Sea Urchin Challenge: 2 Chefs Make Dinner and Dessert With Uni | Mystery Menu | NYT Cooking

[BACKGROUND CHATTER] “Oh my God. [GASPS] I’ve been opening containers
for five minutes.” “That’s what I find the
most annoying is opening all The containers.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi I’m Sohla.” “And I’m Ham.” “And this show is
called ‘Mystery Menu.’” “We get a brown paper bag, has
a secret ingredient inside. We take it out, and we have
to turn that ingredient Into dinner and dessert.” “In one hour.” “In one hour. We’ll see what happens.” “We’ll see what happens.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “What do you think we’re going
to give you for this one?” “Caviar.”
– [LAUGHS]: “We’re going to keep guessing
caviar until we get caviar.” “It always just
smells like bag.” “Huh.” “Shall I give it a shake?” “Yeah.” “One caveat. Just try to be gentle
with this one.” “Oh.” “Oh. O.K. I was just grabbing
at it and squeezing it.” “We broke it probably. [LAUGHS]: Oh,
there’s another bag.” “Wait, double bag. Oh, to hide the smell
of holy [BLEEP]:.”

“What?” “That is amazing.” “Get out of here!” “Oh, we got live
whole sea urchin. This may be the best
mystery ingredient yet. Uni sea urchin, it’s one of
our favorite ingredients. It’s so luxurious. It’s creamy.” “Oh!” “And they’re fresh.” “I believe it’s the gonads.” “It’s the gonads, the
gonads of the urchin. You buy them as tongues, just
because that’s how they’re Shaped, and they’re creamy. It’s like sea butter. When you get
really fresh ones, They’re not overly fishy. It’s just a nice, subtle taste
of brine and ocean with this Really rich, fatty,
buttery texture.” “And they’re actually,
like, they look really scary And spiky, but they’re
pretty easy to get in there And clean.” “In their innards
are this black gunk, So you want to delicately take
out the tongues and just rinse Them in cold water. And then you have these
beautiful orange uni.” “O.K., I mean, this has
to be a tasting menu.” “This has to be
a tasting menu.” “I think we should
go really simple, Kind of Japanese vibe where
we don’t do that much to it.” “Yeah, highlight the
uni in every course. One course I would
just like this really, Just a custardy bread
with just uni on top. You know what I mean?

Like uni toast type deal.” “Yeah.” “Since we have so
much uni to play with, Let’s just do uni in the
forefront and then just have Little accents just
highlighting it.” “Uni avocado?” “Roll?” “Like that classic
one from –” “The José Andrés roll?” “Uh-huh.” “There’s a classic Marco
Pierre White dish where he Just cuts –” “Sorry we jostled.” “– cucumber into little
ribbons and then poaches them In beurre blanc to soften
them and then serves caviar And a poached oyster on top. I feel like that will work
really nicely with uni. It’s like –” “I’m just looking at the uni.” “It’s –” “Look, you can — Did you get a
shot of it moving? Oh!” “Oh, it’s –” “When the uni is this fresh
and this good, I just –” “Want that on top of
rice, or on top of toast, Or on top of –” “So should we just do that?” “Yeah, that’s what I think. I think we should just do all
the different forms and just Do it very simply.” “Because I don’t want
to do anything to it.” “No, you don’t want to
manipulate it too much. Seafood in general
degrades really quickly,

But uni is so delicate and
breaks down so quickly that You want to serve it
as quickly as you can.” “Well, it’s the innards.” “Mm-hmm.” “So when you buy fish,
the innards are discarded Because it goes
bad so quickly. So this is — that’s the
part you’re eating here. Uni avocado?” “Yeah, uni avocado.” “Uni rice.” “Uni rice, uni
toast, uni cucumber. I don’t think –” “I’m having a hard
time visualizing this. There has to be someone
to feed for this. There has to be. It’s just going to be
like bite, bite, bite.” “Bite after bite after bite. Because you also want to
— especially the pasta And the toast, if it sits out
for too long, it’ll get soggy. So you want to build
it and serve it.” “So we’ll build one of each
real fast just for time?” “The shot. Yeah.” “And then –” “And then we’ll
make them fresh.” “– we’ll eat this.” “Yeah.” “And then we’ll make
them for someone?” “Yeah, that sounds good. I feel like this one we might
actually have an easier time Building as we draw.” “Yeah.” “Just since there’s so many
things, it’ll help keep –” “It’s hard to do it –”

“It’ll help to visualize it.” “Yeah.”
“I feel like –” “I can’t really
think clearly.” “I feel like this will
be, for the first time, A drawing board menu
development simultaneous Activity.” “Yeah.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I’m overwhelmed by this.” “Well, I think we just start
writing nice one-bite dishes. Immediately with uni, I think
of cucumber ribbons poached In champagne and butter
that we just top with uni.” “Oh. Oh. Whoa. You think you’re the only
one that can use color?” “You want colors?
Mm-hmm. And then they’ll be nice
with just some chervil.” “O.K., there’s one. And then the other one we’re
going to do the avocado roll.” “Yeah. For the filling,
what if we use crab? I think it’s really fun to
bring in other proteins to — I think doing something
with Iberico Ham And uni is awesome. There’s a lot of –” “Oh, that’s not orange. Oh my God. Oh my God.” “Oh, no. It’s falling apart already. We haven’t even
started cooking.” “O.K., we need to give
ourselves time for this, And we need perfect avocados.”

“Yeah.” “So we know we
want to do pasta.” “Yeah, thinking tonnarelli,
like the chitarra.” “And then it’ll
have uni butter. Whoa. It’s coated in uni.” “And then just
more uni on top.” “And then more uni on top.” “Maybe some breadcrumbs too.” “Definitely.” “Some garlicy breadcrumbs.” “Yeah, garlicky,
parsley, lemon zest.” “Mm-hmm. Next I would like just a nice
slice of Iberico Ham with A hazelnut mayo and uni.” “I want some texture.” “We can also do hazelnuts.” “Let’s do hazelnuts.” “Yeah.”
“Yeah. Hazelnuts running
through the mayo.” “And then is it going to
be wrapped all around, Like a bundle?” “Yeah.” “Like a little parcel.” “A little surprise.” “Mm-hmm. Uni surprise. Toast.” “The toast, uni toast. So it’s a brioche with
the crust cut off and cut Into just rectangles that
you dip in almost like French Toasty thing and then crunch,
and sear off hard with just Uni on top.” “And then we got
to do an egg.”

“Mm-hmm. It would be nice if we just
sous vide the egg and then cut The top and then
put the uni on it.” “Maybe we season the egg
with a little togarashi.” “Mm-hmm.” “We got our uni on top
and then a maple whip. Is this warm?” “So that’s cold. Cold.” “That’s cold.” “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.” “Maybe one should
be just uni.” “Oh, have an extra
just uni on a spoon?” “Just open with uni.” “I want to — For that, I want just a
little bit of rice then.” “We should wrap it in nori. We’ll just do a little nigiri. I think we can still
end on custard.” “You think there’s time?” “I don’t know. Let’s just put it on there
and then we’ll figure out If there’s time.” “O.K. No uni in here,
right, just blend it Into the custard?” “Blend it in the
custard, yeah. Is there anything
that’s missing? Uni rice, uni avocado,
uni cucumber, uni toast, Uni pasta, uni egg, uni ham.” “Only thing that I
think might be missing, Which is very tasty,
is uni queso.” “Pff. Ah –” “But I don’t think it
goes with this meal.”

“Yeah, I kinda want that.” “Yeah. Uni queso is
always delicious.” “In a little Tostitos cup.” “In a little — Oh, an uni tostada. That’s a nice one-bite,
uni queso with uni on top.” “Uni on top.” “Mm-hmm.” “And then the queso has
also got a little uni.” “Uh-huh.” “Then probably a little
serrano, cilantro, blah, blah, Blah.” “Yeah, a little garnish. A little — a
little white onion.” “This is our queso, and
then it’s on a tostada. And then we have
some stuff on top. Got little things. And so this is — I’m a serrano, and I’m
a little cilantro.” “You know what?” “Hmm?” “These are all kind of
homages to different chefs.” “Ah-ha, yeah!” “This is Stupak –” “I like that.” “That’s Marco Pierre White. That’s José Andrés.” “O.K., let’s —
yeah, I like that. We know where
things come from. We don’t just rip people off.” “John and Vinny, that
is Ludo Lefebvre.” “Yeah.” “That’s Ishimura.”

“Hey, that’s fun. I don’t know how this
is going to happen, But this is the plan. We’re gonna try.” “Mm-hmm.” “And we’re gonna fail. And then we’re going
to keep cooking.” “Exactly. We’ll just go over time.” “This one is just
gonna go overtime.” “We will have all of this. This will be worth it.” “This will be worth.” “And plus there’s so much
uni, we don’t want it to go To waste.” “I think we should just
say right now we lost.” “Yes, we’ll forfeit.” “And then –” “– forfeit an advance, and
then just keep cooking.” “Because I want to
finish all of these.” “Yeah, these all sound fun.” “I don’t want to
cut anything here.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I feel like it’s
all — nothing, No individual thing is
especially difficult. Well, The hardest thing is the
avocado roll, that’s for sure. But everything
else, it’s like, It’s just the
number of things. It’s just a lot of things. A lot of –” “I can’t even remember
what the dishes are. That’s why we have the trays
organized with the ingredients For each dish, and then we
have it right back there. And then we also have
our plates labeled.

And I still can’t remember
what the dishes are.” “3, 2, 1, begin.” “O.K.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “So I’m cleaning the
sea urchin right here. First step is that I’m using
scissors to remove the mouth. There, that comes out. And then there’s all this
extraneous liquid from The innards that you
just want to dump out. Then now that I
have this opening, I’m going to make a bigger
opening so I can actually Scoop out the tongues. And this is ice-salted water. And I’m just going to scrape.” “How’s it going?” “Good. I’m done with my
tongue cleaning.” “I’m roasting hazelnuts and
pressure-cooking hazelnuts, And this is going to be
for the Iberico with uni, The José Andrés. There we go. The eggs are for
the Alain Passard. And we’re going
to circulate them. And then we’re just
going to use the yolk.” “So this is going to
be for our dessert, Which is an uni custard. These are uni pieces. There’s nothing
wrong with them. They’re just not
perfectly formed tongues, So you can’t use them as
garnish, or for sushi, Or for a lot of things where
you’re really displaying The perfect uni. But it’s perfect for
blending up into a custard, Which is what I’m doing here.

I’m going to add a
little saffron to this, Just to give a little floral
note and accent the golden Hue. So this is iota carrageenan. This comes from a
seaweed, and it gels Almost similar to gelatin. It works best in the
presence of calcium, Which is why you often
see it setting dairy. Color is really nice. You can smell both the
uni and the saffron, And it actually smells
like an Indian dessert For some reason. Once you get it bubbling,
I’m going to transfer right Into here, and then I’m going
to go into my custard plates To let it set.” “Aw.” “Oh, no. There’s a baby.” “Oh, no, there’s a baby.” “It’s a sad baby.” “And she’s so sad. She’s like, Mama, Papa, why
have you abandoned me for uni? Do you want her to taste
her first uni today?” “Have I tasted? Not yet. I haven’t even thought to.” “No, do you want
her to taste it?” “Oh, yes.” “Is this baby’s first uni?” “Baby’s first uni.” “Wow.” “We’re going to make a clam
juice and champagne beurre Blanc. Oddly enough, the supposed
correct way to open champagne,

You want it to make as
little noise as possible Because you want to save all
that gas inside your champagne For drinking. Ooh. Little fart at the end.” “Just a touch.” “Now that’s simmering. I’m going to add
the clam juice, And I’m just going
to let that reduce. Yeah, this has come
up to a simmer. So that goes. Oh, there’s so much
uni in the fridge, There’s nowhere for me
to put anything else.” “[LAUGHS]: So we got
crab that’s already out Of the shell, but you
still got to check Because oftentimes
these guys have shells. This is going to be
the crab salad that Goes in the avocado roll. Hopefully it’ll be a roll. If it’s not, it’ll just be
crab salad with uni on top. 10 minutes is left. How are you feeling?” “Already feel behind.” “Cool, cool.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “We’re going to do a
little celery leaf in here. That’s a lot of celery leaf. Celery leaf is very strong. So this is for
the uni custard. This method, with
a dry caramel, It’s easier because
you can stir it, Because since
there’s no water, It’s not going to crystallize. So you can stir it, but
you have to babysit it.

So normally when I’m
doing multitasking, I don’t like to
do a dry caramel, And I don’t know why
I’m doing it right now. Every other time on this
show when I’ve done caramel, I do a wet one so I can just
put a lid on it and work On something else. O.K. Those look good now.” “Do you want a
glass of champagne?” “Yeah. Should I put champagne
in the caramel?” “Do it. Why not?” “This is how
innovation happens.” “Why did you do that?” “Because we had it. Why not. Champagne caramel
sounds nice.” “O.K., then I’m going to toss
that in just a little pinch Of salt and give it a
little shake to incorporate. And then into the
fridge it goes. Now I’m making
the French toast. This is a pretty
classic French toast. We’re going to
get a little fun. We’re going to get a
little bourbon in here. Let’s go a little heavier,
a little more bourbon. Why not? It’s almost the
weekend, right. Some sugar. I want this to be really
rich, so I’m just using yolks. I’m going to use just
the brioche innards, But we’ll save the
rest for breadcrumbs. O.K. Our French toast, they
soaked up the custard really Nicely. I’m excited.

This is going to be
really good with the uni.” “Nothing’s going to get done. And all I’m going
to see online is, Sohla was just over there
drinking champagne while Ham’s Working his ass off.” “What are you doing now?” “I’m going to cook the rice. This is for the hand roll. This is the maple whip
for the Passard egg. Oh my God. We’re almost
halfway there, Ham.” “How much do you
have left to do?” “Like all of it. Yeah. I’m going out of order, too,
because I just can’t think About the avocado right now
because I could lose my whole Day on it. Yeah.” [BACKGROUND CHATTER] “Should I put some
whiskey in this?” “In what?” “The maple whip.” “Yeah, let’s do it.” “That’s really good. Oh, yeah, that’s good. I feel like we can just
eat maple whipped cream. I am working on the garlicky
breadcrumbs for the uni pasta. This is something we actually
eat at home a lot when there’s — because Ham likes to buy a
flat of uni online and turn it Into uni butter to
keep in the freezer. And then we use it
to make this pasta.” “We’ve got a whole bunch
of butters in our freezer. We’ve got white
truffle butter. I think we have
ramp butter still.”

“Oh, I think Ham
brought this from home.” “What is this?” “Cobanero chile. This is our actual go-to
chile flake, cobanero. We get a big 1-pound jar of
it online and we blow through It.” “Just turning it. You can see how
jiggly that is. Oh, that’s so, so good. That’s like, for
me personally, That’s the mark of
a nice French toast. I want a little bit of jiggle. That means that custard is
really rich and that it’s Completely saturated
the bread.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “There’s no uni yet. I’m going to use some
broken uni at the end. A bunch of butter. Right behind you,
coming in hot. I’m going to drain that. Saving some pasta
water in here. Hit it with some olive oil. Just toss it around. Then I’m going to set that
aside until we’re ready To finish it. This is tarragon. I’m just going to
put a sprig in there, And I’m going to
emulsify this butter. So this is for the uni queso. Put some uni in their. This is xanthan gum. It’s going to help
thicken this a bit. I’m just getting the chive
garnish for the rolls. There’s so many
garnishes for this.”

“Are you toasting
on the open flame?” “I am toasting
on an open flame. I don’t know why. I just have — I don’t know that
much about sushi. I just saw people
do it this way. I don’t know if this is — I’m not going to toast because
it’s getting all wonky. So that was a mistake. Nobody do that. Oh my God. The crumbs burned. No! Ham, I’m such a failure.” “What happened? What happened?” “I just burned the crumbs.” “We’ve got more crumbs.” “Yeah, we have more crumbs.” “Yeah, it’s O.K.” “When you get old
and you become a mom, You just can’t do
anything anymore. All I know how to do is
change a diaper really fast.” – [LAUGHS]: “I’ve gotten really good.” “Nine-course uni
tasting, maybe not, But changing a diaper
in 10 seconds flat?” “Yeah. O.K. We have,
like, 10 minutes.” “Our uni queso. Mm. That is so good.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “That sounds delicious.

I can start plating.” “Everything for the
egg is ready as well.” “Egg is ready? O.K. I have tostada,
I have pasta. I have cucumber. I’m just going to
start plating then. I’m releasing the pressure
so I can safely open up The pressure cooker
without blowing my face up. Spanish paprika and mustard. It’s a hazelnut mayo.” “I guess I’m just going
to make avocado rolls. I feel like I’ve been
avoiding it this whole time. Can you tell at all what’s
even happened today? Because we’re just making
little tiny things that add up To nothing so far. You’re regretting getting
us this fancy ingredient, Aren’t you? I’m sorry, guys. I don’t really remember
how to do this.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Oops.” “Are they here? This is it?” “They’re here. Why did we decide to do this? Why did we decide
to take it too far? We could have just made uni
pasta, fresh pasta, and that Would have been
fine, and everything Would have been fine. This is terrible. If I worked in a restaurant,
I would fire me.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Ooh, we have set custard.” “7, 6, 5, 4, 3 –”

“It’s the fifth. [LAUGHS]: This was so bad. This is the worst
thing we’ve ever done.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “All right.” “Is that everything?” “That’s everything.” “O.K.” “Are you ready
for the guests?” “Ready.” “Let’s do it.” “Yeah, I’m scared. Oh my God. It’s going to be –” “Vaughn?” “I’m going to shoot the
guest walking in here.” “Vaughn or Pete Wells. Is it Bobby Flay? It’s Vaughn.” “It’s Vaughn.” “I heard you say,
is it just Vaughn?” “We saw you already.” “Oh, it’s just Vaughn.” “It’s not a surprise. I saw you, like, three times.” “You’ve been here all day.” “Well, I intentionally didn’t
watch you cooking because I Wanted this to be a surprise.” “Well, hand roll to start. It’s just rice.” “Oh my God.” “It’s not the best rice
because we have really good Rice at home, and we
forgot to bring it.” “Wow.

The uni is just so — It’s delicious. I think that’s a perfect
application to let the uni Speak for itself too.” “That’s kind of the vibe we’re
going for for everything, Just keep it minimal, let the
uni shine just because it’s So fresh and so good.” “Crab salad –” “Oh, yum.” “– with avocado and uni. It’s just crab salad.” “Oh my God.” “I didn’t put enough
salt or lemon. When it’s done properly, every
slice of avocado is identical And spaced exactly the same.” “And it’s a really
tight roll.” “First of all, I love that
you flipped a Bowl upside down To present it on.” “Fine dining.” “I know.” “You taught me that. I loved it. I liked the salinity. Wonderful.” “I thought the texture
was really nice.” “It’s just not –”
“The texture was really nice. Yeah.” “The crab with the creamy
uni and the creamy avocado, You’re getting all these
different layers of seafoody Richness. It’s nice.” “Inspired by José Andrés.” “Yum.” “His favorite snack is
Iberico ham, uni, and caviar.”

“Wow.” “And so this one’s
a riff on that. So it has Iberico Ham,
uni, walnut mayo and — Hazelnut mayo.” “Hazelnut mayo.” “Because a lot
of Iberico pork, They have acorns
and hazelnuts, And that’s what they eat.” “Yum. Whoa.” “Mm. Mm-mm.” “Whoa. Whoa.” “Those play so well together.” “Wow, that was so good. That hazelnut mayo
is actually nuts.” “Pork and sea urchin,
especially fatty Spanish pork Is — They go so well together. It’s crazy.” “Oh my God. One of the best bites of food
I have had in a long time. That was really good.” “Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah.” “So this is a play on a
Marco Pierre White dish. He does like poached
cucumbers, cucumber ribbons In a beurre blanc, and serves
it with oysters, and caviar. So we did a similar thing. We poached cucumber ribbons
in a champagne and clam Juice beurre blanc and topped
it with just sea urchin. So it’s really fresh, buttery
cucumber with sea urchin On top.”

“Wow. Poached in champagne?” “Poached in champagne.” “Where is the champagne?” “I drank the rest.” “Sohla drank it off.” “There is none left.” “She said, mommy juice time.” “Whoa.” “Ooh.” “That’s really good.” “Wow. Were you a horse girl?” “Not a horse girl.” “Because the horse girls were
always the ones that were Like, oh my God, I did
so bad on that test. And then they would
always get 107.” “No.” “And you just back — you
were like, we did so bad. And this is one of the — [LAUGHS]: the last two things
I’ve eaten were so good. This looks like a chip.” “That is a tostada
with uni queso.” “Oh my God.” “And some garnishes on top.” “Oh my God.” “Whoa.” “The plays on richness
is really good.” “It finishes like Taco
Bell in the best way.” “Yeah. That really is like
nachos bell grande.” “This is something
we used to eat a lot. There was a point where we
were making this once a week. We had it first in
John and Vinny’s.”

“It was like, what
was that place called? Son of a Gun.” “Yes. This was our Cacio e Pepe.” “Mm-hmm.” “O.K. Mm. Wow. Those toasty breadcrumbs –” “The key –” “– are absolutely
perfect in this.” “Wow.” “Wow.” “They burned. I scraped them off the top.” “Oh, really?
I like it.” “I burnt the whole pan. I think it didn’t congeal like
a cheesy pasta because it’s Uni.” “Yeah. So next we’ve got a play from
the old Brooklyn fair chef, César Ramírez. So it’s really rich French
toast with a whole bunch Of uni on top.” “Mm.” “Whoa, that’s really good. Mm.” “Holy [BLEEP]: Wow. That French toast is fabulous. But who would think to
put uni on French toast? Mind-boggling.” “Yeah, they go really
well together.” “It’s so good.” “O.K., egg, Alain
Passard-inspired.” “Mm-hmm.”

“It’s an egg that was
cooked in a circulator, So the egg is cooked through,
but it’s still really, Really soft and a little bit
jammy, uni on top, maple whip. It was supposed to
get flaky salt.” – [LAUGHS]: “And then I didn’t realize
how small the cup was. And — So you put — is
that paper towel?” “Yeah.” “I was like, what did they
make that looks like a paper Towel?” “But this one is the one
that I made for the timer, And I just gave up
and dropped it in.” “I love this.” “So you got —
this is elegant.” “That’s the nice one.” “This is elegant. I feel like I’m — Paper towel and all.” “– in Italy.” “Also pretend that the egg
is hot, and the uni is cold, And the whip is cold.” “O.K.” “Just use your imagination.” “So I go down all the
way to the bottom?” “Yeah, you want to
get all the layers.” “Yeah. O.K. Mm. That maple whip is remarkable. I’m just so — I don’t know, just all these
rich textures going well Together is really exciting.” “And finally, this is
a straight-up failure. I used iota to thicken this,
which can set in a really

Tender gel, but you need a
drug dealer scale to weigh it Out properly.” “Oh. It’s like –” “Oh, we forgot the –” “We forgot to bring it.” “– to the 10th
of a milligram.” “Yeah. And so it set a little hard.” “It’s not as overset
as you think.” “Mm-mm. Did you do the caramel?” “Mm-hmm. Yeah.” “The caramel makes it for me,
because you actually get a lot Of acidity in front –” “Off the champagne.” “– because of the champagne.” “Yeah.”
“It’s so nice.” “I love the acidity.” “That acidity brightens the
whole thing up and really goes Well with the saffron.” “Oh my God.” “I guess it could be worse.” “[LAUGHS]: Horse girl.” “No, no. I mean, look, all
of these things, It came down to the details. If we put any of these
out in a restaurant, We would have been fired. We know that. Put that in the video. Everyone needs to know that. We know that we would get
fired for any of these

Dishes.” “Yeah.” “But we did it in one hour.” “The most important thing
about this kind of food is Finesse. And that’s why it feels like
a failure because we failed In the finesse category.” “Yeah, but you know what? It’s just me.” “It’s just Vaughn.” “It’s just Vaughn. Every — there are
so many components. I know you say they are
relatively simple components, But just the amount of
things that I just ate, The amount of just
ingredients that went into — It was pretty mind blowing. That’s insane. That’s insane.” “Thanks for watching.” “Hope you weren’t bored.” “Wow.” “Thanks for joining us.” “Yeah, thanks for watching. Thanks for making
it to the end. Wow.” “Wow. Yeah, you actually watched us
stumble our way through uni.” “And if any of these chefs
are watching, I’m sorry.” “We mean, no offense.” [MUSIC PLAYING]