Can Andrew Hack It in a 5-Star NYC Restaurant? | Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern | Travel Channel

At Marea in New York City, no detail goes unchecked. 14 varieties of pasta, painstakingly hand-rolled; sea urchin and lardo crostini, perfectly toasted; lobster burrata, arranged with the highest precision; and an octopus fusilli to die for. Andrew goes behind the swinging doors of this celebrated establishment to find out if he still has the chops to keep up in one of the busiest kitchens in the city that never sleeps.

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People spend years climbing the culinary ladder to build a career in a kitchen like this from prep work to the guard M station making cold dishes to becoming one of the privileged Cooks preparing Entre on the hot side so it’s the height of hutzpah for a guy who’s been out of

The business for about a dozen years good morning to put on his old faded chef jacket walk into a kitchen like this and try scaling the ladder in one day we have any reservations today uh we have 146 on the book for lunch I’m getting that chance through the good graces of Michael

White an old friend who’s one of the most celebrated younger chefs in town his Flagship restaurant is Mara a seafood eery predicated on Michael’s genius for Italian cuisine step behind the kitchen door and let me show you just how obsessive people can be about creating a perfect

Meal in the beginning is the pasta Panza fusili garganelli fatini 14 different varieties all handrolled each day it’s constant we have three people making pastas uh all the time all the time Elizabeth Marcato has been doing this job for almost 20 years it’s magical she’s serious the tool they use

Here for making garganelli is where it goes from amazing to insane and then this is a reed comb and this comes from Lugo which is outside of EMA and these are reeds that grow on the Canto River and there are people that weave these they weave these with this

Waxed rope so this is pasta hand rolled on a gadget made from the reads of just one River in just one part of Italy yeah you can push a little bit harder little harder little harder yeah okay I didn’t want to be the guy that broke the Reed from the river and you

Know what I’m saying now you need 40 portions okay baby yeah yeah and there’s about 50 quills per portion so that’s 2,000 quills okay I’ll see you in a week sloppy again exactly the fili is a key player in the house specialty they toss this pasta with octopus and

Bone marrow and since Maria opened this is the dish people have raved about and kept coming back for more not that there’s any pressure but the first two customers at lunchtime David geffin Leslie stall a movie Mogul a TV news Legend there’s a celebrity at almost every table further record among all the

Movers and shakers out here in the dining room today there’s only one I really want to say hello to to see that got you work making television Ruth richel is the ultimate Discerning Diner one of the most influential editors and food writers in America a legend so when

I saw your ticket come in we were just all giddy with excitement it was wonderful anyway you look great I’ll let you get back to lunch and everything it was really nice to see you too really nice now back to business if you’ve never been in the kitchen of a

High-end restaurant here’s a few Basics the orders come via computer printout punched in by the waiters out front Cooks on the cold line jump to do salads and appetizers on the hot line they’re making the Entre 265 Ricky Jared Gad BAU is the chef to Cuisine he’s the field

General making sure everyone is on Pace timing every entree to make sure it doesn’t come out while customers are still eating their salads fire L on 31 fire octo with a base to fire something means start cooking the customer is just minutes away from the next course Jared personally inspects every plate before

It leaves the kitchen five apps for lunch my first kitchen assignment is working the cold line expectations are high I compete for market share every single day in New York City and it’s all about tasting tasting tasting the stakes are very high very high that’s why places like this are constantly

Inventing New Taste combinations and that’s how Michael became Manhattan’s biggest importer of sea urchin he uses them to create sea urchin and Lardo crustini the gonads of sein served on toast with thin shavings of fat cured with salt and rosemary and you can actually see here as one of the world’s

Leading Authorities on gonad freshness I can tell you with the sein those little bits of white that are in there is actually what you want to see we can say that’s the sperm on the outside of the correct and those are actually are the most flavorful ones correct so we top

Those sperm spotted gonads with the Lardo toast it for no more than 15 seconds and you have Mara’s signature small plate and see the smell of that cured fat when it melts just fantastic swi fantastic F it’s really crispy on the top and a little less on the bottom

So you have two different levels of crispiness gorgeous urin that’s gorgeous there’s not S Bar iodine note on the end of that I’m about to get my making another stage Setter my first order in Lobster Bara yes fantastic where the bowls perfect first comes the cheese a creamy

Intense cousin of mozzarella that Mara Imports directly from Italy a little bit less yeah you just coach me through then main lobster goes into a bowl to be stirred up with lemon vinegret and just a pinch of salt can you push that L drop please let’s go yep that means they want

It now exactly 7 pieces go on each two from the claw one from the knuckle and from the tail one two three four of the tail notice how my partner is coming along behind me rearranging each Lobster piece the presentation has to be as perfect and as exacting as the flavor is

How’s he doing is he doing okay yes looking good that passes the white test you got it little finishing oil there you go done yeah done but it’s taking probably twice as long as Jared would like three Lobster up those were better pick up please Michael is taking a chance here

Not just with customers but with his staff who won’t think it’s very funny if the boss’s buddy makes them look bad bottom line I really don’t want to screw this up especially when I’m about to graduate to the frenetic hot side of the kitchen oh sweet oh my gosh On The

Hotline there’s no going back to fix a mistake and no time for starting over because a customer can never be kept waiting it has to be perfect first time every time when the first order of octopus lucil comes in one of the line Cooks walks me through it again and then

The very last thing is seasoning and putting the bow marrow in yes bow marrow and uh basil mhm this dish is Mara’s signature newcomers ask for it expecting to be amazed most regulars have eaten it before and expect it to be just as good as the last time and that’s why Jared

Can’t afford to let the tiniest mistake make it out to the dining room and my solo flight is coming up right now all right Andrew you ready yep fili order fire all right fili order fire don’t interfere let him uh fly solo all right no safety net let’s take his training wheels off

Now the pressure’s on immediately the temperature of this pan has to be perfectly controlled in these first 30 seconds as the octopus sautes and the sauce gets added a little too hot and everything tastes scorched but if it’s not hot enough the ingredients and flavors won’t blend together in the

Right way but if you get too focused on that you can miss something else I almost forgot the red wine money on the line and I already blew it but I caught it better to catch it early from here it’s all about timing when to get the pasta going give me 30

Seconds then you can give it to me knowing when it’s just the right time to add the key ingredient the bone marrow now I’m committed the noodles have to cook but not overcook and the bone marrow has to soften but not melt if I misjudge the time I’ve blown the whole

Dish hold on hold on I seriously want to know if this is servable in your restaurant oh see the color look pretty get a couple get a spoon I’m standing by my dish I think it’s good all right let’s take this out that’s part of what I came for on this

Trip to prove to myself that I can still cut it in a world I dearly love