Lunch Break

I have been trying for years to get this good-looking man in my kitchen

This is Stratton Leopold. Stratton runs Savannah's most famous ice cream parlor, y'all

Leopold's Ice Cream. So for dessert, we're making homemade waffle cones for Leopold's famous ice cream

And we're going to be topping it with his sinfully sweet huckleberry sauce

We're making a salmon burger with a sesame mayonnaise that's so good

Stratton can barely contain himself. Getting weak in the knees is so good

Then it's the crispiest Parmesan garlic potato chips you'll ever eat. But first, we're going to be starting with a yummy, corny coleslaw

Mm-mm-mm. Why are you so busy? Why are you never here? Well, I have a couple of jobs

I have a day job in the ice cream business that my dad had started back in 1919

but more importantly, I have a job in the motion picture business. I produce movies

A lot of big movies. Mission Impossible 3 was the last one, so..

That's kind of a big movie, isn't it, y'all? So, first dish we're going to make is a corny coleslaw

Stratton is peeling our three carrots while I'm getting started on a half a head of cabbage

And I'm just slicing it real, real thin, kind of shredding it

So, what made your family such wonderful ice cream makers? Well, my dad immigrated from Greece when he was 11 years old to this country with his older brother, Michael George

And they initially went to Indiana, where they had an uncle there who was in the candy and ice cream business

And there he learned candy and ice cream with that uncle. Their sister married and came to Savannah

And then, of course, the family said, oh, you must move down here. The sister misses you and this

And they ultimately did. My father fought in the First World War

Then when he got back, they opened the store. And they used the knowledge they had gained in Indiana

In Indiana. Yes. Just to start the ice cream. All right. I'm going to just take all this and put it in the bowl

We can throw your carrots in the bowl. And here are some carrots here we'll put in. Okey-doke

While you're doing that, I've got my purple cabbage. And the purple cabbage gives it such wonderful color

And I'm going to shred up about a half a head of this as well. All right, I'm going to take a few of your carrots

So we've got our cabbages. Yes. Got our carrots. Okay, let's make a little room here for that

Thank you so much. Put that right there. I'm going to stick that right there

I've still got to grate a little onion stratton. Okay. And then I'm going to ask while I'm doing this if you would make the sauce for our coleslaw

Of course. Of course I will. Coleslaw. And it's so simple, just eyeball like two tablespoons of sugar

a teaspoon of cumin, a little bit of my house seasoning, which is salt, pepper, and garlic powder

the juice of one lime, three-quarters of a cup of mayonnaise. Okay

All you have to do is just whip that together. And I'm adding one chopped onion

But now I'm fixing to add the ingredient that makes this corny coleslaw

And that's a can of whole kernel corn. Now, if you got some fresh corn around, you can boil a couple of ears and cut them off

But I don't happen to have fresh corn, so I'm going to use this canned corn, and it's going to work out perfectly

So I'm just going to drain that corn, and I'm going to toss this in

And a little wet goes a long way, y'all, with coleslaw. So we might not need every bit that you've done up straight

There you are. Oh, thank you. That's lovely. So look how pretty

That's ready. And, you know, we can't have lunch without a potato, can we

We certainly cannot. So I'm going to do some parmesan and garlic potato chips

Have you ever used a mandolin? Well, this is real handy, and it can be a lot faster

And you just do them like that, and that's all you have to do

And we're going to deep fry these, y'all. I can't wait. That sounds great. Oh, they're going to be delicious

There's nothing better than a homemade potato chip. All right. That looks good

Okay, so tell everybody how you make that wide stretch from ice cream maker

To producing movies. Producing movies. Well, both are great. I mean, they're gratifying and great businesses to be in

The film business is a very high-pressure business. The ice cream business, in Savannah especially, it's a very grounding business

I literally start scooping ice cream and just meeting with customers. So you get behind the camera

Oh, yes. Oh, definitely. Making milkshake scooping, of course. I grew up doing that

I started when I was 12. What your favorite I like a change a transition It okay honey Go ahead and teach your horn about your ice cream It a great ice cream My dad devised a recipe back in 1919

It's an all-natural ice cream made with an amazing amount of fresh cream, cane sugar

We don't use chemicals in it. For instance, to emulsify it, a lot of companies will use a chemical

I use egg yolks. Really? Yes, and it does a wonderful job with it

All right, now while I'm frying these, you want to take our dry things that we're going to sprinkle our potatoes with straten

And just put a couple of tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Okay. And about a teaspoon of garlic powder

And a little bit of black pepper. Okay. So that's good. Look at these chips

They are really, really looking good. We've got one basket that I think's ready, don't you

Looks great. I don't like mine too dark. So I'm going to kind of just shake that off, dump it right there

Now we're going to want to immediately sprinkle this while they're still wet from the fryer so that that'll stick

That looks delicious, doesn't it? Doesn't that look delicious? I want you to have one

I'm going to have to steal one and try it. Now, some people like, they're funny about their chips

Some people like chips like that where they're kind of attached to each other and you still see a little bit of white

Some like them more like this where they're like totally crispy. So you reach in there

I'm going to try one of each. I'll try this one first. Okay. Mmm

It looks delicious. It is good. It looks delicious. Mmm. Mmm. Goodness

Mmm. Mmm. Coming up, y'all, it's a scrumptious salmon burger with a sesame mayonnaise

I'm getting a little warm here. How are you? I'm very excited. Then it's homemade waffle cones and a mouth-watering huckleberry topping to go with Stratton's famous ice cream

Gosh, you do it just like I like it. I'm in the kitchen with Stratton Leopold

Savannah legend, y'all. Oh. When you come to Savannah, you've got to come to his ice cream parlor

Just around the corner to Lady and Son. To the Lady and Son. An easy walk

It is a very easy walk. And you need that walk after you've eaten at my place, I'll tell you

That's my screen. Well, the next thing we're preparing, y'all, is a salmon burger

Now, you have taken two pounds of salmon there. And you are mincing that up because this is almost going to be like a salmon croquette

But instead of using canned salmon, we're using a fresh salmon. This visit here with me, you're really honing up your chopping skills, aren't you

My chopping and grating skills, yes. All right, I'm going to need about a half a cup of red bell pepper

Half a cup of yellow. A couple of cloves of garlic and some Japanese breadcrumbs

Well, listen, now that you've finished showing that salmon, who's the boss around here

why don't you mix up some things that we're going to need to add to our salmon burgers

And that would be one egg. Okay. Should I mix it in here

Yeah, you can just mix it in there. We need one egg, a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice, a tablespoon of soy, and a pinch of salt

All right, now to my ingredients, Stratton, I'm going to add a half a cup of hen coat

These are Japanese bread crumbs. It's so good. They're real, real crunchy

And this is going to bind our burgers together. And about a tablespoon of soy, you said

Yes. And some salt, right? Yeah. And I'm going to take the two pounds of salmon

And depending on how much moisture comes out of our salmon, I may have to add a little bit more breadcrumbs

All right, you know what? I think I'm going to put a little bit more breadcrumbs

So that gives us about three-fourths of a cup total. I've got our griddle over here hot

So my hands are kind of mushy. Mushy, if you would spray our griddle

All right, now we're just going to form our salmon burgers. But you can jump in here and help me make these

And you can make them any size you want. I'm going to serve this on buns

And I'm going to make it kind of bun size. So on our skillet

Oh, you got a nice big fat one. You might want to compress it

when you forming it so it like stay together Because this might cause us a little bit of problem when we go to flip it Oh we can flip it fast Yeah

You'll want to... There you go. Make a little bit. Yeah. There you go

There you go. I think we can squeeze in one more. Yeah. Here. I don't know about you, but I need to wash my hands. Yeah. Yeah

And Stratton, I want you to notice something. One of my favorite things in my kitchen

My grandmother was in the restaurant business, my grandmother and grandfather. And you see it's dated 1945

It's two years older than me. That is great. And my grandmother used this spatula in the restaurant at River Bend, where I have such fond memories

That is lovely. Look at that stretch. That looks, yeah. And you see

That was probably ready. I was able to tell when it was ready because it starts getting light

Or lighter, like right in here. Around the edges. So that will let you know when this is ready to be turned

So you take over that, and I will make up our sauce

I'm going to make a little sesame mayonnaise. It's very, very simple

I'm going to add two cloves of garlic, about a cup of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of soy sauce, and about a half a teaspoon of sesame oil

I've got a question, Stratton. What's that, Paula? Would you like to make a movie of a cookbook

Yeah. Do you have any ideas which cookbook? Let me think. It would be nice if it was like a local girl

Oh, a Savannah Story. Let's do it. Let's do it. What a great idea

Let's do it. Oh, my goodness. This is just working out lovely

Yeah, it's perfect. Coming up next, Stratton has brought a special tool for our homemade waffle cones

Buzelli. Buzelli. A little Italian. And later, that huckleberry topping that's out of this world

All about a lunch break. It's going to be a great lunch, isn't it? This is going to be a great lunch

I have mixed us up, y'all. Some sesame mayonnaise to top off our salmon burgers

lettuce, tomato. Doesn't that look delicious? Let me hold that up. Look at that

So delicious. Doesn't that look phenomenal? Phenomenal. Look at that

I'm starting to swallow hard. I'm getting a little warm here. You're very excited

I'm so excited, too. All right, a little coleslaw. Uh-uh. A few potato chips. Uh-huh

And it's lunchtime. All right, let's go in, boy. Okay. I think I'll taste the coleslaw first

Delicious. The corn. Taste the corn. The sweetness of the corn. Right, here we go

Here we go. Mmm. Mmm. It's like perfect. This is great

Congratulations. It's a lovely. Well, thank you, darling. It's delicious. Well, I want to go ahead and move on

Okay. And we're going to make a waffle cone cup, your wonderful ice cream

I've got our little machine right here, Stratton, and it's not going to take us but just a second to put this together

I'm going to use a half a cup of sugar. You can crack those eggs for me

Is it cracking the same way I did them before? Any way, however you... Express yourself

Okay. Oh, great! Great. All right, now I'm going to add one and a half teaspoons of vanilla flavoring

And in go the three eggs that you've cracked. All right, now you just beat that... Okay

...until it's kind of creamy. and I've got one stick of butter back here

that we're gonna add to our sugar and egg mixture. And we're just gonna beat that

until it's nice and creamy and kind of yellow in color. Why don't you let me be beating it

You can come on down here and mix together our dry ingredients

If you would just mix up two-thirds a cup of flour. I'll have that

About a fourth of a teaspoon of cinnamon. Okay. Just enough cinnamon to just give it that little flavor

Yeah. A pinch of salt. Just dump it over here in my buttery sugar mixture

Ooh, yeah. It looks delicious. Kate, here you go. Here's some. Perfect

A little more. And just that quickly y we going to have a waffle come back Yes we are All right now our little machine is ready All right now take some of that nonstick spray straten

Here we go. Let's see. We're going to knead. Okay. That's perfect

Now we're going to put about three quarters of a tablespoon of batter

Mm-hmm. Doesn't take much, does it? Mm-hmm. A little bit goes a long way

We don't want them too thick. Delicate. Yes, very delicate. All right, so let's shut that up

We'll wait for the light. Uh-huh. This is a Pizelli maker. Is that how you say that word

I guess so. Yeah, I guess so. Pizelli? Pizelli. Pizelli. Say it with a little Pizelli

Pizelli. A little Italian. Pizelli. Oh, the light's already green. Let's peek

Oh. Whoa. Stratton, I really like to use these molds to help shape our waffle cones

Got it? Yes. Good idea. Asbestos. It's hot, isn't it? It is hot

All right. As this cools, it's going to crisp up. The secret to this waffle cone making is that as soon as it gets cool enough but still warm so it's pliable

is to kind of just make that hole a little bit smaller

So these are great. When we come back, Stratton is going to fill this wonderful little sweet cone up

Up next, Stratton is making a wonderful huckleberry sauce that is the perfect topping to his famous ice cream

Let's dive in. I'm so ready. Now, Paula, we're going to make a huckleberry topping

Now, huckleberries used to grow in the entire country. They're primarily now in Montana, upper northwest, is where it's a wild huckleberry

They're not cultivated. The difference between a huckleberry that will put two cups of it right in here

They look like blueberries. They do look like blueberries, but these are harvested in late June and July

We'll put that in there. We'll put a third of a cup of granulated sugar in there with it

Now, huckleberries differ from blueberries. Now, that looks good. There you go

They're more tart, and they have ten seeds in them as opposed to blueberries

Ten. Ten seeds in each one. They're a little bit firmer than blueberries. Actually, the word goes way back to when the English first came to this country

If you called someone a huckleberry friend, it's something special. It was the right person for the right job or the right friendship at that time

So it has a history before huckleberry fin in twain. Now we're going to add two tablespoons of fresh lemon to that

That'll be about a half a lemon, and you just keep stirring it up there. Okay, I will

Ready? Uh-huh. Oh, nice. Whoa! I need you to get yourself. That's okay

And then I'm going to mix up a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch and one and a half teaspoon of water

We mix that up to thicken that. That's going to make it thick. Thicken it up a little bit

These huckleberries are beautiful. You kind of want that to come to a bowl, don't you

We're going to put this in, yeah. So that cornstarch and water can immediately. Can bind it up. Uh-huh

Yep. Ready? Yeah. There we go. All right, and you'll want to stir that good

This will tighten up on you real, real quick. All right. Okay

So we're going to put this on top. We are. Some ice cream. Some of your ice cream

Ooh. Is that some of your creamy vanilla? This is vanilla. Now we're going to add some of this

Oh. And we'll have two spoons. Gosh, you do it just like I like it

Watch this. I'm going to use my hands for this. Some pecans that were roasted

Some nuts. Some pecans. Pecans. Let's do a little garnish there. A little garnish

Let's dive in. I'm so ready. Look, those hot huckleberries. Mm-hmm. Stratton melted

Mm. Now we're going to make another one. We are? Mm-hmm. Okay, coconut with cones

This is coconut ice cream. Yeah. There. I know what I'm doing tomorrow, eating a ton of your ice cream

Y'all, I've had a good time today. This has been so much fun

We always, always, always send best dishes and love from our kitchen to our friend's kitchen, don't we

Yes, definitely, definitely so. See y'all next time. Thank you so much

When you come to Savannah, you've got to have Leopold's ice cream

After you go to Paula's. While you're watching this movie. Yes