Black Horizons; 3303; S is for Soul Food II

Welcome to Black Horizons. I'm your host Chris Moore. Thanks for joining us. Our regular viewers may have noticed that this isn't our usual Black Horizons set and this isn't our usual Black Horizons guest. In fact, he's a very special guest. He's Chris Phenomore, kitchen magician and host of QED Cooks. Hi Chris, welcome back to our show. Well, it's great to be in the kitchen with you again. You know, the last time I was here was for S's for soul food, volume one. And now we're doing volume two. That's right. I guess we're kind of invading your space here because you're the QED Cooks guru, you know. Well, I know I get that reputation as the cooking guy, but you know, we have some fun cooking. Okay, we do it. We're going to have some fun today just so you know we have two guests and they won't be the only ones doing the cooking. So let's get started. Joining us in the QED kitchen is our special guest, Chef Vernon Young Jr. Senior. I'm sorry, a Victoria Hall. Chef Vernon welcome to Black Horizons. Glad to have you here, sir. Thank you, my pleasure. What are you going to prepare for us? I'm a nut and crusted salmon, some roasted rosemary potatoes, and asparagus with tomato base. Sounds

like soul food to me or this food to the soul. I'm going to get on this side of you and just watch what you do. What do you start with first? Well, the potatoes take the long since the cook. So we'll start with those because I have to get those in the oven right away. Okay. And you're going to whisk them. No, I'm not going to whisk them. I just use this for a tool and I kind of pop the bottom on here and slightly turn it, put the knife on here, and slide it around, and pop it off. Oh, so you make a decorative sort of potato? Are those supposed to be mushrooms? Yeah, they are. Wow, look at that. And you do that with a whisk. Just force it onto the potato. Just force it on, take it up about an inch and a half, slide it around, and just pop it off. Don't you learn these tricks? Let me see that. Well, it looks like a little mushroom. You're right. Yeah, I come up with all kinds of tricks. I had a lot of time in the kitchen. No, I think too much.

No, that's great because the presentation of the food is what's good about it, right? Yes. You can see a lot of people eat with their eyes, but you think that's true? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the first thing is their eyes, and when you see it, or it looks good, then you want to eat it, right? Exactly. Okay. Now, one of the things about soul food cooking is you never waste anything. So, I mean, this would end up in home fries or somewhere. Yeah. You can use the smaller pieces. You can roast them right along and put them, use them as a base or however you want to use them. Take the soup or whatever. Now, where did you start cooking? I started cooking in the army. What's up? When I called that cooking, yeah, I was in the army too. Some of the army food in places where I was stationed was not the best, but we did have one cook. I remember that we celebrated because he was pretty good at what he did. Yeah, but the army teaches you to, they master the

basics when on a doubt. You know every cut, every slice, all different kinds of meats. You know, they concentrate each day. You're on your meats one day, you're on your vegetables and starches one day. You know, and you get a variety of salads. And I know the army isn't the greatest place to learn how to cook, but if you concentrate and you're into what you're doing, you'll learn. What did you expand on that knowledge? Yeah, so we've got stationed in Germany, and then I went to culinary school over there. And then we had competition every month, and actually my mother is responsible for getting me started in the cooking. So it starts like, yeah, she didn't want a son who couldn't take care of himself in the kitchen. Right. All right, what are you doing to these potatoes? I'm putting some oil on them. Then I'm going to put a mixture, a white pepper, salt, and garlic. Then

we're going to take some of this rosemary. Now that's a mixture people could make up to themselves and keep in the kitchen and just use the general seasoning. Right, right, right. I mean, you could put that seasoning on the potatoes, you could put it in your salad, you could put it in your rice, whatever you want to use with it, you can put it in there. Now you take these rosemary, these fresh rosemary, the fresh are the better. Then you chop them up, sort of speak. Just chopping, enhance the flavor you think? Oh, yeah, yeah. With all fresh spices, when you chop them, the flavor jumps out as you can smell them now. You can really, you can really smell it. Those of you who are watching at home take a deep breath. You can smell, you really can. Pop these in the oven. Okay. What's your oven? Set them. You cook them potatoes, you need a high heat. It's at 425 now and it'll take them 35 minutes. Okay. Okay. Now we'll get this out of the way. I can take that for your chef. Okay.

And now we're going to do the salmon. Salmon. Mmm. This is a salmon filet. It's deep -bombed already. We have to remove the skin on the filet. The reason why I had this white cutting board, because I don't want to use, you never use wood for seafood or beef meats where blood can possibly go into the wood. Okay. So I'll use a fiberglass cutting board. Then you place the knife close to like a five degree angle and you press against the bottom and you pull towards you and press forward with the knife. It's just as clean as it was so that comes out. And then it comes out very sharp, nice, right? Right. Okay. When I used to watch Julia Childe, I thought she was just throwing all that stuff on the floor. And it was a cat under there. I think that this up. Right. I'm going to cut it into filet pieces. Why do you use the angle there? Well, the reason that the angle so you can get some presentation on the fish and the cooks, the heat will go

into it better. Okay. With a straight cut, you don't get that. Is that right? Right. So there's a reason for everything. Right. Now when you went in the army, did you take care of your guys that are pretty good like in one cook that we had who did special things for them? Oh, I used to do all kinds of stuff for them. I used to bake them cakes in the woods. And a little feel of it. Yeah. Yeah. It was a M59 range with a M2 burner inside. And so you can make them cakes and everything. Right. I know they protected you all day. I can grill. I can do whatever. Why was it in my unit? I don't understand. All right. Now, you're making your, what, your sauce here? This is a, this is a batter for the, for the salmon. Okay. Okay. The jaw mustard and heavy whipping cream. Take that, mix it in. You want to mix it pretty good until it starts to thicken up. If you mix it too much, it'll get too thick. No, huh. You don't want it too thick. So you never use an electric meter? No. No. No. I used to be a baker, but I gave that

up. Why? I like cooking. Bacon's a, bacon's a chemistry. Cooking's an art. And I love the art of cooking. Are you an artist also? Yes. Art of cooking. But, but you were an artist before. I mean, you drew you actually. Yeah. I used to draw and I broke my arm. So I couldn't, I couldn't draw anymore. So I had to implement my art in the food. Okay. And you like that? Oh yeah. That was good to me. Now, did you see any of the pictures of at Victoria Hall or the brunch that the chef Vernon puts out? As a matter of fact, he has them around here somewhere. We have to get them out and show them. Well, that is a work of art. That is an art. Yeah. It's the presentation of food that really attracts people. That's the first thing. As you said, people eat with their eyes, but the incredible displays that you put out there at the, at the brunch are unbelievable. What kind of nuts are those? Those are mix nuts. They're almonds, cashews, peanuts. It's a, it's a variety of nuts. Mm

-hmm. And they're, they're slightly chopped. Okay. Stipped out in there. But you keep adding layers of flavors that I love. I mean, I love salmon just by itself. And now you're going to mustered on it and then nuts. The nuts. Okay. Now, what kind of salmon this is? This is a Norwegian salmon. Uh -huh. Salmon is a saltwater fish. Mm -hmm. You don't need that in salt, dude. No, you don't. The only time they're in their fresh waters when they spawn or when they're born, but they... You're going to do that little piece you get a little bit. They basically, I guess we can put that in there for you, Chris. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then my mom always said, no, he's nothing. Right. That's just a good salmon. And uh, let me clean this up. And they spawn in fresh water. You know, salmon is one of the only fish that can swim up a string. Mm -hmm. That's a very powerful fish. And

it's, it's pink if it's not pink, it's not salmon. You know. And uh, you want to cover this? You want to cook it at high heat also. About how long does it take? About 12, 8 to 12 minutes. 8 to 12 minutes. And a high oven. In top oven here? Yes. All right. Right in there in the needs of potatoes, huh? Do you ever worry about the flavors mixing when something's cooking in or nothing? No, no. Not unless they're all uncovered. Oh, okay. You don't, fish is a strong flavor, but you don't want to cook it uncovered unless it's cooked. If it's uncovered, you want to leave it in an oven by itself. Okay. Okay. All right. Now what's next? We have vegetables. Yeah, we have vegetables. We're going to do asparagus today. And uh, asparagus, you gotta have your green vegetables. There's a lot of vitamins and nutrients into green vegetables. Now you do sound like mama. Yeah, she's always tell me, make sure you

eat your vegetables. Did she love cooking your mother? Oh, yeah. She's still cooked. She's still cooked. Right. Is she proud that you picked all this stuff up? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Always make mama proud. Now you've got, well, are these plum tomatoes? Yeah, these are plum tomatoes. Okay. I'm just slicing them, take the center out of them. Oh, this is going to be part of your decoration here. Right. We're back to the art again. Right. We're back into the art again. How do you know how much to cut off those fresh asparagus? Because you don't, that's the tough part and you'll be chewing them. Right. This is the tough part. You want to get all the way up past the white part. It's kind of, you can see it's like shade it down in here, which you want to get it up past that area. Okay. We want to take these and slide this on. See, the bottom of this is fatter than the top part. So you need the

smaller one up top. Okay. Let's take a one down bottom. Okay. And they all held together there. Yeah, they're all held together. Is that in to the flavor too? Tomatoes are just decorative and more colorful. Well, the tomato definitely, I say plum tomatoes are one of the best tasting tomatoes also. You know, it has a full, it's a full flavor tomato. I would make pasta sauces out of the pizza sauces that makes all the best, best chilies the plum tomato. No, chicken, you know, Chris, I mean, you agree with that? Oh, yeah. No, I love the, I love the plum tomatoes and they're better tasting throughout the year. I mean, those beef steak tomatoes that you get, they're great for putting on a salad or a sandwich, but they're only really available in the, in the form of this really delicious from, you know, like July and August and a little bit into September. And after that, they're gone. And these tomatoes, you can pretty much get all year round. I also like those little grape tomatoes. Oh, yeah. They have a lot of flavor to them, a lot of good tomatoes. Would you put those on a salad as well as cooking sauces with them?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. All right. I'm learning something here. Okay. I have the, you've got some already prepared. Yeah, some prepared. How are we going to, and we're going to put them? We're going to put them, but you need a little salt in your water. Why salt? The salt makes them stay green. It adds a little flavor and it keeps them crisp. Okay. You don't want them limp, right? No. Well, it's nice because then it becomes like a bundle is a portion. So you can, it's also like easier to serve that way. The portion, you're adding up bundles of portions and salt. I see. I think they better make up a couple of bundles. Well, we can do that later. Okay. So we let them poach for a minute. Our salmon is an oven. I'm okay. It is a cooking. We're almost ready. Now, how long does it normally take? Is this something that people would prepare at home or you usually use a Victoria home? I'd always use this a Victoria home. It's on our menu to nut and crust and salmon. You can prepare this at home. It's not a problem. It's very simple. It's the nuts. If you want to make

a gourmet, you use some wine and you're your mixture. Would have used that in the sauce. Right? Would you want it to be okay? Right. You use the wine in the sauce and then dip it in the nuts. Put it in a pan and that's it. All right. I want to try one of these potatoes and see if I can do that. You know, man, if I try that, what you want to know. You know, man, it doesn't matter. You just first ate. It's not too hard. Put it, push it up further. It's a good. He's a juicy potatoes. It's all right. Which knife did you use this one? This one. Yeah. Look, man, I've got a sharp object in my hand. You just cut around it. You cut around it twice, didn't you? No, just one. Just once? Just once. Like that? Yes. And then pop it off. All right, pull it off. You got to say it's a hey. I could have gone a little deeper on the cut, right? But otherwise, that's the way you do it. And you would have just then ordered. Put the rosemary on it and put it in. Exactly. Okay. Well, I can do that kind of stuff. Yeah. But this looks good and it smells good.

Are there any other tips that you have? We have these recipes and we'll be talking about people. Are there any other tips that you have for cooking, especially when it comes to soul food? Well, people generally eat what their eyes. So if you can prepare a dish and you can make it look good, it's definitely going to taste good. You could add any seasonings you want. If you could add seasonings and deliver, uh, visit any part of the planet. If you want to go oriental, you got some soy sauce and some sesame oil, you can go, you know, you can go to the Middle East, you can do some taboli or whatever. But you shouldn't be intimidated by cooking in the kitchen. Because it, I mean, I made a lot of mistakes before I learned to get to this point. Yeah. And that's how you learn. So it's practice, practice, practice, practice. Now, who did you practice on? You've got a large family, right? Right. I have seven children, seven children. Yes. Wow. So do you practice on them? Do they love it with beds in the kitchen or chef Werner? They, they love it when chef Werner is in the kitchen. So like he comes from a family

like mine and yours is a long line of good eating. Oh, yeah. Well, what do you prepare at home with? Is this a normal meal that you would regularly prepare? No, no. They, they love to nut and crush it salmon, my family. I prepare fried chicken and stuff for jobs and, you know, rose. They like the basic foods. They're down home kind of stuff. Right. They don't like anything upscale fancy. I have a simple family. They just like to eat. They love what about your mom? Oh, my mom, she likes different things. She's tired of the same old thing. But she, she calls me up every now and then, Vernon, I have a recipe. She, last time I went up to visit her up in Lymo, Ohio, she gave me 107 cookbooks. Oh, hundred and seven. She, what she buys one every time she sees one, because she knows you. Yeah. She, she likes going to the flea markets and buying books and we should, we should take her there with Rick, Rick Seabag. Now, when you get these cookbooks, I wonder where your ideas come from. Are you inventive when it, when it comes to preparing food or? Right. How do you do it? I read certain recipes and I get the technique at a

recipe. First of all, once I read the recipe, I get the technique and then I could either variate from that recipe or keep it the same. I'm most likely with variate because I don't want to do the same thing. Someone else is doing. I want to change it. And, and do you name the dishes in any particular way? Actually, I get, sometimes I let people taste them and I let them name the dish. Like, you know, what, what do you think? That's what I do. I do, I'm, I sing a poor shrimp. I do a shrimp with, with sesame oil. I coat it with sesame oil and put it on a bed, a rice peel off or something. And I let, I let this guy Charles. He, he named it for me and I'm, it was on the menu at the Catholic Victoria. And I understand you have a very large brunch there now. Yes, we're doing really well, Victoria Hall for brunch. We have the best brunch in the city. He says with modest things. Without a doubt. Did we have those pictures over here? Did we move them somewhere? They're, they're over here. Okay, we'll put them in, but tell us about the brunch.

What's, what's available there? The brunch is, and, and tells floor on trays. It's a vegetarian entree. I do a chicken entree. I do a seafood entree. And, and a, and a vegetarian entree. We have peaches and cream french toast where you can get nowhere else. We also have omelette station. We have a carbon station with ham. We have all the fixings with the omelette station. We have the variety of six salads. Do you train various chefs? Yes. Okay. I'm, I'm gonna try this. I have one chef up train. Okay. Thai Walker. She's doing really good. And she's my sous chef. Now, when you cut these before, you just sort of cut them like this, right? Yeah. Yes. Cut the spokes out. Watch your hand. Oh.

Look at that. Huh? I'm not a doctor, and don't play one on television, so watch yourself, Chris Moore. Oh, I could do this. Now, how many in Sparger's did you get there in each bunch? Four, depending on how thick they are. All right. See? I got it out. I know you're, you're good. Huh? Huh? Depending on how thick you are. Yeah, four. You probably could do five or not one. Oh, this is the bigger one, so it goes on the bottom. Yeah. Trim the bottoms first, Chris. Oh, trim the bottom. That's right. You'd be even hard. Those are, these are done. Yeah. Okay. Trim the bottoms. Well, let's start plating up. First, you trim the bottoms. Well, I can play that. You know what? We could play that, and then we could, get the potatoes, see what it looks like. Watch yourself. All right, in the way. Chris. Oh, my. Yeah. Those happen cooking. Hey. Watch your back. Watch your back. Oh, wait. Oh, look at those. Mm -hmm.

These are better than French fries, man. Yeah, they're pretty good. They look even more like mushrooms now that they're cooked and show them up like that. They do. Yeah, they sure do. Well, that's the key, you know. And they smell wonderful with that rosemary on them. Mm -hmm. Let me set these back in our way. Now, if the art of food is in the presentation, I can't wait to see the salmon come on. Let's see what you get. Oh, oh, smell there. Oh, wow. Look at that. This is perfect. Okay. What's that? Am I goodness gracious? I'm pretty. Let's put it down so we can get the camera to take a shot on there. Oh, that is great. I have some forks. I show me. Wow, you know how it is. We will tell you whether you want to get the recipe in a

second, but I advise you, you don't mind if we taste this at all. We will advise you to get your pit and paper ready because we're going to give you these recipes or an address where you can write to in a second. Are you ready to taste? Oh, it smells so good. I have to taste the salmon with those nuts on there. It's so flaky. I always tell people this is the most important part of whatever I do here, is that I'm an official food taster for the cooking shows. That is delicious. Now, to me, that is out of this world. The mustard is a nice subtle flavor on there, but what I like is that the difference in the texture between the salmon and the nuts on the top, which give you that nice crunch. How's our potatoes, Chris? You can see. I have to have a little more salmon because I'm not quite convinced. Oh, Lord, this

is on the menu at Victoria. Yes. Nothing cuts the salmon. How do you build your menu? Are you creating a menu as you go? You've been there about a year now, right? Yeah, I've been executive chef. It'll be a year in November. I add and take away things on the menu that was already in place when I arrived. This is one of our biggest sellers in seafood. I can see what? Oh, yeah. I can have a lot of seafood on a tray? Yes. Yes, I have other seafood on a tray. The menu in title is like over 300 items on the menu. So there's appetizers, there's seafood, there's poultry, there's gang fish, there's vegetable on trays, I have a port stuff portabella mushroom. I wasn't going to do it today, but I did the salmon. The salmon is fine. Yeah. What about desserts? I understand you did pastry chefs and waiting cakes for a while. I know you don't like it. You said you didn't like it, but what about desserts? Well, some desserts I make and some I order out depending on what the customer wants, sort of bride and groom when the weddings were done.

I have done some wedding cakes, also a Victoria Hall. I have about a requested a customer. Well, I have to tell you, these are delicious. We're going to give you the recipe or an address to write to for that recipe in a second and take a break. Is it not a question? It was just one of the things that when we were talking about, as we were getting set up, and you talked about, you said you have the best job in the world because you really enjoy cooking and you love cooking. I know that with some of the other chefs that I've talked to, they all say the same thing. They say it's an incredible amount of work to be a chef, but it really is an interesting profession. It's something that is changes every day. And then you said that. It keeps your interest. Right, because every day I get to do something else. I get to cook something else, but I get to do it a different way. I get to give it another presentation. I get another chance to make it great every day. If somebody would have come to Victoria Hall for brunch, two weeks in a row, the display wouldn't be exactly the same way. No, it would not. It is never the same. It's like jazz, you know, sort of improvisational. And you guys just keep talking. Oh, yeah.

This is delicious, Chef. I can't believe it. And it is too easy to prepare to tell you the truth. It is. It's really simple. Do you believe in keeping things simple? Yes. Simple flavors and simple presentations. It's simply delicious. It is. What about calories? I'll very few. You'll get some calories from the cream, but that's it. Nine front of potatoes, but if you overcook them potatoes, you'll lose all the nutrients in the potatoes. Yes. Yeah, you don't want to overdo any vegetables, actually. But I'm amazed at how the the Asparagus stayed nice and green. That's that nice tip with the salt and the salt and the water. Not to overdo them, either. Right. All those look great. Be a great, put a stack of those on a platter and let people serve themselves a bundle. Oh, no, you've got to. Well, if you want to try your hand at Chef Vernon's for con and crust, a delicious salmon, we need the delicious foods that we'll be preparing on tonight's show. Then you can get the recipe right here. Just send a stamp,

self -adjusted envelope to black horizons recipes, care of WQED, 480 -25th Avenue Pittsburgh PA -15213. You