How Chef David Kinch Finds Work-Life Balance | Anthony Bourdain's The Mind of a Chef | Full Episode

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0:07 (traffic whooshing past) (van door opens) (sizzling) ANTHONY BOURDAIN:

0:20 For chef David Kinch,

0:21 balance means occasionally stepping out from behind the line.

0:24 (ordering in Spanish) BOURDAIN:

0:28 Even the things you are most passionate about can

0:30 wear you out if you don't take a break.

0:33 KINCH: Let's go, let's go!

0:34 What's missing?

0:36 BOURDAIN: Growth comes from exploration, collaboration and experimentation,

0:39 both inside and outside of the kitchen.

0:42 KINCH: Doesn't look bad.

0:44 BOURDAIN: Enter The Mind of a Chef.

0:46 KINCH: The sun is an ingredient.

0:49 Mmm...

0:49 this is the fun part in cooking.

0:51 Cheers.

1:03 (sniffing) KINCH: Finding some sort of balance

1:37 between your personal and professional life,

1:42 that's really hard to do in our industry, because it's so relentless.

1:46 Let's go, let's go!

1:47 What a lot of chefs talk about at some point in time in their career,

1:50 they say, "I've been doing this, I work till 1:00 in the morning.

1:53 "My feet hurt, I don't have a personal life...

1:58 What can I do to get out?" And they're leaving something

2:03 that they've been very passionate about for the majority of their young life.

2:08 I guess I understand to learn your craft,

2:11 sometimes you have to go through these systems.

2:12 It's like military, you know, a level of discipline,

2:16 and working long, long, long hours.

2:19 But to get away and to unwind and to relax is very important.

2:24 (wind whooshing) (gulls calling) It's funny how you take a break

2:40 and you get really isolated and you end up cooking.

2:44 There's something very appealing about that.

2:51 I used to have chefs ask me to make them

2:52 omelettes to see if I could get a job or not.

2:54 I don't think it happens anymore.

2:56 KINCH: It doesn't happen anymore.

2:57 I mean, what would you do for a cook?

2:59 What would you have them make, you know,

3:00 if you want to see if they can walk the walk?

3:03 I make them open oysters.

3:04 KINCH: Oh, no punctured bellies?

3:06 Oysters and clams.

3:08 KINCH: Carlo Mirarchi is the chef and owner of Blanca and Roberta's in Brooklyn.

3:13 He's a very good friend of mine.

3:15 I wanted him to come out to California and show

3:17 him a little bit about where I've been, where I'm from.

3:21 I had a humbling experience about five, six years ago.

3:24 Visiting chef— I had Alain Passard come and cook at my restaurant.

3:27 And every night at the end of the service, he'd be,

3:29 like, "Make me dinner," and I'd have to cook him dinner.

3:31 And one night he says, "Make me an omelette." I made him an omelette and I

3:34 was about ready to go out and his sous-chef was,

3:36 like, "Oh, no-no-no-no-no."- (chuckling) They proceeded to show me how to do it.

3:41 And it's really, really brilliant and it kind of flies in the face,

3:45 I think, that you and I were always shown how to make an omelette.

3:48 And omelettes were always one of those things where there was a way to do it,

3:52 and this is how it's done, and...

3:53 Mm-hmm.

3:54 KINCH: You know, if you do it other ways,

3:55 like a frittata or you fold it over to the side, then it's something different.

4:02 But an omelette is an omelette is an omelette.

4:05 It's a perfect representation of what can

4:07 happen to eggs when they're cooked perfectly.

4:11 Eggs at room temperature, not cold out of the fridge.

4:14 I'm going to do three whole eggs...

4:17 Because I like to do three whole eggs and then one yolk.

4:19 KINCH: Okay, let's do that.

4:20 We don't have to do that.

4:21 KINCH: Let's do that.

4:23 All right, okay.

4:24 KINCH: Just a touch of water.

4:27 I use a fork instead of a whisk,

4:29 because you don't want to incorporate air into it.

4:31 Essentially you just want to homogenize it.

4:32 You want to bring it together.

4:34 It starts to lighten up a little bit in color...

4:37 Now, to me, this is ready to go.

4:39 And I have not added any salt into this at all.

4:45 There we go.

4:52 (shaking pan) You want it to all come together, no color on the bottom.

5:05 They're not runny on the inside.

5:07 Really kind of the beauty of the whole thing is it's just eggs and butter,

5:11 but by technique, it kind of really elevates it to a really beautiful texture.

5:22 This is key.

5:23 So it's shaped...

5:31 Just give it a little bath in homemade salted butter,

5:36 just enough to make it shine.

5:38 The only salt that's been added to it we're adding to it right now.

5:43 To me, that's a good omelette.

5:46 This is delicious.

5:47 KINCH: Would you hire me?

5:49 I would.

5:49 You can be the junior breakfast cook.

5:51 The omelette bar.

5:53 KINCH: Yeah, that's what I mean.

5:55 (laughing) (motorcycle engine whirring) (bleating) KINCH:

6:25 This is raw goat's milk here.

6:27 I'm going to try and make a real simple fresh farmer's cheese.

6:36 The cheese picks up a bit of a smoky flavor.

6:38 I'm going to really dig it.

6:42 As fresh as you can get right there.

6:46 Some fresh cream, not a lot.

6:50 And I'm going to put a little cow's milk in just to enrich it a little bit.

6:55 Some sea salt.

6:58 Going to warm this up.

7:00 This is the first time I've ever done it on a wood fire,

7:03 but I think it's going to work.

7:08 Starting to form a skin, so it's ready.

7:13 Throw me the knife.

7:15 Knife?

7:15 (Mirarchi laughing) KINCH: Thank you, chef.

7:17 (Mirarchi laughing) KINCH: What an amazing pot.

7:23 Something very goth about it.

7:28 KINCH: It's getting really close to a boil.

7:38 And I'm going to let it continue to drain.

7:46 I'm fascinated by pizza.

7:49 I think the relationship between the person who's

7:52 making the pizza and the oven is really important.

7:55 The best pizza I ever had are people who are really fanatical about their ovens.

8:01 There's people who make it, who just chase it their whole life and they

8:05 still don't feel that they got it down.

8:08 Mother Teresa said that she felt the presence of God once for five minutes.

8:13 Was she eating pizza?

8:15 And then she spent the whole rest

8:16 of her life dedicated to what that moment meant.

8:21 Maybe all it takes is one good slice.

8:27 KINCH: Evan Shively is a legendary character in Northern California,

8:30 original gangster at Chez Panisse, one of the greatest cooks I know.

8:35 I knew that Carlo and Evan would get along really well.

8:38 Do you want to give me a little chili flake?

8:40 Do you grow these chilis here?

8:41 Do you dry these here?

8:43 No, I have a day job.

8:45 (laughing) Some of that pecorino.

8:52 KINCH: Ooh, pecorino.

8:55 Tell me about this guanciale; it's amazing.

8:58 So this guanciale my dad and I make,

9:00 we dry in the basement of the house on Long Island.

9:04 KINCH: Onion petals.

9:06 That's the sweet spot.

9:14 Hot dough.

9:15 KINCH: That looks pretty good.

9:18 Hurry up and slice it.

9:23 KINCH: The dough is like another planet.

9:27 The guanciale is delicious.

9:30 KINCH: I don't know how we're going to top that one.

9:33 How about some fava beans?

9:35 Fava beans?

9:35 On a pizza pie?

9:38 Che pazzo!

9:43 KINCH: I'm going to take a look at my cheese.

9:46 Oh, yeah, look at that.

9:48 What is that, goat?

9:50 KINCH: It's goat.

9:52 This should be pretty good.

9:54 We have just a real quick farmer's-style ricotta made with goat's milk.

10:02 And these roasted fava beans with the cheese I think will be great.

10:07 Just walking around here, saw the savory.

10:09 Wasn't even thinking about putting savory on a pizza.

10:11 Yet here we are.

10:12 KINCH: And here we are.

10:14 Here we find ourselves.

10:14 Do you put the savory right on it?

10:16 KINCH: Mm-hmm.

10:17 Okay.

10:18 Good.

10:19 KINCH: Little bit too much.

10:20 Perfect, sorry, chef.

10:21 Please don't send me home.

10:26 KINCH: I think the mint would go really nice too,

10:29 though mint on a pizza sounds kind of odd.

10:31 I guess we're going to find out.

10:40 Oh, you have flowers?

10:41 KINCH: It's going to be a flower pizza.

10:44 Ohh...

10:45 Mamma mia!

10:47 KINCH: Do not laugh.

10:49 Apply the "gahnish." (both laughing) KINCH: Okay.

10:58 Sounding pretty good.

10:59 KINCH: See how it tastes.

11:01 Mmm.

11:03 That's just really beautiful.

11:05 That tastes pretty, too.

11:07 Sold.

11:09 (engine cranking) KINCH: Oh, it's not starting.

11:12 I think it needs a jump.

11:13 Do you want to bump-start it?

11:15 KINCH: Yeah.

11:16 Are you in neutral?

11:17 KINCH: It's in neutral.

11:23 Faster, Carlo!

11:27 (Carlo grunting and laughing)- I can't get it any more up that hill.

11:31 By myself.

11:35 (grunting) KINCH: Okay.

11:38 Stop.

11:39 All right, so what's the plan?

11:41 You going to go down this way?

11:42 KINCH: Yeah, down this way.

11:44 All right, ready?

11:50 (laughing) KINCH: Never turned.

11:53 All right, we need to jump it.

11:55 We're getting what we deserve right now.

12:01 All right, you're hooked up!

12:02 KINCH: Rev the engine!

12:04 (engine revving) (chugging lamely) (revving)- Got it?

12:14 (engine revving) So we're going to do this seaweed-sunchoke dish.

12:37 KINCH: Where did this dish come from?

12:38 It's vegan— it's a vegan dish.

12:39 Yeah, it ended up being.

12:41 We didn't really think about it but we

12:42 just finished it and we're like, "Oh, it's vegan,

12:44 by the way." KINCH: So you didn't create

12:45 a dish for a vegan scenario at the restaurant?

12:48 Yeah, it worked out that way.

12:49 We had bees on the roof so we had a lot of honeycomb,

12:51 and we had sea lettuces in from our Maine guy.

12:55 We wanted to do something with the honeycomb and the seaweed in a fun way.

12:58 And we just started fooling around.

13:00 It took, like, six months to figure this dish out.

13:02 Even though it's really simple, there was a lot of trial and error to find

13:06 the right seaweed that balances well with the honey.

13:08 KINCH: It was the balance of flavors that was the hardest thing?

13:11 Yeah, and the mouth feel, too,

13:12 is really important for this dish because there's a lot of texture.

13:16 Sunchokes I like a lot because they have a ton of inulin,

13:20 which, when they're stored, turns into sugar, which makes them really sweet,

13:25 but not being too starchy, which is nice.

13:28 KINCH: What am I doing, am I laying this out?

13:30 Lay those out flat because we're going to dehydrate that.

13:32 You're on the "de-hy" duty, chef.

13:34 KINCH: I know how to do this.

13:36 This is ulva, our sea lettuce.

13:37 It's harvested from Maine.

13:38 We get it in, we rinse it, and then dehydrate it overnight.

13:41 KINCH: It also has a lot of clinging salinity.

13:43 It does, it sure does.

13:45 Then the green almonds.

13:46 It's a fresh almond.

13:48 KINCH: An almond is actually the kernel of the almond fruit.

13:52 Are those hard to find on the East Coast?

13:54 Yeah, they don't exist on the East Coast.

13:56 KINCH: They come from here.

13:57 From California, yeah.

13:58 We're trying to get stuff from all over.

13:59 We have our own garden, we grow a lot of stuff that we use.

14:01 Probably 85% of what we use comes from the East Coast, but, you know,

14:05 sometimes something just needs something that every

14:07 once in a while you can't get.

14:09 I think that's okay.

14:11 KINCH: It is okay.

14:13 This is the sunchokes that we just cut.

14:16 Just working hard at this.

14:18 KINCH: They caramelize so fast.

14:20 Really, really nice and quick.

14:21 KINCH: That looks great.

14:22 Looks nice, right?

14:23 Like sunchoke cracklings.

14:24 I kind of want to eat it.

14:25 We're going to make the sauce now.

14:28 We add a little bit of soy milk here.

14:31 Then we'll add a little bit of the sunchoke stock.

14:35 So basically we'll just let this cook down for a little bit,

14:38 and then we'll purée it, pass it through a coffee filter.

14:41 KINCH: So it picks up the caramelized flavor.

14:42 Yeah, it does, yeah, but not too much.

14:44 Just enough to make it a little toasty, but nothing crazy.

14:45 It kind of just tastes like ice cream base at this point.

14:50 KINCH: Sunchoke makes a great ice cream because of all those sugars.

14:53 Mm-hmm.

14:54 All right, so we're right there, pretty much.

14:55 We'll put it in the Vita-Prep,

14:57 buzz it and then pass it through a coffee filter and that'll be our sauce.

15:00 Voilà!

15:03 The magic of television.

15:04 KINCH: Pretty fancy for a vegan dish.

15:06 Yeah, I know, right?

15:07 Oof, man.

15:08 KINCH: What do you start with first?

15:10 Sunchoke.

15:11 Then we'll do a little bit of the toasted seaweed.

15:14 The seaweed moves when you plate it— it looks really cool.

15:18 National Geographic right there.

15:20 Then we just do a little bit of the honeycomb.

15:25 And then for the green almond,

15:26 I like to actually open them up, squeeze the gel out.

15:30 KINCH: Oh, nice.

15:31 A little messy, but it looks nice.

15:32 KINCH: I bet it tastes good, too.

15:34 It's kind of aromatic.

15:37 How about some coriander flowers?

15:39 Ooh, do you have some?

15:40 Oh, boy.

15:44 It's done...

15:45 I think.

15:47 So, vegan surf-'n-turf.

16:00 KINCH: For me, a true vacation is just recharging everything.

16:06 Nothing else matters for a while.

16:09 And then you come back and you're almost like a different person.

16:15 There is a good stretch of 1

16:18 before San Francisco where you become completely disconnected.

16:24 Phones don't work, you get no signal of any kind.

16:28 And nowadays, that's going off the radar, that's a big deal.

16:33 And I like that.

16:34 You know, to me, when I want to get away,

16:36 it's really important that that happens.

16:39 I think as the restaurant has become more popular,

16:43 it's become more important to find the ability to drop away.

17:02 Make no mistake.

17:05 It's a meat-off.

17:07 There are no rules.

17:13 I've always associated great steak cook with Carlo.

17:17 Carlo's one of the first people that I heard about who was aging meat past

17:21 the norm to get more flavors and to get more nuance and character out of meat.

17:25 And always great sourcing.

17:27 I still don't know where he gets his beef from.

17:30 Your steak, definitely an animal with wagyu in it.

17:33 Yeah.

17:33 Just a really, really even pattern of marbling all along

17:37 as opposed to being grouped in certain areas and not evenly distributed.

17:41 KINCH: I have a West Coast source that I like very much,

17:43 but I also think it's really incredibly different.

17:46 Hence, the purpose for a meat-off.

17:47 Yeah, we're going to celebrate the difference.

17:50 Right?

17:50 KINCH: Yeah.

17:52 They're both strip loins, they're both on the bone.

17:58 You're taking it off the bone, David?

17:59 KINCH: I'm just taking this one bone out because I'm going to cut it thick.

18:07 There's many different ways to cook meat.

18:09 You can cook 'em slow, you can cook it really, really fast.

18:12 For this particular cut, I like to go a really,

18:16 really high heat but try and have as much control over it as possible.

18:20 On a grill this big, you want to have a really,

18:23 really super hot spot and another place that's not so hot,

18:28 so I can control the temperature by moving the meat on and off the heat.

18:32 Binchotan to me burns very, very clean, but it's tremendously hot.

18:37 It burns almost smokeless, but use the hard wood, because we're outdoors.

18:43 For beef I like it because it burns really, really hot but it burns really fast.

18:47 KINCH: Yeah.

18:51 I'm getting really close.

18:52 KINCH: Yeah, me too.

18:56 Looks like I'm using a lot of salt, but it's all going to cook right off.

19:02 KINCH: Looks amazing.

19:03 I salt probably not as much as other people do,

19:06 because I'm a big fan of salting it after it's cooked.

19:09 I don't put pepper on it at the beginning, either, because pepper burns.

19:14 When pepper burns, it gets really acrid and bitter.

19:18 So it's just meat and salt.

19:22 When people taste this, I tell them it tastes like

19:24 the steaks that your fathers and your grandfathers used to have.

19:28 You know, before animals were bred for efficiency.

19:32 Do you do those crosshatches?

19:34 KINCH: Yeah.

19:36 Whoo!

19:37 Still got it.

19:38 KINCH: That's right.

19:46 When those flames hit the beef, a little bit's okay, but a lot is not okay.

19:51 I think it starts making it taste like the charcoal.

19:58 How important is the char to you?

19:59 I like a nice one, but nothing crazy.

20:01 KINCH: You don't like that super crusty, like that 1400...

20:04 It doesn't work well.

20:06 You lose a lot of the nuance.

20:07 KINCH: It dries out.

20:07 Yeah.

20:10 The thing is, the loins are so big, you can age it for a really long time.

20:14 KINCH: And how long was that?

20:16 Three or four months.

20:17 30 days on this, you know, it's nothing.

20:20 You lose a little bit of water weight, but that's it.

20:23 KINCH: Look at that— amazing, huh?

20:25 It can get mesmerizing, can't it?

20:27 Just watching the fire.

20:33 Cooking outdoors, there's something relaxing about it.

20:38 Especially if you're working with an open fire.

20:41 It immediately becomes more rustic,

20:44 can put you much more attached to the act of cooking.

20:49 Usually it's not for an event.

20:51 You're cooking for yourself or friends,

20:52 so it's much more intimate, and it's much more personal.

20:57 You also don't feel a lot of pressure to analyze things.

21:02 It's more about eating well and having a good time.

21:06 Which is very important on a day off.

21:21 We're moving away from the period where it's just heads down,

21:24 work, work, work, work all the time, because it beats people up.

21:29 You have better longevity, you have more creative powers,

21:32 I think you live a more healthy life if you find that balance.

21:42 I've only had one restaurant.

21:44 And that is because I always like going to work.

21:48 I like working at night, cooking food, making people happy.

21:54 It's kind of what drives me.

21:57 And I've learned to accept that.

22:00 But how long is that going to happen?

22:03 It's just learning when to take time off,

22:05 learning when to recharge my batteries,

22:07 learning to delegate, which is really the last thing chefs learn to do.

22:12 "I can do it better than anybody that works for me,

22:14 so I'm going to do it," as opposed to just like

22:17 taking a deep breath and realizing that you've trained people and you

22:20 trust them and you're paying them to do the job

22:22 and to actually take a step back and let them do it.

22:26 To make that happen, you have to accept,

22:29 "I'm going to step away." And you know what you're going to find out?

22:34 Sometimes it runs even better.

22:36 Because that's part of balance, that's the part about how it happens.

22:43 (sniffing)