The Chef Show Season 1 Episode 3: Remembering Jonathan Gold Review

The Chef Show on Netflix via Media Center – Episode 3

The third episode of Jon Favreau and Roy Choi’s The Chef Show is a trip down memory lane as the duo honour the late food reviewer, Jonathan Gold.

The third episode of Jon Favreau and Roy Choi’s The Chef Show is all about the food that late reviewer Jonathan Gold loved. Gold, who passed away in July 2018, was a visionary in the food industry, whose reviews were known for changing the fortunes of small establishments. Gold was one of the early reviewers of Choi’s Kogi food truck—visiting the truck within barely three months of the truck opening–and soon after, became a close friend. According to Choi, Gold understood food as more than just something to eat—he understood the story behind it. His reviews changed lives, not just Choi’s, but also of a number of small, mom-and-pop restaurants.

While making Chef, on which The Chef Show is based, Choi advised Favreau to meet with Gold to understand how food criticism worked, as the film prominently features a food critic, played by Oliver Platt. Unlike the food critic in Chef, who eviscerated the protagonist’s cooking in his review, Favreau explains that Gold was always more focused on spotlighting small eateries with great food, rather than about destroying places with bad food because he didn’t like the food. Gold left an indelible mark on all those he encountered and this episode proves to be a touching tribute to him.

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Peach Galette

This episode of The Chef Show welcomes more friends of Gold’s, Evan Kleiman, a radio host at Good Food, who knew Gold from the 1990s, and Jazz Singsanong, owner of Jitlada restaurant, which was reviewed by Gold in 2007. According to Singsanong, Jitlada had been serving great food for a while but didn’t gain the footfall it deserved until Gold reviewed the restaurant. Overnight, Jitlada became a success, explains Singsanong, before breaking into tears because she misses Gold so much.

In honour of Gold, who often joined Kleiman as a judge at pie contests, Kleiman makes a peach galette. Gold’s mother was a prodigious pie-maker, and Gold even wooed his wife with a pie.

Interestingly, Favreau has never made pies, and Choi only makes pecan pie. They chip in to help, but Kleiman isn’t always happy with their work. She has a lot of stringent steps that need to be followed to get her galette just right, and Favreau doesn’t quite hit the mark every time.

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Kleiman makes some fascinating points about the use, or lack thereof, of starch in pies. Chefs have recently begun to eschew using starch to thicken up the filling, but Kleiman’s view is that the filling will then become runny, and will remain on the plate instead of being eaten. She adds a healthy dose of flour to her filling to ensure it stays firm, and two beautiful galettes are the result.

Green Curry

Singsanong has most of her family over to help cook a green curry with Favreau and Choi. Their skills are intimidatingly good. Singsanong explains that everyone had to be in the kitchen from the age of 10 because there was no one at home to look after the children. So, naturally, all the children started helping out in the kitchen, much like in Chef.

The green curry paste requires a lot of ingredients but Singsanong is quite flexible with what she uses.

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The spice levels are insane. Favreau begins to cough the moment the curry goes into the wok but he’s still not afraid to take over wok duties.

Singsanong steams all her ingredients—meats and vegetables—before adding them to the curry, which she says helps to separate and enhance the flavours. She also shares her secret about cooking a good Thai curry—reduce it down till it begins to look brown, as that gives it more flavour. The final product is so good, they can’t stop eating it, exactly what Gold would have loved.

The Chef Show on Netflix via Media Center — Episode 1

Pad Thai

Pad Thai requires a fair amount of oil to cook but Choi follows Sinsanong’s instructions and adds as much as needed. This is a dish that cooks very quickly and needs the chefs to work together to get it right. Favreau takes over wok duties again, and is an absolute pro at cooking the chicken, even flambéing the ingredients. Singsanong is impressed! But she does insist that Favreau be careful with the noodles, telling him to stir the contents of the wok from underneath so as to avoid cutting the noodles. The Pad Thai is ready in no time and they happily tuck in.

Pad Kee Mao

When making the Pad Kee Mao, the order of ingredients being added to the wok is completely the reverse of what Choi would usually do. Choi notices that everything he has ever been taught, Sinsanong does the opposite. It’s how she’s learnt to cook and it works for her. As a result, the flavours seem to be more acute, and actually taste like more than has been added to the dish. Favreau insists he can taste peanut, but Sinsanong explains it’s the taste of the egg that’s got a bit burnt. Choi calls it magic and it looks it! We would happily dance alongside Choi while eating it. An amazing way to celebrate Gold.

Tips for Home Cooks:

·       When making a pie, you should use cold, solid butter, and when mixing it into the floor, make sure to mix quickly so the butter doesn’t get too warm.

·       Remember to rest your pastry before baking it.

·       When rolling out the pastry for a galette, roll from the middle of the pastry to the edge, but not off the edge. Do not roll from end to end.

·       Galettes can be more freeform and rustic in shape but pies must adhere to a defined structure with a lid.

·       Don’t throw the seeds of your pepper away; plant them in your garden instead.

·       Thai chefs don’t de-seed their peppers before adding them into to the curry. Don’t try this at home unless you love spice!

·       When adding freshly steamed ingredients to a wok full of hot oil, make sure you drain the water thoroughly because the water can make the oil spit and hurt you.

Final Thoughts

Following an episode where there was more eating than cooking, I was thrilled to see all the cooking in this episode of The Chef Show! The food looked delicious and, despite the number of ingredients, seem fairly simple to make. With Kleiman and Sinsanong on the show, there were a bunch of cooking tips to help home chefs and plenty of emotion as well, with regards to Gold’s impact on the lives of chefs in Los Angeles. A fitting tribute to a food icon.

The Chef Show is streaming on Netflix internationally.