Join us for an amazing cooking demo and wine pairing with Food Network’s Chopped contestant, Chef Sophia Manatakis! Our resident wine expert, Fotios Stamos, will do the honors of pairing Chef Sophia’s exquisite and flavorful dishes.
A little bit about Chef Sophia: Graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City and owner of Uncle Nick’s Greek Cuisine, NYC. Sophia is a Greek and Italian-American chef who has appeared on the Food Network’s Chopped and winner of the Family Food Showdown cooking competition. Manatakis is also a recipient of the Orthodox Christian Network “30 Under 30 Entrepreneurship Award”. Sophia has recently published Our Greek Kitchen, the first of many cook-calendars, has a thriving catering business, and is a private culinary instructor. Sophia’s intensity and passion for culinary art is unmatched.
Chef Sophia demonstrates 2 recipes along with 2 amazing wines.
Find these wines: https://www.greekazon.com/
See more on the free GreekAF app: https://www.greekradio.app/
Hello everyone thank you so much for joining us for another uh webinar today’s webinar we are doing an amazing cooking demo with an amazing Chef cook Superstar iPad YouTube Star you’re going to find out a lot about this girl she’s awesome um the the recipe she’s making
Look incredible uh but I just want to say thank you guys for joining us thank you for watching thank you for listening and before we get into it let me introduce my co-host FY stos FY how are you I’m good brother I feel like you’re just a little nervous about our guest
Tonight because uh I know I was you know I heard I heard you know I I saw the recipes and I’m looking at the stuff that she’s putting together and I’m I’m getting all flustered because I don’t blame you because uh as as we always mention we always have
Great and interesting guests and this is one of the webinars I’ve been anticipating for a while ever since we booked it and uh I’m glad that we have plenty of folks that are going to be joining us but without further Ado um I want to welcome and join to the segment
Our special guest Chef Sophia manatakis Sophia thank you so much for taking the time um it’s an honor to have you with us out of your busy schedule because I know you got a lot going on um I mean you know your background is amazing and
Impressive you know we got to watch you uh on some of your segments you’ve made an appearance on one of my favorite TV networks Food Network on Cho used to watch that religiously um and it’s great to see someone representing as you know Greek Americans and we have the honor
Tonight for you to demonstrate two recipes that we’ve been dying to get to I’m sorry it’s two delicious recipes get it straight what did I say you just said two recipes like it was like anything oh yeah U wait let me have a sip first but and at the same token um
Sophia is going to break it down for us we’re going to uh tell you all about the dish she’s going to tell you about the dish we’re going to then pair two delicious wines that are going to make it even better but you don’t want to
Listen to me let’s get uh Sophia onto the program so Sophia thank you so much welcome thank you thank you and I just want to say thank you to the both of you as I’ve been getting to know you guys better I we actually had a little
Meeting last night and I said to them I wish I knew you guys 10 years ago it just that that you you might be right in that you might be wrong I don’t know if it’s a good thing if you knew us earlier on there’s a reason for everything
There’s a reason for everything but Sophia tell us a little bit about your journey into where you are today you know growing up uh and what led you to what you’re doing now well it it all started out um growing up in the restaurant business um
My Dad came from Greece as a young boy um no money very poor watched his Family Hustle to you know make a living and he got into actually he was a florist for 20 years and then he decided to open up a restaurant back in the 90s there
Weren’t really a lot of Greek restaurants um this was in Hell’s Kitchen on 9th Avenue and he opened up a stor front he was really well known for his roasted chickens right up in the window and you know he made a little stamp for himself so Me growing up
Watching that I think that it taught me a lot about working hard and just eating good we ate a lot of good foods my mom is Italian so we actually didn’t grow up eating a lot of Greek food in the house because my dad was always in the
Restaurant and he just craved Italian food but everything comes full circle and I’m blessed to be able to be in the Greek community and represent him because he passed away about eight years ago now and you know he motivates me and I’m glad that my culture is just
Drowning me lately it’s amazing it’s a great but you got the best of both worlds there with the Greek and the Italian and especially especially when you’re talking about food it’s like oh my God you can’t you can’t get better than that my whole life is about food but
Anyway enough about me let’s get started and we’ll chat in between and get to know each other if anybody has any questions feel free to you know ask away any kind of questions about cutting knives aprons whatever yeah so post your questions into the chat and if we have
Time in between we’ll ask uh sopia if not we’ll get to it towards the end but please feel free to just shoot your questions right there okay so this dish is called papote it is a French technique where uh protein better known for use with fish is wrapped in
Parchment paper and the way to seal it you actually use egg white so it seals and it Browns beautifully and I’ll show you guys how I paint it on top like a little picture beautiful so I kind of just wanted to Showcase something different I’m always
Doing more Greek dishes with a flare but like in its own just sticking to Greek but making it different so this is a nice little French Fusion today so we got our parchment paper here today I’m using using on live I like to do things a little bit different because it just
Gets uh each and everyone’s creativity going and you can take this recipe and make it your own so today I am actually going to use some flounder fs and you’re just going to set it right here right in the middle this is the easiest dish by the
Way it seems the opposite you’re I’m GNA keep it right to the side you don’t how to cook I don’t that’s why this is a fennel bulb um if no one’s ever had it it’s very good for digestion and very healthy for you um it I grew up
Just cutting it and then you can leave it in ice water in your fridge to keep it fresh and it’s very crispy it has a light licorice flavor but when it’s cooked yeah it’s I swear it changes less licoricey it’s just delicious and it looks like Dill up top and we’ll use
Some of these uh fennel fronds on top of the fish so oh that’s interesting I like that inside the bulb is a little triangle right here so you want to cut the triangle out this is kind of tough it make me nervous with that knife it’s really sharp but Japanese
Knives are my favorite she’s a professional do not wear so this you could save for some stock or you can freeze it and you can put it in some water to flavor it or your white wine why not I actually sometimes put lemon in my white wine just to like you know
Switch it up a little bit I’m just gonna do some some strips and when you’re cutting you just you want the top of your knife to just graze over and tuck your fingers and then you move the knife with your hand so um practice the amount of times that
I’ve cut myself I have Burns and marks all over my hands but this of so crunchy it’s so delicious now can you eat finnel raw yes okay it’s so good so then we got our beautiful cherry tomatoes and I actually showed this on a another live last night
But if you have multiple cherry tomatoes and you don’t want to stand there you know cutting away they take forever your knife once again does the work so you just set your hand on on top and you’re just moving your knife do not move your hand that’s it just back forth Motions
Like you’re cutting a piece of bread and that’s it they’re all cut in half whoa now sopia will will any white fish work there was a question that just came in yeah I think that this would be delicious I just wanted to make it more refined and say Branzino but swordfish
That’s like my favorite loveish good that sounds really good and just to make it different today I’m going to just use Spanish olives and they have little Peppers inside so it’ll add just you know more flavor yeah but on the recipe I wrote colada olives but
You can use any kind of Olives you have nice whatever is in the pantry and this is amazing because you can just clean out your fridge if you have brussels sprouts and zucchini you know you could add it beautiful red onion nothing needs to be beautiful just slice away is and Sophia
Is there an origin to this recipe that how this came about oh like a part of France where it like originated in probably just like was there like you mentioned something that’s important like whatever you have left in your your refrigerator I wonder if like whatever
Was left over they didn’t want it to go to waste and they came up with this idea probably I actually looked up the meaning of like why people eat corn beef on St Patty’s Day and I always just like to look up the reasons for why people
Eat this on certain days so I Googled it yesterday and it said which you probably would have known but it’s just a peasant dish like people ate it because they were poor and it just fed a lot of people but it’s just the meaning behind it it’s so nice nice
Yeah so let’s get going here so we have do you want to talk about our wine that I’m gonna use for this yeah so um the so we have the milonis rosé but the meonis uh Sophia we going to save it for the beet salad oh yeah sorry okay you didn’t
Drink you didn’t drink that whole bottle did you I see that there’s like no because I used it I have to use it in the recipe I’m kidding I’m kidding ah FY we lost your voice yeah we lost you I hit mute by mistake I’m sorry
It’s okay I I liked it better though yeah I figured you did that’s why I did it but uh so the dish that uh Sophia is preparing for us you know you’ve got a lot of um flavors from the vegetables um and the fish salty so we chose a white
Wine from the island of Santorini which uh mainly grows a white grape called AO and atico is a grape that produces very crisp minerally white wines with some Citrus to it so that saltiness in the fish and the ingredients that Sophia is putting together even and with the
Fennel I think work well tremendously there’s good balance between the wine and the dish when it’s ready um the acidity that’s in white wine that comes from sorini really balances out flavors and food like this dish um which we’re going to taste together as Sophia’s dish gets prepared but in any event these
Type of white wines that come from the island sorini are mainly paired with any type of seafood dish because there’s some kind of Harmony between the composition of the wine which is the structure that tends to be again citrusy tart you know some of these words that
We explain or we mentioning might be a little confusing but wies it have that tartness to it and dryness is what works well with food because that dryness is what what polishes off foods that are either salty sharp have some fat and oil to them as well oh looks beautiful
Yummy so today I used some Dill cuz I had it in my fridge so why not I added some dill some fresh parsley and we got some of the fennel frons which I’m just going to pick right off delicious and then some acidity and natural sweetness just some cherry
Tomatoes and then we’re going to slice our beautiful red Onion and then some of our fennel and whatever you have left you can just you know roast roast them off you know you can put it in your orzo how delicious or your like pasta or rice whatever you would serve this with and I know a lot
Of people are you know on lent right now and they’re not eating even some people aren’t even eating fish or you know they’re not eating vegan shrimp yeah so this would be delicious with with tofu or you know even just like some just beans delicious with all these herbs and the tomatoes
And the and do you have a favorite uh a favorite white fish for this is it sword fish I think probably my favorite fish is swordfish but delicious this would be so good with like chili and sea bass absolutely any fish for sure and you
Could do a whole fish with the head on oh beautiful but a lot of people are scared so so sopia the the preparation that you’re doing now question is in my mind is this something that’s for one serving or multiple servings right now I’m just
Going to do um just this one serving for the for the video but once I hang up I’m gonna cook all the fish this way well you can cook it all on here all right I’ll send it overol so we assume that you’re like the official cook for your family oh yeah
I’ve taken over every holiday for the past like eight years wow and now my fiance when I go visit his family in Virginia Beach I cook all of their holidays as well and like they’re they’re a big group they’re like 25 but I just I love it and
Obviously I’m more relaxed so I’m like going through like a bottle and a half of wine and just like it’s it’s like an hour hours hours go by but I love it because then everyone comes around me and it’s like I get all the attention yeah yeah that sounds like a that sounds
Like a fun time to to go and cook for we book you for the next holiday yes yeah so um feel free to let me know like any ideas that you would have to put in here because I’d love to you know get ideas as well I don’t come up with
Everything so the way you breaking it down is very basic I mean you get your your protein you lay it out in the parchment paper you chop all these different vegetables that you like you put some herbs in there um and you know now I’m going to put some wine there you
Go when you think about it it looks like oh so much work but now that you you know you’re demonstrating it it’s pretty simple so simple and it could be a piece of chicken it could be shrimp scallops and you could do this Asian with some soy sauce and some
Scallions somebody just somebody posted a message saying they would love to put Capers on that do you agree oh yeah I forgot them they’re on recipe hold on oh good Perfect all that wine that Sophia’s drinking I got some little Capers but um I go to the Greek store I’m I’m in
Mountainside right now New Jersey so there’s a Greek store I’m so blast it’s down the street it takes you like three minutes that’s lucky where where is Mountainside relative to like I don’t know we’re not big I’m not it’s near people so the Short Hills mall is like a
Really like well-known high-end Mall so it’s like I guess it’s like 15 minutes from here so that’s where yeah gotcha but how far 30 minutes what I was gonna I think you were gonna answer that how far are you from the city the New York City 30 minutes like with no traffic oh
That’s nice yeah got our delicious Capers I put Capers on everything and I I think I know who who mentioned that um I think somebody somebody just said the Greek store is in Kennelworth New Jersey yeah korth so this is the egg white and we’re just going to paint a beautiful
Photo also the inside of the parchment paper to start yeah cuz it’s going to seal everything you really can’t mess this up it’s like that rustic look when you’re working with like parchment Pap um puff pastry like kind of like when it looks messy it looks rustic and it’s just
Comes out more beautiful that way it doesn’t matter you can’t really mess up when it comes to food unless you overcook or undercook but everything else it’s it is what it is oh you make it sound so easy ah so you kind of start like you’re
Making it a banada I guess so I’m gonna just for some extra seal just like dip my fingers in it and I’m just gonna curl away and it’s going to puff up and then I’m GNA poke it with my Sharp knife and then all the steam’s G to
Escape and how easy is this you could set these in your fridge the night before and have your friends over for dinner and not have to worry about anything so you could sit and you can drink your Santos wine there you go that’s a good idea I didn’t think
About that make them in advance and then put them in the fridge yeah so kind of like a uh pie we’re just gonna paint over it so this will make it nice and brown and beautiful so it’s not white and pale now I’m going to see what happens
If I put a little piece of parsley right on it so let’s see how that bakes well this looks Irish that’s perfect one day late all right so this is going in yeah go ahead do you add any lemon juice or were the tomatoes the acid do or do you
Add it at the end to finish yeah I would probably serve it on the side what I love to do is if you have a g if you have gas or you don’t want to put the um lemon directly on it you could just put
It in the oven but get it like nice and crispy and like charred that charred like lemon flavor oh okay I like that so that’s going to be in the oven and I’m just going to pull out my next tool so if anybody has a question or we can go over
Something yeah so so though you said this is a French preparation um I know that in the Greek cuisine culture there’s a similar recipe and they call it gfo which is exactly what you’re doing anyone don’t you guys know what this is um well it looks kind of scary
But I kind of have an idea last time I I hurt fuy so this is called an immersion blender yes so I’m gonna be a rebel and I’m going to use this today because I just kind of want to showcase this tool because it’s really helpful and you
Don’t have to pull out a separate bow and pull out your food processor and it just gets annoying so this has a little blade underneath yeah I’ll show you right here and it’s very sharp and it’s very strong so I’m going to Blitz my um dressing with it so
Oh okay just to show you guys like if you’re making a tomato soup you don’t have to pull out everything and then put them in a blender you just take your tool and you just blend it right in and it’s if you ever watch Diner Drive-In and Dives like some of those restaurants
Have like giant ones yeah so this is a if you ever had a green goddess dressing I guess it’s like American I would say just like lots of herbs yeah so we got some mint parsley salt and pepper and this is going to coat our delicious greens and our beets and pear
That I can’t wait to talk about nice so we’re going to use any kind of vinegar any kind of lemon juice I really wouldn’t don’t worry about it it’s you know just a little bit of acid so this is delicious feta that I pulled out of the
Brine and then our [ __ ] olive oil which I have 15 gallons of that’s it hope you have that locked up shipped it from Greece I picked it up in Brooklyn oh wow and um yeah I have a big spout I have a lot of olive oil and your dad was
Obviously creton right yes can I ask what part Haya yeah that’s where my mom’s from oh really every every we I’ve met more people who are potentially my cousins on these webinars than I care can I even admit it’s like everybody’s from kanyak and it’s awesome yeah and
Then we’ll find out that all of our family still like hangs out with each other there you know who has this business and yeah yeah we talk about that so I’m just gonna go in you can add anything in here you Dill um oregano dried oregano um
Onions anything you can use even your extra fennel or even parts of the beets in here it’s every it’s totally cool this is dressing is it seems like it’s such like a hassle for people like I don’t I like to mix my vinegars as well I love to use white red
And balsamic together delicious and you can once you have this you got everything you can put ancho in here you can put capers in here you can put olives in here it’s just never ending right into the bowl right you don’t even have to like amazing wow so sorry if this might be
Loud but you just Blitz and if you want it super super smooth I still want to be able to see the little pieces of everything yeah yeah texture yes so the the shining stars about to come inside of the stressing which I’m so excited about look at that come on it’s
Amazing it looks amazing but I’m sure it tastes even better yeah we should give it a taste guys come on oh amazing yes what is come on feta feta with some acid and some herbs okay so we have our delicious pear which I’m going to get my
Fingers red but I don’t care it’s okay look at that caramelization that this has oh my God that looks like almost fake I want to bite into it right now honestly and then we have our beet and it is cooking in let me just rinse my spoon the milona
Wine whoa so I poached it guys this is wine be pear syrup okay and I’m going to put it inside of this dressing oh we’re going to make it a beautiful color and we’re going to add natural sweetness no need for sugar here wow so how long did you cook the pear
And the Beet in that uh in the w wine in the uh in that concoction that you just did one hour one hour low heat yes low and slow and it’s going to start to evaporate so you definitely want to put a lid on it and it could
Burn very easily because of the natural sugars so just keep keep looking at it and you want to flip you want to flip this like ever so often because you’re it’s not going to be fully submerged in you know in the liquid but it’s fine because it’s you you know you’re just
Going to keep spinning it it’s going to naturally Steam and it has the essence of the Rosé which is not strong it’s very smooth I’ve been drinking it it’s one favorite roses it doesn’t have that bitter aftertaste that um like most roses have yeah it’s very smooth and not overly
Strong it’s slightly sweet it’s really crisp it’s delicious um if I can say a few words about yeah up to what you said said about the Rosé so this is a rosé that comes from the uh central part of Greece just out of just outside of Athens in a
And the producers here of you know family operation they actually make this Rosé with red and white grapes so the white grape they use is malagua which is a grape that produces uh wines that are a little riper fruer and the red wine that they use the red
Grape is Manda so they do um a little different take on Rosé where roses typically are wines that are using red grapes that they leave the skins in just for a little bit of time for a couple of hours maybe six hours they remove the
Skins but what they do is they blend the white wine that’s fermented and the Rosé that’s fermented together and it produces this really smooth easy drinking flavorful Rosé it’s not sweet right but it’s got good fruit flavor to it yep Sophia quick question M did you peel
The Beet first or cook it with the skin and then peel it I peeled the Beet first so I don’t have to deal with it either being hot or pulling it you know touching it too much and getting it all of your hands I’m sacrificing for all of
You but look at this so even just this and cooking multiple you know beets with pears and just a little bit of your Rosé you don’t have to waste it all if you don’t want to but just imagine just this with some watermelon some mint and some
Feta with some olive oil like this is just amazing oh man but even with ice cream vanilla ice cream so this is like a f if you ever had H if you ever been to a French restaurant which you should because a lot of people don’t eat enough
French food it’s my favorite um it’s called a poach pear and they cook it in red wine and they serve it with vanilla ice cream with that syrup on it so wow and you can actually make it for Lent and get some vegan vanilla ice cream and
And you know just cook it with some beets you don’t need to use the wine wow I like that so I really don’t want to even mess with this I know the recipe said slice it but not today okay I like that not today it’s too pretty why would I ruin
It there you go we’re going to get all those beautiful edges and I just have some I’m using power greens that I organic power greens I eat pretty much 90% or everything organic I’m like that person and I never thought I would be I really
Made fun of them when I was younger how do people like live like that but a lot of people do we do everybody changes as they get older right and then we got our beautiful beets which I’m going to do nice wide discs beautiful cooked in the Rosé
Yes and things look beautiful in in odd sets so when you’re decorating a plate anything that has three five not yeah y like am i counting right can I can I also mention that if sopia gives you advice about making something look nice please take that advice because if you
Look at our Instagram um and we’re going to get your handles and all your your stuff but if you look at our Instagram you’re going to see some stuff that’s just going to make you say oh my God like how did you do this thank you so I don’t want to ruin
The beauty of the pears so we’re just going to put it over the beets and then we’re going to put it over the greens and then we’re going to take our beautiful mint and once again sets of three we’ll go one and this just this just reminds me I
Really wanted to pick something that wasn’t so heavy um just for spring like as soon you know as soon as it gets nice out we’re all going to want to eat outside and then you know have a glass of wine so I feel like this is kind of
Like romantic it’s just it’s a sexy meal you can’t Li I love it and I love to overlap colors so I see that you you definitely have a talent for cooking but I see that you really do have a talent for presentation as well I actually took a class after I
Finished culinary school um for food styling yeah because I was going to say that inst your Instagram man I’m serious when I say this like I I see 10,000 cooking Instagrams a day and when I looked at yours I was like wow what’s going on here thank you how do we get
Invited that was my first I should do like a little food styling live I got certified in food styling that’s what happened so like all those commercials here’s here’s a fun fact this is crazy all the pizza commercials well it’s not real cheese which we probably knew but there’s one
Woman she she’s old now and she charges like $65,000 just and she perfected the cheese pole and she does all like The Dominoes and it’s like it’s like the mob you like can’t get a job as a food stylist it’s like really really hard so
Cool I like that so it’s like a cool world I I feel like if I could just like redo life I would have just done that it’s just so cool I just watched documentaries on it like food styling is like it’s crazy crazy yeah but this is
Just some rustic food styling I love it love it that looks so good that really does the mint and I’ll get a good photo and I’ll send it on over to you guys but awesome absolutely that I mean that’s Picture Perfect right there the feta and everything’s cooked in the it’s so
Good cheers cheers cheers so you mention Green Goddess that’s the goddess love it oh man I’m hungry I got some pistachios I’ll I’ll chop up with that after but I’m just going to check on the fish I think we’re doing good what time do you guys think I put that
In I want to say like 15 minutes ago okay all right we probably got like another five minutes because I definitely want to do that on camera so everyone can see yeah absolutely but yeah um so you mentioned pistachios you going to add pistachios to the salad yeah we’re going to top
Them with some Cho pistachios um just for today I’m gonna do sliced almonds because that’s what I have so let’s do it yeah whatever you have and even some dried fruit just things that just sit and you like you open up and you’re just like I see those golden raisins when am
I going to use them or the you know just everything goes and anything can be put inside of dressing like you can put those nuts inside of a dressing you can put those dried fruit inside of a dressing you can sneak some you know veggies cauliflower and dressing and
Kids if your kid loves salad you know want to get some extra Greens in there I think the the big takeaway right now that you just mentioned for for me is this immersion blender and I think if we had that in our kitchen we could do a
Lot right now that you now that you’re mentioning that because how many of us have so many things that just sit in the cabinets for such a long time that we end up saying screwed I’m just gonna throw this out yeah and the best is to use a mason
Jar I probably should have used one but something that’s just deep I just went with a bowl and it splattered all over but I just wanted to be able to show it nice but for anybody who doesn’t know I’m starting a YouTube channel so you’re
Going to be able to see me for free more and more and we we want you to to tell everybody um how they could contact you how they could follow you and then uh we’re also going to post all your info on the video and the apps and the
Podcast so it’ll be everywhere but if you want yeah please share uh whatever you have and my personal recommendation just go to her Instagram follow her this Instagram she does these spreads what’s like the Queen of England is coming I don’t know what’s going on here it’s like it’s amazing yeah I’m
Actually doing I’ve been like I I pray for things that’s how that’s how I am I don’t not that I ask for them but I’m like you know I like I I probably do I’m lying I ask for things and I pray and I’ve just been wanting so bad had to do
A Greek grazing board and I would try to like sell people on it when people call me for like you know catering jobs and I’m just oh sorry there a job right there and it finally happened and I’m gonna be doing one so I’m just gonna do
Kind of like a giant Greek like me platter oh wow of like dips and like mini pea lamb chops and just like arrange it beautifully sorry hold on I’m just gonna mute this real quick yeah yeah yeah yeah well let me let me while while
She’s muted let me just say like it’s it the the spreads that she takes pictures of they look so good like it it looks almost like she’s doing some sort of like presidential or like Royal Gathering like I was so it so let me ask you another question sofhia you know I
My mentioned this to you yesterday do you like have takeout containers at all times so that your guests take your food home when they’re done yeah definitely but it stinks like a lot of stuff does go bad and I feel so horribly but like my freezer is exploding it’s horrible like I’ll make
Meatballs unnecessary amount unnecessary amount of soup and it’s just like my freezer is exploding oh and then I get sick I don’t want I want to be able to cook something make something different so it’s just like a never ending cycle another question for you Sophia um
Can you tell us what was it like for you being on that segment on Chopped oh wow Food Network how was it that for you like can you tell us a little bit about that it was always my dream my my obsession was chopped I would watch it
Every single day that’s probably the only show I would watch isn’t that sad that sometimes we all do that yeah like just that show for like years straight um and I just always wanted to but I was like too young and it so sweet like I
Remember the one day my dad was like you’re going to be on that show and I was like I am like I always tell myself I am I will I will and I say it out loud I tell people things I’ll walk around the house saying I will I’m gonna do
This I’m and people are just like you know listen my sister my mom but um I was there for 16 hours for that one hour episode and I probably did a total of four hours of interviews and the time that you get this is like the fun fact
In between opening the basket you actually get one minute so it’s not just like you have to think you have one minute to think wow and it’s a 45 minute judging it’s not like you know three minutes however it seems on TV and they help you with like what to say if you’re
Like stuck they’ll you know they’ll help you um it was kind of traumatizing honestly I actually can’t watch the show I think it was a lot of pressure and it’s unnecessary because it’s like did you does that make you a better person like was it that big of like a thing in
My life but it was really traumatizing like I put so much pressure on myself like um just to get through it I you know you’re sweating you’re you’re greasy you’re just trying to create as quick as you can so it’s not like I so that’s that’s your opinion because
You’re probably your own worst critic cuz that’s a lot of people are but what does your friends and loved ones say I’m sure they see a different picture well some of them are like you were you were mean and I’m like I can I just be can I
Just tell you I fed myself so much confidence in my head that it probably just came out without me thinking and I do look back and I’m like kind of regretful but I’m so thankful for the show because like the Greek community Community just like loved it and I was
So happy to just like represent you know yeah you know what that makes for good reality TV like you can’t just be boring like if if you came off as mean I’m not I’m not going to judge because I didn’t see it and I’m definitely going to watch
It now that you said all this but if you came off as mean like that’s great that I was the villain I was the villain of the episode that’s awesome all it was an all girls episode everyone was it was a very emotional episode one had like a
Child one had some like trouble with like family the other one had trouble with family I did like bring up like my dad but I used it as to just like he represents me like that’s how I started cooking but it I don’t know I I got I
Get mean messages all the time I actually got one last night like all the time ignore all that I’m sure it great and if you were the villain if you’re were the villain that’s that’s F this is reality TV like that’s awesome just do what you do and I
Makes me realize what like all these celebrities go through and it’s just like who am I I’m a z celebrity you know well not yeah that but yeah they must go through a lot because you know being in a public eye is is is a tough thing yeah people are really Jud tell
You more about that because you know he has millions and millions of followers right F oh yeah the I want not the ones I want yeah people are always going to say something it’s just all about you know surrounding yourself with good people it sounds cliche so true like it’s just what you
Put in your mind and what you say and if you come across this cocky it’s all right it’s how you feel inside so yeah yeah I say I say what however it is like it’s the the point of reality TV is to entertain right people watch this for
Entertainment if you’re the good guy if you’re the sap if you’re the mean person if you’re the villain more power to you it it it it just goes with what the show is doing I mean you’re doing cooking you’re doing what your talent is but have a little personality let it show
It’s all good I think so I think it makes it more exciting when you have a little Edge right yeah the important part now that now that Sophia had that experience is as she’s mentioned she’s going to be launching her own show on YouTube which we’re super excited about yeah that’s
Gonna be good we talked about it a little last night and it sounds super good it sounds super interesting and I can’t wait till it uh definitely going to up update our audience and our members uh when you roll actually we should uh we should you should come back
I think you should definitely come back when um when uh you have it going so you know you could share some of your experience with us and I suggest playing the villain and really letting into FY because he loves that listen I’m gonna have you guys on the channel we’re
Really trying to have a guest um in all you know not just food um sure it could be anybody for any reason so we’re really trying to make it a conversation and I’m going to be with Molina which she’s a pastry chef and she’s amazing and we’re just gonna drink wine we’re
Gonna have wine every episode and we’re just gonna make just fusions and have fun and talk about business and life and it’s going to be fun we’re going to that’s awesome that that sounds so good and yeah anytime you want like like footy has a lot of wine knowledge so I could
Understand him being on it if you just need somebody to like you know yell at or make fun of I’ll come on too so it’ll be perfect well I hope we’re not like uh distracting the cooking time of the uh fish I think we did good that was a pretty oh we lost
Her Sophia come back by the way that’s a nice t-shirt Ari thank you you have a very nice t-shirt as [Laughter] well let me uh let me see oh there she is okay she’s coming back and here she is we went to a commercial break and we’re back that’s
The perfect time went for a zip all right so here we go I just want to kind of come in close oh that looks very very I kind of like the little herb thing I think next time I’m going to kind of do like a design with some thyme
Leaves so I don’t want to put that back up there because I’m scared let’s cut into this together yeah so and you’re GNA want to do this on a plate I’m going to get my fingers in here you can kind of see the steam yeah
Oh that looks and I’ll lift it up so if I go for a little intermission there she go yeah there she is are we good okay yeah we’re good we’re good sorry guys I’m gonna get that really looks good I’m going to just kind of open
It and I like to finish things with some fresh olive oil um when you cook with olive oil it changes the flavor and uh finishing oil is key to Pasta any kind of sauce that needs an if you don’t know what to put on something
Most of the time it just needs a little Jill of olive oil to be honest look at all those delicious items yeah I’m just going to drizzle some olive oil we’ll see if we can get down more that’s like that is such a perfect meal for me and it’s so
Healthy for you all right look I could get to Jersey in about four or five hours all right hold it hold it there for me I’m just gonna put some fresh herbs and I’m going to take a beautiful photo for you guys yes is anyone making
This with me you know um I I got uh we got a couple of notifications that they were people were going to follow along so we’ll tell them to um pop into the chat if they are um and I think some of the questions that came in were uh from people who are
Actually making look at that with steaming I guess I’m gonna take a bite with you guys why not a little from the corner so no one sees oh it’s so flaky it’s got all those herbs wow yeah and that fennel just adds that layer of flavor and if you’re if you
Want spicy I would put some red pepper flakes you can really just put absolutely anything and that wine just infused into the fish yes the Briny Capers Briney olives so simple but you can do it with anything inside oh my gosh yeah that is such a good good meal right
There it it’s like it’s healthy it’s light it’s it’s it’s everything add that to the salad delicious and then I got some sliced I actually like raw um nuts that’s just a preference I don’t really like the toasted okay I love I like raw cashews doesn’t anybody like
Yeah definitely oh yeah absolutely I just feel like it shows off its flavor so good we got the nuts the dressing the Rosé beets and pears and herbs and mint it smells so good now we just need the outdoor patio yeah right and then I got all that
Left which I’m probably going to pour over my pears before I eat them you know I I really can’t win I can’t win I think that’s it I’m gonna have a glass yeah let’s do a let’s do a cheers to you Sophia let’s do it thank you that
Was so much fun I I actually get so much adrenaline from these lives I then I can’t sleep all night I’m just so happy and excited and thankful list you’re you’re creating something that I wish on my best day I could make like half as
Good as you and it must be a good feeling to be able to cook like that and it looks amazing give us uh give everybody um any way they could connect with you follow you any of your social media any anything you your website everything and I I’m also goingon to
Post it as well but just give them Che chefs.com um I just have some basic things on there just like what I do and just a few links but um I really just do everything off of Instagram so Chef s on Instagram the YouTube link is right on my profile
Right on Instagram you’ll see the link right on top um and then it I switch it out because I do a lot of lives so I’ll always have my latest thing that I’m gonna do for people to be a part of so it’s not about me it’s really about you
Know all of us coming together so I really enjoy it could that’s a great sentiment right there it’s all about bringing us together and everybody please like go to her website but follow her on Instagram I’m going to tell you right now you are not going to regret it
I I just love popping onto your Instagram now I’m not a stalker or anything I just love to see these pictures they they’re just so impressive and you you make such a good spread and I’m telling you NE next time I have a you know postco event that I could cater I’m
Calling you up I don’t care where you are what you’re doing I’m I’m getting you on there because listen I’ll fly anywhere yeah exactly and now we’ve been we’ve kind of been locked down so much it’s like let’s just you know have some fun once this is all over I know Wine and
Food let’s also thank our our audience who join us tonight who took the time to be with us uh we see a lot of great folks a lot of familiar faces I just want to uh point out and say thank you to one of our guests who’s with us Susan
Manful who um is actually a wine writer uh that covers wine from the south of France and I’m sure she’s familiar with with French food obviously which is right up Sophia’s alley but I just want to say thank you to Susan and to everyone else that joined us tonight
Absolutely wow that’s amazing yeah and you know big big thank you sopia it was a pleasure having you on the show it was a pleasure seeing you in your element and doing what you do very impressive uh please everybody follow her uh check her out once uh her YouTube show is out
We’re going to link that up we’re going to blog about it we’re GNA post about it and you won’t regret it she does some amazing things and you know she’s half [ __ ] so you can’t go wrong half [ __ ] but she’s on the good side the Kan side
So so thank you so much Sophia we appreciate you being thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you so much by and until until next time we’re going to have you back for sure and hopefully we could come and you know uh bring bring the value of your YouTube show down when
You have us on it so invite us anytime all right everybody thank you so much for watching thank you for listening um we will have all Sophia’s information posted on the show and we will see you next time thank you so much thank you see you guys soon good night