NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home for over 125 years.

Zatarain's, born and raised in New Orleans.

From the spice of jambalaya, to the flavors of a classic crab boil, it's a taste of New Orleans made at home.

And by Camellia Beans, rooted in New Orleans since 1923, a family business with a devotion to beans spanning four generations.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

DOOK: Today on "A Chef's Journey," we're on Tchoupitoulas Street, a cultural hub with a rich history tied to New Orleans' growth alongside the Mississippi River.

We're here to visit Cochon, opened in 2006 by Chef Donald Link.

In this renovated warehouse, the award-winning chef serves up traditional Cajun dishes he grew up with.

So, let's head inside to have a conversation about the bounty of the bayou.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ DOOK: So, welcome, I'm here in Cochon with Chef Donald Link, and what a treat for me.

DONALD: Yes.

DOOK: He's getting ready to make his favorite salad.

DONALD: We're approaching summer, so these are just a couple of like super fresh things that I do, because I like to eat lighter in the summer.

It's a real simple, quick salad that I'll just put together, and then we can just chat as we go along.

But I wanted to do it live so you can just see just how simple this really is.

And you can just see, like, these Creole tomatoes this time of year.

It's a short season, but I mean, they're just so pretty right now, it's hard not to do anything with them.

DOOK: Many of your fond memories, you said, growing up with your grandfather cooking, having the bounty of the land, Creole tomatoes, fresh herbs.

I see these beautiful cucumbers.

I mean, this is just a story of growing up with family recipes and working with what you have.

DONALD: Yeah, I was fortunate where I grew up in Southwest Louisiana.

You know, my grandparents did a lot of cooking.

My mom did, too.

You know, my granddad had a farm for us, you know.

DOOK: Mm-mm.

DONALD: He just, he just loved to grow everything.

So, every, all the produce we had came from the farm.

We fished a lot.

Our uncles hunted.

I mean, there was always meat and fish, and my dad and I used to shrimp.

You know, everything that I do in my career now is, is based on that kind of fresh cooking.

DOOK: That is the key, and that's, that's the best tasting.

DONALD: This, this won't take long.

So, it's real, it's a real, like I said, bright salad.

I have some of our mayonnaise here, but store-bought mayonnaise, believe, is just fine.

So, just some fresh zest in here.

Little bit of the juice from this one.

I like a little heat in mine, so I add a little diced jalapeno.

You know, the trick of this, like, is to cut them really small.

DOOK: Okay.

DONALD: And then you don't get mouthfuls of spice.

When they're cut super tiny like that, they spread better, so you get the taste of the chili without all the heat.

DOOK: I love it, tell me, what was that last ingredient?

DONALD: A criolla sella.

DOOK: A criolla sella.

DONALD: It's from, I believe they're from Bolivia.

DOOK: Okay.

DONALD: South America originally, but they grow really well here.

So, another thing that obviously grows really well here is mint.

And fresh herbs and really just, I think maybe a lot of the Vietnamese influence in New Orleans... DOOK: Mm-mm.

DONALD: All the fresh herbs and the way they cook.

That's the beautiful thing about you know, Creole food, is all these blended types of cuisine.

This is like a summer in the backyard, little dinner party.

It's great because you can just make a big plate of this.

Dill, parsley, just some fresh herbs.

DOOK: This starts that meal.

This talks about family growing up.

This talks about working with what you have, what's in season.

DONALD: It's all about the seasonal stuff, man, I mean, I eat two of these sandwiches every day when I'm on, when I'm on vacation.

It has to be soft, fresh, white bread, and that's what I brought here.

My mother's side of the family's from Alabama, so I'm going to give them credit for this sandwich, probably.

But this was just something like when you have these beautiful summer tomatoes.

I mean, this is, I'm almost embarrassed to do this on camera because it's so easy.

DOOK: That's the best recipes.

The simplest recipes that you have are the tastiest and full of flavor.

DONALD: I mean, it's good with bacon.

I'm just saying.

But it's really good with just the tomatoes.

We'll try that.

And see?

And that's it, just a, just a... DOOK: That's a beauty.

DONALD: ...messy, messy little... DOOK: Sandwich.

DONALD: Old, wet tomato sandwich.

DOOK: Well, the perfect way to start this meal here is this beautiful tomato salad with lump crab meat.

I can't wait to dive into it at the table, and let's continue to share some great stories.

DONALD: All right.

DOOK: Share with us a little bit about that Cajun culture, that Cajun food, Cajun versus Creole.

DONALD: You know, growing up, you don't really think of it that your food is restaurant food, right?

Or I didn't.

It was just food.

In my world, there were no chefs.

DOOK: Mm.

DONALD: It was Granddad and Grandma and my parents, and eating what we grew and fishing and shrimping.

And, so it wasn't until later till you start to realize, like "You know, wait, I'm actually, we're growing up with something different that the rest of the world doesn't have."

And the best thing I can do to describe Cajun food over Creole food is that I always say that Cajun is a dialect of Creole.

DOOK: That's it.

It's a celebration of many different cultures.

I call it the "all-star cuisine."

DONALD: When I think Cajun, right, I think where I grew up.

You know, I think of Creole to be more of that French and African influence, like sauce piquante... And fricassee.

And then you've got the German influence of sausages.

I mean, I'd say the boudin's probably a good mix between the two.

DOOK: Oh, yeah.

DONALD: This gumbo is the perfect example of all the cuisines that kind of came through here at some point.

DOOK: What I love about everything that we see here is just those simple elements, but elevated in a fine dining restaurant.

When you walk in the restaurant, you're hit with that beautiful aroma of smokiness from that wood-burning oven.

DONALD: When we opened Cochon, I didn't feel like there was a good representation of Cajun food.

DOOK: Mm.

DONALD: And then the idea was to have a little meat market, like the ones I grew up with, like, you know, like when you go drive through Acadiana, and that was the original concept for Butcher.

It still is, you know, it's just a little bigger.

This is the andouille, this is our boudin.

This is a smoked duck pastrami.

And then we make also, all our salami is made next door.

It's all made in-house.

And we have a curing room, like we're not playing with charcuterie.

I mean, we literally make everything.

DOOK: Oh, this gumbo is fantastic, by the way.

DONALD: This is our, this is our Cajun dark roux gumbo.

DOOK: Mm.

DONALD: They're all a little different.

Like rice is a very interesting part of the, of both cultures.

You know, my family is the German settlement, is a, started a lot of the rice farming, the Germans.

DOOK: This speaks to me, Cajun.

DONALD: Yes.

DOOK: This is a crawfish etouffee in, in a pie.

DONALD: Yes.

DOOK: So... DONALD: I would definitely put this on the Cajun side of the spectrum.

If Creole is nothing else, it's a food in process.

DOOK: Yeah.

DONALD: It's always changing to this day, and that's what I love about our food, but it still has that, you know, strength, that, that, that depth.

DOOK: So Chef, this has definitely inspired me to, to get back in the kitchen.

It's been an honor to sit here and talk to you about, you know, culture, Cajun, Creole, fresh ingredients.

But I can't leave without tasting that beautiful sandwich.

DONALD: All right.

DOOK: I saved it to the end just in case I made a mistake... DONALD: Yep.

DOOK: And it starts to ooze on me.

DONALD: Here, yeah, you're going to lean over the table and try it.

DOOK: Oh, this... DONALD: It's messy.

I don't even bother with plates.

I eat it right over the sink.

DOOK: So before I get back in the kitchen, I have to dive in.

DONALD: This is how you know it's summer, the tomato white bread sandwich.

DOOK: Welcome to my kitchen, where inspiration and creation come together in a celebration of culture.

Today, we're talking Cajun, and I'm going to show you how to make a pork fricassee with potatoes.

So I have my skillet getting warm here, and we're going to add just a little vegetable oil to it.

And then on top of that, I'm going to add in a little butter.

(sizzling).

So this is a pork butt.

As you can see, we cut it down into inch thick.

This is the speed process that we want to cook on the stovetop.

Normally, if you leave it whole, you're going to have to cook it low and slow in the oven.

We'll add these cubes right here.

Then we're going to hit it with a little salt, a little cayenne pepper, a little black pepper, have a little granulated garlic, and I'm going to make sure that's worked all well in there, and we're going right into our hot oil.

In this stage, what you want to do, you're just browning that meat.

You're making sure you're sealing in these pork cubes, sealing in this flavor.

So you want to let these cubes go on each side for two minutes.

As my grandmother would tell me, "Just let that cook, little boy.

It's, it's doing its thing right now.

Don't, don't, don't interfere."

You're starting to see that going from that pink coloration of that pork to white that's coming.

That's when you know that it's cooking up.

You should be getting a good color on that bottom.

And this is what we're looking for.

You see that coloration that's happening.

Now we'll just flip them on over.

This is on a medium to high heat.

You're looking just to brown it, because that browning is also going to help give you the color to this dish.

This is where we need it to be.

I'll grab a bowl, and we'll start to pull this out.

Now, as I'm pulling this out, I'm turning this to a low heat, because the next part of this process is making that roux.

(sizzling).

I'll set that right here to come back.

So this, we're going to add our flour.

Of course, you know roux is one part flour, one part oil.

We're going for a peanut butter, peanut butter color.

It's called a peanut butter roux.

And then we'll just move this around.

Then you can start to add in those onions, and it'll still do a little coloration while you're adding it in, but it'll slow it down just a little bit.

The next step, as we add in the trinity, we'll be adding our celery.

As that goes just for about a minute, roughly, then we'll bring into the bell peppers.

And you can see, we have just a rough chop on these, right?

Call it rustic.

Nothing too refined here.

Really, it's about building and layering that flavor in this pot.

To this, as you add, we add.

Now we'll bring in a little salt.

Now we'll bring in a little pepper.

Now we'll bring in some dried thyme.

And right before we add that stock, we'll bring in the garlic.

And we'll let that go a little bit.

And as I deglaze, what I like to do is just turn that heat up a little bit.

I had it on low, now I want to bring it to medium.

So as this comes in, that shock starts to wake up that bottom, and it picks it up.

(sizzling).

And that's where we're going.

We'll clean it off.

And then here, we'll add back our pork.

And you can see some of that juices as we let it sit, that flavor just oozing out.

Now we won't add our potatoes to this.

You have to allow that pork to simmer for 20 minutes.

So this has been going for 25 minutes, and now it's the time to add in our potatoes, right.

The pork is not all the way 100% tender, but it's perfect enough for the last 10 minutes, allowing these potatoes to cook with it.

And you want to make sure you have the right ratio for pork and potato, right?

You don't want to dump all in the potatoes.

This is a pork fricassee with potato.

And we'll add right here, add a little salt, come with a little pepper, and then I'll make sure they start to swim in the smells of this dish.

I know it's tasting great, but I have to dive in, and I have to taste it.

Ooh.

I'm going to let this go for 10 minutes, then I'm going to show you how to plate it.

We added the potatoes.

They look great.

I know they're cooked.

I know the pork is tender, right where we want it to be.

I also want you to notice just the reduction on that sauce, right?

That's some of that potato that's cooking off.

This is a dish that you bring to the table.

We call it family style.

Add a little more of that gravy just right on top.

Hit it with just a little chopped parsley for color.

And that smell, as you're talking Cajun cuisine, one pot full of flavor, layering the vegetables and the protein at just the right time, and it creates a dish that'll please the family.

When we were with Chef Donald Link, he made this simple sandwich, a Creole tomato.

You didn't think it was going to be much, but when you took a bite, it was fantastic, just delicious.

It was hitting on all cylinders.

So I'm going to showcase our Creole tomato sandwich here.

So we're going to start with this brioche bread.

He talked about how the bread was important to this dish.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to butter this brioche.

I have an oven.

My oven's at 400 degrees, because I want to make sure I get a nice toast to it, and I'm going to butter both sides.

And I'm going right in the oven, and I'm putting them right on a rack.

I'm going to see if I'll get some marks to just highlight and showcase what we want to show here.

Presentation matters.

We'll keep an eye on it, but we'll also keep our nose on it.

As you smell bread toasting, it'll start to come on to your nose, so be mindful of that.

Next, we'll work this egg salad.

So we have a little bit of mayonnaise here.

Just add a little bit.

We have a little bit of our dill relish.

We have a little chopped celery.

This is going to give you that crunch.

And before I add in that mustard, I'm going to hit it with a little seasoning.

We have salt, a little white pepper, and then we're just going to do yellow mustard.

I like the tanginess that it's going to give.

And you can see for this dish, what we started with is just chopped boiled eggs.

A rough chop.

We didn't want to go too small, because we want that to hold up to those Creole tomatoes.

I am going to give it a taste just on the side to make sure we have enough salt, enough white pepper.

Oh, that's going to balance well.

Not too much mayonnaise.

A little bit of that tanginess from that mustard.

This is going to balance that sandwich real well.

So I smell my toast, and we're ready to pull it out the oven.

Oh, yeah.

Be careful, you can use tongs if you like, but I want to show you what we were able to do when we talk about just that proper toast, those chars.

That's going to look beautiful.

And now we're going to build this sandwich.

Of course, I'm going to use the presentation side down, so when we put it together, I want you to see it.

We'll have just a little mayonnaise here, just to spread, and we'll come with that egg salad right on top here.

Make sure you get it on every corner.

Don't leave a corner out.

And then you come with that tomato.

Let's put two on here.

And when you take a bite of this sandwich, it looks simple, but I can tell you, you'll start to understand that simple doesn't mean it doesn't have flavor.

For our last Cajun dish, we're going classic.

We're talking sauce piquante, but this one, we're doing a rabbit sauce piquante.

So let's get started.

I have my Dutch oven on a medium heat.

We're going to brown that rabbit first, and this is important.

You need to have a Dutch oven because we're going to let that rabbit cook for an hour with the top on, but it has to be deep enough for that gravy just to reduce and mellow.

Here, we'll start to season our rabbit.

I have some Cajun seasoning here, and we're going to get all sides.

I'm going to glance at my oil.

You want to make sure the oil is covering the bottom of the pan.

See, I left a little bit here because after we brown this rabbit, we're going to make a roux.

And now we're going right in.

(sizzling).

You're going to allow this rabbit to brown, five minutes on each side.

You know, a sauce piquant could be done with anything.

We're doing it with rabbit here, but certainly if you like seafood, really that sauce piquant is the sauce that you're building.

The protein is your choice.

We're on a medium heat, and we're just looking to brown it.

And then you start to see just the browning happening over here.

You can see some of that seasoning sticking to the bottom of the pan.

That's what you want.

That's going to help with that roux build.

Coming right there.

Flip this guy over.

See that beautiful color we were able to get on this one.

And if you have more pieces, right, you take this out, put them on the side, add the remainder, and then keep working, keep working, being careful not to burn the bottom, but certainly you want to brown it.

They brown at the bottom for five more minutes, and we're just going to set them on the side and let them rest.

And I want you to see the brownness that's at the bottom, these specks.

That's going to help us when we start to fold in this roux.

I'm going to pick them up a little bit because now I'll start to add in our flour.

I turned my heat down to low because we'll gradually work this in.

Of course, you know the roux is one part fat, one part flour, and we'll start to gauge right where we need to be.

And you can see we're just moving those brown toasty points right out there, mixing it in.

Now, this is the stage where you don't want to leave it because this is where you can lose it, or you can perfect it.

And see how that darkness comes?

This is right where I want it to be.

It's going to get a little dark, and I'll slow that process down with these onions.

Stir them around, let it still do what it's going to do in terms of color and that toast and that nuttiness.

Right here, now we're going to add in our celery.

Right, we're cooking with the trinity.

That's our onions, our celery, and our bell pepper.

At this stage, I'll add a little salt, a little dried thyme, and a dab of cayenne.

We'll come back and revisit that cayenne later after a taste, but we want to start it with a little.

We'll add in our garlic.

Give that one little quick toast.

And not to burn it, not so it won't get bitter, we'll start to fold in our diced tomatoes.

(sizzling).

That's going to create another deglazing opportunity for you.

It's going to start to stick to the bottom, which is perfectly fine.

It's what you want.

Now we're coming in here, and we're going to pick all that goodness right back up, adding in this chicken stock, moving it around, folding it.

I want to bring our rabbit back to it.

So now we're coming right back in, and you just create a bed for it.

And you create a bed.

And I'm going to leave one little well in the middle, so I'll show you why we did that.

I added that juice back in.

We're going to hit it with a little lemon juice.

And I have some Worcestershire sauce that we'll hit it right in that middle.

And as that just works around, that enhances that color, that enhances that flavor.

And now I'm going to add water just to cover that rabbit.

I'll move this over, and you can see you're right at the top.

That's where we want it to be.

Before I put the lid on this, I have to taste it, right.

It's going to reduce a little bit, but I want to make sure it has enough flavor as that rabbit cooks and simmers.

Oh, you can taste the tomatoes, you can taste the bell pepper, you can taste the garlic.

We bring it to a simmer.

We put that lid on.

This has to cook for an hour.

Been letting this simmer for an hour.

I'm going to test it, look at it.

Oh, just look at the reduction, the thickness of that sauce.

I have to taste it.

Oh, my.

I just want to add a little more heat to it.

A little more cayenne pepper.

We'll fold in our green onions now.

And look at that color just coming in.

And the last thing I want to do is add in just a little bit of butter.

That's going to help that shine.

And I'll move it around.

This is time to plate.

Go here.

Put a little piece right in there.

Grab that leg, that's going right up top.

Top it with our sauce piquante.

That drizzle.

Now we'll start to add in these beautiful green onions.

And when you speaking classic Cajun dishes, you're talking sauce piquante.

So thank you for joining us as we explore the traditions of New Orleans and the reason why we cook what we cook.

I'll see you next time on the next chapter of "A Chef's Journey."

NARRATOR: In his new cookbook, Chef Dook Chase explores the legendary dishes and unique food traditions of New Orleans.

This companion to "A Chef's Journey," with all the recipes from the series and more than 125 color photos, is available for $32.99 plus shipping.

To order, call 1-800-815-3153 or purchase online at wyes.org.

DOOK: Today on "A Chef's Journey," we're on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in the historic... Central City neighborhood, New Orleans.

All right, let's go.

While that's in the oven for seven to 10 minutes, we'll clean this up, and we'll show... While that's in the oven for 17... While that's in the oven for se... ZOE: You want me to say it?

(laughing).

DOOK: While that's, I'm exci... Ooh.

Be careful as you add the peach liqueur.

Oh, my.

SERVER: Mm-hmm.

DOOK: Now y'all got me battling for favorites.

I mean that, that is just spot on.

What, what's your favorite?

(sizzling).

And we'll get it there.

Let's let it go.

Patience is a virtue.

How am I doing?

Am I doing all right?

Can I pass this course here?

CHEF: I can't tell the difference.

DOOK: Uh-oh.

CLEO: Perfect.

NARRATOR: For more information about "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey," visit wyes.org.

Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home.

Rooted in the city's rich culinary traditions, Zatarain's is born and raised in New Orleans.

From rice mixes to frozen meals, it's an authentic taste of New Orleans.

And by Camellia Beans.

You shouldn't rush a red bean.

Let it cook, then you can gather around with family and share in its distinct culture.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

♪ ♪