- What turns a good cook into an award-winning chef?

The star chefs I visited for this episode have something in common.

They don't just cook.

They use flavors to tell wonderful stories.

(upbeat electronic music) (chimes ring) On the Gulf Coast, you'll find the sleepy beach town of Kemah, Texas.

I'm headed there to meet the newly-minted James Beard Award winning Best Chef: Texas, Benchawan Jabthong Painter, better known as "Chef G." Here at the aptly named Th_Prsrv she teams up with Indigenous cocktail chef, David Skinner, to create elaborate dinner parties that highlight historic dishes native to their culinary genealogies.

Where did you grow up?

- I grew up in the Nakhon Sawan.

Is in central Thailand, and my, almost like the whole young age, is with my grandma.

I love to hang out in the kitchen and eating.

That's how I start, and somehow, I think my grandma sees something on me, and she started to teach me a little bit by a little bit, and till one day, "Okay, you rea "Cook this dish."

- My mother had a restaurant.

My grandmother was a pastry chef and so I started cooking when I was like four with her.

- Oh, did you?

- Yeah, yeah.

- I think it's-- - That was my favorite place was being in the kitchen, - I know, right.

- sort of under her feet and-- - I feel like we just love to hang out in the heat, I feel like, yeah.

- Yeah, that's it.

That's it.

- Because it's hot.

It is like it's hot in the kitchen.

- It's hot.

- I have to congratulate you, Best Chef: Texas, James Beard Awards this year.

I mean, that is a huge accomplishment.

- It's really huge, yes.

Thank you.

- Yes.

- How do you feel about representing Texas?

- One good thing I love about Houston, we opened our mind to try everything different.

Like we do not scared to try it.

I have to be really strong about the way I present my food, because I tell all my customer, like this dish, it just make me really happy when they eat it.

(upbeat electronic music) - If you think about where Thai food was 500 years ago, it's not at all like what it is today.

So there was no spice.

There was no chilies.

There was none of that.

It was very similar to Native American cooking, so similar in techniques, similar in ingredients.

So we have this interesting history, if you go back far enough, to where we're all kind of the same, but then it changed, and it changed because of food and colonization and the people - Industrialization.

- and industrialization and everything else, and it wasn't just everything going that way.

Coming back across on the spice route, you had black pepper and we owe chicken to basically the thais because of the red jungle foul.

They got bread with the gray jungle foul, turned into chicken, right?

- I know I'm in for a magical evening tonight.

- Yes you are.

- Can you gimme a preview of what I can expect?

- Well, we start out about 2,500 BC and then bring it forward to basically today.

(gong rings) - Everybody, welcome in to Th_Prsrv.

Chef David Skinner is a member of the Choctaw Tribe, and this evening, what we're gonna be doing is following two chef's journeys, one Thai, one Choctaw.

Our menu is 15 courses tonight.

It's a timeline of a menu, and so you're gonna start at 2,400 BCE with true Choctaw fermentation techniques as evidence on your pickle platter in front of you.

- The first little plate, the pickle plate, is the only sort of combined course tonight with my side and Chef G's side.

So please enjoy it.

We've got more courses coming up.

(cheery bluegrass music) - And we have a steamless snapper.

We have some banana leaf on the bottom to get the really nice smell, and you have a bamboo smell when you steam it.

I love to steam with the bamboo thing, because it give me really nice like bamboo go with the dish I cook with.

I love the meat because they just like, I feel like delicate, but they have enough firm for me to just fry them, steam them, and you can eat them raw.

It's really fresh.

That's why I love everything about them, and the skin is really good.

I love to just maybe like a pasta skill a little bit or maybe even fry to make sure the skin is crispy and the meat inside is still juicy in it.

(upbeat Native American music) - On my side, what I want to do is get people to understand that Native American food is not fry bread and Indian tacos.

- How would you describe Native American cuisine or the cuisine that you grew up with?

- It's grounded in tradition, in respecting the land, and sustainability.

We're telling two different stories, but we're telling how food and colonization intertwine things, and while there was, on the Native American side, there was a lot of bad things that happened, there were still good things that happened across the globe, and we wanna be able to tell that story, and so that's what we've done, and we spent like a year and a half figuring out the recipe, - Figuring how the.

- doing research, trying to understand the timeline.

Matter of fact, our very first time we put all the dishes together, we're like, I don't even know if this is gonna work or not?

- I know, I'm like, okay, lets put this on the table first.

- It was crazy, yeah.

It's like which one goes first?

What's, you know.

- Ready to run?

- Hands, let's go.

- Hands and tray, please.

- Well, I mean, I think what you guys are doing is extraordinary.

I mean, it's dinner theater at its most elevated level where it's an education, it's a history lesson, and it's delicious experience.

- I feel like I've known G my whole life.

- I feel like we start with friendship, and so it feel like one family, and somehow we don't feel like we partner.

We feel like we are one family.

- No, we're a family, yeah, yeah - That's how it feeling.

(upbeat folk music) - Justin Yu, a James Beard winner for Best Chef Southwest, is a classically French-trained chef whose restaurant, Theodore Rex, is one of Houston's, if not America's, most coveted tables.

It's also where Justin gets creative, merging Cantonese flavors he grew up with and his French pedigree.

- I'm Cantonese Chinese, and I grew up eating a lot of Cantonese Chinese food, and so a lot of the preferences for that kind of shine through in the menu.

I've always wanted to be a chef, and I started cooking at a very young age.

I'm 39, and I'm in my 23rd year of cooking, and I always wanted to cook at a very high level, and I started in Europe and opened up a restaurant 11 years ago.

So the first dish we're gonna do is a tomato toast.

I think a lot of times, a lot of different cultures have things based on starches.

So I know rice.

We serve rice with every single large plate meal here over at the Theodore Rex.

Toasting off some house-made bread, and this is a sourdough and rye pandemain.

So the tomato fondant is about 75 pounds to tomatoes cooked down to like five pounds of tomatoes.

It's like almost like a tomato paste.

We finish it off with just a little bit of fermented pepper that we ferment in house, different spices, garlic, and then we juice a little bit of squash, cook down the squash pulp with the tomatoes, and then finish that with a squash juice.

- Why do you add the squash?

I mean, isn't it just to dilute it?

- It adds a little bit of a, yeah, it's a little bit of a vegetal note and then it also gives that nice texture.

Squash has a little bit of starch in it and in that starch.

So again, as you can see it looks a little bit like tomato sauce or it's like tomato paste.

The tomatoes, we get from village farms and then the herbs we try to source locally from Lone Star Herbs.

So when the bread comes outta the oven, we just, just keep with kind of my basic European cooking, this is almost like the thought of bruschetta and pan con tomate in the same way.

We just rub it with a little bit of garlic and then.

- It's so simple.

- Yeah.

So this is served off onto the side of the tomato fondant.

We take this really intense tomato that we've warmed up, and we plate it off to the side.

So it's almost like a bread and butter situation.

- That's gorgeous.

So what's that?

- And then so we add a little bit more, another layer of tomatoes.

These are dried tomatoes.

So we cook them down, I'd say, so they're like almost little intense pops of sweetness and umami.

We don't really get away from our European roots in cooking, but there's a lot of Asian influences.

So we just add a little bit of rosemary, 'cause it's a very intense flavor.

All right, so just a little bit of sherbal for that anise kick and a little bit of thyme, kind of match with that tomato.

It is kind of that very classic flavor.

(cheery Cantonese music) This next dish that we're making honestly is probably the most Asian-tasting dish on the entire menu.

- But you're using a chicken breast.

- We're using a boneless, - Asian's don't use - skinless chicken.

- chicken breast.

- I mean, it kind of has that texture of like batikai, and so it's like that very soft and tenderness.

Normally batikai obviously has the bones in it.

We're in an American restaurant.

(Danielle laughs) They don't like seeing the bones.

- So what did you do to this chicken?

- So just to start, we brine the chicken, and then we cook it partially in a immersion circulator to bring it up to a certain temperature.

A lot of times, I actually don't like this texture in proteins, but I think because of the way that the sauce is very chunky and almost curry like in its texture and flavor, that it's actually a really big plus.

It makes that chicken breast seem extra silky and smoothy, smoothy, silky and smooth and like a really nice, tendered texture to it, and then we just glaze it lightly with coconut milk.

So this is coconut milk and then all the oil that comes out from us cooking the anchovy sauce, and then that French kind of style, we finish it with a little bit of reduced madeira.

- So it's kind of Vietnamese-inspired, would you say, with the fish sauce?

- There's not a lot - It's not really - fish sauce in it.

- fish sauce.

- I mean, but like it does have that very like, because of that anchovy flavor to it, again, extremely high umami.

It has that like salted fish flavor that we very much care about.

So this is a paste that's been cooked down for several hours.

Again, it has a good amount of anchovy in it.

It has garlic in it.

It has shallots and onions in it, different spices, a little bit of lemongrass, a little bit of fresh chilies as well.

We finish it with a little bit of butter and a little bit of coconut milk and a little bit-- - Well, curry is something that's universal comfort food, right?

- Yes, absolutely.

- Like everybody's grandma has their secret grandma recipe.

- Everybody has their own type of curry, yeah.

So again, you can see the coconut milk start to get a little bit thicker, warming it up, and then we'll finish it by glazing it and basting everything.

So this is the reduced madeira, kind of bring that a little bit of that European influence in it.

You'd be surprised by how a lot of those oxidative wines like madeira and sherry pair very well.

I found this from my best friend.

He is also our sommelier here.

I fought it for years, but I just allowed him to win on this one.

It pairs very well with a lot of those very Asian flavors, because it really just focuses on that very high umami.

You can see like the coconut milk start to thicken with that, and so it's just slowly warming and getting glazed, and so this is an interesting dish.

I think that a lot of the aesthetic, as far as like Chinese cuisine goes, they kind of like really love that monochromatic look, and so like over the years, I didn't, a lot of times, cook like that, because in French cuisine, there's a lot of flowers or like, and then Danish cuisine, like flowers and lots of like big garnishes and things like that, and I think as I become more comfortable with myself, I've been allowing myself to do that a little bit more.

- What kind of Chinese cuisine are you referring to?

Like is there a region of China that really inspires you or?

- I mean, because I'm Cantonese, a lot of times it is Cantonese cuisine.

So you can kind of see the sauce almost get almost like bolognese and like texture.

- Yes, gravy-like, yes.

- All right, and then you'll see like that chicken breast being nice and glazed like that.

- Mmhmm, it's so thick.

- We're gonna give like one last baste.

Try not to disturb-- - It looks very juicy.

- Yes.

- It's like a hainan chicken rice.

- Yeah.

- But not, much more complicated It's perfectly-cooked with the little bit - Yeah, again.

- of pinkness.

- Slight, slight amount of pink, just the right amount of pinkness.

- Yeah.

Wow, I'm impressed.

- And that's literally it, just a little bit of finishing salts on it.

(cheery Cantonese music) - Who would you say had the biggest influence on your cooking?

- I mean, I would say the two people that really made me want to join the restaurant industry the most were my aunts.

They owned a restaurant in southern California, a Chinese restaurant, but honestly, my dad was such a lover of food.

We were able to eat a lot of different types of cuisines.

He always wanted to go out and try all the new things.

He still is like that.

He's a little bit of like a man about town in that sort of way.

- Now it's wonderful.

You're so proud of your son and all he's accomplished.

- I'm so proud of this guy.

- You are, yes.

- He is the most hardworking, most honest, fair.

- I try.

(laughs) - Not try, you are, but you are, and I remember one thing he told, I talked to me.

Daddy, if I work in this business is not a 40 hour week.

It's minimum 80 hours, and he's prepared for that.

- Why are you so committed?

What motivates you?

- I mean, I think my staff more so than anything.

You always want to make sure that they know that you're on their side more so than anything, and then it's always tough to stay ahead.

I have a very competitive spirit, and so for me, I always wanted to make sure that I did the work that I would ask anybody else to do, and so to be doing that and obviously, over the years, you can back off a little bit more as you've hired the right people and to have people that are committed to the work that you're doing, and you just want to be able to make sure that they don't-- - You have to set the example.

- Yeah, well, they don't regret choosing to work with you, and I think definitely that, very much, that that hard work was very instille in me in a very early age.

So I think earlier on in my career, I cooked mainly for myself.

I was like, I wanted to be the most creative.

I want to push that the hardest.

I wanted to show people things that they'd never seen before, and not only is that tough, but that's nearly impossible, and so for me, contributing to communities in a meaningful way, offering places for people to eat, and to create memories.

- (speaks in a foreign language) - Cheers, cheers.

- Cheers, cheer, cheers.

(calm guitar music) - Michelin Starred Iron Chef winner, Anita Lo, is also a prolific hunter-gatherer.

So before she takes us into her kitchen, she suggested we meet in Long Island's pine barrens to forage for some wild mushroom to intensify the umami flavors in her dinner.

Since wild mushrooms can be highly toxic, we brought along Roger Ecklund, a mushroom forager, to make sure what we were eating was safe.

Anita grew up in Michigan on an All-American diet, then pursued her culinary career in France after graduating from Columbia University, the influences on her cooking, as seen at her now shuttered landmark Greenwich Village restaurant in Nissa, are more French than Asian, though she admits that she has learned a lot about Asian flavors, because that was often what diners expected of her.

Her response is to create nuanced, highly flavorful dishes that often incorporate Asian elements with local goods, like the mushroom hot pot or nabe that she's cooking tonight.

- Well, this is the wood blewit, the lepista nuda, a very delicious mushroom.

I always try to cut it, cut them, not just rip it out.

- So that hast chance to grow back?

- Yeah, and if it was warmer, you could smell this.

It has almost like a perfumy aroma, but it doesn't taste perfumy.

- Well, I can't wait to see what you do with them, Anita.

This is so exciting.

- Seriously.

- There's so much.

Anita, how did you get into mushroom foraging?

- As a chef, I've always been interested in wild mushrooms and buying them from different purveyors and people that foraged for them.

It's always been interesting.

At Chanterelle was the first time I saw people coming in with foraged mushrooms.

(magical orchestra music) - When it's really fresh, it has like a light.

It's Cortinarius Mucosus.

Oh, this is really fresh.

This is a great mushroom.

- When I get a mushroom I've never had before, I treat it as simply as possible, sometimes just sauteing it, a little bit of salt, and nothing else, and then, so I can just really understand the flavor profile and then you can think about it enhancing it.

- This.

- Oh.

- A fantastic one, yeah.

- This is a Suillus Brevipes.

It's a short stalk suillus, and this is one of the better edible suillus.

You could dry it or you could cook it.

- Huh.

- It stays intact, - Oh, look at that.

- not like the other one.

- Feel the skin.

- Yeah, it's like stretchy.

- Yeah.

- That's so cool.

That's a keeper.

- There are bold mushroom hunters and old mushroom hunters - Watch out.

- but there are no old and bold mushroom hunters, - Yes.

- because they die.

- Oh.

(cheery folk music) - This is the fruit of the organism.

- I have to pay attention to all of your knife skills.

- [Anita] Okay, you want me to give you a knife skill class?

- Yes, I do.

- Okay.

- I cut myself way too often.

- We're taught to keep our index and our thumb on the blade, and you just have a little more control over the blade.

Then your knuckle will keep it from, you know, will help guide it and keep you from cutting your finger.

- So Anita, what do you think is the biggest difference between cooking at home and cooking at a restaurant?

- For me, cooking at home is more ingredient-focused, and not that it wasn't in Nissa either, but like, sometimes it's just food on a plate, and it's fine.

It's not a creation.

- I don't actually know the precise definition of the word umami.

- They say it's the fifth taste, and it's like what makes things taste meaty, and so it's built out of three different elements.

It's the glutamate, inosinate, which is mostly, and glutamate, you'll find in all sorts of vegetables, all sorts of things.

In inosinate, you usually find in meats and proteins, like fish and stuff like that, and then there's guanylate, which you find in a lot of mushrooms.

- Well, you know how to create flavor, and that is what everybody's in search of.

I mean, I think of mushrooms as the number one flavor builder, like if I'm making soups or stews, I even throw it into my spaghetti sauce.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- It just adds a punch of umami.

- Which is a lot of salt in here.

- So how often are you cooking at home these days?

- It depends.

I'd say like, four times a week maybe.

- Oh, that's a lot.

- Yeah.

- So do you eat leftovers?

- I do, but usually not for dinner, usually just for lunch.

- Healthy amount of butter.

- An unhealthy amount of butter.

I am French-trained.

- Is this a dish you've made before?

- No.

(laughs) - Just making it up?

It looks amazing.

- Well, no, I think this is pretty classic Japanese right here, and then after that.

- Yeah, the Japanese love that soy and butter combination, which is so delicious together.

- Yes.

- It's the best.

- It's umami and fat.

Fat helps spread the flavor or it helps bring the flavor to your tongue.

So now I'm just gonna bake it in here.

- Mmm, smells very rich.

- Oh, I have to season it.

Yeah, I gotta season it up.

So to that, I'm gonna add just some soy and some mirin, yes, millions.

Yeah, so all these are umami bombs.

- Anita's impromptu mushroom hot pot also had another local element from Long Island, duck, which she used to make meatballs for our nabe and grilled yakitori with the gizzards.

Along with our impressive assortment of just foraged mushrooms and some dashi, Anita built an intensely flavored broth that only a master chef could create with such nuance.

So what is that?

- It is a type of kelp, and a lot of oyster farms will grow it.

It's a lot like wakame, I think.

- That's so tasty.

What did you put in there?

It's just duck.

- Duck leg.

- Yeah.

- I put some soy, garlic, ginger.

Oh, I'm gonna put a little bit of this.

I put a little bit of - Scallions.

- scallion and some sesame oil, but with some really beautiful sesame oil.

(cheery contemporary music) - I love the smell of the sea.

Combination of the miso and the butter and the seafood is so flavorful.

- Yeah, like an umami bomb.

- Yeah, it is an umami bomb.

What else did you add to it?

Oysters, - Sake.

- sake, onions, - Oyster mushrooms.

- oyster mushrooms.

- You eat the sugar kelp.

Yeah, see, I told you there was a little bit of.

(laughs) - It's delicious.

So what role do you think the mushrooms are actually playing an understudy role here?

- Well, I think the oyster and the oyster mushrooms are the star of this.

- Mm, with our blewit mushroom and the organ meats from the duck, what's the best way to eat it?

- However you want.

You can just do that or you can bite it off or you can use your chopsticks and eat it.

Yeah, and look with all the different colors.

We've got purple, - It's so beautiful.

- orange, yellow.

- Smells so good, and the mushrooms are beautiful.

They're like little fans.

- Yeah, I love that.

They're just, yeah.

Look how pretty that is.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Anita, look, I found our favorite mushroom, - Yeah, that was-- - the one that we picked today.

- The rare one.

Oh, I love the texture, right?

- Mm, it's crunchy.

- Yeah, it's crunchy, but there's not a ton of flavor actually.

- But it's all about the mouth feel.

- Yeah, yeah, I love it, yeah.

- Yeah, I do too.

It tastes like fungus to me.

- Yeah.

(both laugh) - Called the wild forest ones.

- And there's world apart now.

They're all from different worlds on some of them.

They're all worlds apart as well.

So it's just fantastic.

(light contemporary music)