00:01We're inside America's first-ever fine dining restaurant, Delmonico's in New York's financial
00:07district. Each night the chefs here serve up to 200 pounds of lobster, 300 pounds of potatoes,
00:16and of course, what they are best known for, steak. They go through 400 pounds of it every
00:22night. The restaurant is so popular, reservations open up six months in advance. Overseeing the
00:30controlled chaos is Delmonico's brand-new executive chef, Adam Plitt, who is figuring out how to bring
00:38his own twist to a restaurant that's been around for nearly two centuries. Just put no onion on there
00:43because the sauce has it, so we just won't put the sauce, you know what I mean? But this isn't
00:49just
00:50a one-man show. And we have close to 200 people working here. On any given day, you have five
00:55bartenders, two maitre d's, you have about four sommeliers, 15 waiters, six bussers, five runners,
01:02and you have obviously a kitchen staff. In order, hamachi, caesar, steak tartare.
01:07You're about to see everything it takes to run a full service at one of America's oldest restaurants.
01:18It's seven in the morning in Manhattan's financial district. As waves of people are heading to work
01:23on Wall Street, the staff of Delmonico's quietly begins the ritual they've repeated for almost 200
01:34years.
01:40Welcome to Delmonico's kitchen. A very, very tight space down here. This is one of the oldest kitchens
01:46in New York City, if not the oldest. We got dairy coming in, produce coming in, all the meats coming
01:52in. Pretty much everything you see, we're going to rip through most of this today, and we'll get a fresh
01:59delivery tomorrow. Chef Plitt hasn't been here for long, and he's eager to prove himself.
02:05How do you say mussels in Spanish?
02:12Everything starts in the prep area. All the prep for the upstairs service kitchen is produced down
02:18here, pretty much. Only finishing touches happen upstairs. All the sauce making happens on the back
02:24prep kitchen over there. Any intricate details, knife cutting, things of that nature happen down here.
02:31Product comes in, gets put in the produce box, protein box, dairy box, and then it gets prepped
02:36and put on racks, ready for service. We have the kitchen broken up into the cold side here. The broiler
02:42station here, the meat cook. Sides are done over in this area. The sous chef and the chef's job,
02:47the person that's expediting here, is the person to bring that all together, communicate with everyone,
02:51make sure everyone knows what's going on.
02:59At this station, all these guys do for hours is slice and trim nearly 400 pounds of ribeye,
03:06New York strip, wagyu, and more. It's sourced from a ranch in Southern California.
03:12Our Delmonicos ribeye is from Brant Family Farms. We believe that beef is the best for what we're
03:19looking for. Super consistent, beautiful marbling. Every single cut of meat goes through the hands of
03:26one man. Without this guy right here, there's no Delmonicos. Angel butchers all the meat, cooks all the
03:32meat. The ribeye has a ton of flavor to it, and generally being fattier, some people stay away from it.
03:40It
03:40also has that kind of nugget of fat in the middle, which melts as it cooks. This is a product
03:45that's
03:45completely clean, ready to rock. But there's a lot more that needs to get done before the restaurant
03:51opens. Like cleaning 20 pounds of shrimp, prepping 50 pounds of fresh, seasonal vegetables like
04:02asparagus, and spiraling potatoes for Delmonico's famous crab cake. They're shredding the potato through
04:09the spiralizer and wrapping the crab cakes in phyllo, rinsing the potato, make sure there's no starch on
04:16it. They wrap that. That gets placed in the walk-in and then brought upstairs for service. Those get
04:22inspected by the person who's getting ready to cook them and crisp them up. At $36, they're one of the
04:28most popular items on the lunch menu.
04:36Delmonico's has defined the power lunch. This would be the first one, right? This is where it all started.
04:41Right here, the Wall Street crowd coming in on the lunch break. How many deals have been closed at the
04:47table? Countless.
04:50The restaurant started in 1837, at a time when most dining spots were simple taverns,
04:57serving a single meal at communal benches. Delmonico's changed all of that by introducing private
05:02tables, printed menus, white tablecloths, and one revolutionary idea, letting guests order whatever
05:09they wanted, whenever they wanted. If these walls could talk, you had Nikola Tesla with JP Morgan in the
05:15dining room, raising money for his next project in Long Island. Mark Twain celebrated his 70th birthday
05:20party, Charles Dickens, every sitting president, and athletes, as well as some actors and actresses.
05:27As soon as lunch wraps up, chefs start working on dinner.
05:35Shortly before 5, the front of house staff gather in the dining room for a team meeting.
05:40We're going to have a beautiful, beautiful night tonight. We have 220 covers on the books,
05:45two private events, 22 guests in the Epicurean room and 24 guests in the Tesla room. We're changing
05:52from dinner to spring menu. We are right on the schedule as tomorrow is the first day of spring,
05:58so I'll let Chef Adam to go over new spring items. We're going to change some of the classic stuff.
06:04Okay, I'll go over that with you real quick. First off is the Lobster Newberg. Okay, we're going to bring
06:10it
06:11back to the classic rendition of Lobster Newberg, just plated with puff pastry, traditionally. Again,
06:18we're going to change the pasta, working towards changing almost everything. Okay, thank you, Chef.
06:24We're going to taste this in a minute. They'll look yummy. You like it? Good, right? You like it?
06:32Of course, I love it. You taste it with the red wine? Yes.
06:35It's a little, like, surprise. It's just a little different every bite.
06:49Back in the kitchen, the crew is doing its last bit of prep before orders start coming in.
06:58New order tuna tartare, bacon. It's going to be a busy night. We have three events this evening,
07:03so it'll be a packed house tonight. These days, around 25% of diners are regulars.
07:10We want people to come and experience the tradition of the first fine dining restaurant in America,
07:16as well as have a unique experience in a steakhouse setting.
07:20Of all the dishes served here, the $89 Delmonico's Ribeye is the most popular.
07:30The heart of this kitchen is obviously the broiler. That's where 95% of the product comes off of.
07:36Super important position. We believe in letting the flavor of the meat shine here,
07:42so we don't do any special salt rub or spice rub. It's just salt and pepper.
07:47You know, put it in the broiler, cook it to your liking, and then let it rest.
07:52We give it a little resear in the broiler right before it goes on the plate,
07:56so the juices are all settled, and out it goes.
08:07I think the most difficult part of running a fine dining restaurant is ever evolving and ongoing.
08:14You can't be stagnant. You have to keep pushing yourself, because everyone else around you is,
08:19and especially in New York City, everyone's always trying to get better.
08:25And one way Delmonico's continues to evolve is by paying close attention to its ingredients.
08:30At this moment, we're serving Kumamoto oysters from Washington State. What's very important to
08:36us here is freshness, obviously, and consistency. We probably use about 400 to 500 at night,
08:43depending, and then on weekends we could serve more. We want to source the best seafood we can,
08:52really have great quality fish, super fresh, and that wow moment when it comes to the table.
09:02The Grand Seafood Plateau that we put out, we're really trying to capture that super luxury event,
09:09that special event. We pour liquid nitrogen in it so that it billows out the smoke and it looks really,
09:15really cool. Back in the finishing area, chefs put the final touches on dishes.
09:22It can get a little frantic, but again, we have a pretty stable staff, so everyone's kind of used
09:30to rolling with the punches. I think everyone here does a really great job at that.
09:36Halfway through the service, Chef Plitt has been keeping his cool, calmly overseeing and approving
09:41every dish as it leaves his kitchen. I believe in creating an environment where management is a
09:49team. It's a team environment. And if they can't do it without me here on certain days, then I haven't
09:55provided them with the tools they need to succeed, as well as themselves. No one wants to be in a
10:01job
10:02where their presence is required 24-7. Around 11 p.m., when the last table clears,
10:09they reset, and tomorrow they'll do it all again. To be able to walk into this restaurant every morning
10:16is truly exciting. I think about all the people that have dined here, all the famous people,
10:22all the deals that have been closed at the tables, and it's an exciting responsibility to maintain that,
10:29to honor the tradition, and to drive this company forward into our next chapter.
10:49You
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