Chef Lish Steiling’s Confident Cooking Masterclass

[Applause] hell H welcome to the show some of that hello welcome hello beautiful hello welcome to the welcome to the show I see you over there welcome hello I love you welcome thank you wherever you are hello oh my gosh here we go here we go soing this in thank you beautiful how I like that hat have a seat have a seat have a seat here we go so here's the deal thank you so I love you back Batman with your shirt on I love we okay we never gonna get this show started with this crew over here listen I love you and thank you so much for being here listen we are in the sixth season of our show and so when we were talking about the show we said what does the number six represent it represents nurturing and this season is about nurturing ourselves our relationships our anything you want to grow you have to care for it right you got a kid you got to care for yourself you got to care for yourself you want to grow in your life so this is the season to nurture what you want to grow and get rid of everything else you don't want that's what we're talking about right so for me for me one of the most nurturing things that I've started to do over I don't know it really to be honest with you it started in 2008 after my father passed away my father was the best cook in the world and as a way to remember him I started on on this journey to learn to cook to nourish myself I didn't I was going to have a kid back in 2008 I end up having a kid got to nurture him and nourish him and so on this journey along the way came my very first cookbook um it's called a confident cook I partnered with one of my best friends in the world James Beard award winner Lish styling Lish and I have been traveling the country I don't know if you saw on social media your girl been in these streets we've been running around selling our book we had the great pleasure of being at the Library of Congress the only cookbook featured on the kickoff with Dr Carla Hayden we left the panel of nearly 4,000 people who showed up to see us I couldn't believe it I couldn't listen I I know my tan fam in studio loves us we went to DC I was like I'm not running for for office what are all these people doing here it was amazing and then Lish I love L cuz she is always willing to put skin in the game no pun intended as we get ready to cook she is running around New York with a billboard of our look at her this is L this is like we're going to sell this book at all cost that's what a friend does we lift each other up and this week we visited GMA and Live with Kelly and Mark we are heading to the food and wine classic in Charleston September 27th we're one of the headliners so if you're in Charleston come see us and part of the reason I love cooking is that I'm not alone there are so many intriguing people in the cooking world I follow them on social media so this show is not just about my cookbook it is about some of the chefs that I'm a fan of including Mama j r a mama five from North Carolina who is starting a conversation about what it means to be a middle class cook and Mom in America her videos are incredible also Chef Kiara Jones who has 5 years ago didn't even know how to cook now she's got clients paying thousands of dollars for her to cater for them so they're joining the party but first as mentioned she's a James Beard award-winning culinary producer Chef food stylist recipe writer and Emy Award winner but above all she is my dear friend who has always supported me and helped me over the years become a confident cook and she can help you please welcome L styler [Music] oh yes it's like it's like they turn for you feel so special so this is what happens when a kid from Texas and a kid from Wisconsin become best friends they create 7 9 recipes that you will never forget uh this actually started we were both living in New York we worked at the Today Show together Lish was in the food styling Department I was in the office next door to the kitchen recognizing I could get free food and one day I saw her and I said you have a radish and a carrot tattooed on your arm anybody with a root vegetable can cook cuz those are not the F when you start to cook you like a burger you don't grab a radish and I knew you meant business they're delicious I mean come on but that struck up a conversation right I mean tattoos food all of that starts a conversation and that's how our friendship grew it all started that our friendship grew and to be honest with you our book you will see each of the recipes and at the end there's a real conversation because Lish would give me the recipe I'm going to take you behind the doors come with me behind the behind the scenes she would send a recipe and she'd say okay now try it and I would send her in real time text messages saying okay okay what is spatchcocking a chicken our book explains it's delicious everybody needs to know how to do it if I don't have this what do I put in this and you say you know I said Lish one day how do I salt water because the recipe says salt water what does it I know it sounds easy but what do you say oh my goodness it has to taste salty right and the only way to know is to taste the water taste the water yes taste the water and people don't know that and when you're cooking pasta and you salt the water yep if you don't salt the water you end up with Bland pasta it's your one chance to season that pasta it's your one chance so in the book 79 recipes one of them is a recipe inspired by a trip we took to Antiga our first trip our very first family trip uh my nephew taught you how to do hip-hop dance kind Isaiah taught you how to do this but on our journey we had whole fish and I said to Lish to build confidence in the kitchen we need a whole fish because how many people are afraid to touch whole fish thank you for being honest we're going to change your life what's so intimidating about touching a whole fish I'm just getting in there guys so what we have in the book is a bronzino recipe with a beautiful salsa verde and we're going to take you through that recipe you can do it inside or outside I actually have video of me making it the other day it was raining and I decided to prepare this bronzino on my grill pan inside versus outside so this is a versatile recipe absolutely and we start off with a beautiful bronzo bro it's about a pound and a quarter the thing that you have to remember about a whole fish you can have your fish person take out the guts take off the scales make sure that all of the fins are removed you can do that that's what they're there for they are there to help which they are actually truly the amongst the specialists in a grocery store and we're not just talking about walking into the fancy grocery store this is wherever you live go to the seafood department and say take care of that bad boy for me cuz I'm going to make it at home exactly and they know if you say take care of that bad boy they know what you mean they know what you mean all right so we start off with scoring the fish we explain in the book what does scoring a fish mean so scoring the fish is simply making kind of short incisions into the fish from The Spine down to the belly and the key is not to cut through the fish a lot of people you're on the phone you're not paying attention and next thing you know you're like oh no it went all way through the side pay attention now food disclosure as I said when I met Lish I was not able to cook I cook probably four to five times a week now yep and I saw that love in my father and I saw that love in one other person I've ever met in my life Lish she Lov sharing yeah all right so we do both sides both sides we score now you score both sides of the fish go ahead I'm sorry nice clear eyes and very important smell your fish right it should smell clean like the sea it shouldn't smell super fishy you don't have to be intimidated you can totally ask them to smell the fish that's okay it's allowed um one of the other things I'll tell you so Lish has written recipes I tell people for your favorite Chef she has probably secretly written their recipes that is the truth um because a lot of times recipe writers don't get the credit in the book and so it was important for y'all to know that I was the beginner on this journey but she wrote all the recipes in the book which I love that like you tested them all like you actually made them after they were created which is amazing one of the things also in our book cuz I know you see me salt and you're probably like that's a lot of salt Tam off it is not because we have a secret here so often times people uh think all salts are the same right they are not the same we use a salt that is a lighter salt it's in the book it is at the regular grocery store as card B says regular schmeg because one of the things I wanted in the book was I didn't want you jump in the hoops and Loops to try to find things but not all salt is the same right and it doesn't have to break the bank it doesn't have to break the bank and it doesn't have to be you know this big fancy thing but people ask all the time and we talk about it in the book what's a pinch of salt explain to the people so a lot of people think a pinch of salt is just like a little you know it's like there you go right my pinch of salt is three fingers and a thumb right so that's like how I season now cooking takes common sense right and that's what this book tries to help encourage is that you are in control so if it's a dish that already has a good amount of salt in it and it calls for a pinch of salt maybe start with a little pinch you need to think about the dish it's an exercise and being present really when you think about what we also tell you is that you know how many many times you've had a dish and you say it's all done you sit down at the table it needs some salt that's because we teach you in the book how to layer with salt you're adding a little salt along the way so it may seem like a lot but what we're avoiding is when you sit down at the table and now you got to put a bunch of salt on top of the food then it tastes salty then it tastes salty every ingredient deserves to taste the best it can and that means every ingredient needs a little bit of salt all right so we have seasoned him or her up and by the way if you again if you are afraid if you're afraid to touch fish I took Moses out on the sea this summer one of our big summer things is that we went fishing uh this is us so we don't just cook we catch and we do everything else this is Moses I was teaching him the fish because we really are about passing on we talk about passing on generational wealth I wanted to pass along a generational appreciation of feeding yourself and your family which is what I learned from my father it was important yes and if young M can touch her fish you can touch your fish if Moses can touch your fish you can touch one all right so we have in here time open up the cavity we're going to put a little bit of lemon some time that's going to season the fish from the inside out little aromatics right and then we're just going to add our olive oil on the outside rub it in give it the love yes give it the love thank you hi give it the love and so one of the things people also ask and this is something I posed to Lish and it's in our book about do I need a nonstick pan that's a very common question and while we are not anti- nonstick thank you uh we tell you if you have a hot pan heat the pan up you can feel this heat coming off of here add your fat so that your butter your olive oil whatever your fat is you instantly have what a nonstick pan hot pan hot fat then the food then the food and then you have a surface where your fish won't stick but you got to not be afraid and don't put the oil on and then turn on the stove because you will end up with a smoky mess like I did and the fire department will come