Mind Of A Chef

Own all 8 episodes from chef Ludo Lefebvre and 6 supercuts curating the best from the Mind Of A Chef archives.

Episodes include:
Eggs (Best Of)
Legends (Best Of)
Fried (Best Of)
LudoBird
Strip Malls
La Mer
La Vegetalé
Joie De Vivre
Bistro
Instinct vs. Discipline
LudoBites
Surf N' ...

All about our feathery friends. This "Best Of" episode of The Mind of a Chef opens the birdcage on some of our familiar (and some not so familiar) poultry dishes. Chinese chicken noodle soup, and chicken and dumplings make an appearance, but also stuffed Faroe Island puffin and duck-on-a-string g...

The sweet stuff. This "Best Of" episode of The Mind of a Chef takes a long, hard look at the cherry on top of a dining experience. On the list is burnt miso apple pie, the English classic banoffee pie, sorghum ice cream. Grab a spoon.

Own all 8 episodes from chef Ludo Lefebvre's season of Mind Of A Chef.

Episodes include:
LudoBird
Strip Malls
La Mer
La Vegetalé
Joie De Vivre
Bistro
Instinct vs. Discipline
LudoBites

Beef and brine. This "Best Of" episode of the Mind of a Chef explores the wet and dry side of our culinary world. Magnus Nilsson dry-ages a steak in kidney fat as long as he possibly can, April Bloomfield hallucinates while at a butcher shop, Ed Lee makes a ribeye with eel puree, and more.

Chef Ludo Lefebvre began his US career cooking at Los Angeles restaurant Bastide, but after it closed for renovations he opted not to return and instead chose to do things his way. Borrowing a friend’s bakery space, which was closed in the evenings, Ludo created a unique dining experience in the ...

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
- Pablo Picasso
Ludo apprenticed under – and learned from – some of France’s most esteemed chefs, but it took a move to Los Angeles, starting a family and a rough restaurant review for him to figure out what he...

A bistro is typically defined by its modesty – they are relatively small, affordable and humble. The bistro has become rather ubiquitous these days but despite its many incarnations, at its core, a bistro is a place where every man can eat, and eat well. With Petit Trois, Ludo’s has brought the s...

The demands of a celebrity chef, especially one that runs three vibrant restaurants and a fried chicken franchise, are rigorous. The daily upkeep to ensure quality and consistency in his establishments keep him busy enough, but add to that the photo shoots, TV appearances, interviews and a consta...

Trading in the animal world for the vegetable one, the garden is a place where ingredients for some of Ludo’s favorite dishes are cultured, grown and harvested. Today’s chef reveres his gardener as much as his butcher. In this episode, Ludo explores the vegetables, gardens, and memories he uses t...

La mer means, simply, “the sea.” Ludo came up under mentors like Alain Passard and Mark Meneau, chefs with an almost pathological obsession with ingredients. His eyes light up when he describes the Lobsters of Brittany, the Oysters from Cancale, and the myriad of other extraordinary culinary jewe...

Perhaps there is no architectural feature more distinctly Angeleno than a strip mall. The city is full of them with their busy facades and bright neon signage. Their wonderfully eclectic, multi-purpose tenants give shape and home to the multitudes of ethnic communities that make up LA’s diverse p...

How does a chef trained in the finest kitchens of France translate his haute cuisine to fast food? Ludo’s obsession with a perfectly cooked bird can be traced back to France, where he learned to roast chicken. His love for the American classic was solidified in 1996 when he arrived in LA and ate ...

Served crispy and sizzling in grease. When it comes to preparations, few could be as delightful and decadent as a good, old-fashioned deep fry. We dip the Mind of a Chef basket in hot oil on this episode, serving up everything from oyster poboys to pig’s head, from alligator filets to sardine spi...

Standing on the shoulders of giants. Everyone knows that it takes a great chef to make a great chef, and this episode of The Mind of a Chef is all about paying homage to the greatest culinary minds in the world. Fergus Henderson, Eric Ripert, Pascal Barbot and more spend some quality time cooking...

It’s everyone’s favorite food. From the New York City's classic egg on a roll to Faroe Island fulmar egg and curry, this episode of The Mind of a Chef finds us going through and re-falling in love with the best egg dishes from our archives. Crack it open, and let the fun begin.

In the new season’s first eight episodes, viewers meet Gabrielle Hamilton, a compelling chef that will be the first to say her career and eventual success as a chef and business owner did not come easy. Viewers will not only visit her beloved East Village restaurant, Prune, in New York City and h...

Ed Lee
In the first eight episodes of the new season, chef Edward Lee embarks on adventures that take him out of the kitchen and into the depths of what moves and motivates him – seeking the history of what it means to be a chef, the key to making a perfect bourbon, the call of that culinary sir...

Sean Brock
Through his cuisine at Charleston’s McCrady’s and Husk, Chef Sean Brock is perhaps the best-known spokesperson for both expanding and preserving the integrity of traditional Southern food ways. His cuisine shines the spotlight on the untold varieties of rice, beans and grains which o...

In season one of THE MIND OF A CHEF we’ll explore the food-centric world of Chef David Chang. Whether cooking in his kitchens in New York and Australia, or traveling for inspiration to Japan, Denmark, Spain or Montreal, Dave brings a voracious appetite for food knowledge and a youthful exuberance...

With every chipped plate and hand-written to-do list, Gabrielle’s “presence” is all over her NYC restaurant, Prune. Her life experience, whether it be her upbringing by a French mother who cooked serious food like calf’s livers and ratatouille, to her trip around the world with $200-worth of tra...

Frugality is not a dirty word for Gabrielle. Having been raised in a large family with many mouths to feed, to then needing to fend for herself from a very young age, Gabrielle is the master of utilizing scraps. Gabrielle is constantly looking into the garbage cans to see what her cooks are car...

Just because the rose is obvious and has been admired so many times does not mean you should abandon it and stop looking. This is the philosophy Gabrielle has for Rome, Italy, a city that is on everyone’s list and a hub for camera-token tourists.
In this episode, we explore Gabrielle’s deep l...

Hunger can mean many different things for many different people, but for chef Gabrielle Hamilton, it can be best described as a lonely feeling. From a very young age, Gabrielle was left alone in her home to fend for herself. She rummaged through what was left in the pantry and refrigerator and ...

It’s an age-old saying, but where you have been is almost as important as where you are going and ultimately makes you who you are today. Gabrielle has traveled the country and the world, but sometimes, it’s good to go back to your roots.
In this episode, Gabrielle visits the lush grounds of he...

Surviving the restaurant game for 15 years in New York City takes some major hustle. From lying about her age to get her first dishwasher gig to lying about her tips, getting busted and charged with grand larceny, hustling was the easy part in running a restaurant for Gabrielle.
In this episod...

Milan holds some of Gabrielle’s all time favorite experiences on the planet in the form of food, restaurants and overall “Italian-ness.” It’s a meeting ground of both contemporary and classic Italian culture. But what really entices Gabrielle are the small details, an embroidered curtain, a clas...

These days, Gabrielle is constantly looking to the future, wondering what could come next in her life after the kitchen, and who will be able to keep the traditions she works so hard to uphold, alive and well once she does.
In this episode, Gabrielle looks long and hard at how she has evolved no...

Things can change in an instant, as David discovered in July of 2014, when he got a fateful call that his restaurant Manresa which he owned and operated since 2002, and has held two Michelin stars for nine consecutive years, had burned nearly to the ground. Since then, the fire has become a marke...

Food is evolution, and wise chefs never forget from whence they came. A solid foundation allows them to test new boundaries and push things to new limits.
In this episode, David gets a visit from chefs of Manresa’s past, to explore how he’s inspired them and share how they’ve shaped dishes on t...

Nothing is more calming or inspiring than the sea, and living in Santa Cruz, David is never far from one of his many muses.
In this episode, David takes the muscular abalone and transforms it into something soft and supple in one of his signature dishes, Abalone Porridge. A visit to Monterey Ab...

A dish is only as good as its ingredients, but an ingredient can also be manipulated in many ways. In this episode, David focuses his attention to the strawberry, at the height of its season during production, to celebrate the summer favorite. California produces 80% of America’s strawberries, an...

For Chef David Kinch balance in life is as important as balance in a dish. And seeking that balance means walking away form the bustle of the line and demands of running the restaurant.
In this episode, David and his friend Carlo Mirarchi, the chef and owner of Blanca and Roberta’s in Brooklyn,...

Diners these days can be pickier than ever, and they seem to have no problem telling a chef how to do his or her job. Allergies, self-diagnosed sensitivities and customer “dislikes” have become the bane of several chefs’ existence.
In this episode, we learn how Kinch sees these typical restric...

When your first restaurant job is Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, you are inevitably destined for great things. As a high school student in New Orleans, David’s eyes were opened by the glamorous Crescent City institution, and a long career in cuisine followed.
In this episode, David goes ba...

A perfect tasting menu relies on balance, and on not fatiguing a customer’s palate. Based on that theory, no meal should be more than 25 bites.
In this episode, all twelve courses David serves at Manresa, and the ways in which they are presented – on specific plates and served with ballet-like ...

This episode explores a day in the life of chef Magnus Nilsson as he and the staff at Fäviken prepare for a night of service. We follow Magnus from the early morning when he forages for spruce branches for his scallop dish, through the heat of service when every detail is timed-out. At the end of...

Outside of running the kitchen at Fäviken, Chef Magnus Nilsson researches Nordic traditions that are rarely documented. He travels throughout the region, meeting people whose lives are tied to the past. This episode examines Chef Nilsson’s motivation to document and preserve cultural heritage thr...

Chef Nilsson depends on his network of local purveyors to keep the restaurant supplied. Because everything is sourced in a 100-mile radius, the seasons play a big part in availability. As a result, the needs and supply constantly shift between the restaurant and purveyor, but their close relatio...

Before moving to France to learn about cooking professionally, Chef Magnus Nilsson’s main culinary influences were his mother, aunt, and grandparents. They cooked traditional dishes for family dinners while Magnus observed. When he returned from France to begin working at Fäviken, the influence o...

As a young cook, Magnus Nilsson found himself living in France and looking for a job. Undeterred by a lack of job offers, he eventually convinced Paris chef Pascal Barbot of l’Astrance to give him a shot. Once there, Magnus saw the possibilities of cooking open up in front of him. He was introduc...

When Chef Nilsson develops a dish at Fäviken, he pays careful attention to the unique properties of an ingredient. Through research and recipe testing, the components of a dish are combined with the aim of preserving their natural quintessence. “The Creation of a Dish” follows the life cycle of a...

After a long winter, the arrival of spring awakens the delicate flavors of young herbs. The sun remains perched in the sky until midnight, the temperature climbs, and life returns to the once snow-covered landscape. This episode takes advantage of this brief window of time to explore the ingredie...

Over generations, preservation techniques developed to help humans cope with the scarcity of the season. The adherence to seasonality at Fäviken means that these techniques are maintained and the restaurant can continue serving food throughout the barren months. This episode explores the ways tha...

What is bourbon? A whiskey, sure, but what makes bourbon the classic American spirit, and why is it so closely associated with Kentucky? Ed and his band of merry men and women, including whiskey patriarch Julian Van Winkle, Matt Jamie from Bourbon and Barrel Foods, chef Paul Qui, and special gues...

The more things change…the more they continue to change. So much of cooking, writing, art and music is based on what came before. First there was meat. Then there was fire. Then came sous-vide. Ed dissects the evolution of a dish and the public’s changing tastes. The ephemeral is explored in mult...

Ed has always fought with the idea of fusion, instead viewing it as combining the food of different cultures and letting the borders disappear. In many ways, cooking with southern ingredients feels like second nature to Ed, and for good reason – South Korea and Kentucky both lay along the same la...

The Bluegrass State offers so much more than just mint juleps and the Kentucky Derby, with a rich culinary history that rivals that of America’s more well-known food destinations. A few ingredients come to Ed’s mind when he thinks about his adopted state: country ham, sorghum and smoke. Ed visits...

Ed got his start in NYC but now calls Louisville home, and home is where the heart is. Ed discusses how living and working in Louisville has inspired, influenced, and changed him over the past decade – Louisville is where he gently placed aside his classic French technique and decided to do somet...

Fire is the most elemental part of a kitchen – without it, food would simply be eaten, never “cooked.” And yet in the post-Nouvelle-Cuisine age, food and fire have become distant from one another. Ed travels to Argentina to visit Francis Mallmann, the country’s most esteemed chef and the godfathe...

American cuisine has come to be known as much more than just burgers and hot dogs. Ed and Pok Pok’s Andy Ricker head to Sunset Park – Brooklyn’s Chinatown – for some exotic ingredients, then head to the kitchen to make Jop Chai, a Thai stew. Ed plays with some local by-catch in that most American...

Ed returns to his roots in East Brooklyn, where as a Korean kid in New York, he was surrounded by an eclectic mix of cultures and cuisines that inspired how he cooks today. Spending time with other chefs that have roots in one cuisine but have veered away from their assumed culinary paths, Ed exp...

This episode wrestles with the questions every aspiring new or expanding veteran chef has to wrestle with: What does it take to open a new restaurant? What happens if you are fortunate enough to make it past year one? How do you stay relevant? Do you keep serving what made you famous? Do you b...

This episode aims to prove that nasty bits have been given a bad rap and deserve to be on the kitchen table along with meatloaf and mashed potatoes. In the kitchen, April cooks bubble and squeak, tours Chinatown and makes a fish head with Brandon Jew, cooks pig skin putanesca with chef Chris Cose...

In this episode, April travels 4 hours outside London to Cornwall to visit and cook with chef Tom Adams on the farm that raises the cute, furry, and delicious mangalitsa pigs. April and Tom cook jowls, visit a butcher shop, and April makes her famous pigs foot for two.

In this episode of, April Bloomfield revisits the classic dishes of Great Britain, and prepare their versions of these British classics. April eats on the streets of London, makes banoffee pie, cooks faggots, and Harold McGee breaks down frying.

In this episode, April explores her deep love for Italian cuisine and its influence on her cuisine. April visits cookbook author Marcella Hazan where she cooks a dish that reinvigorated April’s love of cooking, travels to Oakland to make sausage with Chris Cosentino, and April makes her famous g...

How is it that curry became the national dish of England? Like so much of the history of food colonialism played a critical role. When colonial occupiers returned to England, they brought back an insatiable appetite for fiery Indian cuisine. Ultimately, this craving would result in the mass pr...

This episode focuses on April’s love of the sea, which, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating at her John Dory Oyster Bar, you know is deep and fully realized. In this episode, April goes to Riverhead, NY with her friend Chef Anita Lo. The two chefs go clamming and make clam chowder. In the...

In this episode, Chef Bloomfield travels to the city where her cooking career began. She cooks walnut Tagliatelle with Chef Ruth Rogers of the world-renowned River Café, makes a rabbit pie with her pals Fergus Henderson, and heads to the pub for a pint and some scotch eggs with her mentor Rowley...

The history of southern cuisine is incomplete without understanding how West Africa influenced the cultural heritage and ingredients of America. In this episode, Chef Sean Brock travels to Senegal to meet with friend, Fatimata Ly. Together they explore the markets of Dakar and M’Bour, cook the ...

In this episode, Sean highlights both the people and food of the low country by preparing an epic outdoor feast on his friend’s farm. Legendary pit-master Rodney Scott spends the day roasting a whole pig, Steven Satterfield makes Savannah Red Rice, and to finish off the feast, Sean prepares Frogm...

Many chefs have their first exposure to cooking at a young age. For Sean Brock, who was born and raised in rural Virginia, it was the experience of his family growing their own food that left a deep impression. In this episode, Sean explores his roots, prepares a typical Appalachian dinner, coo...

Sean often describes how his family ate growing up this way: “If we were eating, we were eating food from the garden or the basement–it’s a way of life.” In this episode, Sean shows us what it means to be eating from the basement by exploring and utilizing the preservation techniques that are cr...

This episode focuses on the heavy influence Louisianan cuisine has on Sean. Historian and food-writer John T Edge of the Southern Food Alliance takes Sean to his “favorite place on Earth”, Middendorf’s Restaurant, where they shave thin slices of catfish into the fryer to create a catfish chip. ...

This episode is all about rice and its essential role in Southern cuisine. Sean visits Anson Mills, where Glenn Roberts is blazing a trail to reintroduce the world to the Carolina Rice Kitchen. Carolina-Gold rice was once the primary crop in South Carolina and sought after worldwide. Using ani...

It all began here when Sean went looking for Jimmy Red Corn. That simple journey turned into a lifetime of searching, archiving and reviving lost crops of the South. His partners in crime are the legendary owner and operator of Anson Mills, Glen Roberts, and University of South Carolina profess...

It's Sean Brock's mission in life to expose to the world the regional varieties of Southern cuisine and to erase the misconception that southern cuisine is all the same. In this episode, he explores a few of the unique regional cuisines in the South. Chef Steven Satterfield form Georgia cooks okr...

Chang cooks and goofs around with his friends Daniel Patterson, Claude Bosi, Sat Bains, Rene Redzepi, and Laurent Gras.

Chang profiles regional BBQ in North Carolina, Texas, and Kansas City, plus the other-worldly smoky bacon from Allen Benton in Tennessee, before taking a trip to the Louisville Slugger Factory with Sean Brock.

Christina Tosi makes corn cookies three ways and her three layered Arnold Palmer Cake with Courtney McBroom, Daniel Burns makes ice cream, Moutain Sweet Berry Farm’s Rick Bishop discusses his tri-star strawberries, and Alex Supak offers insight to foams.

Chang visits tofu and miso factories in Japan, Christina Tosi makes burnt miso apple pie, Rene Redzepi offers his take on tofu, Chang makes his classic corn miso, and the Torrisi boys compare making tofu to making fresh mozzarella.

This episode explores the differences between fresh ingredients, including instant broth, pea agnollini, dry-aged steak with Tien Ho, a trip to Kyoto’s fishmarket with Hideki Shimoguchi, and “ikejime” with Yoshihiro Murata.

This episode is all about New York, with cavatelli from Torrisi Italian Specialties’ Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, oysters, carrot dashi, and farming at Hilly Acres Farm. Plus Chang visits native New Yorker Ivan Orkin in Tokyo, where his ramen is taking the city by storm.

Chang travels from Tokyo to Kyoto to meet and eat with friends, including a trip to a street market, lessons in mixology from Hidetsugu Ueno, a reading from a fortuneteller, and vegetarian fare at Yoshihiro Murata’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Kikunoi.

Chang hangs and compares egg dishes with a bunch of his chef pals -- Wylie Dufresne (eggs benedict), Daniel Patterson (egg swirl), and Rene Redzepi (gull egg) -- and engages in a conversation on mediocrity with Dufresne and Anthony Bourdain.

It’s gluttonous goodness in this episode. Chang engages in over-the-top indulgence with comedian Aziz Ansari and Joe Beef’s Federic Morin and David McMillian, including the chefs’ fois gras sandwich, a whiskey tasting mayhem with chef Sean Brock and Julian van Winkle at Buffalo Trace Distillery i...

Dishes in this episode are deceivingly simple. Chang travels to Japan for yakitori, high-end sushi with Peter Meehan, and a silent ramen meal with Ivan Orkin, and his pal Daniel Patterson offers his take on beet salad.

Chang hangs out with one of his best friends -- who happens to be the world’s top chefs -- Rene Redzepi of Copenhagen’s Noma.

There is something rotten in David Chang’s kitchen and that’s a good thing. Rotten is delicious. Chang explores katsuobushi in Japan, XO sauce, rotten bananas with Christina Tosi, and kimchi.

This episode is all about Spain’s influence on Chang’s career. He visits with some of his idols, Juan Mari Arzak and Andoni Aduriz, makes fideos, salt cod omelet, and a sponge cake from chef Albert Adria.

This episode explores Chang’s past: dishes from childhood, summer eating, his time in Japan, Old Fashioned with Edward Lee, Julian van Winkle, and Sean Brock, and golf at Callaway with Dan the Automator.

This episode explores Chang’s relationship to the pig. He travels to San Sebastian to discuss pork bushi, explores the role of bacteria and fungus in food, and travels to Montreal with his pal Aziz Ansari to get fried bologna sandwiches with Joe Beef’s Fred Morin and Dave McMillan.

Chang makes instant ramen dishes and tsukemen, takes a trip to Japan for a bowl the original tsukemen, a visit a noodle factory, and Harold McGee explains alkalinity.