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  • Daniel Boulud: The test of a good oven like this

  • is that you can just go right on it,

  • and the door hasn't moved a bit.

  • That, I think, is to me the test of a super stove.

  • Herrine Ro: So, what is so special about this stove?

  • Daniel: It's indestructible.

  • This one is the athanor,

  • and this stove was customized just for us, of course.

  • Here we have a bain-marie.

  • The hot plate.

  • Those are the burners.

  • The plancha.

  • We have two ovens.

  • We have also drawers to rest the meat inside

  • at low temperature.

  • And then one in the back,

  • which is rotisserie and fryer.

  • Herrine: How big is this?

  • Daniel: This is really what we call sur mesure.

  • It is made to fit exactly a specific space.

  • So, this came in two piece,

  • and despite that, we could not pass through the door

  • because of the turn and all that.

  • So, for the stove,

  • we had to, down there,

  • it's the hallway coming from the street.

  • And this is the wall we had to break down

  • to get the stove through.

  • And right here, in the middle,

  • they weld the entire stove back together.

  • It's a very basic stove,

  • but the advantage of that,

  • when it's made of one solid plate of steel,

  • is then the heat keep carrying in places.

  • So, let's say, the meat

  • we have a tendency to cook in the hotter zones,

  • but the fish we cook all in the lower zone of heat.

  • I think it's very important.

  • Ah, here is my baby.

  • [grunts] It require muscle.

  • It's very heavy, actually.

  • And this is our duck press.

  • Herrine: What do you use this for

  • in, like, the restaurant?

  • Daniel: The duck press is a very simple,

  • mechanical object,

  • but it has the purpose of creating a dish

  • where we roast the duck,

  • push all the carcass, bone, innards,

  • inside this container.

  • Put it in, close the door

  • to not have any splatter.

  • Then we start to push down.

  • So, of course, when you get to the carcasses,

  • then it get heavier, and heavier, and heavier,

  • and we have the juices coming out.

  • And of course the juices contain a lot of blood,

  • and then we finish the sauce with that.

  • I think this is the magic of classic cuisine.

  • I have four of them, three in this kitchen.

  • Herrine: And how much do they range in price?

  • I've seen that they're very expensive, right?

  • Daniel: Well, this one,

  • I bargain it, and I bargain it.

  • He wanted $12,000 to $15,000.

  • I said no way,

  • so I got it for half price, $7,000.

  • C'est bon?

  • Herrine: Yeah, it's great.

  • Daniel: I love wine.

  • I am French.

  • I can't live without good wine.

  • And this is the next item I want to show you,

  • which is, to me,

  • the most incredible discovery

  • in the wine world.

  • So, here we have two bottle of wine.

  • This was opened about a year ago,

  • and this is a wine where, you know,

  • if I don't have enough friends

  • to open the bottle and drink it,

  • then I just have a sip for myself.

  • Voilà.

  • So, this machine, it has a gas tank inside.

  • This is argon gas in the cartridge,

  • and that means that that will not affect the wine.

  • Yeah. So, you see?

  • Full of gas.

  • And put that right over the bottles,

  • push down the needle,

  • which is going to go right below the cork.

  • So now if I press on this,

  • it will bring gas into the wine,

  • and, of course, help the wine come out through the needle.

  • And so this is fantastic for a restaurant

  • where now you can have wine pairing,

  • and you can open amazing bottles,

  • and you don't have to, you know, waste the bottle

  • because you only had two glass to serve

  • or one glass to serve.

  • Herrine: So, I've done the research a little bit.

  • That thing costs a pretty penny.

  • How much, around, is that?

  • Daniel: I mean, you don't buy this machine

  • unless you can afford good wine,

  • so, you know, it's...

  • [laughs]

  • You know, of course it's an expensive toy,

  • but it's one who really give

  • a lot of satisfaction at the end.

  • Herrine: That's good.

  • I think we can move on to the next thing.

  • Daniel: I think we should do tools,

  • kitchen chef's tools, no?

  • Herrine: Yes.

  • Daniel: You know, when you have a toolbox,

  • each tool has a purpose.

  • And for the knife it's the same as well.

  • Each knife has a purpose,

  • but it has multipurpose sometime as well.

  • This was my knife as a young apprentice.

  • I have this knife since I'm 14 years old.

  • And this is a typical French knife.

  • And so this one I can do butchering, slicing, cutting.

  • I can basically do almost everything with it.

  • So, favorite knife?

  • Maybe, but,

  • the interesting part is

  • I have a collection of Japanese knife, quite extensive.

  • This is a Japanese knife,

  • and this one has my name engraved here.

  • This one, a lot of fish butchering.

  • Fillet, sashimi, the portioning of fish,

  • the preparation of fish, the cutting of fish.

  • It's very, very fast, flexible,

  • and most of the Japanese chef work with this type of knife.

  • But then there's a French chef in France called Michel Bras.

  • He has a restaurant in Japan, in Hokkaido,

  • and very influenced by Japan,

  • he has created this beautiful knife,

  • with Michel Bras from Laguiole, France,

  • but the knife are made in Japan.

  • So, this is kind of the quintessential French knife,

  • made in Japan.

  • Beautiful steel, again.

  • It's a flexible steel, very strong, very durable.

  • This is a serrated knife,

  • which is very practical to cut vegetables,

  • peel vegetable with,

  • to peel anything with a crust.

  • And then I like this knife

  • because this knife has many purpose.

  • It can be a butchering knife, but mostly for fish.

  • It's basically between the couteau d'office,

  • which is the basic small knife in the kitchen,

  • and the chef's knife.

  • So it's kind of the three, of the totally French,

  • totally Japanese, totally French-Japanese.

  • Spice is so important in the kitchen.

  • And quite a while ago,

  • a young chef worked for me for many years,

  • and that was Lior Sercarz.

  • I call him the spice wizard.

  • Anyway, Lior Sercarz developed a spice line.

  • He named it Pierre Poivre.

  • So, Pierre Poivre is a mix of pepper,

  • and it's beautifully fragrant,

  • with peppers from different country

  • and different continent.

  • It's a trade secret, so I don't know what he put,

  • but there is definitely Tellicherry pepper,

  • pink pepper, white pepper, green pepper, black pepper,

  • also Madagascar pepper.

  • Herrine: What do you use this for at the restaurant?

  • Daniel: So, at the restaurant

  • we use it for, of course, meat.

  • Steaks, ducks, roast.

  • This will bring so much complexity

  • to a simple, basic dish.

  • Herrine: And can a normal person buy this?

  • Daniel: Yeah. Herrine: Like, at a store?

  • Daniel: La Boîte aux Epices.

  • Herrine: Great.

  • Daniel: We all know what a mandoline is,

  • basically a slicer,

  • and in the kitchen it's so useful for many purpose.

  • But, you know, we can only make slice with it.

  • And with this mandoline, this is a notch above.

  • So, this is a slicer, but as you turn, it move,

  • and cut, and cut, and cut,

  • and you push into the center.

  • So let me show you how this works.

  • So, here I have put this...

  • what do you call that?

  • Herrine: Spark? Nicole Raucheisen: Spoke?

  • Herrine: A spoke? Nicole: Is it a spoke?

  • Daniel: Spoke.

  • Nicole: Yeah. Daniel: Yeah.

  • So, I have put the spoke through the apple.

  • Make sure I secure that as well, nicely.

  • Goes back into the machine,

  • and voilà.

  • And, of course, here, now,

  • you have the most amazing

  • apple slice you have ever seen.

  • Smell the wine.

  • It's very special.

  • Jackie: What do you want to do next, Chef?

  • Herrine: Oh, wow, it is very floral.

  • Jackie: Do you want to do the cutting,

  • so that we don't make a mess?

  • Daniel: Ah, that wine is good too.

Daniel Boulud: The test of a good oven like this

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