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Lucie has never tried a job in as dangerous an environment as the kitchen at Michelin Star restaurant Nix. Today she finds out how chaos can create a perfect meal when she learns to be a chef on Lucie For Hire.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink, I'm a video producer at Refinery29, but every so often I like to try other people's
00:05jobs.
00:06Today, I'm in Greenwich Village at Nick's to see if I have what it takes to be a Michelin
00:11star chef.
00:12This is Lucy for Hire.
00:15When my viewers first asked me to try becoming a chef for the day, I knew that to really
00:19make things interesting, I needed to go above and beyond.
00:23So why learn how to become a chef just anywhere, when I could instead get myself into the kitchen
00:29of a Michelin star restaurant and learn from the best.
00:32Receiving a Michelin star is an honor.
00:35It's a stamp of fine dining quality and exceptional cuisine.
00:39I visited Nick's, a vegetarian restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village that, believe it
00:44or not, is the only veggie restaurant in the U.S. with a Michelin star.
00:48I met with the sous chef Jamie to learn more about the restaurant's philosophy and also
00:53the career path to becoming a chef.
00:55The fact that we're vegetable driven is very exciting because we can buy and highlight
01:00what's in season.
01:01You don't need to have fancy wagyu beef or caviar or all of these things that people associate
01:06with fine dining.
01:07Like, you don't need that.
01:08You can cook vegetables and you can cook them super well and still give the guests an awesome
01:13experience.
01:14As a sous chef, you can expect to make salary-wise anywhere from $35,000 to maybe $50,000, but
01:22that's on the higher end.
01:22A lot of work for a little bit of money, but if it's your passion, you just do it.
01:26My first challenge of the day was learning.
01:29Before I could even set foot in the kitchen, I needed a quick crash course in produce.
01:34Jamie and I took a quick walk to the Union Square Green Market, the year-round outdoor
01:38market where she and her fellow chefs often come to support local farms.
01:42This time of year is the best time to come to the market.
01:45Everything's fresh.
01:46Everything's seasonal.
01:47Corn is in season.
01:48We use corn in our one kale salad.
01:51We have a cold melon soup on the lunch menu.
01:54Spring, summer, you start getting a lot of leafy green vegetables.
01:58How do you tell if a tomato is good?
02:01Firm skin, firm flesh, but not too firm.
02:03Flavor-wise, whenever we create something, we try and hit all of those notes on your tongue.
02:09So we're looking for salty, we're looking for sweet, we're looking for sour, we're looking
02:13for essentially umami.
02:15All of those different flavors at once.
02:17My second challenge was prep work.
02:20Jamie gave me a chef's apron of my own.
02:22It feels right.
02:24And just like that, I was part of the kitchen crew.
02:26Is this the kind of place where I have to say, yes, chef?
02:29Yes.
02:29Okay.
02:30An order came in from the dining room.
02:34Ribbons of jicama, eggplant dip, and tandoor bread.
02:38We washed our hands and began the prepping process.
02:41So we'll grab a cutting board and we'll get to work.
02:43The ribbons of jicama dish is mostly raw with the exception of some fried shallots.
02:47We have our heat element, we have the sweet element, we have acid, and keeping these veggies
02:52raw are going to give a nice texture.
02:54Jamie taught me some expert knife work.
02:56That is a big knife.
02:58Ah!
02:59Ah!
02:59You're holding your knife wrong.
03:01Oh, gosh!
03:01It's more of like a slicing motion that you're pulling the knife towards you.
03:07Yes.
03:08Beautiful.
03:08And we're creating flags, if you will.
03:11How are my flags?
03:12Perfect.
03:13You're hired.
03:14I got the job.
03:15You want to be fast and efficient, but you also want to maintain your knife cuts and make
03:19sure that everything is nice and consistent as well.
03:21Wow.
03:22We then sliced the Fresno peppers.
03:24You did great on this challenge.
03:25Look at these.
03:26Perfect.
03:27Chopped the red onion.
03:28My little guys.
03:30And supremed the blood oranges.
03:32We removed the flesh and then we're just taking out each individual segment of the orange.
03:36Look!
03:37That's my cut.
03:38Then it was onto the jicama.
03:40And this is one of those vegetables that I was unfamiliar with until I started working
03:44here.
03:44Yeah.
03:45Kind of opened my eyes to a lot of veggies I've never experienced before.
03:48Jicama is a root vegetable that Jamie described as a cross between an apple and a water chestnut.
03:53We cleaned up the outside and then, using a ribboning machine, created long, fresh ribbons.
03:59And crank it.
04:01Oh!
04:01Oh no!
04:02Jicama down.
04:03There we go.
04:04Now she's got it.
04:05Okay.
04:06Now she lost it.
04:07But we did get some beautiful ribbons.
04:11Nice!
04:12The eggplant dip prep involved stabbing the eggplant to prep it for the blitzing process.
04:17So we do this so that when it's on the oven, it doesn't explode.
04:21It gives the steam a chance to escape.
04:24That's it for the prep work.
04:25And now it's time to do some cooking and assemble our final products here.
04:29My third challenge was cooking.
04:31One of the most important characteristics to have, personality-wise, working in a kitchen
04:35is being resilient.
04:37You work with a lot of different personalities.
04:39You're constantly under high stress.
04:41And it's a very fast-paced environment.
04:44Thankfully, Jamie was very kind to me and I wasn't yelled at on the line.
04:47But I did realize how quickly things need to move in the kitchen in order to keep things
04:51flowing.
04:52This is like as real as it gets.
04:53Yeah.
04:54Everything's happening at once.
04:55For the ribbons of jicama dish, all that needed to be cooked were the shallots.
04:58Light dusting in the flour and then we'll go right into the fryer.
05:02Jamie taught me how to fry them.
05:04Any time we work with a fryer, it's hot.
05:08You want to go away from your body, just in case if it happens to splatter.
05:12And then left me on my own to fry the second batch.
05:15Away from your body, into the oil.
05:17That was a little bit of a plop.
05:19And if I thought that process was dangerous, I had no idea what was coming for me.
05:24We placed the eggplants on a rack above the 700 degree tandoor oven and let them blitz.
05:29Keep rotating and we're looking until they get soft.
05:32Once they were done, we quickly removed them, let them cool and scraped them.
05:42So now we'll do that about 200 more times.
05:45Afterwards, we went downstairs to make the dip.
05:48Moving around in an active kitchen can be very dangerous.
05:52I learned that you need to shout when you're coming around a corner or going up and down
05:55the stairs to announce yourself.
05:57Corner.
05:58Going up.
05:58Corner.
05:59Going down.
05:59Down.
06:00Down.
06:00Down.
06:01With the giant mixing machine, we mixed our charred eggplant with all of the veggies we
06:05chopped, some roasted pine nuts, looks a little like cake batter, raisins, and more.
06:11Red wine vinegar, add some salt, and we'll just let that go until everything is incorporated.
06:17And then it was time for the real test, the most dangerous part of the day, making bread
06:24bread in the tandoor oven.
06:26I have to say, I'm really nervous for this part.
06:28The kitchen can be a remarkably threatening place.
06:31If you're not careful or you don't follow proper directions, you can get seriously injured.
06:37So I have some pretty gnarly scars here.
06:40These are some battle wounds.
06:41These are from the tandoor oven.
06:43The oven runs about 700 to 800 degrees, so pretty hot, pretty intense.
06:48The first time I ever worked that station, I singed my eyebrows off.
06:52Top is hot.
06:53Inside is hot.
06:54The air is hot.
06:57Jamie's colleagues had already prepped the dough for us, so we began by activating it.
07:01We turned it upside down onto a little pillow, spritzed it with water so that it would stick
07:06to the oven.
07:07And we're ready to go into the oven.
07:08And then she showed me the technique for reaching your arm into the 700 degree oven and sticking
07:14the bread to the outside wall.
07:16I'm absolutely terrified of what you just did.
07:20I believe in you.
07:21I had never been more nervous to do anything on a Lucy for Hire episode before.
07:26I've now put my hand just above it and it is threatening.
07:30I thought I would burn my arm, lose my eyebrows, you name it.
07:34You've got to conquer your fear, you've just got to go for it.
07:36Okay.
07:37But I removed my rings, took a deep breath.
07:40In and out.
07:41In and out real quick.
07:42Two.
07:43And just went for it.
07:45Okay, almost.
07:47Kind of got it.
07:49Okay, so my technique needed some work.
07:51But with a little follow-up push from Jamie, my bread stuck to the wall and cooked nicely.
07:56So now you're going to remove it.
07:58So you're going to take, this is the easy part.
08:00The hardest part is putting the bread in.
08:02Okay.
08:03Using a hook and scraper, I went in to remove my bread.
08:06But of course, had a minor mishap and a brief moment of panic.
08:10I got it.
08:11You caught it?
08:12Wait, I need you to take this.
08:17I got it.
08:19And I put it on a plate.
08:20There you go, you did it.
08:21Oh my gosh.
08:22But when all was said and done, my tandoor bread came out beautifully.
08:26Still got your arm hair, still got your eyebrows.
08:28Yeah, about all hair, right?
08:29Good, good.
08:30Woo!
08:31My final challenge was plating.
08:34When I think about Michelin star restaurants, the first thing that comes to my mind is the plating.
08:40That beautiful, artistic arrangement of food that really sets one restaurant apart from another.
08:44We plated up the bread and eggplant dip and then moved on to the big ticket item, the ribbons of
08:50jicama.
08:51This dish is magnificently arranged in such a way that the jicama stands upright.
08:56And the whole key here is we want it to stand up to look beautiful.
09:00And this is like the tedious part.
09:02Creating these beautiful ribboned walls on the plate.
09:05The additional items are then slowly, one at a time, very deliberately placed on the plate.
09:16That's it.
09:17That's our ribbons of jicama plated up.
09:21You know my skin's relaxed.
09:47I know my skin'sRedner.
09:47The end of the dish is wiped off, pie, all have black gold, your hands and bloody seams,ER but
09:49off for an impeccable presentation and then the dish is served. Order up. Kitchens
09:55used to be very intense in that sense where it was like a male driven like
10:00bro club but I think finally the industry has progressed forward from
10:05that where now you're realizing that hey it's nice to be nice you can accomplish
10:10the same results not necessarily screaming at someone the whole time.
10:14Okay so we were actually the ones who put in this food order but now it was
10:18time to eat it. It will taste even better because you made it. I know. We sat down
10:22together and enjoyed the fruits and vegetables of our labor. Can I double dip?
10:26Go right ahead. We're friends now. We are. Overall for your first time great. Your knife
10:32skills are there. Just a little bit more practice. Just a little improvement on the
10:35bread honestly but again that takes practice and just conquering your fear of
10:39sticking your arm in a hot ass oven. This was a long hot fast-paced and slightly
10:46dangerous day for me. But by the end I felt accomplished and very proud of the
10:51work we'd done. This is really amazing. Delicious. At the end of the day a Michelin
10:54star chef is doing a job pretty similar to mine as a video producer. They're
10:58making art creating something visual that's going to draw people in. The
11:02major difference is that this working environment is a little more chaotic than
11:06mine. Let me know what jobs you want to see me try next time and we'll see you
11:10then on Lucy For Hire.