Welcome to “Potluck,”, where we're bringing everything
to the table
by interviewing the best in food from across New York City.
Tonight
we're having a few chefs over who are taking us deep into
their hearts.
And we're going to start with a little trip down South.
I am here with chef, Kenny Gilbert,
the author of the new book,
“Southern Cooking, Global Flavors.”
Thank you so much for being here.
Oh, thanks for having me.
So a lot of people know you from your restaurants,
from “Top Chef.”
But tell me, what inspired you to write this book?
Because, I mean, a cookbook is a real
labor of love.
And you've done a lot already.
Well, during COVID, you know, we were kind of
sitting around the house like, h we can't go anywhere.
I've always wanted to write one.
And it's like it was the right t
because I had a lot of things to and I had the time to do it.
Yeah. Right.
Which as a chef, never really ha
Never happened? Yeah.
One of the things that I love ab this book is
it's not just a Southern cookboo and not to denigrate Southern co
We love them.
But I think that the importance of the global influence
on Southern cuisine is something not talked about enough, and tha
where you start your book.
So why was that the angle that you wanted to tak
You know, so I love
eating different restaurants.
I love traveling around the worl
And so I love to go out to eat a
And so being that, you know, who
as a country, you know, we're a huge melting p
You have this all these differen
that are mixed down there and that also love Southern food
And I figure, like, you know, why not be able to showcase my t
favorite dishes and then also sh
some variations of how you can e it based on your cultural influe
Yeah.
And so we're going to do that to with a recipe that I adore becau
originally from the South, so I love collard greens.
I don't think they get their due
but this has a sauce that's very reminiscent of Asian
It's all all sorts of things combined into one.
So tell us what we're making tod
So this is the chapter Collard G and Cornbread, which I absolutel
I love that combination.
And this is our collard greens Thai Colorado salad.
So we basically have collard gre that we basically cut
into a nice little thin strips and chiffonade is what we
And if you want to be fancy, fan
But very thin strips.
And so I love Thai food.
What's not to love of the Thai f
I love the salty, the sweet, the
And so we made a dressing here with actually has dried shrimp.
And there's some fish sauce and sugar.
There's bird chilies.
There's garlic, Thai basil.
And so we have all these nice fl
And here this and the extra nice sweet and spicy kind of flavor,
which is gonna go very well with the collars.
I like to add a little bit of my regular collard greens.
I like to add, you know, apple cider vinegar,
a little hint of sugar, a little pressure of pepper.
So for me, in my mind that the balance of that acidity
and spice and sweetness plays perfectly with this.
Right.
And I think collards, you know, I like to liken them to kale.
You need a stronger dressing.
You need something to really get
So, you know, when people are de with collards as a raw base for
or a salad, what do you recommen people approach them with?
So I think it's always safe to g I like to go like a vinegar
based type of dressing and you want to kind of massage
the brick, kind of break down th as part of it, you know, and the
an a classic version of the sala and usually you've either green
or green papaya. Yeah.
Which has, you know, that same kind of texture is the gree
So that's why this plays very we
And so you always want to add a little bit of sweetness to it
because it does have a little bitters to it.
So that's how I help break it do
And so that's what we did here.
So we have the dressing which we already made
is the dice of some vegetables real quick here.
So we're going to cut up a littl of bell pepper, little small pie
And I like to get these little b bell peppers.
Okay. I was like, they're so cut
And again, like, we have the shipping out n
We're doing small, you know, why is it important to sort of
keep everything in there to get that texture and every bi
So I like to make sure that
I don't like big chunks of thing in the salad because again,
you want to enjoy multiple bites
and having the texture and the pieces in every bite.
Sometimes it is too big, then yo kind of go searching around for
And I think it's okay in some at some points.
But with the Peppers, I think it to have them as small pieces or
and you know, this is the kind o where it also would work, like w
other things you have in your fr and crisper drawer.
Like, are there things you would throwing in versus not?
Absolutely.
You know, if you if you happen t
you know, a little daikon radish you know, flambé with baby radis
if you like broccoli, you just cut a little florets up
Cauliflower will work well with this as well.
Yeah, it's I mean, I think that's what's so
great about having a dressing li where like the dressing and the
are such a great base for sort o whatever else you want to throw
Absolutely.
But the sweetness of the bell pe I think really pairs well here
because again, when
you have the bitterness of the g you want like sweet tomatoes, sw
bell peppers. I mean, those are things that re
match well.
And the, you know, the colors are going to really pop as well.
So here we have some of chopped if you don't like peanuts,
but we're in this, you know, con this is southern and say,
you know, a nice of a peanuts in
Yeah.
And then we had a dressing
and then from there, you can kind of massage it all t
The good thing is that this has also has enough sodium in it.
Mm hmm.
And then the palm sugar gives it sweetness is lime juice.
There's bird chilies.
This breaks out really nice.
And the good thing is, you can make this up.
You know, you want to go out to Yeah. A nice little.
It holds a whole really nice.
Yeah, well, and I also think it' when you have something
where you already get that like you get the saltiness, all of th
from there.
And you don't need to keep tasti to being like, what more does th
What's it missing?
And as you can see, it's already breaking down here.
And then from there,
the plate.
So. Yeah, gorgeous.
Yeah.
And the colors are just perfect.
I mean, that's
beautiful.
And then all I could do after th
I had one that's right on top.
Yeah. Who doesn't want it?
And then you have some more little fresh herbs.
I have some Italian parsley here but if you have some Thai basil,
purple basil, you can get more c in their color, but you don't ne
I mean, this is just perfect,
you know? Oh, my goodness.
Kenneth, thank you so much for s how to make these
this beautiful collard salad.
And obviously, the book is avail
You can get it anywhere.
And where else can they find you
Beyond the book, chef Kenny Gilb
also on Instagram, Chef Kenny Gilbert and Facebook, chef
So, you know, really different on every platter.
Amazing.
Thank you so much. Thanks for ha
Finally tonight, we're ending on a favorite with a twist on pa
I'm here with them, Shikha Alber And today we are making a twist
on one of everyone's favorite items, pancakes.
So what are we making today?
And tell me that why we are doing this twist on panca
So thanks for having me here.
I'm making Katie pancakes today.
So. Well, I live in New Hampshir Littleton, New Hampshire.
Small little town, but a lot of pancake and maple s
I was going to say zero big mapl
Yes. Yeah.
So we do it a little bit like not like usual
We just add a little bit more li flavor in it and then something
topping to make it more interest like change some,
you know, something like different every d
Right? Right.
We always want new pancakes.
So this starts with the tea.
How do you make sort of the tea for this?
So we're going to use like two tablespoon of tea. Mm.
In this tea bag provided by Ali, I was going to say we have,
you can use if you have those li you know, strainer balls, that's
Or you can use a tea bag if you can't find Thai tea.
Would it be fine to do like a bl and add like vanilla and cinnamo
Like, what would you recommend if someone couldn't find that?
You know what? I would do it.
Oh, great.
Like,
you know, something like do having a count
in your cup or you can do someth different, whatever you like.
Lavender It wouldn't be bad to g Coca-Cola.
Yeah.
And you know, take this beautiful thing about
is has
like orange color and you can si like for, like a minute or so.
I would do like one or 2 minutes
And we are doing this in butterm like and a cup of buttermilk
because the buttermilk just adds extra fluffiness.
Yeah, that's the secret of the fluffy
Make it great. So our tea is going to steep.
So now it's.
We've got the dry ingredients.
What do we have?
We have to a cup of flour I AP five to put it
so just regular sugar that to four tablespoon of sugar
and then you use baking soda and baking powder. Yes.
Talk me through that, because we want fluffiness all t
We want fluffiness.
So baking soda would help a litt
You know, Marley flour to rise u
Oh, and then always says a pinch
Yeah I want to let's mix up a little butter and eggs.
Yeah. Can't get any better.
Exactly.
And you're just using you know, not a ton of liquid here
because we're going to add in the buttermilk.
So you don't want to go overboar on the average butter,
but. Okay.
All right.
Now we're going to put buttermil into our amber.
Yeah, I like the color of it.
It makes it so fun, you know, it
each color. Yeah.
Yes. And with this, we're making it with the Thai TV
You also have a ganache for us to end it with.
It also has the keys to do it in both rooms.
Now we can put in here.
Beautiful.
And I'll let you mix this one. A
See how you. You're making skin. my God.
I'm like, oh, no, don't get me.
I mean, I do make a lot of panca because I have three kids.
You have two kids? Sorry.
Two? Yeah.
I was going to say we live in a definite pancake wo
That's pretty color.
It just looks fun, you know? I k
And thought, what if you like more butter to
you know,
you can add it more like you kno you don't have to be like so had
what about you like to put my sw then you just added like sweetne
I'll add a little bit of vanilla
Yeah.
You know, I never said there was too much
Beautiful.
So we have our pancake mix.
We got our butter on our pan, on heat.
We're ready to go. Ready to scoo
Gorgeous.
So for each pancake, you want, like, half cup.
Perfect.
Just like it.
Like not to bake like medium kid love at this size you know,
they can stick it on top, like, you know, like layers, right?
But they also like they cook evenly enough.
I feel like when they get too bi it's like you can't flip it.
You can't do it right.
And so what are you looking for
To know that it's ready to flip.
So I will look at like a bubble in the middle
when you say like bubble in the and then they
start to get brow at the edge.
And while those are cooking, I want to talk about the ganache
that you made.
So ganache that I'm doing today, I use heavy cream.
And about like one cup of semi w chocolate too young.
And also I put a little bit of vanilla on
And then for the tea I just put right when I want them heavy cre
and then just wait until like sh a little bit, but not too hot.
So now I'm going to flip it.
You can see it's a little brown, but not burn.
Yeah.
So like perfect texture.
And so this is the part that I always get nervous about
because you don't have the bubbl you don't have the indicators.
So how do we know that we have the right amount of time
for the pancakes on this side?
Time is about one minute.
Up is five, so walk away.
Yeah, well, go quick.
Give it a minute.
You can see, like, actually, thi little policy that's a yes right
So I mean, that's really I mean, the baking soda and the baking p
together is really like in your the key to the Fluffiest thing?
Like I you know, I try with just baking powder.
I don't think it's fluffy now.
So I add baking soda in it and also like buttermilk,
buttermilk does has a little vin added.
Also, if you don't have buttermi in your kitchen, you can do
just regular meal.
And then I'd like to, you know,
teaspoon of vinegar would help,
All right.
I think my pancake is done, gorg
You can see.
No, it's ready.
I'm going to stack like two just
And I said, are we're going to put it togeth
Okay.
So we have our pancakes, we have our ganache.
How do you want to serve it?
I'm going to put drizzle it on t
So on top. And, you know, I don't need a fruit today.
I'm going to beat this, the sweet little thing.
And then I'm going to get like some powdered sugar
sprinkle on top.
Oh, perfect.
Thank you so much for showing us to make these delicious Thai t p
And thank you so much.
It's always time for more pasta.
I am here with Lina Cedillo of t
Square Cafe, which is one of my neighborhood
Thank you so much for being here
We are so happy that you guys ha reopened in your new space, new
But yeah, I was going to say.
But thank you for being here. Ye absolutely.
Thank you for having me excited to get to show off one of our pa
So today we were making an amazi that, as you say, is
like foolproof for those of us who worry about kind of
some of those passes where it's okay, it has to be perfect
and you have to get the right am of pasta water.
And so what are we making today?
So today we're making Gemelli, Olive Zafer, Uno says Sopranos S
And the reason I love this is I cooking, making Roman Italian pa
So your classic carbonara.
Great to catch red Pepe.
All the ones you can screw up.
All the ones that you can screw up. Exactly.
So they're they're very finicky. They take a lot of finesse.
I really want pasta to be someth that's accessible
and people feel great about being able to cook. So, ri
This pasta is really luxurious.
It feels decadent and like somet that would be a showpiece that y
do at a dinner party or for your
But at the same time, it has these little sneaks in it
in terms of the sauce that make very accessible and easy to exec
Right. All right.
So where do we begin?
Talk about the sauce, because th of where everything starts here.
So our sauce is going to come to with two parts.
We're going to make a saffron cr toss here.
Yeah. And what's great about thi can be made ahead of time.
It can sit for like days. Yeah.
So that's really easy and it's an easy for us to put t
So we're going to start with tha in the small pot here.
We're going to start with a little bit of olive oil i
And then these are shallots.
This is about four or five shall going to say, I love it.
I love a sauce with a ton of sal
Yeah, it's like we're starting from a place of deliciousness he
so we're going to put these in h
and we're going to get these goi and let them sweat.
So we're going to hit this with
Salt is going to break down the
It's going to make some of its n liquid come out of it,
and it's going to make us get a ton of flavor without having to
or anything like that. Having to do a ton here. Yeah.
And how long typically should yo these shallots and on what kind
Such a great question.
I have found that home cooks are scared of he
So what I would love to suggest is turn it up high to begin with
You can always turn it down
and then use your senses because the best part about cook
is like you're cooking for yours generally speaking.
So you can do what you want.
Use your senses.
Right now I can't really smell too much yet, but I can hear it.
It's starting to sizzle.
I can't see that there's too muc happening.
There's a little bit of steam
and I keep it on high until I start to see some more g
A lot happening.
So now that my shells are starti to get sweated down a little bit
I can see like visual cues are they're starting to be more tran
again.
There's not really any color
on the bottom of my pot and they're basically just kind
taking up less space, cooking down, turning translucen
Once this is starting to cook do I'm going to decrease it with ou
So in this case, I'm going to be using white wine
and then also champagne vinegar.
The champagne vinegar, I wouldn't traditionally add it
but because I was pulling that n of wanting to have it be like nu
want a lot of friends about chee one with vinegar at the end
to just make it have some like s you know, a little brightness.
Exactly.
So we're going to add both ends
and it's like, I don't know the sound from top
And then after it goes and I'm g to add my saffron in as well to
All right.
Saffron is expensive, admittedly
Yeah. You don't need a lot.
That was like the teeniest, tiniest little thing.
And this is going to make a real really robust floral. Right.
Delicious sauce.
And it's going to start turning like bright yellow orange immedi
and around.
How long total should you be doing this for
while this all of 5 minutes.
We're about to add our cream.
Yeah.
So it's super easy, super fast.
Like this is not something where to stand over it for an hour.
No. And like, again, put it on l
Step away.
It's forgiving if it's here for
Yes. Like it's whatever you need to be where you need it to be.
Yeah, that's right.
So we're about here.
Almost all of my liquid is cut d but I don't have a dry pan.
One thing is, if you are spending the money on
something like saffron, you don't want to lose any of it
So we want to bring the pan.
We don't want to reduce it all.
So now I've got my heavy cream.
We're going to go ahead and add
and I mean, this
is a wonderful amount of heavy c using here.
We're not going to use all of th in one shot. Yeah.
So don't be scared by the amount I in or I like.
I like the amount of cream, righ
And then we're just going to let of simmer lightly and come toget
We don't need to reduce it.
We want to make sure the shallot get all the way to fully tender,
we want to make sure that the cr in all of the flavors.
So this is just a moment for fla to kind of harmoniously join me
And for how long should you let
20 minutes.
Yeah, right. So, like, this is another moment.
Walk away and then come back. Ye
Lighten easy.
All right, so we have blended ou sauce that is at the ready when
Now, this is like the easy part
Yes, this is the easy part.
So one thing, make sure you've g on to a boil or simmer or someth
Have your water. Yes. And salted and salted.
It tastes salty like the sea is behind everythin
Everyone says.
And we're going to add some butt to start.
This is.
Yeah, if that's what you were lo
I think we knew that with the giant pot of heavy crea
Yeah, I think we I think we expe
And we are. We're here for it. A
we're going to add our asparagus
So it is
gorgeous and we're going to sque
Seasoning is key
season every step. Yep.
So that we can start to get this nice and cooked fridge.
Exactly. So we've got this going
Just getting the asparagus a lit start because we're using shrimp
and it's important that we don't overcook our shrim
Um, we're going to add those in pretty soon.
We're using some really big ruby red shrimp,
so they're going to take a little bit of time.
So what we're going to do is we're going to as soon as we
our asparagus is starting to get we're going to go ahead
and add our shrimp in.
So we like shrimp around here. L
For all I was going to say, is t any reason to use less shrimp ev
No, no.
Whenever you have it, you enjoy
Yeah.
Not looking to get color in here
We're not starting. We're just starting to cook.
And because these are so large, I flip them lengthwise
so that we can get right like a even cook.
And also so that as I'm eating t it makes bite sized.
Exactly.
So what I need a little bit, but that's kind of part of the l
It's like, beautiful. Yeah.
But with whatever shrimp you hav
it's going to taste great. Yeah.
And you have your stock and you have your saw.
And again, this is all about that saffron s
So whatever you're putting it wi
Yes. Is great.
So we've got our shrimp in there trying to cook.
This is just a little fresh red flake that we buzz up at the res
We fancy you don't have to. You can just do it.
You can just do it if you want i
But this is why sometimes you want to go into the restaura
Yeah, sometimes you want to cook
So like, if you want it the perf you can.
Square Cafe is there. That's rig
We will be there for you.
Yeah, exactly.
You don't want to make it visual
My fare is starting to turn a li more bright green.
My shrimp are starting to be a little opaq
but translucent in the center.
Still, I want to notice those th because that's the cue
that I need to like, kind of cut off the cooking.
So now I'm going to add my chili like first just to bloom this li
little white chili flake.
Now I'm going to add some of my shrimp stop.
But this is all like flavor on f on flavor
on flavor that's going to kind o cut off the cook a little bit,
let it cool down, and then we're to add our saffron sauce.
And again, like, we are not skimping on this.
Oh, we're going to heart a lot o
Yeah, this is where
we want our sauce.
And then at this point, we can turn this down, we can le
Chill, hang out
right here.
This is okay. I have guests.
They're about to arrive.
I'm going to do this step for th minutes before my guests arrive.
And, yeah, my shrimp are going t sitting in a pot for a while,
but that's okay, right?
Because it's going to be fine.
And again, like, these were not things that you added in.
Like it's cooled it down automat
So then this is a nice pause poi when you're ready, you can drop
So we're going to go ahead and d our pasta.
This is early, which we make in- at Union Square Cafe.
So if the pasta is going to need for like 8 minutes or something
you always want to leave yoursel whatever the cooking time on the
Yeah. Take away for a minute. Ri
Because the box didn't accommoda the fact that you need to cook i
in the pan right.
So subtract 4 minutes.
You'd rather have to go longer i
You can always add some pasta water to the pan.
If it's not quite there, that's be a better look than vice versa
And with fresh pasta, because of if people have a place to get fr
they only have one shape or one like, right, this works with eve
So I would rather it with fresh if you can get it in any shape.
Although honestly, like I don't like a really eggy pasta which i
so rich, you might not need to a any more material to it.
So like spaghetti at the grocery right?
I don't feel bad about it.
Yes, I never feel bad about spag
Yeah, everyone's happy with spag
I'm going to jump over here and start chopping up some of th
So again, I've got chives, basil and parsl
But do you write whatever works?
Yeah.
So we're just going to and I like everything super h
I think herbs are like the key t
And I think so often people are forget those last few steps in t
And those are the defining ones.
So lemon juice herbs
can be like the difference between restaurant quality food
Yeah, we've got chives here.
We're going to take basil from your knife through.
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to rest that and I'm going to come join
so that you have a winning time.
So now we're going to let this r
We're going to get it on high he
so that the noodles will finish the shrimp will finish cooking.
Everybody's coming together.
How do you know the difference between almost done and done?
Great question.
It's all about consistency and i all about personal preference, t
So for me, I went to the hospita look coded.
So we are just about there.
We're going to do some lemon juice in here,
which if you've got one of those lemon squeezer things, you can o
Yeah, whatever, whatever works,
just make sure to use a fresh le
But do not abide putting fake le on your saffron.
No, not. It's not nice.
No, not my ideal.
So now we're looking pretty good There's sauce, but not a ton lef
So I'm going to turn this down so we can talk herbs for a secon
Now we're going to add all ten.
So a lot of parsley.
I was going to say I love the heavy handed urban ne
Yes, it's like you are not we're not shy with the saffr
We are not shy with the heavy cr
We're not shy with the herbs like these on change.
This is a recipe that is there f
Yeah, it wants all the things.
A whole bunch of chives.
So gorgeous.
Something into the party.
And now our final toss. Toss.
And again, you could even you could even get this up to he
without the birds and bourbon at the last second.
If you want it to be super safe
now, we're just going to get all those tossed in,
make sure they're nice and coate
I had enough sauce left in the p that I can coat everything nicel
and you can still see a little b of sauce, but not too much, righ
Thank you so much for showing us amazing recipe, giving us so muc
for making better sauces, delicious sauces, treating ourse
Now we know how to make it at home. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for coming along on tonight's jo
If you want more, you can always more at potluckwithali.com,
or you can learn more about us a NYC Life at
nyc.gov/media
Until next time.