"Top Chef Junior” host Curtis Stone takes us inside Gwen, his fine dining, meat-centric restaurant in LA. Thanks to the in-house butcher shop, Stone’s team uses every part of the animal, serving up premium cuts — like rib-eye and pork chops — while transforming the rest into dishes like charcuterie, sausages, and pate. On the menu, you’ll also find impressive plates like hiramasa crudo, Josper-roasted dorade, black truffle pappardelle, and more.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Gwen was meant to be something that you know and you can rely on and coming out for a great
00:12steak but met with all this other brilliant stuff that's not cream spinach that you'd
00:16find in other steakhouses.
00:18Stuff that's sort of got a bit more gastronomic flair to it.
00:22We are in Hollywood.
00:23We're a butcher and a fine dining meat-centric restaurant.
00:33Hollywood's this magical place in everyone's eyes apart from the people that live here
00:38in LA.
00:39I sort of wanted to bring back a little like swagger to Hollywood and have something feel
00:43like it's been here forever.
00:45You know Frank and Musso's is up the road and they've been there for nearly a hundred
00:48years so it's a pretty tall order to think I'll be here in 90 years time but you never
00:52know.
00:53Second course, 30 days.
00:54We're in.
00:55Hey Gwen, our day starts pretty early because of the butcher shop.
01:05Today we had some pigs come and then we hang them and then we've got to break them down
01:08pretty quickly.
01:10This is what we call the primal, this is the most expensive part of the hog so that ends
01:14up just straight over the grill but the rest he turns into magic through the dry cure that
01:19we make here.
01:20First step usually will be to remove a kidney.
01:23Sometimes we'll grind that up with some ground pork and make a special sausage with it which
01:27we sell in the shop.
01:28We make a lot of charcuterie and a lot of salami which everything gets used.
01:32The butcher chef relationship in here is super important.
01:35The whole notion of this butcher shop is it's zero waste so anything that would normally
01:39get wasted in a butcher shop gets given to us and that's where our skill comes in as
01:44chefs that we actually know what to do with it and turn it into something really useful.
01:48I'm going to take the shoulder primal here and isolate the copa muscle here which we
01:52will cure and hang for six months and it'll make a beautiful copa seca.
01:57There's a charcuterie board on the menu that uses our salamis, our whole muscle charcuterie,
02:02our pate that's made in house and all of those products will be made from essentially all
02:06of this.
02:07So next up for this would be to turn it into some beautiful rib chops that will go on the
02:13menu tonight.
02:16So one thing I've always loved making is fresh pasta and other than the butcher shop it's
02:21probably what people think of us for the most I think.
02:24So we make it all fresh every morning.
02:26The pappardelle is with black truffle so we shave that table side, we make a little emulsion
02:32and we put radicchio for a little bitterness.
02:34We also have some hazelnuts which again just that beautiful sort of richness.
02:40The thing about great pasta is you need to really work the gluten early on in the type
02:46of flour.
02:47It's a bit of a workout.
02:49You want to mix the eggs well with the olive oil, some salt.
02:52There's only like four or five ingredients in fresh pasta and once you sort of got that
02:56egg mix right then you incorporate the flour.
03:00So you incorporate all those little dry pieces that come off.
03:04It's a pretty exact sort of a recipe so you've got to make sure that you really work that
03:09dough hard.
03:10I worked for Marco Pierre White in London for eight years and I saw how you could take
03:14something that was so rustic and simple but turn it into something really elevated as
03:17well.
03:18What you'll see as I keep kneading is the hydration of that dough gets better and better.
03:24So you really want to hydrate it all the way through.
03:26See how it springs back pretty fast?
03:29We're starting to sort of get that elasticity into the dough and that's later what you're
03:36going to feel when you bite that pasta.
03:38It gives you that beautiful snap, that nice texture.
03:41We wrap it and then we roll it later.
03:46So once the pasta's rested and you can see the difference in the elasticity of the dough
03:52straight away.
03:53See how that stays imprinted where before it bounced straight back out because the gluten
03:59was really active still.
04:04So you start off by just sort of rolling it and having a look at the texture of the dough,
04:09making sure you're happy with it.
04:11You can always fold it back on itself if you need to.
04:15And then you'll start looking for the desired thickness.
04:18So that's what's going to give you the nice surface area to be able to cut the pappardelle
04:21out of.
04:22You need it to be almost see-through.
04:25See how my hand is a bit more visible through that sheet?
04:30So we're real close.
04:31And then we use this little tool, this is what cuts it.
04:37It's going to get a bit of pressure on above it and then each noodle, we dry a little bit
04:43of parchment.
04:44So one sheet's about a portion.
04:45We'll probably walk into our service with 15 orders, 20 orders.
04:49I'd be very happy if we sold more than 30 portions of truffle pasta.
04:54Then we're ready for service.
04:58The fish has just arrived, seafood.
05:00So we've got beautiful crabs, fish, we've got flounder, turbo, oysters.
05:07So you just check it for freshness.
05:09They're all still alive, which is great.
05:11So all this will be sold tonight.
05:13There'll be nothing left tomorrow.
05:14The only thing that we're doing is we're dry aging the durad.
05:17So these will be hung for a couple of days.
05:20We're going to get these durad ready to go.
05:23We're going to age them again for three to five days, typically.
05:27They only stay in there about three days just because of how busy we are.
05:31So right now I'm just removing all the fins and the spine bones at the top.
05:36So when we go to age them, that doesn't like hinder us from cutting it.
05:39And then we also take a little bit of a toothpick and kind of stick it in to like where the
05:44collar is to keep the airflow so the inside doesn't go bad.
05:48The reason we are dry aging it is to get that skin extra, extra crispy.
05:51And one of the ways to do that is drying it out in the walk-in.
05:54We're removing these fins as well.
05:56It's very important because what will happen is during the drying process, if you don't
05:59take these off, they'll like stick to the skin of the fish and then what's under the
06:03skin will be wet and not dry enough to sear in the jasper.
06:14And then we just kind of hang them here because the way the air circulates, it just does like
06:17a big loop.
06:18And then that'll allow more air to hit those guys.
06:20And it's just a great place to hang it to where there's like nothing really under it
06:24except other fish.
06:25Marcel's a champion.
06:26He's the head chef here at Gwen.
06:28He works his butt off.
06:29He's been here for a long time.
06:30He was a sous chef for a couple of years before he got promoted to be the head chef.
06:34And he's got the respect of everyone that works here.
06:36And you get respect from your team by working hard yourself, you know, and then everyone
06:40sort of follows suit.
06:43This is going to be our Hiramasa kingfish.
06:45This is the fish that we're using on the kudo right now.
06:49We're going to go down one side of the fillet, then we're going to hit the bottom side of
06:53the same side.
06:54And then we're going to basically meet it right in the middle.
06:57And we're going to hop over the spine bone just to detach it from both sides of the fillet
07:02top and bottom.
07:03Come through, snip the rib bones, and then we're left with just two loins and bones down
07:07the middle.
07:08And instead of pin boning these guys as well, we just come down the center and then cut
07:12those bones out.
07:13Because you'll just tear up the fish and compromise the quality and integrity of the fish.
07:18So it's easier just to cut them out.
07:20And then we're going to put them in blocks and then dice it.
07:22We do about 60 grams per order, and we'll go through like a quart and a half on a busy
07:26night.
07:30So our truffle dealer, this is derived.
07:33She comes with a scale.
07:34How are you?
07:35Good to see you.
07:36And also wild mushrooms.
07:37I call this a pier de mouton.
07:39What do you call it?
07:41A hedgehog.
07:42Hedgehog.
07:43So we'll just pick through them.
07:44We're very lucky.
07:45She lets us take the best of the best.
07:47We'll choose some of those, a little bit of R&D.
07:52So right now, our black truffles are coming from Spain, and Spain is the largest producer
07:58of black truffles in the world.
08:00I think around 70% of the production for this species.
08:04And then they have a little neck, and so that's to show you quality on the inside.
08:09You're smelling for ripeness because some are picked before they're super ripe.
08:13Some are picked right at the right spot.
08:16You're also looking for color, so that is nice and dark.
08:20So in a black truffle, you want it black, the blacker the better.
08:23I'm always looking for something that's ripe and ready to serve because we cook with it
08:27as well, so you get a lot of that flavor from what we cook with.
08:30So that's 550 grams.
08:32They're the winners.
08:33Yeah, they are.
08:34Did we choose the best two in the bag?
08:35You did.
08:36Just lie to me if I didn't.
08:37You did.
08:41So I guess one of the big secrets of Gwen is the dry aging of the beef.
08:45We have two separate rooms.
08:46The dry aging room is here, and then the dry cure room is down the hall a little bit.
08:51You can dry age things for as long as you want.
08:53You can go 21 days, you can take it to 28 days.
08:56That's kind of a sweet spot that we really like, 28 days.
08:59We have some guests that really like it rich and funky and really aged, so we'll take things
09:04up to 60 days.
09:05This is a big primal.
09:06You can see on the tag there when we started it and how long it's been aging for.
09:11You can see how hard that is.
09:15You can barely penetrate it.
09:17It gets really dry, really strong crust, and then that mold growth is actually really beneficial
09:23for the flavors.
09:28So this is our 30-day dry aged rib section.
09:32We dry age the rib section with the feather bones and the lifter attached.
09:37It gives you a more milder dry age.
09:42Yeah, this is our most popular steak in the restaurant.
09:50It's nice and big for sharing, so it's good for the table.
09:53Although some people will come in, I've seen solo diners take one of these down, which
09:57is pretty cool.
09:59When cutting for the restaurant, they like a certain spec.
10:01We do ours at 36 ounces.
10:03It just assures that everything's going to cook at the same time.
10:06So I'll just sway it.
10:07I like to hit around 45, 50 ounces before it's clean, which right here it's 45, perfect.
10:12That'll yield a perfect 36-ounce portion.
10:16Next step is just a cleanup and then a frenching.
10:18I'm going to take off some of this excess fat here.
10:25There's one more step.
10:26There's a tying step.
10:28It just creates a nice uniform round shape to ensure even cooking all the way around.
10:33So this is the dry cure room.
10:37This entire room does one plate in the menu, and I can't tell you how many hours go into it.
10:44The way we dry cure all of the pork product that we do with charcuterie, that really is
10:49what stands this restaurant apart from lots of other ones.
10:56So this is my baby.
10:57I found this slicer some years ago.
11:02It's a Lario, about 100 years old, and it was serviced by an ex-Ferrari mechanic who
11:09was also about 100 years old.
11:10So this is the coppa, which is the muscle in the shoulder.
11:14We do a beautiful brisola.
11:15It's a Wagyu brisola, so you can see that gorgeous marbling.
11:19This course is sort of everything that Gwen is.
11:24It really just shows the relationship between the butcher and the chef, exactly how we go
11:29about our food and the handmade stuff that we make here.
11:33You just can't get it anywhere else.
11:35This is andouille, which is the spreadable Calabrian-style salami.
11:39I actually put a dollop of it on the plate, just like that.
11:43We always tell our guests to eat the andouille last because it's really quite spicy.
11:48We hand cut the salamis, Wagyu black pepper.
11:53So we have all the meats.
11:55Now we go and get all of the accoutrement, and then we serve it.
11:58It's caught up.
11:59So that's a little mustard, some homemade yuzu pickles, and that is it.
12:04So very simple, and it's meant to be really rustic and simple just like that.
12:08It's just about eating that, and then we make a beautiful olive oil and sea salt bread that
12:12goes with it.
12:16We build a fire here in the brisero, which is literally just a fire basket.
12:21When that burns, it drops through here, and then we drag it across, and we cook indirectly
12:26over the grill.
12:28It's a super efficient system.
12:30You know, for a relatively large restaurant like Gwen, this can keep up with the entire
12:36room.
12:37Aussies really love barbecue.
12:38We call it barbecue, grilling.
12:41We're fanatical about it.
12:42My nan, Gwen, used to have a fire in her home, which heated the water.
12:47She cooked on it.
12:48It was also the heating of the house, so pretty multifaceted.
12:52The smell of this fire still reminds me of being at her house.
12:56It's pretty cool.
12:57So this guy's a blow poke.
13:00You blow in here.
13:02The air comes out there, so you don't have to be too close to the smoke and flame.
13:07So it just adds a bit of oxygen to the fire, which gets it going faster.
13:14The guys have a little electric thing they use sometimes.
13:17I call it cheating.
13:18This is for the f***ing millennials, you guys, okay?
13:21It's a lot easier.
13:23Two o'clock, the fires are burning.
13:25The cooks are starting to roll in, service is in a few hours, so it starts to heat up
13:29a little bit now.
13:33Look, all I ever did was work in great restaurants.
13:35That was my career.
13:36And then I came to the States and I did a TV show and then another one and then another
13:39one that I wrote a book, and I really missed the restaurants, you know, I really did.
13:43So I think the big defining point in my career was deciding to open Maud and diving back
13:48into that sort of, you know, what can I do in the kitchen?
13:53I'd probably had a spell of maybe seven or eight years at that point, you know, where
13:57I wasn't in a restaurant.
13:58And food moves, it moves quickly, you know, a lot more technology in the kitchen, a lot
14:02more cooking.
14:03So you sort of have to make a decision as to what you're going to come back into the
14:06kitchen as.
14:07Do you come in as a stick in the mud and say, no, this is the way I learned how to cook
14:10and this is what I'm going to do?
14:11Or do you keep trying to learn?
14:13And that was my choice to just, you know, continually surround myself with good people,
14:18bounce ideas off them, listen to their ideas.
14:22So we've got these beautiful mushrooms in, so we're going to have a little play, create
14:26a new dish, show off these beautiful mushrooms.
14:29What do you think, Marci?
14:30What should we do?
14:31I have a black garlic puree that I've been working on that's going to go well with the
14:35mushrooms.
14:36I think it'd be nice to do like a little first course.
14:39Maybe it's a first course of the tasting menu.
14:42These mushrooms have a tiny little piece underneath.
14:47It's not bad to eat.
14:49I prefer it without.
14:52What if we do something with yolks?
14:54So we can confit the yolk, so it's super warm and moist, because maybe we can just do it
15:00in a little glass.
15:01Puree, egg yolk, mushrooms, and then maybe something crispy.
15:06Cool.
15:07Yeah, we're pretty aligned.
15:09And when we're not, I just slap him and quickly we get aligned.
15:14So we're going to actually confit, slowly cook the egg yolk in the olive oil.
15:20Okay, so it's a super gentle method of cooking.
15:24I like to just move it so you know it's not sticking, and then we're just going to nurse
15:28the temperature of this and make sure that we keep it right there at 145.
15:33So this is a black garlic tofu puree.
15:37It's interesting because we've got a lot of umami and it's like nice and earthy, but it's
15:42also silky smooth from the tofu and balanced.
15:45I think it'll work really nice, but when you taste that, and imagine egg yolk, and imagine
15:51mushrooms, it's rich, rich, rich.
15:54So we need to do something to brighten it.
15:56Like a fresh element or a light element.
15:59What vinegar do we have in house?
16:00Do you have like a nice um...
16:02We've got sherry, apple vin, champagne.
16:07Maybe some sherry vinegar.
16:09You can sauté those, do like a nice fricassee, shallots, garlic, and then quite a bit of
16:15sherry vinegar.
16:16Okay, yeah, that sounds good.
16:17And then that'll brighten it up.
16:19Cool.
16:24Yeah, we're just playing with the presentation.
16:29I'll eat yours and you can eat mine.
16:30Will you?
16:31It's really pretty.
16:32I like it as a first course.
16:37The thing about that first course on your tasty menu is you want the guests to have
16:40a couple of bites and be like, I want more.
16:43You want that excitement.
16:44So you're going to need to build it.
16:45Then the second course comes and we're onto something, Marcel, it's good.
16:50Nice one.
16:51Happy Tuesday.
16:52Happy Tuesday.
16:54We also have our truffles in as we have all last week.
16:58The black truffles are from Spain.
17:00They're beautiful.
17:01We hand selected them this morning.
17:03So the same gnocchi and pappardelle that we had last week, but they're both fabulous.
17:08The quality of the truffles is really stellar, which is awesome.
17:10Make sure that we really focus on our guests, really think carefully about what we're doing.
17:16We're constantly trying to increase our standards and drive for something better than yesterday.
17:21So tonight's no different.
17:22Let's have a good night, guys.
17:23The kitchen is a really interesting place because it transforms throughout the day.
17:28You know, it starts off very mellow at the start of the day and then it sort of picks
17:31up pace and it gets a bit more intense and everyone starts looking at their watch, wondering
17:35whether they're going to be ready for 5.30 when service starts.
17:41I'm going to season my ribeye.
17:43We only season just before we cook it, that way you don't get any moisture loss from the
17:48beef.
17:49Now, there's two muscles in the ribeye.
17:51That's the longinus dorsi and that one there is the spinalis dorsi.
17:55They eat very differently, but in a ribeye, when you cook it on the bone, you have to
17:59cook both muscles the same way.
18:01So the bone's going to protect the meat in here, so you need to cook this side of the
18:06steak a little bit quicker.
18:08So we start with the bone facing the fire because a little bit more heat's going to
18:14penetrate it from that side.
18:16And we're going to give it maybe two or three minutes on each side, start to build that
18:20color really slowly.
18:22Then we rest that five to 10 minutes, back on two to three minutes, second rest, and
18:28we keep going with that process until we've got that perfect doneness.
18:31I love that.
18:32I love how challenging it is, because if it was easy, you master it, and then you sort
18:37of get bored and want to go and do something else.
18:41All right, so that's it.
18:42It comes off.
18:43We let it rest.
18:44It's only been on for a total of maybe five minutes.
18:47So it's still blue.
18:48It's not even rare yet.
18:49We're going to let it rest for about five, seven minutes, and then we'll get it back
18:52on the charcoal.
18:54For all of the steaks, they get a little garnish.
18:58And I go to the farmer's market weekly, and depending on what they have, will determine
19:02what I get.
19:03This week, we did some shopping at Roots Farm, and all of their produce, all their lettuces
19:09and kales are fantastic.
19:11Little bit of oil, a little bit of smoke, and then from there, we'll hit it with a little
19:15lemon.
19:16And we typically make like vinaigrettes that we put on to help with the acidity and all
19:19the fat from the steak.
19:25When we opened Gwen, we never really thought we're opening it to win a Michelin star.
19:30You know, of course you work hard and you take pride in your work and you hope it's
19:34recognized, but we didn't set out to win a star.
19:37So when we did, we were kind of like, whoa, because it's not your traditional Michelin
19:40starred restaurant.
19:41You know, normally Michelin starred restaurants are a little fancier, white tablecloths, sort
19:46of the old school way of thinking about Michelin stars.
19:48It's not anymore.
19:49But, you know, it does put more pressure on you.
19:55The first thing we do for the pasta is make an emulsion with just butter and water.
20:00Well, this will continue to come down and thicken.
20:03Next we add the pappardelle.
20:04It only takes seconds to cook.
20:08So we just carefully drop that in and then into the emulsion, we put some radicchio.
20:15We take that beautiful black truffle.
20:17We also include it in the sauce.
20:20Black truffle responds really well to being cooked.
20:23My emulsion is getting a tiny bit thick, so you just add a little bit more water.
20:27The most important thing you do as a cook is continually taste your food at all different
20:31stages.
20:32So you've got a balance of that rich earthiness from the truffle and the bitterness from the
20:37radicchio, which is wonderful.
20:39Pappardelle is ready.
20:40A touch of cream, a little cheese, fresh chives, a little black pepper, a tiny little lemon
20:49just to cut through some of that richness, and we're done.
20:52And then it goes and gets shaved truffle table side.
21:06Service!
21:08So we have our durod here that we prepared earlier.
21:12We oiled and salted both sides already to make sure it doesn't stick.
21:16We have our lemon, which we're going to char as well.
21:18We're going to put it right over the toast.
21:23So we're starting to get our color now, even though our fish is still a little rare on
21:27the top.
21:28So I like to move it to the top and continue the cooking process.
21:30And then while that's cooking, we also have this yuzu vinaigrette that we make, and then
21:35we kind of put that on the bottom and we're going to kind of swirl the fish in that once
21:37it comes off.
21:41So we're pretty good there.
21:42So we're like nice and medium, right in the middle.
21:45And then what I like to do from here is I'll just take it and I'll flip it right on top
21:48of that vinaigrette.
21:53And then from there, you go straight to the plate.
21:59Service is up and going right now.
22:01We've got a few steaks going and a few guests coming in.
22:04But yeah, we're about to get into the pick of things.
22:06Five, three, 30 day pork chop.
22:09Oui.
22:10Pork chop tonight.
22:14I want people to come in and choose their own adventure with the food.
22:17That's why we give them a lot of power.
22:19You know, our dishes can be eaten individually.
22:22They're also wonderful shared.
22:23And I never want to tell people one way is better than the other.
22:26That's up to you.
22:27And I want them to eat wonderful food.
22:28I want them to walk out thinking that was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
22:32And I want them to feel really special.
22:33And that's what we try and do for people every night.