A Home Cook's Challenge: Preparing a Dish for the World's Best Chef

A home cook with fine dining experience attempts to impress the world's best chef by preparing a dish in his restaurant kitchen, facing high stakes and receiving feedback on technique and creativity.

Full English Transcript of: I Cooked For The World’s Best Chef

This is Rasmus. He was just crowned the best chef in the world, and today he's gonna rate my cooking. But the dish I end up choosing may end up being the riskiest decision of my entire culinary career. Sure, I've worked at some of the best fine dining restaurants in the U.S., but what Rasmus and his team are doing are borderline not from this world. Serving a seven hour, 50-course sensory gauntlet of a menu across multiple dining rooms. So what will he think of my food?

No rehearsal, no prep. I'm stepping inside his kitchen to test my skills against the highest bar possible. But let's be honest, Chef Rasmus won't be easy to impress. So first I need to get into his world and see what I'm up against. Starting with this ominous front door. This is no ordinary experience. I can already tell. Once you get past the hostesses, you enter a dark room with an obelisk in the center, reviewing the state of the world. This felt like doom scrolling on steroids. My first thought is, am I going to be locked away in here and never see the light of day again? And then you get brain wiped. Or at least it felt like it.

Ready for your first dining experience? The walls open up and then you enter the second room, the lounge. Off the rip, you're seated and I had a great view of the kitchen where the staff was preparing many of the dishes we were about to experience. It doesn't just look like a lab. The visuals are truly remarkable. This is a cocktail, believe it or not. Beautiful citrus notes off the bat and a great swig to start off the night. There's a little alcohol in there. I like when my flowers have alcohol in them. Oh, speaking of drinking, they also set us up with a proper champagne.

Wait a minute. The first course was a mini cocktail, followed by champagne. And if there are pairings each course, and there's 50 courses. am I gonna be okay, guys? Next course. Almost like a smoke filled pani puri, but probably a full ounce of caviar in it. I'm not gonna complain. It's insane. It like, perfumes your whole mouth. Great bites all elevated, but somewhat familiar. Until our next course. A butterfly. Literally. You know, I had a pet butterfly when I was young.

Did you know that, Vicram? Almost like a rice cracker in a way. It's like a little toasty. The aftertaste is almost like sunflower seed-like. Like surprisingly good. Well, I'll consider eating more butterflies. Okay, we gotta focus here. This is a prime research opportunity. If I'm gonna impress Chef Rasmus with a dish, I need to understand what he likes in food. What flavors, what textures. When you cook for someone, especially at this level, you don't just cook what you like. You cook for what speaks to them. So before I put food in front of him, I need to see the world through his lens.

Going into this dinner, I'm paying attention to everything. The way he builds flavor, how he layers texture, how he plates things, every little detail. Drooling. What is happening? After constant bite after bite, this next one stopped me in my tracks. Believe it or not, this is the perfect little omelet. One of the best bites of my life. It is like, on the outside, the most delicate little thin thread of egg. And on the inside, an explosion.

A perfect cheesy, sort of like soft scrambled egg texture, but, like, perfectly velvety. There's no clumps, no nothing. I need to figure out how they make this somehow. I don't know what this is. This is like a mochi bite. It looks like a pierogi and it's covered in a Kashmiri chili oil. That's absurd. Like, the texture of the mochi is so bouncy, it's. so light. The chew is absolutely perfect. There's two things I'm noticing a lot of: number one, fermentation, but number two, a lot of Asian flavors.

Thai basil, this. Korean, this. Japanese-esque. With the soy sauce, there's a lot of Asian influence. I think that's helping me get in his brain. This is the direction I'm gonna probably have to go if I really wanna win him over. I feel like. And to round out this first room with a bang, I was then presented a dish that honestly changed my life. This is insanity. I could eat 750,000 of these. That's one of my favorite bites of my entire life. It's like a mozzarella stick on crack. That's a perfect bite.

It's a 10 out of 10. There's nothing else on earth that exists like that. And it's perfect. Okay, so that's dinner, right? No, that was just the appetizer. They got us up and moved us to what they call the dome. This is something I'm gonna go out on a limb and say has never been seen or done before in dining, ever. Each dish is served with a fully immersive scene playing above you, 360 degrees around you. And apparently they have a full in-house visual effects team running it through service. on top of that, to track every dish that's coming out.

Instead of a typical ticket system, it's a gigantic Trello board. They track every dish that every table has eaten, dietary preferences, the whole nine yards. The production, even outside the food, is borderline insane. Alright, back to dining with an algae based drink that changes color depending on the amount of light. that hits it. This is no longer food. This is a Broadway show. An eyeball filled with king crab and topped with caviar. That's easily the best bite of the evening so far.

Everything I want in a bite. I could eat a bowl full of this. I'd eat the whole thing. And if that wasn't enough caviar, how about some sliced off of a puck made of 100% cooked caviar, which was made in a South Korean pressure cooker. Oh, I can't handle this right now. I've been drinking too much. Oh, I love that. Oh, my God. It has like a chew like salami would and then it just melts like butter on your tongue. That's a good dish. The hits just kept coming. Next, a sea urchin dish. Again, Asian flavors, Japanese flavors. We have Thailand with Thai basil.

I think I'm piecing this together, guys. I think I know what I need to make. We need to eat a few more things to figure out the final pieces. And so I did. The most insane lobster roll ever, which the claw is actually more of a lobster meatball or farce. It's been breaded and fried like a crispy little treat. Absolutely insane. So tender, so juicy on the inside. Unbelievable, fish made to look like plastic. I've definitely eaten a lot of plastic in my days, if I'm being honest with you guys. But this you can eat. Oh, it's a banger.

We're hitting the craveable, the crispy, the crunchy, hitting all those notes. A delicious crab toast seasoned perfectly. Unbelievable texture. If you made this 25 times its size, I would eat the whole thing and then do it again. Wine, wine and well, actually more wine. Guys. I don't really drink very often. I'm really concerned here. And then something that blew my mind straight off. Spinach that had all of the green removed just for you to pick it up and add the spinach flavor back on.

I mean, this is like, what is he playing, 6D chess? All of you guys were freaking out about surgery on a grape. This isn't even surgery. You're just playing God. Is this happening right now behind me, or did I just put a tab of acid in my mouth? We were coasting on dishes that literally made you stop and think, and this next one definitely gave us more pause than others. This is the course that Vicram will not eat, and that I understand. because it is literally bugs smeared onto a windshield.

Let me digress on this for the average diner, because I understand. First glance, you're like, what the fuck? Like, why? Hear me out. This is a creative expression. It's art. At the end of the day, it is edible. It is food. I respect the creative expression, and I will eat it out of that respect. I eat cow body. I can eat mealworm body, and I got a spatula to eat it with. It literally tastes like a deeply flavored teriyaki sauce.

It's delicious. But this feels like a shock factor thing that, like, when you taste it, your brain goes, oh, this isn't that bad. This is actually delicious, but it's a little weird, I'll give you that. That's what I like about Rasmus. He's a little weird, like me. As the screen shifted and brought us into nature, this next dish did as well. There were a few restaurants I worked for that was very hard for me to get cordyceps on the menu because they're not really received well for two reasons.

Number one, they look kind of funny. But number two, the. video game "Last of Us" is based off of a cordyceps mushroom. We know how that story ended. Anyway, perfect example of craveable delicious. This is basically like a delicious mushroom soup, but a little fancier. And then I was presented something that took a second to wrap my head around. A big tongue. Well, actually, it was a mold of a tongue with tartare layered on top of it with some flowers. It was the name of the dish that really tied it together.

They call this the tongue kiss. because of obvious reasons, and it was delicious. Now, after that, I had the variety of dishes that really showed me what Rasmus is about. Bold, concentrated flavors that push the limit of the ingredients to the max. All things that you crave after a bite that you want to just keep going back for. And finally, I found my last missing piece. This chicken foot. Most people will see this and they'll think, ew. Anyway, cheers. Another one of the best bites of the night.

Seasoned perfectly with salt. Crispy on the outside, little crunchy bits on the outside. Again with the Asian inspired flavors. Green curry, lots of Thai basil. There's also like a tamarind sort of sour glaze that goes really well with those Thai flavors. This is basically just Thai fried chicken. Unbelievable. This is one of my favorite favorites. This we add to the list. Now, if you thought the savory portions were interesting, the dessert got even more wacky.

The craziest ice cream sandwich you'll ever see with sheets of berry that reflect a rainbow. They describe this as an edible mirror. And while it did make an impact on my heart, I wouldn't say it did as much as the next one. We have heart. Not a real heart, a dessert heart. On the inside of this is a garum of deer blood. Behold. The outside is almost like a marshmallow. It's like a meringue. Crazy example of, again, creativity, ingenuity, while still being craveable. Delicious. I think I figured out my direction here. But just when I thought I finished my last course, I was led away from my table to an ominous door.

The final dessert course, where you're painting the walls with edible paint to music and flashing lights. I don't know if this is real or if this is because the wine that I was drinking. So I'm showing you guys in hopes that you also see the painting. I painted my dog. And with that, we called it a night. And the challenge awaits me tomorrow. It's go time. I flew all the way out here for Chef Rasmus to rate my cooking. And I know what I want to make him. But I don't want to just waltz right in here and make my own food because I'm that good. I want to prove my worthiness and pay respect to not just him, but his entire team by challenging myself even. more.

And since no chef could master these entire dishes without months of practice, what if I could successfully pass the test of finishing three of the most insane looking dishes, including one of the hardest on the menu? Then I'd feel truly worthy of cooking my food for the world's best chef. Starting with dish number one, the tongue kiss. Maybe we'll find out that this isn't as creepy as it first comes across. On the surface, it seems like they're starting me off light. As it's tartare and garnish plated on top of a tongue mold.

Seems simple enough. But this dish is all about precision. For each dish, I'll have an Alchemist chef show me the ropes. And then I get one single shot before it's presented to Rasmus for final approval. I was set up with Chef Sebastian, who led me through the works. First, he demonstrated how I should cut the beef. Mentioning only supreme knife skills will do this correctly. Now it was my turn. He handed me my slab of beef. And it was go time. I have a lot of confidence in my knife skills, But I'd be lying if I wasn't a tiny bit nervous. So I just let my body take over.

I got to cut my beef into perfect cubes. I then seasoned it as carefully and perfectly as possible with deer stock, mustard, salt, and fresh cracked pepper. Seasoning on beef tartare is easily a make or break to tasting great. Hopefully I eyeballed this correctly. So I gave it a toss, and then it was time to plate it up with various sauces, flowers, and even a fragrant mist. Chef, we have the first dish. I would say, like, firsthand, it looks. I would say, quite good. Give me your kiss, Chef.

That tastes good. Yeah. But I just kind of. I would say that you hit all of the sauces right on. That's really good. Also, the pepper. When I was adding the pepper, I was contemplating, do I go more or less? That was nice, adds a little spark. All right. Okay, I'll take it. Thank you, chef. Okay, pass one, on to number two. Next dish, A crazy take on fried chicken served inside a cage. They call it burnout chicken, and it's a very literal thought starter on animal welfare. This looks more visually shocking than it is, if I'm being honest. The chicken is completely boneless, and the foot itself actually just is to hold the meat.

You're not eating the foot. I guess you could if you wanted to, though. Now, showing me how it's done, funnily enough, is a different Chef Rasmus, also the creator of this dish. So the other Chef Rasmus went on to explain the technicalities of this dish. First, you must perfectly separate the foot so that when you snap the knuckle, the skin still remains completely intact. Should there be a tear whatsoever, it's ruined. And they only have so many pieces of chicken. Then we're going to gently fill it with the meat farce, which is essentially sort of like a sausage filling. So once that's done,

you then finally tightly wrap it so it can be steamed and fully cooked before dredging and frying. Now it's my turn. This may seem easy, but in reality, there is zero room for error. So we have the skin, which will come down. These legs are huge. Like, this is a big chicken. Oh, there we go. Okay, so then we save that for the farce. Skin will come back up. Oh, it tore. Okay, so we're still waiting on Chef Rasmus to arrive for judging, and I have just a tiny bit more time to give this one last shot.

We have one more, guys. So piping bag, and then this will roll up. Then you want to leave enough skin on so we can fold it over. That's it. Beautiful. Done. Dredge it nicely. It can splatter a bit, so be careful. The chicken foot feels so weird in my hand. Very prehistoric feeling. Okay. It's important that we get the same exact amount of sauce on this chicken, making sure to dip it just enough and dab off just enough before coating in the crunchy topping.

Too much sauce, then the crunchies won't stick properly, and it might even overwhelm the overall flavor. Too little, you don't get enough flavor. Either of those would mean a fail, and then I lose the chance to have my cooking rated by the best chef in the world. We can't let that happen. So we go directly in, make sure to kind of coat the whole thing. I love the look of this dish. Okay, thank you, chef. First of all, which one's mine? I hope it's this one. Yeah, you're right. That's not a good sign.

I'm curious if there's too much glaze on it. What do you think? I like the base, because it's tasty, but there's maybe a little bit too much also, because you lose a little bit all of the crisp. You kind of soak up the glaze. The cooking time, it could probably have a little bit longer, so you get a little bit more crispy outside. But it tastes really good. It's a pass. On to the next. It all comes down to this. Two out of the three dishes passed. And what's in front of me was one of the best bites I had last night.

The smallest, yet most flavorful omelette you will ever taste. It's called the perfect omelette for a reason. A traditional French omelette is already a common test for chef skills in the restaurant world. But this one is probably twice, maybe three times as hard as that. I, along with just about everybody else in the world, have never even seen how they make this one. The egg yolks are frozen in a mold, placed on skewers, then thawed in a container. From there, they're drained of all their liquid, which creates these skins.

Those prep skins are then fed over a separate kitchen where the real magic happens. I'm really under pressure as head chef Magnus is watching my every move. I see power tools, power syringe. So we have these little babies, which is made from egg yolk. It's hollow on the inside, and that's where we would fill. This is espuma, made from. aged Comte, egg yolk and a lot of eggs, of course. So this filling here is very gently cooked. And then fill it up gently.

Oh, my God. He popped the first one. There goes the second one. Popped as well. Of course, they're quite fragile. so he essentially has to find this little hole that's already made in there, fill it really, really gently to fill it with just enough espuma without it shattering. Then we're going to seal it, because now there's still a hole, you know? So in service, we have a chef heating gently with this heating gun to keep it warm basically. A little bit of fresh sea salt. After watching that, I, I, I feel less confident. Some chefs, they will pick it up first day, and some just never gets it.

Oh, great. But I- I, I believe in you, Josh. Thank you. In general, it's harder than it looks. How do they expect me to get it right on my first try? And if I don't get this right, we came out here for nothing. Everybody's standing back right now. Like the, what are, what are you guys afraid of? Very good. Then I will come with a gentle heat. What do we think? Solid. Nine out of ten. Very good. All right, I'll take a nine out of ten. That sounds nicer than I thought it would be.

Just 51 more to go. I was nervous. I needed this to pass. And even though I didn't make the filling, even 1-millimeter of an air bubble will totally ruin the eating experience. Okay, Chef, the omelette. I had great instruction from Magnus. I got it on my first try. I'm not going to lie. I'm feeling pretty hot right now. This is really, really good. That's amazing. The time has come. I flew to Denmark to cook for the world's best chefs. So what am I making?

I've done fine dining. I can build a composed, technical plate. But I've got one day, and those dishes take weeks. So what am I supposed to do? Then it hit me. Cooking isn't about flexing technique. It's about making something delicious. Making someone feel something. And after cooking high cuisine all day, the hidden truth is that most fine dining chefs, I feel, crave the opposite. So instead of going ultra-technical, I'm taking the flavors I know he loves and turning them into something deceptively simple.

The answer even surprised me. Let's think here. Cuisine: A brioche-style bun for the representation of French-influenced flavors. Leveraging international technique: we're using Japanese-style katsu breading for a massive crunch. Preservation: The fish sauce-deglazed aromatics combined with lots of sugar, reduced to a glaze, and then combined with a gochujang sauce I made separately. We have two sauces in one. Seasonality: pickles. Something where you can capture the season permanently. Regardless of the time of year. And then finally, adding flavor in unique ways.

Very slowly caramelized green onions in oil. Which are then blended together, utilizing the caramelized onion oil and the caramelized onions themselves to make a deeply flavored, smoky green onion mayo. You may or may not know that they're in there, but they're bringing a classic and necessary flavor in both a familiar and new way. All of that put together to get a crispy, juicy fried chicken sandwich. The irony of flying all the way to Copenhagen to cook for the world's best chef and handing him a chicken sandwich is not lost on me.

Either I'm hitting the nail on the head, and the world's best chef will appreciate something simple, done with intention, or I just took a massive risk for nothing. But it's too late to back out now. I will say it's probably the best chicken sandwich I've had. Really, really good. Thank you. It's really, really good. Like, all of the flavors, all of the layers of different spices, and I really like it. Also, the chili is like. chili paste is really, really good. Should open a shop. You think so? This will. will sell. Yeah, you heard it here. Chicken shop!

Chicken shop. I want to eat the whole thing after we stop filming. So it's a 9 out of 10. I think it's really good. Wow. Okay, I'll take that. Wow. Thank you. Hell, yeah. You heard it here, baby. Nine out of ten! Guys, thank you so much for watching. Thank you, Rasmus, for your generosity. Thank you for letting us come and disrupt your whole lives. Love you so much. Subscribe.

English Subtitles

Read the full English subtitles of this video, line by line.

Loading subtitles...