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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw S09E50 engsub fullfilm🎯🍿🍿
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00:00MUSIC
00:22Hello, I'm Adam Liao and welcome to The Cook Up,
00:24the show where you'll hear nothing but non-stop experimental jazz.
00:26On tonight's line-up, refrigerator soup, steak sandwich and pavlova.
00:31Let's say hi to our guests.
00:32Lillian Kaskutas, aka Lil Eats,
00:35descends from a line of pastry chefs, dessert dynamos and gardening gurus,
00:39so it's no surprise that she found her calling as a private chef,
00:42caterer and hostess with the mostess.
00:44Hey, Lil.
00:45Hey, Adam. Thanks for having me.
00:46Thanks for coming.
00:47Nick White left the world of architecture to construct something way funnier
00:50than buildings, a comedy career.
00:52With stacks of fans on social media and on seats at his sell-out shows,
00:56we know that he can make us laugh, but can he make us food?
00:58Let's find out.
00:59Hey, Nick.
00:59Hello. Thanks for having me.
01:02Nick, you were an architect.
01:04Uh-huh.
01:04I know, I just said that.
01:05Yeah.
01:07Have you ever designed a kitchen and what makes a good kitchen?
01:10I used to design a lot of kitchens when I worked in New York.
01:13Mostly I did kitchens and bathrooms.
01:15Wow.
01:16And I'd say the key secret to a good kitchen is the triangle.
01:19Oh, the triangle.
01:20From fridge to sink to stove.
01:22Oh, my God.
01:23I have so many opinions about this.
01:24Ooh.
01:25Hold that thought.
01:25Okay.
01:28Lil, your great-grandfather was a pastry chef.
01:32Yeah, he was, over in Egypt, and he brought the skills over here,
01:36opened up his own patisserie, I believe, near Paddington.
01:39Wow.
01:40Yeah, and that was his life.
01:42That's incredible.
01:43Passed on to my grandmother and then passed on to me a little bit.
01:46Love it.
01:47When you challenge a baby to a game of chess, you can expect some easy wins.
01:55Lil, you were a professional chef in some really fantastic kitchens.
01:58Now you're about people cooking in their homes.
02:02Do you like to cook easy food or complicated food?
02:05Yeah, I cook really rustic, tasty food.
02:08If it's for a client, it'll be a little bit more elevated,
02:11but for my family, it's something that's always going to be really simple
02:15but really delicious.
02:16Yeah, fantastic.
02:18Nick, comedians travel a lot.
02:20Mm-hmm.
02:20You don't always have a kitchen when you're travelling.
02:22Do you like to cook when you're on the road or no-no?
02:27I don't even cook when I'm not on the road.
02:29Right.
02:30So, yeah.
02:33That's a pretty clear answer to that question.
02:34Yeah.
02:35Let's show you some things, and I'll start with a fridge-raid soup.
02:43Nick, as somebody who doesn't really cook, you may not be familiar,
02:48but often people have fridges that are full of vegetables.
02:52Full of what?
02:54Yes.
02:56Yeah, and I think having something that you can have up your sleeve
03:01that just gets rid of a fridge full of vegetables is always a good idea.
03:05So this is, I guess, a fridge-raid soup in the sense that if you've got
03:09a whole bunch of vegetables like broccoli off-carts and half an onion
03:13or whatever, you can just throw all of these onto a tray.
03:17Oh, OK.
03:18I don't like food waste is what I'm trying to get at.
03:22OK, yes, yes.
03:22And so anything you can do to use up these kind of things,
03:24and if they're slightly limp, no worries, because after it roasts,
03:28it all ends up looking a bit like that.
03:31Whoa.
03:31I didn't know you could use that bit of the broccoli.
03:33Oh, yeah, absolutely.
03:34That's one of my favourite bits.
03:35Oh, really?
03:36Yeah, no, I absolutely love it.
03:37Is it nutritious?
03:38Is that, like, where all the nutrients?
03:39It's broccoli.
03:39The whole thing is, right?
03:40Yeah, the whole thing is broccoli.
03:41OK, the whole thing is broccoli.
03:44Now I get it.
03:46So what I'll do with that is then just maybe even just this pumpkin was a bit big,
03:52so I'm just going to cut a few little bits and pieces of that
03:54and then just throw all that into a pot and cook it with some water into a pot
03:59and I'll throw all my veg in on top of that as well.
04:01If you wanted to skip the roasting skip, fine as well.
04:05If you don't want to turn your oven on, you can just boil this all together.
04:08But what you get from roasting is actually this really good,
04:11all of this browning and caramelisation and Maillard reactions,
04:14it just gives you more flavour in your soup.
04:17So it's going to be a more flavourful soup if you roast the veg than if you don't.
04:20I'm kind of scared of using my oven.
04:23Really?
04:23I think when I was a kid our oven caught on fire once
04:26and now I'm like, what if it happens again?
04:31You know what I mean?
04:32Cross that bridge when you come to it.
04:33I've never even seen an oven.
04:34Cross that bridge once a fire starts, no thanks.
04:37But no, I'm going to face my fear today.
04:39So chicken stock powder, which I'm a huge fan of,
04:41instead of using like bought chicken stock,
04:44this is all just like the stuff you've got lying in your fridge,
04:46plus some stuff from the pantry, plus some stuff that comes out of the tap,
04:49is what's going to make our soup.
04:51Oh, that smells good.
04:52So, Lil, you go to a lot of people's houses
04:57and you are in their kitchens a lot
04:59and you probably see more people's kitchens
05:01than probably even a lot of architects do.
05:05What is it that makes a good or not so good kitchen design,
05:09in your opinion?
05:10Definitely lots of prep space, a nice clean bench.
05:15I love arriving to a clean stovetop,
05:17not too many things in the way, knickknacks,
05:20but I guess I'm trained to go into any space and make it work.
05:24Yeah.
05:24I had a job over the weekend and all I really had to work with was a bench,
05:29maybe half the size of this one here.
05:31Right.
05:31To do a canopy party for, I think, eight or nine people.
05:34Wow.
05:34And we make it work.
05:35That's just part of the job.
05:37Do the people who get a private chef like yourself to come into their home,
05:40use their kitchens much?
05:41Some yes, some no.
05:43Yeah, okay.
05:43Yeah.
05:44I have one other client who's a regular who got a new stove recently
05:48and when I arrived to their house, they told me that they got the stove for me.
05:51Oh, wow.
05:53That was really lovely.
05:55That's fabulous.
05:56Yeah.
05:56It's like a gift for you that you can't take.
05:58Yeah, no, I can't take it with me.
05:59So, Nick, I should just explain what I'm doing at the moment.
06:03My veg is going to turn into a soup, I promise.
06:06Yum.
06:06What I'm doing is just using the tray that I roasted the veg on,
06:09that I'm going to tear up some leftover bread
06:12because people tend to have leftover vegetables,
06:14they tend to have leftover bread.
06:15I'm going to tear that all up.
06:16I'm going to make crew toast.
06:18It's like halfway between toast and a crouton.
06:21Oh, like a cronut.
06:24Yeah, whatever that's called.
06:25Yeah, okay.
06:27But talk to me about this kitchen triangle.
06:28Oh, well, I think it's just like a rule in design
06:32where to have a kitchen that flows well and is practical,
06:36you don't want to be walking, you know,
06:38in a straight line between your three key points,
06:41like the sink, the stove, the fridge.
06:44It's good to have something practical where you can just,
06:47if you're in a rush, you're kind of like bouncing from one.
06:50An equilateral triangle is best, I think.
06:53Yeah.
06:53But sometimes...
06:54With short sides, essentially.
06:55Like if you think I've got my stove here,
06:56my fridge is there, my sink is there.
06:58We're pretty good here.
06:59Yeah.
07:00In terms of like, you're probably going to be running through those things.
07:03Totally.
07:03You want to be able to just bounce between the nodes.
07:05Yeah.
07:06Yeah.
07:06But my slight bugbear with that is that cooking on the stove is self-contained.
07:12Mm-hmm.
07:12Because when I'm cooking on the stove, I don't really walk away from the stove.
07:15Mm.
07:16What I would like the kitchen triangle to be is my prep space to my fridge, to my sink,
07:23and then I want my dishwasher, like right next to the sink.
07:26Oh, yeah.
07:27No, like...
07:28So now it's a bit of a square.
07:31What I'm doing now is something that is a little bit, I guess my crew toast is slightly different.
07:37I'm going to...
07:38I've fried off some garlic with some butter and I'm going to throw in any kind of leftover
07:42herbs that I have into that.
07:44I've got some rosemary here, we've got some parsley, I've got a whole bunch of stuff,
07:48some thyme, just bits and pieces of herbs that I had left over.
07:50And I'm just going to blitz that together a little bit with a stick blender.
07:54Lil, is it...
07:56When you go into someone's kitchen and it's small and you don't really have that prep space,
08:01do you see that as a challenge or is that irritating to you?
08:04I go into every job over-prepped with all my mise en place done prior so that if I go
08:12into any space,
08:12I can make it work.
08:13So just always being over-prepared saves me the anxiety of having to worry about a small space.
08:19Yeah.
08:20But yeah, it's more of a prep-heavy role when you're working in catering rather than worrying
08:25about that kind of service and the flow of the service.
08:29You're a professional.
08:30Yeah, make it work.
08:31That's what you do.
08:33That sounds stressful.
08:34It's not stressful if you're ready.
08:37Okay, yes.
08:37See, I wouldn't be ready.
08:39Yeah, you have to be ready.
08:40It'd be stressful if it was me doing your job.
08:41Yeah, I enjoy the preparation as well.
08:43I enjoy the organisation and the lists so I can go in there with that peace of mind.
08:48Yeah.
08:49My herb butter is looking pretty good.
08:52My soup now is, I think, ready to get going.
08:55I'm going to use the same blender.
08:57I'm minimising my kind of effort here.
09:01And I'm just going to stab it into here and blend it up.
09:03Nick, why did you want to become a comedian?
09:05Hmm.
09:06Why did I want to become a...
09:07I just love attention.
09:10There's something about making people laugh that feels like a drug to me, I guess.
09:14Yeah, right.
09:15No, I don't know.
09:15I've just always...
09:17Is there a bit of truth to that?
09:19Yeah.
09:19Are you saying that facetiously?
09:20No, it's just always made sense.
09:22It's like I just...
09:23Every workplace I've ever been in, my main priority has just been making the people around
09:28me have fun and laugh.
09:31So...
09:32I always liked guys like you in the office.
09:34You know?
09:35Like if I...
09:36The guy who's just there for vibes.
09:38Yeah.
09:39And even like in quiet time, I would always have Teams chats with just...
09:43And I'd like put more effort into the memes that I was sending to the chats.
09:46I don't want to send the wrong impression.
09:48I was good at my job as well.
09:50I didn't...
09:51I wasn't a slacker, but I was managing making people laugh whilst also getting my job done.
09:57It's a skill.
09:57Because it's just fun to have a fun vibe, you know?
10:00Yeah, it's important.
10:01So, I've just grabbed my croutons out of the...
10:04Well, croutos.
10:05I don't even like that.
10:06Let's not...
10:07Oh.
10:08Big chunky croutons.
10:09Uh-huh.
10:10Like a toast.
10:11You can do lots with it.
10:12And now I'm just going to finish off my soup with a bit of a swirl of cream.
10:17Because it makes it taste better.
10:19Yum.
10:20You triple it.
10:21And I'm pretty happy with how my soup looks now.
10:23It's good consistency to me.
10:26All right.
10:27Lil, can you serve like a vegetable soup to a client for a fancy dinner party?
10:31Or is it like...
10:32Hang on.
10:34I want something a little bit more special than soup.
10:36If the soup's tasty, then it's right.
10:39Good point.
10:40Good point.
10:41Hope this one's going to be tasty.
10:42Yeah.
10:43Also, you have to just give people what they want.
10:45Yeah.
10:46If they ask for a soup, I'll give them a soup.
10:48All right.
10:48A little bit of cream to drizzle there.
10:51Yum.
10:53Ooh.
10:53Ooh.
10:54That's fancy.
10:55It's not fancy.
10:56It is fancy.
10:58Hey.
10:58What's fancy?
10:59Regular shmegular people aren't doing that.
11:01Yeah.
11:02I'm sitting here like, what?
11:03How did you?
11:04It's floating.
11:05What is going to be fancy though, is these, let's just say big croutons.
11:11Yeah.
11:12Honestly, I cringe when I say croutos.
11:14I liked it.
11:15But it sounded like a good idea in my head before it came out of my mouth.
11:18Croutos.
11:18But now I'm here with real people.
11:19I'm going to call them that when I get home, like from this day forward.
11:23If you're looking at soup, you're like, oh, soup's not that fancy.
11:25But you know what is fancy?
11:26Oh, I forgot about this.
11:28You forgot about the herb butter?
11:30Yeah.
11:30Oh, it's like garlic bread.
11:31Like I'm kind of making the, yeah, it is literally like garlic bread, but I'm trying
11:36to make the toast portion of this, the fancy part.
11:40So it was seasoned with salt and had a bit of oil on it at the beginning, but I'll put
11:45some more on there, put some pepper on there.
11:49And then before everyone thinks that it's still too boring, we're just going to cover it
11:53with cheese.
11:54That's a dish in itself.
11:56Exactly.
11:56Which one's the main character?
11:58Right?
11:58Right?
11:59Challenging expectations here.
12:01Yeah.
12:02So that's a fridge rage soup and some pretty fancy big croutons.
12:09I think the reason I like this is that, you know, soup is fundamentally going to be an
12:13individual thing.
12:14But then when you add the croutons as like, you know, a plate in the middle, grab your own
12:17croutons.
12:18It just makes it fun.
12:20This is fresh.
12:21I love a crunch with a soup.
12:23Mmm.
12:23That herb butter.
12:25Mmm.
12:26Mmm.
12:26It's like a whole meal.
12:27After the break, the easy wins roll on as Lil and Nick get cooking.
12:43Welcome back to The Cook Up.
12:44Two social media favourites, Chef Lil Kaskutis, aka Lil Eats, and comedian Nick White, aka
12:49Nick White, are here making their easy wins.
12:51Lou, what are you making?
12:53Quick and easy steak sandwich.
12:55Love a steak sandwich.
12:56Nick, what are you doing?
12:57Pavlova.
12:58Love a pavlova.
12:59I love a pavlova.
13:07Nick, I love a pavlova.
13:09Can I tell you that?
13:10Me too.
13:11Mmm.
13:11How are you making yours?
13:13I'm guessing egg whites, I'm guessing sugar.
13:15Egg whites.
13:15Egg whites, sugar, and then I just did corn flour and vinegar to stabilise it.
13:20Fantastic.
13:20Yes.
13:21Alright.
13:22Long time viewers of this show will know that pavlova is one of my favourite desserts.
13:26Is it really?
13:27Yeah, that alongside cinnamon donuts.
13:28That looked out well.
13:28I didn't know that.
13:29Now, you can lick that if you want.
13:31Yeah.
13:32Yeah, I do.
13:32You might get sick.
13:33Can you?
13:34It's eggs, right?
13:35No, I'm not going to because I want to make sure that this pavlova has all of the things
13:41that it needs.
13:41So let's put that in there.
13:42Should I try to get in there a bit?
13:45Yeah.
13:45Alright, there you go.
13:47I'll proceed with this.
13:48Oh, that's a good sound.
13:50Nick, are you a fan of food television generally?
13:54Oh my gosh.
13:55Well, funny you should ask because MasterChef 2010, which you would be familiar with.
14:00Yeah, I've heard of it.
14:02You've heard of it?
14:03I was obsessed and so were my friends.
14:04I was still at school.
14:06Right.
14:06Hope that doesn't make you feel old.
14:07I was in grade 12.
14:09You could make me feel old.
14:11But we had a MasterChef finale party at my house.
14:15Yeah.
14:15And it was just me and three of my friends.
14:17Really?
14:18That's all who came.
14:19And I invited 400.
14:21I invited the whole grade.
14:22And we literally blew up balloons and drew all of the contestants' faces on the balloons.
14:28Wow.
14:28And then I used to add all the contestants on Facebook too.
14:31Some of them didn't accept.
14:33Oh, okay.
14:34Yeah.
14:35No, it's okay.
14:36And I'm still friends with some of them now and I'm sure they're like, why am I friends
14:38with him?
14:40Now, this is where my artistry comes out.
14:43It's the sculpting phase.
14:44Yeah.
14:45This is the architect.
14:46This is the architect in me now.
14:48If anyone can get a structurally sound Pavlova, it is a comedian who is also an architect.
14:53I'm so locked in.
14:56I'm actually not going to bother you any further.
14:58I think this is something great.
14:59I think this is something great.
15:01I can see you're deep in thought on this, but I'm loving what's happening.
15:04Thanks so much.
15:06Lil, steak sandwich.
15:08Yeah.
15:10Love it.
15:10You got the scotch fillets there?
15:12A couple of scotchies, but you can use anything that's available.
15:15You can use a rump steak, a bit cheaper.
15:19Heavy pan, steak seasoned with salt.
15:21Any other steak tips for you to live by?
15:23I want it to be at room temperature.
15:25For cooking on the charcoal especially, keep it at room temp.
15:29I like to take it off and on the grill a couple of times if I need to, if it's
15:32nice
15:32and thick.
15:33For something like this, just once, give it a couple of minutes on each side for a nice
15:37rare steak.
15:37Should be good.
15:38When would you make a steak sandwich for yourself?
15:41If I can't be bothered making something complicated, I know that it's quick.
15:46I know that I get my protein in and it's delicious.
15:50This is very customizable.
15:52Yeah.
15:52Sounds great.
15:53Yeah.
15:53All right.
15:53Looking forward to it.
15:56Nick, what's the haps?
15:57Well, I do need to whip the cream, but I'm kind of trying to figure out how to cut this
16:02mango.
16:02I'm struggling a bit if I'm being honest.
16:05I can see that, but you're not doing the worst job in the world.
16:09That means I am.
16:11Do you want to hand with the old mango there?
16:13I mean, if you have a trick, I would love to know how to do this the best way.
16:16Yeah.
16:17Okay.
16:17Absolutely.
16:18So there's a few different ways you can go about the slicing of a mango.
16:22Obviously you want to take your cheeks off and I always do that cause I'm greedy and
16:26I try and get too close to the seed in there.
16:29Yeah.
16:29And then I used to, I usually just sort of slice it into pieces that are going to be
16:34easier for me to take the skin off.
16:37Okay.
16:37Cool.
16:38Because then what you end up with is these nice sort of clean pieces of mango that aren't
16:41as chopped up.
16:43Yeah.
16:44Yeah.
16:44Do you want to give it a go?
16:46Oh, yes.
16:47Let's give it a go.
16:48Oh, thanks.
16:49How did you become the pavlova maker in your family?
16:52Well, my family just never did them for Christmas dessert.
16:55Yeah.
16:56And then one year I was like, these are my favorite desserts.
16:58So I'm just going to learn how to make it.
17:00But every Christmas, my mum buys a backup pavlova.
17:04In case I mess mine up so bad that I ruin Christmas.
17:08So that was good for my confidence.
17:10I'm glad that we could talk about it here instead of you having to pay hundreds of dollars
17:13to a therapist to explain that exactly.
17:16Are you free next week as well?
17:18I have a lot more.
17:19Yeah, I think you're doing good with the mango.
17:21So whipped cream, obviously pavlova coming out.
17:24The classic yellow fruits, you know, mango for Australia, passion fruit also.
17:30I think this is going to be a nice pavlova.
17:31Yeah.
17:32I hope so.
17:34Lil.
17:35Okay.
17:35Steaks are resting.
17:37What's going on with this relish?
17:39So that's capsicum and red onion.
17:41Yeah.
17:42Some roasted capsicum, red onion, just picking some fresh oregano.
17:46I love that.
17:47So you just roast it in the oven for 10 minutes or so.
17:49A few minutes.
17:50Hot oven.
17:51Get it nice and charred.
17:53If you want to keep it nice and simple, dried oregano is also great in this.
17:57Yeah.
17:58That's usually when I would just season on the board.
18:00Chuck in a little bit of olive oil.
18:03Oh, so you're making this all on the board.
18:05I wasn't going to, but now I am.
18:07This is what I would usually do at home.
18:09Yeah.
18:09Slash of sherry vinegar.
18:10This is what I want to see.
18:11Yeah.
18:11This is the way that I would usually cook at home and then just roughly chop.
18:15Such an easy way to make a kind of difference when you're cooking something so simple.
18:21Just roast some veg, chop it up.
18:22I absolutely love that.
18:24Yeah.
18:24You could do this like my roast veg that I turned into a soup.
18:27That's it.
18:27You could do exactly the same thing.
18:28Absolutely.
18:29Sometimes I'll chuck a clove of garlic in the skin when I'm roasting the veg and that gives
18:33it a nice garlicky flavour.
18:34But today I'm going to be using the tum as my garlic.
18:37Oh, yeah.
18:39Sometimes you just don't want to peel garlic.
18:41That's it.
18:41It's such a great, you know, people buy garlic in a jar and those kind of things.
18:46Yeah.
18:46I think if you have actually is, I will admit it's more expensive.
18:49Yeah.
18:50But if you have tum there, it's actually, you get more of a garlic flavour, like a more
18:56faithful garlic flavour.
18:57Tum is one of those secret weapons in the fridge.
18:59That's one of those things that I will go to if I just want that little bit of extra
19:02kick without having to peel and chop garlic and deal with the sticky smelly hand situation.
19:08Yeah, you heard it here first, folks.
19:10When we return, you know what else is an easy win?
19:12Tasting time.
19:13And Lil will share her tips to make your next dinner party a breeze.
19:26Welcome back to a night of easy wins on the cook-up.
19:29Lil Kaskutis and Nick White are cruising to the finish line.
19:32Lil, how's it looking?
19:33Great.
19:34Thumbs up.
19:34And Nick, what a pav.
19:36Thanks, Chef.
19:38I love this.
19:40You know, can I tell you something?
19:41Tell me.
19:42Every pavlova you've ever seen in a magazine that looks perfect and has none of these cracks
19:46around the side has been photoshopped.
19:48Yeah.
19:48We are setting unrealistic pavlova standards for people to attain when they're making pavlovas
19:54at home.
19:54And we all feel bad about our pavlovas.
19:56And imagine how the pavlovas feel.
20:00Exactly.
20:00Yeah.
20:01You know.
20:01Exactly.
20:02Oh, wow.
20:03I didn't know what I was dealing with here.
20:06And then you've got the passion fruit going.
20:07That's lovely.
20:08Like, this is how a pavlova is supposed to look.
20:10Yeah.
20:10There is no need for your mum's backup pav today.
20:14I needed to hear that.
20:17Leel, this looks like steak sandwich heaven.
20:20Yeah.
20:21That relish.
20:21I'm super impressed by that.
20:23It's such a good one.
20:24And just to be able to chop it together on a board is...
20:27Yeah.
20:27Exactly.
20:28That's the way cooking should be, right?
20:30Easy cooking.
20:31For an easy win.
20:32Bus free.
20:33Easy win.
20:34Yeah.
20:35Tomb on the bottom.
20:36Steak.
20:37Relish.
20:38Yeah.
20:38I like to finish it with a bit of rocket.
20:40Lovely.
20:40Almost all of my sandwiches will have a little bit of rocket.
20:43Love some greenery.
20:44Yeah.
20:45And sometimes...
20:46Makes you feel good about yourself.
20:47Yeah.
20:47Sometimes I'll just drench it in olive oil just to cancel out the greenery.
20:50If I'm feeling like that.
20:52Why not?
20:53Steak sandwich and a pavlova.
21:04This is a good looking steak sandwich.
21:06Mmm.
21:09Mmm.
21:10Mmm.
21:10Mmm.
21:11Wow.
21:12That relish.
21:13Mmm.
21:14I'm extremely into that because I think when I make sandwiches, I put too many sweet condiments
21:20in them.
21:21And I like that.
21:22Like, you know, I'll put pickles in there or mayonnaise or just kind of sweet sour and
21:25or even like a sweet mustard or something.
21:27Yeah.
21:27And it just ends up, I think, you know, when I taste this and it's just got the natural sweetness
21:31of the capsicum and the onion.
21:33Yeah.
21:33And a bit from the vinegar.
21:36It's really lovely.
21:37Like, I love that.
21:38It's just a perfectly balanced sandwich.
21:39Great textures.
21:40Great.
21:41Glad you like it.
21:42Mmm.
21:43All right, Nick.
21:43I gotta say, that is the platonic ideal of a pavlova.
21:47It just, that's how a pavlova is supposed to look.
21:50Oh, thank you.
21:51You did amazing, sweetie.
21:53Oh, thanks.
21:54And I'm really very serious about how I think that people should stop photoshopping pavlovas
21:58because it makes everyone feel bad about their pavlova.
21:59Totally.
22:00Because it's such a hard thing to make look good.
22:02Yeah.
22:02Is that a thing?
22:03It's so fragile.
22:03Absolutely.
22:04I have to, like, when I'm running cookbooks and I have a pavlova recipe in a cookbook,
22:07they're like, oh, so we'll just Photoshop out, like, some of these lines.
22:10And I'm like, no, just keep the cracks in there.
22:12Like, show how a pavlova is supposed to look.
22:15This is awesome.
22:15I love the mint.
22:16Mmm.
22:18Oh, that's so good.
22:18I could eat this whole thing if I'm being honest.
22:20Mmm.
22:21Should I?
22:23No, I wouldn't.
22:24I would.
22:25I would.
22:25You know, that's why passion fruit is so good in pavlova.
22:30Like, it's that real tartness.
22:31Mmm.
22:32I like that you didn't sweeten the cream.
22:35That, to me, is a no-no, sweetening cream for pavlo, because there's so much sugar in
22:38it anyway.
22:39But perfect texture, lovely crack on the outside, which I love.
22:44And the tartness of the passion fruit just makes it a perfect pav.
22:47Oh, thanks so much.
22:49This year, you should tell your mum no need for a backup pav.
22:51I'll try.
22:52Yeah.
22:52We're working towards me working up the courage to say that.
22:56But that said, having two pavs is never a bad idea.
22:58That's the thing.
22:59I'm never mad about it.
23:00Yeah.
23:01I'm like, cool, Boxing Day sorted.
23:04Lil, we've had a wonderful meal here.
23:07What is some of your tips for entertaining and making it easy?
23:12I would definitely say setting the tone of the room is the most important for me.
23:16Almost as important as the food.
23:18Yeah.
23:19Lighting is a big one.
23:20I don't like overhead big lights.
23:24Yeah.
23:24Or white lights.
23:25Lots of warm lighting.
23:27Probably eye level and lower if it's at night.
23:29Candles.
23:31Music.
23:31Having the right playlist.
23:32Not sitting there in silence in a silent room.
23:35It's nice to have a little bit if whether it's some piano or some jazz or R&B, just something
23:40that's going to keep everyone feeling relaxed.
23:42So just the vibes.
23:43The vibes.
23:44General vibes.
23:45Going to have them on table setting that's included in the general vibes.
23:49Flowers, colours.
23:50That's so important.
23:52And what I'm hearing for you is actually all of these things that you're talking about,
23:55all of these things are things that you can plan ahead of time so that when you're there
23:59worrying about your guests, making sure they've got full glasses or whatever, you can have
24:02all of this kind of good to go.
24:04And you can focus on the food.
24:05If those things are ready to go and you're organised, you can focus on just making the
24:09food look and taste beautiful and you have enough energy to pay attention to the small
24:13details with the food that you're making.
24:15Amazing.
24:16Amazing tips.
24:17Genuinely, I feel like you've changed me in some way.
24:21I just think it's really important what you've just said.
24:23I know that if I go into a dinner party or someone's home, if the lighting is right, the
24:27music is good and the space looks beautiful, I immediately feel relaxed and at home.
24:32Yeah.
24:33So I'd want to provide that to my guests too.
24:35Sage advice.
24:36Nick, Lil, thank you so much for joining me.
24:38This has been amazing.
24:40When food's becoming a fight, I implore you to embrace the easy wins that
24:44we've shared tonight.
24:45If you want more of The Cook Up and more delicious food ideas, head to SBS On Demand.
24:48I'm Adam Liao.
24:48Thanks for watching The Cook Up.
24:49.
24:51And welcome to D.
25:06Bye.
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