Julia's voice was always in my house.
If you don't know how to sift, well, you're a failure!
You're just never gonna lear how to cook.
I have a major phobia of fish.
Put a little something over its face.
Eight passionate home cooks are about to do the impossible.
- Let's go right to it. - Okay.
They'll cook alongside their hero...
- Delicious. - It's really yummy.
Who also started as a home cook...
I just love to muck around in the kitchen.
And found her calling later in life.
Welcome to The French Chef.
I'm Julia Child.
They'll cook in a kitchen just like hers...
It's so close to the real thing.
With the same ingredients that she used..
Mmm. He's having a moment.
Matching the enthusiasm..
- Oh! - Yay!
That made her...
Voila!
- Julia. - Hey!
Get cooking.
One cook will wi the ultimate prize...
All I can do is hope.
A 3-month all-expense-paid trip to cooking school in Paris.
What? Can you tag me into this competition?
All in their quest to prove...
All you need is a little bit of imagination.
Who has the fire?
- The skills? - Hoo-hoo!
And the passion...
I can't stop eating it.
- To win... - That's time.
The Julia Child Challenge.
Hello. I'm Julia Child.
Walking into Julia's kitchen right now, I feel this place is magic.
You know, it's sensory overload.
It looks exactly like her kitchen.
It feels like The Wizard of Oz.
Like, when she goes to Oz,
and it's like everything suddenly like brightens
and turns to color from black and white.
You know, I just love to muck around in the kitche
and I like to make up things.
I just love to improvise.
Julia Child presents the chicken sisters.
I'm all ready to make fish.
It feels a bit surreal.
Like, how did I end up here?
This is Julia Child, bon appetit.
Hi, everyone! Hi!
I've watched Chef Antonia many times on T
I am so happy and thrilled to have her here.
Welcome to Julia Child's kitchen.
So, in Julia Child's home,
no one ever entered through the front door.
Everyone always came through the side door into the kitchen
because that's where they knew she would be.
Her kitchen was covered in pegboard,
so you can see the pots and pans hanging on them.
And for her, it was a way of showing the world
this is what this room is for.
And it was a place for learning, laughing
and, of course, cooking.
Over the coming weeks, you will be doing just that,
guided by Julia herself,
with a little help from me.
And some special guests like these guys.
Dustin, I heard that you met Julia in a movie theater once.
I... She was eating movie theater popcorn,
but I didn't get any,
but it was a nice quick talk.
She was so polite and sweet.
Each week, you will cook in two rounds.
Based on your performance from both rounds,
there'll be one winner,
and one cook will have to leave Julia's kitchen.
The last home cook standing will get a prize.
The winner will get to follow in Julia's own footsteps
and go to Paris, France,
and take a 3-month course at the same school that she went to,
Le Cordon Bleu.
- Wow! - Wow!
For this first round, we're gonna begin where it all began.
So, Julia Child's first French meal was at La Couronne.
It was oysters, sole meuniere,
green salad, wine, and black coffee.
And after eating that meal,
she knew that cooking was exactly what she wanted to do.
For this round, we want you to make a dish from this meal, sole meuniere.
So, sole meuniere is a sole lightly dusted in flour,
sauteed in butter,
and then brightened up with lemon,
and maybe a little parsley, classically, anyway.
You'll each be given a whole fish,
and you'll have to break it down to get your fillets.
And sole is a flatfish,
so it might be a little tough.
There's someone very special who'll be able to help you out with this,
Julia, herself.
- Get to it. - Bonne chance.
Today, we're gonna do fish fundamentals.
These are the basic things we all ought to know
like cleaning and filleting and boning.
You'll notice this line that comes right along from the tail
on up to the top of the gills.
And that's the line that you follow to start the filleting.
And just cut right down, following that line.
Now, to take the skin off,
you hold onto it, and with your knife,
you just wiggle both knife and skin, and the skin comes off.
It's just as easy as pie.
Sole meuniere.
- What are you looking at me for? - Well, because as I
'cause as I said it to you, like, I saw this little smirk come onto your face
'cause I'm sure you feel the same way that I do about it.
This was the first thing that I did in my very first class in culinary school,
as a test to move on to the next phase of... of lesson.
How many people do you think are gonna stick to the classic recipe
or just take a complete detour?
Oh, my God. I... It's like I knew this was coming. Um...
Shoot.
Just put a little something over its face.
So, I have a major phobia of fish.
If a fish has the head on it I can't go anywhere near it.
On a scale from one to ten as a home cook,
I would rate my skills at a solid 10.
Uh, I like to throw these lavish dinner parties
where my friends are require to wear specific outfits.
There's often, like, a murder mystery theme,
or I did a dinner party based on the final menu from the Titanic
and I had, like, 24 courses of food.
All right, man. So, how long are we gonna have two Dustins in here?
- Forever. Till the bitter end. - Forever.
- All the way... - All the way to the end.
There's so many times I go to a restaurant
where I'm, like, "I could definitely make this better."
For my dish, I'm adding brown butter, roasted mushrooms
and pickled mushrooms.
Uh, my name is Dustin. I live in Chicago.
I've been working in fitnes for the past 11 years.
I was in sports in high school,
and then joined the military
and went overseas,
and I found myself helping o some of my fellow soldiers
who weren't passing their physical training test.
And I realized I just really love to help others, kind of, be stronger
and live healthier lifestyle.
I cook probably five to six days of the week.
When I'm cooking for others it's four or five courses,
and people will come over for dinner
and think they're gonna have, like, a casserole or something.
And I've got five dishes with several components, all with different plates,
and I definitely make cooking a bit of a production.
I mean, I would describe Julia Child as boisterous and flamboyant
and, uh, lively and full of energy.
But also like loving, right?
Like, her goal was to share this thing she was
extremely passionate about with others.
I mean, making cooking feel more accessible is important
because I have so many friends who... who every single day,
they order takeout.
In the '50s, American food started to become about, like,
"How do you do less and les and less in the kitchen?"
We had this whole industry that was now making like instant foods
and processed foods and jar and like... and cans.
- And like that became fashionable. - Right.
And she was coming out to say,
"Hey, let's go back to an older way of cooking,"
where you might go get a whole fish from the fish market...
- Right. - Instead of shrink-wrapped in the supermarket.
This is this famous sole.
It has a lovely firm flesh.
It's white on the underside and gray on the topside.
Sole meuniere, the dish, is relatively simple.
I'm gonna make sure all the elements are there,
the parsley, the lemon, a course the brown butter,
My name is Britt.
Uh, I'm originally from Georgia, but living in New York.
Growing up with southern foo and fried chicken and peache
and, you know, all those good things.
I actually learned cooking from my mother.
And, of course, Julia Child,
watching her on television when I was, you know, seven, eight years old.
You can be simple or you ca be very elaborate, indeed.
I wanna be the firs soul food restaurant in Europe.
Europeans are curious about soul food.
That's just like the ultimate 3 to 5-year plan.
I was super happy to see Michael Voltaggio.
He has worked in Thomas Keller's restauran uh, French Laundry.
Having him here to taste my food is pretty freakin' awesome.
So, Michael, I need you to tell us your Julia Child's meeting.
Picture, uh, a 19, 20... 19 or 20...
- I was about 20-year-old Michael Voltaggio. - Yep.
I'm at this resort in the middle of West Virginia.
One day, Julia Child was the guest chef.
I... I went to go meet her,
and I went in to like do like the...
I was trying to do the cool kiss like...
But when I went in, she was like sitting down,
and just turned her face,
and we just...
I was like, "I just kissed Julia Child."
And then I'm, like...
Like, "Am I gonna get fired right now?"
Like, "What's gonna happen?"
I just turned like beet red,
and, uh, I was just like, "It's very nice to meet you,"
- and I just walked away. - Really?
And "I'll be... I'll be over there prepping your demo for tomorrow if you need me."
So, what is it like that we're here, Bill?
It's so close to the real thing,
- it's kind of surreal. - Isn't it?
My name is Elena.
I am making the classic sole meuniere with gnocchi.
I was born in the Philippine and then we moved here when I was 11.
Cooking is definitely a hobb that I just wanna get Bette at every day.
The cuisine that I like to cook the most is definitely Italian food.
I would definitely say that pasta is my...
My jam.
- Hey, Elena. - Francis.
- Hello. - How are you?
So, I have to say, it's an honor to meet you.
Oh, my God. It's an honor to meet you,
uh, because, um, I've been a Gourmet, um, fan forever.
He has influenced the way that I think about food.
The fact that he's here, my jaw dropped.
Oh, thank you for saying that.
- I think I'm just gonna use the shears actually. - Yeah.
This is the Julia hack.
- This is the thing where, you know... - Yep.
- The French Chef might not be down... - Julia.
- But Julia's gonna tell you how to do it. - Yeah, exactly.
I have been such a Julia Child fan.
I think about her all the time when I'm cooking in the kitchen.
I have this poster.
And it's a poster of Julia Child right there.
The background is from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking
that she had written.
No matter what situation I'm dealing with,
I just always look at this and be like,
"What would Julia do?"
Yeah, that's cilantro.
Going to the garbage.
Voila.
- Hi! - How's it going?
- Um, I think I'm going well. - Okay.
- I'm getting to know my fish. - You're... You're getting to know your fish.
It's always important.
Yes.
It's, um, the beginning of a good relationship, I hope.
Yep, I love it.
I mean, you... you feel confident in what it is that you're doing right now.
- Julia always said we have to be confident, right? - Exactly.
I'm... I'm trying to.
My name is Jaine. I am from Brazil.
But I've been living in the U.S. for five years.
Following the line.
I was born in Brazil in the Amazon.
I saw Julia Child on TV.
The first thing that caught my attention is that she was so tall.
And I'm a tall girl myself.
I'm 6 feet.
And then I told my mom, like, "Mom, maybe I'll be a cook like Julia."
And here I am.
I wanna make fish quenelles
which are shaped and poached in fish stock,
and served with a... the... pretty much the same sauce,
but a little bit creamier.
What I like about quenelles is that their flavor is really mild,
and you can really, really taste the... the fish itself.
Um, I have to prepare the fish mousse.
To make quenelles, I have to put the fillets into the food processor
to make them into a mousse.
It's kind of crazy to me that that beautiful expensive fish
would get turned into a mousse.
For me, that's a very far departure from what we asked for.
It is a risk, for sure. I just have to be confident.
Meuniere means the miller's wife.
La Belle Meuniere, she's always supposed to be beautiful
and covered a little bit with flour, I imagine.
My name is Christine. I'm from Hoboken, New Jersey.
And I'm a lifelong home cook
I was a teacher for a decade.
Very good!
It wasn't where my heart was.
So that's part of the reason, like, I've always liked Julia Chil
is that she started so late
I just feel, like, a deep connection to her in that way.
Right now, I'm chopping up pistachios.
I'm gonna toast them to put over the roasted grapes.
I am making sole topped with roasted grapes
in a rosemary and lemon simple syrup,
and topping it with toasted pistachios.
Grapes. I have not seen grapes in a sole meuniere dish.
Tell me where's the grape inspiration coming from?
Um, I love adding like that little sweet factor to fish,
- Mmm-hmm. - Or like any sort of like extra pop.
Okay. Um, real quick though.
It is about, sort of, the mastering of the technique,
- so make sure the fish is cooked really beautifully. - Mmm, okay.
I love that you're getting super, super creative, -Mmm-hmm.
- But the basics are really important. - Okay.
Gonna put this one in here.
Not only do I have to put my spin on a dish that's a classic,
but I also have to put my spin on a dish that's elemental.
It's fish, parsley, butter and salt.
Oh, my God. Lemon.
Lemon, lemon, lemon, lemon, lemon.
My name is Bill. I live in Hudson, New York.
I have some fingerling potatoes,
and then I'll make it all happen.
My mother cooked every single meal that I ate
I left and went to college,
and I received as a graduation gift.
Julia Child's The Way to Co.
And that book became my introduction to Julia Chi and to French cooking.
So, the first thing I made was her French onion soup,
and I did that because I had no money, and onions are cheap.
These are taking their own sweet time here.
You see fish that looks like this.
Like, if you see... you can actually see through it.
It means that you've pulled all of the meat off that bone beautifully.
Okay. You didn't leave any meat on there
- which is fantastic. - Thank you.
My name is Fabrizio. I'm 24, and I'm from Portland, Oregon.
I used to be a waiter, but I after I lost both of my jobs,
I just found myself watching a lot of food content.
And then one day I thought, "I kind of wanna try that."
So I started messing around in the kitchen, following recipes.
And I've been filming recipe since the beginning of quarantine.
And, thankfully, that's sort of become my full-time job.
Brown butter sauce, but infused with a little chorizo.
My parents, they immigrated from Mexico.
And I was the first person in the family to be born in the States.
My father worked as a line cook for many year He still loves to cook.
I wanna focus on the cuisin of my people.
I do like to see how far I can polish up foods my grandmother would make,
and still be Mexican food, but just refined.
This is great grandmother's ancient mortar.
And this is what she used to pound things up in.
When it comes to the kitchen, I used to be a lot more rigi.
But Julia's energy is so contagious.
It's taught me to be more relaxed,
and, yeah, it's the joy of cooking.
Oh, God, no!
My potatoes aren't cooking, so it's time to pivot.
- I wanted to make gnocchi. - Okay.
And so, it didn't roast enough.
So, now I'm just gonna shingle these,
and then put... still put them in the brown butter
and then alongside the rest of the sole meuniere.
- Can I offer one piece of unsolicited advice? - Sure.
- Stop for a second, put it down. - Okay.
Take a deep breath.
- Thank you. - You're doing amazing.
Thank you so much.
Britt's station, you can actually see
- too much smoke coming off of that pan. - Yeah.
You want to keep watching as you saute the fish
to make sure that the butter isn't burning.
And if the flesh just comes away from the bowl, it's done.
I think when people say when the fish flakes easily, it's done,
that it's overdone, actually.
I lost a fillet in battle.
Never cooked under pressure before. It's hard.
I'm looking at the clock and the time is ticking.
The perfectionist in me is screaming right now,
like, I'm done, we're done, and I'm just gonna...
I'm out the door. She's already left.
I'm still here holding the bag, like,
"What do we do? Perfectionist, come back!"
I'll just plate it super beautifully
because the fillets kind of like fought with me.
It's just not my day.
Quenelle, they look like little white sausages,
but they ain't.
They're made out of fish.
And these quenelles are just as light as a feather.
They get poached in water.
Four and a half minutes left, make sure you guys are plating.
Dustin H, seems like he has a very strong kitchen presence.
- You can see him basting his fish. - Mmm-hmm.
Such a perfect technique,
especially when you have such a thin fish.
The basting of that butter on top of it is going to give it
- a beautiful crust. - Help. Yeah.
- And It will cook it from the top... - And it will sear it.
- And the bottom as well, yeah. - Exactly, exactly.
I'll be honest, I don't love a roasted fish
so I'm gonna say fried fish is the way to go for me for safety
because it's something I feel comfortable with.
Okay.
Fish fry is maybe not the most elevated in the classy sense,
but it is different, it's my own twist.
Time just sort of mysteriously evaporates.
I'm trying to get my aioli together, but then I realize...
Here we go.
It's time to plate.
30 seconds!
This is going so bad.
So, my plan is to serve this fish
in these beautiful cups with a little parchment cone around it,
and have the fish all sitting up nice and cute,
but I'm basically just goin to have to throw the fish at the plate
and hope it sticks.
I actually think I'm gonna make this.
That's it, that's time.
And that's the whole fish story.
Bon appetit.
I call this little dish, "It is what it is."
Sole with a little chorizo brown butter
on a little bed of spinach
with a... just like a nice little simple chimichurri
to not distract too much from the sole.
I love the butter. I actually love the addition of the chorizo.
- And the fish is cooked really beautifully. - Oh, thank you so much.
I'd say the balance of acidity here is really nice.
That little hint of chorizo mixed with the acid and the brown butter
is like... It's like a hug in my mouth.
- I'm here for it. - Thank you, Chef, thank you.
I'm gonna be honest,
I have a terrible fear of fish.
It is something that's plagued me my entire life.
Their faces, the smell of it.
It comes from childhood. It's a literal trauma.
- I've tried to get over it. I can't eat it. - No.
I can't do much with it.
Can you talk about why you have a fear of fish?
- And don't like... - Um, it's pretty gross.
But I'll talk about it.
Um, so it was in the '80s...
- Uh, uh... - Oh, the '80s.
Post oil spill,
we were out, like, wading with my grandparents, we're on a beach.
We didn't know it was closed 'cause we didn't read the news.
- And we just sort of waded into like... - Oh, boy.
And sorry, while you're eating it.
I was just gonna say this might make me not wanna eat fish ever again.
I'm waiting for the right moment.
Like, half-eaten fish carcasses like washed up. I was like six.
So, it was like definitely traumatizing.
So now the smell's bringing back...
So I covered it's little face while I filleted it. Um...
I love the cook on the fish. I mean, it is succulent in the center.
There's these beautiful crispy parts are coming throughout.
It's cooked textbook.
- I appreciate that. - Yeah, really nice.
I think we're missing a few components here.
I'm curious to see what else you have to offer.
Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
This is classic sole meuniere, but tasting menu style,
hence, the size.
Um, um, it's sauteed spinach,
uh, with a little bit of infused lemon salt.
I would have loved to see a pool of brown butter.
- Yeah. - A pool of it
that I could swim in, dive in.
Like, there's never enough brown butter.
Just repeat that.
- There's never enough brown butter. - All right. Brown butter.
I mean, I think the fish is, uh, cooked deliciously.
And I love how true to the classic dish you stayed.
Thank you so much.
I prepared, um, sole meuniere with roasted grapes.
One suggestion I would have is the grapes taste a little bit sweet.
So, however you treated them that made them taste sweet,
I would have just left that part out and maybe just
- thrown the grapes into the brown butter. - Okay.
I would salt it a little bit more.
Yeah, add a little acid to it.
Thank you for your advice.
We have sole meuniere, and some roasted mushrooms,
and then some pickled mushrooms
and then just garnished with a little bit of tarragon.
This reminds me of something I would get at, like, Paul Bocuse.
- Classic. - Yep.
You've got the... the roasted mushrooms and the pickled mushrooms.
- The fish is filleted beautifully. - Beautifully.
Thank you, chefs.
So, I've made a sole meuniere,
seeded and diced tomatoes, almonds,
uh, a lot of thyme.
The fish is filleted beautifully.
The fact that you took the tomatoes
and took the time to score them,
take the skin off of them,
these are classic techniques and then implementing them into a dish.
Perfectly boiled potatoes.
When I cut through it, it was like silk.
Thank you, chefs.
I made sole quenelle and the sauce is brown butter,
uh, lemon, parsley, salt and pepper,
and I added some capers.
Um, I thought the quenelle was an ambitious idea.
It's more of a meatball than a mousse
because of the texture of the meat itself.
So I think typically if you want to make a quenelle really smooth,
you blend it for a little bit longer.
It tastes really good.
If I closed my eyes and ate this blindfolded,
I would be like, "Okay, I'm eating sole meuniere right now."
- With some capers. - But, yeah, I think it's really yummy.
Thank you.
So, it's a classic sole meuniere
with brown butter and roasted potatoes in the bottom.
I had wanted to originally make gnocchi...
Like who's gonna do that in an hour?
- I happen to love the roasted potatoes. - So good.
The fish is textbook.
Beautifully succulent in the center.
The potato maybe absorbed too much of the butter.
- Yeah. - 'Cause I would've loved to see just more butter
on the plate for the fish.
Thank you.
Let me just say this,
Julia would've been so proud of you guys today.
There are some favorites.
But we do take into consideration
your performance in both rounds of cooking for today.
My favorite today was Bill.
Oh. Wow.
The filleting of the fish, beautiful, textbook.
The browning on top,
the succulent center really just took it over the top for me.
Thank you.
If I have to choose one, I will choose Dustin H.
I saw this dish and there was this immediate perceived value
- of like a restaurant-quality dish. - Thanks.
And my favorite today was Fabrizio.
Using the chimichurri as a dressing for the spinach was such a cool idea.
I've never seen that before. Really, really awesome job.
Thank you so much, thank you.
You three are the ones to watch.
Okay, so, in honor of that magical meal
that Julia and Paul had at La Couronne,
for your second round of cooking, we want you to take inspiration
from Julia's life-changing experience,
and make us the meal that changed everything for you.
And as nod to Julia,
you must incorporate at least one ingredient
from Julia's meal into yours.
Oysters, from age blanc, shallots, coffee, red wine, and baguette.
We want you to create a meal that changed your own food lives,
that made you fall in love with food
and sent you on this culinary journey you're on now.
On that note, good luck.
Oop, sorry, babe.
I'm baking a cake.
It's like a coffee butter cream kind of cake.
French cake is always a low cake like this,
and it's usually just made in two layers.
I used to bake this cake for my father for his birthdays,
but when I lost my dad 10 years ago,
and when he passed was when I realized, like,
we don't have that much time.
That actually made me leave my unhappy life behind.
You know, I realized I was not happy being a lawyer
and I wanted to try something else
and so much of him and his gusto for life lives in me now.
I'm doing the mussels a la Normande as an homage to Normandy.
My very first visit to Franc
my first meal that I had the was mussels and baguette.
And I remember this beautiful broth at the end.
And, you know, you grow up learning from Julia Child.
Now, mussels a lot of peopl don't... don't eat,
but they're perfectly delicious.
They're really... they're called the poor man's oyster.
Let them soak for about two hours.
And that gets rid of the excess salt,
and they degorge their sand.
I gave myself a quick restart
and I'm not going to let fish be the downfall of me.
I'm going to go into something I definitely know. I'm doing a tarte Tatin.
Then you want 3/4 stick of chilled, hard, cold butte.
Then slice it up because this gives you a little bit of a head start
I've made apple tarte Tatin hundreds of times.
There's big chunks of apple caramel sauce on the bottom
then a beautiful dough on the bottom.
So I feel pretty good.
I want 15 minutes at the en to hopefully let it sit before I flip it.
When I saw Julia Child make apple tarte Tatin,
one of the things I remember the most is that spilled over the edges
and she's quickly, live on television, trying to put it back on.
If everything doesn't happe quite the way you'd like,
it doesn't make too much difference because you can fix it.
That unmolded very badly.
And I'm thinking in my head, "That's gotta be scalding hot apple liquid."
And she just did it with suc an ease of movement
that it seemed so natural, and so easy.
And I said, you know, "I make messes in the kitchen, I'm a child, right?"
And so, I think that that wa one of my first memories.
If you make a little mistake, it's totally fine.
I'm doing red wine to add to the caramel sauce
and then I'm using from age blanc to make a little creme for the tarte.
Here we go.
He's making a red wine caramel to make his tarte Tatin
- and he left the apples big whole pieces. - Yep.
So my only concern there is that the apples get cooked
before the pastry cooks too much.
All right.
So he's got 29 minutes to bake that right now.
And that's a 40-minute bake, minimum.
- That is minimum. - Minimum.
- 40 minutes. Yeah.
And whenever you're gonna do a cake,
you want to get all of your equipment and your ingredien all out and ready
and then you can start immediately.
This was a... A big octopus.
I am taking a trip down to the Yucatan.
So we got some charred octopus that I'm braising in red wine
and then I'm gonna fry up some oysters in little bit of cornmeal and coffee rub.
Uh, I'm making a cornmeal dredge for these oysters.
And this is how I'm gonna incorporate the coffee today.
So, we got cornmeal, a little bit of flour,
uh, some smoked paprika, and then some dark coffee.
This is an ambitious dish, but that's really the only w I know how to go about it.
So I've braised it in red wine,
uh, that was one of our ingredients,
and then it's gonna go really hard on the Dutch ove.
So I'm hoping to mimic grilling without a grill.
Dustin is over there
throwing down.
He's basically grabbing as many of Julia's ingredients as possible,
and figuring out all these creative ways to sort of bring them together.
Coffee-coated oysters adds texture
to go on top of a red wine-braised octopus...
I... he's like a Michelin star trained chef.
For my life-changin dish, I am making
a coffee-flavored chocolate ganache.
It's called a Boston cream p and not a cake
because of the container that you use it in.
Here's one, here's how it looks when it just comes out of the tin.
It's a lovely light cake.
And here it is all decorated up.
I used to hate desserts,
so this is the dessert that changed that whole perspective for me
because I also used to hate baking.
The question mark here is the coffee.
Nope.
The ganache is just not coffee-ish enough,
so I keep putting in coffee and tasting it,
and keep putting in coffee, and tasting it.
Coffee, tasting it.
When you go the France and eat some of these pastri that they make,
they're all made with this kind of butter cream.
My, they're good.
For my life-changing meal, I decided to do mole.
When I was a kid, it was my favorite food.
So I would bring it to schoo and I would get made fun of
because mole, it's a strange-looking dish.
"Told my mom, " No more mole.
And growing up, I felt like I had to hide my culture.
Then I remember, I was like 20 years old,
and I had mole for the first time since I was a kid
and it made me just realize,
like, "Wow, I haven't had this in so long.
I love this."
I am making a riff on a duck con fit,
except I'm gonna do a dry rub on the duck breast
I'm serving that with an oyster that's a riff on escargot.
About 25 years ago, I was living in St. Louis, Missouri,
and I was, I was broke, I was absolutely broke.
And just, uh, to get me out of my head space,
a friend took me out to dinner and took me to a French bistro.
So I ordered two of the most extravagant things that I... that sound on the menu,
escargot and duck con fit.
It had such a transportive effect on me.
I realized that food is like one of the fine arts in life.
How's it going over here?
- It's going well. I'm taking you guys to Spain. - Okay.
So I'm making pisto which is like Spanish vegetable stew
with some eggs at the end. I'm gonna saute prawns.
And I'm made pan con to mate, which the bread's in the oven now.
This is a tremendous vegetable soup.
It contains potatoes, carrot onions, leeks, peppers, green beans, white beans,
peas, tomatoes, garlic, and just a whiff of zucchini.
When I had this dish for the first time
it was when my husband and I arrived in Spain.
We had just gotten engaged
and we knew that when I got home,
I would just never be the same again.
Pray for the best.
I know my time is running, I have to get my cakes out of the oven
so they can cool down a little bit so I can add
the butter cream and it doesn't melt.
For, uh, not having 300 days to work on it, I think it's not too bad.
No offense to mother, but I think it's better than my mother's.
I didn't know the ganache wasn't going to set,
so now, I'm in this crunch.
It's too liquidy, but I kno that the flavors are there.
Okay, here it goes.
- Is everyone gonna watch this? - Moment of truth.
- Oh, my gosh, is everyone gonna watch this? - Moment of truth.
That's it, that's time.
- Oh, my gosh, thank you. - It's a beauty!
- It's so pretty. - Thank you so much.
Double down this napkin, and put it around you,
then we're having a nice dry white Riesling,
or you could use a rose, if you like.
And that really is a meal fit for a king.
Welcome to our first Julia Child family meal.
At the end of The French Che Julia would sit down at the table,
pour herself a glass of wine cheers and enjoy the food she made.
So we really wanted to keep that spirit alive and do that with all of you.
Dustin H, let's start with you.
So I made charred octopus with coffee-rubbed fried oysters,
roasted potatoes, and then a coriander dressing.
Growing up, I didn't eat seafood.
My mother was allergic to shellfish.
So I never had seafood, I looked at it as if it was pretty disgusting.
Aw, you and Dustin.
Um...
But it was my first trip to Tulum that really kind of solidified it.
On one side of their restaurant was the ocean,
and then on the other side were their farms and the jungle
where they're getting this amazing fresh produce.
You did such a nice job of frying this oyster with great crunch,
but not overcooking it.
What I really love is the combination of the coffee and the oyster
because you've taken two very intimidating flavors,
put them together and made them comfortable to eat together.
Thank you.
I've made moules a la Normande.
It is an homage to my first visit to France.
The mussels themselves are textbook,
they're juicy, they're well cooked.
A little bit of that leek gives it a really nice gentle onion flavor.
Thank you.
There's like such a fine line between like undercooked mussels...
- Mmm. - And then like rubbery mussels,
and you really like nailed it, right in between.
They're cooked really, really well.
Well, I feel like I'm at the table that Julia was having lunch
with her husband that day because this takes me there, takes me somewhere else.
I wanna close my eyes and eat it.
Not be interrupted by any of you.
I just wanna like... and I'm drinking the broth out of the bowl, it's...
- It all works for me. - Thank you.
So, I made mole to serve on top of a pork tenderloin that I turned into medallions.
I think you've achieved a depth of flavor here
- and the pork is just perfectly cooked. - Thank you, thank you.
You really taste all of the different notes.
The chocolate and the coffee, for sure.
- The heat really comes through. - Mmm.
At first, I was like, "Oh, gosh, it might be too spicy."
'Cause I don't do spice, but, um
it was actually really well-balanced and it didn't take over.
- And the flavor comes in waves. - Yep.
- Right. - And I think that's really a sign of complexity.
When you taste one thing, and then you taste another thing,
and then you taste something else, yeah.
Okay, Christine, you're next.
I've made too much food as usual.
That's like what I do.
Um, I have made pisto,
which is a Spanish vegetable stew, sauteed prawns.
Everything works really well together and it's just a really nice satisfying meal.
The concentration of flavor that you got in that pisto..
Is incredible.
Love prawns with the faces on it.
- That... that is something... No, that's something... No... - Sorry!
I truly do! That's something I can handle.
- You don't cover those up? - Those have never traumatized me before, yeah.
- That's good. - Um, so it was super-delicious and that was right up my alley
- so thank you for that. - Thank you.
Okay, so Dustin R.
I did a red wine apple tarte Tatin.
I did from age blanc in a little creme on the side with some creme fraiche.
- There's a little bit of the from age blanc... - Oh, yeah. So,
- I'm assuming a little bit... - A little bit of... pour on the top.
- Whoa! - On the top.
Drama, drama.
So much drama.
It's almost like eating a cheese course.
And it's not too sweet.
The pastry could've cooked a little bit more,
but I think that this dish is on its way to becoming something incredible.
Thank you.
- Okay, Elena, you're next. - Yes.
I made Boston cream pie with coffee-flavored chocolate ganache.
This is an absolutely textbook Boston cream pie.
The texture of the sponge is lovely,
the texture of the pastry cream is wonderful.
And that coffee just adds a little more depth to it.
If I had one critique,
you baked two perfect cakes that then needed to be sandwiched.
Once you put them on top of each other, the cream kinda came out.
So, the look of the cake, obviously, if you had a little bit more time,
- it would've been spot-on. - For sure.
In true Julia spirit, it doesn't always have to be the prettiest dish,
- it just needs to be delicious. - Yeah.
Bill, you're next.
This is my take on escargot and duck con fit.
This is a duck breast and then I've taken the oysters
and used that as a riff on the escargot.
It really tastes like escargot,
- but an oyster. - Thank you.
It's almost like you've invented you're own style of light French cuisine.
- Thank you. - Jaine.
So today, I baked a gateau moka, which is a mocha cake.
When I was a kid, actually, my mom had a little bakery.
I loved baking with her.
But then my dad passed away a few years ago,
and I just, you know, lost my passion for cooking.
- And when I came to the U.S. - Sorry, I'm... - No, it's okay.
I had one of Julia's cakes,
and I used to bake that cake for my father.
- Sorry. - No.
And then, you know, it just... brought back my passion for cooking.
- I think this is absolutely delicious. - Thank you.
When you taste the cake, it's like a perfect, like, macchiato
with the little bit of milk right on top of it.
The flavor is beautiful, there's so much coffee.
And that little bit of savory whipped cheese on top is such a cool combination.
we have a lot to discuss.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you, guys.
So this week was all about how one meal changed everything for Julia.
What were some of your favorites today?
Jaine's cake is legit one of the best cakes I've had in memory.
Extraordinary, like her personal connection to it was really emotional.
Jaine's cake was, for me, the best thing I tasted today.
Let's talk about Bill, he was another one of our favorites.
The sophistication to take duck con fit flavors and apply that to a duck breast,
I think it's very smart.
- I mean, speaking of smart, let's talk about Dustin H. - Yes.
I loved his oyster, I think his fried oyster
was probably the best single bite I had today.
I loved the way the octopus was cooked because there was texture to it.
For me, Dustin R in both challenges today
struggled with time management.
- Yeah. - He gave us a piece of fish on a plate
in the sole meuniere challenge.
This tarte Tatin was a great idea.
A red wine apple tarte Tatin.
All of the flavors were there. I mean, the flavor of the dough is delicious.
You know, it's just not cooked.
The flavors of the apple, perfect. They're just not cooked.
I just wish that he would've done a little bit more multitasking.
And then there's, you know, Christine,
I feel like she had some trouble this week too.
The sole meuniere, the small decision of putting simple syrup on the grapes
almost ruined that entire dish for her.
It's like a classic tale of doing too much.
So she could've made a great...
- That's a good point, actually. - Pan con to mate
and called it a day.
She didn't need to make this entire stew.
Don't you get discouraged if the first one that you ma doesn't work well,
just keep at it and you'll get it.
Today was all about paying tribute
to the beginning of Julia's journey,
just as you are beginning your journey.
The winner this week is...
Dustin H.
Dustin H, you really embraced both challenges today.
And I feel like you executed very well,
but you also took some risks that I think, uh,
separated you from some of the other cooks here today.
Winning this challenge that was centered around
this dish that created a pivotal moment in my culinary journey
just means a lot.
I definitely think I can win it all.
I'm ready for Cordon Bleu.
Okay, so now I have the less fun job.
Announcing who's gonna be leaving us today.
The cook leaving Julia's kitchen today is...
Dustin R.
Time is what it is. Yep.
It has been quite a day.
I faced my like horrific fear of fish.
Put a little something over its face.
I definitely feel more connected to Julia Child after this,
her world, her kitchen, her food,
and I think that that was very magical.
- You embody that spirt of Julia... - Yes.
And I can totally imagine you in your home with a glass of wine
and all the ingredients in front of you.
With three hours.
In this moment, I'm thinking of Julia's famous quote.
"You never wanna go out with a whimper."
Bye, Dustin.
This is Julia Child, bon appetit.
- All right, get cooking! - Next time...
All I've heard about pressure cookers is that they can explode.
It's creating a dish for someone you love
and, for me, that's my family.
I am in love with Molly Baz.
I'm gonna take out the pork from the pressure cooker now.
I haven't seen pasta made from scratch that doesn't need to rest.