Episode 2 : One-Man Band

Bob has one week to train with Daniel Rose, chef/owner of a one-man 16-seat restaurant in Paris. In a typical French restaurant, a "brigade de cuisine" is classically headed by the executive chef and under him a number of others. Daniel's operation is a one-man brigade: He runs the entire restaurant solo, from shopping for all the ingredients, prep, cooking, serving the customers and cleaning up. At the end of the week Bob will take over, running the kitchen and restaurant solo for one day. Can he uphold the restaurant's reputation on a night when all the top restaurant critics in Paris sit down to dine?

Recipes:

Bob Blumer prepared the following menu and served it to a restaurant full of the top food critics in Paris. (As seen in Season Three's "One Man Band" episode in which Bob takes over Daniel Rose's restaurant Spring for one night.)

Melontini

Ingredients:
1 ripe, fragrant melon
3 ounces Cointreau or Triple Sec
6 ounces vodka
ice

Directions:
1. Scoop out melon.
2. Transfer flesh to a blender, blend into a liquid, then press through a fine mesh strainer.
2. Discard solids.
4. In a pitcher, mix melon juice, Cointreau and vodka. Shake over ice and strain, or for my frozen version, blend concoction with ice in a blender.

Yield: 4 - 6 servings

Fava Crostini

Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh fava beans
2 shallots, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped + 2 whole cloves
2 sprigs rosemary, on the stem
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided + extra for drizzling on crostini
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt and pepper
1 extra thin baguette, sliced

Directions:
1. Shuck favas. Save shells for presentation.
2. Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch beans for 3 minutes. Strain and reserve water. When beans are cool to handle, remove and discard husks. Reserve.
3 In a sauté pan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sauté fava beans, shallots, chopped garlic and rosemary for 10 minutes, or until beans are soft.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Remove from heat and drain off any oil.
6. Puree in food processor along with lemon juice, 2 tablespoons fresh (uncooked) olive oil and a few tablespoons of the fava water until puree is the consistency of hummus.

To Serve:
Toast bread, rub each slice a couple of times with a clove of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and smear with fava puree. To duplicate my presentation, serve in a fava bean shell

Yield: 6 servings (with extra Fava Bean Puree to spare)

Tuna Tartar with White Peach

Ingredients:
4 peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped into ¼-inch cubes + extra if you want to serve with a peach half on top
4 green onions
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped finely
zest of 1 lime + it’s juice
12 ounces sushi quality ahi tuna, diced into ¼-inch cubes
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 ½ teaspoons mirin
3 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Tartar: In a medium bowl, combine peaches, green onions, ginger, mint, lime zest and tuna. Reserve in refrigerator.
Dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together oils, mirin, rice vinegar, soy, lime juice, and salt and pepper. Adjust to suit your taste. Reserve.
Just before serving, toss dressing with tartar

To serve with a peach half on top, blanch peach in boiling water for 15 seconds, drop in ice bath, then peel off skin. Top peach half with a mint sprig.

Yield: 6 - 8 servings

Lamb Cupcakes

Note: this is a very complex recipe. Each individual stage is infinitely doable, but collectively they require a serious commitment.

Ingredients:
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 beet, roasted
¼ cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
4 lamb shanks
¼ cup flour
7 tablespoons canola oil, divided
2 onions, chopped, divided
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
8 sprigs fresh rosemary, divided
6 sprigs fresh thyme
½ bottle dry red wine
4 cups chicken stock
½ head garlic, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs or panko
salt and pepper
vegetable oil spray
8 cupcake liners
muffin tin

Directions:
Potatoes:
1. Steam potatoes over boiling water until tender to the poke of a fork.
3. Use a ricer or food mill to mash potatoes.
3. In a medium glass or metal bowl, blend the potatoes with cream, butter, and season to taste with salt.

Beet:
1. Peel roasted beet and use the fine side of a grater to grate 2 tablespoons. Reserve.

Lamb:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Season lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Roll in flour.
3. In a large sauté pan, over medium-high heat, add 3 tablespoons of oil.
4. Add lamb shanks and sear all four sides (about two minutes/side). Reserve.
5. In another sauté pan over medium-heat, add 2 tablespons oil
6. Sauté one onion, carrots and celery for approximately six minutes or until they just begin to brown.
7. Add chicken stock to the veggie pan, stir up the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and bring stock to a boil.
8. Transfer lamb shanks to a roasting pan, pour wine over top.
9. Pour entire contents of veggie sauté pan over top of that, spread ½ of rosemary and all thyme over top of all that and tightly seal the whole lot with foil.
10. Braise shanks in oven for 3 ½ hours, then remove foil and continue cooking for 30 more minutes. At this point, lamb should be browned and fall-off-the-bone tender.
11. Strain off the braising juices. Then separate the fat from the remaining juices and discard the fat.
12. Transfer juices to a small pot and reduce by about tree quarters until it is a thick demi-glaze. Reserve.
13. Pull all the meat off the bones and tear into small pieces. Discard everything else.
14. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. Caramelize onions and garlic to within an inch of their lives, about 20 minutes. Reserve.
15. Stem remaining rosemary and chop finely.
16. In a large bowl, mix meat, 1/3 cup demi-glaze, onions, garlic, bread crumbs, eggs, rosemary. Reserve.
17. Line a muffin tin with 8 paper liners. Generously spray interior of liners with oil. Spoon lamb mixture into liners.
18. Bake for 14 minutes, or until cakes are fully set, yet still moist.

To Serve:
Before serving, reheat potatoes by covering the bowl with aluminum foil and placing it over a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. When potatoes are hot, add grated beet. Blend thoroughly until shocking pink. Use a piping bag or a knife to ice the lamb cupcakes.

If you made it to this point, nice work!

Yield: 8 servings

Cheese Cappuccino

Ingredients:
1/3 pound roasted hazelnuts, skins removed
1 ½ cups skim milk
½ pound ripe epoisse, camembert or brie, skin discarded
6 ounces homogenized milk
1 fruit and nut bread, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
8 green grapes, peeled

Directions:
1. In a food processor, pulse nuts until finely ground.
2. In a medium-size pot, add skim milk.
3. Bring to a simmer, then add nuts. Let simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Let cool, then strain out solids and reserve hazelnut-infused milk.
5. Just before serving, melt cheese in a pan over medium heat and stir in homogenized milk. Then reheat hazelnut&45;infused milk and froth with a hand blender or a whisk.
6. Fill cappuccino cups or a similar facsimile 2/3 of the way with cheese concoction. Drop a grape in each cup (the grape provides a nice surprise at the end that explodes in the mouth and cleans the palate) and top with hazelnut-infused foam.

Yield: 8 servings

Faux Eggs

Note: this is another very complex recipe. Each individual stage is infinitely doable, but collectively they require a serious commitment.

Ingredients:
12 eggs
¾ teaspoon unflavored gelatin
8 ounces white baker’s chocolate, chopped into teenie weenie bits
1 ½ cups cold heavy cream, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 passionfruits or 1 ½ cups frozen passionfruit puree

Directions:
1. Cut top of egg shell off, then remove egg. (save for breakfast). Then run eggs under hot water and clean out insides. Reserve in egg container
2. In a small bowl, add six tablespoons of water. Sprinkle gelatin over the top and let stand for five minutes.
3. In a medium heatproof bowl, add chocolate.
4. In a small pot, bring one cup of the cream to a boil. Add gelatin and vanilla and stir for 30 seconds.
5. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth.
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until chocolate thickens, but still falls off a spoon.
7. In a standing mixer or a large bowl, whip remaining two cups of cream until it can form stiff peaks.
8. Using a rubber spatula, gently but thoroughly fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Return to refrigerator for two hours, or until it has set.
9. To make passionfruit puree, scoop out 12 passionfruits, then press fruit through a strainer to remove the seeds. Freeze remaining juice in a small pan.
10. When juice is frozen, cut into ½-inch cubes.

To Assemble:
Transfer white chocolate mousse (that’s what it is now) to a pastry bag, or a large resealable plastic bag with its corner clipped. Fill 1/3 of each egg shell with mousse. Set 1 passionfruit yolk in the center of each shell and push it down slightly into mousse. Pipe more mousse over yolk, being careful not to leave any air pockets, and fill shell to just below the top. Return to the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour to allow the passionfruit yolks to thaw (so that they run when cut into). Serve in egg cups.

If you want to be extra cleaver, cut the bottom rather than the top of the egg. After the egg has been assembled and chilled, melt some more white chocolate and spoon a tablespoon over the open end to plug it up. Chill until the chocolate hardens, then serve pointy side up and slice off the top in front of your guests.

Yield: 12 servings. Extra eggs will last in refrigerator for up to 3 days