I Cooked For The World’s Best Chef

0:00 This is Rasmus.

0:01 He was just crowned the best chef in the world,

0:03 and today he's gonna rate my cooking.

0:05 But the dish I end up choosing may end

0:08 up being the riskiest decision of my entire culinary career.

0:11 Sure, I've worked at some of the best fine dining restaurants in the U.S.,

0:13 but what Rasmus and his team are doing are borderline not from this world.

0:18 Serving a seven hour,

0:20 50-course sensory gauntlet of a menu across multiple dining rooms.

0:24 So what will he think of my food?

0:25 No rehearsal, no prep.

0:27 I'm stepping inside his kitchen to test

0:29 my skills against the highest bar possible.

0:31 But let's be honest, Chef Rasmus won't be easy to impress.

0:33 So first I need to get into his world and see what I'm up against.

0:38 Starting with this ominous front door.

0:41 This is no ordinary experience.

0:42 I can already tell.

0:43 Once you get past the hostesses,

0:45 you enter a dark room with an obelisk in the center,

0:47 reviewing the state of the world.

0:49 This felt like doom scrolling on steroids.

0:51 My first thought is,

0:51 am I going to be locked away in here and never see the light of day again?

0:55 And then you get brain wiped.

0:58 Or at least it felt like it.

0:59 Ready for your first dining experience?

1:01 The walls open up and then you enter the second room, the lounge.

1:06 Off the rip, you're seated and I had a great view of the kitchen

1:09 where the staff was preparing many of the dishes we were about to experience.

1:13 It doesn't just look like a lab.

1:14 The visuals are truly remarkable.

1:18 This is a cocktail, believe it or not.

1:20 Beautiful citrus notes off the bat and a great swig to start off the night.

1:23 There's a little alcohol in there.

1:25 I like when my flowers have alcohol in them.

1:26 Oh, speaking of drinking, they also set us up with a proper champagne.

1:29 Wait a minute.

1:30 The first course was a mini cocktail, followed by champagne.

1:33 And if there are pairings each course, and there's 50 courses...

1:37 am I gonna be okay, guys?

1:38 Next course.

1:39 Almost like a smoke filled pani puri, but probably a full ounce of caviar in it.

1:45 I'm not gonna complain.

1:46 It's insane.

1:47 It like, perfumes your whole mouth.

1:49 Great bites all elevated, but somewhat familiar.

1:52 Until our next course...

1:53 A butterfly.

1:54 Literally.

1:54 You know, I had a pet butterfly when I was young.

1:57 Did you know that, Vicram?

1:59 Almost like a rice cracker in a way.

2:01 It's like a little toasty.

2:02 The aftertaste is almost like sunflower seed-like.

2:04 Like surprisingly good.

2:05 Well, I'll consider eating more butterflies.

2:07 Okay, we gotta focus here.

2:08 This is a prime research opportunity.

2:10 If I'm gonna impress Chef Rasmus with a dish,

2:12 I need to understand what he likes in food.

2:14 What flavors, what textures.

2:16 When you cook for someone, especially at this level,

2:18 you don't just cook what you like.

2:20 You cook for what speaks to them.

2:22 So before I put food in front of him, I need to see the world through his lens.

2:26 Going into this dinner, I'm paying attention to everything.

2:28 The way he builds flavor, how he layers texture,

2:31 how he plates things, every little detail...

2:33 Drooling.

2:33 What is happening?

2:34 After constant bite after bite, this next one stopped me in my tracks.

2:38 Believe it or not, this is the perfect little omelet.

2:41 One of the best bites of my life.

2:44 It is like, on the outside, the most delicate little thin thread of egg.

2:49 And on the inside, an explosion.

2:51 A perfect cheesy, sort of like soft scrambled egg texture,

2:54 but, like, perfectly velvety.

2:55 There's no clumps, no nothing.

2:57 I need to figure out how they make this somehow.

2:59 I don't know what this is.

3:00 This is like a mochi bite.

3:01 It looks like a pierogi and it's covered in a Kashmiri chili oil.

3:05 That's absurd.

3:06 Like, the texture of the mochi is so bouncy, it's...

3:08 so light.

3:09 The chew is absolutely perfect.

3:10 There's two things I'm noticing a lot of: number one,

3:13 fermentation, but number two, a lot of Asian flavors.

3:16 Thai basil, this...

3:17 Korean, this...

3:17 Japanese-esque.

3:18 With the soy sauce, there's a lot of Asian influence.

3:21 I think that's helping me get in his brain.

3:23 This is the direction I'm gonna probably have

3:25 to go if I really wanna win him over.

3:27 I feel like.

3:28 And to round out this first room with a bang,

3:30 I was then presented a dish that honestly changed my life.

3:36 This is insanity.

3:37 I could eat 750,000 of these.

3:40 That's one of my favorite bites of my entire life.

3:42 It's like a mozzarella stick on crack.

3:44 That's a perfect bite.

3:45 It's a 10 out of 10.

3:46 There's nothing else on earth that exists like that.

3:49 And it's perfect.

3:49 Okay, so that's dinner, right?

3:51 No, that was just the appetizer.

3:53 They got us up and moved us to what they call the dome...

3:56 This is something I'm gonna go out on a limb

3:59 and say has never been seen or done before in dining, ever.

4:02 Each dish is served with a fully immersive scene playing above you,

4:07 360 degrees around you.

4:08 And apparently they have a full in-house

4:10 visual effects team running it through service...

4:13 on top of that, to track every dish that's coming out.

4:16 Instead of a typical ticket system, it's a gigantic Trello board.

4:19 They track every dish that every table has eaten,

4:22 dietary preferences, the whole nine yards.

4:24 The production, even outside the food, is borderline insane.

4:27 Alright, back to dining with an algae based drink

4:30 that changes color depending on the amount of light...

4:32 that hits it.

4:33 This is no longer food.

4:35 This is a Broadway show.

4:36 An eyeball filled with king crab and topped with caviar.

4:40 That's easily the best bite of the evening so far.

4:43 Everything I want in a bite.

4:44 I could eat a bowl full of this.

4:46 I'd eat the whole thing.

4:47 And if that wasn't enough caviar,

4:48 how about some sliced off of a puck made of 100% cooked caviar,

4:52 which was made in a South Korean pressure cooker.

4:55 Oh, I can't handle this right now.

4:56 I've been drinking too much.

5:00 Oh, I love that.

5:01 Oh, my God.

5:01 It has like a chew like salami would

5:03 and then it just melts like butter on your tongue.

5:05 That's a good dish.

5:06 The hits just kept coming.

5:07 Next, a sea urchin dish.

5:09 Again, Asian flavors, Japanese flavors.

5:11 We have Thailand with Thai basil.

5:13 I think I'm piecing this together, guys.

5:14 I think I know what I need to make.

5:15 We need to eat a few more things to figure out the final pieces.

5:19 And so I did.

5:20 The most insane lobster roll ever,

5:21 which the claw is actually more of a lobster meatball or farce.

5:25 It's been breaded and fried like a crispy little treat.

5:29 Absolutely insane.

5:30 So tender, so juicy on the inside.

5:32 Unbelievable, fish made to look like plastic.

5:34 I've definitely eaten a lot of plastic in my days,

5:36 if I'm being honest with you guys.

5:38 But this you can eat...

5:39 Oh, it's a banger.

5:40 We're hitting the craveable, the crispy, the crunchy, hitting all those notes.

5:44 A delicious crab toast seasoned perfectly.

5:47 Unbelievable texture.

5:48 If you made this 25 times its size,

5:50 I would eat the whole thing and then do it again.

5:53 Wine, wine and well, actually more wine.

5:55 Guys.

5:56 I don't really drink very often.

5:57 I'm really concerned here.

5:58 And then something that blew my mind straight off.

6:01 Spinach that had all of the green removed just for you

6:04 to pick it up and add the spinach flavor back on.

6:07 I mean, this is like, what is he playing, 6D chess?

6:10 All of you guys were freaking out about surgery on a grape.

6:13 This isn't even surgery.

6:14 You're just playing God.

6:17 Is this happening right now behind me,

6:19 or did I just put a tab of acid in my mouth?

6:21 We were coasting on dishes that literally made you stop and think,

6:25 and this next one definitely gave us more pause than others...

6:28 This is the course that Vicram will not eat, and that I understand...

6:32 because it is literally bugs smeared onto a windshield.

6:35 Let me digress on this for the average diner, because I understand.

6:39 First glance, you're like, what the fuck?

6:41 Like, why?

6:42 Hear me out.

6:43 This is a creative expression.

6:44 It's art.

6:45 At the end of the day, it is edible.

6:46 It is food.

6:47 I respect the creative expression, and I will eat it out of that respect.

6:51 I eat cow body.

6:51 I can eat mealworm body, and I got a spatula to eat it with.

6:57 It literally tastes like a deeply flavored teriyaki sauce.

6:59 It's delicious.

7:00 But this feels like a shock factor thing that, like,

7:01 when you taste it, your brain goes, oh, this isn't that bad.

7:04 This is actually delicious, but it's a little weird, I'll give you that.

7:07 That's what I like about Rasmus.

7:08 He's a little weird, like me...

7:09 As the screen shifted and brought us into nature, this next dish did as well.

7:13 There were a few restaurants I worked for that was very hard for me

7:16 to get cordyceps on the menu because

7:18 they're not really received well for two reasons.

7:21 Number one, they look kind of funny.

7:22 But number two, the...

7:23 video game "Last of Us" is based off of a cordyceps mushroom.

7:27 We know how that story ended.

7:28 Anyway, perfect example of craveable delicious.

7:32 This is basically like a delicious mushroom soup, but a little fancier.

7:35 And then I was presented something that took a second to wrap my head around.

7:38 A big tongue.

7:39 Well, actually, it was a mold of a tongue

7:41 with tartare layered on top of it with some flowers.

7:43 It was the name of the dish that really tied it together.

7:46 They call this the tongue kiss...

7:48 because of obvious reasons, and it was delicious.

7:50 Now, after that, I had the variety of dishes

7:52 that really showed me what Rasmus is about.

7:54 Bold, concentrated flavors that push the limit of the ingredients to the max.

7:58 All things that you crave after a bite

8:00 that you want to just keep going back for.

8:03 And finally, I found my last missing piece.

8:05 This chicken foot.

8:07 Most people will see this and they'll think, ew.

8:09 Anyway, cheers...

8:10 Another one of the best bites of the night.

8:12 Seasoned perfectly with salt.

8:14 Crispy on the outside, little crunchy bits on the outside.

8:16 Again with the Asian inspired flavors.

8:18 Green curry, lots of Thai basil.

8:20 There's also like a tamarind sort of sour

8:22 glaze that goes really well with those Thai flavors.

8:24 This is basically just Thai fried chicken.

8:26 Unbelievable.

8:26 This is one of my favorite favorites.

8:27 This we add to the list.

8:28 Now, if you thought the savory portions were interesting,

8:31 the dessert got even more wacky.

8:33 The craziest ice cream sandwich you'll ever see

8:35 with sheets of berry that reflect a rainbow.

8:38 They describe this as an edible mirror.

8:40 And while it did make an impact on my heart,

8:42 I wouldn't say it did as much as the next one.

8:45 We have heart.

8:46 Not a real heart, a dessert heart.

8:47 On the inside of this is a garum of deer blood.

8:51 Behold.

8:51 The outside is almost like a marshmallow.

8:53 It's like a meringue.

8:55 Crazy example of, again, creativity, ingenuity, while still being craveable.

8:59 Delicious.

8:59 I think I figured out my direction here.

9:02 But just when I thought I finished my last course,

9:04 I was led away from my table to an ominous door.

9:07 The final dessert course,

9:09 where you're painting the walls with edible paint to music and flashing lights.

9:13 I don't know if this is real or if this is because the wine that I was drinking.

9:17 So I'm showing you guys in hopes that you also see the painting.

9:21 I painted my dog.

9:23 And with that, we called it a night.

9:25 And the challenge awaits me tomorrow...

9:27 It's go time.

9:28 I flew all the way out here for Chef Rasmus to rate my cooking.

9:31 And I know what I want to make him.

9:32 But I don't want to just waltz right in here

9:35 and make my own food because I'm that good.

9:37 I want to prove my worthiness and pay respect to not just him,

9:40 but his entire team by challenging myself even...

9:42 more.

9:43 And since no chef could master these entire dishes without months of practice,

9:47 what if I could successfully pass the test

9:49 of finishing three of the most insane looking dishes,

9:52 including one of the hardest on the menu?

9:54 Then I'd feel truly worthy of cooking my food for the world's best chef.

9:57 Starting with dish number one, the tongue kiss.

9:59 Maybe we'll find out that this isn't as creepy as it first comes across.

10:03 On the surface, it seems like they're starting me off light.

10:07 As it's tartare and garnish plated on top of a tongue mold.

10:09 Seems simple enough.

10:10 But this dish is all about precision.

10:12 For each dish, I'll have an Alchemist chef show me the ropes.

10:15 And then I get one single shot

10:17 before it's presented to Rasmus for final approval.

10:19 I was set up with Chef Sebastian, who led me through the works.

10:21 First, he demonstrated how I should cut the beef.

10:23 Mentioning only supreme knife skills will do this correctly.

10:26 Now it was my turn.

10:27 He handed me my slab of beef...

10:28 And it was go time.

10:29 I have a lot of confidence in my knife skills,

10:31 But I'd be lying if I wasn't a tiny bit nervous.

10:34 So I just let my body take over.

10:35 I got to cut my beef into perfect cubes.

10:38 I then seasoned it as carefully and perfectly as possible with deer stock,

10:42 mustard, salt, and fresh cracked pepper.

10:44 Seasoning on beef tartare is easily a make or break to tasting great.

10:48 Hopefully I eyeballed this correctly.

10:50 So I gave it a toss, and then it was time to plate it up with various sauces,

10:54 flowers, and even a fragrant mist.

10:56 Chef, we have the first dish.

10:57 I would say, like, firsthand, it looks...

10:59 I would say, quite good.

11:00 Give me your kiss, Chef.

11:06 That tastes good.

11:07 Yeah.

11:07 But I just kind of...

11:09 I would say that you hit all of the sauces right on.

11:11 That's really good.

11:12 Also, the pepper.

11:13 When I was adding the pepper, I was contemplating, do I go more or less?

11:16 That was nice, adds a little spark.

11:17 All right.

11:18 Okay, I'll take it.

11:19 Thank you, chef.

11:19 Okay, pass one, on to number two.

11:21 Next dish, A crazy take on fried chicken served inside a cage.

11:25 They call it burnout chicken,

11:27 and it's a very literal thought starter on animal welfare.

11:30 This looks more visually shocking than it is, if I'm being honest.

11:33 The chicken is completely boneless,

11:34 and the foot itself actually just is to hold the meat.

11:37 You're not eating the foot.

11:38 I guess you could if you wanted to, though.

11:39 Now, showing me how it's done, funnily enough,

11:41 is a different Chef Rasmus, also the creator of this dish.

11:43 So the other Chef Rasmus went on to explain the technicalities of this dish.

11:48 First, you must perfectly separate the foot so that when you snap the knuckle,

11:52 the skin still remains completely intact.

11:55 Should there be a tear whatsoever, it's ruined.

11:57 And they only have so many pieces of chicken.

11:59 Then we're going to gently fill it with the meat farce,

12:02 which is essentially sort of like a sausage filling.

12:04 So once that's done, you then finally tightly wrap it so it can

12:07 be steamed and fully cooked before dredging and frying...

12:10 Now it's my turn.

12:11 This may seem easy, but in reality, there is zero room for error.

12:15 So we have the skin, which will come down.

12:18 These legs are huge.

12:19 Like, this is a big chicken.

12:21 Oh, there we go.

12:23 Okay, so then we save that for the farce...

12:25 Skin will come back up.

12:28 Oh, it tore.

12:29 Okay, so we're still waiting on Chef Rasmus to arrive for judging,

12:33 and I have just a tiny bit more time to give this one last shot.

12:36 We have one more, guys.

12:37 So piping bag, and then this will roll up.

12:41 Then you want to leave enough skin on so we can fold it over.

12:44 That's it.

12:45 Beautiful.

12:45 Done.

12:46 Dredge it nicely.

12:48 It can splatter a bit, so be careful.

12:50 The chicken foot feels so weird in my hand.

12:52 Very prehistoric feeling.

12:53 Okay.

12:54 It's important that we get the same exact amount of sauce on this chicken,

12:58 making sure to dip it just enough and dab

13:00 off just enough before coating in the crunchy topping.

13:03 Too much sauce, then the crunchies won't stick properly,

13:05 and it might even overwhelm the overall flavor.

13:07 Too little, you don't get enough flavor.

13:09 Either of those would mean a fail, and then I lose the chance to have

13:13 my cooking rated by the best chef in the world.

13:15 We can't let that happen.

13:17 So we go directly in, make sure to kind of coat the whole thing.

13:20 I love the look of this dish.

13:21 Okay, thank you, chef.

13:22 First of all, which one's mine?

13:24 I hope it's this one.

13:25 Yeah, you're right.

13:26 That's not a good sign.

13:27 I'm curious if there's too much glaze on it.

13:29 What do you think?

13:30 I like the base, because it's tasty,

13:31 but there's maybe a little bit too much also,

13:33 because you lose a little bit all of the crisp.

13:34 You kind of soak up the glaze.

13:36 The cooking time, it could probably have a little bit longer,

13:38 so you get a little bit more crispy outside.

13:40 But it tastes really good.

13:41 It's a pass.

13:41 It's a pass...

13:42 On to the next.

13:43 It all comes down to this.

13:45 Two out of the three dishes passed.

13:46 And what's in front of me was one of the best bites I had last night.

13:50 The smallest, yet most flavorful omelette you will ever taste.

13:53 It's called the perfect omelette for a reason.

13:56 A traditional French omelette is already a common

13:58 test for chef skills in the restaurant world.

14:00 But this one is probably twice, maybe three times as hard as that.

14:04 I, along with just about everybody else in the world,

14:06 have never even seen how they make this one...

14:08 The egg yolks are frozen in a mold,

14:09 placed on skewers, then thawed in a container.

14:11 From there, they're drained of all their liquid, which creates these skins.

14:14 Those prep skins are then fed over

14:16 a separate kitchen where the real magic happens.

14:19 I'm really under pressure as head chef Magnus is watching my every move.

14:23 I see power tools, power syringe.

14:26 So we have these little babies, which is made from egg yolk.

14:30 It's hollow on the inside, and that's where we would fill.

14:33 This is espuma, made from...

14:34 aged Comte, egg yolk and a lot of eggs, of course.

14:37 So this filling here is very gently cooked.

14:39 And then fill it up gently.

14:40 Oh, my God.

14:41 He popped the first one.

14:44 There goes the second one.

14:45 Popped as well.

14:46 Of course, they're quite fragile.

14:47 so he essentially has to find this little hole that's already made in there,

14:51 fill it really, really gently to fill

14:53 it with just enough espuma without it shattering.

14:55 Then we're going to seal it, because now there's still a hole, you know?

14:58 So in service, we have a chef heating gently

15:01 with this heating gun to keep it warm basically.

15:04 A little bit of fresh sea salt.

15:05 After watching that, I, I, I feel less confident.

15:08 Some chefs, they will pick it up first day, and some just never gets it.

15:12 Oh, great.

15:13 But I- I, I believe in you, Josh.

15:15 Thank you.

15:16 In general, it's harder than it looks.

15:17 How do they expect me to get it right on my first try?

15:20 And if I don't get this right, we came out here for nothing...

15:22 Everybody's standing back right now.

15:24 Like the, what are, what are you guys afraid of?

15:35 Very good.

15:40 Then I will come with a gentle heat.

15:44 What do we think?

15:45 Solid.

15:45 Nine out of ten.

15:47 Very good.

15:48 All right, I'll take a nine out of ten.

15:49 That sounds nicer than I thought it would be.

15:50 Just 51 more to go.

15:52 I was nervous.

15:53 I needed this to pass.

15:54 And even though I didn't make the filling,

15:56 even 1-millimeter of an air bubble will totally ruin the eating experience...

16:01 Okay, Chef, the omelette.

16:02 I had great instruction from Magnus.

16:03 I got it on my first try.

16:05 I'm not going to lie.

16:05 I'm feeling pretty hot right now.

16:06 This is really, really good.

16:09 That's amazing.

16:12 The time has come...

16:13 I flew to Denmark to cook for the world's best chefs.

16:16 So what am I making?

16:17 I've done fine dining.

16:19 I can build a composed, technical plate.

16:21 But I've got one day, and those dishes take weeks.

16:24 So what am I supposed to do?

16:27 Then it hit me...

16:28 Cooking isn't about flexing technique.

16:30 It's about making something delicious.

16:32 Making someone feel something...

16:34 And after cooking high cuisine all day,

16:36 the hidden truth is that most fine dining chefs, I feel, crave the opposite.

16:41 So instead of going ultra-technical, I'm taking the flavors I know he

16:45 loves and turning them into something deceptively simple.

16:48 The answer even surprised me.

16:51 Let's think here.

16:53 Cuisine: A brioche-style bun

16:54 for the representation of French-influenced flavors.

16:59 Leveraging international technique:

17:00 we're using Japanese-style katsu breading for a massive crunch.

17:05 Preservation: The fish sauce-deglazed aromatics combined with lots of sugar,

17:10 reduced to a glaze, and then combined with a gochujang sauce I made separately.

17:15 We have two sauces in one.

17:17 Seasonality: pickles.

17:19 Something where you can capture the season permanently.

17:22 Regardless of the time of year.

17:24 And then finally, adding flavor in unique ways.

17:27 Very slowly caramelized green onions in oil.

17:30 Which are then blended together,

17:32 utilizing the caramelized onion oil and the caramelized

17:35 onions themselves to make a deeply flavored, smoky green onion mayo.

17:39 You may or may not know that they're in there,

17:41 but they're bringing a classic and necessary

17:44 flavor in both a familiar and new way.

17:46 All of that put together to get a crispy, juicy fried chicken sandwich.

17:53 The irony of flying all the way to Copenhagen to cook for the world's

17:57 best chef and handing him a chicken sandwich is not lost on me.

18:02 Either I'm hitting the nail on the head,

18:04 and the world's best chef will appreciate something simple,

18:06 done with intention, or I just took a massive risk for nothing.

18:10 But it's too late to back out now.

18:21 I will say it's probably the best chicken sandwich I've had.

18:23 Really, really good.

18:24 Thank you.

18:25 It's really, really good.

18:26 Like, all of the flavors,

18:27 all of the layers of different spices, and I really like it.

18:30 Also, the chili is like...

18:32 chili paste is really, really good.

18:34 Should open a shop.

18:35 You think so?

18:36 This will...

18:36 will sell.

18:37 Yeah, you heard it here.

18:38 Chicken shop!

18:38 Chicken shop.

18:39 I want to eat the whole thing after we stop filming.

18:41 So it's a 9 out of 10.

18:42 I think it's really good.

18:43 Wow.

18:43 Okay, I'll take that.

18:44 Wow.

18:44 Thank you.

18:45 Hell, yeah.

18:46 You heard it here, baby.

18:47 Nine out of ten!

18:48 Guys, thank you so much for watching.

18:49 Thank you, Rasmus, for your generosity.

18:51 Thank you for letting us come and disrupt your whole lives.

18:53 Love you so much.

18:54 Subscribe.