Hey guys, Baruk here with Young Hollywood in New York and I hope you're hungry because we're cooking up a storm with Chef Todd English.

Chef Todd, congratulations on the 10th anniversary of Olives.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Nice to have you in my kitchen.

Thank you for having us here. You know, I was going to tell you, the best that I make in my kitchen is instant oatmeal in the microwave. So you're going to have to help me a little bit. That's just my disclaimer.

That's good. It's one of those things that's very simple. You just got to like apply what you're doing, you know, in the microwave to what we do here. It's amazing.

Well, I'm ready to do it. When did you realize though that you had an empire? Because it's become an empire, right?

Yeah, I think I woke up this morning and realized it. You know, actually, um, it's been a great ride. I feel like every day, you know, the one thing about the restaurant business, it's very humbling and it kind of keeps you going every day. We're only as good as our last meal. We keep that, you know, in our mind all the time. So, you know, in some ways it's it's still feels like it's just beginning.

And and you know, the rise of the celebrity chef as a concept. How did that affect your business?

You know, it was a phenomenon. I got into the business when it wasn't cool to be a chef. And people go out now, it's entertainment. It's a night out to go to a restaurant as you're going to the theater. It's the same thing.

So what's the key to your magic and to really making it the most entertaining experience possible?

Well, you know, I I like to do common things in uncommon ways, which is, you know, get the best ingredients I can. I like it to be fun. I like to have a little twist to it, have it be a little whimsical. I like to challenge people sometimes and I like it to be done in a different way that just kind of really enhances their palette and their idea of what food is. You know, I look at the mouth like music to the ears. It's all these ingredients, all these notes in this music that you listen to and it lands on your ears and you hear this music. It's the same thing with the ingredients. Ingredients are my notes and you have all these ingredients, they land on your palette and on your tongue and you taste those and that's when all the magic happens.

And you were talking about entertainment, and you have a lot of celebrity fans. Who are some of your favorite celebrity fans?

Dan Aykroyd has been in. George Clooney comes in. Actually, uh we have his tequila on the menu now, which is absolutely delicious. Amazing. Yeah, a lot of song writers. David Grohl comes in. I'm a huge David Grohl fan from Foo Fighters. The list is kind of endless, and they're my friends and they're fun to hang out with and they love good food. You know, come in and have a good time, have fun, enjoy each other's company. And and that to me is the beauty of the business, it's the sort of party of the business that I like and I love to see smiling faces in my restaurants.

Well, then let's get our smiles on and cook something. Speaking of smiling faces.

Okay. Yes. We're going to make a borsch, okay? And borsch is a traditional beet soup that comes from Russia. Normally made with beef broth. Now beets have become very hip, very trendy. So we're going to do golden beets, red beets, and this has potato to thicken it. And normally, like I said, it's beef broth, but we're going to use make this a vegetarian option, okay? Because I find that a lot of people like plant-based diets now. You know, and so we add some beautiful beet juice over the top of it with some chopped up raw beets, potato, onion, uh and some herbs, okay? We put a little bit of chive and some parsley in there. Okay, let that So we'll let that cook down. And then, bring it over, we put it in the blender, make a nice, uh, smooth puree. And then whip this up, okay? Just enough so it gets really kind of uh, nice and frothy, but we're going to actually add a whole 'nother level of frothiness to it when you see what we do here, okay? So once that's pureed, we put it in this charger, okay? This is a CO2 charger.

Like a whipped cream charger?

Yes, basically what it is. So we're making like whipped cream of the beets, or whipped beets. And in the meantime, also, I want to garnish this soup because again, you know, we eat with our eyes and I like the playfulness of it. So what I have here is raw beets. Love, love raw beets. You should try this. It's so delicious.

Thank you.

It's what I call sort of a carpaccio of beets.

Mm.

You know, isn't it delicious?

I've never had that. So, these are simply just peeled, shaved down, and raw. So that sensorial experience again.

Right, right, exactly. I think texture is such a big part of eating.

What are some other hot ingredients right now? Clearly, beets are very on trend. What else is getting you going?

I'm telling you, kale. Kale. Kale is a superfood right now. And I mean by superfood, I mean super ingredients. Nuts are big. We're going to have pistachios for this. So almonds, um, walnuts, anything that adds protein to the diet as well. The healthy ingredients are very

We're really making the beet. I was going to say, you're not you're not telling me bacon and lard and butter. You're telling me beets and almonds.

Those aren't going anywhere. Those are basic Those are basic food groups. So we're going to roll those up. Make that. These are just like little uh, cannelloni's if you will. Now, what I did also with the goat cheese is I whipped it. So lots of whipping going on.

A lot of whipping. A lot of whipping. So this is the soup.

Yes.

Wow.

And to that, we're going to add goat cheese. We put a little bit of the beet juice that we reduced just to add

What does that mean reduced? That means that you've sort of gotten to the essence of the beet?

We actually cook it down. We reduce it down. And some beets as well. It's like a work of art. Kind of it a few Just a few of those. We'll put those on top. Well, there you go. You got uh your beautiful borsch.

Gorgeous. Here. I've got a spoon for you to try it.

Thank you. dive in there. Let me get one of those cannelloni's. Mmm. Right.

You make a good borsch. That is amazing.

Thank you. Thank you. And the next thing I want to make for you is uh a classic dish from Italy, from the north of Parma. In a little town called Contradi di Su olio, but the the region is Parma, and it's called Tortelli de Zucca. Before we make the tortelli, let's let's get a cocktail. My son has prepared. Oliver.

Oh, hey, how are you? Good to see you.

I hope I didn't get you guys thirsty.

What's up, Chef? How you doing?

Hi.

This is called The Literal Sense. It's made with bourbon, apricot liqueur, and sweet corn juice fresh.

Oh my God, amazing. Sweet corn this on it?

Sweet corn, yeah.

Love it. Well, cheers.

Cheers. Enjoy guys.

Mmm. Oh wow, that's really good. Wow.

Have fun, right? That makes so much sense.

Now, I've got to ask you, you two are working together now, you just graduated from Cornell. What's it like working as a father-son team?

It's a lot of fun. He's a back of house guy. I'm a front I'm a front of house guy. I do a lot of uh the design and the operations. But we share the same vision. We share the same vision for where we see the company going and so our sort of uh skills and interest feed off each other in a really nice complementary way.

Now, I know you literally grew up in your father's restaurants. True. I I've heard you even sleeping on banquet sometimes.

We we call him the banquet kid.

The banquet kid. What's it like to grow up on a banquet?

As far as I know, it's it's pretty fun. I enjoyed it. Back in the day when both my parents were working seven days a week, uh there was no other place for me. I learned to love the hospitality industry. I grew up always talking to adults, sort of being immersed in the industry, and that's sort of why I am here today.

And I can't wait to hand him the keys.

Oh, is that right? Is that right? Well, who's the boss here? Who's the boss here? It's clearly Oliver.

Is that right? I listen, you know, but the the best thing I couldn't say more that for me as a parent to have my uh son and my children in the business and it's just it's the greatest thing ever.

Now, what are we going to be eating next?

Well, Oliver's known this his whole life. Growing up the tortelli. Yeah, a little town called Contrada di Su olio and this is cuisine that comes from that area. It's Parma cuisine. Tortelli de Zucca is actually pumpkins. Zucca pumpkin. Tortelli is nun's hat in this particular shape. So this is a classic pasta. So we have pasta there we roll. It's an egg pasta. Eggs, double zero flour and what we do is we're going to cut these into squares.

So you grew up seeing this made all the time?

Oh yeah. So filling now is very classic. It's made with amaretto cookies, uh Parmesan cheese, nutmeg and fruit de mostarda. That's how they do them. So you just roll these like this.

Drop it in the water like that.

What's that, butter?

Yes. We were healthy though with our borsch. So we're allowed a little. Right. Now, life is about balance, you know? Exactly. So this is exactly how they serve it. I've got some red wine on the way. Amazing. Here you go. So go ahead, you first.

Okay. Yeah, you're not going to fight me on that. As good as it was in 1983, huh? Moment of truth. Like it should be. Moment of silence. I will eat that for appetizer, entree and dessert. Yeah, it really is. It's everything in one. Oh my God.

So I wanted to show you the new and the old. So the beet dish represents the new stuff that we're doing and this is the old man dish right here.

Well, it is a classic and it never goes out of style.

Well, that's what I like to think. There you go.