Restaurant Secrets

Hey y'all, welcome to Best Dishes

I got another one of my fellas here in the kitchen with me today. Dustin Walls from the Lady and Sons and my son Jamie are teaming up to help me spill some of my favorite restaurant secrets

Starting off with mouth-watering grilled tenderloins with blue cheese and a berry glaze

Y'all gotta trust us, we're gonna put fruit and blue cheese on a steak. And we're gonna make it good

Then delicious Brussels sprouts with onions and bacon, and the creamiest baked wild rice

Look here, I could just do like this. Finally, Bobby pops by to help us finish off our chocolate custard and butterscotch whipped cream

It's exactly like old times, everybody's sitting around watching me work. Y'all have seen Dustin in the restaurant and on Best Dishes before

This is like another one of my children. Dustin runs the restaurant

Try my best. Dustin was a kid, and he started out making the hoe cakes. Hoe cakes, yep

It was fun. And then he moved up to dishwasher, or maybe down to dishwasher

Down in the lawn. But I'm so proud of the man Dustin has turned in to be

So today, we're going to share some restaurant secrets with everybody, aren't we

Yes, ma'am. Today, we're starting off with Brussels sprouts with onions and bacon

Now, I have cooked off a half a pound of bacon, so I'm just going to take it out

and I'm going to drain it on our paper towels, Dustin. Yes, ma'am. And he is cutting us up one medium onion, y'all

Dustin, you know this is the one food. Now, you know Michael Groover

You know what kind of eater he is. He'll eat anything that don't eat him first

Man up to my own heart. But I cannot get the man to eat Brussels sprouts

It makes me so mad because I just love them. I'm so glad you're here with me today

I'm so glad to be here. So after Dustin's done with the onion

he's going to start chopping two cloves of garlic. Now we just start sauteing everything in the bacon grease

So I'm going to finish off our Brussels sprouts. And to me, these are nothing but little miniature cabbages

They're so good. I love them. I do too. And they're good for you

And they're good with just about any kind of meat you're going to cook up

I'm just cutting the little stems off. You can see where they've kind of hardened over a little bit

We're going to throw in our Brussels sprouts. And I've probably got about two pounds

And I'm going to be measuring us up two cups of chicken broth

It's a mess. Oh, that's all right. Gather them up. It's like herding up marbles

All right, I'm going to put in a little salt, a little pepper

All right, I'm going to add my chicken broth. So share with us, Dustin, some good secrets that help make a successful restaurant

Number one, consistency and good food. Yes, yes. You've got to start with a good product, don't you

Yep, and you've got to be the same every day. Every day. You can never change. Even if it's mediocre

Even if you mean, you've got to be consistent. That's right. So all we're going to do, Dustin, is put that lid on the pot

and we're going to let them cook for 15 minutes. And the next dish we're going to do is a baked wild rice

Dustin is going to be working on another onion and a pound of mushrooms for us

That's right. Now, I've got two, not one, but two sticks of butter that I'm going to melt

I'm going to put into our pan. Imagine that. Now back here, Dustin, I've gotten cooked off for us a half a pound of raw wild rice

And I've cooked them based on the package instructions. So, Dustin, when you've got the onions and mushrooms ready, just toss them in there

And then to help thicken this a little bit, I'm going to add about two heaping teaspoons of flour

and that's just going to tighten that up just a little bit. I'm going to be getting you some sherry

Just a half a cup. Half a cup. All right, I want to put a little salt and pepper to them

And I'm going to be measuring this out. One cup of cream

So this is going to be a wonderful, rich rice dish. So here we go

Doesn't that look delicious, y'all? Mm. Good. Oh, Dustin. Look here, I could just do like this

Did you really? Mm. That is yummy. It is good

We going to take our rice and we going to put it in our mushrooms and onions All right you want to stir that up for me and what we gonna to do Dustin is bring it down here Yes ma And we going to put this in our little individual casserole dishes y

What's cooking? Same thing. Come live in at the party. I had a feeling Jamie was going to show up

I'm hungry. Well, it comes to the right spot. Where's my straw? Where's my kids

Hey, mama. How are you, baby? Good. What y'all cooking? This is wild rice, son

Now we're going to put this in our little casserole dishes. Oh, fine

Here, son, why don't you make yourself easy? I'll do it. Wait, let's fill them on up good, Jamie

And get some of that good old cream in there now. Paula, this looks very familiar

What you mean? You're about to boss this around, I got a feeling. The next step is for you to be unhappy with the process

Exactly. What are y'all doing? You screwed up my recipe. Oh, E-O

Oh. How many hours do we sing that? The boss. Y'all, they used to sing that on the line

When these two worked the line together, they'd be back there singing that song like I was working them to death

All right, now this looks like brown sugar, doesn't it? Well, it's not

it is buttered breadcrumbs. How much do you want on there? You want the whole thing just..

Yeah, just, I mean, you know, don't be stingy. Don't be stingy

Who's gonna do this when I'm dead? My God, that was one of my favorite lines

That was the best one. That's the spoonful of guilt makes the restaurant go round

Come on, that's the one. Come on. The good old days. All right, guys, get those in the oven

350, 15 minutes right now. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh

Up next, I don't even think Jamie can believe how good our steak with berry glaze

goes with our meal. I'm so glad you like it. Bang. Bang

Oh, I'm so glad. And later, don't forget, Bobby's coming by to round out this meal

with our baked chocolate custard. I've always made sure that I surround myself with smart people

I wish some of them could have come today. Me too. You know what you mean? Look at that. Look at that

I'm going to turn those Brussels sprouts off, y'all. Okay. I need some heat here

Because I think they're done. All right. So we've got the Brussels sprouts going

We've got a fabulous wild rice. I got the rice in the oven for you. Bacon in the oven

Yes. You finish that. Now what are we fixing to do, Dustin? We're going to be doing tenderloins

and we're going to do it with a fresh berry glaze and crumbled blue cheese over the top of that

Yum. People are going to think we're kind of crazy, but y'all got to trust us. We're going to put fruit and blue cheese on a steak

and we're going to make it good. I'm going to be watching, y'all. This has just been around the restaurant for 10 years, probably

This is the recipe that we run with our meat special that we do. Right, yeah. Dustin, what's cooking, bro

I'm doing a cup and a half of red wine, and I'm going to add two cups of sugar

Two cups of sugar? It's going to be sweets, just like you. And we're going to do a half a cup of water

I'm reducing this down by half, and then we're going to add those fresh berries

Okay, son, now what kind of berries are you putting in there? We've got a pint of strawberries, a pint of raspberries, a pint of blueberries, and a pint of blackberries

Looks good, son. Now let's get those steaks going. Son, spray that grill, please

And before you season these, why don't y'all just shake a little olive oil on them

so they won't stick. Yeah, because remember, you know, tenderloin's a very lean cut of meat

Yep. And you need just a little fat so it won't stick to the grill and keep it moist

And just salt and pepper. And don't forget a pinch of steak seasoning

See, I'm going to get these. It's got a little punch to this sauce. A little bit

A little bit. And don't forget to rub your meat, son. All right, Dustin, how are you coming over there, dude

We're good. We've got this reduced down. So into this is going three tablespoons of cornstarch

This is going to thicken this up a little bit and really hold it to the steak

This is going to be perfect sauce. Now, the good thing about this sauce is it's really sweet

We've got a lot of sugar. We've got a lot of berries. It's got a lot of sugar in it. But the blue cheese is really going to kind of level that sweetness out

with our steak and all of it. It's going to be so good. So good. How long is that going to take, Dove

Probably another five minutes. We should be good. Let's do the steak. Y'all want to? Yeah

Let's do it. All right, now, Dustin likes his rare, son. So, son, how about putting a little bit more oil on those steaks, please

Sure, Mama. I love seeing these two guys on the line back there

Y'all, Jamie's son, stand over here on the other side of me. Y'all stretch your arms out

Between these two guys y they had a reach like nobody business That the whole line

And watching them was just, um... It was like watching a couple of guys doing the ballet together

But it was just like poetry in motion. Yeah, son, those steaks look ready to flip to me

So you're doing good on this? Yeah, we're good, man. What do you think

Is it thick? Is it lumpy? No, it's not lumpy. No, it's perfect. Steaks just need a few more minutes

Brussels sprouts. Rice is cooking. We're getting close to dinner time. Jamie, if you would, Sonny Boy, put about a half a stick of butter

All right. And I'm going to cut those Brussels sprouts up. We want that butter to kind of cream up those Brussels sprouts

All right. And Dustin, sweetie, I'm going to pass that bacon to you

And the bacon goes on top. This is how we like it

Oh, that looks so good. Y'all want me to get out the rice

It's the time I get it for you. Okay. Keep your seat. Yeah. Okay. Thank you

You earned it. Love it

That looks good. Y'all remember in the restaurant, we would all sit down as a family together

and we'd all have the buffet. Yeah. The family meals at the end were some of the best times

I know. Some of the best. We'd sit at that table, and all would be right with the world

I'm waiting on y'all. You waiting on us? Yes, I'm waiting on y'all

That means she ain't waiting on us. Yeah, that's what that means. Mmm

It's good. Mmm. Mmm. It is so good, y'all. The blue cheese and the fruit, so good together

And then with the beefy flavor right behind it, it's awesome. Can't go wrong. The Brussels sprouts are incredible

What, baby? That rice is good. It's so good. I'm so glad you like it

Bang. Bang. I'm so glad. I'm having rice for dessert. Are you

Uh-uh. You can't. What? Oh. I've got some chocolate custard cups. Ooh

Don't go anywhere, y'all. It's all about secrets down at the Lady and Sons

So good. Mike, tell a few on Uncle Bubba, too. Not all the secrets

Yeah, not all the secrets. Coming up next, this chocolatey treat is so good

it may never even make it to the oven. We could skip the whole thing and just have a big glass of chocolate milk

And later, our butterscotch whipped cream topping has got us remembering the good old times

Cheers. Here's to the good old days. Good old days. Hey, y'all, welcome back

Mama's full of steak and blue cheese and berries, so she's moving a little slower today than normal

But now we're going to make the dessert, and we're going to make a baked chocolate custard cup, y'all

and we're going to top it with butterscotch whipped cream. And this recipe was kind of inspired by our grandmother, Paul, my grandmother, your great-grandmother

And she would have loved you, Dustin, if y'all had ever had the opportunity. You loved her. She could cook

Oh, my gosh. She could shake a pot and pan, honey. But Grandma liked custard. She made custards

So let's get going. Yep, it's super simple. Don't be intimidated by a custard. We're going to show you how easy this is

The first thing I'm going to do, y'all, I got a cup of milk. And I'm going to do a cup of milk, and I'm going to do one cup of heavy cream

And I'm going to put this in a saucepan, and I'm just going to get it. Son, that's over a cup

You want me to turn your eye on? Sure. Justin, will you take it over here

And one cup of heavy cream. One cup of heavy cream. I know how to measure liquid

I'll get down here where I can see it. Yeah, you're too tall. You can't do it from above, or you'll wind up with too much

You've got to get it eye level, y'all. Eight ounces. Perfect. One cup of heavy cream

Now, I'm going to want this just hot enough, because I'm going to put some chocolate in here. Okay. I'm not going to cook it

I just want it to just get hot. So you just want to stall it. Yep. And what are you doing over there, Dustin

I'm about to separate some eggs and get some yolks, four of them. And then I'm going to put it in our bowl and add three tablespoons of sugar

and a pinch of salt. While Dustin's doing that, y'all, I'm gonna measure out one cup of semi-sweet chips

in this bowl. I love custards. Do y'all? Love them. Love it

I didn't start making them until kind of later, though, because I was... It seemed like doing a water bath

and all this was really too much trouble, but it's worth it. Oh, it's no trouble. You just pour your hot water in there

And as soon as this milk starts to kind of bubble around the edges a little bit, I'm gonna pour it in

We're gonna whip this up and add it to Dustin's eggs. Well you gotta be patient here because if this isn hot enough it not gonna melt the chocolate And if it gets you don want it to get all chunky because then you have to strain it So the edges are bubbling up a little bit now so I think I good enough to go

And you're adding your milk to your chocolate chips. It's basically the same thing, but I want to work out of this bowl

because what I'm going to have to do is temper those egg yolks that Dustin has. And I want to pour out of this bowl

I'm ready. We could skip the whole thing and just have a big glass of chocolate milk

Okay, we're going to temper these eggs. I'm going to add them really slowly so we don't have scrambled eggs in our custard

Slowly add it to our egg yolks. All right, while y'all are doing that, guys

I think I'm going to go ahead and add our boiling water to our pan, okay

They're paying me no mind. They put me on ignore. We're trying to not mess up your recipe

I think we're good. All right, Jamie D. Is that tempered? We're great

Okay, this looks great. This doesn't have one lump in it. So we're going to take this, and I'm going to measure it into our little ramekins that Mama's got here

Okay. Mom's got our water bath going for us. This is going to be so good and thick and rich

The sugar and the eggs, y'all. Mm-hmm. Now, how long are we going to bake this for, guys

This is going in the oven at 300 degrees, and we're going to cook it for probably 30 or 35 minutes

The most important part of this, though, is that after this comes out of the oven, we're going to set it on the counter, let it cool off

After it gets room temperature, we're going to put it in the fridge for about three hours because this is going to set up more like a pudding

This is a thick, this is a big, nice, thick custard. Yeah, those eggs are going to cause it to get real thick and thick

For lack of a better word, thick. Thick. Thick. Perfect word. Okay, into the oven

So you've got to be patient, but trust me, it's worth it. 300 degrees. 300 degrees for 30 or 35 minutes

Set it on the counter for about 40 minutes. Bring it to room temperature. End of the fridge for three hours

When we come back, we're going to have a true expert right here to put the topping on it for us

Y'all stick around. Up next, we need Bobby to knock this dessert out of the park with an outrageous butterscotch whipped cream

How do you grab that? How incredible. Mmm. Welcome back, y'all

I'm pulling our custards out, and they are perfect. Now, I promised you a professional to top these for us

It's my extreme pleasure to introduce the one, baby brother. It's about time somebody got here who knows what's going on

Bobby Butterscotch Dean, y'all. What's up, man? How you doing? Good, buddy

How you doing, brother? Oh, my goodness. Y'all, I tell you what. Hey, son

How you doing? To be with these three guys is like... Yeah, do me a favor and y'all sit down

It's like old times. Everybody who's 6'6", 6'7", can have a seat. This is so like old times

I'm curious. What you doing, bro? You know what? It's exactly like old times. Everybody's sitting around watching me work

It's just like old... Listen, Bobby was a working something, y'all. Yes, he was. Was

Yes, he was. Bobby was host of the restaurant, y'all. He loved greeting those people and finding out where they came from

while these two guys were in the back. We were hiding in the kitchen. Slaying some great hash out to him

One cup of heavy cream. We're going to add like five tablespoons of just

it's a store-bought butterscotch like an ice cream topping type. All right, we'll turn that thing on high, baby

All right. Once this starts to become whipped cream, then we can kind of slowly add them. Okay

At one time, when Bobby started off, Bobby was like Dustin. He was a dishwasher

Everybody starts in the dishwasher. There's some big corporations that do it that very same way

where it doesn't matter who you are or what you want to do. When you come in, you're going to scrub pots and do dishes

And that's the only way. You've got to learn it from the ground up. Wouldn't trade it for the wall

All right, we can start to add this. Five tablespoons, and you're just going to kind of eyeball it. And I'm just going to eyeball that

Beat it, son, like that. There you go. That's good enough. This is going to be rude

Yes. And we'll just top these with some chocolate shavings and a little mint

There you go, sir. That was beautiful. That was beautiful. I hope y'all have a lot longer ride together

Y'all are winners. Don't ever forget. Y'all are winners. Cheers. Here's to the good old days

Good old days. Thank the Lord they're the good old days. This is a winner, too. Oh

How incredible. How incredible. I'm out of sight. I'm going to have a seat

That is great. You know what makes it? What? The whipped cream. I've always made sure that I hired people smarter than me

Surround myself with smart people. I wish some of them could have come today. Me too

Where are they? Where are they? We keep them at the restaurant. That's right

They're working. Love you, mama. Love you, brother. Love you, Dub. Love all y'all

Atop me. We'll see y'all next time. Until then, best dishes with love

Yep, lots of love