Funding for the Story of Cooking is provided by: FIT4MOM Walkabout Outfitter Biagio Cru and Estate Wines Chef Revival FOODYTV Chefs in the Kitchen and Taste This TV Hi and welcome to the Story of Cooking Today we're here at Delmonico's Which most people know because it's one of the oldest restaurants in America It opened up its doors in 1820 when Swiss brothers John and Peter Delmonico opened a restaurant that served french pastries it didn't become a full-fledged restaurant until 1837 when John and Peter Delmonico along with Lorenzo opened a nice big fine dining establishment In the 1700s New York was littered with Oyster sellers and coffee shops but there wasn't any fine dining and Delmonico's was the first to do that in fact they were the first to use the word restaurant, which was a French term so that's why they're credited with opening the first restaurant in America So let's go inside and check it out! Hi and welcome to the Story of Cooking! I'm Sarah Nicholas! Hi chef, nice meet you! Hi, welcome to Delmonico's Thank you, we're here with chef Billy Oliva and he's the executive chef and you've been here about six years Almost seven years, yeah, six and a half years And we're here to try some classic dishes and we're going to learn a little history about them Sure and there's loads of history here, lot of firsts: Baked Alaska, Bggs Benedict, Lobster Newburg You name it, all kinds of history as well Awesome, well let's do it! Why don't we head back to the kitchen Okay! All right chef, so we're back in the kitchen and you're going to show me some of the dishes that were invented here and obviously probably signature dishes of Delmonico's Absolutely so we're going to start with Eggs Benedict Why don't we start with our brio, so we're just going to Do you make your own brioche? We do downstairs, actually. We make all our own bread all our own desserts ice creams, everything is here Wow! And so, again, this was invented at Delmonico's, correct? Invented in Delmonico's So the Delmonico brothers liked to name dishes after their patrons so Mr and Mrs Le Benedict used to come all the time, They were regular customers and one day they says, you know what we come here all the time we're bored of the menu, create us a dish and this is what the Delmonico brothers came up with Well, thank you! and it's been around ever since so we're just going to pop this in the oven Okay and the next thing we'll do is first thing we have to remember is not to forget that Okay, yeah, that's usually what happens right? It's always what happens! And then we're going to start our hollandaise so here we have just some egg yolk that we cracked already I will dump that in and we have a little Tobasco You want me to put some of this in? Yeah, absolutely. We'll do a little lemon juice. Couple dashes? Yeah a couple dashes And we'll put a little tarragon vinegar So this is a tarragon vinegar reduction with pepper corn shallots Tarragon obviously Worcestershire (Sarah) Worcestershire sauce, okay So now the fun part Now we're going to whisk so if you want to do that we'll go over here to without you burning your hand you might want want to take a towel and just a figure eight motion, as kind of fast as you can Figure eight? Like this? Yeah So now we're going to add our butter and then here we have just a little cold water if it gets too thick we'll just thin it out a little bit So, shall we go together? Yup Is my hand in the way? No And that looks about good Now the trick is to keep it so it doesn't break (Chef) Keep it warm First we're going to season it a little salt and pepper and then we'll just take that how are we going to do that without actually got the right consistency Am I hired? That's it! When can you start? If this is my only job I'm sorry I have to decline I will keep that warm for a minute So, we have to lightly grill the prosciutto cotto so for that we have to go down to the broiler there Already? Make sure we have all our tools so we're going to come here Okay and we're just going to... this is cooked already so we just want to warm it up Sure That's going to go on the grill for a second Just flip it Okay so we just want to cook that, just want to warm it through So that's good, we don't want to dry it out too much Just going to grab our plate and we're almost ready to... you can actually smell the rosemary and the thyme Okay so we'll go back down on this side where we have our ham, we have our brioche so we're going to put this pot out of the way we'll slide that little one over On the flame, or no? Right on the flame, yup Oh we're going to reheat our eggs? We're going to reheat our eggs So we poached these earlier just so it will be a little bit easier when we poach them we use a little vinegar, white vinegar Do the swirl? Do the swirl and we crack the eggs into a small cup and they go in (Sarah) Just dump them all in? (Chef) Dump them in nice and easy All four? Yeah, this way in case we have an accident with one (Sarah) Poached eggs are very delicate So while the eggs are heating up we can start to plate the rest of the Eggs Benedict Perfect So, we'll move some of this stuff out of the way And bring this over here If you want to do it, or I can do the ham Okay (Sarah) Is this on you brunch menu? (Chef) This is on the menu all the time, never cut lunch, dinner and we sell tons of it So, that's ready and now we just wait for our eggs to get hot and because they're already poached we don't need to cook them for a long time we just need to warm them through The reason we do this is because we just sell so many of them Yeah, you would have to do it in advance I would think This is all the space we have, so Eggs Benedict is one of my favorites so I'm really looking forward to trying this I'd say these are probably hot enough Just drain the water really well and whenever the egg doesn't roll off that's a good thing (Sarah) You want to just? (Chef) Yeah right over there (Sarah) Well that failed Are you going to wipe the edges? (Chef) Yeah, we'll clean it up. We could change the plate That's good. (Sarah) Obviously I like a lot of hollandaise sauce (Chef) We might need to change the plate! So now what we're going to do, we're going to -Do you like truffle?\ -I do, I do -A lot of truffle? -I do Do you want to shave the truffle or do you want me to shave the truffle? You shave the truffle I don't want to ruin anything Okay I'll shave the truffle (Sarah) You had me at truffle when you said it earlier It's a rich dish (Chef) and then we're going to finish it with just little caviar So tell me about the truffles and the caviar So these are Périgord truffles from France they're in season now until about... I think they're around for about another month and the caviar is just an American caviar that we use to garnish stuff with (Chef) Might as well go all out and then just a little bit of green and that's it Perfect. Beautiful. Besides my mess up on the side of the plate other than that that was beautiful All right, this looks fantastic, now how about a Delmonico steak? That sounds good, let's go to the grill All righty! Okay so this is a lot of beef, it's beautiful. Go through your different cuts So here we have the boneless Delmonico steak this is a bone in Delmonico steak that's dry aged and this is our double Delmonico steak All right so how do you dress this up? It's very simple and we don't do a lot to these steaks it's just salt, kosher salt, and pepper and we'll just grind it up So we're just going to pull it out let's throw these on in the back Should we put this guy on? (Sarah) So do most people come in here and want medium rare steak? Always when I go to a restaurant that has good steak I always ask, well what does the chef like to cook it to? I would say probably the most is medium rare but we get well done and medium well and Yeah Sometimes... they're paying for it so it's their choice So these are just about done, so we'll have our guys finish them and we'll move on to the lobster newberg Perfect, thank you Awesome We'll get started So what we're going to do we're going to just take a little bit of oil and the lobster Just tell me what you need The lobster has been kind of cooked already so we're going to start with the lobster I'll take him And you said that it's been cooked in the sous-vide machine Yeah we cook it at a very low temperature and we cook it about say 50%, and then we cool it off really quickly and then we finish it to order Just because it would take too long, oh I'm sorry No you're fine So next we're going to take a little bit of the butter now And you can see as the lobster is finishing cooking that the shell is changing color and then we're going to go with some hedgehog mushrooms The next thing we're going to do is, we're going to deglaze it with a little bit of brandy This is the fun part Watch out (laughing) Staying back (Chef) Okay, so, put in a little brandy (Sarah) Flambé, right? (Chef) That's the fun part, that's actually why I wanted to become a chef So have the lobster there Very dramatic We have some lobster stock in that copper pot there So we're going to add that (Sarah) and there's no cream in that? Or just a little cream? (Chef) This is very little cream in this this is just the richness of the vegetables we use a little bit of star anise in here Oh wow, okay The star anise, fennel, onion, celery garlic, a lot of herbs (Sarah) It smells good And now we'll take all our vegetables, we'll take a little bit of asparagus, a little bit of carrots and this is really just for garnish the original dish was just lobster and toast and sauce So the vegetables just give it a nice... make it more interesting Lighten it up make it a little more... have a "fear" So next thing we're going to do is we're going to throw our brioche in the oven for a minute So you hand me that and I'll grab a tray So what are the menus that you always have, how often do you change your menu? We try to change about four times a year (Sarah) Just based on whatever is in season? (Chef) Yes and occasionally if I get bored every now and again it will change Have you invented any recipes here at Delmonico's? The bacon that we do on the menu now is mine one of the chickens, we do a Himalayan salt brick chicken, which is mine This? Yeah I take the rest of the lobster Oh Himalayans, I love cooking with Himalayan salt Yeah so we actually have bricks and we press, it's kind of like a brick chicken That sounds delicious (Chef) We press it with the Himalayan salt (Sarah) Nice (Chef) It comes out really well We're going to grab just a little cayenne and some of the herbs Chives? Yup, chives and Italian flat leaf parsley And in the sauce, when we make the sauce, there's a little bit of tarragon as well Kind of bring out that star anise flavor? Yeah. I kinda like that flavor It smells delicious This is just little bit of stock to just to thin it out a little so we can thicken it back up and make it a little richer (Chef) All right so we're about ready our butter is kind of incorporated into the sauce we're going to plate it, take our brioche out it's kind of a dish that gets a little messy so we're going to slide over just kinda to the table there and we'll use this dish here to plate it up So our brioche is going to go on the top Oh it really does smell really good Going to take this out So you can see that We leave it in the shell the reason we leave it in the shell is we just think that the shell protects the cooking protects the meat, keeps it from shrinking -and then sometimes the waiters -Will take it out? (Chef) Will take it out So I need a spoon from back there Oh sure absolutely, here you go It's a little big but it will work Let me just get some of the sauce Think we have enough sauce Okay, we're good Now we're going to finish it Kind of like we finished our Eggs Benedict Oh, so delicious This really is a rich dish When the truffles are in season we try and use them as much as we can Well people love truffles right? Yeah they go crazy for them The white truffles even more and then just a dollop of caviar on top clean the plate and that's it This looks beautiful, I can't wait to try it all Let's go out to the table and we'll talk a little bit about the history of the three dishes and obviously enjoy some good food Sounds good All right chef, so again everything looks beautiful, let's kind of start somewhere, where would you like to start? Why don't we start with the Eggs Benedict It's definitely a popular dish in the south too I kind of always thought of it as being a southern thing until I came here And Sunday brunch and hangover food and all kinds of stuff Yeah it's good hangover food, that's true Gotta get everything in there Tell us again what's all in the dish as well So we have Périgord, we have some nice toasted buttered brioche, we have a little prosciutte cotto a cooked Italian ham with rosemary, thyme we have some American caviar and some Périgord truffle That ham is really delicious Yeah it has nice flavor. It works really well with the eggs And that hollandaise sauce is second to none! That was yours! That's delicious I like that a lot So let's move on to the lobster newberg and we'll save the steak for last So we have a lot of history about this dish It was Captain Wenberg who was a good, he was a fisherman, spent a lot of time in the ocean in the 1800s, he was also friends with, he was a trader, an importer/exporter He spent a lot of time here when he would be in New York with the Delmonico brothers they became very good friends and he brought this recipe to them and he says well, you have to make it for me and they did and they loved it then the Delmonico brothers had a falling out so they took the dish off the menu and their customers complained so they said okay, we have to put it back on the menu but we're not going to put it back on the menu as lobster ala Wenberg because we don't want to speak to him anymore and we don't want to associate with him anymore so it became lobster newberg That is delicious That sauce is amazing That star anise really comes out Yeah it comes through, and a little bit of the cayenne It's a little bit of a process to do but it's worth it We're going to save that for later and then the last one is the Delmonico steaks And this is the... This is the wet aged boneless rib eye Okay And it's just grilled salt and pepper, and we finish it by brushing it with a little bit of butter and some fried onions and there's a history behind this? Well what I know about the Delmonico steak was back in the 1800s the Delmonico brothers, it wasn't always a rib eye it was whatever they thought was the best that was available to them at the time Today it's the rib eye just because of the fat content, the richness of the steak and it works really well for us, we sell hundreds of them Oh I bet I'll push those to the side Okay So this isn't steak related but I hear there's some supernatural history as well? Oh there is a little bit of supernatural history Is it haunted? They say it's haunted Back in the 1800s the restaurant was actually nine floors So there was a restaurant, there was a hotel, there was all kinds of things going on here And the rumor is that somebody was murdered upstairs and a lot of ghost stories There was another gentleman who used to clean up here at night and he said every night the ghosts had a party here down in the basement Well this place actually was a site for a lot of parties, cotillions, balls back in the day it was where the rich elite Europeans and Americans came to visit Sure, there was a lot of firsts here The first lady's luncheon was held here It was the first restaurant also to hire a woman it was the first restaurant to allow women to congregate as well as all the different firsts on the culinary end And it was the first place to use the term restaurant Restaurant, printed menus This steak is delicious by the way, if I didn't say so All right so these are Abe Lincoln's favorite potatoes, correct? That's it and there's a lot of history too about people who were patrons here, correct? So a lot of favorite people. Mark Twain, every president since Abraham Lincoln has been here Charles Dickens, the Wolf of Wall Street was another one that used to frequent here I bet you have people that come back here everyday for lunch too Not necessarily famous people We get a lot of regulars, yeah The bar is filled with a lot of characters that come in every single day So these are the potatoes, the Abe Lincoln potatoes So the story about this is Abe Lincoln loved these potatoes, and I'm sure I'm going to as well Oh I thought there were going to be mashed There's just a few calories in here Oh my goodness That's amazing Can't really go wrong though Cheese baked and cream, butter, potatoes Awesome That would go good on the side of a steak It works perfect And the next dish we have is our dessert Baked Alaska And it was invented here by Charles Ranhofer who was one of the first celebrity chefs so it's a layer of baked meringue and inside is what we call, it's kind of a cross between an ice cream and a semifreddo, so say a banana semifreddo There's an apricot jam Nice underneath that, and then on the bottom is walnut sponge Wow I'm kind of embarrassed to say I've never actually eaten one of these We're going to cut it open So you can see the meringue, then you have the banana, then there's the apricot jam and on the bottom is the walnut sponge I'll turn it around so we can get a better look and then from there just dig in That's never a problem The perfect baked Alaska, you should be able to, what we tried for anyway, you should be able to get everything the middle part can't be too cold, otherwise if it's too cold you won't be able to go all the way through It's delicious and the apricot and the banana go really well together They do, they really do; and the walnut cake Thank you so much, chef, everything has been absolutely delicious, beautiful and great history and I've really enjoyed myself thank you so much Thank you Thank you so much for joining me on this Story of Cooking I'm Sarah Nicholas and just remember behind every story is a great recipe! Funding for the Story of Cooking is provided by FIT4MOM Walkabout Outfitter Biagio Cru and Estate Wines Chef Revival FOODYTV Chefs in the Kitchen and Taste This TV For a copy of any of the recipes that you've seen on today's show visit the website below Offer made by the Story of Cooking Production