$500 vs $16 Steak Dinner: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients

Whoever is going to eat this, congratulations.

[Producer] You know what you're gonna eat it.

I know I'm gonna eat it.

Congratulations.

[laughter]

[mischievous music]

Hi, I'm Frank, I'm a professional chef

and this is a 500 dollar steak dinner.

[mischievous music]

Hi, I'm Lorenzo, I'm a home cook and this,

is gonna be a 16 dollar steak dinner.

[mischievous music]

[throws book]

[catches book]

Ummm.

Oh, pardon you.

[slides tray]

[laughs]

Coca-Cola.

I mean this is just somebody went

out in the forest and went nuts.

[mischievous music]

This says it is Frank's.

[turning pages]

And I have to tell you, first off, poor handwriting Frank.

[laughs]

So for my meal I was planning

on a more high end restaurant feel to it.

I had a butter basted rib-eye steak.

Holy smokes look at that.

I don't think I've even ordered that before.

[Frank] I had fondant potatoes.

Fondant pot--

What does that mean?

[Frank] With caviar and creme fraiche.

Huh?

Oh, caviar.

Ew, caviar.

[Frank] Some bordelaise sauce with black truffles.

What is this bordelaise, what?

What is a bord--

What is that?

[Frank] And some broccolini with wild mushrooms.

And this is something I wore at prom.

[laughter]

What the fudge you guys?

[laughter]

I feel slightly evil.

It's like we broke into a five star Michelin restaurant

and I just grabbed everything I possibly could

and said let's have some fun.

With Lorenzo's recipe,

I have a little more simpler ingredients.

And maybe something that a little more

common place in your kitchen.

Flank steak, Coca-Cola, low sodium soya sauce,

garlic, ginger, broccoli, some chili flake,

russet potatoes, scallions, sour cream and cheddar.

So, these ingredients might be a little simpler

but I think that I can elevate them

and make them a little better.

If I had a guess, this would probably

cost about 25 to 30 dollars.

[cash register ding]

Oh, 16, really?

Oh that's cheaper than I thought.

It's a little intimidating

'cause it's really fancy schamncy pachancy.

I mean.

[cash register ding]

It's a few hundred bucks, that I don't have.

[mischievous music]

The fondant potatoes that I planned to make

sound really fancy and I hope Lorenzo

doesn't get scared off by that.

Why, why?

Salt, pepper, butter.

Potato, simple.

What's wrong with you?

I like how I'm looking at Frank's recipe,

it's actually just ingredients

it doesn't tell me step by step stuff.

I think I'm just looking for some help.

[laughs]

And it's kinda just that next step up

from just roasting potatoes in a pan.

I'm a little clueless on a couple of the things.

Is there a chance that I could maybe

ask somebody for a little help?

Rosemary.

[laughs]

How are you?

How am I?

I'm panicking a little bit actually.

I feel like I'm on an island

and I just drew help in the sand.

Can you--

[laughter]

Fondant potatoes.

Oh they're delicious.

What you're gonna do is you're gonna

trim off the very edges,

and you're going to cut them in half and peel them.

They're gonna look kind of like scallops.

And sear the top get it real crispy,

and then you're going to take them and flip them.

Sear the other side, and then you're gonna add

a stock like a chicken stock or a vegetable stock.

And finish them in the oven.

Thank you so much Rosemary, I appreciate it.

[blows kiss]

Take care.

It's just sounds more complicated,

but it's potatoes, you know, I can do it.

Bing.

Ooh, lord have mercy, okay.

So I've got all my lovely russet potatoes

pretty much like little stools.

And I'm gonna sear both sides.

Originally, Lorenzo planned for this

to be a regular baked potato.

So we're gonna do is twice baked potatoes.

Little more fat, a little more flavor,

just a little more deliciousness, okay.

Baked potato with butter is great,

twice bakes potato with cream cheese and cheddar

is even better.

All right, so I have the garlic.

I'm just gonna crush it.

I have the ingredients and I know,

just doesn't tell me how to put it together.

[laughs]

That's the mystery.

First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bake it.

And I'll poke a few holes in it,

just to let steam escape.

So my skin doesn't rupture.

And then I wrap it in foil.

[rips tin foil]

I'ma bake this potato about 350, 45 minutes to an hour.

I already hear Rosemary saying

that's not long enough, it has to be darker,

and you didn't sear it long enough.

And this a gigantosauros tongs.

What the heck?

So this potato was baked for about 50 minutes.

When you squeeze, you can see there's a little bit of give.

So what we're gonna do, is we gonna take the potato,

slice it in half.

And very carefully with not tryna break the skin,

I'm going to take the center of the potato out.

I wanna leave a little bit of a wall there,

so it's not just skin.

Just so that it holds together.

And I'm just gonna kinda like mash this up a little,

just so it won't have any big chunks.

[mashing potatoes]

Yeah I, oh yeah.

See I shoulda turned it up all the way.

That's more like it.

Ooh, there ya go, hello.

That is, all right, Rosemary would be happy with that.

Okay, okay.

Okie dokie [mumbles].

I'm gonna all my flavorings to this.

A little bit of sour cream.

Well maybe not a little bit, maybe a lot.

Salt and pepper definitely.

We're gonna grate a little cheese,

I got some nice cheddar here.

Don't be skimpy with the cheese.

It's gonna add some richness,

a little bit of sharpness to this.

I'm gonna use scallions, as a flavoring for this.

This is one of those ingredients

that people will do this, they'll cut the root end off.

They'll either use all the white

and throw away the green, or use all the green

and throw away the white.

I use the whole thing.

All of it's good.

And we're gonna mix it really well.

Always taste your food.

Delicious.

At this point you can probably just scoop

it in with a spoon.

I'm gonna use a pastry bag, okay.

It gives me a little more direction.

I can make it exactly the way I want it.

It doesn't look like you didn't care

and just kind of flopped it on there.

The pastry bag gives it a little

more of a elegant feel to it.

So at this point, you're gonna put 'em in the oven.

And we're gonna let the top get a little brown,

let 'em warm through.

And then we'll garnish later.

I need to turn this down 'cause

I don't wanna burn my butter.

I'm not sure how much butter is in here,

but I would imagine yeah of course

you add the butter first.

I'm guessing, that's one tablespoon,

two tablespoons, three tablespoons, four,

oh I'm goin' for it.

It's like a stick of butter I think.

Let's let that go, oh let my put my yeah,

oh that's happening.

[pan sizzling]

I mean, potatoes and butter.

[laughing]

You win.

Rosemary, hugs.

We are moving on to the sauce

that I have no idea how to pronounce.

Bordelaise sauce.

[laughs]

Thank you Frank.

In Lorenzo's recipe, he marinates the steak

in the Coke and the soy sauce.

I'm not gonna do that.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take

the marinade stuff and make a glaze out of it.

So if you wanna dip into it later,

you can dip into it.

If you wanna just taste nice piece of meat,

taste a nice piece of meat.

Hopefully no one shook this up.

[opens can]

So in places that I've seen Coca-Cola used in marinades

and baking it usually comes from the fact

that there was sugar rationing during World War Two.

So I'm gonna cook this down.

Basically just dumping everything into the pot

and letting it reduce down.

[chopping]

And I'm gonna look for this,

right now the bubbles are gonna be really small

and kinda fluttery.

And then once this starts to get a little thicker

you're gonna see bigger bubbles that take

a little longer to burst.

You wanna just reduce it until

it starts to thicken rather than 'till it's dry.

If it gets dry it's gonna burn.

All right, now I'm gonna do the red wine reduction.

So I need to reduce this about a cup, Frank says.

That's about a cup, little bit more than a cup.

I'm going to add my shallots, and fresh thyme

and what a what a what a bay leaf.

Easy peasy, so far so good.

[laughs]

Ow, no, just kidding.

Let's put a couple of these in.

We can also--

[Tapping spoon on pot]

That looks like a very rich sauce,

the color's fantastic.

[stirring sauce]

Not quite sure how thick it's supposed to be.

Earth calling Rosemary, come in Rosemary.

What did she say?

Can I ask you one more thing if you have time?

Okay, sauce, I have sauce that he wants me to make.

I tell you what, Frank is not gettin'

the Christmas card this year, I'm tellin' ya.

It calls for one cup of wine.

How much do I reduce that?

So, stick a spoon in and then run

your finger down the back.

If it prates,

that's a nice thick enough sauce.

If not, worst case scenario just drink

the wine when I'm done.

[laughter]

That is the test she wanted me to do,

the old back of a spoon test.

And if it leaves a nice clean line,

I know my sauce is thick enough.

Totally carry this spoon.

[wipes spoon off]

Thanks Rosemary.

Turn this off, and all I have to do now,

is shave some black truffle.

Oh wow, never had one of these guys in my presence.

[laughs]

[sniffing]

It's very, it's earthy.

[Frank] With truffles for the most part,

they're best when they're freshly

sliced on top of things.

[slicing truffle]

Let's see, how much does he want us to do?

Oh, the whole thing?

Wow.

There's truffle products that have kinda

those truffle flavorings in them,

but when you get a fresh truffle

it should be sliced at the table in front of your guests.

It's not just for the flavor, it's for the show as well.

[chewing]

It tastes expensive.

[laughter]

All right guys, bordelaise sauce, with black truffles.

The next step, is to do our steak.

This steak is enormous.

[laughter]

I mean, you guys.

Now with the rib-eye that I had planned,

the high end rib-eye.

I had planned on sauteing it

in a cast iron pan.

The way I'm gonna cook this flank steak

is similar to the rib-eye.

I really just wanna get a nice

kind of caramelized coating on it,

so I'm gonna season the steak first.

A fair amount of salt and black pepper.

With the salt we go fairly heavy.

Liberally, liberally, liberally.

So, I need this hot.

Like, super hot you guys.

This is the nicest skillet I've ever seen in my life.

I like this.

Christmas presents, please.

The key to this is that you don't want

the oil to splash on you.

So I'm just gonna drop it in the pan away from me.

[pans sizzling]

[Lorenzo] Here we go guys.

And I'm gonna let it stay there.

Leave it alone.

Let it go.

[pan sizzling]

This is gonna take a few minutes.

Sending smoke signals.

Dinner's almost ready people.

Come and get it.

I'm gonna flip it away from me.

[sizzling]

Throw it around so I have nice amount of fat.

If you look at the steak,

it has a beautiful crust on it now.

It's gonna add a ton of flavor to this steak,

it's going to add some texture as well.

You're gonna get a little crunchy bits.

[Lorenzo] Let's just throw these in, we smashed it.

[sizzling]

[laughing]

What I'm gonna do to check temperature

is I'm not necessarily gonna use a thermometer.

If I push on this piece of meat and it gives me

some spring back that means that it's cooking.

If I push on this piece of meat

and it leaves a dent that means

it's pretty much raw in the center.

So this I know is still pretty rare here,

and here it's kinda cooking up.

You guys, you guys, you guys, you guys.

I think I'm teary eyed a little bit

it's so beautiful.

[laughing]

I'm crying it's so pretty.

Lorenzo's issue is gonna be

that's a really thick cut of steak,

and usually with those getting the right temperature

is a little more of guess work.

So, Lorenzo might wanna use a thermometer for that.

Ooh, medium rare.

Perfect.

So I'm gonna let this steak rest for about ten minutes.

I really wanna dig in and eat this right now

but you need to let it rest.

If I slice it now, all the juice is gonna flow out.

Be patient, it'll be worth it.

Let's move on to the broccolini.

The expensive version I was gonna use broccolini.

We have a rich steak, a really rich potato dish

and the broccolini's gonna have just a little bit

of bitterness to cut that.

Broccolini's really great by itself,

need a little salt, pepper,

maybe a little garlic.

But every day broccoli is delicious if you treat it right.

So normally people take the broccoli,

cut the head off, everything else gets

thrown in the garbage.

What I like to do is I save the stems.

So if you're gonna serve the stems,

you have to peel them.

'Cause otherwise it's a little on the tough side.

And it sometimes needs a little help.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get some

garlic and a little bit of ginger.

[chopping]

A lot of times people will boil broccoli,

and boiled broccoli I mean,

there's nothing worse than that.

It smells bad, it tastes bad,

it gets too soft.

I like to roast broccoli.

It adds a little bit of more depth of flavor to it,

and I'm gonna use some of Lorenzo's ingredients

here to make that just a little bit better.

A little bit of chili flake,

just to let 'em know it was there.

I'm gonna use a little bit of soy sauce,

I'm gonna use a little bit of salt.

Both of them have salt in them,

but salt kinda gives a pure, plain flavor.

Where soy sauce kinda gives a richness.

I'm gonna throw this into an oven about 350.

For about 15 minutes.

You'll see the broccoli starts to break down,

it'll start to get a little bit

of caramelization or charring on top

and that's what I want.

I wanna take it outta the oven

when it's just a little bit crispy.

I'm actually going to take it out,

stopping the cooking process by submerging it

into ice water.

Next, mushrooms.

I just have to start seeing what these are.

These are great.

[Frank] Lorenzo should make sure that he gets

those mushrooms nice and caramelized.

Any mushrooms that kinda go in a pan

and they just kinda sit there and boil, not good.

The texture's not like really great.

You want those mushrooms to be just slightly

crispy when you put 'em on the plate.

These are very thin, delicate mushrooms.

So I think it's okay to add whatever

I need to add to finish this off.

My broccolini.

Looks good to me, let's try it.

[chewing]

Wow.

This is lovely.

Lovely, lovely, jovely

is all I have to say.

And wow,

[laughs]

It's heavy, it hurt my wrist it's so heavy.

The most important thing for this piece of steak

is to cut against the grain.

That's because if you cut it with the grain,

it's just gonna be super chewy.

It looks so good.

[slicing steak]

Does it look good?

When I'm plating a dish I'm usually

looking for a little textural difference,

a little height difference just to make it interesting.

If you just throw everything on a plate flat,

it's kinda boring.

So I'm gonna kinda just prop things up a little,

do a little chef wizardry and try and make it

just look a little bit nicer than what

kinda grandma woulda put on the plate.

[Lorenzo] Creme fraiche, caviar,

ooh it's the green caviar.

A little chives on these guys.

Oh, broccolini has shaved fresh parmesan.

So we have our beautiful steak

propped up on our broccoli stems.

I got a little bit of that soy and Coca-Cola glaze.

And that's my take on Mr. Lorenzo's dish.

There's a little piece left on my board,

that's the chef secret.

We eat all the ends, we make staff meal out of it sometime.

But that's my snack, okay.

Truffles, and uh.

[laughing]

That's it.

That looks good man.

If I do say so myself.

Steak.

[mischievous music]

Hey, how you doin'? Frank.

It is an honor and a pleasure I'm tellin'

you right now sir.

Pleasure to meet ya.

Oh looks at that.

[laughter]

Oh, that looks good.

Oh, that is my potato.

Oh it's a twice ba--

Yeah, so you know we took a little

chefs poetic license with this right.

Yes, you made it nice.

We made like a little glaze with the Coke

and the soy sauce.

[Lorenzo] Oh, very good, very good.

The broccoli we roasted with some ginger and soy

and then we did a twice baked potato.

So I'm gonna give it a taste with this sauce.

And add a little bit of mushroom on there.

I don't even know what kind of mushroom that is.

I think it's a chanterelle, delicious.

Your seasoning is wonderful.

Oh thank you.

Oh man, great.

Really?

Sauce is on point.

[Lorenzo] I've never had a sauce like this before.

It's one of those classic French sauces,

you would think it'd be too rich

but it actually is a good foil to the steak.

It looks like it would be so, so rich.

'Cause the color, look at the color.

[Frank] It's a great compliment.

[Lorenzo] It's different, that is good.

Let's taste yours now.

Okay, let us get a little bit of this

and your--

I'm nervous too now.

[laughter]

My hearts beating, I'm a little worried.

What is the reduction, is this like the soy sauce?

This is the soy sauce, Coca-Cola, ginger, garlic.

[chewing]

That's taste like mama.

What my mama made.

The ginger and soy sauce are so nice together.

[Frank] And we roasted the broccoli

with the ginger and garlic and a little bit of chili flake.

And baked in the oven?

Baked in the oven, yeah.

[chewing]

Oh my god.

And it's a different texture 'cause you do it in the oven.

Nice, nice.

[Frank] I'm goin in.

[Lorenzo] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Frank.

Oh my gosh.

[Frank] See how we did.

[chewing]

It's yummy, the sauce is really delicious.

It really compliments.

It almost tastes a little smokey, believe it or not.

You know I was a little nervous about Coca-Cola,

I saw Coca-Cola--

[laughter]

And now I'm gonna add that to my kind of tool belt.

You know, you don't think of Coca-Cola

as an ingredient that you use in really good cooking,

but that's delicious.

Thanks Frank.

[applause]

[laughter]

Oh--

That was fun.

That was really fun, and delicious.

Eat up, you guys.