It’s happy hour on Chef Swap at the Beach when two chefs are presented with a bonus cocktail challenge. Will one hour be enough for Perrone’s and Bistro 217 or will they be racing against the clock?
– [Narrator] This is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 60 miles of beautiful sunny beaches, attractions, and more than 2000 restaurants. With amazing culinary options, the beach has become a true foodie destination. Our host, chef Amanda Freitag loves southern hospitality, great food, and healthy competition. So she’s here to set up a Chef Swap challenge.
– I’m Amanda Freitag, and this is Chef Swap at The Beach. – [Narrator] Today, Amanda will take two local chefs out of their comfort zones, and swap them into each other’s kitchens. – What? – On each episode, our chefs will have no idea where they’re going, or what food they’ll cook,
Maybe an appetizer, an entree, or a dessert. – [Narrator] They’ll grab only one ingredient to bring with them, and they’ll have just 60 minutes to make Chef Amanda and local culinary experts, Dylan and Johanna, a dish that might earn them their very own Chef Swap knife and major bragging rights.
– It’s time for Chef Swap. Today, on Chef Swap at The Beach, two local favorites face off for a friendly battle. – Dude, I’m psyched when I come to work. There’s not a day I don’t come to work and go, ” (beep), I don’t wanna be there.”
No, every day. Every day’s a new day. My world cuisine menu means I could do whatever I want, whatever direction I want, whatever new cuisine I wanna discover. So, at 17, it was like,… The light came on, and it was epiphany, and it was nonstop there. I learned everything I could about food,
Wine, and everything. To this day, I’m 63 years old and I haven’t stopped researching. Being self-taught has made me work twice as hard, you know. Not to prove myself, to prove it to myself. My wife completes me. She is the final stamp on the stuff I make.
When I’m heading in the wrong direction, she’s like… So, like without her,… I had a little food and wine shop across the way, and we had kids. So, we waited till the kids grew up, moved out, and then I wanted to have my own restaurant, per se. I like going to a restaurant where it’s an inspired menu with an inspired chef.
That’s what I look for. That’s what I love, and that’s what keeps me going. – I grew up in a house where everything was homemade, jellies, mayonnaise. My mother’s a very good cook, and her mother was too. I learned at a very early age what the difference
Between good food was and bad food is. My favorite thing on earth is a vegetable plate my mother would make. I mean, she’s totally my inspiration for cooking. I moved around a lot. I cooked from Hawaii to the East Coast, so I did a lot of Pacific Rim style cooking,
A lot of Asian influences. German influence, the French influence in there, mix everything together. I’m just a big believer in hard work and good things happen. When I’m not working, I’m either fishing or I have a farm, and we’re growing butter beans and corn out there this year.
I fish as much as I can. You know that and coaching my kids’ baseball team, basketball team, everything. I’ve got a beautiful wife. I’ve got two kids that I adore. They’re obviously my favorite things in the world. Yeah, I’m probably a giant teddy bear, you know. – [Amanda] I can’t wait to see these two chefs in each other’s kitchens. – Chef? – Somebody said they wanted to see the chef. – That’s me. – I didn’t know- – It was you, Chef. – Hey, Chef! You don’t mind me coming into your kitchen? – Do you? – How are you?
Good to see. – I have something for you. It’s time for a chef swap. – Chef swap? – Yes. – Yeah! – In this envelope, it tells you where you’re going, who the chef is that you’re swapping with, and what you’re gonna be cooking. – All right! – But, before you open it,
I want you to pick one ingredient from your kitchen that you cannot cook without. Could be for an appetizer, for an entree, or for a dessert. – Okay. I gotta pick now? – You gotta tell me right now. – Right now. Right now. – Right now. – You have two seconds.
– Preserved lemon. I love preserve lemon. – Green peas. – Okay. – That’s a good one. – It’s colorful. Colorful. – Open her up. – All right. – Bistro 217, Chef Adam Kirby, Entree and a cocktail. – Steve Perrone from Perrone’s Restaurant. He’s my arch nemesis right down the road, so. And entree, cocktail. – I added a cocktail, which is unusual, but I know you can do it. – All right, fine. How much time I got for this? – You have one hour. This Chef Swap starts right now.
– As in right now? – As in right now. – Okay. Right now. – Our chefs bring one ingredient, and have 60 minutes to swap restaurants, and create a dish that will be a star on that menu, judged on taste, integration, and creativity. – [Jim] Hey, Chef, how are you doing?
– How are you, man? – Good. Let me take you a tour on Perrone’s Kitchen. – Elvis! – Steve! – How’re you doing, man? – How you doing, man? – This is our dry herb area. We keep all of our dry herbs up here. – All the spices we got over here.
Anything you want, they’re all over here. – We got everything in here from clam juice to more spices. – We got a couple of coolers. We got all fresh produce in here. Broccolini, carrot to peas, squash. – It’s cheeses. – Milks and butters. – Butter! – This is our grill area.
We’ve sitting at about 500 BTUs here. Your right size hotter than your left side. – And if you need any help with anything, just let me know. I’ll be working right over there. – Okay. All right. – Thanks, man. – Let’s have some fun. – Yeah, man! Thank you.
– Hey, Chef! – Hey, how are you? – Good to see you. – Yeah, how are you? So you made it over. – Got sort of an idea of what I’m gonna do here. – Okay. – So, we’ll sort of work our way through it. – We know you have sweet peas.
– Yeah, I got some sweet peas. – Do you feel like that’s really gonna seal the deal on this dish? – I like the color. – Oh, okay. – Just want it to be pretty. – So you’re over here. – Yeah, yeah. – You brought your ingredient? – Yes.
– Preserved lemons. – Preserved lemons! Tell me why you love them? – World cuisine is my menu with a Mediterranean focus, and these are just so great in so many things. – [Amanda] I think it’s a great ingredient. – It’s really versatile. Yep. – [Amanda] You saw the kitchen?
– Yep, Elvis was gave me the tour. – You feel good? – I know where all, everything… – Yeah! – Yeah, of course. – Do you want less time? – It’s not tough enough. Okay. – You’d it in 30 instead of an hour. – Okay. No, gimme the hour.
I’ll take the hour. I’ll take the hour. – Okay. If you want an hour,- – Yeah. – Time starts now. – All right. See you in an hour. – [Amanda] Our chefs can use anything they want from each other’s shelves, if they can find it. – I’m gonna confit some garlic.
I need some roasted garlic. So, we’ll just throw that in the oven. Next, I’m gonna need some shallots. Shallots, shallots, shallots. – Shallots? – Here we go. – Thanks. Yeah, I’m gonna slice some shallots, let them marinade in the buttermilk for a little bit, and then coat them with flour and fry them. They’re gonna go in… I’m gonna do a risotto cake. – Hands. Pots, pots, pots. Here we go. Try to cook a little bit of pasta.
Put a little salt and pepper in water. Why not? – Start getting that? – It’s been some time since I seen you, chef. You been doing alright? – Everything’s good, man. – Been out fishing? – Wife, kids, family. Been fishing like crazy. Alright, let’s see here. I got some shiitakes.
Gonna make some kind of noodle cake. Let’s get moving here. ‘Cause time is of the essence here. So, I want to put as many flavors into this as I can. I mean, when I talk about flavors, I’m talking about feelings. You know, us as Americans, we like sweet, we like spicy, we like crunchy. So I’m gonna try to throw as many of those into the dish as possible.
– [Amanda] Okay, what are you working on? – You got garlic? – I got some garlic confit- – In the oven. – Okay. – I need a little roasted garlic. I’m gonna make risotto cake. – Okay. – [Steve] I got some beautiful fresh snapper in there, with some kind of fresh sauce.
And I’m gonna, my secret ingredient, which I gotta make a pace for that, so. – Okay. Plus cocktail. – Got it. I won’t let you down. – You’ll get a cocktail. – Thank you! – So these shiitake mushrooms soak up all this oil. You gotta use a good bit of it.
– [Amanda] All right, Chef, you’re cooking. – Yeah, getting to it. – Looks great. – Yeah, we’re starting off with a little wasabi pea sauce. – You got shiitake working? – Yep. Red bell pepper. We’re gonna make a little noodle cake with that. – So we’re going in the Asian direction.
– Yeah. – Beautiful. All right, Get cooking. – Thank you! – Looks like you got- – Thank you. Yeah! – A lot to do. – Elvis? – Yes sir. Oh, yeah. It’s a little trick to that one. – Little temperamental? – Oh, yeah. – All right. You should be good to go. – All right, thanks. – All right, she’s making me nervous. She’s already tasting things and I haven’t even put anything in there yet.
These are about right where I want them. – He got some beautiful snapper in there. So, I thought I’d highlight the snapper. Goes with his theme, which is, I believe, American seafood. I thought I’d just jazz it up a little. – [Adam] So, at Bistro we make all our own breads. We probably run four or five specials for lunch, for dinner every night. Catfish is that whole fried fish, which is a great way to eat fish. Our filet mignon’s been on that menu for a long time
With the gooier potato cake and the cream spinach. Grouper over the dirty shrimp risotto with a caper brown butter, my favorite sauce. – How much time am I at? – 45 Minutes. – I’m gonna make a little saffron tea, little warm water. It’s just a pepper sauce, just a different twist.
Different ingredients put it in a different direction. Let that steep a little. – All right. Steve’s gonna be upset I made a big mess in his kitchen, but that’s just the deal. Give a little heat, little sweet. I mean, it’s like you lick a lemon,
You feel it ’cause it makes you pucker up. So we don’t wanna make bland food that doesn’t feel like anything. – Hey, Chef! – Hi there! – We didn’t even talk about the fact that you’re swapping with Adam, and you know Adam pretty well. – It’s a small community. – Yeah. – You know, we’re all tight. – This is beautiful. – Saffron tea, that’s gonna go in the rice cake.
– It seemed like you had a lot of time before, but… – I know it’s tick-tocking. You talking to me ain’t helping either. Okay? – I know. You can talk and work. I’ve seen you do it before. – Oh, lemon juice. How about the bar? There’s not enough acid in this preserved lemon
Because the curing brings down that acid level. Lemon juice! So you gotta boost it back up with some lemon juice. – Salt and pepper everything. You gotta season throughout. Don’t overcook the shrimp, dude! Don’t overcook the shrimp. Throw these peppers into my noodle dish. Oh yeah, break up those eggs. Nice farm egg.
I’m gonna have to step on it, ’cause I gotta make the drinks too. Check that for salt and pepper in a minute. – This has to be cooked though? – I found precooked risotto, – Great! – Like 80% done, – Perfect! – So this will be great for the cake.
– [Amanda] Okay, good. You’re good. – Clock? Clock? What the (beep) is this? Vegas? No clocks, no windows. How much time I got? – 39. – 39 minutes? – Okay, so you’re in Steve’s kitchen. – We’re competitive. – Competitive in a friendly way? – Yeah. Well, pretty friendly. Yeah, sure. I’ve known Steve a long time, so we talk a lot of trash to each other, for sure. – That’s what chef’s do. – 100%. He’s gonna make them look bad, but that’s okay. – That’s it. – You know. – Let’s do it. – All right. I gotta get to work.
– Rice is a little hard. I’m gonna have to cook it down just a little. I like to cook with new methods. I’m dry aging fish here. Perrone’s just started that recently. We do a lot of sous vide cooking. If you walk through my kitchen, there’s a thousand ingredients. They’re play things.
I love the challenge of learning a new cuisine with its style, its taste, its own ingredients pertaining to that area. You know, that makes food exciting. – Yeah? – I heard you earlier. You said you wanted to use some snapper. You want me to find you a couple of nice pieces?
– Yeah, yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you! Elvis is the chiz nizzle as my man, Snoop would say. – [Adam] Let’s see how that cake’s looking. It looks pretty cool. – Checking? – Hot. – All right, this is gonna be the little red pepper sauce. – That should do it. – I’ve got some preserved lemon spread that I made, Sambal, which is a chili sauce, some salt and some fresh lemon juice. – We’re gonna soak them in this tempura, then lightly fry them. How am I doing on time? Running out of it, that’s for sure.
– What happened to the peas? Where are they? – Peas sauce is in the window. Wasabi is not wasabi. I want more heat out of it. – Find another spice. – All right. – There’s a lot of spices in here. – Fresh thyme. How about some fresh thyme?
– The garden? I’ll go and look. – You got thyme in the garden? – Yeah, I think I have some thyme in the garden. – Wanna make sure to get a lot of shrimp, and shiitake and bell pepper, and all of these things. Don’t forget about those suckers, Adam.
So, we’re gonna drop these fish. I’m gonna go on the hot side. Just keep that skin flat for a minute. – For drinks. – Those are beautiful! – These are awesome blueberries. I’m just throwing blueberries all over his bar, – [Amanda] That’s okay. – Steve won’t mind. – I’ll let Steve know
I was here. – [Amanda] Steve will have to clean up after you. – I’m gonna smear blueberry. Kirby was here. All right, lemme get some of this cool basil that we have. And instead of having lime in there, this is sort of my own little twist on the thing.
– Yuzu is like- – I love Yuzu! – A Japanese kinda grapefruit, kind of a… – Limey. So you’re multitasking? – Your fish is cooking. – Right. Right. – And you’re fine with it. – It’s good? – I’m about to run back there. – You’re running back?
– All right. So no fresh thyme. I dunno if you like this flavor profile, – But I got it! – What is that? – Oregano. No, no fresh thyme. – [Steve] Can I go out to the garden? I’ll take some of that micro basil. All right, how much time I got? Time? – Yeah, that works. – That looks good. – All right, let’s go make cocktail. All right. Some fresh cilantro, Tequila. – So what do you got? – A little Mercadito, means little market in Spanish. – I speak the language. – Oh, okay. Sorry. So, they’re called a little market ’cause it’s all packed full of… You get at the market. Nice, fresh vegetables. – You have 10 minutes. – 10 Minutes. Oh? Yeah, I’m running outta time. – [Amanda] All right. No, you’ll be fine. You got this. – And, where is she? There it is. Tell her it’s right there. I got (beep) to do. – [Narrator] Learn more about the chefs and restaurants featured in this show at chefswap.com. – [Steve] And the texture thing, the risotto cake was soft and you needed a little… There was a little fruit in there for sweet. And then it’s just the crispy fried shallots, did a little crunch. You know, food is all about balance. Okay, back to the fryer. – [Adam] Little more color than I wanted on there. That fish is almost there. More, more, more. Gotta be crispy, otherwise you’re toast. – Time? – Six minutes. – Six minutes. All right. That one kind of fell apart. All right, fish. All right. Hot side right here. – [Amanda] You’re gonna fry up this bok choy. – Yep. – Fish is almost done. – [Adam] Yep. – Noodle cakes are almost done? – [Adam] That’s right.
– Drink is at the bar? – Drink is at the bar. – There’s a little heat. Wasabi’s not cutting it. Bok choy nice and crispy. Where’s that sriracha? We’re good. I’m done. Boom! – [Jim] Hey, man, it’s a pleasure, dude. – Thanks for your help, dude! – Thanks for your help, bro. – Yeah, man! – [Steve] All right, we’re almost there. – You got a whole five minutes. – Excellent! – Luxurious.
– All right. – Got everything you need. – Cool room temp sauce, warm cake, hot fish. It stuck a little. We gotta go with those, I’m outta time. Fish a little rough looking. – How do you feel? – Yeah. – You look fantastic. – Little rough though. – You know what? You’re glowing. – Glowing? – This is a challenge about not working with your own equipment. You don’t know where the sweet spots are, you know. Rough, rough, rough. – That’s it. You got 10 seconds. – 10 seconds? – Seconds. – 10 seconds. – Seconds. – Seconds. – Now you have six seconds. – Seconds.
– Now you have four seconds. – Seconds. – Okay! – And… And plate. – [Man] Good job, man! – Alrighty. – So, Dylan, Johanna, I have a little surprise for you. – Oh, yeah? – All right! – We’ve been working pretty hard, so I thought we’d have some cocktails. – Cocktails! – All right! – This is called the Mercadito. – Cheers. – Cheers! – Yes! – Really clean tasting. The cilantro in there is amazing. She’s going back for a second sip. – I could get used to that. – This is a prelude to what’s to come, – I can’t wait to taste. – Exactly! Steve made us a snapper that was seared on the griddle. He made a crispy risotto cake, and there is some saffron, and then there’s also his chosen ingredient,
– Preserved lemons. – Preserved lemons! – So, let’s give it a try. – Yes, indeed. – Yep! – Holy Molly! – Steve is a culinary titan here on the Grand Strand, and he came to cook today. The crispy risotto cake with the crispy shallots in there- – And the saffron, knockout! – Boom! – Steve’s high energy is on his plate. – He and Adam are very competitive.
– They’ve competed locally before. – Sure. – Right! – But never in each other’s house. – Right. – And I think, that’s great for them. I bet they’re having a blast back there doing it. – Yeah. – For us, I mean, I think we are the real winners. – Oh, yeah!
– We’re definitely winners here. – How do we make this dish a little bit better? I want a little more fat. I think that’s what I’m looking for. – The sauce can use just a little tad of sweetness. It’s slightly on the tarter side. – Other than those minute little things,
I think Chef Perrone set the bar pretty high. – Yes, he did. – Chef Adam brought with him sweet peas, and he made a pan-seared scamp grouper over a shrimp noodle cake with tempura bok choy. Just right off the bat, it’s gorgeous. – I don’t even wanna mess it up.
His plating is great! But I’m going in. – Knock it down. – Going in. – Yes. – First off, Scamp Grouper is one of my favorite local groupers, works really well with this. And he did a great job keeping that skin nice and crispy. – Being a local fisherman, he knows fresh fish. He brought that expertise onto the plate. I love the bok choy.
I could eat just a whole bowl of that by itself. – Extremely creative! The chef went down an Asian road in many different ways. We have a little bit of Thai influence. There was some wasabi that went into the… – In the peas. I just picked it. I just got the wasabi.
– I think this would fit perfectly on Perrone’s menu. They do bring in influences from Asia, from India. – Right. – He studied Steve, and he read the book. He wrote a novella and this is great. – And then that shrimp and noodle cake. – Yeah. – This is really interesting.
– There’s shiitake in here. There’s shrimp in there. I think what Chef Adam could have done better is add some acidity to this plate. But maybe, this Blue Mule will lighten it up a little bit. It’s vodka, local blueberries that he muddled with basil from the garden. – All right!
– Cheers. – Cheers, ladies! – Cheers! – All right. – I mean that’s… You got some acidity in there. I think it really connects. – Works well. To watch these two go head to head in this competition has been really cool. And they came to play. Both of them came to play today. – They did. – They both wanna win.
– Yeah, this is the finals and they’re both in it to win. – How was that? – More fun than humans should be allowed to have. I thought I was gonna be nervous, but it was a lot of fun. – It was a lot fun. – You looked
A tiny bit nervous to me- – In the beginning. – I was. I was. I’m just trying to show off right now. Yeah. – Okay. – Yeah, yeah! – This is somebody else’s kitchen. – You know? – [Amanda] When was the last time you did that? – For real? – Never. I never did that. I don’t cook anywhere else. I cook in my place. So, this was like quite the adventure. – Hey, chef. – Hi.
– How’d that go? – It went. It went by quick. – Yes, it did. You were running all over the kitchen. – I was. Hopefully Steve had a pretty good time, and I got to make a really big mess in his kitchen back there, which was fun.
And I’m just like, “Haha, Steve”. You know? – I love your camaraderie. – Between you guys,- – Right? – It’s hilarious. Our friendly rivalry has come down to this. Who gets a Chef Swap knife? Chef Adam, Chef Steve. Okay, so I decided to up the ante
Because I know you guys are fierce competitors, and you both make a mean cocktail. Who needs more than an hour to make an entree and a cocktail? – Yes. – Nobody. – No problem. All right. – It’s all good. – I have to thank you both because you really showed up
And made some beautiful food. Chef Adam, you took a lot of influences from Asian cultures. That was really fun to see. We loved what you did with that. So did you have fun in the kitchen with Jim? – That was fun. It was a little chaotic towards the end, you know?
– I loved it. Thank you for doing it. – Yeah, you’re welcome. It was my pleasure. I had a fun time. – Steve. – Yes. – Elvis, and you had a rapport going on. I mean, that kitchen’s totally different than yours. – Yeah. – The way it’s set up.
– Kitchen’s a kitchen. I’ll find everything. – Your dish was multi-level bombs of flavor. And I think Adam has a bill for you, for the saffron that you used. – It was just a pinch. – So, that was memorable, and your dish was beautiful. – Well, thank you. – Chef Adam. Chef Steve. The chef swap knife goes to Chef Steve. – Thank you! – How do you feel? – Great! It was a lot of fun. Good job to you too, sir. – Thanks, man. – [Amanda] Chef Steve wowed us with that perfect fish, that wonderful risotto cake, and all his textures and flavors. Plus, his Mercadito drink topped it all off.
– Thank you. Thank you very much. – Thank you. Adam, thank you for everything. – Thank you. Yeah. – I’m Amanda Freitag. Join me next time as we put two more amazing Myrtle Beach chefs to the test on Chef Swap at The Beach. For more on the chefs and restaurants featured in this episode, visit chefswap.com.