
01:23You just gotta kiss the glass,
01:25kiss the rim with the lemon peel and pop it in.
01:29And then we're gonna just...
01:33Just, ah, there we go.
01:35Just gonna pour it in.
01:40Yes, strong and fresh, just like my personality.
01:45We're gonna first make the cookies.
01:47Whilst they're in the oven, we can then make the burgers.
01:50I love food.
01:51I've loved food since I was a kid.
01:53And actually, when I was a kid,
01:55I used to make my own YouTube cooking videos
01:59with my webcam.
02:00And I had maybe about five viewers,
02:03but they were my loyal start to what is my career.
02:07I like making brown butter cookies,
02:09because when you brown the butter,
02:10it makes it super nutty and caramelly.
02:13We're gonna start off with a little bit
02:16of our Dutch courage.
02:19And we're gonna throw in our butter into our pan.
02:23So we're gonna talk music
02:24whilst I'm giving the butter some love.
02:27My EP is coming out in April.
02:30I've been singing since I was a kid,
02:32and I always wanted to do it professionally.
02:34We've been cooking away.
02:36Cooking away.
02:37This is the most nervous I've ever been in my life.
02:39Just because I think it's something
02:41that's so close to my heart.
02:43And I feel really proud and really brave for doing this.
02:47The title of my album is called Songs I Wrote in New York.
02:52So it's kind of what it says on the tin.
02:54It really came to life during a summer
02:56that I had in New York last year.
02:58Ooh, we're getting browner.
03:00We're getting there.
03:00And now we're gonna crack two eggs into my stand mixer.
03:05I like using a stand mixer just cause it's efficient.
03:09If I'm hosting guests at dinner party,
03:11it means I can like chat and gestulate.
03:15Just, gestulate?
03:16Gestulate?
03:17Gesticulating.
03:18I can gesticulate with my hands.
03:20And we're gonna pour that in.
03:21You know what?
03:22You wanna make sure that you-
03:24Ooh, that's hot!
03:25You wanna make sure that you don't scramble the eggs.
03:27So I'm actually just gonna let that be for a second.
03:30We're gonna put the butter in a glass bowl.
03:32That's gonna help things cool down a little bit more.
03:34My mum makes ghee, which is like clarified butter.
03:37It's like a traditional Indian butter.
03:39And the smell of brown butter really reminds me of that.
03:42We're gonna just put in the sugars.
03:44Brown sugar for my brown butter cookies.
03:47And then we're gonna put some white sugar in.
03:49And now we're just gonna pour in the butter just bit by bit.
03:53We are going to add in our vanilla.
03:55Okay, we're gonna put our salt and baking soda
03:56in these cute little, cute little bowls of flour.
04:01I had like a cooking class in my high school.
04:03And the cooking teacher was really scary.
04:06Of all teachers, you wouldn't have thought that the cooking teacher
04:08was the one that was gonna whip your ass, but she was.
04:11We're gonna just lift this up.
04:18We're gonna go in with the vanilla toffee.
04:21Oh my God, this is gonna take some muscle.
04:26Crunchy cornflakes.
04:27For me, the ideal chocolate chip cookie is soft and chewy, slightly salty.
04:35Okay, we're gonna go with the dark chocolate chips.
04:37Ideally fresh out the oven so they're nice and melted.
04:40There's a few places in New York.
04:43Levan is really good, but I feel like I haven't really been on the cookie hunt.
04:47I've been on the martini hunt, the burger hunt, the pasta hunt, the roast chicken hunt.
04:53But I'm, oh my gosh, this is really, this is getting really thick.
04:57I love the East Village.
04:58That's one of my favorite neighborhoods to go to.
05:00Actually, Momofuku is one of my favorite places to go to.
05:03So there is a waiter at Momofuku that looks like Bad Bunny.
05:07And every time I go there, I'm like, oh my God, I'm being served by Bad Bunny.
05:11I go there to just stare at the pretty waiter and to eat the great food.
05:15I think my dough is ready, but cannot make cookie dough without eating it raw.
05:22So, okay, so my dough has been made.
05:29We're going to make them into little balls.
05:30I'm just going to go rogue and go with my hands because this is a really thick dough.
05:35I used to work and serve Freyo with Nick Galitzin.
05:40I saw him the last time, like at a shift where we were serving Freyo together.
05:45And then years later, the next time I saw him was actually at the Met Gala, which is just kind
05:50of crazy.
05:51Devil Wears Prada, we filmed kind of the first half on the streets of Manhattan in the summer,
05:58which was just such a wild experience.
06:00Then we moved over to studios in Queens and we shot all the runway stuff there,
06:06which was kind of surreal to be stepping into the runway offices.
06:09Final part of filming was in Milan, which was really fun.
06:13And then we wrapped in October.
06:14This is super rogue, rustic cooking.
06:18So some are big, some are small, but that's okay.
06:21We're an accepting cookie community here.
06:24And now we're going to put them in the oven.
06:27I'm going to make my favorite, which is a smash burger.
06:30It is my go-to snack slash dinner whenever I'm in New York.
06:35I'm going to make up a burger sauce.
06:37We're literally just going to wing this.
06:39I like mine to be quite mustardy.
06:42We're going to throw in a little bit of spicy brown as well,
06:45because we all love a bit of spicy brown.
06:47Oh, shit.
06:48We need to take the seal off.
06:50Okay.
06:51Oh God, no, the lid's gone and the ketchup is all going to shit.
06:54I'm going to put it, whoop, that's enough.
06:56That's more than enough.
06:57This is dill pickle.
06:59And then we've got bread and butter pickle.
07:00Dill is a little bit more savory.
07:02And I want a little bit of the pickle brine
07:04just to like cut through the fat of the burger.
07:07Woo, that is way too much, but it's okay.
07:10We're going to mix it in, throw just a tiny bit of ketchup in.
07:14When it comes to beef and burgers, I just think the simpler, the better.
07:22Oh, I nailed it.
07:23This is Jeannie, my amazing food stylist.
07:27And she's been helping me out with my recipes.
07:31Right?
07:32I nailed it.
07:32Give me a high five.
07:33Good job.
07:33Oh, yeah.
07:34Oh, I think my cookies are done.
07:36Well, ding to that.
07:39Cookies are out of the oven.
07:40So we're going to really quickly make our burgers.
07:43I don't want any tomatoes or pickles or salad.
07:45I just need cheese, patty, and sauce.
07:49And to make them.
07:51Thank you, Jeannie.
07:52We're going to have a bit of parchment paper.
07:56First, I'm going to smash this down.
07:58This is the best bit.
08:00Oh, and you want to go low and slow.
08:02Can someone put a two minute timer on for me?
08:04The perfect burger for me is one that I can eat with one hand.
08:08And I'm going to build it in such a way where it doesn't fall everywhere.
08:12That's the worst.
08:12When you have a burger and you take a bite and it just falls everywhere.
08:15I want to take a bite and a clean bite and be able to enjoy it.
08:19I'm going to put the heat way high.
08:21We're in New York City.
08:22Everything's got to be done quick.
08:23The Devil Wears Prada 2.
08:24It's 20 years on from the original.
08:27This movie is a true reflection of what is happening with journalism,
08:31fashion and media and more that you'll have to find out.
08:35We're going to flip now.
08:37So we're going to, oh my goodness.
08:39Okay.
08:39We're going to take off our parchments.
08:41I'm going to use cheddar cheese.
08:43There's an amazing additional cast to this movie.
08:47We've got Lucy Liu.
08:48We've got Justin Theroux and so many amazing cameos.
08:52I don't want to ruin it too much,
08:54but it was the best summer of my life filming this movie.
08:57So I'm very, very grateful and very proud to be a part of it.
09:00So I'm just going to take the patties off and they are going to rest.
09:06We're going to get the burger buns and we're going to toast them
09:09and they're going to just mop up all of the juices.
09:13It's getting hot in here.
09:14I set up a production company about five years ago.
09:17Margot Robbie actually inspired me to set up a production company.
09:21I just love seeing artists, female artists especially,
09:25just take things into their own hands and take control of their artistic journey.
09:31And I'd like to think that I'm doing the same thing.
09:33Let's see how the burgers are doing.
09:35Oh, oh my goodness.
09:36They're about to burn.
09:37So let's turn them off.
09:39Oh, I kind of nailed it.
09:41Oh, hot buns coming in.
09:43I think this is my favorite bun.
09:44I think it's toasted perfectly.
09:46So I'm going to put a little bit of sauce.
09:48So we're just going to pour the rest
09:49of this just so we have a little bit more courage when we're making this burger.
09:56Cheers.
09:57Here's a fun fact.
09:58Pilots used to have a term called $100 hamburger,
10:02where they would get on a flight back in like the 80s, 90s,
10:06which would be like a hundred bucks around then.
10:08And they would fly just to go to an airport just to eat a hamburger and then fly out.
10:13So let's pretend that that's what we're doing now.
10:16I'm going to get my dill pickles because I want something slightly savory.
10:23And then we're going to put in the second patty, a little bit more sauce.
10:28That is my burger.
10:30I'm not going to lie.
10:31I'm really proud of that.
10:33We have a bowl of what Americans call chips and what Europeans would call crisps,
10:39because I think it makes more sense because they're crispy.
10:42This is my smash burger.
10:44Before I try my masterpiece, I'm going to get my cookies out the oven.
10:48We have two trays of delicious, rustic looking cookies and they smell amazing.
10:57Put it on the side there.
10:58I'm going to add a little bit of sea salt, flaky sea salt, very important.
11:03I'm kind of nervous.
11:05All right.
11:10Oh, I nailed it.
11:11I'm just going to put in a few crisps in here.
11:14I've never done this before.
11:15I think what's really important for me, work is kind of crazy at the moment and I'm traveling so much.
11:21It's spending time with my best friends and the people I love.
11:25So that usually involves food and a cocktail.
11:29So that's going to be my lunch for today.
11:32I'm really excited about this.
11:36That is the perfect cookie.
11:38It's warm, it's salty, a cheeky cornflake appears out of nowhere.
11:44A bit of toffee.
11:47Making burgers, cookies and cocktails.
11:52This has been a dream.
12:08That's good one.
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