-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... -Since Dooky Chase opened in 1941, many famous actors, musicians, writers and even a couple of presidents have passed through its doors.

Over the years, a who's who of dignitaries have made their way to the Tremé neighborhood to dine on the Creole cuisine of Chef Leah Chase.

This time, Chef Dook and Zoe Chase honor memories of distinguished guests with three VIP-worthy specialties.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We start with grits and quail -- a dish representing the best of the best that Chef Leah Chase served to President George W. Bush.

-I think back to the distinguished guests that we had here at Dooky Chase.

It brings me back to President George Bush when he came back here and we were able to serve him.

And my grandmother was thinking of a menu, and she said, "Let's do quail and grits."

And the reason why she did that is because as she was growing up, when you got quail and grits, you know you were at the ultimate high.

So today, here we have quail.

You're going to split it down the back.

So you will lay that quail out, come and we're going to slice right through it.

You'll get two sides.

You have the breasts and the legs side right here.

And the beautiful thing about quail is it cooks fast.

It's a very tender meat.

So we're not -- You don't want to do too, too much to this quail.

All I'm going to do here is do a little light salt.

Do a light little pepper on top.

And if you're thinking back to Madisonville, you know, you're thinking back to all those preserves that they had from the fruit, right, whether it was a plum tree, whether it was the apple orchard.

My grandmother used to like to do this with red plum jelly.

So today we're doing it with some plum jelly.

Got to keep it consistent to -- to what Miss Chase did.

So I have my quail all seasoned up.

We're going to start with the pan.

We're going to cook with a little butter.

Not only do we like to cook with butter, but the reason why I'm using butter here is you want a fat that's going to brown -- brown this quail a little quick, right, 'cause quail, like I said, is tender and it doesn't take long to cook.

[ Sizzling ] As always, don't crowd your pan.

And we're not looking to cook that quail here.

I'm going skin side down first.

We're looking just to get a good little sear, a little brownness on here.

That's about five of them right in this pan.

I'll save the rest.

We'll cook later.

In Madisonville, seeing those quails in the back, we would... able to go get some of those quail eggs that they had.

And if you smell that, I mean, you're creating something that's just beautiful.

You have that seasoning browning at the bottom that you see right here.

This is all you're looking for, that beautiful brown color right on this quail.

And you'll sit that right to the side.

I'm going to deglaze with a little water.

Certainly, if you have some chicken stock left over, you certainly can do that.

But I'll deglaze right here.

Not too much.

Just picking up that seasoning.

[ Sizzling ] I'm going to add in a little... grape tomatoes I have here, and you can see the bottom of my pan.

I just want to pick up all that great seasoning that we had here.

Let those tomatoes go just for about 1 or 2 minutes.

You want to make sure that whole bottom is covered with a little sauce, right?

See how I have it over here and not here?

I'll add a little bit of water.

And that's -- that's the level that you're looking for, right?

Not all the way up to half, but just making sure the bottom of that pot is covered.

♪ Add that little quail here.

You know, you imagine if you're sitting right here, you say that's just salt and pepper and quail.

But I tell you, that flavor that's coming through... you can start to smell that this dish is going to be one of those amazing dishes.

Here I have that little juice in here from that quail.

We're adding that back in.

Never lose flavor, right?

I always add it back to the pot.

And this is where the preserves come in.

Right here we have that plum jelly.

And what you do is we just want to tap each one of those quail with a little bit of that plum jelly.

♪ Tap that right there.

You want to baste it, right, to start that process of that preserve really just getting down into that gravy that you're looking for.

As that preserve there starts to get hot, it's going to ooze off, right?

And that's starting to create that gravy.

Not only will it coat that quail, but you're starting to thicken up that gravy that you're creating down here.

And that's why we're basting it here, just to make sure we're getting it hot where those drippings just kind of flow right into that quail and into that gravy.

And you talk about something great, another way you can do this is you can finish this in the oven.

So you can start that process.

When you add those quails back and the jelly on top, you can put it in a 400-degree oven.

Now in the oven, you want to do it just for about five minutes.

That oven's hot, it's gonna melt on top of that preserve.

It's going to ooze off.

So you'll go right in, and in five minutes, pull it right out.

It'll be ready to serve.

You know, President Bush came back here two times.

I guess he was excited on what Miss Chase was providing and the good-tasting food that she had, right?

So that's when you know you got it right is when they come back and they see it on a plate and they want to bring their friends back and the other presidents and the other prime ministers.

That's when you know you're doing something right.

This is what you're looking for.

You see how thick that gravy's got with that plum jelly kind of just oozing off in those flavors?

That's when I know we're ready to go.

You can see my -- my grape tomatoes.

They're still holding their shape.

They wilted a little bit, but not too much.

This and that smell, that jelly just coming up.

So what we'll do now is clean all of this up and get ready to plate.

So this is what you're looking for right here.

And what I want to do before we serve it up, make sure I got all my flavors in there that I'm tasting.

Mmm.

That's it.

These are those grits in the recipe that we showed you before with a little heavy cream.

and our cheese, our Parmesan cheddar.

And any time -- morning, breakfast, noon or night -- these are -- these are winners.

Take that off here.

I like to plop a... And who doesn't love grits?

I mean, give me a side of grits anytime.

Okay.

And this is -- Look at that beautiful quail and that coating on it.

That's -- That's really what you're just looking for.

Then just watch this.

Oh, man.

And I'm hungry, so I'm going to add an extra one on top.

But if you see this dish and you smell that, I mean, you know exactly why President Bush came back to Dooky Chase.

This is the best of the best.

This is what we want you to have and this is what we want you to taste.

So grits and quails with a little plum jelly preserve.

I'm ready to dig in.

-Photographs in the restaurant capture historic visits by two American presidents.

George W. Bush dined there during a North American Leaders' Summit.

-My mother loved George W. Bush because he would bring the president of Mexico, Calderón, and Harper from Canada.

And they talked about the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Victorian Room.

-I said, "Mother, do you think President Bush really believes that he can solve all of his problems over your bowl of gumbo?"

Because that was another thing she said.

"Eat my bowl of gumbo, you solve all your problems."

And she said, "Yes, and he can."

-President Bush, he was a sweetheart of a man.

I fixed him the grits and quail and the catfish and the breakfast shrimp and all that.

He said, "I never had grits and quail before, but I like it."

[ Laughs ] -Next, pecan-crusted redfish featuring pecans, a plentiful ingredient in Chef Leah Chase's hometown of Madisonville.

-As we continue on with our distinguished guests, I want to talk about the real showcase of our waters that we have here in Louisiana, and that's our redfish.

Not only are they fun when you go out and you hook up and catch, but when you bring them in, you know you have something special that everybody's going to want a piece of.

So we're going to talk today about our pecan-crusted redfish here at Dooky Chase.

Zoe will get us started with our egg wash. -So we'll have one egg.

Crack that.

Into our egg wash we want to add a little bit of water.

And also a little bit of milk, so our egg wash isn't too thick.

-And we're looking for that egg wash that's not too, too heavy, but just enough so that pecans and all that great seasoning would adhere to this fish.

-Alright.

-That looks beautiful.

-Now we'll season our flour with a little bit of paprika... some pepper... and some salt.

Give that a good little mix.

We have some fine-chopped pecans and we also have some rough-chopped pecans that we're going to add later in our sauce.

-And use pecans right here you can find in your grocery store.

If you find your medium pieces in a store, you're good to go.

We'll use these later for our sauce.

-Yes.

So now we're gonna put our fish in the egg wash. Then we'll do the top egg wash and we'll season the top as well.

Now we're seasoning another piece of our fish... bottom side down in the egg wash. ♪ Then we'll do front side.

And we're going to get a little seasoning on the front side.

♪ -And while Zoe is doing that, I'm going to go ahead on and get our fire hot and get ready to start cooking these bad boys.

So I'm going to pour in just a little oil and get that started first.

♪ We're going to put this on about a low to medium heat.

And just a little butter.

[ Sizzling ] And if you're too high, as always, pull that thing off and just let it go.

♪ And that's right where we want it to be.

♪ -And you don't want to crowd the pan, also.

You want to give your fish space to get crispy and cook evenly.

-So with that being said, I'm going to leave this one right here.

I'm going to work these three.

As we always say with fish or any protein, you start to see that cooking process rise, right?

Reason why we went down first is I can manage that golden brown that I'm looking for.

So we're almost halfway up.

I know we're getting to that color that I'm looking for.

So right when I get half, here I'm going to flip that fish and I can smell that nuttiness flavor, not from the browning of this butter, but from those pecans.

And that's what I'm looking for, just at brown.

You see those pecans?

So you don't want to go too far 'cause you certainly don't want those nuts to brown.

This one has to go a little bit longer because I'm not halfway up.

This one's about halfway up.

And we just work it just like that.

Look how beautiful that looks.

I'm not browning the butter.

I'm not browning the oil.

I'm just getting it right to where we need it to be.

-And that's what you're looking for -- that beautiful golden brown color on top of the fish.

-That bottom part of that fish has been cooking for about three minutes.

Fish doesn't take long.

We're getting ready to pull this fish out and create that sauce.

And let that go right here.

Right there.

Set that to the side.

And as always, this is your flavor, right?

So this is the part where we'll add in, toast some more of those medium pecans.

And I'm not looking to brown them too much.

That butter's already have that nutty flavor.

That flavor's already came through with the pecans that were added here into that fish.

Right here we're just building that sauce.

I'm going to get a little bit more of that butter.

[ Sizzling ] And I'm going to turn that fire off.

And we're just looking to cream it.

Give me one of those lemons that will squeeze right in here just for a little lemon juice.

[ Sizzling ] And I put it right in there because there's so much flavor in that lemon zest, right?

So if you want to zest it or not, but I don't want to zest it because I don't want zest on my fish, so I'm going to just let it -- that lemon talk to us.

And you can see that sauce is already starting to thicken.

And that's what we're looking for.

-We're going to put our fish, layer it, and our beautiful piece on the top.

-If you can smell this... Oh, my goodness, that brown, nutty flavor.

And just look at that.

Beautiful.

That's what you want them to see.

And when you're talking distinguish, not only are you talking redfish, but you're talking about jumbo lump, beautiful blue crab meat that we have here that we're just going to top.

-We have a little bit of parsley for color and then we'll do our lemon slice around the plate... just for some added color.

-I'm just at the top of the mountain right now, ready to dig into this dish.

-Yes.

-Visitors from around the world traveled to Dooky Chase's restaurant to meet the queen of Creole cuisine.

In her iconic meal stop, Chef Leah educated people from all walks of life on different flavors, including President Barack Obama.

-He takes the hot sauce.

"Oh.

Oh, Mr. Obama, you just can't put hot stuff in my gumbo.

You didn't taste it."

"But I like hot stuff."

I said, "Well, what you know from Chicago?

You don't know from nothing about gumbo.

You don't know about gumbo."

-And my mother just idolized Barack Obama.

And I got jealous, and I still am.

No offense to the president.

I know I'm not the president of the United States, but every only son loves to be thought of as the one that Mother loves the most.

-Let them come and enjoy themselves, which is one of the things that I think we do quite well here, no matter who we've had come.

We've been blessed with some wonderful folks who've come through.

It's just like, sit down, relax.

-Our last dish is a perfect, elevated entree for a star-studded meal -- stuffed fillet of beef.

-We're talking about steak.

And you're looking at this beautiful beef tenderloin here.

And we're going to even take up this beautiful piece of meat up a notch by stuffing it, right?

-So we have our pan heating up on a low, medium heat.

We add a few cubes of butter.

♪ Let our butter melt a little bit.

♪ We'll add some shallots.

♪ We'll let our shallots cook for about two minutes.

-My grandmother would put in the shallots, the ham, the mushrooms, a little garlic, and then you would add a little heavy cream.

-So I've added my chopped ham to the skillet, and we're going to let that cook for about three minutes.

Now we'll add some of our mushrooms.

♪ Let those get incorporated in our mixture.

And I'll add a little bit more butter just so we could get a little more liquid so when we add our bread crumbs... it will soak up that butter.

[ Sizzling ] Now I'll add a little bit of fresh garlic.

♪ Now we'll add to the end our green onion for a little color.

♪ And also a little bit of bread crumbs... to tighten our mixture.

-You can add a little more butter just to kind of bring it together a little bit.

So right when you get it here, this is when you can take it off that heat, put it in your refrigerator, and let it cool for about 25 minutes.

And as Zoe puts that in our refrigerator for us, this is a beef tenderloin that you'll find at the store.

If you have it with the silver skin on, I'll show you how to remove that.

9 times out of 10, most grocery stores have already cleaned this up.

So this skin, you just want to go slightly under it, right?

You don't want to get any meat when you go to remove it and you're just going to run that knife right along it and just take that silver skin off.

Come this way, run that knife right along it, right?

And take that skin off.

That's all you're looking for is just to remove.

The reason why we remove this is when you're cooking, it's going to be a little tough.

So we'll take that off.

Try not to get any of the meat.

So you just want to come right under that skin.

And if you want to hold it up, make it easier for yourself, that's what you're looking for.

Now we're going to open this beautiful piece up.

So I come right down the middle and kind of go on a slight angle, not too much.

And then I come down this one and go on a slight angle, and then we just start the... Now, don't go too deep, right?

You don't want to cut too deep while you're opening them up and you're getting the hole in there.

And I just do a few little nice little slight slits.

I'm not going too deep, but I want to go just to give it a little edge for that stuffing that we put in to start to stick in that seasoning.

So I have a little salt, a little pepper here.

A little garlic powder.

And I'm going to flip him over.

Do the same side on this bottom.

A little salt, a little pepper.

Little garlic powder.

So we'll go ahead on and get our stuffing out the refrigerator and I'll show you how to roll this fillet up.

Now that our stuffing has been chilled and we rolled out our beef and seasoned it, we have our string that will string up.

Now, note on your string, you want to go, I'd say at least about 7 to 10 times more than what you're doing here, just to give yourself a little cushion.

We'll start out, just put a little piece under here just to get us a little started right there.

And then all we do is we take that stuffing and you could go right down the middle of it.

So you're going to go down the middle a little bit towards our end and we'll start to roll this fillet out.

Looks beautiful.

I mean, look at these colors going into this.

So you take this side and you just want to roll.

And, look, your stuffing is going to roll with you, right?

So you're just going to be here and that's right where you want to go here.

That there, we have our string here and we're going to do the end here.

And we're not going too tight.

Right?

I don't want to squeeze everything out of it.

I just want to make sure when I go to cook it, it doesn't open up for me.

So come here, and I'll make my first little tie here.

And I come right here, flip him around, bring it up, and I come right under.

♪ And I think we're good here.

Squeeze him at the end.

I'm going to cut this string.

Gonna tie my knot off right here.

♪ And this baby is all strung up and ready to go in the oven.

So I have our pan right here.

And then to this pan I'm going to add just a little oil at the bottom.

Not much.

You got to put that fillet right on top of that oil.

I'm going to add just a little bit here.

Not too much because the last thing we have to top it with... is our butter.

So one, two, three.

Spread it out.

You have your oven preheated at 375.

We'll slide this guy in the oven for about 15 minutes.

♪ We took our stuffed tenderloin out of the oven.

We let it rest.

You want to let it rest for about 10 minutes.

So here we can start to take our string off.

And you can see that stuffing stayed right where we wanted it to be.

And before I go, I'm going to make sure I take all the little juices and I'm going to put it right in this pot.

[ Sizzling ] And that's on the low heat.

Of course, we're going to finish that with a little butter and a little garlic.

And what you're doing is just creating a little sauce to top this beautiful filet.

You can service all your guests that you want a little well on this side, a little more pink flavor on this other side that you're looking for.

And then we'll start to plate this guy right on up here on that plate.

Let's just...

I'll let you build upon and top it up for me.

I've cooked that sauce down.

I'm going to turn that off that heat.

And I'm gonna add just a pinch of butter just to kind of cream it up, thicken it up.

And you can hit it with just a little bit of parsley.

And if you smell this, that garlic, that butter... ♪ Look how beautiful that is.

And, I mean, just just looks superb.

You at the top of the throne when you get a stuffed beef tenderloin coming your way.

-And we'll garnish with a little parsley.

So beautiful.

♪ -Leah Chase's iconic book, "The Dooky Chase Cookbook," has been updated and includes all-new recipes from this series you're watching.

The cookbook is available for $27.95 plus shipping and handling.

To order, please call 1-866-388-0834 or order online at wyes.org.

-You talk about my grandmother at a young age and her father telling her three things to remember as she was going off to high school away from her family.

And that was work, pray, and do for others.

And you could imagine what those three things took in my grandmother listening and did what she did and accomplished throughout her life.

-They both loved to fish.

So we would -- we city children not used to getting up 5:00 in the morning, would get up 5:00 in the morning to go fishing with my grandmother Hortensia.

-I'm no outdoors person, right?

So we throw in this -- just a cane pole -- we're not talking rod and reel -- cane pole, and I remember feeling something on my toe.

I'm like, "What is that?"

She had us standing a little bit in the water, right?

And I lifted my toe and hanging on the end of the -- I still had like a flip flop on -- was a crab.

You know, and I'm like screaming, "There's a crab holding a" -- and all my grandmother said was, "Oh, when you looking for one of those you never can find any."

♪ -For more information about "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy," visit wyes.org.

Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by...