- Okay, Papa, you got it?

- That's it.

I think it's in.

- [Claudine] All right, come on down.

- Okay.

Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

Papa, growing up with so many different cultures, in July, we've got an awful lot of independence to celebrate.

- Yes, it makes subtle logical sense to me.

We celebrate the big independence day between the Fourth of July and Bastille Day.

- Oh, it's kinda fun.

We've got freedom, food, and friends.

- Yes, but if you want freedom that day, what you have to do is to cook ahead, to prepare; otherwise, you cannot enjoy your friend.

- Okay, so, what are we gonna cook?

- Well, we're gonna start today with a whole poached salmon, with a light creamy mousseline sauce - [Claudine] And crocks filled with rillettes of rabbit, the classic French party spreader, always a hit.

- [Jacques] For the main course, a whole shoulder of veal, cooked slowly on the grill and serve with a lemon herb butter is a real crowd-pleaser that's easy to serve, because the guests can even carve it themself.

- [Claudine] And I love your grilled packets filled with creamy potatoes and corn.

- [Jacques] For dessert, we've got an all-American sponge cake soaked in sweet summer berry and brandy with a silky custard sauce.

- [Claudine] And a very French chocolate gourmand, a decadent chocolate mousse you can serve right outta the bowl.

- So here is to America, France, and the pleasure of enjoying the best of both, (Claudine speaks in French) - Or as we say in our house, three cheers for the (speaks in French).

- Join us next for a one-hour-special summer celebration.

- Okay, let's start with the rillettes, no?

- Sounds good.

- Rillettes is really a special dish that you have in country bistro in France.

It's always done with pork and quite fatty pork, about 50% fat.

In that case, we do a rillettes of rabbit, so about three pound of pork.

Why don't you put it to cook?

I cut my rabbit here.

The two leg.

Okay, Claudine, you wanna put the seasoning in it?

- All right, we have thyme.

What's this?

Allspice?

- Allspice.

- And just pepper.

- This.

- And, of course, some salt.

- Cut this and the back of the rabbit in like three pieces.

Everything is going to be taken off the bone, so.

I want you to put about a cup of wine in there.

- One cup - White wine and about four-five cup of water.

Now you wanna cover this.

Bring it to a strong boil.

Lower your heat so it has to boil very gently for like four-five hours, you know.

- Wow.

- At the last... Yes, it has to be falling apart, you know, so let's let it cook for a while.

(chirpy music) Okay, so this is really reduced, you know.

As we can see, all of the juice is gone.

All the wine is incorporated.

All I have left here- - Is just the meat.

- is the rest of that gelatin, you know, of the meat.

If you want, if you are afraid, you can put it back on the stove now, remelt it, and bring it to a boil, but my finger are impeccably clean, so.

- Oh, yes.

- You see there is a certain amount of the mixture of the fat in it.

It has to be highly season, you know?

And we're going to be ready to mold it now, Claudine.

- Okay, lemme get some molds.

- [Jacques] And this is a nice container, you know?

- Yeah, it's very pretty.

- Now, if I wanna keep this for a couple of months, and I'm saying a couple of months in the refrigerator- - Really?

- Yeah, because that's what they used to do in France in the farm, you know?

You pack it really tight, as I've done here.

And then you pour a little bit of melted, you know, either pork... This is lard.

You know, on top of it, you don't eat it anyway.

You put it on top.

That gets hard.

I have wine over there.

And that, now it's going to get preserved.

When I was kid, the farmer used to do that and keep that into the cellar, you know?

You were ready to use it.

You know, they would take the fat off.

Well, they would use the fat anyway, 'cause, as I say, nothing wrong with it.

It's just as a protecting.

And then that's it.

You're ready to use it.

You would wanna serve that with cornichons.

I know you can do a couple of design like this.

- Papa, I gotta say your rillettes rule.

- "The rillettes rule."

- Totally.

- Okay.

And what we are doing here, which you can do a couple of days ahead, to wit, a red berry-soaked cake.

So I have a sponge cake type that I made here, and I already slice it into about half-inch slice.

I have all the trimming.

I'm going to use all of it.

But we need to do a lot of the filling so about eight cup, yes, about eight cup of berries, you know, different type of berry.

- Strawberries.

- [Jacques] Raspberry, and we can even use some frozen one here.

I have some blackberry here, or boysenberry.

- These are cherries, but they're pitted.

- This is cherry, yes?

Those are beautiful.

So again, depending on what's available at the market, you can really do whatever you want.

Since we're not putting sugar here, I'm putting two cup of- - Of.

- strawberry, or raspberry, preserve, rather.

Yeah, all right.

Can put a dash of kirschwasser, if you want.

Oh, a little bit of cognac.

Okay, so we have to strain this now.

Oh boy, I still have pieces.

- Whoa.

- So I'll put it back in there after, more.

- Do you want me to scrape- - No, no, don't.

Don't.

No, that's exactly what you don't want to do.

- Excellent.

(wheezes) - Okay?

No, people do that with a spatula.

They do that.

Each of the seed goes one of those small hole, and that's it, so what you do is this: you bang it so that... You see?

okay, well, this is almost all seed.

Okay, now I can finish it up.

Think I have more to strain.

I have another strainer.

I mean, normally, you would wanna wash this and start again, but... - That's the only time you're gonna push down is right, right, right at the end.

- Right at the end because now it's kind of plugged.

Another thing that you can do, you know?

You can take all of those berry, all of that seed, rather, and put that in vinegar- - Really?

- to do a raspberry vinegar type.

Yeah, flavor- - Sounds good.

- your vinegar for free.

Okay.

- [Claudine] All right.

- [Jacques] Mmm.

- [Claudine] It's good?

- Okay, so we should have about four-five cup of the berry sauce here.

Remember half of it's going to be used in the cake and half of it is going to be used to serve with the cake.

Now, this will work.

In there, this is what?

An eight-cup, eight-10-cup... Think, to be sure that it's going to come out, I'm gonna put that in the bottom to be sure that I have no problem with it later on.

Let me start gently.

That's it.

If it break, you push it back into it.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] Okay, you see, I have a bottom totally nicely covered there.

That's what I want.

- [Claudine] All right.

- Okay?

Okay, so, now this out of the way.

This I wanna slice to go to the top, so they have to be about as thick as that.

We'll slice about like this to put inside and maybe a little bit like this because- - [Claudine] 'Cause it's a circle.

- It's a circle, so we put that on top.

Oh, it's still too high, right?

- [Claudine] Yes, but not by much.

- Okay.

Like this?

- [Claudine] I think that'll be perfect.

- Okay, the other piece... Oh, this is trimming from the outside, so I wanna put it inside.

Well, this could actually go this way.

It doesn't matter long as you don't see it.

Okay, now it's about full, right?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- Great, so give me the cognac, there.

Put a little bit of cognac or brandy inside to moisten the cake if you want.

And then I start putting a little bit of that in the bottom.

- [Claudine] Oh, just like that?

- Yeah, and now you want to ladle some stuff in there.

Yeah, at least.

Put another one.

Okay, now there, more stuff.

Go ahead again with the berry.

- More ladle?

- Yep, least one more.

Keep going.

'Kay, this is good because, as I say, it should soaked at least 24 hours to really soak through the cake, you know?

So the whole thing is a block in the center, a block of berry and cake.

This on top.

- [Claudine] It's just... - This around.

I have a little piece here to put.

- And this you just- - Hmm, piece there, piece in my mouth, piece in yours.

- And a piece in mine.

- Okay, put that on top.

Put a piece of plastic wrap here.

- [Claudine] You wanna push it.

- Push it.

Really soak it, like this.

You see it starting going through it a little bit here.

Well, it should absorb into the sponge to form, like, one block, yeah?

That goes into the refrigerator.

This goes into the refrigerator for tomorrow.

Then in addition to that, we're going to do a custard.

So bring me the stuff for the custard.

We wanna do a small custard to serve in addition to the berry sauce.

So I have two egg yolk here.

Okay, a little bit of vanilla.

Okay.

I have two egg yolk, and conventionally, when you do a custard, you work the sugar and the egg yolk together.

This is coming to a strong boil, and now it's gonna be... - It's that magic moment.

- It's already boiling.

I got it right on top of it to cook my egg yolk.

Yep, that cooked the egg yolk, so I may have little pieces in it, So I put a bit of my gelatin in there now, and sugar.

In fact, you know what?

We should have mixed the sugar and the gelatin together, but doesn't matter.

Yeah, we gonna strain that on a thing with ice underneath because what I wanna do is to cool it off.

Okay, now the gelatin is going to start setting up.

Now, you see, you do have little... - [Claudine] Little pieces of egg.

- Little piece of coagulated eggs, you know, 'cause it hot, but this is cooked now.

No, that's good.

So, put a spatula in there to cool that off on ice- - So just kind of- - yes, working, because it has to be tepid for me to put the cream in it.

And I'm going to do a bit of whip cream to put in there.

So I have a cup of cream here.

You see the way I beat the cream here.

It's not like egg white, where you lift it up.

And I flail it.

You go back and forth into an emulsion.

And for that type of mixture... Just go slowly there just to... If this is allowed to cool by itself, of course, it will get gelatinous.

You know, I mean holding because... I mean gelatinous in the sense I put gelatin in it, so it will hold a little bit; that's why.

I want the texture to be a bit thicker than it would be normally if I didn't put the gelatin, especially on a summer day, you know, if you serve it outside.

Put your finger in it and see the temperature.

- [Claudine] Oh, it's cool.

- [Jacques] It's cold or cool?

- [Claudine] Cool.

- "Cool," okay, so that should be pretty close to what I want.

So you can take that out now if it's cool.

Put it there.

- Just get rid of this.

- Okay.

- [Claudine] Am I folding?

- Well, yes, but the folding is less important.

Let me stir it with- - Oh, with the whisk.

- The whisk, yeah.

Okay, and that's it.

So this has to go in the refrigerator, covered, eventually get hard.

And now let's do... The other dessert have some melted chocolates here.

- More desserts!

- Yes, you need at least two dessert when you do that type of stuff, you know?

- Oh yes.

- So we have chocolate melted with milk here.

So, we're going to do... A chocolate gourmand I call, which is basically a type of nice chocolate mousse, you know?

I have to beat egg white here, and what I'm going to do is to give you that yolk to put in the chocolate, so I'm separating my egg.

That will thicken your chocolate lightly.

You have a little whisk?

Yeah.

- [Claudine] Little whisk.

Just... - That's it.

Just stir it in, and during that time... Does that thicken it a little bit?

- Yeah, it does.

It also kind of changes the color a little bit.

It looks creamier.

- Okay, that's enough, and now put a little bit of cognac.

- [Claudine] Like that?

- Yeah, that's plenty.

So my eggs are about fine now.

Holding peak, you see?

Put my sugar in here.

Go ahead.

Okay, see, it's nice and elastic.

So you see my egg white in there.

- Perfect!

- And now the cream.

I have a cup of whip cream here, so you can put all of that together.

Now I'm folding it in.

Okay, should be nice and smooth now, and of course, it's going to get hard at the time we set it up.

So you have to put that in the refrigerator now, uncovered.

A couple of hours until it's set hard.

Then you cover it.

Well, we're gonna teach you how to play boules, or what we call petanque, particularly in the south of France.

It's play all over France.

And I have my two friend here: Alain, Jean-Claude.

And I'm really going to beat them hard today.

They don't know it yet.

- That's not so sure.

- Ha ha ha ha.

- So the rule are easy.

The first thing you have, you have a glass of wine.

That is the first thing.

You wanna get your glass?

- Hey, cheers, cheers.

- Cheers.

- Yeah, all right.

- Do it.

Of course, I am... Ay ay ay ay, ay, that's too far.

You see, that's too far.

(Jean-Claude speaks in French) - Ay ay ay ay, ay ay ay.

That's pretty bad.

Ah, that's much better.

- Oh!

That's the best.

- Ooh!

- Argh!

(Jean-Claude speaks in French) - Ooh, that's good.

That's what we call a (speaks in French), when he kiss... He kissed the little one there.

Bounce!

(Jean-Claude speaks in French) - Oh man.

- Ooh!

Hwah!

- Heh.

(speaks in French) - Ooh!

(Jean-Claude speaks in French) - [Jacques] Okay, we have to shoot there.

(Jacques speaks in French) - [Alain] Wow.

- [Jean-Claude] Ooh!

(speaks in French) (Jacques speaks in French) I already have two points, so another point- - No!

- for me, right?

- [Jean-Claude] What?

What?

- [Alain] What you mean?

You have only one!

- I gotta have a glass of wine there.

(Jean-Claude speaks in French) (Jacques speaks in French) (Alain speaks in French) - (speaks in French), Pepin.

(Jean-Claude speaks in French) - I'm really the best, huh?

- Oh, that's your two.

- No, that- - I make one.

- [Jacques] Oh, that's yours?

- It's mine.

- Oh, okay, so you're the best.

- That's mine.

- No, no, no, no, no.

- I'm the best.

- It's one, one, one, so we all the best here.

- No, one, one, one.

That's right.

- What do you mean "one, one, one"?

- I had one.

You had one.

- No, but you cheated.

- I didn't cheat.

- Yes, you did.

- No, I did not.

- Another thing that we are going to do in our big banquet menu here, it a grill shoulder of veal with an herb butter.

And that I can do ahead, so I'm going to do the butter now because will save me some time.

So I have tarragon.

I have chervil.

I have basil here.

All from the garden, you know.

In full summer, I get crazy with all the herb of the garden.

So I'm gonna cut that coarsely.

You can put two stick of butter in there.

- [Claudine] One.

- That's a real... You want the butter to be soft, huh?

- Yeah, it's soft.

- Is it soft?

- Oh it's soft.

- Good.

We have that in there.

You wanna put some salt and pepper?

And I'm giving you a little bit of lemon juice just through my finger, right?

- Is the lemon juice for flavor or for- - Yes, yes, flavor mostly.

- color or... - This is a great thing to do, you know, because, sometime, you do herb butter and you can roll it into a little bit of plastic and freeze it.

Cut a piece.

When you do a steak, a piece of chicken, you put it right on top.

It melt.

That's really good.

All right.

- Okay.

- Now.

That's great, you know?

Now, people will help themself with this.

- Perfect.

- That's it.

(Jacques speaks in French) I think I have all the herbs in my garden, but I always get excited when I go to a nursery, you know.

There is always new one, exciting one.

- Wait!

Wait, wait, wait!

(speaks in French) - [Jacques] There is nothing like cooking with fresh herbs.

- Sometimes, I don't know if you should use fresh herbs or dried herbs or which you should use.

What do you think?

- Whatever you like.

I mean, it has a lot to do with the type of cuisine you do.

It has a lot to do with your own taste; for example, don't give coriander or cilantro- - To my godfather.

- To your godfather.

- Ever, yes.

- He'd be crazy.

When you cook something, a long-time-cooking stew, a beef Burgundy, and you have thyme.

You have bay leaf.

Those are usually dry.

You have them fresh, it's perfectly fine.

But when we talk about fresh herb to put on salad and all that... Think of it: usually, you talk about those green tender herbs.

And that would be the parsley.

That would be the chive.

That would be the tarragon.

That would be the chervil.

Taste it.

Take little piece of thing.

I mean, go to the market.

Like, you have dill, beautiful dill here.

Taste (indistinct).

I like the taste.

It's slightly aniseed taste.

You say, "Oh, I don't like anise," or "I love anise."

That good with cheese or with- - Fish.

- With fish, it'd be great.

- You made a really neat point by saying things that you could actually pull off and eat are things that you would usually have fresh and things that'd be too strong to pull off and eat would be herbs that you would usually use dry.

- Too strong or too tough, you know, hard, like- - Like, you don't eat a piece of rosemary.

- Not like that, but it get flavor.

- Well, you know, Papa, I mean, you've always had a huge garden in the country, but in the city, where this little mouse lives, I have this type of stuff out on the balcony.

- That's good.

- So I have... Well, my rosemary isn't quite this big, but I have thyme, and there's oregano over there, some nasturtium, and some nice flowers just to make it pretty.

- Yeah, you don't see the flower?

- No.

- "No," okay.

There is nothing like fresh herb in the summer, in the garden, the classic (indistinct), you know, fine-herbs omelet.

You have four herb we use in France.

It's parsley, tarragon, chive, and chervil- - I'm glad you didn't quiz me.

- is the fourth one.

And nothing as good as fresh basil with tomato and mozzarella, right?

- That's the best.

- Okay, Claudine?

- Yep.

- I'm boning that large shoulder of veal.

I don't really take much out of it, but I figure I would take out the bone from the shoulder here.

All I wanna put on top is salt.

You wanna get me a tray for that, Claudine?

- Oh, 'kay, hang on.

- Pepper.

A little bit of oil.

- This is a great thing to do for a big party.

I love to do that, you know, 'cause that cook for hours on the barbecue.

Okay, you see the end of that bone here?

That all shoulder bone, - But you're just gonna leave it in.

It doesn't matter, right?

- No, we'll leave it in.

We'll cut it at the table.

People are going to help themself, just cutting it.

This, salt.

Pepper.

I put some milk for you to bowl.

I have a quart of milk here.

If you wanna continue with your potato, I'm going to take that to the grill.

- All right.

(enthusiastic music) - We have that beautiful shoulder of veal roasting here on a barbecue that I did like 25 years ago.

And what I did in that barbecue, I put a back so I can fill that up with wood and it's, like, whole wall of heat and use it at a rotisserie with things hanging in front of it.

We call cooking (speaks in French), hanging on the string.

Or then I can use it as a barbecue, so it's an easy... And then during the summer, I have a lot of herb leftovers.

We cut a tree there, which was a bay leaf, and some of the rosemary from last year.

So, I like to use this very often to flavor the meat.

I keep it underneath here.

I'm going to turn that over because it's been cooking for quite a while now.

I've already turn it a couple of time, and I know it's nice and crusty.

I can insert this in the thickest part of the meat.

And we can use that, of course, with a thermometer.

But with this here, that will give me the temperature.

I put that next to my lip here, and I know it's about 150 degrees, so it's practically cooked.

I can now leave that on the side, move the ashes on the other side, and leave it for an hour slowly to rest before we serve it.

Or then put it inside into 170-degree oven and let it rest up to an hour before you carve it, and it's going to be juicy and succulent.

I love the gratin.

- Me too.

I love gratin dauphinoise.

- This is the classic dish that your grandmother would do.

- So, you just have milk and what in there?

- I have milk.

That's it.

Okay.

That very important that you wash your potatoes as we did here but you don't wash them after.

'Cause we need the starch from the potatoes into that milk here.

Okay, this now you wanna bring back to a boil, and in addition to that, you wanna put a little bit of cream in there.

I have some cream in the back.

- How much cream?

- I have a quart of milk, so you put, like, a good cup.

You can do it as rich as you want.

I know people who do a gratin dauphinoise only with cream.

- Whoa.

- My mother would do it mostly only with milk.

I think a little bit like 80% milk, a little bit of cream if you want help.

Now you wanna put some garlic in there.

I didn't put any salt and pepper, so you wanna season it with salt and pepper there.

- Now, would it matter if you use black pepper or white pepper in this?

- Julia would wanna use white pepper in this, because of the little black dots on it, but I like black pepper.

And I'm cooking with you, so- what do- - Black pepper it is - Oh, black pepper it is, oh.

Hey, you know in those potato.

This is the standard gratin dauphinoise.

Theoretically, you bring it to a boil or close to a boil, time at which the starch in the potato will thicken so it get slightly oily.

Then you put it on a gratin dish.

And then you put it into the oven.

That the classic way.

Here we're going to do it- - On the grill.

- on the grill.

You know, with the corn in it, I like to cut it in that direction.

I've shown you that already- - Yep, I'd rather cut it in the other direction.

- that you don't, ah, ah, ah, do that.

Well, you can cut it flat, also, like this.

- Ah, see, now, that's just a winner, right there.

- So here is what we're gonna do with that now.

See, to put it on the barbecue, we take pieces of paper, like this, you know, aluminum foil.

Good way of doing it, you do it on the outside first so it give you the shape.

- [Claudine] And then put it in, yeah.

- So, what you wanna do per person... You know, those were all little package that you'll serve your guest.

A little bit of this.

Can leave them a bit longer to cool off a bit more in there.

What will happen is that they get a bit softer, you know?

- And then this, we're just gonna wrap up?

- And here, yes.

You wanna wrap up?

- Now, do you leave air a little bit so- - You can leave a little bit of air.

At the end, you wanna press it to have a little bit of a hat, like this.

Got a bit of air.

They could put that directly on your barbecue.

- Oh, cool.

- People can take a package and help themself, you know?

We're not going to put it right away on the grill, because that's not going to take that long to cook, compared to the veal.

In the last 30-40 minute before you start serving, you know?

And that's it.

(chirpy music) - Now what?

- Now, let's work on the first course, which is a big beautiful salmon.

Now, this is a sole meuniere, you know?

- "Sole meuniere."

- Sole meuniere which is served with salmon.

You put it in there.

You cook it, and you lift it up.

Put your (indistinct), you know, and that fit in there.

You can see that type of thing, but you know, you need all of this, practically.

And it's great.

I have one.

I happen to have one home.

But a lot of people don't have it, so I kind of work out another way to cook it in case you don't have this- - Let me... - or if your stove is not big enough to put that on.

What I have here, a large pan too, and that's a good idea to do it this way.

I have carrot, celery, the green of leeks, thyme, bay leaf, all kind of seasoning in there, salt and pepper.

You want to cook your vegetable stock and let it cool off because you want the fish to start from that temperature and go up.

- Oh, yeah, it's cool cool.

- So we'll put the fish in there to cook, and I'll bend it this way.

You know what I'll do actually?

I'll put it upside down because the top doesn't take as long to cook.

You know, that part here doesn't take as long to cook.

But you know what?

Before we do this, I have a piece of aluminum foil here.

- Hang on.

I got it.

What do you want?

- I want you to put it there in case it doesn't stuck to the side, you know?

- [Claudine] Just put it in the... - [Jacques] That's it.

Put it underneath.

That's it and then to help me take it out.

In addition to this too, I have those things, pan, just in case I get problem.

If I put them flat, you know, I can't grab them, so I'll put a spoon there and put that on top of the spoon.

- [Claudine] Underneath the aluminum foil.

- Yeah, underneath the aluminum foil.

You have to give me more water, Claudine.

Fill up another thing of water.

And then I have to put that to cook here on top of the stove.

I bring the water up to here.

The water should not boil anyway.

- Get a smaller fish!

- Go ahead.

- "Get a smaller fish."

Yeah, that fish is kind of big.

And I'll put a piece of clean towel on top.

That will get wet with the water, and that heat will go on top.

I say, a fish like this, about 30 minute.

And then you let it cool in the vegetable stock to really get the taste of the vegetable and all that.

It cook slowly, and it cool off in the stock.

And you start with cold stock.

Okay, we'll see this is cool.

Oh, maybe a little bit tepid, you know?

- I mean, it's cool, yeah.

- And you see my salmon is cook there.

(indistinct) is going to break, but you know, I could go with a small knife, and you would see it goes right through, it's very tender.

- [Claudine] Yeah, definitely.

- So, I have this thing.

I'm going to go underneath here.

- [Claudine] Oh right, right.

Oh boy.

This is definitely a two-person job.

- "A two-person job."

You have it here.

That's good.

- Ah.

- I feel better.

- Me too.

- Here.

(indistinct) Okay.

- Now, do you want me to- - I remove this?

- No, see, the skin- - I'm sorry.

- [Jacques] stick a little bit to it.

Doesn't matter.

I have to take the skin out.

Okay.

- And we'll clean the skin- - Here's a bowl- - out of this- - for whatever you- - at least on this side.

And then we'll have to turn it on the other side to clean the skin on the other side, Claudine.

During that time- - You ready?

- it's still a bit lukewarm; I want you to do the leek here.

So, when you do a leek, the only part that you don't use is really that part.

And then after I'm cutting, maybe, this from the outside, remember you keep that because you use that- - For stock.

- for stock, yes, this, and as it get light green in color, you know, you keep it.

You keep it like this.

- Perfect.

- Then we open it, you know, to wash the inside.

And then we're going to do it... This you can keep for your stock.

You gotta wash this inside.

- [Claudine] To get all the sand out.

- Okay, and one way of doing it, which is nice, is to bundle them like this.

You know, my hand is that big, so I do a bundle that size.

- 'Kay, so you want, like, a string bundle?

- Yeah.

Leave that right there.

Yes, the right way of doing that is that here I tighten that to my hand here and I go, "One, two," maybe three, and then I switch over: one, two, three here.

- Oh, and then you have extra so you can tie.

Ah!

- You see that?

Now I'll let you do this.

Have boiling water here.

When it's... When you have it all, you put it into the boiling water.

Okay, meanwhile, I'm going to start cleaning up the... So I take out the fin here and the skin.

The skin of the belly is particularly tender, you know?

So remember that there we did not clean it up.

- What do you mean?

You didn't scale it?

- I didn't scale it, because it doesn't really matter.

- Well, yeah, if you're gonna take the... - Oh, okay, you see there is a skin here, Claudine.

Just under the skin, you see the black flesh here?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- You scrape that.

So, it's a layer of fat, really, that you have underneath.

It's easier, of course, if your salmon is really ice cold.

But frankly, it is better to eat if the salmon is not too cold.

That's fin.

I will remove that fin too.

See it's really cooked.

I'm going to lift it up here, and you want to lift it up there.

We're going to bring it this way and turn it.

I wanna turn it here.

Okay, so that's clean enough here.

- I've got oil, vinegar, salt, pepper.

You want me to put some lemon juice in here, too, or?

No?

- I don't think so.

- But this is it?

- I'm cleaning up my side here, and what I wanna do, use paper towel.

Kind of a sponge art.

Yeah.

Clean up this side.

- [Claudine] Here, taste - What's red in it?

- Vinegar.

- Oh, red vinegar.

- Is that okay?

Did I put too much vinegar?

- No, I think, actually, it's pretty good, so.

- Yes!

- Okay.

- Okay.

- You know, your leek, like that, you can cut them into long strip, like this, and put the vinaigrette right on top- - On here?

- to season it.

Yes, you wanna take some of the juice out?

- I was gonna take some of the water out.

- See, the juice... After they have been cooked, you wanna check those.

- These are- - And you want them... - I'm gonna turn this off.

- You want them to be tender.

We cut them the long way because we're gonna them this way for people to... See, the leek, I like them when they are really cooked.

- So you want me to just put this right on top?

- Yeah, you sprinkle some of that on top of it.

Move it with your knife so it goes in between.

Go on the side of the table because I'm gonna bring my salmon here to finish it.

Right, okay, I have some salad here to garnish it, to give it a fresh, clean look.

There.

I could actually put some leek on it also.

- Yes.

Okay, and then all the juice and all the stock and everything is all nice and together.

Tastes good.

- You put all your vinaigrette here?

- No, I have, like, a little bit left, but I didn't know.

You want... - You put a little more there, top of it.

And I'm going to do a Hollandaise sauce, which we finish with some whip cream.

So I have melted butter here, have two cup of butter, but all the bottom part of it is the oil.

I have eight egg yolk here because that should be enough.

- Very nice.

- I need a little bit of lemon juice in there.

So, the Hollandaise sauce, you have to be on it all the time.

The first part of the Hollandaise sauce is actually what we call the sabayon.

- [Claudine] Is that enough?

- Yep.

Now you wanna give me a little bit of water, at least a tablespoon of water.

Yeah, that's fine.

If I feel that it's going too fast, yeah, can put my finger.

It should be warm but not too hot.

Then I move it off the stove, like that, and continue the emulsion.

Now, you see, when I beat it- - It's thick.

- No, but into the thread of the whisk, we can see the bottom of the pan.

That indicate that this is cooked enough.

- 'Kay, do you want this off?

- When I was an apprentice, I work in Paris, and I was at the Plaza Athenee, and I was sent to work at Fouquet's on the Champs-Elysees.

- Oh, wow.

- And the chef gave me... I'm going to ask you to help me put the butter in it, like this.

We don't wanna go too fast there.

Okay.

- All right.

- Go ahead.

Now stop one second.

Incorporate.

Okay, again.

- [Claudine] So what happened at Fouquet?

- And a bit more, and when you pour it, pour it more on my whisk there.

That's it.

So, the chef told me, "You have to do the Hollandaise sauce," you know, the commis (indistinct) 45 egg yolk at 45 egg yolk and about eight-nine pound of butter or whatever it was.

- Whoa!

- Boy, I was really afraid that I was going to scramble those egg yolk, so I beat into it on a big thing with a big whisk.

I keep beating, beating into it and not giving enough heat to it, so the thing ended up being foamy and foamy and foamy, going above the rim of the thing without any consistency.

He didn't have any... Go ahead now.

We can go a bit faster.

Boy did he yell at me.

Now, when you do it with clarified butter as we are doing it here... And you can see that it get much thicker.

If I were doing it just with plain soft butter, which I do sometime, since I would use the milky part of the butter, which is milk, you know... And that would dilute it and make a bit thinner, you know?

- Is that good?

I don't wanna get any of the... - No, you can put... Tell you what, I put.

Now, Claudine, a dash of salt.

And very often, in top of this, I put a dash of cayenne, but for some reason, it really doesn't take much.

That's our Hollandaise sauce.

Now, you see, the sauce mousseline you serve at the last moment.

If I were to put the whip cream in it now; it's cold whip cream with a dash of salt; it kind of collapse, so you put it at the last moment.

We used to serve it in a sauce boat there, the Hollandaise sauce with the whip cream on top.

And when the waiter serve, he would kind of stir it together.

So let me show you how to serve one portion of this with a bit of the Hollandaise sauce.

Like that, you cut one portion up to the central bone; let's say this would be one portion; and from the center here, see?

So that come.

Now, you see that salmon?

You see the inside of the salmon.

- It perfect.

- It's just, just barely cooked.

- Just.

- So, I would serve one portion like that be enough.

Well, let's put a couple of leek like that, around.

You know, we have some salmon caviar there.

- Ooh.

- It would be nice with it.

Okay, and with this, if I wanna serve it now, I would serve.

- Now, how are you gonna... Are you gonna incorporate- - (indistinct) Hollandaise- - this, or?

- sauce.

No, I'm gonna put it right on top of it.

I would put it, just like that, on top of it - Really?

- And it would melt into it as you are eating it.

And it is our salmon with mousseline sauce.

And now the moment of truth.

- What is it supposed to feel like?

- Ah, you unbowled it.

- All right.

If you want me to, I will.

- Ah, you scare me.

Don't forget to open those things.

All right, nice glass here.

- Now, how are you gonna... - Well, I'm going to do just all I can, you know?

Okay, remember that, fortunately, we have those pieces of thing there.

- Wait.

Here, I'll hold two.

- No, you see, it's no problem anyway.

- [Claudine] Oh, well.

- I don't think it would anyway.

It was just in case.

- [Claudine] I think that's just a great idea.

Can you do that with other food?

- As a security blanket.

Yes.

- That's just parchment paper.

- Ah, look at that.

That's cool.

- So, here we wanna put a little bit of that sauce around.

You better turn this for me.

Okay, and actually, you know, I probably should put a bit dripping on top.

maybe not all over, but.

And the rest of that... Oh, no, you should serve your sauce in there I mean.

Now we have a little bit of the cream sauce that I can put around and can do little design.

- Will you put some on top, just a little bit?

That's it.

Okay, wait.

I'm gonna try this.

- Here, you can do it with this.

Yeah?

You see that?

- [Claudine] Yeah, well... - It's messing it up.

That's all it's doing.

- But I like the little streaky things.

- [Jacques] Yeah, but see, can do it with- - [Claudine] Oh, yep, that's it.

- [Jacques] That's what you like, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- And of course, I put some of that sauce in there also.

Yep, all right, this here.

Now we have two sauce and probably spring of mint.

You want some- - You can cover up my mess with the mint.

- Exactly.

This is great.

- And it's done.

(chirpy music) - Okay, let's do the other dessert now, finish it up, at least.

- Here we go.

See, it's nice and set now.

And whether you do it in this or that, I have a little bit of whip cream here- - Oh, cool.

- that I can decorate with.

Just very simple.

- [Claudine] Ooh!

- [Jacques] Here, eh, too?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

And humor me: give me a bigger one in the middle.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- [Claudine] Perfect.

- You decorate it.

- 'Kay, you do yours.

- Oh, I'll do this one.

- Whoops.

I have rose petals.

candied rose petals, should say.

You could use real rose petals in here, too.

Well, I think they're both beautiful, and I can't wait to dig in.

(simple music) - So now that we're ready for the dessert, we can finish with the veal.

It's a big roast, Claudine.

- It is just beautiful.

I'll get this.

I got it.

And I'll follow you with the potatoes.

- Ah.

Well, that roast has been a few hours on the barbecue, but after that, it's been in the oven for a while, just resting here, you know?

Occasionally, you put a little bit of the natural juice on top.

- So it went from grill to oven to resting to- - No, in the oven, it was just resting, you know.

I like to put that outside and let the people help themself.

You know, you see you still have the bone here.

- Oh, that's right.

- Look how tender it is.

- Whoa, here, wait.

- Oh, that's okay.

(Claudine groans) - There we go.

- And we have that natural juice here.

Wanna give me a bowl for that?

- 'Kay.

Ooh!

And we have this herb butter too.

- Yeah, the herb butter goes with it.

That the best part, you know?

When I do a green- - Just a great big piece of bread in that.

- I do a green salad and do a vinaigrette.

Put a little bit of that in the vinaigrette, you know.

- Oh, yes.

Well, I have these, and I want... I'm gonna unwrap one.

- Yes.

See, this is the top of the shoulder, and the top of the shoulder is always very moist and very tender, you know?

I mean this is the shoulder blade.

It's one of the best roasts, in my opinion.

And what I like to do at home... I put that directly on the table and let people cut themself, so you can do it on this side.

If they want it, it be very moist and nice.

But I probably would want to have a little bit of the crust, you know?

- Mm-hmm!

And that.

- Oh, good.

- Didn't run all over the place.

- You know, you can serve that directly.

You can serve your package directly with a thing, but I think it'd be a little better to get it out of the package, certainly a bit more elegant for a special holiday - And I'm just gonna... - A little bit of that.

- Just a little bit, I mean, 'cause if not it's... You know.

- Give me a little piece of parsley there.

Place on that.

You know what I do often.

I put a brush here and let the people brush their piece of meat.

Yeah, ready.

- And- - Wait a minute.

Lemme put a bit of that anyway.

This is our grill shoulder of veal with herb butter, potato, and corn package.

(chirpy marching band music) (spectators applaud) (spectator whistles) Certainly, America has been very good to me; otherwise, I would never have stayed here.

My parents had a restaurant, I was doing very well at work in very big place in Paris, even for the French president.

I just came here because I wanted to see America.

I came to New York, I love New York, and I stayed.

That's about as simple as this.

I really am an American because I have chosen at an adult age to live in a specific country without being force to choose by economic, political, racial, or other types of reason.

And in that context, even through my roots are in France, my mother is still in France, brother and all that, and I have a great-deal attachment to France, I'm certainly more American now than French.

(boisterous marching band music continues) In France, I feel that I would have at least got into opening a great restaurants, maybe even a three-star restaurant.

But the structure is such that I wouldn't have had the freedom that I've had here.

One day, someone say, "Let's go for Chinese"; "Let's go for Thai."

That type of diversity of food, due to the ethnicity of the country, is the quite exciting for me.

And in France, I probably wouldn't have expanded my culinary palette to that extent, (spirited drum music music) - Look!

- [Child] Almost there.

- When my mother comes to visit me, she loves food that I prepare, and she say, "That's really good," but it's not French for her.

So if my food now is not French, since I know it's not Indian or Swahili, it's probably what we call American cuisine.

(chirpy marching band music continues) So whether it's the Fourth of July or Bastille Day or Christmas or Easter or Hanukkah or any of those holidays in the family; we have a very diverse family; we do celebrate a great deal.

(partygoers sing in French) Having good food, good wine, family around, nothing better in life.

♪ Oh say ♪ Does that star-spangled banner ♪ ♪ Yet wave (chirpy marching band music) - I am now a pure Connecticut Yankee with that specific Connecticut drawl, Yankee drawl.

So I know that people can recognize, wherever I go in the country, that guy from Connecticut, - Papa, I wanted to show you the invitations I did.

I don't even think you ever saw them.

- [Jacques] No.

(indistinct) show them to me.

- I know.

I'm sorry.

It's just literally a folded piece of paper.

It's kind of clear, almost like a parchment paper.

And then I snagged the menu.

Well, this one, obviously, I didn't send, but I messed around on the computer with a couple of different fonts and just did something very, very simple.

- [Jacques] That my artwork.

- [Claudine] I know: I thieved your artwork.

That's why I figured I should finally show them to you.

- Great.

- And you can do it... I ended up choosing the blue one, 'cause I like blue.

- Well, it looks beautiful.

That's great.

- I just thought it was- - That's great.

- very pretty.

- And.

- Oh, yeah, I pulled up the wines.

- [Jacques] Good.

You see that, yes.

- So we have a Champagne.

I really, really happen to like this Champagne.

It's really nice.

And of course, a good cold chardonnay and we have enough.

- That's gonna be good- - It's gonna be really good.

- [Jacques] with the rillettes and with the salmon.

- And if it's big enough, it can even go through- - Maybe we'll have some rillettes with the Champagne.

- Oh yeah, and it can even hold through the veal.

It should be fine with the veal if people wanna stay with white.

Well, we have this one here.

- Oh, you know, you happen to have a fair amount of that in the cellar, and it's a nice Sangiovese, so let's do it.

- We got three countries.

- Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, so we have... We have the Fourth of July.

We have the Fourteen of July.

- Of July.

- And we have Garibaldi Day.

- We have everything.

- Oh, that's great.

So you know, if you choose those, I have enough in the cellar?

- Yeah, let's go get the rest.

- Let's go get the rest.

(serene music) - [Partygoer] Are you good at this?

Do you know how to do this?

I don't know if you know what you're doing.

- [Partygoer] Yeah, well, just, like, the (indistinct).

- [Jacques] well, the family's shopped, cooked, and cleaned for two days.

- The sound you like, right?

- And because we did so much ahead, we get to enjoy our own party.

Tony, you wanna pass around with that?

- Sure, no problem.

I'd be happy to.

- [Partygoer] I had to find a red (indistinct).

- Thank you.

- Looks like it might be some kind of (indistinct).

Oh, this is the rillettes.

Rabbit rillettes?

(partygoers laugh) - [Jacques] We have a connoisseur.

Gloria sets a beautiful table.

None of these decorations are expensive, but she cares and take the time, and it looks great.

Okay.

- [Claudine] Hello.

- [Jacques] Come on.

(whistles) All right.

- Come on, food.

- Food.

- Try the rillettes.

- Veal.

- Thank you.

- Anyone can cook, but you need to really plan, even for a small dinner, to get all of the food onto the plate at the same time.

Well, everyone, we had a poached salmon to start with, with a cold mousseline sauce.

And now we're going to have that big shoulder of veal we did on the barbecue, really moist.

And we're gonna have a herb butter spread on it and a bit of gratin dauphinoise, that is, yellow potato with garlic, cream, and some corn in it.

- [Partygoer] No, I love these anywhere.

- Now, if you have a piece, even of that one.

- I'm gonna give you a little bit of wine.

I mean, you can't actually be at my house and, you know, have an empty glass.

It just doesn't make sense.

So cheers.

- Cheers.

- Well, we're coming to the end of the meal.

- Life is a bowl of cherries.

- Life is a bowl of cherries, and the cherries are in the pepin, you know?

The umbrella is pepin in France, hence my name.

So that's why I always sign my painting with a little umbrella.

But at the end of the meal, cherries are the best, but- - Well.

- in addition to cherries, we have- - We have other stuff.

- [Jacques] a chocolate gourmand, which is a kind of rich chocolate mousse.

- [Claudine] And we also have this beautiful berry-soaked cake, and it's got a creme anglaise, and it's really, really good.

- That's actually very British.

It's a puree of red fruit of summer soaked into the cake, and I'm sure you're going to love it.

Well, we enjoy having you with us for that Fourth of July or Fourteen of July party.

- I mean- - Or both.

- the feast of freedom, of independence.

- The feast of freedom, hey.

- And we all are going to raise our glass to freedom and independence and say, "Happy cooking."

- [Claudine and Partygoers] Happy cooking.

- [Partygoer] Happy cooking.