Whether it's poured over chicken or baked into a cookie that defies all chocolate logic - this is chocolate at its best! Food Network stars Alton, Duff, Tyler Florence and Claire Robinson unwrap their favorite chocolate delights.
Whether it's poured over chicken or baked into a cookie that defies all chocolate logic - this is chocolate at its best! Food Network stars Alton, Duff, Tyler Florence and Claire Robinson unwrap their favorite chocolate delights.
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Find episode transcript here: https://the-best-thing-i-ever-ate.simplecast.com/episodes/chocolate-ft-alton-brown-duff-goldman-and-tyler-florence
[MUSIC PLAYING] GUY FIERI: People ask me all the time.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Where do you like to eat?
TED ALLEN: What's your favorite food?
SPEAKER 1: What's the best thing you've ever eaten?
GUY FIERI: That's why we're here now.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Not only to tell you what we love to eat.
GUY FIERI: But where you can go get it.
DUFF GOLDMAN: We're talking about chocolate, right?
CLAIRE ROBINSON: When you get that one bite of chocolate, that's just perfect? It's just awesome.
AARON SANCHEZ: This is a sensory overload and, you know, frankly, you can never have enough chocolate.
DUFF GOLDMAN: What I'm about to tell you is the most important chocolate experience you'll ever need to have in your life. It's the best.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALTON BROWN: Chocolate pudding is the definitive chocolate delivery system because of the way it kind of pours over, it kind of, waves over the tongue. It is the way to have chocolate as far as I'm concerned. There is a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, called Hominy Grill, and Hominy makes hands down the best chocolate pudding I have ever had. Simple place, simple food done right. Gosh, it's so good.
There's just a bowl of pudding, which I think is part of the real brilliance of it, bowl pudding, whipped cream, there. Pudding is dense, but the aromatic qualities come through, and I don't think that's just a function of the chocolate itself. I think it's definitely a subtle hand in the preparation.
SPEAKER 2: It's really simple and straightforward, start with heavy cream. Put this on, it's a scalded, pour a cup of sugar in with the egg yolks, the other 1/4 of a cup of sugar will go into the cream.
ALTON BROWN: You like, beat it with a spoon. I was like, yeah, that's the way you do that. They use a very, very good dark chocolate.
SPEAKER 2: The rest of the cream will go right on top of the collabo, very rich, dark chocolate.
ALTON BROWN: And I don't think there's a whole lot more in there. There's definitely some vanilla.
SPEAKER 2: This is actually bourbon with vanilla beans soaking in it.
ALTON BROWN: If I had to tell you on an emotional level what the chocolate pudding in Hominy Grill tastes like, I would have to say that it tastes like, if you could suck the soul out of a sweet little chocolate Easter Bunny, that's what it would be. A little innocent chocolate Easter Bunny soul would be the chocolate pudding at Hominy Grill.
SPEAKER 2: I think Alton should stop eating chocolate pudding.
ALTON BROWN: It's the cashmere of chocolate puddings. Most chocolate pudding is wool. But at Hominy Grill, it's cashmere. I would buy a cashmere sweater in that exact color, brown. Cause it's deep and mysterious, like bunny souls, and chocolate bunny.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALEX GUARNASCHELLI: The best chocolate dish I ever ate was not a candy bar, it's not a cake, it's not a hollow chocolate bunny, it was the chocolate souffle. You make it, you bake it, you got to eat it right then and there. That's my kind of dish.
You know chocolate thinks it's really hot to trot, wrapped in its fancy foil wrappings and everything else. But when chocolate is baked into a souffle at a Tassone restaurant, oh, my God. It's just out of this world.
I ate dinner at this restaurant in Tassone, and can you imagine, I almost left without having dessert? But my friend said, you know, what? Before we go, let's just have one more thing. One more thing?
Oh, my God. Mama's coming home. It's just a mixture, and the way they cook it just makes it. Hands down. The best chocolate anything I've ever had.
SPEAKER 3: So in this particular recipe, we're going to start off with 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, then while you're melting your chocolate, you want to whip your egg yolks with 6 ounces of the sugar. Then once you have your yolks and chocolate combined here, you're going to add 10 ounces of butter.
ALEX GUARNASCHELLI: Then, they just mix it with egg whites, bake it in the oven all fluffy and gorgeous, it comes out, and you dig in instantly. I think it's criminal, I really do. I think someone in and needs to be arrested for this dessert.
You know, this is a dessert you could share on a date. You know, you're having a nice moment with somebody, it's kind of fun and exciting. But, if you eat this chocolate souffle on a bad date, it could almost convince you to go out with the guy again. That is chocolate trickery at its best.
It has the power to make any frown turn into a huge grin. Positively hypnotic. It's unbelievable.
TYLER FLORENCE: There's a lot of ways you can really enjoy chocolate. But to me, the s'more pie is that childhood favorite brought to a whole different level. If you want something really kind of stands out as the dessert chocolate hero, I'm telling you, the s'more pie of the Buckeye Roadhouse in Marin County, California is one of the best things I've ever eaten, and it's something you're going to want some s'more of.
So if you've been living in a cave your entire life and you have no idea what a s'more is, I'll tell you, it's graham cracker with a nice slice of chocolate on top of that, and then a hot melted marshmallow. I've had them growing up my entire life, and now they turn this into a pie. And I'm telling you, it's delicious.
SPEAKER 4: I have a weakness for this dessert. It's one of the things on the menu where I never ever really get tired of it.
TYLER FLORENCE: It's graham cracker crust, lots of great chocolate.
SPEAKER 4: The chocolate that I used in the s'more is collabo. It just becomes this warm, delicious, gooey-- Just combination of great flavors.
TYLER FLORENCE: And then, they top it off with a homemade meringue marshmallow.
SPEAKER 4: The marshmallow is a combination of softball sugar, and the melted gelatin, and pure egg whites.
TYLER FLORENCE: Which is light as a cloud and thick and piled high on top of it. Man, it is awesome. I'm telling you, I wish I had a slice right now.
Chocolate pie perfection. You get that like campfire memory, those campfire flavors. You got to get the goo, and this is great.
So you get the toasted meringue, and you get the chocolate on the bottom, and you got to make sure you get a little bit of a crust, right? That is heaven. You know you want to buy it. Wow, that's crazy good.
This is a perfect chocolate pie for me, just chocolatey enough. I love this s'more pie.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DUFF GOLDMAN: We're talking about chocolate, right? And here's me, the only pastry chef on the network. And I'm talking about chocolate chicken. [LAUGHS] When I'm thinking about choco, I'm thinking like all these different chocolate things. Then I'm thinking like, mole is the best.
It's a spicy, salty, savory sauce, but made with chocolate. It's mole but Loteria in Los Angeles. Holy, mole. It's some good mole, chocolate chicken.
That just sounds good, doesn't it? You got these two enchiladas and they're just covered in this mole sauce. Here's the thing, it's chocolate and it's dark, but it's smoky, and it's salty, and it's spicy, it's like sneak attack chocolate. What is that? What is that? It's like, whoa, what am I eating? It's so good.
There are about 25 ingredients that go into our mole, and we make our mole from scratch.
And I love just the sheer idea of what the sauce A because it's chocolate, B because it's savory, and C because it's such a process.
SPEAKER 5: First thing I have to do is, I'm going to caramelize our onions, take our cheese, and we're going to put them into a little bit of oil to toast them.
DUFF GOLDMAN: Mole is ridiculous.
SPEAKER 5: In this next step, I am going to toast up our nuts.
DUFF GOLDMAN: The stuff is complex. It is not easy to make.
SPEAKER 5: I'm also going to now caramelize a little bit of plantain and some raisins, as well as carrots.
DUFF GOLDMAN: It just keeps going.
SPEAKER 5: And then, we'll be off to the blending and cooking of all the ingredients.
DUFF GOLDMAN: And going.
SPEAKER 5: So we're going to cook this now for about an hour, an hour and a half.
DUFF GOLDMAN: Going and going.
SPEAKER 5: Couple blenders stuff. In about 15 minutes though, when this starts boiling, then we will put in the chocolate, and we'll start it around.
DUFF GOLDMAN: Do you hear what stuff is in there?
SPEAKER 5: And then, we'll let it cook for a little while longer, and more it will be great, and then, we'll be able to make those enchiladas.
DUFF GOLDMAN: Man, but that's why I love that stuff. It's all about the mole. Basically, the chicken enchiladas are just a vehicle to convey mole to my mouth.
There's just so many little pockets of flavor in there. You eat the sauce, you're just like, wow, what is that? Wow, what is that?
I don't know why Loteria is the best? I think it's because when I taste it, I taste mystery. The best chocolate I've ever had is this mole.
Everyone else talks about something sweet. I talked about mole, that's my favorite chocolate, that's it. It's the best chocolate I've ever had. It's so good.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CLAIRE ROBINSON: This chocolate looks like a little jewel. And what's inside of that jewel is not diamonds, but it's just as decadent. It's just awesome.
I want to talk about a chocolate that is so good, you don't need any more than the one little bite that it comes in. Kee's in New York City does that with their creme brulee chocolate. It's just enough chocolate to tease you and make you very happy.
It's creme brulee inside of this thin little chocolate shell. It's incredible. It's like these little fairies came around, dressed beautiful creme brulee in this gorgeous light coating that becomes hard and crunchy like a shell, but then so delicate that you could break it like a Faberg egg. It's a masterpiece.
SPEAKER 6: The basic ingredients for a creme brulee custard is sugar, heavy cream, and egg yolks. If you make a perfect custard, you could make a perfect bonbon.
CLAIRE ROBINSON: She has a little octagon molds, which puts the chocolate in, fills it, and then taps it really hard to make sure it's just in a little bit of chocolate that sticks, and then lets that harden. Fills it with creme brulee, and then puts another layer of chocolate on top, and lets it harden again. That or she does she can do magic. Who knows? I just go eat them.
Hi.
SPEAKER 6: Hi, how are you?
CLAIRE ROBINSON: Good. I came for the creme brulee chocolate.
SPEAKER 6: Ah, you're in luck. We still have a few left.
CLAIRE ROBINSON: Awesome.
SPEAKER 6: Here you go
CLAIRE ROBINSON: Yummy. All right. Dig it in. And you have to pop the thing in one whole bite.
I do have a really cool trick though. I can somehow finagle like the bottom of it off, and then suck the creme brulee out, and then eat the shell is like a bonus. It's a skill that I've been honing. That's perfection. It's good.
But when you get that one bite of chocolate that's just perfect, that's how chocolate should be. I'm not saying you only need one, I'm saying one bite will be the end all be all of a great bite of chocolate. But you would like lots more bites afterwards. [LAUGHS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AARON SANCHEZ: Chocolate, it's whimsical. It's playful, and it should be presented to you in that way. When I want to have chocolate in many different ways, I think of the chocolate-tasting menu at Jean-George in New York City. You can't go wrong when it comes to this.
SPEAKER 7: Welcome to Jean-George.
AARON SANCHEZ: This is an over-the-top decadent exercise in chocolate love.
SPEAKER 8: I always find that the chocolate sampler is always the one with the most fun with.
AARON SANCHEZ: Jean-George is considered one of the Premier chefs in the world. And he was able to create a fun, playful, four-part tasting menu with chocolate being the star of the whole show. First, it's peppermint broth chocolate noodles, white chocolate ice cream. Forget chicken noodle soup. I'll have some of that, doctor, right away.
SPEAKER 8: The Jean-George Jasmine mousse with the ricotta, with the chocolate Krispies.
AARON SANCHEZ: Another item is a chocolate bun Purdue. Think about French toast, but with chocolate. Licorice jam, buttermilk jelly, and then just for some texture some banana chips.
But one of the elements that I gravitate towards first is something very familiar, which is their traditional signature Jean-George chocolate cake with a vanilla bean ice cream.
SPEAKER 8: Onto something I constantly changing, it's in the chocolate cake. This one is the best thing because it's that richness of the chocolate really comes out.
AARON SANCHEZ: When you slice into it, there's lava of just gushing chocolate comes out.
SPEAKER 8: This cake is kind of my staple recipe. Here we are, 4 ounces of milk chocolate, a stick of butter. We're going to melt that together, and we'll use two whole egg, a 1/4 cup of sugar for the chocolates over the egg, and then we mix it up.
AARON SANCHEZ: Serve with a very traditional vanilla bean ice cream. It's creamy, it's profound, in a way that is like no other. And I'm just I'm like a little emotional right now. I think I'm getting teary-eyed.
This is a sensory overload. I got bling on my dessert. The method to my madness is take a little bit, move on to the next one. Take a little bit, move on to the next one.
I'm looking forward to this. Wow. You would think that this would be too much to handle. But somehow, you find the inner fortitude to keep on going. All right. This is what it's about, sophisticated yet inviting, and you know, frankly, you can never have enough chocolate.
ART SMITH: What I think of chocolate? I love chocolate. My middle name should be chocolate.
Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. And white chocolate is chocolate.
Hello, Hello. Hello. Hello. I don't want to hear it.
You, chocolate people, you're all very fussy about chocolate, and some of you don't think white chocolate is chocolate, but it is chocolate. It is really, really delicious. And this flan will knock your socks off. If you want a delicious piece of chocolate, particularly a delicious piece of white chocolate, you got to have the May St. Cafe white chocolate flan.
Now, when we think of flan, we think of these high lofty cutoff flans that wiggle around. Hello, it ain't yellow, OK? It's flan.
May St. Cafe do a traditional Latin flan. It's a bit heavier, it's a bit dense, it's a lot sweeter, and he makes it with white chocolate.
SPEAKER 9: We're making it really, really, really rich. You're only going to need a little bit-- everybody needs a little bit of dessert, right?
ART SMITH: Just downright sinful, and it's so delicious.
SPEAKER 9: Now, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to take 2 cups of sugar, and we're going to melt it down and make the caramel base for the flan. Now, we're going to do a double boiler, and we're going to melt white chocolate.
ART SMITH: It is rich, It is delicious, and you'll say kiss your mother, it is so fabulous.
SPEAKER 9: The typical flan will have condensed milk, evaporated milk, vanilla, and eggs.
ART SMITH: What makes their plan unique is the fact that it's made with cream cheese. Cream cheese, Art Smith? Yes, cream cheese, and he adds a little mascarpone, and, of course, he's got white chocolate.
SPEAKER 9: And it melts right in your mouth.
ART SMITH: But when you put this in your mouth, you'll be like, it's just like butter, it's velvety, it's soothing, and just fills your mouth with lusciousness, and it's one of my most favorite things to have. Lord, have mercy. May I die in a pool of chocolate? That is the best thing I ever put in my mouth.
Oh, you're saying Art Smith white chocolate? Well, that's not chocolate. Well, you know what? It is chocolate. It is absolutely delicious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ROCCO DESPIRITO: You've seen a lot of chocolate items, but you need to put them out of your mind. What I'm about to tell you is truly the most important chocolate experience you'll ever need to have in your life. The best chocolate item I can think of, the thing that really makes me go hmm is the chocolate chocolate chip cookie at Levain Bakery in New York City.
This chocolate chip cookie is truly life altering. Chocolate chip cookies are something I've enjoyed for a long time. I mean, I really get my chocolate chip on. But they managed to pack more chocolate flavor per square inch than any other substance I've ever seen in my life.
SPEAKER 10: We're really excited to be making this cookie today, because it's our favorite, our personal. [LAUGHS]
ROCCO DESPIRITO: I know it's hard to believe that a chocolate chip cookie can be even better than you've ever imagined than your grandmothers, your aunts.
SPEAKER 11: So many people can't figure out why it's crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside, and it's a secret right now.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: It is truly a madman's fantasy of what a chocolate chip cookie should be.
SPEAKER 11: So we just start out by creaming the butter and the sugar. Another important ingredient, eggs.
SPEAKER 10: We're going to add an extra dark cocoa powder, the flour, the salt, and the leavening, and then finally, the chocolate chips.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: I mean, it weighs about a half a pound, bananas cookies. Still heavier. Are those for me?
SPEAKER 10: These are for you.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: Hmm. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 10: You're so welcome.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: And then, when you break it open, something crazy happens. Do you see that? Do you see how insane that is? God. This is fully cooked and cooled, yet it's still melted on the inside.
This is what I don't get about this cookie, it's like a crisp cookie on the outside and then a fudgy brownie on the inside, and I still don't know how they do it. You will tell me, by the end of this day. Did you taste one, by the way?
SPEAKER 11: I haven't yet.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: They're ridiculous. Here, you got to try one. They're crazy good.
SPEAKER 11: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: Yeah, I know it's crazy.
SPEAKER 11: Wow.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: Yeah, exactly. All right. So, I've come all the way down here, I've eaten so many of these cookies, I think I've earned the right to know a little secret, no? Share something with us.
SPEAKER 11: Uh, no. [LAUGHS] Sorry.
ROCCO DESPIRITO: You guys are tough. I might cry. The Levain Bakery chocolate chocolate chip cookie is the one to have. It is the be-all and end-all of chocolate chipness.