“It's been about two years of construction…six months of conceptualization of menu. In 24 hours we'll know whether we've accomplished it.” Join Ari Kolender, chef and partner at Queen Street in Los Angeles, for a day behind the scenes as he prepares to open his Charleston-inspired raw bar and grill for the very first time. “This has been ours by ourselves for over two years, and we're about to give it away.”
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00:00 I think the most exciting thing is just letting people into the space.
00:03 This has been ours by ourselves for over two years and we're about to give it away.
00:07 It's been about two years of construction, certainly about six months of conceptualization of menu.
00:14 In 24 hours we'll know whether we've accomplished it.
00:17 I'm Ari Collender, I'm the chef and partner here at Queen Street.
00:26 We're about to open in 24 hours, so I'd love to show you what we've been working on.
00:30 Queen Street is two years in the making.
00:33 We're setting out to be a classic raw bar and seafood grill, inspired loosely by Charleston where I grew up.
00:38 In front of you is the horseshoe raw bar.
00:40 It has all the raw oysters, crab claws, all that kind of stuff.
00:43 And then the rest of the food comes off of an awesome wood fire grill in the back.
00:47 It might look calm right now, but we have an immense amount of work today.
00:51 So the first thing we have to do is check out the prep list.
00:53 Everyone's about to arrive and we've got to be ready for them.
00:55 We've got Max and Jen, my sous chefs.
00:58 We've been working in this kitchen for a month together trying to nail down all the recipes.
01:02 Joe is our managing partner and running the front of the house.
01:06 And we also have a bunch of new cooks that are joining us for the first time.
01:09 So we're also training them as we're bulking up for tomorrow.
01:13 So the first thing we're doing, we have to check the prep list, figure out if there's any issues, and we can kind of troubleshoot from there.
01:19 I'd say this is about exactly what we're going to do.
01:22 Which is basically everything.
01:25 We've got everything from making she crab soup on here to hard boiling eggs.
01:28 We have to make a big batch of hush puppy batter.
01:31 So I'm going to take a look at this, get a game plan for my day, and then huddle up with the sous chefs and start delegating out to them.
01:37 I heard the produce delivery just came in.
01:40 We're going to go check on that so we can keep moving.
01:43 Just making sure that everything came in properly.
01:46 It's the right price, it's the right amount of ingredients.
01:49 And that the quality is there.
01:52 These onions, we need to get them up here, okay?
01:54 That's where all the meat's going to go.
01:56 Right now we're just making space.
01:58 We start on the bottom with seafood, meats, work our way up as the veggies go, and then lettuces and herbs get put on top.
02:05 We also have this mobile speed rack that's a very handy tool.
02:08 So when we get our thousands of oysters in, we can just move it throughout the restaurant since they're so heavy, you know?
02:13 Makes it very easy for us.
02:15 These specific oysters actually come from Charleston.
02:19 We have ordered 10,000 oysters for our opening week.
02:22 So we're hoping that's going to take us through.
02:25 So these are some of the best sea urchin in the world coming from Santa Barbara.
02:29 We'll crack them open and throw them on oysters and on hush puppies and all kinds of fun stuff.
02:34 So it travels this way.
02:36 It uses all these little tines to move along the rocks.
02:39 Smells like a walk-in now.
02:42 We just got our Cream Co. meat delivery.
02:45 80 pounds of lamb ribs and 100 pounds of pork chops.
02:48 This lamb's from Anderson Ranches out of Oregon.
02:51 The beginning of this process is quite simple.
02:54 I mean, we're really-- the work's been done for us.
02:56 These are very clean ribs.
02:58 We're just taking them out.
02:59 We'll give them a little rinse and then submerge them in our brine for a few hours.
03:02 We braise it with red wine and tomatoes and dried cumin, dried thyme.
03:08 After it comes out of the oven, we grill them and slather them with an anchovy salsa verde.
03:15 In the very beginning, I like to take on all the bigger projects, make sure we're doing it the best way.
03:20 That way we can teach everyone how to do it.
03:22 Charleston cuisine is heavily influenced by the Gullah Geechee cultures.
03:27 So, you know, you have, like, barbecue culture and things like that,
03:30 but it's a lot of peas and corn and tomatoes and just nice summer crops.
03:38 A lot of dried beans for the wintertime.
03:41 It's really fun to be able to bring a lot of what I grew up with to Los Angeles.
03:45 There's dishes that you can't really even find back home anymore
03:48 that we're going to be showcasing on the menu tomorrow.
03:51 So we have our lamb here.
03:53 We've made some brine.
03:55 It's water, salt, a little sugar, a lot of hot sauce.
03:59 So we just want to make sure that everything is submerged underneath the brine.
04:03 And it's 1040, so this will come out at 240 today.
04:07 This is our bone-in pork chops from Klingman Farms.
04:11 That dish gets a nice charred cabbage that we then braise in fish sauce
04:15 and Dijon mustard and some roasted Fresno chilies as well.
04:18 We're going to teach Max here how to cut these single rib chops.
04:22 How many ribs do we have? One, two, three, four, five, six.
04:25 So this side has meat on this side of the rib, right?
04:29 This side, a little less.
04:31 We're going to cut on this side of the rib bone.
04:34 And we're just going to try and stay as straight as possible.
04:37 Any trim or anything that's smaller than we can use, we're going to make stock with.
04:41 We're weighing these out to about 14 ounces.
04:44 Just so happens that it's usually, if you cut it right, the perfect size with one rib.
04:48 A little over, a little under, it's going to happen.
04:51 But we need to make sure that we're not straying too far.
04:54 So as head chef, one of the things that I do is making sure that everyone knows how to do everything.
04:59 Today we're teaching Katya how to make she crab soup.
05:01 She crab soup is kind of like the clam chowder of the South.
05:04 We're doing a little fresher take on it.
05:06 It's a much more robust flavor.
05:08 So we start by adding the butter to the pot.
05:11 And we're going to turn this on medium high.
05:15 Let's go ahead and add our veggies.
05:17 We've got onions, celery, leeks, and fennel.
05:20 And so here we have salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, and then also some mace.
05:25 Once they become translucent in about three minutes, we'll start the next step.
05:29 It takes a little more time to teach new recipes at a brand new restaurant.
05:33 There's one thing about creating a recipe, but we're also working together for the first time.
05:38 So we have to talk and understand each other and teach and learn.
05:41 So it's 11.45.
05:45 We have the whole staff in house now, so it's getting a little hectic in the dining room.
05:49 We're going to go to the back and check in with Jen, make some pie dough,
05:52 make sure we're locked in on that recipe for tomorrow.
05:55 Jen's been working on this for the last three weeks, so we're almost there.
05:58 It's just final tweaks.
06:00 Figure out what the best thickness is going to be so that we can get a nice, even crust,
06:04 perfectly toasted on the bottom.
06:06 You know, the challenges are working with this new oven and just understanding how that bakes.
06:10 But also we're working with Grandma's derby pie recipe, this pecan chocolate pie.
06:16 Other than good crust, good chocolate, we use Valrhona chocolate here.
06:20 We're just also tweaking that recipe to be exactly right for the restaurant.
06:25 Want to give that a shot?
06:26 This roller that we're working with right now is new, but it controls the thickness and makes it even.
06:33 There's these adjustment pieces on the side that can come off.
06:36 You can change your thickness.
06:37 We're at a quarter inch right now, so.
06:39 Where do you think we are as a comparison to what we've been doing?
06:41 I think it's a lot more even.
06:44 It's definitely a lot easier to roll out, that's for sure.
06:47 Yeah.
06:48 I guess I'm here right now. This is it.
06:50 Yeah, and it looks like about the perfect size for this already.
06:54 We're just making sure that it's pressed well into the pan.
06:59 Next, Jen's going to poke all these holes in here.
07:02 After we poke those holes, we're actually going to weigh the shell down with beans.
07:07 That way it doesn't puff up.
07:10 And really just make sure that it's pushed out.
07:13 I feel like we nailed it.
07:15 So it's 1235. We finally got our seafood delivery from Sea Stephanie Fish.
07:23 So we've got these great crabs from Steph.
07:26 So we're going to make stock out of the bodies, but we want to serve these claws on the raw bar.
07:31 So the first thing we need to do is take the claws off.
07:35 We boil them alive because it's the most delicious, but also, you know, it happens quick.
07:39 It's over fast. It's not making a big mess for us.
07:42 Honestly, dealing with fresh seafood is my favorite task of all time.
07:47 If I were to retire somewhere, I'd probably still take up a tree job.
07:52 We also have some amazing rockfish, five pounds each.
07:57 Whenever we're getting fish in, we're just trying to make sure that we have nice, clear eyes like this.
08:01 That the gills are fresh and bright and red.
08:05 All signs of a healthy fish. Not bad.
08:09 Everyone's on break. I got the whole kitchen to myself.
08:12 I can spread out and get it all done quickly.
08:15 It's obviously important to keep everything at temperature, so we've got some ice.
08:19 We're making about 1200 pounds of ice here.
08:22 We're lucky enough to be able to put it in a machine that was big enough that would handle the load.
08:26 Or so we think. We'll find out tomorrow.
08:29 You know, when the fish comes in, we want to go ahead and get the guts out, get the scales off.
08:33 Those are the things that go south the fastest.
08:37 Tomorrow we'll actually butcher the fish off of the bone and start cutting it for the crudo that day.
08:43 Make a little incision here.
08:46 The liver, intestines, the roe sac, all that's in here.
08:51 Just going to rinse them off.
08:54 For this rockfish ceviche, we make a, I like to call it a tomato mignonette.
09:00 We add some lime juice, tangerine juice, a little fish sauce, some shallots.
09:04 A little olive oil, a little black pepper, some fresh herbs.
09:07 It's a very light, easy crudo, high in flavor.
09:11 So you'll notice some of these have like perfect pristine eyes, and some of them look like a villain in some show.
09:17 So that happens because these rockfish live on the bottom of the ocean, and as they're caught, they get reeled up really quickly.
09:23 The change in pressure in the water, they basically just get the bends.
09:27 So it's 120. Just going to finish getting this rockfish put away.
09:31 I heard our caviar guy, Marcus, from Durosti Caviar is in the house.
09:35 I want to ask you one question about the Siberians.
09:37 Yeah, so what you do is you want to scoop her from the top.
09:40 You don't want to give her too much space on the thing.
09:42 So have everybody just scoop around.
09:43 So just stay settled.
09:44 Exactly.
09:45 Okay, cool.
09:46 I appreciate it.
09:47 We have three different kinds of caviar here.
09:50 So the Siberian caviar is from Poland.
09:54 That goes onto our oysters with a little uni.
09:57 And then for our caviar service, we have two different kinds.
09:59 We have a Kaluga hybrid, which we serve an ounce of for around $100.
10:03 And then we also have a Golden Osetra, which comes in its own little tin, and that is a little bit more pricey at around $250.
10:11 How much is that box of caviar all in a case?
10:13 This? Put it in a briefcase.
10:16 Guys, so these shirts, the cook shirts, they're for you.
10:20 They should be sizes for everybody.
10:22 Do you want the corn for breakfast tomorrow?
10:26 Chuck it all.
10:27 [music]
10:32 Lots of reservations.
10:33 I just made one for your wife.
10:35 She told me that it's the first opening day she's ever been to.
10:38 She's the only one to actually get in.
10:41 We're booked solid except for the barn.
10:43 Just walk-in only.
10:44 We've got about 12 people every 15 minutes.
10:47 I figure we litter in some walk-ins as we go.
10:50 Okay.
10:51 Nice and slow, nice and easy.
10:53 I'm going to bring the iPad back to sleep with so I can make any changes.
10:56 Perfect.
10:57 Yeah.
10:58 Have we identified who could potentially be the expediter for tomorrow?
11:02 Demetria?
11:03 Yeah.
11:04 Bunch of smart kids.
11:05 So what time do we need family meal?
11:07 3 o'clock would be great.
11:08 Okay.
11:09 I don't know.
11:10 Something's going to happen tomorrow, and we're going to be like, "Oh, no.
11:13 We don't have enough forks."
11:16 And the next day it's going to be like, "Ah, shoot."
11:19 Still not enough forks.
11:21 Yeah, "Oh, we need more forks again."
11:23 So we'll be here for the next three or four hours.
11:26 We'll just tighten up everything, get a great night's sleep, and be ready for tomorrow.
11:30 We've got obviously plenty to do, so you guys now need to go.
11:33 You just want to get a shot at the carnage?
11:37 We're doing okay.
11:38 We can just 86 the whole thing.
11:40 [laughter]
11:41 [music]
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