“We don’t use any electric machines…we have no blenders, we have no food processors, we have no stand mixers, we do everything by hand.”Today, Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Brian Dunsmoor, owner of Dunsmoor in Los Angeles. This restaurant cooks all food over live fire and doesn’t use any electrical appliances in the kitchen, opting to do everything by hand instead.
Director: Jackie Phillips
Director of Photography: April Maxey
Editor: Michael Penhollow
Talent: Brian Dunsmoor
Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke
Creative Producer: Mel Ibarra
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Oadhan Lynch
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Tania Jones
Camera Operator: Justin Abbate
Assistant Camera: Chris Davidson
Audio Engineer: Paul Cornett
Production Assistant: Spencer Matheson
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director of Content, Production: Ali Inglese
Senior Director, Creative Development: Dan Siegel
Senior Director, Programing: Jon Wise
VP, Head of Video: June Kim
Director: Jackie Phillips
Director of Photography: April Maxey
Editor: Michael Penhollow
Talent: Brian Dunsmoor
Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke
Creative Producer: Mel Ibarra
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Oadhan Lynch
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Tania Jones
Camera Operator: Justin Abbate
Assistant Camera: Chris Davidson
Audio Engineer: Paul Cornett
Production Assistant: Spencer Matheson
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director of Content, Production: Ali Inglese
Senior Director, Creative Development: Dan Siegel
Senior Director, Programing: Jon Wise
VP, Head of Video: June Kim
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here at Dunsport, we don't use any electric machines with the exception of like temperature
00:06control.
00:07We have no blenders, we have no food processors, we have no stand mixers, we do everything
00:12by hand.
00:13Cooking by hand and cooking with wood fire is definitely less efficient, it's more difficult.
00:18If you're making a salsa verde by hand, like chopping all the herbs, doing it in the mortar
00:22and pestle, you have a lot of different opportunities to make good decisions and taste as you go.
00:27Whereas, when you're just like throwing things into a machine, I don't think you have that
00:29option.
00:30I had this theory, food cooked in the past can really be accentuated with the knowledge
00:36that we have now, but working within the limitations of the past.
00:45Hey, what's up y'all?
00:46I'm Brian Dunsport, the chef owner of Dunsport Restaurant.
00:50Come on in, we got a lot to do.
00:57So it's 11 a.m. and the first thing I like to do once I get in the building and get settled
01:02is I like to grab the computer from the front and then check the reservations.
01:06So when I'm checking the reservations, what I'm looking for is cover count, any special
01:11people that might be coming in that we're excited about, and then also the flow of service.
01:15We have a lot of industry that comes in here on any given night.
01:19There might be like six tables of chefs, which can get pretty overwhelming.
01:23What really makes a difference in being successful financially in a restaurant is being able
01:28to fill the earlier part of the night and the later part of the night.
01:30The middle is just a given, like you're going to be busy.
01:3385 covers to start, probably do 120.
01:37So looking good on reservations.
01:39When we get going during service, the first thing that gets popped is the back bar, because
01:44we do kind of like a pub burger, like a thick, medium-rare, dry-aged burger back there with
01:48duck fat fries, and we only offer 20 a night.
01:50When the doors open, people are coming in to try to capture their burger before they're 86ed.
01:56We like to keep the menu pretty loose because we like to change it very often and cross-utilize products.
02:03We try to be as thrifty as possible here because we don't want any waste.
02:06So right now, I'm just checking the menu from last night and then kind of reworking it based
02:12on what we have coming in today.
02:14I think that looks like about it for changes today.
02:16All right, now we're done marking up the menu, let's get in the kitchen and make sure that
02:19we have everything that we need.
02:26Most of our grains, like our grits or cornmeal or rice, whatever grain it is that we're using
02:33at a time, it's normally from Anson Mills.
02:35I think all chefs say the same thing.
02:37It's like, find the best ingredient and treat it simply and try to just accentuate that.
02:42That's what all chefs say, but it really is true.
02:45And the older I get, the less I want to do to these great products.
02:48It's our job just to let them shine.
02:51Here's our baleen oysters, wild from Maine.
02:54Look at these beauties.
02:56There's only five kinds of edible oysters on the planet, and this is one of them.
03:02They have a very coppery flavor, which doesn't lend itself well to eating raw, in my opinion.
03:08So we cook these in the wood oven with a Florida batarga butter that our buddies make.
03:12All right, looking good.
03:14Looks like we got everything that we need to do the changes on the menu that we talked
03:16about earlier.
03:17Let's do it.
03:18All right, so it's about 12.30, so it's time to get the fire started so we can start cooking
03:28and get ready for service.
03:29Just so we're not wasting a bunch of paper and stuff, a little bit of paper helps get
03:33the fire going.
03:34So we just use some of our spent menus from the night before.
03:37I like to just take this little wad of paper and kind of sit it right here in the middle.
03:44I also like to use a little bit of wood chips just to kind of help move it along a little
03:49bit.
03:50Then when we're building it, I like to use like two large logs on the bottom to build
03:55the base and then kind of stagger it up from there.
03:57And then I like to start using some smaller ones here just because they'll light up.
04:02And then I like to go back to big on the top because the bigger the wood, the bigger the
04:06coals in the end, but the longer it takes to get going.
04:09But we just want it to like ignite.
04:10So it'll take a while for this to burn down into coals because we don't cook over live
04:14fire.
04:15We cook over coals.
04:16Once this burns down, we'll like push a little bit of it back and then we'll just start feeding
04:20this and iron right here to continue producing coals.
04:23And then we'll shuffle them over here underneath the grill during service and we have this
04:27thing at full force.
04:28If you use the laser thermometer, it doesn't even read.
04:31So that means it's like a thousand degrees back here.
04:34It gets very, very hot.
04:37So this right here, this is called fatwood.
04:39It has this like really flammable sap, which is like a great natural fire starter.
04:44So we'll use a little bit of like the night before's oil.
04:46Just watch that.
04:49This stuff just lights up.
04:52You can smell it.
04:53You can smell the sap burning.
04:54Then we just tuck this down in here.
04:59And at this point, like it should, it should take care of itself.
05:02We want it to be burning really hot.
05:04So we're not getting that kind of accurate bad smoke taste.
05:07We want that clean charcoal taste.
05:09And once it starts burning down in the coals, then we'll be ready to cook on it.
05:12But we'll pull a little bit of this burning wood over here in a second when Conrad starts
05:16smoking the quail to kind of get the wood chips going for the actual smoke.
05:20So while working the fire, you definitely need like some special tools to keep it going.
05:25This is like a cool little doodad also.
05:28If you look at it, it has like a, like a mouthpiece, kind of like a trumpet.
05:32Have you ever seen when people, you know, blow on coals to help ignite them?
05:37That's what this does, except your face isn't completely in the fire.
05:40So you can basically...
05:49And that'll really help get it going.
05:50We use that a lot over here.
05:52And you can see how it, how it moves the flame around and adds some oxygen to the situation.
05:58Cooking with live fire definitely presents a couple different challenges.
06:03The actual heat itself, because this thing gets crazy hot.
06:08So once it's burned down to coals, coals are hotter than the actual fire itself.
06:12But we use wood and the wood fire flavor as like an ingredient.
06:17People have been cooking meat over live fire since the beginning of cooking.
06:21So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
06:23You can't get that depth of flavor like in a saute pan.
06:27You can only get that flavor cooking over charcoal and live fire.
06:31It's coming up on one o'clock.
06:33It's time to meet and discuss the menu for the night with the sous chefs.
06:36And then we're going to get going on prep.
06:43It's definitely a collaborative team effort.
06:45It's like the more eyes on this stuff, the better.
06:49Up here, I got like a big fat loin of the wild Boston bluefin tuna.
06:53I think we can throw that up here.
06:55We'll be running a little bit heavy up here with five.
06:58I think we do our fallback set, the Florida batarga, a little bit of
07:02sileta, chive, lemon zest.
07:04You guys know the drill.
07:07Let's start with lean, and then we'll go into fatty tomorrow.
07:12I'll block it out.
07:13I'm going to butcher that here in a second.
07:15Yeah, we'll do it sliced.
07:17We got those Asian pears in.
07:19We have four quarts of farmer's cheese, so let's use that with it.
07:22The pear chutney from the quail, we'll move up here.
07:26I think we can do like a little mashed potato, like divot in the cheese.
07:29And then we'll plate the farmer's cheese, kind of like we have been doing.
07:34I think the Asian pears, I think we're going to need to cut those to order.
07:38For sure. It'll be fine.
07:40And then we'll plate that up.
07:42Maybe let's let's throw some like some toasted,
07:45chopped, like like crushed walnut into there as well.
07:49And then we can plate that up nicely with a pear chutney in the middle
07:52on the farmer's cheese, maybe like a little bit of orange zest on there.
07:55And then we'll just finish it with the date vinegar.
07:58And if you guys want to work on plating on that one, that would be nice.
08:02So 86, the pear chutney off of the quail.
08:05We'll do the cider glaze on this bad boy.
08:07We're going to let's let's smoke it.
08:09We'll get Conrad smoking that right now and then we'll do the cider vinegar.
08:13I think that'll be nice.
08:14All right. Cool. Let's do it.
08:16So now that we got the menu set for tonight, time to get in here
08:19and I'm going to start cutting some fish and portioning some fish.
08:26Before we start cutting this fish, let's not disrespect the fish.
08:30Let's get these knives sharp.
08:32So this is a Japanese water stone.
08:34We sharpen our knives by hand.
08:35Obviously, I think everywhere does that.
08:38And this is a suji hiki, which is like a Western style slicer.
08:42This is what I like to use for for breaking fish.
08:46So like breaking down bigger pieces of it.
08:49I think a good way to test is you go like this on your thumb and press.
08:53And if it slips, that means that part of the knife needs to be sharpened more.
08:57So this this one's feeling pretty good.
08:59I'm going to run it for one more second and I'm left handed.
09:02So I sharpen about 70 percent on this side, about 30 percent on this side
09:06right here. I think we're a little sharper than we were when we started.
09:09So let's go.
09:10So this is the wild Boston bluefin tuna.
09:13Really special fish.
09:14All tuna is special, but this one has really great flavor, really good fat,
09:20a lot of umami in the lean sections, too.
09:22And it's not available very often.
09:24So it's like when we see it, we'll get it.
09:26This paper that they wrap it in right here.
09:27It's like it absorbs a lot of moisture.
09:29And like one of the keys is just making sure
09:32that you're removing as much moisture as possible
09:35because like the juice is like what starts to get weird first.
09:39So like every fish is different.
09:41So I think it's really important to like have a little bit of a game plan
09:44before you just start cutting into it.
09:45So I think for this one, I'll start right here with the bloodline.
09:48We're going to get that out.
09:50You just want to be really, really gentle with the fish
09:52because it's very delicate and it can be like busted up.
09:55And I think texture when it comes to raw fish, especially
09:59is really, really important.
10:00We're looking good.
10:01If you see right here.
10:05Right here, right here.
10:08This area is going to have a little bit more sinew.
10:11So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to take this section off
10:14so we can just remove this.
10:16You really want to clean as you're going because scales will get on here
10:20and you don't want to be picking that out of the meat.
10:22We'll probably cut it into blocks going this way and then we'll split them.
10:26So we're going to serve this slice and raw
10:28with a little bit of anchovy infused olive oil, which we like to call soletta.
10:32And then we're just going to garnish it with like a little bit of chive,
10:36a little bit of lemon zest and a cured mullet roe or batarga
10:39that our buddies in Santa Maria Island, Florida, at Cortez
10:43Seafood, they do a Florida batarga out of a wild Florida mullet.
10:47All right. So the bluefin is all cut and organized.
10:50We're going to get into the walk in to kind of air dry until the end of service.
10:53Then we'll wrap it up with it.
10:54We're going to go check on these little quails smoking in the hearth.
11:02All right. So it's coming up on two.
11:04This is our little smoking technique that we came up with.
11:06No room for a real a real box smoker or anything, I think.
11:10No room for a real a real box smoker or anything like that.
11:13So basically what we did here is we just moved grill implements
11:17over here with a water bath to protect it.
11:20We wrapped the whole thing and then we kind of buddy up
11:23some sheet trays to kind of hold everything together and just let it go.
11:26It's really important to keep an eye on this, though,
11:29because if this lights up on fire, you're going to get like a lot more heat
11:34than you want.
11:34And then the quail are going to cook all the way through.
11:36And that's not the point of the dish,
11:37because we still cook the quail like medium or so on the grill.
11:41So we just want to make sure that it's like a really gentle smoke.
11:46All right. Quails looking really nice.
11:49So we're going to get over here
11:50and we're going to start making the cornbread batter.
11:56Right here is Anson Mills cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
12:00We're going to get this into a bowl just to incorporate it.
12:03This part's really important, even just mixing the dry properly,
12:06because you really want you don't want any like clumps of cornmeal in there.
12:10Otherwise, that translates into the actual finished dish.
12:13And nobody likes lumpy cornbread.
12:17The dry is all incorporated.
12:20You really want this smooth to begin with before the milk goes in.
12:24So this is an adaptation of an old Edna Lewis recipe
12:28that I pulled out of an old book a long time ago.
12:29Edna Lewis recipe that I pulled out of an old book a long time ago
12:33that we kind of worked on and then we mashed it up with
12:36chilies and cheese, which is the way that my mom used to make cornbread.
12:41So it's kind of like
12:43a mashup of Edna Lewis's classic sour milk cornbread
12:47and my mom's chili cheese cornbread.
12:50All right. So the eggs are nice and beaten up.
12:52So here we're going to take our buttermilk.
12:56We're going to go in.
12:59We're just going to whip this up just a little bit more.
13:07I like to add the cornmeal into this little by little, just so again,
13:11so there's no clumps.
13:13So the ideal texture on this for the end product
13:17is going to be as as smooth as humanly possible.
13:20This is a two year aged hooks, white cheddar, which is really nice,
13:24really nice and sharp.
13:25We've tried other cheeses, but this is what we like the best.
13:28So just give this a little mixing.
13:31And then these are New Mexico green chilies.
13:34If you look here, this is the finished product.
13:37It's just going to come together more as it sits before service.
13:40So I'm going to go ahead and pass this over to the to the wood oven station.
13:45Let it kind of come together.
13:46And then in a couple hours, we'll start firing them off.
13:49And we serve 50 to 75 cornbread a night, even on a mellow night.
13:53Like pretty much every table has a cornbread.
13:55So thank you Edna.
13:58We are going to do our final checks, make sure everything's good to go
14:03and then off to the races.
14:07When people walk into this restaurant,
14:08we want them to feel like they're walking into their own home
14:11or a friend's home.
14:12This is like their little happy place, or at least that's what I want it to be.
14:16All right, y'all.
14:16Thank you so much for spending the day in the kitchen with us at Dunsmore.
14:19Now get out of here. We got work to do.