What my Ex-Michelin Trained Chef Husband Cooks in a Week

Today Kevin is going to be making... This is Kevin, my husband. Just for people who like might not know, you're like what did you do before? Before Metziner I was a chef, so I worked as a chef in Copenhagen. Did that for six, seven years. I worked at a fantastic restaurant called Relais, which was also a Michelin restaurant. Yeah, so like Kevin's forte is definitely like veggie cooking you would say, right? Veggie cooking, yeah. Before Metziner I was also a vegetarian. We're gonna cut that part out. No, I eat a lot of it. So this week we're gonna try to cook a little bit of everything from my life and your life and mix them together. So it's gonna be both some fancy dishes and then it's also gonna be some really indulgent fun dishes that we love cooking from time to time. Like right now there's so many different varieties of tomatoes down at the market. What really works well is trying to get some different type of tomatoes or at least some different stages of ripeness. So you get both a little bit of that tartness of tomato, but you also get some that's really juicy and more succulent and sweet. I'm putting them in ice water. See the skin is already coming off by itself here. The skin is a little bit tough and hard and you just want the inside pulp. This is what it looks like. Okay, who cooks most days? You do, but you could ask who cleans most days? You do. I do, definitely. What I realized working in a Michelin kitchen is that there's a world of vegetables that we don't really know anymore. If I just mix them all together you wouldn't taste a different tomato, you would just taste one mono tomato. Is that the reason why you divided like the tomatoes into the different colors? Aesthetic and flavor. I think the biggest difference between a professional chef and a home cook chef is a professional chef always cleans right after he's done. I think a lot of people don't think about doing shrimp as tartare, but it's actually so sweet and buttery if you have good shrimp. Good shrimp and then good tomatoes. The yellow one is a bit more acidic and bitter, I think that goes really well. And then you have the more umami rich also, so you also get different bites as you go. Not gonna lie, this was one of those dishes that I was like, are you sure this is gonna turn out okay? Like especially when you first started just dolloping the massive tomato chunks. No fail. But like at the end it's actually super pretty and very easy trick surprisingly enough. It can be done in like 30 minutes. You can even pulse it if you want in a little mini food processor, yeah. Do you see how pretty this is? It's gonna slide off in a second. The temperature is really important. Actually like the cold tomato and the cold shrimp is really really nice. What inspo is this from? This is a mix of a really famous dish I once got at Geist, which was a restaurant in Copenhagen. He loved dicing things up. Like he had a langoustine dish where he would completely shred it also, like dice it up and spread it out. Three tips. First, really really good shrimp. Number two, different colors of the tomatoes and dividing it out, right? I think you sometimes can see like the difference in chefs and home cooks is working with textures. The only chopping I do is with my face. Terrified. This is really good. Ended too fast. Even though I like to think I'm Gen Z, I was born in 1997 so kind of. Kevin is an OG millennial and dating someone seven years older has definitely made me more millennial. So I would say like a cumulative 1.5 millennial couple who's into food with two doggies, you know that the doggies are gonna be eating good. Pork belly broth, pork belly, rice, broccoli, pumpkin puree with cinnamon and some salmon oil. I just woke up. I'm so swollen. You know what? You want to see my garden? So we have our rosemary plant here and then underneath we have the... It was a pigeon. I got scared. Underneath we have the thyme and then these are our beautiful tomato plants. This is gonna be a tomato soon. It should be coming around now but I don't know. It's our first year trying to grow tomatoes. This is Nanami who's our resident garden keeper. And then obviously we have our zucchini. Our marigold right here. Oh, more zucchini right there. So this one is obviously the big zucchini that we have. And then if you look underneath like this one, that's also gonna be a zucchini. And do you think a city girl like me grew that? It's all Kevin. And then here we have our little herb patch going on. This is our sweet basil and you can see like it's really like chopped off right now because we wanted to grow up and according to Kevin, if you want to grow up more you need to like nip it on the top here so that it doesn't just grow up. It can grow like this. Every morning we try and do that and there's so many that grow each morning. Basil. Siege over there is a lemon basil. Some lettuce that I got from Costco and then I replanted it and it's actually doing okay. We harvested a couple as you can see right here. And then also I had some scallions with the roots on and I don't really want to pay for plants so I planted them and they're growing. Every gardener's worst nightmare which is apple mint but we eat a lot of mint so I think I'm gonna consume it before it spreads. This one is peppermint. I like having it because I sometimes put it in my dog's food because their breath stink. And here we have our grapevine tree. You can already see some grapes down there. I'm hoping it kind of grows all the way up and over like this. That's it. What are you doing that for? I just so your cutting board doesn't slide around. Carrots are very versatile because they have a lot of sweetness that you can get out but they also have a lot of this earthy bitterness. So it depends how you cook them. You can really pull them in different directions. We're gonna do a homage to my old workplace. We're gonna cook some carrot steak. It's like a really great way of eating vegetables without it becoming boring. We salt them so we can draw some of the extra moisture out and they also get more elastic. See now they're much more bendy. Before it would have broken if I did this. It's like flexible now. Makes it a bit stronger. They're orange. I think most vegetables don't taste good because they're not seasoned properly. And then we do the hollandaise. What is it? Hollandaise is one of the five mother sauces. What is a mother sauce? In France it's the sauces that kind of the base to make other sauces. Hollandaise is the sauce that's made with butter and egg yolks to bind. You see it changed color now. It's much more white. And then you season it with lemon juice. A lot of lemon juice to get a lot of acidity and freshness. Yeah I actually like it when hollandaise is almost on the brink of being too sour. It needs to make your upper lip curl a bit. Yeah you need to like pucker a little bit. That's when it's my favorite. This is my baby food. Oh I love that. Okay so the magic of the dish is the layers. So what you want to do is you want to salt the carrots and it becomes almost like having a bit surface tension so it sticks to each other. So that's how you kind of layer out all the salted carrots and then you roll them up. So the reason why this is really nice instead of just cooking the carrot whole is first of all we thinly sliced it, salted it. So the whole carrot is going to be really well salted. Second of all when we start roasting it you're going to get a much better caramelization because you have many layers kind of like puff pastries. It gets much more crunchy and you can have much more flavor coming in of the butter, thyme and garlic. Very different eating experience. For this dish I was actually pretty surprised at like how far you were letting the carrots almost get like burnt but the crispy almost charred parts were some of the best parts to kind of cut through some of that sweetness. Kevin has mentioned this carrot steak for a long time and I was like carrot steak? I want steak steak. I didn't expect it to smell this good. Wow. There's like layers of different sweetness like the inner part and like the charred part and there's so much texture going on with the carrot. It's not just like mush. There's actually like layers. When Kevin like explained this dish to me in the beginning I was afraid that it was going to like be like an avocado rose but it's completely different. Simple yet super luxurious. You're a good chef. Don't you feel short sometimes when you're cooking here? Pretty high. So as for the most overripe old tomatoes on this one so they're all a little bit bruised and a bit wrinkly. We just want the old one for more flavor and really like you see how juicy this is. See how nice and red they are also means there's a lot of flavor in it. So this is part of the prep for tomato kimchi manduguk and Kevin's just blending it and freezing it. We also picked up a big juicy squid and I was feeling like a little bully so I made him imitate the squid. First I'm gonna quickly rinse it. So squid consists of three things you could say. Tentacles with eyes, body and the wings attached to the body. So what we want to do first I'm gonna take out the tentacles then I'm gonna tear off the wings. We're gonna cut up this one. Inside the body there's a little exoshield in here we need to get out. No way. Happens sometimes. It is a big one I would say. And then we need to scrub the body from this protective skin that makes it really chewy. So if you cook it with that it becomes more chewy so you want to get scrub that off. You can see here how thick and nice they are. So this is gonna be the noodle size tomorrow. Nice. Not fettuccine thick but like a really nice thick noodle. This is a krusimang for doggies tomorrow. Just drying it at 75 so it both caramelizes a little bit. Gives a bit of like really umami flavor and dries it out. Yeah I think we got them. I got the squid. What are we cooking today? We're gonna make a little squid noodle for a quick lunch. Squid noodles. Kiss this goodbye. Why? Because I'm gonna lose a finger today. I'm a bit nervous actually. Just be careful yeah. Yeah it's pretty tough and it needs to be pretty nice too. But if Japanese have done this for hundreds of years with bonito I can do it for squid. My toes are curling up a bit. Every time I cut close to my hand it's like. Don't do this at home. Get a slicer. That's beautiful. Better than I expected actually. It's the first time I've done this dish without a slicer. Last time she got it was where we met in Sicily. I signed up for a cooking school in Sicily 2022. I was a cooking instructor. We have a little student teacher thing. That sounds so awful. So gross. There was this uh session where we needed to go pick fava beans. And like Kevin asked like oh who wants to go pick fava beans? I was like me! I want to pick fava beans! That was kind of like my first move saying like I want to pick fava beans with you. You actually expect it to be overly squid-y but it's actually not at all. It's soft. It's silky. Texture-wise it's like bouncy. It's like familiar enough but also so different. Actually my all-time favorite dish that Kevin has ever cooked for me. When I first came to Korea Tina took me to this North Korean mandu place. I really like the clear broth, the bean sprout, the tofu filling. And I wanted to do my take on that. The tricky thing about this dish is that the broth needs to be clear. When Kevin first made this tomato broth I literally thought he was some alchemist. So what he's essentially doing here is thawing out the frozen blended tomatoes through a fine mesh sieve to remove the flesh and pulp from the juice. And the end result is this beautifully clear incredibly concentrated tomato broth. Which in our household we like to call it liquid guk. Sweet, juicy, tomatoey. In Korea we say that like if you make ugly dumplings it means you're gonna have like ugly kids. But anyways, any tips on making dumpling dough? Dumpling dough, the most important thing is that you add hot water to the dough. You want to activate the gluten so it gets really chewy. Texture is very important and chew which I didn't really get before I came to Korea. It's really important. So when Tina's mom was here visiting us she asked if she could cook one day. So she made a big batch of kimchi for us. Beautiful color. So around equal amounts tofu and kimchi. I'm a cameraman these days. There's a lot of people who watch us that are international couples, right? It's not an easy task to move for somebody especially country. I had to follow my love and my love was in Korea. I was scared that if it didn't work out with us what would happen after. I didn't speak the language. Like I also had to give up my job not being able to provide for us or for myself. That was tough. We just couldn't stand not being together. And this dish was actually one of the first dishes that we created together for Mijiso also. I have so many pictures on my phone of different versions we did of it. I really like making the mandus every day. That was like one of the highlights of my day in the kitchen. Moving to Korea for love for you was the hardest thing I've ever tried in my life. And also the best decision I've ever done. Good morning! It is a lovely Sunday and today Kevin is going to be making Sunday roast. This is at the back leg of the lamb. Has a little bit more meat a bit more juicy and we're gonna salt bake it. Do you need my help? For life or for kitchen duties or? I just asked out of kindness. The leftover egg whites and it's gonna be one part egg whites one part salt. The big test we had to do in chef school. Is it firm enough? Why is there coffee grounds out here? Sage time and lemon time. So why do you salt bake? Lamb is very lean and I'm salt baking it to retain its moisture. It makes for an ideal seasoning. While the salt barrier also ensures that even cook through the meat. When salt baking you need to make sure to cover the whole piece with the meringue salt. Bake it at 150 degrees celsius until it hits around 60 degrees cold temp and then let it rest. What are we doing now chef? We're blending all the herbs so we can make a puree out of it. Nice. What the f*** just happened? It's everywhere. Every corner. How can it be in this corner when it came from over there? I don't get that. I was very close to putting on a white t-shirt today. I was like no. It's gonna be black. Wow first smell this. Super green. What are you adding into it? A tiny bit of centella. It stabilizes it and keeping it more homogenous. A quarter of a teaspoon for a cup. So the remainder of our pork stock from yesterday you see gelified a bit. So we want a really nice viscous sauce so what we're gonna do we're gonna reduce this pork stock down to like one fourth just to get a bit more flavor enhanced. It's like almost salty because there's so much concentrated flavor. I can smell lamb and herbs now. Yeah it smells so good in the apartment. This should be good. Today's the big day. Our big squash is gonna be cultivated. Whoa homegrown squash. That looks wrong. Our very own homegrown organic squash. Almost like a cucumber salad but with squash. That's not appetizing to me at all. No but that's it's to be friendly. So with lemon juice, olive oil and then some different herbs from the garden. That's a little fresh. Acidic. Cucumber salad-ish. Meal I'm the most excited about so far. Wait why? It's very much like my old style of cooking. Sunday roast, lamb leg, pork stock and all our things from the garden. I like it. And then small potatoes. Two most important things for potatoes. Salt, salt, salt and cook them from cold water. Salt needs to be like ocean. We're just waiting for the lamb to cool down for about like 30 minutes. So I'm gonna make myself a little drink. I have some water and I'm gonna dilute it out with the concentrated tomato broth. And ice and some basil from the garden. My marinara drink. After an hour of baking and 30 minutes of resting, the lamb was finally ready to carve. And this was so juicy and tender and beautiful. To plate we loaded everything. Mixed the herb paste with the reduced stock for the final sauce. And this is her. I know a plate is not everything but this dish with a beautiful plate. These are IKEA plates. These are the cheapest IKEA plates you can get. But it does the trick. Sauce on this is insane. I've been sneaking a couple slices of the meat before plating. And it's so tender, so soft. Incredibly well seasoned. This is the reason why I married a chef. I'm just gonna make sure I'm fed and fat and I love it. Time is almost 10 and I'm shopping for rye bread right now. Like my mouth is literally drooling. Thinking about finally making my own rye bread. Can't wait. It's a dream come true. I don't know why I haven't really started baking it myself. But this is the beginning to something beautiful. Kevin is making his spirit food. What is it? Rye bread. Is it a Guinness or half a can at least? Potion seller. Yeast shall rise. But I truly think rye bread is one of the best things to come out of Denmark. Like it's such a healthy bread. Especially when it's made with sourdough also. I'm so excited. I can't wait for tomorrow. We'll see how that turns out tomorrow. Morning. It smells sour but in a good way. I'll bake this now for one and a half hour at 180 degrees. I already heated up the oven. So hopefully we'll get a rye bread. It's been one and a half hour. Let's see how it looks. Wow it smells amazing in the whole house. Already now I can see it looks a little bit light. But it's also because we couldn't get all the right grain types. So this is a little bit of mixing. Always get it out of the mold straight away. It smells so good in the house. Like it smells like cereal everywhere. A good sign for rye bread that it's done and it's baked okay. That it needs to be a bit hollow. Wait that looks really good. Kevin's gonna show the ultimate Danish snack. We have a thing in Denmark called rødboll med tændsmyr. Basically that means rye bread with teeth butter. Teeth butter. What is that? That is butter in such a thick layer that it leaves a teeth mark when you bite into it. Number one nothing beats freshly baked homemade bread. Number two. I think the beauty of rye bread as like somebody who didn't grow up with it. Is like all the seeds. Like the texture on it is so good and it's so filling as well. It's kind of like that bread in Lord of the Rings. One small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man. I think the acidity also in rye bread is really great always. A sourdough starter or in this case sour dairy product. You also let ferment a bit. Huge success in my opinion. So happy right now. Like this is gonna be a regular in our household from now on for sure. This was my breakfast every single day when I was a kid. Maybe that's why I never grew taller than I did. Kevin is a pocket-sized Dane. He's quite small in Denmark even though he's like 6'2". I'm 186 on a good day. Scale a fish. You want a blunt item and you just want to run against the scales and you want to preferably do it in a sink or even submerged in water. For dinner tonight Kevin is making a Thai inspired steamed fish. I think we eat steamed fish at least once a week because it's pretty simple to make and very healthy. We butterflied the fish so we don't have to worry about bones later on. Laugh a little bit or something. What is a green herb used for pesto? We're blending our cilantro, basil and mint from our garden. Spicy bird's eye chili, lime juice, a splash of our favorite fish sauce and a little bit of palm sugar to balance it all out. After 10 minutes the fish is ready and we're topping it off with extra scallion, red chili, basil and cilantro and giving it a splash of hot oil over it so you get a nice herb infused oil and it also tightens the skin a little and I like it better for texture. Especially when we have so many herbs in our garden, this has been one of our favorite summertime dishes and yeah that is pretty much everything that we cooked this week. I hope this was fun to watch, something a little bit different and also showing a little slice into our mundane but fun life cooking at home. I hope everyone's having a great summer and I will see you again in the next video. Kevin come say hi, I mean bye. Bye. Thank you for watching. That's it? Love you doobies. Okay bye-bye.