Hog Heaven

I've got a strange request for you today

Really? I need you to paint a pig. Why? There's this cute little chef from Atlanta

and he raises his own pigs for his restaurant. And he's into tattoos

So I don't want him to feel like maybe I'm not into tattoos

Can you put it right in your face? No. No? Right there

Yes. Okay. I love pigs. And so do I. So today I'm making my bacon pinwheels

my roasted pork loin with mushroom gravy, Kevin's grandma's fried bacon cream corn

and his molasses cookie sandwiches with bacon ice cream. Here we go

Oh! Oh! It's fabulous. That's bacon. Oh, my God. Ooh, this stuff is so pretty

Love this... Love this jade plant. Hey, Miss Paula. Kevin! I'm Kevin Gillespie, born and raised Georgia native

I'd heard about this guy. I'd heard about his restaurant. I'd heard his love of pigs

How are you? Oh, I'm great. How about you? I'm great. I brought you a present

Did you bring me some bacon? I did. My restaurant sort of has a reputation for being a very pork-driven restaurant

so we brought her all different types of bacon, pancetta, anything that sort of can go in the place of bacon from all over the world

something we made at the restaurant, we decided to bring a little gift basket for her. Are you looking at some of my designs here

Now, this says Gillespie. Yes, ma'am. That's my coat of arms. Do you oftentimes forget your name or something

Sometimes I forget the spelling. It's a little complicated. Are you using this for ID

What's up, son? You want to see my tattoo? I didn't know you had a tattoo, so yes

Oink, oink. You know what? It hadn't crossed my mind that she might have something up her sleeves

You see mine here. They're not too far off of one another. Oh, my gosh

He's got that red hair all over his arms. And the pig looks so real

So I have a bulldog on my leg. You want to see it? Oh, Lord. Can I take a picture? Yes, you can, of course

Drop your drawers, honey. But I tell you what, I was gonna, no pun intended, get to the bottom of it

Here's what I thought we'd make. I love puff pastry. Oh, who doesn't

Yeah. So I thought we'd make some pinwheels. I'm gonna need about a cup of diced bacon

You mind if we use the stuff I brought you? Oh, my gosh. No, I don't mind. I would love it. Yeah, I want you to taste it. I think you're gonna like it

You'll have to forgive my phone, Kevin. My son is at the hospital with his wife

Oh, my goodness. She has given birth to this second little boy. Oh, boy

And if I miss that call... I'm not going to let you miss that call

I would cry. So if you hear this phone ring, I'm not accustomed. I usually don't answer it

I'll answer it for you. You want me to answer Paula's phone, or you just want me to say hello? Say, hey, son, is it here yet

I know a lot about you. I know. I feel like we may have known each other in a past life or something like that

In a past life. Yeah, you're a Georgia boy. And I heard the most interesting thing about the way you grew up that your granny

I heard she went and bought a piece of land big enough for the whole stinking family

Basically, yeah. You know, my granny and my pa moved down here from the mountains

And they bought a piece of land. And then, you know, as one of their kids would get old enough, they bought a piece of land right next to it

And they just built a house until they basically bought a compound. It seems it kind of he grew up with the same kind of family value that I grew up with

I like the kid a lot. Now, I've gotten my puff pastry, and I'm just going to take some Dijon mustard, and I'm going to brush on a coat of that

Bacon and mustard, that's a winning combo right there. Yes, yes, yes

and then I got something else that I'm gonna put in it for us

and it's a herbed cream cheese. Oh my goodness. A soft, spreadable

kind. Yeah, this is the heart-healthy recipe of the day, it sounds like

You know, he's got such a baby face and he's like 27

28 years old underneath that hair. His face is like a baby's butt

I am so fascinated with your skin. It is so beautiful. Thank you

Why don't you shave that beard mustache for me? It's not happening

It's not happening. I'm going to tell you why. You wouldn't do it for me. This is my moneymaker, Paula

I can get rid of that It like keeping a cover on a Ferrari You know it always stays nice underneath Paul is a trip She a lot of fun It is actually like meeting a family member again that you haven seen in a while

I knew you were going to pester me about my beard, so I figured there needs to be evidence of something

Okay, well, let me see. Now, who is that? That's my dad

That's the black hair. Oh, my God, you look just like your daddy. And that's my mama

But you got your mama's hair, and that's you. That's me. You can tell. How adorable

I look identical still. Yeah. There's my granny with me when I was a little baby

There you go. There's a mustache. Whoa! What does that shirt say

It says... We did... The pig. We did the pig. His beard and mustache gives him the feeling of maybe having a little experience on him

Ooh, Kevin. That smells so good. I want to come to your restaurant

You can come cook at my restaurant, or if you want, you can just sit down and eat at my restaurant. Whatever you'd rather do

I like the way that sounds. All right. I want to hear your menu

We change the menu every day. We rewrite it each day. Come on, isn't that expensive

It's a lot of work, but it's not as expensive as you think because we get everything from farms

and that's the way we operate there. I call the farmers, or I send them an email, and I say, you tell me what's good

Bring me something. Bring me what. We just write out our ideas, and then just before dinner, I go upstairs and I type up the menu

and that's what we served that night. I love that. All right, let's put this in the oven

because I am so ready to get to yo cooking. Let's keep an eye on that, maybe 20 minutes, 350

Coming up, Kevin and I dig in to these delicious pinwheels. Those are really good

Isn't that delicious? And Kevin is going to teach me how to make one of his favorites

This one's from my granny here. Our southern style fried corn, cream corn, whatever you want to call it

I can't wait to see how you do it. Oh, Lord

I want to try one of these. Oh, they look good. Oh, they do look good, don't they

They look delicious. Grab you one before I sit it down. Now grab me one with the most bacon

I don't know. Mine looks pretty bacon-y. So tell me what you think

I don't know. I don't know. I think I might have won in the bacon department

It's tip-a-tat. There's no such thing as too much bacon. Those are really good

Isn't that delicious? Mmm. You know, Kevin, I'm one of those people that I think simple is so much better

You know what's the thing with simple food is that you don't have anything to hide behind. It's either good or it's not good, you know

You're right. Speaking of simple, I want to show you this dish

This one's from my granny here. Our southern style fried corn, creamed corn, whatever you want to call it

I can't wait to see how you do it or how Granny does it

All right, well, first things first, you got to have a little bit of a sweet onion. Of course, I'm going to use a vine

I've never used onion in my fried corn. I use a little bit of sweet onion in it because I like it to be real savory, you know

So that nice little bit of onion in there is good. And then you want to cut it up real small, and you only need a little tiny bit of it

A little goes a long way, so. You can do fried corn, you know, whole kernel or creamed

but down south, we love it creamed. And what made his so interesting to me

is he put that little bit of onion. In this pan right here, I didn't show you this one

but I brought some fat back too and that's what I got in this pan right here. That bacon grease we had too

I like to do this, first of all, in a bowl and that's because it's gonna make a mess everywhere

We wanna save all of this corn milk as we call it. And I found that this way works really good

Rather than trying to take a knife and do this, which is not maybe the safest thing in the world

this little box grater that you do cheese on does a great job

You scrape it all the way down, and it gets all the way down to the cob and takes all that milk out

So that's what we use. I'm going to take your corn, and I'm going to kind of finish getting the milk out of it

Yeah, you want to scrape those cobs for me? I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, because this is the goody right here

That's what's going to make all that sauce. And I mean, you see how much just doing it

And it makes such a mess. It gets so much. That's all right. You just have to change clothes after you're done cooking cream

Yeah, you really do. When I was a younger stay-at-home mother, my family, when they saw me bringing in the bushels of fresh corn, they just groaned

Because they knew that I was going to need their help. He told me, he said, Paula, he said, every order of corn that is ordered in my restaurant, he said, we do it per order

I said, I would be cussing you, honey, if I worked for you

I threw these onions in the pan right here. Okay. Just in with this fat back

I'm not really trying to get any color on the onions. I just want them to soften up real good

Well, I can't wait to taste that with onion. I've got one more cob to go

I'm going to add just a little bit of cream to this. It's not too much, but I like to see

It a good thing none of my family here with us today because three years of corn would be a joke It be just enough to make their mouth mad We call it a tickle It just a little tickle

But look at that. That's another good third of a cup for us, honey

This fat that's in here, since we used some salt-cured fat back, we probably won't have to put a whole lot of salt in it

It's going to have enough. No, I don't put... And you know what? I don't use but one kind of corn

What's that? Silver Queen? silver queen. Yep, exactly. Alright, so once I get some color on this, you know

the onions are pretty clear, I take this mix, and I like it to be like this. It's kind of like

pancake batter. It's the thickness of it. Yeah. That's how much cream I add to it. And then I pour it all in

here at one time. Okay. And just stir the dickens out of it. Yes

And this literally only takes a couple of minutes. Yeah, exactly. Make sure all that comes together. And then what I do is

I just wait for it to come back up to a boil. It starts having big fat bubbles, and then I shut it off

I'm going to move it off the heat here. We're going to add just not much, just a couple of minutes

Now, I've never put lemon in my corn either. Well, you know, the little bit of lemon juice

it won't make it taste lemony, but you'll taste everything else a little bit better. You know, it just helps the seasoning of it

You get that nice seasoned sort of look to it, nice creaminess

We left all that fat back in there. The thickness is like perfect, Kevin. You got a spoon we can taste it with real quick

Yes. I found myself one. And I found me one. Whoa. These are my onion goggles

I'm smashing up your onion goggles. Yes. Do you ever use them? No, I haven't

Well, they really work. You know what? I'm going to add one little pinch of salt to it

Well, then I'll wait. And I'm going to add a pinch of black pepper to it

I do like black pepper in my fried corn. There we go. That's good

Yes, ma'am. You want to shut this off for me right here? We'll just let this sit. We ain't letting this sit

It was so out of this world. I have eaten so much, and I got it all in my teeth

This is so freaking good. Coming up, it's the call I've been waiting for

Son, I'm ready to be a granny again. Then Kevin puts a twist on a classic

You seen the chipwiches? We were going to make one with molasses cookies and a bacon sort of ice cream on the inside of it

Bacon ice cream. And I give Kevin a little taste of the pork loin

It's perfect. That is delicious, Paula. I am going to cook us a little pork tenderloin. Okay

And we're going to make a mushroom gravy to go along with it. And I need for you to slice me some onion real thin

And if you quarter those mushrooms for me, Would you pass me that vegetable oil, please

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Now, I'm just gonna brown this off probably about three minutes to the side

Then we're gonna pop it in the oven. Jamie

Hey? Son. Let me knock them. I know you are, and you were supposed to call me every hour

She's been in labor. at 9.30 this morning. My daughter-in-law is in the hospital

in the labor room, getting ready to give birth to my second grandson

What is your problem for us tonight? Give her body a break

They're gonna stop the drug that induces labor for the night, and then they'll start back in the morning

One way or nothing, coming tomorrow. I'm ready to be a granny again. Okay, son, love y'all

Bye. Kevin, I'm so sorry. This is just my second time being a grandma

I told you we were going to make something that was new. You seen the chipwiches like they have in the grocery store

the little ice cream sandwiches that have cookies? Oh, Lord, yes. I make them for my kids

Well, we decided we were going to make one with molasses cookies and a bacon sort of ice cream on the inside of it

Bacon ice cream. Well, let me show you what I'm fixing to do, Kevin

I didn't have any stock. So I'm gonna cheat and use this gravy pack

I'm not gonna tell. Well, unfortunately, I think some people are gonna find out

I think it's okay to cheat now, and then I wouldn't do it on a regular basis

I threw a cup and a half of sugar in here, just white sugar, and then this whole stick of butter here

Yes, yes, yes. Three quarters of a cup of cake flour, and then I'm gonna get right here

What is that? This is bread flour. We'll get a half of bread flour

Why do you do that? Bread flour's got a lot of gluten, you know, so it's chewier

And I like the molasses cookies really chewy. I'm going to add some baking soda to this

It's about two teaspoons of baking soda. Uh-huh. And now this is the part that you kind of eyeball here is your spices

because it's about what you prefer. I like a lot of ginger. Yeah, so we'll use almost a whole tablespoon of ginger

Wow. Nice and spicy It is going to be We got some clove and some cinnamon and I think you want about half of each of these Clove is strong It is strong These are strong cookies but once you

mix them with the other stuff, you're gonna... With ice cream? Exactly. You know what we actually

make is, in fancy words, it's a semi-fredo. So it's like a frozen

mousse. Yeah, it's like frozen mousse. See you chefs, I don't get it

Once you get it mixed up like this where it's kind of soft and granular, we're gonna

mix in like about a third of a cup of molasses to it. Let's see where I put some eggs right here

Why don't you crack me one of them and throw it right on in here. Just one? Just one. One egg. This is the part where the mess comes

Mm-hmm. Putting the flour in. All of it, one time. Now, the key here is to not let this thing take off at full blast

Otherwise, your kitchen will be covered in flour. You and I will look like Casper, won't we

I kind of already look like Casper, but yeah, we'll look a little bit more like Casper

Yeah, you do. You're very creamy. Exactly. Creamy white. I love, love, love molasses cookies

They're my absolute favorite. They're like addictive. Yeah, absolutely. You can't eat just one

It's like that old potato chip. Well, come stick your finger in this gravy

And tell me what you think. It's mushroomy. Thank you. Coming up, one bite of Kevin's ice cream sandwich has left me speechless

You can see I got some of these balls right here. I'm telling you, them some good balls

Roll them up, roll them in sugar. And you can only get about six of them on a sheet tray because they're going to spread out a whole bunch

Oh, they are? Yeah, well, I'll throw them in the oven here in a minute. They're going to go about 375, depending on how hot your oven is

You might have to go up a little bit or down a little bit. But the thing is, and this is where people screw up this recipe

is that you don't let it cook until they're crispy. Look, our pork tenderloin is perfect

That is delicious, Paula. That's really good. Isn't that yummy? You want to open that door for me real quick

Isn't that fried corn, honey? What you talking about? Mmm. Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm

All right, four minutes. We'll come back, we'll check, and we'll spin them around

We'll be good to go. I love a four-minute cookie. That's like a dream

I'm going to get us some plates right here, so I'm going to put this on. I can't wait to taste that bacon ice cream

Oh, I think you're going to like it. It's pretty good. Oh, you think so? You know I got an ice cream shop in Atlanta, too, right

Not just a regular restaurant. What? We make all kinds of crazy flavors there

Like what? Bourbon peach fried pie. That one's good. Shut up. Yeah, that one's really good

Cherry Pop-Tart. Do you actually put fried pies in? Yes, and bourbon. No

It's pretty good. I'm going to tell you, like everybody tells me, you're trying to kill us

Yes, I am. I get a pretty bad rap for trying to make things that are overly indulgent

But like I said, you know, I don't think you need to eat a ton of it. but having those indulgences every now and again

is what makes life fun. And we got some over here that we already made up, so. What is this

That's bacon. It is? Chopped up bacon. Yes, ma'am. I'm gonna grab that semifredo that we made up. Okay

And bring it over here, and we can make some of these sandwiches. Oh, my gosh. Kevin, my husband is gonna wanna marry you

I'm already spoken for, but. He loves these kind of cookies. I love junk food

and I'm always trying to find ways to recreate it, and so I took my old-fashioned

molasses cookie recipe that I also got from my granny, and we made a caramel and bacon ice cream

to go on the inside of our chipwich. There you go. All right, I'm gonna, can I cut this in too

Yeah, we'll cut it in too. I'm gonna make another one here real quick. Oh, okay, good. Right, we'll get us another one here

Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. What do you think? That bacon on that ice cream and those cookies

was incredible. Is this how you serve it at the restaurant, a bowl of bacon

You know, sometimes we'll roll the sides in it, make the sides be covered in bacon

Most of the time at the restaurant, we make these a little bit smaller than this. You too

Most people in a nice kind of fancy restaurant don't like to manhandle the big chips

That's why I don't like nice fancy restaurants. Mmm! I was really happy that he was able to work in

you know, a day to just come hang out with me. Thank you for coming and porking me