I Trained As A Michelin Star Chef | Lucie For Hire | Refinery29 - video Dailymotion

Refinery29

On this episode of Lucie For Hire, our host, Lucie Fink trains like a Michelin star chef. She learns how to be a line cook in a fine dining restaurant from an experienced female chef. Watch this week's Lucie For Hire for a peek into the reality of a Michelin star kitchen!   http://nixny.com/  ABOUT SERIES Refinery29's Lucie Fink immerses herself in an assortment of unique and intriguing careers for one day at a time. Each opportunity gives viewers a never-before-seen look into these atypical and fascinating jobs from a new hire's POV.  ABOUT REFINERY29  Refinery29 is a modern woman's destination for how to live a stylish, well-rounded life. http://refinery29.com/  RELATED CONTENT Lucie Trains Like An Influencer That Makes Over $300k https://youtube.com/watch?v=Csy2RxzkbaM Lucie Fink Makes New York’s Biggest Pizza Slice https://youtube.com/watch?v=DirXVJ_-5DQ Lucie Fink Makes Cookie Dough At DO NYC https://youtube.com/watch?v=SClTt1mg7ag  SEE MORE REFINERY29 VIDEOS http://refinery29.com/video  SUBSCRIBE TO REFINERY29 Subscribe to the Refinery29 channel: http://bit.ly/subscribe-to-r29 For the latest trends and videos, visit: http://refinery29.com Like Refinery29 on Facebook: https://facebook.com/refinery29 Follow Refinery29 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/refinery29 Heart Refinery29 on Instagram: https://instagram.com/refinery29/  TALENT Follow Nix on Instagram: https://instagram.com/nixny/ Follow Lucie Fink on Instagram: https://instagram.com/luciebfink/ Follow OnHerTurf on Instagram: https://instagram.com/onherturf/ Follow Unbothered on Instagram: https://instagram.com/r29unbothered/ Follow Refinery29 on Instagram: https://instagram.com/refinery29/

Transcript

00:00I'm Lucy Fink, I'm a video producer at Refinery29, but every so often I like to try other people's

00:05jobs.

00:06Today, I'm in Greenwich Village at Knicks to see if I have what it takes to be a Michelin

00:11star chef.

00:12This is Lucy for Hire.

00:15When my viewers first asked me to try becoming a chef for the day, I knew that to really

00:19make things interesting, I needed to go above and beyond.

00:23So why learn how to become a chef just anywhere, when I could instead get myself into the kitchen

00:29of a Michelin star restaurant and learn from the best.

00:32Receiving a Michelin star is an honor.

00:35It's a stamp of fine dining quality and exceptional cuisine.

00:39I visited Knicks, a vegetarian restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village that, believe it

00:44or not, is the only veggie restaurant in the U.S. with a Michelin star.

00:48I met with the sous chef Jamie to learn more about the restaurant's philosophy and also

00:53the career path to becoming a chef.

00:55The fact that we're vegetable driven is very exciting because we can buy and highlight what's

01:00in season.

01:01You don't need to have fancy wagyu beef or caviar or all of these things that people associate

01:06with fine dining.

01:07Like, you don't need that.

01:08You can cook vegetables and you can cook them super well and still give the guests an awesome

01:13experience.

01:14As a sous chef, you can expect to make salary-wise anywhere from $35,000 to maybe $50,000, but

01:21that's on the higher end.

01:22A lot of work for a little bit of money, but if it's your passion, you just do it.

01:26My first challenge of the day was learning.

01:29Before I could even set foot in the kitchen, I needed a quick crash course in produce.

01:34Jamie and I took a quick walk to the Union Square Green Market, the year-round outdoor

01:38market where she and her fellow chefs often come to support local farms.

01:42This time of year is the best time to come to the market.

01:45Everything's fresh.

01:46Everything's seasonal.

01:47Corn is in season.

01:48We use corn in our one kale salad.

01:51We have a cold melon soup on the lunch menu.

01:54Spring, summer, you start getting a lot of leafy green vegetables.

01:58How do you tell if a tomato is good?

02:01Firm skin, firm flesh, but not too firm.

02:03Flavor-wise, whenever we create something, we try and hit all of those notes on your tongue.

02:09So we're looking for salty, we're looking for sweet, we're looking for sour, we're looking

02:13for essentially umami, all of those different flavors at once.

02:17My second challenge was prep work.

02:20Jamie gave me a chef's apron of my own.

02:22It feels right.

02:24And just like that, I was part of the kitchen crew.

02:26Is this the kind of place where I have to say, yes chef?

02:29Yes.

02:29Okay.

02:30An order came in from the dining room.

02:34Ribbons of jicama, eggplant dip, and tandoor bread.

02:38We washed our hands and began the prepping process.

02:41So we'll grab a cutting board and we'll get to work.

02:43The ribbons of jicama dish is mostly raw with the exception of some fried shallots.

02:47We have our heat element, we have the sweet element, we have acid, and keeping these veggies

02:52raw are going to give a nice texture.

02:54Jamie taught me some expert knife work.

02:56That is a big knife.

02:59You're holding your knife wrong.

03:01Oh gosh.

03:02It's more of like a slicing motion that you're pulling the knife towards you.

03:06Yes.

03:07Oh.

03:08Beautiful.

03:08And we're creating flags, if you will.

03:11How are my flags?

03:12Perfect.

03:13You're hired.

03:14I got the job.

03:15You want to be fast and efficient, but you also want to maintain your knife cuts and make

03:19sure that everything is nice and consistent as well.

03:21We then sliced the Fresno peppers.

03:24You did great on this challenge.

03:25Look at these.

03:26Perfect.

03:27Chopped the red onion.

03:28My little guys.

03:30And supremed the blood oranges.

03:32We removed the flesh and then we're just taking out each individual segment of the orange.

03:36Look.

03:37That's my cut.

03:38Then it was onto the jicama.

03:40And this is one of those vegetables that I was unfamiliar with until I started working

03:44here.

03:44Yeah.

03:45Kind of opened my eyes to a lot of veggies I've never experienced before.

03:48Jicama is a root vegetable that Jamie described as a cross between an apple and a water chestnut.

03:53We cleaned up the outside and then, using a ribboning machine, created long, fresh ribbons.

03:59And crank it.

04:01Oh.

04:01Oh no.

04:02Pick him a down.

04:03There we go.

04:04Now she's got it.

04:05Okay.

04:06Now she lost it.

04:07But we did get some beautiful ribbons.

04:11Nice.

04:12The eggplant dip prep involved stabbing the eggplant to prep it for the blitzing process.

04:17So we do this so that when it's on the oven, it doesn't explode.

04:21It gives the steam a chance to escape.

04:24That's it for the prep work.

04:25And now it's time to do some cooking and assemble our final products here.

04:29My third challenge was cooking.

04:31One of the most important characteristics to have, personality-wise, working in a kitchen,

04:35is being resilient.

04:37You work with a lot of different personalities.

04:38You're constantly under high stress.

04:40And it's a very fast-paced environment.

04:43Thankfully, Jamie was very kind to me and I wasn't yelled at on the line.

04:47But I did realize how quickly things need to move in the kitchen in order to keep things flowing.

04:52This is like as real as it gets.

04:53Yeah.

04:54Everything's happening at once.

04:55For the ribbons of jicama dish, all that needed to be cooked were the shallots.

04:58Light dusting in the flour, and then we'll go right into the fryer.

05:02Jamie taught me how to fry them.

05:04Any time we work with a fryer, it's hot.

05:08You want to go away from your body, just in case if it happens to splatter.

05:12And then left me on my own to fry the second batch.

05:15Away from your body, into the oil.

05:17That was a little bit of a plop.

05:19And if I thought that process was dangerous, I had no idea what was coming for me.

05:23We placed the eggplants on a rack, above the 700 degree Tandoor oven, and let them blitz.

05:29Keep rotating, and we're looking until they get soft.

05:32Once they were done, we quickly removed them.

05:36I'm playing it down.

05:37It's okay.

05:39I'm so sorry.

05:40Let them cool, and scraped them.

05:42So now we'll do that about 200 more times.

05:45Afterwards, we went downstairs to make the dip.

05:48Moving around in an active kitchen can be very dangerous.

05:52I learned that you need to shout when you're coming around a corner,

05:54or going up and down the stairs to announce yourself.

05:57Corner.

05:58Going up.

05:58Corner.

05:59Going down.

06:00Down.

06:00With the giant mixing machine, we mixed our charred eggplant with all of the veggies we chopped,

06:06some roasted pine nuts.

06:07Looks a little like cake batter.

06:10Raisins, and more.

06:11Red wine vinegar, add some salt, and we'll just let that go until everything is incorporated.

06:17And then it was time for the real test.

06:20The most dangerous part of the day.

06:23Making bread in the Tandoor oven.

06:26I have to say, I'm really nervous for this part.

06:28The kitchen can be a remarkably threatening place.

06:31If you're not careful, or you don't follow proper directions, you can get seriously injured.

06:36I have some pretty gnarly scars here.

06:40These are some battle wounds.

06:41These are from the Tandoor oven.

06:43The oven runs about 700 to 800 degrees, so pretty hot, pretty intense.

06:48The first time I ever worked that station, I singed my eyebrows off.

06:52Top is hot.

06:53Inside is hot.

06:54The air is hot.

06:57Jamie's colleagues had already prepped the dough for us, so we began by activating it.

07:01We turned it upside down onto a little pillow, spritzed it with water so that it would stick

07:06to the oven.

07:07And we're ready to go into the oven.

07:08And then she showed me the technique for reaching your arm into the 700 degree oven,

07:13and sticking the bread to the outside wall.

07:16I'm absolutely terrified of what you just did.

07:20I believe in you.

07:21I had never been more nervous to do anything on a Lucy for Hire episode before.

07:26I've now put my hand just above it, and it is threatening.

07:30I thought I would burn my arm, lose my eyebrows, you name it.

07:34You've got to conquer fear, you've just got to go for it.

07:36Okay.

07:37But I removed my rings, took a deep breath.

07:40In and out, in and out, real quick.

07:42Two.

07:43And just went for it.

07:45Okay, almost.

07:47Kind of got it.

07:49Okay, so my technique needed some work.

07:51But with a little follow-up push from Jamie, my bread stuck to the wall and cooked nicely.

07:56So now you're going to remove it.

07:58So you're going to take, this is the easy part, the hardest part is putting the bread in.

08:02Okay.

08:02Using a hook and scraper, I went in to remove my bread.

08:06But of course, had a minor mishap and a brief moment of panic.

08:10I got it.

08:11You caught it?

08:12Wait, I need you to take this.

08:17I got it.

08:19Did I put it on a plate?

08:20There you go, you did it.

08:21Oh my gosh.

08:22But when all was said and done, my Tandor bread came out beautifully.

08:26Still got your arm hair, still got your eyebrows.

08:28Yeah, about all hair, right?

08:29Good, good.

08:30Woo!

08:31My final challenge was plating.

08:34When I think about Michelin star restaurants, the first thing that comes to my mind is the plating.

08:39That beautiful, artistic arrangement of food that really sets one restaurant apart from another.

08:45We plated up the bread and eggplant dip and then moved on to the big ticket item, the ribbons of

08:50jicama.

08:51This dish is magnificently arranged in such a way that the jicama stands upright.

08:56And the whole key here is we want it to stand up to look beautiful.

09:00And this is like the tedious part.

09:02Creating these beautiful ribboned walls on the plate.

09:05The additional items are then slowly, one at a time, very deliberately placed on the plate.

09:16That's it.

09:17That's our ribbons of jicama plated up.

09:21That's right, honey, okay?

09:47One at a time.

09:48is wiped off for an impeccable presentation and then the dish is served order up kitchens used to

09:55be very intense in that sense where it was like a male driven like bro club but i think finally

10:03the industry has progressed forward from that where now you're realizing that hey it's nice to

10:08be nice you can accomplish the same results not necessarily screaming at someone the whole time

10:13okay so we were actually the ones who put in this food order but now it was time to eat

10:18it

10:18it'll taste even better because you made it i know we sat down together and enjoyed the fruits

10:23and vegetables of our labor and i doubled it go right ahead we're friends now we are overall for

10:30your first time great uh your knife skills are there just a little bit more practice just a little

10:35improvement on the bread honestly but again that takes practice and just conquering your fear of

10:39sticking your arm in a hot ass oven you know this was a long hot fast-paced and slightly dangerous

10:46day for me but by the end i felt accomplished and very proud of the work we'd done i think

10:52really i mean delicious at the end of the day a michelin star chef is doing a job pretty similar

10:56to

10:57mine as a video producer they're making art creating something visual that's going to draw people in

11:02the major difference is that this working environment is a little more chaotic than mine

11:07let me know what jobs you want to see me try next time and we'll see you then on lucy

11:11for hire

11:11hey youtube thanks for watching this video click here for another video on refinery 29's youtube channel

11:17here to subscribe to us and join our family and here for my personal youtube channel see ya

I Trained As A Michelin Star Chef | Lucie For Hire | Refinery29

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended