(mellow music) - As a chef and restaurateur, I know what a happy dining room feels like and it's gotta feel the same when I'm cooking for friends at home.

A casual but elevated meal with fresh bread and quality ingredients will do the trick tonight.

Chef Jan brought some amazing Kaiser rolls from our new bakery we opened together, LoDough, and Hospitality director, Tyler Winterholler, brought his new mustache.

We're shaking up drinks and slathering Kewpie mayo on everything, so everyone leaves my home full of life and buzzed on happiness.

Jan, thank you for coming, you brought some beautiful bread and we, of course, the bread eating champion, Tyler, who loves bread.

So you were up all night making this bread.

- Correct, yes.

Luckily I don't live too far from here.

- [Frank] So tell us about the bread, Jan. What kind of bread did you make for us today?

- Yeah, so we actually have a Kaiser Hoagie roll here, which Kaiser rolls are like typical Austrian breakfast roll.

There's some milk and butter in them, which makes them toast up perfectly but also gives them a really lovely texture.

- 'Cause these are like soft and chewy but a little bit of crust, which I think is the ultimate thing for a sandwich, right?

- Yeah, exactly, you just want to bake that like really high temperature and you get a nice crust out there.

- And Tyler, you just like all bread.

- I like all bread, but I like this type of bread, this warm and gooey on the inside and crispy on the outside.

- Have you ever met a bread you didn't like?

- Never.

- Bread is such an important element of everything we do.

For me it's about the simplicity and just the quality of the bread.

And so I'm gonna do two dishes, a Beef Tartare which requires a vessel to eat it, which is bread.

And I'm not gonna toast this, I just want the bread to stand out with the texture of the Tartare.

And then of course you have bread this beautiful, you have to make a sandwich, right?

I mean there's just no other way around it.

- Absolutely.

- So I'm gonna do the French 75 blackened fish sandwich and toast this up just on a griddle with a bunch of butter.

And that's what we're gonna do.

So I'm gonna just cut this filet mignon up and I'm gonna hand cut it.

You can certainly buy ground beef, I don't think it's as good.

Or you can ask your butcher to cut up the filet for you or grind it for you.

But filet is so tender, so easy to cut.

- So Frank, what kind of filet should people look out for to buy for it?

- You can use a rib eye but you want something pretty lean, something really moist and chewy like, so a beef tenderloin is like, there's not a lot of muscle in it.

It's already tender.

So that's why I like beef tenderloin.

- Is it because there's very little marbling in that or do you want more marbling to add more flavor?

- So you do want marbling when you're cooking a steak.

When you cook the steak, the marbling is the fat that goes through it.

That's what breaks down and melts and makes the the meat moist.

When you're doing a filet, you don't have hardly any marbling, 'cause it's the inside, it sits inside the rib.

It doesn't get a lot of exercise or movement on a filet.

That's why it's so tender and soft.

While I'm cutting this up, Jan, you brought a cocktail for us 'cause we definitely wanna leave here full and buzzed.

- All right, yeah, so I brought a little cocktail here with some fresh blackberries and sage, lemon and honey.

I'm just gonna put it all in the shaker.

Add some fresh sage to it.

Give that a good shake.

(shaker rattling) And then we'll pour that over some ice (mellow music) (liquid trickling) and we can top it off with your favorite ginger beer.

Or if you wanna have a fun night you can just use your favorite Prosecco or champagne to top that off.

- [Frank] That looks delicious.

- And then just some fresh sage to garnish it, some blackberries and the sage and the, the fresh sage and the blackberry will go really well with the Tartare flavors in that delicious crispy bread.

Cheers Tyler.

- Thanks.

- So I'll get the tartare started.

- Yep.

- So I already have the beef chopped up, so I'm gonna make like an aioli so to speak.

But I'm gonna take some fresh garlic cloves 'cause I love a little garlic in it.

There's a million ways to do tartare, right?

Like you put the egg yolk on top.

I'm not a big fan of the egg yolk on top 'cause the times I've had it with an egg yolk on top, they usually will mix that in for you, right, when they bring it to the table.

You don't usually just pick through a tartare that has an egg yolk on it, 'cause I think that doesn't divide it very well.

So I like to mix everything in and I don't mind some big chunks of garlic 'cause it's spicy, right?

- Is this a traditional aioli because there's so many different forms of it nowadays that people prepare.

- This is the Frank aioli.

This is me showing you if you were gonna make it at home and you don't feel like taking egg yolks and emulsifying it with olive oil.

I'm gonna actually use some Kewpie mayonnaise, which mayonnaise is an aioli so I'm gonna put that in my bowl.

My garlic, you can use cornichons, capers, million things to put in it.

I like pickles so I just have, I'm not gonna put too much in, just a little bit of diced pickle, 'cause I think the acidity from that works really well.

Shallot.

So it can usually have red onion in it or something.

But I love a shallot so I'm just gonna do a little bit of dice shallot in this.

Smaller is better, 'cause you don't want it bite into a big thing of shallots.

- [Jan] Are shallots less spicy than red onions or?

- Shallots are a little more mellow than red onions.

They don't have that acidity, that big bite to 'em.

So that's why I love the shallot.

- [Tyler] These are just raw shallots, they aren't- - Raw shallots.

Just give this a quick chop through so there's no big pieces.

I'm gonna add that into my bowl and then, oh, how do you feel about anchovies?

- The more the better.

- 'Cause I feel like that's a quintessential part of a tartare aioli.

So I'm just gonna mince up some regular old canned anchovies.

I just love the saltiness of an anchovy because it really, it's that interesting salt.

So this is my, I guess my version is surf and turf, right?

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- So you need a little mustard with steak and just, one of the things I love.

- Is that traditional mustard or Dijon?

- It's Dijon mustard so it's got a little spice.

Splash of Worcestershire.

And then I'm gonna put my mayonnaise in - Just a little.

- Just a little.

I'm not gonna probably use it all.

So I'm gonna use a little bit of Tabasco just to give it a kick.

Just a couple dashes, 'cause I love Tabasco with steak.

So, nice, big pinch of salt.

- It's a good pinch of salt.

(Salt grinder grinding) - I mean it's raw beef, it's rich.

So I think when people are cooking at home, they often don't put enough salt in and they wonder why it doesn't have that, like, that taste that it has in the restaurant.

So basically this is like an aioli, right?

I mean, I'm just cheating by buying mayonnaise but I'm buying really rich, that mayonnaise, Kewpie mayonnaise is the best mayonnaise in the world and it adds so much flavor to things.

So.

That's really good, so.

It's sweet, so now I'm kind of ready to assemble.

So I'm gonna put my steak in here and then I'm just gonna, I'm not gonna cover it with this, I just want to coat it with this.

Mix it all up.

I think, you know, in the restaurant we usually would like ring mold this or something, but I think if you're doing this at your home, I like to just do, I mean you could quite honestly just throw it on a plate, but if you do just a little quenelle, let that sit right in the middle of the plate.

- [Jan] You have a beef tartare sandwich too.

- Because your bread is so good and I have eaten a lot of it in the past couple weeks.

I like the idea of just giving fresh bread.

I think sometimes we're making croutons and stuff, 'cause the bread isn't fresh when I think just a nice, like the crust of the bread and the flavor and the moistness of the bread work really well with something like this 'cause it's not impeding it.

And then what I like to do is just put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and this is just like a really nice fruity extra virgin olive oil.

And I think it just helps elevate the bread.

It's like butter.

If I could justify putting butter on this bread, I would.

This is what I am serving, 'cause I think it makes your, it really elevates the bread.

- [Jan] All right, I'm excited for this.

- [Tyler] I'm very excited - This is great.

- So delicious.

I really enjoy the tanginess that comes from like the mayo itself has like a really fresh tangy note to it.

And then the shallots.

- Yeah, the Kewpie mayonnaise actually has MSG in it, which gives it that like almost citric acid flavor to it like lemon juice, that's why I love that so much more.

And rather than having to tell people make an aioli, you're kind of making one but you're cheating along the way.

Which is okay if you're cooking at home, right?

- Absolutely.

- It also brings out the pickles.

- Yeah, the pickles are a nice little bite to it.

We're gonna take some of this lovely bread and make one of my brother's favorite thing.

My brother, T, introduced me to a blackened fish sandwich.

So it's one of the things I love making.

I have some simple Mahi Mahi filets.

They're like six ounces.

And when you do blackening, some people put olive oil on their fish.

I like to slather it with butter to help the blackening spice stick.

And this also gets nice and golden brown when you're doing it.

And then you don't have to really have anything on your pan when you cook.

So I just take my filet and I dredge it.

I only do one side when I blacken it.

So there's salt, there's pepper in the spice and then I just wanna lay it right on your Plancha.

What some people call it, I think it's just a griddle thing's made a million pancakes.

And where do you get the blacken spices at, seasoning at?

So you can use anything that, they sell them in the store.

We make our own blend and it's like paprika, little cayenne, some fennel, garlic powder, onion powder, salt.

So there's a ton of things in blackening spices.

I would just buy a blackening spice from the store.

I think it works really well.

- [Tyler] How hot do you want your pan to go?

- I want my pan very hot.

Like this is like, you can see it's already starting to go.

So I'm using pretty high heat on that.

- And what other fish would you recommend each besides Mahi Mahi.

- Grouper?

I love like a rare seared tuna on the sandwich.

Opa, Ono, any nice white flesh fish works really well.

Mahi Mahi is really available so, catfish would work really well.

So really any fish that you like to eat works really well and if it's a fish you don't think you like that much, the blackening spice covers up all the fishy tastes.

So it's a great way to introduce people to fish is with a blackening spice.

So I want to get our bread going too.

What I love about this bread is that it will toast really well.

So when you're toasting bread for something like this, there's no time to skimp on the butter.

- [Tyler] Jan, how do you find a good loaf of bread at the grocery store?

Something.

How do you know if it's fresh or?

- Yeah, I mean use your senses, like when you smell your loaf, like you want to have a nice fragrant smell to it.

Usually like, you know the smell when you put bread in the oven, you want your crust to be crunchy.

It's like listen to it.

- You smell your loaf.

- Yeah.

(Jan laughs) And- - I don't know that I've ever heard that expression used.

Smell your loaf, but.

- Smell your loaf.

And then when you pick it up it should give into your just like light pressure on your finger or with your finger and look at the ingredients as well.

Like a lot of grocery store breads will have like citric acid added to it to create that sourdough taste.

But it- - But it's not sourdough.

- It's not sourdough.

No that's not sourdough.

But there's just a good ingredients - I think when you have bread this good and you just put some butter and sea salt on it, it really can tell you how good the bread is.

And I think when you're looking to buy bread, that should be your litmus test for what is good bread.

Can I just put some butter, olive oil and salt on it?

- That was great.

- I just want to check.

Ooh yeah, we're good.

- [Tyler] So how long would you say you cooked that on each side?

Are you looking for like a medium rare medium or you want it cooked all the way through?

- When I'm doing a fish like this, I want it cooked all the way through for a fish sandwich.

So I would say that you're gonna flip it over and you can see like that nice crunchy, slightly black, I think our bread is nice and golden.

So we're gonna flip that over.

So the bread's ready to go.

I'll probably give this like one or two more minutes.

I mean it's a thin piece of fish, it shouldn't take that long to cook.

So now we can get ready.

I want to put a little remoulade on it, which is like a French mayonnaise basically.

So I'm gonna go back to my Kewpie mayonnaise as our base, 'cause you saw how good it was in the tartare, right?

A little more.

I'm making a French tartar sauce, but instead of pickles I'm gonna use some capers and I'm just gonna chop these capers up.

Not that you couldn't put 'em in hole, but I'd like it if they mix in a little bit so you get more than one whole big caper bite.

- [Tyler] And what does that add to the sauce?

- It adds that briny flavor to it.

So much like you would use a tartar sauce to dip fish and chips in.

This is basically the same thing.

I think it's a little more elevated 'cause it, the capers are not quite as briny or as sour as a pickle.

And I'm looking for something a little more mellow than that.

So you know, just something to help moisten it up.

So a nice squeeze of lemon juice in here, some salt.

Some black pepper.

And then just a dab, I know it seems like a theme we're using Kewpie Tabasco but a little Tabasco, 'cause I do want that spiciness from the Tabasco.

I'd like to just put a little pinch of Dijon mustard in and then this will be our remoulade sauce.

Super easy to make, actually goes really great on a hamburger.

Throw a little ketchup in it and it's the best, the best secret sauce ever.

Okay, so our bread is pretty well toasted.

So that's our top, that's our bottom.

So really I don't like to garnish it with too much.

So tomato, lettuce is really all you need.

I like to go top and bottom with my remoulade sauce.

(mellow music) And I think this is just, I don't know why, but I mean I'm a tartar sauce guy through and through.

- It looks delicious.

- So one way to check, you can kind of cut through and I can see like it's separating, it's cooked all the way through.

It's not translucent, it's white, which is what we're looking for.

And the reason I just flipped it over for that one second, is just to get the top hot since it's been cooking on the bottom this whole time.

So really that's just to heat it all the way through.

And then some nice big slices of tomato.

- That's great.

- I have some baby gem lettuce that I like, like super crunchy lettuce.

So you can use any lettuce you want.

Iceberg works really well.

And then we put our top on, flip it over, push down.

Oh, I did the wrong side down.

This would be your blackened fish sandwich.

- So this is your brother's favorite sandwich.

- [Tyler] This is my brother T's favorite sandwich.

And it's just a sandwich I love and I think the fish is moist and I love that spiciness of the blackening.

It is one of the things that I really loved when we put on the menu at French 75 when we opened.

And I think that's like true, honest cooking.

Just a few ingredients.

The remoulade, the Kewpie mayonnaise in the remoulade.

That's what we are looking for is just simple flavors.

You know, really nothing goes better with a fish sandwich than a nice beer.

Jan, you brought this beer 'cause you think it goes really well with the blackened fish sandwich.

- Yeah, so this Hazy IPA has like lovely citrus notes to it and the hops just work really well with the fish as well.

So it just compliments all the ingredients in that sandwich then.

- Thanks so much for being here with me today and I'm excited.

I love working with your bread, Jan. Tyler, pleasure as always.

Love the mustache.

(Jan and Tyler laugh) Never turn down the invitation to have dinner with you, Frank.

(glasses clinking) - [Altogether] Cheers.

(playful music) (words twinkling)