MING: This week on Simply Ming, a very special show in honor of our buddy Anthony Bourdain.

We're cooking from our heart.

Yes, and our guts.

We love you, Tony.

MING: Yes, we do.

I love you, too.

MING: I love you more.

♪ ♪ MING: Hey, welcome to Simply Ming.

I'm here with my great friend, Jacques Pépin.

And this is going to be a special show.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

MING: We're, uh... We're dedicating this show to a mutual friend of ours, Anthony Bourdain.

Yes.

MING: Who recently passed inexplicably.

And, Jacques, if I could just read a quote that he wrote, because he wrote the forward to your 2003 book.

Yeah, he was very complimentary.

MING: He, he basically said, without Jacques, he would never have made it, because Jacques actually backed him up when his first book, Ki tchen Confidential, came out, and got the book in front of the French chef greats, who were kind of against the book, like, "Oh, don't tell about the secrets, about fish on Mondays, and about the leftover bread."

But Jacques's like, "No, that's what we do.

That's how it happens."

And wrote, "So in a very real sense, I owe everything to Jacques Pépin."

He's way too complimentary.

He doesn't owe anything to me.

MING: But it's true.

And I owe... We all owe a lot to you, Jacques, and we owe a lot to you, Tony.

Great guy.

MING: You, really, you were the best storyteller, and, and we miss you.

And I know Tony, and I can speak for him right now, because he's looking down, the thing he'd want us to do, Jacques, is just cook from the heart, drink wine.

To you, Tony.

And that's what we're doing.

So as you can see here, we have a whole bunch of stuff.

So Jacques and I are going to do kind of an Iron Chef/Top Chef competition, but we're on the same team, so we're both winners.

We have pork, we have fish, we have veg, we have everything, we have spices, and we're just going to go.

We have more stuff... MING: Jacques, what are you going to do, and what am I going to do?

I'm going to start with dessert.

There is fish, I don't want to dirty my finger.

You see the amount.

I put a piece of butter in there, you know, a couple of tablespoons at least in there.

By the time this is melted, I'll be ready to make crepes.

This is what I do with my granddaughter, crepes.

You know, a couple of eggs.

Here I have about two third of a cup... of flour here, a dash of milk, a little dash of sugar, a little dash of salt.

And I start mixing it with a whisk.

Okay, now, one of the mistakes that people may do, they put too much liquid at the beginning, and the flour gets wet and get into little lump.

And you have, you know, little lumps all over the place.

So you have to put just enough liquid, so that it's very thick, like this.

So you can mix it, like, now it's smooth.

Now there is no way that it can get lumpy.

Then I put the rest of the milk.

Now, all water... MING: That's a great tip.

So go slow.

This, and as you can see, my butter is not melted yet.

So I do a crepe, I do the dough quite thin.

Even a bit thinner than that.

So it's like... okay.

So now it's about melted, as you can see.

I put that in there.

MING: Melted butter, yup.

Yup.

Put it back on the stove.

MING: I remember when I lived in Paris, crepes for breakfast.

It was the best "egg sandwich," right?

It was oeuf, jambon, and fromage.

Yeah, and people tell you to let it rest.

You don't have to rest.

MING: (laughs) So here, putting that in one corner, and mix it all around.

You know, you don't have to worry about it.

Just put enough.

And here, this is much larger crepe than you do normally.

This is a very large skillet, but it's okay.

You do it like that, so you serve one per person instead of doing small one and serving, like, four or five per person.

So it's easier.

MING: Okay, Jacques, I have started, I just have some onions, garlic, and celery, and a little Madras curry powder.

Oh, boy!

MING: So I'm going to do kind of a curry stew, because I see that fish, which we're going to break down.

Yes.

MING: I would love a little fish raw, and I'll make a sashimi or something.

But then I want the fish head, because I'm going to do a fish head and shrimp curry stew.

Flip it.

MING: Oh, look at that.

First I'm going to finish my crepe, one of those.

I'll do probably two crepe, one for you, one for me, all right?

MING: That would be nice, merci.

And maybe you want banana in there.

MING: Yeah, bananas would be great.

Banana flambé with, with rum, maybe.

MING: Yeah, we got rum, rum right there, right in front of you.

All right, so again, curry powder.

Cook the curry powder, and hit a little lime juice in it, as well.

What do you think about the pork?

Maybe we'll get to the pork, we can pound that out, right?

Okay, so I'm going to do that first crepe for you.

The second one is for me.

So I have to do it a nicer crepe.

(both laughing) Okay.

So you see, actually, the speed at which you... you put the batter on one end of the skillet, and the speed at which you, you twist it around, will determine whether it's thin or not.

You know, otherwise it's set up too fast.

The first crepe usually is for the, for the dog or whatever.

But we're going to have it, anyway.

MING: Oh, merci, t'es gentil.

(barks, laughs) But he's right, the first pancake, the first waffle is never good.

Usually, yeah.

MING: Right?

It's never that good.

But it's all right.

So here, we'll mix it.

So... MING: Okay.

So I got, I'm just putting bell pepper, celery, onions.

Bell pepper, celery, onion.

MING: So that's going to be the base of my curry.

I'm going to put shrimp in the fish head.

We're going to get to the fish head, but this is going right now.

All right, so that's a good base.

You have the crepe going.

You can do it with a fork, if you want, and turn it this way.

It's a little easier than flipping it, but, fine.

MING: Fantastic.

All right, then I'm going to take...

I'm going to grab some zucchini here.

See, I have enough with half a cup of flour to do probably eight crepe like this.

So it's pretty inexpensive, too.

So those crepe... MING: Okay, that looks good.

So I'm going to make a, kind of a zucchini base, and maybe for our pork dish.

So I'm going to at least get the veg done first.

Okay.

I do a second large crepe like this.

And in this, all I'm going to do is to put some...

I'll put some sugar to caramelize it, maybe again with a little piece of butter... to do a caramel.

And in that caramel, I'm going to put some banana.

And I'm going to flambé the banana.

Maybe I'll put a little bit of... On top of this, a little bit of... the skin of lime or lemon.

As you can see, this is a miracle thing.

MING: I love that you're starting with dessert, Jacques, because now we're guaranteed to have dessert.

Yes, yes.

MING: So, Jacques, épicé, huh?

I'm going to add some jalapeños to our curry, too, all right?

A little bit of jalapeños, as well.

Okay, lemon juice.

MING: Fantastic.

(sizzling) Get that going.

Yeah, caramel is working.

And then... People are really going to get confused there, right?

MING: As long as we don't do the caramel on the curry, we're good.

But this is what happen in the kitchen, you know; you start with something.

While this is cooking, you start something else.

While this is cooking, you start something else, and so forth.

MING: Which is why every chef has A.D.D., right?

Exactly, yeah.

MING: Not met a good one that's not.

All right, so banana.

Of course, I could put apple in it.

I could do another type of fruit.

Even berries, but as you can see, my caramel is starting to take a little bit of color here.

MING: I'm going to get some quick beurre noisette, and we're going to do a vegetarian dish, too.

So just a quick zucchini, watercress, and cherry tomato stir fry, very simple.

Nice color on this.

And then, Jacques, I'm going to ask you to break down that fish, because we have plenty of time.

As soon as you're done with the crepe.

You stole that recipe from me.

MING: That was from you?

Yeah.

MING: That was for what?

You stole that recipe from me.

MING: I did steal that recipe from you.

I'm sorry.

You see the edge, the edge of it is starting, slightly browning, and this is what caramel is all about.

So I'm going to put those banana in there.

To cook them a bit.

I have some lemon.

I have some lemon juice in there.

MING: Nice.

Yes.

MING: So we're going to do the ratatouille without the eggplant.

Okay.

MING: I have...

So I'm going to put the crepe in there after.

MING: So in here, simply, guys, all we have is zucchini, tomatoes, a little basil.

All right.

It's going to be a little vegetarian, very simple.

One crepe per person, like that.

You see, it's pretty elastic.

It could be a bit browner than that, actually.

But, anyway, you won't tell anyone?

MING: No, I think you're fine.

All right, here, so look at that, Jacques, so now we have nice, nice smell of India there, right?

So we can add a little bit of stock now, chicken stock.

So this will be a base.

We have some of these rice noodles here.

So I'm going to go ahead and just put them in some boiling water, just to rehydrate, and this will be a starch for our vegetarian.

Yeah, I'm always confused with those noodles, because there is so many different type.

I never know which one I just soak, which one I boil, which one I don't.

MING: Yeah, this one I just turned off.

I just wanted hot water, and I turned it off.

So I don't need, I don't need any more heat on it.

I just need to get... just need to get the noodles into the water, and they'll soften in about three or four minutes, which had is a good noodle to do when you're in a pinch.

Kind of like we are right now.

All right, so here we have the base of the curry.

Bring that to a boil.

Oh, those look awesome.

Now, the caramel is about fine.

So now, a little bit of pyrotechnic cooking.

We're going to flambé with some... With some rum.

Ooh!

MING: Very nice, very nice.

And... the cream and the rum here.

So I put it in there.

MING: Come here, boy.

That's yours.

MING: That looks awesome.

And this one here.

I love caramel.

Whoops.

Is going to be...

Mine.

Mmm, this is hot.

Caramel and crepe.

We could do a bit of powdered sugar on top, or a little bit, a little bit of mint.

MING: That looks awesome.

So, you are doing my work.

MING: Well, I wanted to get, I wanted to get the fish head.

So I'm going to take one filet for you here.

Okay.

So here is the crepe.

With a bit of mint on top.

MING: There's one filet for you.

I want to take this head.

Wow.

You want to take the head off?

MING: Well, I want the head, yeah.

I want to put this head, put this head in the fish stew.

And you want a piece of this one to do...?

MING: I'll get sashimi out of here.

Okay.

MING: You know what?

The gills are still here.

So I'll do sashimi out of this.

So the whole thing is mine here?

MING: That's all for you, Jacques.

The whole thing is mine, oh, wow, great, okay.

You know what?

I have a little bit of caramel left in there.

It's going to give a good taste to that.

A dash of olive oil here.

And my filet here, I have the stuff that you told me there.

What do you call that?

MING: Togarashi.

Huh?

MING: Togarashi.

Yeah, it's pretty fascinating.

MING: Yeah, very spicy.

Good, very spicy.

MING: Delicious and spicy.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm going to put some of that on top, some salt on each side.

MING: I'll just take one little piece of this.

Okay.

MING: That's all I need.

And now... MING: Sashimi.

The way I'm going to cook that fish, I'm going to put it skin-side down, this way to cook, and I will not burn it.

I will leave it just like this, except that I have to put a lid on top of it.

And the lid, the lid will give me enough, enough steam to come on top of it.

MING: Good, because I need...

Enough steam to come on top of it is going to cook the top, and I am going to have a very crusty bottom.

Okay.

MING: Chef, ça, c'est chaud.

Okay, so, yeah.

MING: So in France-- I learned this a long time ago, because I never knew, right?

When there's flour on the handle?

If you see flour on the handle, when I was in France, I went, "What is that for?"

And I grabbed it.

Don't touch it.

MING: That means it's, "Don't touch it, it's really hot."

Yes.

MING: So I'm just going to go with some shrimp.

What happens in the kitchen.

MING: So here's our curry.

We're going to go straight shrimp.

So here, this is going to be our curry shrimp.

So this dish will be done shortly.

And I'm going to, I'm going to use this on a... on rice noodles, all right?

Good, I'm going to... MING: Rice noodle curry shrimp soup.

A little bit of this here.

MING: So here's our first dish, Jacques.

Okay.

MING: Very simple.

So rice noodles.

All right?

And we're going to see how this tastes first, because that's très important.

Yup.

MING: Taste, taste, taste, taste, taste.

Make sure it's seasoned.

Oh, that's pretty good.

A little more salt.

Needs a little bit of acid there.

I'm going to a little bit of a pepper.

MING: Are you using the peas, too?

I'm going to use some peas, yes.

MING: Perfect.

I mean, I could have used a tomato, but you stole it from me.

MING (laughing): I stole it from you?

So curry shrimp, again, jalapeños.

That's why I took this gig.

MING: Going to put some watercress.

So as soon as this shrimp is cooked, this dish is done.

So this is going to be a curry shrimp noodle soup, all right?

How about this...?

So I'll do the pork.

You're going to do the fish there?

So let me get a little sashimi going.

This is fun, Jacques.

But you've cooked for Tony, before, right?

What do you think his favorite dish was that you cooked?

Well, you know the beauty of him, he could extol the quality of the greatest chef in the greatest restaurant in America with no more than the little woman cooking behind a stove in Alabama or in Mexico.

MING: Right.

Doing a dish, you know, the dish that people eat at home or in the street and all that, the poor or Vietnam, or whatever.

He was very good with that.

So there was no...

He was not an elitist cook, you know?

He was a cook, a real cook, you know?

I think.

MING: He was a cook's cook.

And you're right, he cared about...

He cared more about street food than fine dining, honestly.

Yes.

And, frankly, there was no... he was very genuine, you know.

There was no...

He had no, no patience with fakery, and, you know, fake stuff or whatever.

So that's what's great about him.

No question about it.

MING: He, he was the real deal.

And you can see here, it starts steaming on top because of my lid here.

Thank you very much.

MING: Oui.

So I have some yellow pepper that I peeled, some onion, a little bit of hen-of-the-wood.

Hen-of-the-wood is a great mushroom.

According to the American Indian-- well, I pick up a lot of wild mushroom in the woods-- this is a miracle mushroom, good for cancer, for basically any type of sickness.

MING: You're 100%.

It's the healthiest of all, of all the mushrooms.

Okay, so you're doing what there?

MING: Kind of like a red striper carpaccio.

You're doing carpaccio?

Okay.

MING: All right.

So that's that.

Do you need me to do anything?

MING: We're going to do the pork next.

What should we do with the pork?

Pork, well, I don't know.

We are going to do scaloppini with pork?

MING: Yeah, I think that makes-- we have the pounder.

So we're cooking live here, guys.

We're not taking breaks.

We're not braising.

We're just going to keep cooking.

I have fresh peas here.

All of that stuff, I'm going to end up in my fish at some point, maybe pretty soon, actually, because I'm going to continue cooking it with the lid on top.

Wow, that looks good.

MING: All right, so we have a little sashimi there.

We're going to... we'll just garnish it up, and then we're going to put a little flash of hot oil on top.

And how much is that, $22 at Blue Dragon?

MING: That's $42.

(laughing) You... it was great, the other night you did a... You did a sashimi of, of salmon there, very spicy.

MING: Oh, at Blue Dragon, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very good.

MING: You liked that?

Awesome.

So guys, I'm heating a little bit of grapeseed oil.

So my wife wanted to have the recipe.

I said, "Well, you know, you have to ask.

I cannot tell you."

So here... MING: This is hot, too, this handle.

Oh, yeah, look at that.

...cooking that.

Right now, I'm going to put this around... Now I'll just put that around.

Give it a bit of color.

And maybe the, some peas.

MING: Look at that.

My mother would have happy with that cooking.

Well, I don't know.

MING: Okay.

Okay, you... MING: So we have that.

I have my this, I have my noodle soup with shrimp.

Okay.

MING: I can... go ahead and plate this up.

You want a bit of onion or something, on your soup?

MING: No, soup's done.

No, more on top of this?

MING: Yeah, scallions or chives or herbs would be great.

Okay, cool.

A bit of scallion.

MING: Curry shrimp noodle soup down, like that.

We've got a crepe suzette.

Oh, yeah, baby.

That looks good.

Okay, here we go.

Salt.

Fantastic, good.

Then I'm going to take this oil.

And flash this fish.

Oh!

Put it on top like that, and it cooks it.

That's a good trick.

MING: So that's a new-style sashimi.

Yes.

MING: There we go.

So we have that.

Wow.

MING: Then we have our ratatouille.

You know what I put on top?

Can I put a bit of sesame seed on top of that?

MING: Oh, please, that would be great.

Yeah, maybe a bit of sesame seed here.

MING: I'm going to see... Let me see if we can get to this real quick.

I'm putting it here, kind of with some sesame seed on my crepe, also.

So that's sesame seed.

Okay.

MING: Okay, I'm going to... You're going to pound this?

MING: Yeah, I'm going to pound this.

We doing it in that one?

MING: How about some... Do you want to do some apples?

That's really hot there, so... We can do, you know, an apple with it, and maybe deglaze with a bit of vinegar.

MING: Perfect.

Bit of vinegar.

I do an apple for you.

MING: Just get this a little bit thinner so it can cook quicker.

Awesome.

Okay.

MING: I'll do some more togarashi, which I like, as well.

When you cut an apple, make sure you put your thumb here when you do this.

Otherwise, that knife goes right into your finger, you know?

MING: That would be no good.

Then we cut it in half, and, again, the center, the same way.

You put your thumb, and you cut around like this.

MING: All right, a little pork scaloppini here.

Yeah, something sweet.

MING: Take a little bacon.

(Jacques chopping, pan sizzling) All right, so we're going to get four or five dishes.

That's pretty good.

Okay, we have an apple here.

MING: Perfect, add a little bacon around.

Okay, we have our little ratatouille.

And we have that great... that great... vinegar.

So where is my, my cover now?

MING: In my hand.

Whoops, this one is hot.

MING: In my hand.

Here you go.

All right.

MING: Voilà.

Thank you very much.

MING: All right, so we have, boom, ratatouille.

There we go.

Pork, last dish.

We'll put apples in your fish.

Yeah, for the time being, you have, like, seven dish-- I only have one.

MING: No, we've done them all together, Jacques.

All right, this can be for your fish.

And I will, I'll add your apples.

Okay, yup.

MING: Love it.

Okay.

Beautiful.

All right, so you know what?

This is going to take one minute, this is going to take one minute.

We'll plate that up.

Come back, and you're going to see it, all five or six dishes we did, 19 minutes.

Wow, I need another drink.

MING: Whew!

♪ ♪ MING: Bacon apples on our pork.

Oh, yeah, baby.

That's going to be good.

MING: That's going to be good.

Yeah.

MING: Okay, your turn.

I have my garnish of the fish here, I cut a couple of garnish, because we don't have a salad.

You know...

I mean, doing with... MING: Zucchini salad.

...like this, you know.

A bit of salt on top of it, too.

You want to pour that on top of it here?

MING: Oui.

We have three or four different type of vegetable here.

MING: Looks so good, Jacques.

Yeah.

You know, a sashimi, we have soup, we have vegetable, we have a whole fish, and then we have... Let's try our pork.

The apple really tastes... mmm.

Apples are very good with the vinegar.

MING: Oh, wow.

We should do this for a living, Jacques.

Mm-hmm.

MING: All right, I have to try this.

Ta-da.

Let's see if the banana... MING (chuckling): That's so good.

That's amazing.

I mean, in three minutes you can make perfect crepes.

You're the best, Jacques.

Certainement.

Tony would be proud.

To you.

MING: To you.

And to all you out there.

I'm proud of you.

You know, you could be my kid.

MING (laughs): I would love to be your kid.

Please add me to your will.

My lawyer will call your lawyer.

Okay.

MING: Avec plaisir.

And to all of you out there, the most important thing, and the reason we did it this way is, José Andrés was supposed to be here today, but he wanted to heal, because he was one of Tony's best friends.

So he decided to stay in Guatemala, because nothing heals us chefs better than just cooking for other people.

And I said, "José, you stay."

And we drink to life.

MING: Yeah, drink to you.

To love.

To friendship.

MING: At 83 years old, Jacques, you're amazing.

So to you all out there, cheers.

I'm going to be 93.

MING: 93?

In ten years.

MING (laughing): I hope I'm 93 one day.

Thank you.

And thank you as always.

Just remember, food heals, and food is the glue of our society.

Let's keep that going.

That's all we can do is just be kind.

I'll drink to that.

MING: And cook good food.

And drink some wine.

And, as always, of course, peace and good eating.

Cheers.

To you, Tony.