Welcome to Cooking at the College with your host Jason Donner! In this episode, we have a special treat as Jason Donner welcomes Jason Willoughby, the Program Coordinator for the Business Administration program at WKCTC. Joining them in the kitchen is the talented Chef Erik Engelland, who is ready to elevate one of Jason Willoughby’s favorite comfort dishes: macaroni and cheese.
Get ready to discover how Chef Erik takes this classic comfort food to new heights with his innovative techniques and flavorful twists. Whether you’re a seasoned chef or just starting out in the kitchen, this episode promises to inspire and delight your taste buds.
If you’re interested in exploring the culinary program at WKCTC, be sure to visit https://westkentucky.kctcs.edu/education-training/program-finder/culinary-arts.aspx for more information.
On this episode of cooking at the college I’ll be joined by Jason Willoughby professor of business and we’re going to be making mac and cheese with Chef Eric so join us Then okay we’re ready to get started with another episode of cooking at the college and joined here by Jason Willoughby I’m Jason Donner you’re Jason Willoughby it’s going to be the best show ever that’s okay yeah yeah so you uh you’re a professor here you are program coordinator of BU business
Administration yes tell us a little bit about that a little bit about that is that I’m so honored to be here with you Jason Chef so honored to be here just call me Jason okay yeah Jason three Jason for this show you Jason and I’m so
Glad to be here I’m so honored to be teaching I had a dream a long time ago as a child to be a teacher and my dream started Jason back when we were PCC puka Community College and so I always had that goal I want to teach here want to
Teach here now it took me 45 years to get here but I’m here and I’m here to stay my friend good that’s that’s great yeah I’m so glad that so you went to PCC as a undergrad um I did um a couple classes I went to Lindsay Wilson College
On a bowling scholarship now if we would have had bowling at CC I would have been here my friend bowling scholarship right got my undergraduate at Lindsey Wilson and business administration um 2008 got my masters in business admin and then now I am the reason why I’m losing all
This hair is for my doctorate oh working on the doctorate I’m doing a doctorate in educational leadership with a specialization in um educational technology cool all right yeah and given all that What food did you pick for us to cook today I cooked one of my favorites my grandmother when I was
Young would always teach me how to cook that’s where I got a lot of my cooking skills when I was really young grandma said come on Jason come in the kitchen and stuff what Grandma’s are for exactly and so one of my favorite dishes is mac
And cheese mac and cheese okay you know you you work all day you go home and you want some southern comfort food mac and cheese is it so that’s why I want Chef Eric or Chef Eric Jason to teach us how to take that dish to the next level right hard to go
Wrong with pasta and cheese right I mean people that how can you go wrong little tomato sauce and it’s even better well yeah then you get pizza basically you know it’s uh you know your classic you know kind of southern comfort food um everybody everybody’s grandmother uh
You know Cooks it um like I said it’s a dish that we’re all familiar with and uh so you want to elevate this just a little bit um so thinking about this one I I’m thinking that we’re going to make a mac and cheese but we’re not going to
Do the same technique we’re not going to boil the the macaroni and then add to a cheese sauce uh we’re going to actually use what we call the risotto method uh you know making a risoto you guys familiar with with that dish with you know rice Italian rice um but we’re
Going to use that same method of cooking our pasta and then adding buttercream and cheese in at the very end um I’m thinking you know flavoring that BLT uh style uh so you know we’ve got these uh beautiful heirloom tomatoes that I think I want to grill um just to add a little
Bit of you know balance a little bit of smokiness uh to that um on the L part uh I’ve got a little bit of a ruga uh which are aruga is probably my favorite Green in the world it’s got a really nice peppery uh flavor to it um I grow it all
The time in my garden especially when I when I harvest it in August with that really full sun it can even peper pepper pepper um so that’ll be kind of our our L portion of it uh and then um my students from this past spring semester
Uh we broke down a whole hog um and we kept the ham and we have cured that for the last 90 days and turned it into a country ham uh so he represented here represented right here wow so I’ve sliced it very thinly yeah you did um
And then we’re just going to uh pop that into the oven it’s going to get really nice and crispy yeah fast just like bacon yeah right um so first thing that we want to do here uh is we just want to season um um our Tomatoes uh with just a little bit of
Salt it’s nothing like a good homegrown tomato is it uhhuh oh yeah well you know when you got a good one you know you know when when you see one you like this is going to be great you know it Mhm little salt little pepper and I’m just going to use a little bit of extra virgin olive oil this olive oil from the medit Anan has a lot of flavor to it so how like to is it’s going to make this macaroni and cheese very tomatoey
Tasting or we’re going to chop that up or what’s going to end no there it’s going to go kind almost as a garnish it’s going to go these uh tomato slices right on the side of it’s almost like we’re going to have a little bit of a
Salad with the macaroni and cheese right over the top I gotta okay so yeah so what we’re going to do we’re going to take that Mr gr yeah we’re going to come back from a break in a minute and get this sizzling and then so we’ll be
Right back and continue on with Jason’s mac and Cheese all right we’re back now here with the chef and Jason he’s got the tomatoes we’re going to grill some Tomatoes right yep uh so first thing I I just want to make sure that you know we don’t uh tomato don’t stick to our Grill so I’ve just got a little spray right
There little fire that’s fun little fire never hurt anybody uh so we got our Tomatoes right here and we’re just going to kind of lay them down wow so this is going to make them turn out what like they’re chewy are they going to taste chewy what are they going
To taste like not necessarily chewy going get harder right or no no they’re they’re actually going to soften up quite a bit uh but they are also going they’re losing some moisture though too they are going to lose some moisture yeah but we’re also going to get some
Caramelization uh and a little uh flavor and color we just set that right there so it’s kind of Grill is it kind of like grilling a a pepper yeah basically exactly yeah so Jason uh I don’t know how you feel about uh live fire and big
Flames like this let’s go for it um but if you want I’ve got um you know uh the spatula right there okay and what we want to do we want to put just um some grill marks uh on those so we’re just going to kind of pick it up and then
Turn it about 45 degrees oh same side oh same side okay yeah gotcha so just turn them like this way yeah just kind of get underneath yeah there you go all right you know this is so cool Chef let me you want me to tell you why s I am a Food
Network junkie ah and I watch uh chopped in the kitchen Chopped all the time and I just love it and you know there was a I don’t know if you’re familiar with this but there was a guy on Food Network his name is Jason and he was actually
From Grayson Kentucky and he was a um a cafeteria cook and he went on the Food Network and um actually won he got his own shows and his brand is Lord hunt and he actually creates all southern foods and and so another crazy story is is that we actually look alike he’s bald
He’s got the same beard look and everybody called me one night is that you on Food Network no I wish really really yeah so I’m just so awesome to be here today yeah well you’re on a cooking show at this moment I know I’m excited it is fun it’s ever upwards right yeah
All right so we could probably go ahead and flip those our Grill is you know hot enough that it won’t take very long so you can see you know we’ve got those really nice kind of grill marks on there and what that does uh is uh give us a
Lot of you know kind of char a little bitterness flavor um to balance everything out yeah you know if if you’ve ever had a dish that was just kind of kind of blah uh kind of bland you know when I start pulling out the spices though how do you feel about that
Is that like well you got to use the the the the right spices at the right time well yeah that’s not adding anything here we always want to balance our sweet our uh sour uh spicy um um even bitter flavors all kind of balanced together
You know as I tell my students we cook three-dimensionally rather than two-dimensionally and that gives a lot more oomph uh to our dishes so what is the best ingredients to really bring out the flavor in Tomatoes Salt and Pepper okay yeah salt and pepper very very kind
Of simple but yeah just salt and pepper uh ought to do uh just well so that should be our uh that timer is is our ham okay um so if you want to go ahead and flip those Tomatoes I’ll go ahead and grab our ham yeah we’ll
Come back and take another break and then he’s going to get the ham out of the oven and we’ll be back to prepare the mac and Cheese all right let’s get back to this mac and cheese Jason is taking the tomatoes off the grill and we got Chef Eric here with the ham from the oven yeah sure ham came out uh wonderfully crispy uh really good color on those I’m really really happy with those tomatoes are fantastic yes
Yeah so what we’re going to do do next we’re just going to kind of set that off to the side for the time being Jas or Jason if you want to come on over here um so we’re going to make uh this mac and cheese in the style of risoto uh so
That means that we’re going to add a little bit of stock at a time uh for that uh liquid uh to be fully absorbed by the uh by the pasta okay uh normally risotto takes about 20 22 minutes uh to make and you know this is about
That that time um so right here I have a little bit of chicken stock uh for us if you wanted to make this more vegetarian then you could do a vegetable stock uh as well uh but this is just a white stock I want to keep it relatively light in color so
Um kind of a medium medium high heat okay and I’m going to have little bit of extra virgin olive oil here okay so to flavor this um we’re going to have some shallots we’re going to have some garlic we’re going to add a little bit of grainy mustard uh to that we’re
Going to deglaze with some Brandy uh and then add our um with our pasta in there that’s going to fully cook you’re going to add about a ladle full of that stock in at a time stir until that liquid is absorbed uh and then at the very end
We’ll add a little butter We’ll add a little cream uh to it and I have two different types of cheeses uh I have a sharp white cheddar and a havari okay so the uh the white cheddar will give us a really nice sharpness to it and the
Havari will lend a little creaminess and balance that out a little bit more how critical is that I mean you always hear chefs talking about balance you know getting getting different flavors kind of competing flavors going together in the mouth so you get like the total I
Guess production of food or what food’s capable of right yeah um and seems like that’s a big deal balancing those flavors yes uh so you know when I was very young I worked for a chef and you know he told me that um Chef in order to put extraordinary food you begin with
Simple ingredients you prepare them simply and you let those ingredients speak for themselves uh and that’s always been my Approach my My Philosophy towards cooking um really understanding you know these ingredients and allowing them to speak for themselves yeah that’s what I was getting at before you’re not
Really adding like a lot of kind of artificial spices and flavors you’re just bringing it out of the natural food MH yeah yep exactly all right so Jason our um our oil uh is up to temperature so what we want to do we want to add some shallots uh to
That shallots are a wonderful ingredient um it’s member of the nightshade family uh if uh an onion and garlic had a love child that would be shallot right there uh so I’m going to turn it down just a little bit it’s a little high okay uh
And then we have gar or our garlic right there okay put in just a sco of mustard and that a sco yes that that is the official measurements right I think we all know what that means just some uh and maybe a a sco and a half of
Brandy so uh now Brandy um we’ll F flame up on you uh so what I always do when I add Brandy uh to a pan is I take it off the heat add add the Brandy and then back on it will still Flay so just be
Careful you Flom this one sure I can do that okay is that always Brandy that’s bringing that out didn’t F like when that when that fire starts up in a restaurant you know and you bring your food out is it always Brandy that’s doing not always
Brandy uh vodka um works well um uh bourbon is also really great so so from here now the macaroni yeah and you can really smell that that nice lovely smell going on and we’re going to add our macaroni this is about a pint uh of macaroni dried
Macaroni uh then just give that a stir uh make sure that you know all of those shallots the garlic the Brandy you know kind of coat all of that pasta I’m so excited to try this well I how far away are we from the taste test so again you know it takes
About 22 minutes uh to cook oh okay so we’re on the stays in the pan that long but it’s meant to soak the the macaroni is now soaking up all those things you put together uh yeah everything is kind of mar together okay uh you can also
Notice that the color on the macaroni is changing a little bit Brer a little caramelized so that’s what we’re looking for now what we want to do next Jason is add a ladle of that hot stock maybe two two then give that a good stir yeah you can just leave that Ladle in
There oh wow and as that pasta Cooks uh it will begin to soak up all of that liquid so once it gets uh almost dry or as the French call it oek um almost dry then we add another Ladle uh to that and just kind of repeat
That process over and over and over until we get to uh that pasta becomes alente or to the tooth right um is there ever reason not to just keep stirring so it doesn’t get too hot I mean is a so when we when we make risoto we
Continually stir yeah um yeah it is one of those dishes that you know requires a lot of attention uh to it uh back in the day when I was working in in the restaurants we did risoto to order yeah uh so I might have 20 different risoto
Coming in at all different times and I would have my en pans going keeping track of it and keeping track of who is who yeah uh cooking professionally takes a lot of organization uh and um mind yeah it’s one thing to be like at home right but like because at home you
Can tell people well you’ll just have to wait but in a restaurant you’re trying to time all those Foods down to be hot and cold as they should be at the same time so you know it’s a timing effort really say if I’m working on the stove
Top and I have three dishes that go to a table well the grill cook might have three or four dishes and I’ve got to coordinate that Grill cook to make sure that everything comes up all at the same time yeah W so all that being done verbally I guess out loud there yelling
Things back and forth okay so we could probably add another latal okay uh you can see um you know a lot of that liquid has been absorbed Med you can also see that that liquid is starting to thicken up uh as well and that’s that starch in that pasta uh helping to thicken
This so where did you have those 20 pans of risoto going where are you working at the time uh at that time I was working at cynthus uh downtown okay uh Paduka yeah good time what um if I may ask you Chef what what’s your favorite dish to cook so my
Favorite dish to cook it’s it’s an Italian Dish it’s called ubuk oh yeah um it is uh a a brazed ve shank or the leg uh of a calf um cook that down with tomatoes with onions with garlic uh white wine cook it for hours and hours
Until it’s fork tender right uh and then served with um what we call a risotto melan uh which is a risotto with saffron uh in it m wow you need to be over here Jason you can smell it uh probably I could smell it for sure yeah beautiful yeah it’s
Um it’s just fun to cook isn’t that does anybody just not like I guess there are people that don’t like their cook but even maybe when they’re left alone they don’t admit it at home they start cooking well yeah you know in in and cooking in food is is one of those
Things that doesn’t matter what our political affiliation religious Everybody Eats uh and everybody enjoys food uh it’s the one thing that really kind of brings us all together yeah easy to talk about brings us to the table as it were okay we can add another ladle for this amount for about uh two
Cups of of pasta we’re going to be looking at about uh six cups of stock uh that I’ll go in there um so we’re just going to keep on cooking that uh until that pasta is ready I think we’ll take another break then I think that’d be a good time to
Have a break and we’ll come back when uh we wrap up this mac and Cheese okay now we’re getting ready to wrap up this mac and cheese Chef wrap it up so you know right now it just doesn’t look that much like macaroni chees right yeah so we’re going to add a little butter to that um we’ve got a little bit of cream that we’re going to
Add about a cup or so and then give that a good stir and what I do want to do oh I thought is go ahead and season salt it up a little salt a little pepper we’re going to turn it up just a little bit more
Jason so we’re going to go ahead and add our cheese now what kind of cheese you got there so this is our havari and add about half of that in there havard’s got a flavor like what is it uh it’s really buttery uh kind of creamy smooth uh flavor our uh white
Cheddar is going to have a lot of sharpness okay uh to it so there’s going to be a really nice uh contrast there you go again contrasting those cheeses yeah okay so as you can see you know you can even see the trails of the cheese thck starting to look like Macar cheese
Okay so while he doing that uh I think what we can do is maybe just make a little bit of vinegret for our greens okay okay yeah um so I’ve got our arugula right here and uh we’re just going to do a very simple vinegret okay uh we have a
Little bit of fresh lemon juice add some extra virgin olive oil to that is that a gallon of extra version olive oil uh it’s it’s a liter liter okay that’s what we buy in in the restaurant and Industry comes yeah those metal cans little salt yeah a little
Pepper Okay now what’s wrong with just ground up pepper why can’t I just buy ground up pepper um so um spices pepper corns uh they uh will uh lose uh their flavor over time right so it’s always better uh to actually buy whole uh and grind as you need right
Okay all right so we have a nice kind of simple vinegret we’re going to just pour that over our greens let me grab a glove here real quick let’s make sure we’re sanitary yeah you don’t want a handful of bitat all right we’re not putting the
Mac and cheese on on top of this we are putting it on top of it but right on top of it okay yeah so we’ll come over here a little bit goes on the plate so remember Jason people eat with their eyes first oh yeah okay oh
Yeah you want to see different colors too just actual we want see different colors so then we have our tomatoes and we’re just going to put some of these nice tomatoes on I like that how’s it going over here Jason oh it is going amazing yeah thickening up a little bit yeah it’s
Pretty cheesy pretty yellow there yeah pretty cheesy that’s cheesy well it is mac and cheese absolutely I came being very particular about its placement there we go okay how’s that all right how are we looking here here let me see on okay so we just want this cream just
To reduce just a little bit more turn it up just a little bit is this what you were expecting Jason as you came to do this mac and cheese lesson it was not I you know I had no idea what Chef Eric was going to do yeah
But this is taking mac and cheese to a whole new level right yeah yeah it’s a family favorite or one of your personal favorites but yeah this is kind of interesting to see it see the chef’s take on it he’s going to ladle it out I think so
I I think that’s got it um has a really nice velvety texture to it you know sometimes with you know like a baked macaroni and cheese we often uh you know gets a little dry yeah um and then doing it this way you know gives you a really
Really lovely velvety smooth texture to it and you know we’ve got color uh we’ve got you know different flavors and this is our ham right here so now we even have a little change in texture as well yeah and dimensions you went vertical yes with the ham it’s a little ship little ham
Chips salty goodness okay let’s try it we got a fork you got oh it’s still not done now you’re going to still not done I’ve got a little breadcrumb right here and let’s get a little flat leaf parsley oh boy I thought that was just there for decoration
Yeah just a little garnish art to you isn’t it it it is it really is that beautiful you know again you know we always think or or eat with our eyes sure first yeah uh so visual is just as important uh as as our you’re say it’s it’s just as
Important as the taste I don’t I have to disagree I don’t think it is oh so I’m just going to just Ladle this right out into my mouth here that smells delicious all right all right Jason this part this part okay is it hot it is hot it’s going
To burn me it’s a little hot right I hope not no no it’s that’s good it’s like you said it’s Savory you know you can you can tell all the things that you added in you know to make it creamy it’s really good you have to get your own
Fork though oh I will yeah we can I’ve got Forks right over here yeah give him a try try that up oh man you can’t cut mac and cheese just got to dive in yeah Dive In that tasting moment well thanks for picking this topic anyway you did some
Good stirring you did some Tomatoes but it gave you like something to think about at home now yeah a whole new dish to do at home and Chef I’m doing it at home and I’ll let you know how it goes wonderful all right thanks a lot Chef
Eric Jason Willoughby and we’ll see you next Time