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♪ ♪ >> ANTHONY BOURDAIN: For every great chef, there is a time and place in their career where they knew that cooking was their passion, when all of their creative focus and energy turned towards perfecting their craft.

Maybe it was a specific restaurant or a mentor that inspired them.

Or maybe, for those lucky enough to grow up in a culture with its own deep and distinct culinary history, the path to being a chef was hardly even a choice.

For chef David Kinch, working in the kitchens in his hometown of New Orleans is where his path began.

>> DAVID KINCH: It tastes exactly as I remembered it.

>> BOURDAIN: Enter the Mind of a Chef.

>> KINCH: You can actually taste the sun.

I don't know how we're going to top that one.

This is the fun part in cooking.

Cheers.

♪ ♪ (sniffs) >> KINCH: I step off the plane and it all comes flooding back.

The beautiful imperfections, that is the patina of the spirit of New Orleans.

You know, things kind of weather over time.

Where everything and everybody looks like a disheveled thoroughbred, and I find that very appealing.

It's one of the few cities in the United States where food is such an engrained part of the day.

People talk about what they're going to eat all the time, without stop.

What they're going to have for dinner while they're eating lunch.

They argue about restaurants, they discuss, they recommend where they can get food, food they've eaten and what they're going to be eating.

And I kind of fell into that.

I started cooking, and I threw myself into learning what I could about restaurants.

With all the outside influence that New Orleans had in its long history, the mish-mash, they all left their mark.

What's amazing is there's a seamlessness to it all melted together to be this New Orleans flavor.

♪ ♪ I'm pretty convinced, even more so every time I come back, that I had some of the happiest times of my life here.

Commander's Palace, legendary.

It looks exactly the same.

It is so completely alien, and yet so perfect for its location.

How would you describe this color here?

Aquamarine?

Turquoise?

My first job ever working in a kitchen.

First time, also, I got the food bug where I learned that I really enjoyed cooking.

It was my job here and subsequent jobs that made me decide that I wanted to go to culinary school and pursue it as a career, which in 1979 was a different proposition than it is nowadays.

I think going to culinary school is almost a respectable choice now.

There was a tremendous amount of energy in the kitchen.

It was very daunting.

I was doing a lot of the lowest of the lows: cleaning of lettuce and picking of herbs, shelling nuts, peeling carrots, potatoes, that sort of thing.

It was the first time I was thrown into a situation where the frantic energy of something that needed to be completed immediately.

Not only that, but done very well.

So many moving parts.

Hot food was leaving, coming across here, walking up those stairs up to the second floor.

I remember marveling at the fact that people had to go up and down those stairs constantly.

It was pretty intense, the amount of traffic.

>> People always look at Commander's as an institution that's been around now for 135 years, and they say to themselves, "Wow, you know, it's a classic restaurant, all the food's got to be really classic."

>> KINCH: There's a lot of dishes that Commander's was known for.

>> Yeah.

>> KINCH: Are there dishes that remain on the menu that reflect the Commander's style and perhaps you have a chance to put your own spin on them?

>> It's a little funny.

I ask people what are the dishes you really remember, the really untouchable ones.

Like, turtle soup is big.

I mean, that recipe really goes back to probably, like, the late 1700s, when this part of Louisiana was getting settled.

You know, people ate what they had, and turtles were definitely a part of that.

We do that exactly like it's always been done.

But aside that, a version of gumbo, bread pudding soufflé.

Our menus are a bit of a balancing act.

>> KINCH: So in other words, if you honor the spirit of the cuisine and the spirit of the house, then you can do what you want.

>> That's it.

>> KINCH: One day at the Commander's Palace, I remember crossing the courtyard and coming upon a scene on the stones.

They had laid out a drop cloth.

Upside down was a six-foot snapping turtle.

The shell had been off and it had been cut open, beating organs, blood pumping.

They had a couple of cooks wrestling with it and breaking it down, and it was like a crime scene.

There's a lot of blood in a turtle.

It's a red meat.

That was an image seared in my mind.

I remember going, "Cooking is about life and death.

Things give their lives to satisfy our needs."

Gosh, 16 years old, six-foot turtle with its shell off.

>> So what we have here is about 45 pounds of ground Cowan snapping turtle.

There is a little bit of veal in there for some body.

And generally, we go through about 5,000 to 7,000 pounds of fresh turtle meat every single year just to make this one dish, more than anybody else in the United States.

Along with that is onions, celery, and green bell pepper, the foundation of all of our good food in Louisiana-- the holy trinity.

Salt, black pepper, dried thyme, raw chopped garlic.

Start sweating all this down.

Ah, that's awesome.

And it is a veal stock-based soup.

Add blonde roux to it, Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, whole ground lemon-- the pith, the peel, the seeds and everything.

Louisiana hot sauce, eggs, fresh spinach, and then every New Orleans recipe should finish with great, great booze-- dry sherry.

We go through a lot of liquor, that's for sure.

That's what really sets that turtle soup off.

That looks great.

This is the perfect Commander's Palace turtle soup.

>> Some turtle soup for you.

>> KINCH: Beautiful.

>> It's quite warm.

>> KINCH: I have not had the turtle soup here in 37 years.

I can't wait.

>> And a little splash of sherry because you have to.

>> KINCH: Yes.

Beautiful, thank you very much.

Oh, yeah.

A real turn-of-the-century dish.

I've learned to appreciate dishes like this, the history and the legacy that they represent.

It's very, very important, especially in a town like New Orleans.

It tastes exactly as I remembered it.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> What makes a po' boy so special is where it derived from.

You see, it started from the Martin Brothers-- Bennie and Clovis Martin.

They had been conductors and worked their way pretty high up in managing the street car lines in the city of New Orleans.

Because back in the turn of the century, you know, people didn't have vehicles.

Vehicles was a luxury.

And so these guys made their bones in the street car industry, and they were tired.

They did something they wanted to do.

They opened up their own little grocery story, Martin Brothers Grocery right on St. Claude Avenue.

So figure this: 1929, the height of the Depression, the street car workers, they weren't getting paid and the street car workers said, "You know what, screw y'all, we're striking," and they quit.

Any street car that was running a line in the city that wasn't run by a licensed union street car driver, oh yeah, they'd stop that street car in its tracks.

They flipped cars, they burned them.

It's like flipping a train car, but they did it.

When the word got out to Bennie and Clovis, they said, "Look, you boys come by to Martin Brothers Grocery store, "show us your badge, and we're going to feed you.

We're going to feed our poor boys."

And the first poor boy sandwich, they take a potato, fry it up, hack it up, and then put a little roast beef gravy on it.

It spread to wildfire right away, right away.

You'll have a guy with a $500 suit rubbing elbows with a guy who could barely afford a sandwich.

They're eating the same thing, talking to each other, which otherwise, these two people would never cross paths.

Eight to 80, crippled to crazy.

It's culture you can eat.

>> KINCH: Josh Mayer is a great friend of mine.

We went to high school together in New Orleans.

Over the years, we have always been in touch.

Josh is one of those very rare people in my life where I won't see him for a year, but the moment that I'll see him, it'll be like I saw him five minutes ago.

>> That's pretty tasty.

>> KINCH: We eat a lot.

>> Are these peppers?

These are Tabasco peppers.

>> KINCH: Drink a lot.

Oh, yeah.

>> Jill and I grew them a year ago.

Isn't that good?

>> KINCH: We cook together.

But for me, the po' boy is a perfect lunch, and oyster po' boys are the king of po' boys.

I like fried oysters, I can eat them all day.

It's one of my favorite things.

Fried seafood town, New Orleans is king, right, King Mayer?

>> Absolutely.

>> KINCH: We were talking about frying oysters.

We diverged a bit on how we would approach it.

>> We politely disagree.

>> KINCH: I'm going to try something I have only heard about, but it sounds really interesting: only with whites of the eggs.

>> Flat surface, right?

>> KINCH: That's not a hard edge.

And instead of cracking an egg going back and forth, you crack all the eggs in a bowl, you go in and you pull out the yolks.

And then I'll reach in and pull them out-- one.

>> That's the fun thing, and you get to do the fun thing.

>> KINCH: You can do the fun thing.

So now it's easy, just kind of use your hands as a mesh and leave the whites behind.

>> Yeah.

This feels so much fun.

It is easier this way, you are right.

I would've gone back and forth in the shell.

It would've taken me a lot longer to do it.

That's actually pretty amazing.

>> KINCH: Now the dry mix.

You always bread in cornmeal.

This is white cornmeal, which you love and you use, correct?

>> Love it, crunchy.

>> KINCH: Yes.

A little bit of flour, so you can get close to your pre-packaged mix that you buy.

>> (chuckles) I use flour, but sparingly.

>> KINCH: As am I.

The controversial ingredient.

>> Panko.

>> KINCH: Dried Japanese white bread.

>> That you've ground down to a very fine texture.

>> KINCH: That I ground down to a very fine texture.

>> But I like that part of it, but I mean... >> KINCH: I like it because it gets very, very crispy and very dry.

It's more like a flour.

>> Yeah.

>> KINCH: And now I'm just going to season it.

Dried garlic powder, which I never see anywhere except in New Orleans.

>> Really?

Onion powder.

>> KINCH: Onion powder.

>> It smells good.

>> KINCH: Cayenne.

>> I definitely use a lot of cayenne in mine as well.

>> KINCH: Was that a lot?

>> You could add more.

>> KINCH: Really?

>> Yeah.

>> KINCH: Okay, add a little more.

There we go.

White pepper.

>> Delicious.

>> KINCH: And celery seed, which you showed an interest in.

>> Right, that's a smart idea.

>> KINCH: Well, we'll taste and see.

I'm only doing this for the oyster.

And the last thing: fine salt.

>> Just go light.

>> KINCH: Why would I go light?

>> Because you can always add salt after it's fried, that's what I like.

>> KINCH: Oysters are also... >> Salty.

>> KINCH: And what is the predominant ingredient in onion and garlic powder?

>> Salt.

How'd I do?

>> KINCH: Very good, B-minus.

>> B-minus, I got them all right, I get a B-minus.

>> KINCH: Yeah.

That's kind of it.

It looks heavy on the cayenne, but we'll see.

>> No, it's not.

>> KINCH: So there's the spice mix.

We're not putting a dry ingredient on before going to the wet ingredient, which is a standard breading procedure.

Which I don't do, you don't believe in.

>> I don't believe in.

>> KINCH: How many oysters did you say you had, 300?

>> Oh, we have a lot of oysters.

All right, so great New Orleans French bread.

I've heard theories that there's the water that makes our French bread so good, that it's the altitude-- sea level-- the natural yeast in the air.

>> KINCH: It's not... is it a natural yeast?

>> Yeah.

>> KINCH: Okay.

>> If not, it makes for a good story.

>> KINCH: You know what I've heard also?

New Orleans is a proof box.

>> Really?

>> KINCH: It's not in a sterile proofing environment.

>> Maybe that's what I mean by the natural yeast.

>> KINCH: You don't believe in end pieces, do you?

>> No, I don't.

>> KINCH: I don't either.

>> That's good that we didn't have to talk about that.

The right French bread for a po' boy has the perfect amount of crunch on top, but it also has a lot of give.

These things are getting squished as you eat it, which means they're eject... >> KINCH: You should be able to hold it with one hand and not have it disintegrate.

>> Soft enough to hold everything, but crunchy because it's a very textural thing that you get that crunch on top.

>> KINCH: Oh, it's so good.

So I'm going to bread the oysters.

One of the keys to successful breading: one hand wet, one hand dry.

Otherwise, you end up breading your fingers.

>> End up like a zombie.

>> KINCH: They're a mouthful.

A lot of people intimidated by Louisiana oysters.

>> Yeah, they think they're so big and, "Oh, I could never eat all that."

Louisiana oysters grow in brackish water in the estuary of the Mississippi River where all this amazing fresh water coming out meets the salt water, and that's where the fattest oysters grow.

They're richer.

>> KINCH: Thicker-shelled, sweet.

Sometimes coppery.

>> Yup, I love the coppery.

But when you fry these oysters, they just seem to be a little bit more delicious for a po' boy.

>> KINCH: I would agree.

>> I'd like to just try them all and keep trying them all.

>> KINCH: Even if we haven't decided, we can try some more.

>> Try some more.

So we have about two dozen oysters ready to roll.

Generous po' boy, yeah.

So we're going to fry these things?

>> KINCH: No, we're going to toast the bread.

I like to have the bread just a little bit warm, get the butter melted.

I was thinking of shredding finely lettuce and cabbage and tossing them together.

>> Adds crispiness, it can't hurt.

In New Orleans, we just say dressed-- lettuce, tomato... >> KINCH: Mayonnaise.

>> Mayonnaise, some pickle, an essential way to make a po' boy.

That's just me.

>> KINCH: And you don't like pickles.

>> I think pickles are too strong of a flavor.

I think they skew the whole taste.

Getting toasty.

>> KINCH: Okay, let's get it out.

>> Crunchy.

(loud crunch) >> KINCH: Okay, tomatoes.

>> This is really good French bread, super fresh, you can tell.

Okay.

>> KINCH: All right, we're ready to fry oysters and make some sandwiches.

Want to see if the temperature is... want to stick your finger, just the tip of your finger in?

>> Mm-hmm, sure.

>> KINCH: And you are going to cook them till they're golden brown, yet perfectly cooked and moist and tender in the very center of the oyster.

>> (laughing): Absolutely.

>> KINCH: Okay, ready, go.

>> Oil.

>> KINCH: Yup.

♪ ♪ (sizzling) That's a great sound.

I know people who go on diets where they don't eat any fried food.

I don't get that.

I'm serious, I don't get that.

>> KINCH: How are they looking?

>> Pretty good.

>> KINCH: Ooh, yeah.

Adheres pretty nicely.

So what do you think about that breading now?

(chuckles) >> They're certainly crunchy.

They are crunchy.

I don't know about panko though, man.

It seems like it's cheating.

>> KINCH: All right, so... >> A little hot sauce?

>> KINCH: Yeah.

>> Another liquid that gets absorbed in the bread.

>> KINCH: And no pickles because you don't like pickles.

>> That's a good looking po' boy.

>> KINCH: It's not bad.

Not bad for a first effort.

>> A first effort, you're pretty good at this.

You ought to try it.

>> KINCH: I hope the bread's not toasted too much.

>> (laughs): I hope the panko doesn't ruin it.

>> KINCH: It could use some pickles.

(laughs) >> Delicious.

Can we eat these?

>> KINCH: Yeah.

(loud crunch) >> Mm-hmm.

Good.

Crunchy.

>> KINCH: Too crunchy?

>> Uh-uh.

You ought to do this for a living.

Mmm... >> KINCH: That's sexy right there.

>> Mm-hmm.

(loud crunch) >> KINCH: Mmm... >> Right?

(loud crunch) It's good.

(more crunching) Guys, you have to eat these po' boys, they are so... these are so good.

♪ ♪ >> KINCH: I did my externship back in New Orleans at Louis XVI, just starting out on my own.

Life was really, really simple.

You worked hard, you played hard, gutter rat in the French Quarter.

So it was great fun.

Everything after that is a memory and how you remember it.

Perhaps it increases in stature in your mind, maybe it doesn't.

Food's like that as well in that it's ephemeral, it's here and then it's gone.

♪ ♪ >> First, we're going to make a fig salami.

Fresh figs, they're in season right now.

These are the Calimyrnas.

The dried black missions are really nice, too.

I like a mix.

>> KINCH: Is this going to be the pork in the salami?

>> Yes, exactly.

We have chopped walnuts, anise seed, gives it that nice Italian flavor, and Sambuca.

>> KINCH: Susan Spicer is a chef here in New Orleans who I have had the pleasure of knowing for many years, going all the way back to working together at Louis XVI in the French Quarter.

>> To bind all this, we have a reduced muscadine jelly, which is a local grape.

>> KINCH: Very aromatic.

When it's fresh, it's beautiful.

>> Yeah, they do have a really distinct smell and flavor.

(whirring) Sticky mass.

>> KINCH: Putting it in the casing.

>> Yes, exactly.

I use the foil to shape it, round it a little bit, and let it dry out, say, three to four days.

>> KINCH: Something that you age and let the flavors meld a little bit.

What's next?

>> I'm going to time-travel back to my Louis XVI days and make a soufflé.

The first step is going to be a béchamel.

At Louis XVI, one of my duties was the prep table, where I was making savory soufflés to order.

It was really a special thing, you know, getting your own personal soufflé coming to the table.

So I season it with salt, black pepper, and nutmeg.

>> KINCH: Which, classic seasoning for béchamel.

>> Let this cool a little bit.

I never thought much about plate presentation until I went to France in 1982, and that was when nouvelle cuisine was just sort of being born.

>> KINCH: You striving to go work in France was very important in me deciding that I wanted to go work in France, too, you talking about your experience over there.

>> All right, so we're going to add these carefully.

We'll temper a little.

Maybe that's probably a good idea, huh?

>> KINCH: That was like another dimension, something to aspire to.

You left an impression with me because you weren't afraid to go outside and to come back and then be part of New Orleans.

I was always very impressed with that.

>> Thanks.

Here we go.

>> KINCH: So it's cheese time.

>> Cheese time.

I use two kinds of blue cheese.

I want one that's a little crumbly and dry.

The gorgonzola dolce tends to be really creamy and sticky.

>> KINCH: It's a great soufflé ingredient.

>> Yeah, all right, let's get some egg whites going on.

How to work up a sweat in New Orleans.

You're getting close.

>> KINCH: What are you looking for?

>> Looking for stiff, but not dry.

Maybe a little stiffer than that.

>> KINCH (French accent): What is this (bleep)?

>> (Spicer speaking French) Oh, that's perfect, thank you.

Who needs a Kitchenaid, huh?

Incorporate this in stages, mix it pretty thoroughly.

>> KINCH: Mm-hmm.

>> To lighten up your base.

I think I'm going to put one little piece of gorgonzola down to see what happens.

>> KINCH: A little gift at the bottom.

>> Yeah.

>> KINCH: It's nice to still have little lumps of the cheese as well.

>> Right.

All right, so I'm going to take these and pop them in.

Also, we have beautiful fresh figs.

I decided we'll put a few of those on the plate as well.

Drizzle a little sorghum.

>> KINCH: Ah.

>> It's kind of somewhere in between honey and molasses.

Run them under the broiler, get a little color on them.

We have our fig salami.

>> KINCH: Aged to perfection.

>> Soufflés are close.

You know, soufflés wait for no man.

They're looking pretty good.

>> KINCH: Oh, yeah, that smells amazing.

>> Smells good.

>> KINCH: All right.

>> I wasn't sure I could get my local figs, so I went foraging yesterday and... (laughs) >> KINCH: Really?

>> I did.

Gorgonzola soufflé with fig salami and fresh roasted figs.

>> KINCH: That sounds great.

♪ ♪ >> KINCH: I come here because it makes me happy.

That's the most important thing.

I had some of the happiest times of my life here.

The greatest and most exciting city in the United States.

There's a real deep culture here.

And the food is just so good.

Being inspired is just a byproduct of being here.

I was enamored with the power that food had.

That coupled with wanting to be a cook, I don't think it could've happened anywhere other than New Orleans.

I'm sure I'd be doing something else.

Something not as exciting.

(sniffs)