What I made as a private chef in Beverly Hills. Grilled Colossal Shrimp. Spicy Spaghetti.

Grilled Colossal Shrimp. Italian Salsa Verde.
Spicy Spaghetti with Calabrian Chili
Butternut squash soup with sage. Maple. Vanilla. Balsamic reduction. Pepitas.

Bonus: how I clean my colossal shrimps or shrimps in general. Let me know if you try it!

#privatechef #cooking #personalchef #food

This is what I made today as a private chef. First thing I had to do was get my spaghetti squash into the oven since that takes the longest. Last time I cut these guys long ways, and I was told that cuts the strands and you end up with shorter noodles. So, this time I cut them in half the short way. Scooped out all the seeds, drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with salt before throwing into the oven to cook. For the sauce, I sweated down some diced onions and olive oil with a bit of salt to bring out the sweetness of the onions. Once they’re mostly cooked down, I grated in some fresh garlic. Never cook garlic and onions at the same time. Onions take way longer to cook, and garlic will burn way before the onions are ready. Once the garlic is gently toasted, I add in tomato paste and fry it up in olive oil. As you guys know, I like to deeply caramelize the tomato paste. If you’re not frying up your tomato paste and you’re raw dogging it straight into a liquid, you’re messing up, my friend. I delaze with white wine and reduce it until the alcohol smell is gone. Our farmers market friend gifted us some of this tomato basil sauce. Munich Ranch has some of the best tomatoes that you can get from the Santa Monica’s farmers market. I added that to our sauce base and let that simmer for as long as possible. Now for our big old shrimp. These guys are 60 bucks a pound. Good god, they’re basically little lobsters. I remove the shells, saving them for future paella or if I ever need a nice shellfish stock. Here’s a slow close-up of how I cut the shrimp. Take your time when you do this because if you accidentally go too far and cut through the back end of it, you’ve messed it up and you got to throw it away. Just kidding. But no, it’ll actually mess up the whole aesthetic of it. So, do take your time. Start with shallow cuts along the belly, getting a feel for how much force you need to use. Then, I like to flip it over so that it’s laying on its back. Then, using shallow, gentle slices to reach the back without cutting all the way through. Then, you’ll have full access to the poop line, which you can easily pull out and toss. I also like to trim some of this ugly stuff at the front, but you don’t have to do that. It is 60 bucks a pound. A little tip, when I season proteins, I like to do it in the sink. I like to season from high up so that the salt spreads out as it falls and you end up with a more evenly seasoned item, but it does make it fall everywhere. So, that’s why doing it in the sink is great. Coat it in a bit of olive oil and let that sit until it’s time to hit the grill. I checked on the sauce and as usual, I add a bit of baking soda to tone down the acid and reduce the chance of them getting acid reflux. The spaghetti squash was done at this time, so I just used a spoon and scooped it out into a bowl. The strands were definitely longer this way. It’s always very exciting when I get to learn something new. Yeah, my fingers don’t really feel much. We do have a guest today and she requested her pasta to be spicy. So, I started with some Calabrian chili. Calabrian chilis are a spicy Italian chili, but also this wonderful briny acidity that I really like. Probably one of my favorites. I toasted those Calabrian chilis with the ugly pieces of the shrimp, hit it with a tomato sauce, and added fresh basil just to weld down while also adding a bunch of fresh basil to our non-spicy batch for my clients. I didn’t record making this, but they started off with butternut squash soup with maple sage, vanilla, a drizzle of balsamic reduction, and pitas, aka pumpkin seeds. Once the soups went out, it was time to start cooking the pasta for her. The guest didn’t want spaghetti squash. Then, I head out to grill those shrimps. I grill them hard and quick on the ripping hot grill, making sure not to overcook them. These can easily get extremely tough. Say goodbye to the last of the salsa verde, everyone. I tossed what little I had left with the grilled shrimp just to give it some nice vibrancy while also cooking my fingers. I tossed the pasta with the Calabrian chili spiced tomato sauce. And this is kind of a weird angle, but this is how I twirl my pasta. I spin the pasta with my big tweezers against a large spoon, or in this case, a ladle while lifting up to create this little cocoon. Place it into a bowl, some sauce, and the grilled colossal shrimp. And that’s lunch. Thank god it’s Friday.