Cooking LIVE with Brent and Reuben!

"I think it would be great!  My mom loves Regis and Kelly and it's always hilarious when they try to cook on their show.  I think it'll be like that!" said Brent Dodge, as he was pitching the idea of having me come on his Disney video podcast, the WEDnesday Show.

This past WEDnesday, I had the pleasure of being not only the first LIVE, in-person guest on the famous WEDnesday Show Disney video podcast, I also had the chance to be there as a guest chef!  Brent had asked me the previous week if I would like to cook something with him for his occasional "Cooking with Brent" segment on his show.  I of course said yes; this would be an opportunity to practice my pastry skills, which have been somewhat dormant since I started living down in Disney World.  Also, this was a chance to see how I would fare cooking on a live show.

We want YOU to cook with Brent and Reuben!

Brent and I talked about what we were going to make the night before, but we didn't decide what we were doing until the afternoon before the show.  We decided on Chocolate Cookie Mousse from Disney's Beach Club Resort, but I warned him that it is easy to mess up because of the gelatin in the formula.  In my past experiences, gelatin was always a pain to work with because of its narrow working temperature range, especially when you need to incorporate hot, melted chocolate with cold whipped cream.  On the phone, I read the recipe to him to make sure we had not only the ingredients, but also the supplies. We needed not only Oreo cookies, but crumbled Oreo cookies.

"Do you have a food processor?...it's kind of like a blender but bigger and for more solid foods...no?...hmm...okay, do you have ziplock bags and a hammer?  Awesome, then we're set!"

And with those immortal words, I knew I would be in for an interesting night.  Needless to say, with having nothing prepared in regards to a script of some sorts, and with the impending doom and failure I predicted with this mousse, I really surprised myself by not being nervous for the show. It might be because I didn't have time to get nervous. A variety of factors throughout the day led to me being a little late to the show, so I was thrown right into everything as soon as I walked through the door of the WEDnesay Show studio.

Chefs Mickey, Reuben, and Brent Dodge

Even with the fear of mousse failure; a last minute, on-the-air search for bowls and a hammer to pulverize cookies; I believe the show was a smashing success.  It ended up being a really wacky show. I guess I wasn't too nervous, since this wasn't an actual Food Network-esque cooking show, but it was really really fun!  We separated eggs into sand pails, made double boilers out of two sauce pots, and embraced the unexpected elements that accompany the fine art of winging it on live television.  There was even a point where Brent said "we need a whisk...whatever a whisk is..." I was worried that our audience was wondering "Do they really know what they're doing?" but after an hour of madness, we came out with a pretty delicious white chocolate cookie mousse.  I was also quite happy and relieved to know how quickly the techniques and tricks from my pastry training came back to me.  It was a really fun night and I hope our audience enjoyed it as much as we did!

Our finished mousse actually looks pretty tasty! And it was!

You can watch the cooking/pastry maddness (that's right with two "d"s) by watching the August 3rd, 2011 episode at the W.E.D.nesday Show's Archives and here is the recipe if you want to try it at home:

Chocolate Cookie Mousse:
"Creme-filled cookies add crunch to this luscious chocolate dessert that's a favorite at Cape May Cafe at Disney's Beach Club Resort.  Spoon into champagne flutes and top with fresh seasonal berries for an elegant ending.  Yield 6 servings."

6 chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling
2/3 cup (5.5 oz) white chocolate
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp granulated gelatin
3 egg yolks

1. Crumble purchased cookies into fine pieces in a food processor.
2. Melt white chocolate in top of double boiler over hot water.  When melted, remove from heat.
3. Whip the heavy cream until medium-firm peaks form.
4. Pour 1/4 of the whipped heavy cream into a saucepan and sprinkle in the gelatin.  Let sit about 3 minutes, until the gelatin softens and swells.
5. Heat gelatin over low heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin is dissolved.
6. Remove from heat and gently blend in egg yolks.
7. Add melted chocolate, stirring fast to avoid lumps.
8. Fold the remaining whipped heavy cream and cookies together, then gold into white chocolate mixture.
9. Pour into serving bowls (champagne glasses or wineglasses work well).
10. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

(recipe from Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs)

- Sandwich

Pump Up Your Shrimp

A few days ago in culinary school, we took the simple appetizer of shrimp, and dressed it up for a French Restaurant.  I felt like Remy in Ratatouille, deconstructing a dish and presenting it in a whole new way (watch the movie to the end if you don't know what I'm talking about).  That's when I discovered my favorite part about school: taking something familiar and recreating it in new ways.  This concept of deconstruction is the latest trend in the food world and I'm sure glad to be in culinary school to learn all about it. 


I present to you Shrimp Mousse.  This savory mousse was made like the dessert version. We pureed cooked and cooled shrimp, mixed in a little gelatin, folded it into seasoned whipped cream, then molded it in a small round mold called a timbale.  The mousse was topped with a poached shrimp and a sprig of dill.  The top was then filled with aspic, a type of gelatin, for preservation as well as presentation.  The plate was completed with a bed of cucumber slices and a healthy drizzle of hand whisked, balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Out of all the things we've cooked so far in this culinary class, I really liked this dish the most, since it was basically doing pastry again. Having finished all my baking/pastry courses, it was awesome to temporarily dive back into the pastry tricks of the trade. In my baking classes we've made little mousse molds, so this mousse was a nice visit down pastry lane. The shrimp mousse was made in Garde Manger, the cold foods kitchen; we make a myriad of cold foods such as salads, cold soups,and hors d'oeuvre. In a sense, this dish was basically an application of the pastry world into the culinary world. It's awesome how different tricks can transform the familiar into the unfamiliar.


- Sandwich