Michael Chernow | Weights and Plates
Michael Chernow | Weights and Plates
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SportsTranscript
00:00 So fitness is a massive part of my life.
00:01 I would argue to say that fitness and nutrition together
00:06 actually saved my life.
00:07 (laughing)
00:10 It just like, the right nutrition combined with fitness
00:13 really does make for this like harmonious existence.
00:16 And I'm gonna show you one of my favorite meals today.
00:19 (upbeat music)
00:22 (upbeat music)
00:25 My name is Michael Chernow.
00:37 I am a chef, a restaurateur and an entrepreneur.
00:40 And I also happen to be a fitness fanatic.
00:44 So today we're on my property.
00:45 We are cooking a grass fed, grass finished sirloin steak.
00:49 We're also cooking a bunch of veggies
00:52 and we're working out like our life depends on it.
00:55 Let's go.
00:56 (upbeat music)
00:57 This is some kale that we're gonna use for a salad.
01:00 I've got some leeks here.
01:01 I love leeks.
01:02 They're just so delicious,
01:03 especially cooked on an open fire.
01:06 We've got some cauliflower, some broccoli
01:07 that we're just gonna, we're gonna bake in the fire as well.
01:11 A little bit of avocado for this kale salad.
01:13 Got some delicata squash.
01:15 I've got a little purple sweet potato that we're gonna make.
01:17 And then of course, we've got an unbelievably delicious
01:20 piece of grass fed, grass finished sirloin beef
01:24 from Kinderhook Farms,
01:26 one of my favorite farms in the area.
01:28 And we're gonna lightly season this
01:30 and it's gonna all work out really, really well, I hope.
01:34 (laughs)
01:35 (food sizzling)
01:37 I started working in restaurants in New York City.
01:40 I started out as a delivery boy.
01:42 Worked my way into the kitchen as a prep cook, dishwasher.
01:45 I worked every single position in a restaurant
01:48 over the next 15 years.
01:50 And in 2010, opened up my first restaurant
01:53 called The Meatball Shop.
01:54 And then we opened up a bunch more.
01:56 (upbeat music)
01:58 On top of eating well,
02:03 movement has been just a huge part
02:07 of what I believe has made me successful.
02:10 I would argue to say that fitness and nutrition together
02:15 actually saved my life.
02:16 There was a moment in time for me from about 13 to 23
02:21 where I dove deep into the world of darkness.
02:25 I really learned to love alcohol and drugs as a kid.
02:30 And when I was 23 years old,
02:32 I had a pretty intense experience
02:34 where it wasn't a game anymore and it wasn't fun
02:36 and I almost died.
02:38 And I was lucky enough to get sober
02:39 and I made a decision to change my life.
02:41 And when I did that, I found fitness.
02:46 And that is ultimately what has supported
02:51 and sustained my happiness for the last,
02:54 I don't know, 18 years.
02:56 When I made the decision to change my life,
02:59 a couple of guys took me under their wing
03:01 and they introduced me to Muay Thai kickboxing.
03:03 (upbeat music)
03:10 You know, they basically told me
03:11 that I needed to find an outlet
03:13 that was going to help me learn to get back up.
03:17 And they not only taught me about fitness
03:21 and how to move my body for medicine,
03:23 so I kind of think about like movement is medicine,
03:26 but also the right food to eat to compliment my movement.
03:30 And that's sort of been the cornerstone of my happiness.
03:35 So I'm gonna finish prepping the rest of these ingredients
03:38 and then I'm gonna show you the most important component
03:42 to what makes a great meal.
03:43 (upbeat music)
03:46 In my opinion, the most underappreciated component
04:02 to an epic meal is the workout beforehand.
04:06 (upbeat music)
04:09 For the last seven, eight months,
04:10 I really dove into the world of CrossFit
04:13 and I joined a CrossFit gym called Lumberjack
04:15 up in my area up here that I absolutely love.
04:18 And I built out my own little CrossFit gym
04:20 in my garage here.
04:22 Today, we're gonna do a couple of movements
04:23 that I'm learning.
04:25 So I'm trying to get better at,
04:27 so I really spent a lot of time on the skill work
04:29 in my garage gym.
04:31 Today, we're gonna be doing double unders
04:34 with the jump rope.
04:35 We're gonna be doing bar muscle ups
04:37 and we're gonna try to recover a little bit on the rower.
04:40 (upbeat music)
04:44 Even rowing for me is a new movement.
04:46 I didn't do rowing before.
04:47 For cardio, I would do running,
04:48 I would do uphill walking,
04:51 I would do some bike stuff, some assault bike stuff,
04:53 but I really never stepped on the row machine.
04:55 And so for me, rowing is new.
04:57 And believe it or not,
04:58 there's like a real technique to efficiency in rowing.
05:01 (upbeat music)
05:04 Double unders with the jump rope, with the speed rope,
05:09 is a brand new movement for me.
05:10 I did Muay Thai kickboxing for 12 years.
05:14 We jump with a super duper heavy rope,
05:16 so it couldn't be more opposite, right?
05:18 It's like literally jumping rope with a garden hose.
05:21 Now, it's a completely different style of jump rope
05:24 and it's trying to get the rope underneath your body
05:27 two times as opposed to like super heavy jump rope.
05:30 So I'm really learning that skill too
05:32 and I've gotten so much better in the last few months.
05:34 But it's still a skill I'm trying to develop,
05:36 like so I could do it with my eyes closed.
05:38 (upbeat music)
05:41 And then lastly, probably the hardest move
05:42 that we're gonna do today is the bar muscle up.
05:45 I just learned how to do bar muscle ups.
05:47 They are incredibly difficult.
05:49 It's not about strength with bar muscle ups,
05:51 it's actually way more about technique,
05:54 similar to all the high skill level movements
05:57 in the sport of CrossFit.
05:59 So for me, it's amazing.
06:00 I feel like a kid again.
06:02 I feel like I'm learning stuff from scratch.
06:04 I am challenged every single day.
06:06 It's incredibly humbling and my body is acclimating
06:10 and adapting in a way it hasn't ever before.
06:12 So I'm really fired up to continue this journey of CrossFit.
06:15 (upbeat music)
06:18 We're back out here, starting to fire.
06:29 You know, why fire over an outdoor grill?
06:32 I personally just love the flavor profile of wood.
06:36 I feel like wood and food together, smoke,
06:39 real wood smoke and food together,
06:42 you can't beat it, especially with friends and family
06:46 sitting around a fire, whether you're just hanging out
06:48 and talking and telling stories or cooking on it.
06:53 There's something nostalgic, there's something primal
06:56 about a fire that really brings out the best.
06:59 I think we're off to a great start.
07:03 Fire's taken, I got some nice dry wood on there.
07:08 We're gonna let these guys catch.
07:10 There's one ingredient that I didn't show you guys
07:13 on the inside of the house and that's some eggs.
07:17 Got an awesome chicken coop and we're gonna throw
07:20 a couple of eggs on our salad today to go with our meal.
07:24 So let's walk over there.
07:25 I'm gonna show you those chickens.
07:27 [upbeat music]
07:29 So this is chicken land.
07:35 We've got 11 chickens here.
07:38 Started out with nine, lost a couple, got a few more.
07:42 Now we're at 11.
07:43 We get somewhere between 11 and 12 eggs a day
07:46 when they're laying.
07:47 One of these chickens lays two eggs a day at times.
07:51 We're not sure which one, but one of them does.
07:54 Right here is where they drop 'em.
07:57 And we get all different color eggs.
08:01 Like right now, we've got white eggs, a blue egg,
08:06 a couple of cream eggs, but it's pretty awesome.
08:10 It's like a perfect food source.
08:13 Packed with protein and really, really good fat.
08:16 The deeper orange the egg yolk is,
08:20 the more versatile their diet is.
08:25 This guy would love to eat these chickens.
08:27 Sometimes he gets a few eggs.
08:29 [laughs]
08:31 All right.
08:35 So this fire is looking perfect right now for this steak.
08:42 I'm gonna put this beautiful steak right on the coals.
08:47 And that is gonna cook.
08:50 It's going to get an unbelievable flavor profile
08:54 from that wood smoke.
08:55 I'm gonna let it cook for a couple of minutes on this side,
08:59 and then I'm gonna flip it.
09:01 I'm gonna see how it looks.
09:02 And I might just pull it off and let it rest there,
09:05 'cause I like a steak pretty rare.
09:07 And this fire is hot.
09:08 I mean, this is a piping, piping hot fire here.
09:12 Oh yeah.
09:13 There's a few things that one would need to do
09:17 to make a perfect steak, in my opinion.
09:20 First and foremost, you wanna bring the steak down
09:22 to room temperature before you put it
09:24 on any cooking surface.
09:26 If it's a cold steak coming right out of the fridge,
09:29 it's actually gonna cool down the surface
09:31 that you're cooking on and hold back the opportunity
09:35 to get that perfect char, that perfect crust on the steak
09:39 that you're looking for.
09:39 When I'm cooking on fire like this, like coals,
09:43 I wanna make sure that I'm not totally burning
09:45 the crap out of the steak.
09:46 So I flip it every couple minutes
09:49 so that I don't burn it.
09:51 The other component to cooking a perfect steak
09:53 is you just wanna make sure you're seasoning it well.
09:56 Under-seasoned steak is the worst thing on the planet.
09:58 Be generous with salt.
10:01 That's sort of bringing some of the moisture
10:02 to the surface of the steak.
10:05 And that really helps to create a nice crust,
10:08 a nice sear when you put it on a super piping hot surface.
10:12 I mean, right now, this thing is beautiful.
10:13 It's sizzling.
10:16 So we've been on here for somewhere between seven
10:20 and nine minutes, I would say, maybe.
10:22 I think the steak is ready to pull.
10:23 I've been flipping it.
10:24 I made sure not to get anything super burned.
10:27 It's feeling about medium rare.
10:29 I'm gonna pull it off,
10:30 and I'm gonna let it rest for like 30 minutes.
10:33 So I've got a bunch of great coals going here.
10:36 I just threw a little grill on this little station here,
10:41 and I'm just gonna put the veggies right on top.
10:44 And we're gonna get these bad boys to roast
10:47 on this awesome open fire.
10:50 We're gonna get a bunch of that wood smoke
10:54 on these bad boys as well.
10:57 These things will cook for 20 minutes or so,
10:59 and then we'll have a really nice meal to go.
11:03 The veggies are, I would say, 75% of the way cooked.
11:09 We call that par-cooked.
11:11 So I'm gonna pull the foil off,
11:13 and I'm gonna finish the cook right on the grill.
11:17 And we're gonna get a really nice char here.
11:23 Try not to lose it all.
11:25 Go right on here with our leeks.
11:31 Oh, these are gonna be good.
11:35 Mm.
11:42 That is so good.
11:43 We'll cook these here for another three, four minutes.
11:48 We'll just get a really nice char.
11:50 This is how, we're just finishing the veggies here.
11:55 They're pretty much all cooked.
11:57 I'll mix all these veggies together.
11:59 We'll have a nice medley of veggies.
12:03 Oh, that smells so good.
12:04 (upbeat music)
12:06 We've cooked our steak, we cooked our veggies.
12:09 Now I'm gonna finish up with a salad.
12:11 This is a kale salad, I love kale.
12:13 People always complain about kale billing
12:15 being really tough, really hardy.
12:17 So what I've done is I take an avocado, just like that,
12:21 pop out the seed.
12:23 You kind of mash your avocado inside the shell,
12:26 and then I will dump it out into the kale here.
12:30 So I use the avocado, and I massage the kale
12:34 with the avocado, a little bit of lemon
12:36 and a little bit of salt.
12:39 And it really works the kale and breaks it down.
12:43 Before I get my hands all dirty,
12:45 I'm just gonna cut this apple.
12:47 Alright, so I got my apples.
12:53 Now, I'm gonna work this kale.
12:56 Your hands are gonna get messy,
12:59 but you really just wanna get in there,
13:01 and you really wanna coat the kale with the avocado,
13:05 and it's gonna almost present itself
13:06 like a creamy kind of dressing.
13:09 I'm gonna throw my apples in there.
13:12 I've got some walnuts and some sunflower seeds
13:17 that I'm gonna throw in there for some texture.
13:21 We are going to, hmm, tasty.
13:24 We're gonna make a dressing.
13:28 I'll show you a little tip with a dressing,
13:30 with some red wine vinegar,
13:32 some honey mustard.
13:36 I just like the sweetness of honey mustard.
13:39 Because the avocado is representing its fat here,
13:41 I don't have to use that much oil.
13:43 Just a little bit of oil, about a tablespoon or so.
13:48 And then I'm gonna cover it here,
13:50 and I'm gonna shake it.
13:55 You see that consistency?
13:57 It's like nice and creamy.
14:00 And then I'm going to give it a taste
14:02 and see if I need to add anything.
14:05 (upbeat music)
14:07 Oh, that is good.
14:08 That is good.
14:09 That's kinda perfect.
14:11 Delicata squash is one of my favorite squash to cook.
14:17 You can eat the skin, so you don't have to peel it.
14:20 And it's just got this like super natural,
14:23 incredibly delicious, sweet salt balance
14:26 that is hard to find.
14:29 I'm gonna go ahead and dress it,
14:31 and we're gonna mix.
14:34 (spoon clinking)
14:36 I'm gonna plate this salad right here.
14:42 The next thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna plate the veggies.
15:02 And I'm just gonna mix these.
15:04 What I'm gonna add to this is a little bit
15:09 of red wine vinegar for a little acidity.
15:12 Just a touch.
15:14 Little bit of olive oil.
15:17 Smells so good.
15:23 I'm gonna plate these right in this bowl here.
15:28 (bowl clinking)
15:31 And that's gonna be our veggies.
15:39 And now, we're gonna cut this bad boy.
15:42 This steak has been resting now
15:43 for a good 30 to 40 minutes or so,
15:46 so the juices are going to be incredibly well incorporated
15:50 into the meat here.
15:51 We are probably not gonna see any juice on the cutting board.
15:53 And that's a good sign to know
15:55 that you've let your steak rest long enough.
15:57 Our goal here is medium rare, medium, medium rare.
16:01 The back of this steak is a little thinner
16:03 than the top of this steak,
16:04 so it's probably gonna be a lot more red up here
16:07 than it is down here.
16:09 But, you know, we're gonna see how this bad boy looks.
16:13 Oh yeah, that's good.
16:17 Ooh, that's kinda perfect.
16:24 Yeah, so it went from medium rare pretty much down to medium.
16:28 Oh man.
16:32 That wood char, you can't beat that.
16:38 So good.
16:39 Last piece, the egg.
16:42 We're gonna drop it on our pan here.
16:47 Just gonna let this bad boy cook.
16:50 And then we're gonna throw it right on top of the salad.
16:54 Alright, I've got that fried egg cooking over there.
17:03 I've put a little crushed red pepper on it,
17:05 a little pink Himalayan salt.
17:06 And I'm gonna drop it right there.
17:09 And we are gonna dig into this bad boy.
17:12 Here we go.
17:15 Mm.
17:20 Mm.
17:21 Oh my gosh.
17:22 I would eat that for the rest of my life.
17:27 This was well worth every single second
17:29 of that workout and this dish.
17:31 So good.
17:32 (upbeat music)
17:35 Alright, so we worked out, we cooked, we ate a little bit.
17:44 And now I'm gonna show you guys
17:47 how I like to finish off my day
17:49 in my sauna.
17:50 This thing gets to about 220 degrees.
17:53 This is how I really love to unwind in an ideal day.
17:56 I pop in here and I call it a night.
17:59 This is where you guys get to call it a night as well.
18:01 Get the heck out of here.
18:03 I'm gonna jump in the sauna.
18:04 Until the next one guys, peace.
18:07 (upbeat music)
18:09 (upbeat music)
18:12 ♪ Got it, got it, Ricky Chann ♪