In Dinner diaries with José Andrés, the Spanish-born, James Beard Award-winning chef, owner of an international range of restaurants, and founder of the disaster food relief organization World Central Kitchen invites his friends and celebrity guests to cook with him in a spacious kitchen and luminous. When Jamie Lee Curtis, Bryan Cranston, and O’Shea Jackson, Jr. arrive, Andrés puts them to work chopping, using the mortar and pestle, and helping out as he describes the menu, preparation methods, and quick facts about the cultural history of his ingredients. . Just thirty minutes, dinner diaries goes flying. But with the enthusiastic Andrés as our guide, the atmosphere is cheerful, with an emphasis on a free and fun experience in the kitchen rather than the meticulousness of a Michelin star.
DINNER DIARIES WITH JOSÉ ANDRTO‰Yes: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: Chef José Andrés is getting into his vehicle, arms full of purchases, when he checks his messages. All three celebrity guests at the dinner confirmed his attendance. Will the kitchen be too crowded? You are welcome. The point, says Chef Andrés, is to cook, have fun and spend quality time with your friends.
The essence: As dinner diaries As it progresses, it will get a little crowded, both in the kitchen and in its interpretation of the show cooking format. But it’s a good mess. As Andrés welcomes the camera to what he calls his “California home” and pours himself a generous glass of red wine, a knock on the door brings in Jamie Lee Curtis, complete with a set of knives. (Insert cheeky reference to Curtis’s history with swords and Hallowe’en franchise here.) Your dinner menu will include ratatouille, just like your mother made in Spain, pan-seared scallops, gazpacho served cold, and Galician-style lobster, prepared with Galician-style potatoes. And while Curtis joins Chef Andrés in the kitchen, dinner diaries It includes periodic cuts that show the ingredients and the simple steps followed to prepare the dishes. “Cooking onions slowly in lots of olive oil makes them soft and sweet. Be patient and don’t burn them!
Knock knock, it’s Bryan Cranston, and he brought eggs and jokes. He Breaking Bad The star might have “cooked” a lot on that show, but he admits to a penchant for freestyle in a real kitchen, and soon Cranston is going crazy with whipping salt over a plate of fresh scallops, heated to open. perfection directly on the flat plate of the oven. It’s already a busy kitchen, with Andrés enthusiastically describing his process to Curtis and Cranston while he offers childhood memories of himself and the history of Spanish cuisine. But things get even livelier once O’Shea Jackson, Jr. arrives and the three drinkers on the team mix up a passion fruit and mezcal cocktail.
“Here we are in America drinking out of Solo glasses, and you have genie lamps to drink from.” What Jackson is referring to is the porrón, the traditional Spanish glass jug with a long, conical spout. Andrés pours a healthy amount into his own mouth: don’t let your lips touch the spout! – As Cranston and Jackson spring into action, and Curtis continues tending and stirring the ratatouille mixture in his large circular bowl. Adorned with fresh eggs and flowers, this distinctive and colorful dish becomes the centerpiece of your meal once you sit down to eat.
What shows will it remind you of? José Andrés is no stranger to cooking shows: he is a presenter José Andrés and family in Spain, the cooking series in Spanish Lets go cookand has appeared in Selena + Chef. The chatty and accessible atmosphere of dinner diaries It also aligns it with the friendly culinary universe of the famous Italian chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich, who in specials for PBS and her series Lydia’s kitchen pours the wine, welcomes family and occasional guests, and always invites everyone to his table, not to mention David Chang, whose Dinner time live The Netflix series is a slightly more flexible version of this same concept.
Our opinion: Andrés’ boundless energy and celebration of food are at the heart of dinner diaries. But despite its brief thirty-minute runtime, the series still slips into a personal context for its celebrity guests that doesn’t feel forced or in service of a career. For example, O’Shea Jackson, Jr.’s anecdote about ordering overpriced market-price lobster in Australia when he was a clueless eighteen-year-old is complete with actual photographs he took to commemorate the occasion, and Curtis says his godson Jake Gyllenhaal recently called to request his unique Caesar salad recipe. These small fragments remain dinner diaries lively, and its easy accessibility also incorporates the menu dishes, all of which use elemental ingredients and relatively simple preparation. There’s no guarantee that Curtis or Bryan Cranston will knock on your door if you decide to make Galician lobster. But the way Andrés enthusiastically explains how to do it, and how to do it simply, is a welcome hook for the casual and deliberately casual audience. Diaries.TO
Sex and skin: Well, the skin of lobsters turns a glorious pink color when added to boiling potato water. “Thank you for your service,” Bryan Cranston intones.
Parting Shot: As chef Andrés sums up the experience: “four friends, having fun, learning from each other, taking risks and changing the name of the recipe when things don’t go as planned,” Curtis agrees: offering that there is fun in an adaptation imperfect Jackson puts it even more simply. “Mistakes create memories.”
Sleeping star: Olive oil, olive oil and even more olive oil. It’s not a spectacular style like Rachael Ray’s with “AOVE”, but Andrés trusts it as a key ingredient, and in dinner diaries we see him adding incredibly large amounts of olive oil to ratatouille, his garlic and parsley mixture, and drizzling it generously over freshly grilled scallops.
Most pilot line: Andrés doesn’t necessarily elaborate on some of the commentary he offers throughout the show, but it still provides insight into his philosophy as a chef and restaurateur. “I think sometimes we use the phone so much so muchthat we forget to live,” says the chef when Curtis asks his opinion on people who photograph his food.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. José Andrés is an attractive central presence in dinner diariesThe banter with his celebrity guests/sous chefs is lively and casual, and the food being prepared and consumed not only looks delicious, but feels like an equally accessible part of this entertaining cooking show special.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
