Chef Davante Burnley Interview with Mean Jean
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00:00What's good? It's me, Gene, from the all-new Morning Bounce,
00:02and I am standing here with the guy.
00:04I'm talking to Chopped champion, the Detroit's own Chef Devontae.
00:08What's up, my brother? What's going on, man? How you doing?
00:10I'm well. I'm well, man.
00:11Thank you for inviting me into your kitchen today.
00:12We're going to talk a little bit about Chopped,
00:14talk about your background.
00:15You've also got a little something over here.
00:16What are you going to be making?
00:18Yeah, man, I'm going to show you my technique
00:19for making my steak, Diane's.
00:20Nice mushroom sauce.
00:21It's going to have a lot of brandy and cognac in there,
00:23so a lot of flavor.
00:25Steak and alcohol. Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:27So talk to me about being on Chopped.
00:30Not only being on Chopped, but actually being a Chopped champion.
00:33What was that experience like?
00:34Well, man, Chopped was a really cool experience.
00:37A very long day of filming, but ultimately, man,
00:40it was a really fun experience.
00:42I got to go out to New York, got to go to the Food Network studios,
00:45and got to experience that.
00:47And, you know, just like as seen on TV, man,
00:49it really is super intense and super fast-paced,
00:52but it has been fun and cool to do, so.
00:54That's dope.
00:54You have some interesting ingredients on your episode.
00:57Those weird lobsters and some turkey necks, I think it was.
01:01Ostrich necks.
01:01Ostrich necks.
01:02I had not ever had working with an ostrich neck before,
01:05but, you know, ultimately just kind of thinking about anatomy
01:08and the animal, pretty much just treating it no differently
01:10than I would treat like an oxtail or turkey neck.
01:12Oh, okay.
01:13So knowing that and knowing that there is no way
01:16to actually cook that in 20 minutes,
01:20you recognize real fast, you know.
01:23You've got to just make it do what it do, so.
01:24Got you.
01:25Yeah, that's what's up.
01:26So you are like Southern-style cooking kind of is what they explained
01:29to the rest of the show, right?
01:31Yeah, so my background is Southern cuisine.
01:33I'm heavily influenced in Southern cuisine.
01:34I have multiple cuisines that I'm burst in,
01:37but they all kind of wrap around to my Southern roots.
01:40So I always kind of cook with those layers of flavor, depth of flavors,
01:43big bowl flavor.
01:45My dad's mother is from Georgia.
01:47My mom's family is from the Carolinas.
01:50So just having that Southern background
01:52and cooking with my grandmothers and, you know,
01:54they learned how to cook from their mothers and so on and so forth.
01:56So it just was a very natural fit for me.
01:59That's what's up.
02:00So talk to me about what kind of got you into cooking
02:03and wanting to be a chef, you know, in the background.
02:05Also, just that love of food.
02:07Food is such a connecting language, you know.
02:10People, food brings people together.
02:12And that sense of family and that sense of togetherness,
02:15it's always something that I've loved.
02:17And then having a sports background growing up,
02:19playing football, baseball, basketball, you know,
02:22being in the kitchen is just that same type of necessary camaraderie.
02:25Yeah.
02:25It made it such an easy transition for me.
02:27So how long have you been cooking perfectionally?
02:30I started when I was 16 years old, just a little punk-freck cook, you know.
02:34A friend of the family was a chef down at Hotel St. Regis.
02:38So got me in young, peeling potatoes, cutting onions, washing dishes even.
02:42Mm-hmm.
02:42And I just always loved the energy and the sound and just the motion.
02:46Everything about the kitchen, the symphony of it all,
02:49is something I was all the time real good.
02:50Okay.
02:50Cool.
02:51Word.
02:51So one of the biggest shows that's out right now is The Bear.
02:55You know, it's one of all kinds of awards.
02:57Have you seen it?
02:57I have.
02:58I've actually just seen it too recently.
03:01Okay.
03:01It's definitely just like a trauma show for a chef because it's so realistic.
03:06Yeah.
03:06But we love it, though.
03:07It's a great show.
03:08So you are a private chef?
03:09Yes.
03:10Okay, so what exactly is someone that's not too familiar with cooking and being a chef?
03:14What exactly does that mean, being a private chef?
03:16So being a private chef, I'm less in a restaurant and I'm more in a beautiful home.
03:21Okay.
03:22So most of what I cook and what I do is very personalized.
03:24Okay.
03:25I love to be very personable with my clients and ultimately it allows me to be creative
03:30in a more intimate setting.
03:31Okay.
03:32So I'm not figuring out how to make this one dish a hundred times.
03:36I just have to focus on pushing all that flavor and all those ingredients into that one
03:40dish.
03:41And, you know, it takes a lot of organization, it takes a lot of, you know, being personal
03:46and having a big personality, but I enjoy it.
03:49I definitely miss the restaurant sometimes just because you miss, you know, as a personal
03:53chef, you're pretty much thinking by yourself all the time.
03:55Yeah.
03:56Whereas in that restaurant setting, you have your own team.
03:58So I do miss this, but yeah, well, yeah.
04:01But I do love being a personal chef.
04:03Yeah.
04:04You get to be your own boss, so you kind of get to do your own thing.
04:05Yeah.
04:06Yep.
04:07I would feed the D-line, the D-line dinner every Friday night.
04:11Okay.
04:12And man, the amount of food those guys go through, for a group of 11 people, I felt
04:16like I was cooking for 50, you know?
04:17Oh, wow.
04:18How does, you know, being from Detroit influence your cooking style?
04:21Being from Detroit, so Detroit is a city that's just a very go-getter, tough city,
04:26man.
04:27Yep.
04:28So Detroit being a city that's just full of, you know, big, gold people and energy and
04:34everything, you kind of got to bring the heat when it comes to cooking in Detroit.
04:37Okay.
04:38Can't come half-step in.
04:39Yeah.
04:40Because you'll get called out and quit.
04:41So being in Detroit can allow me to kind of just, like, keep grinding and pushing in
04:44that way.
04:45And also being in Detroit, Detroit's like a melting pot, and you'll have a lot of different
04:49backgrounds and stuff like that in Detroit.
04:51So, you know, you can, in any given day, go from everywhere from Polish cuisine to, you
04:57know, Southern cuisine to Latin cuisine with Southwest, you know, Mediterranean with
05:02Yearborn.
05:03So you really can go all over the map in Detroit, and that's one thing I love about Detroit.
05:06Okay.
05:07Let me ask you a question.
05:08You see how you just did that?
05:09Yes.
05:10Whenever I try to do that, stuff falls all over the stove.
05:12Wilder tree.
05:13A good pan.
05:14Uh-huh.
05:15And it's all in the wrist.
05:16You know, push and pull, and you kind of let the fan do the work for you.
05:19Go through the stool.
05:20Push and pull.
05:21Brace the wrist.
05:22Real gently.
05:23What do you mean?
05:24What's the break the wrist part?
05:25Like that.
05:26That's the technique.
05:27Like that one.
05:28Hey.
05:29Not too bad.
05:30We didn't lose too much.
05:31We didn't lose too much.
05:32Just let the fan kind of do the work for you.
05:35So right now what I'm doing is I got my steak finishing off in the oven.
05:39Okay.
05:40I'm letting my mushrooms and my onions kind of sweat down and saute.
05:43And then to this, I'm going to have some fun.
05:45I'm going to add that cognac.
05:46Okay.
05:47But I'm going to poof it.
05:48Oh, yeah.
05:49Flambe.
05:50Do you remember the Prince when Will wanted to poof?
05:51Can I poof the flambe?
05:52Can I do it?
05:53Yep.
05:54Let me go.
05:55Let's go.
05:56All right.
05:57Now I have somebody that likes to poke, right?
05:58Okay.
05:59Like I have a big, like similar situation to you.
06:01Like I remember being a little kid and my brother and I would stay up late over the summer
06:05watching the Food Network, right?
06:06Yeah.
06:07So something that I have tried twice and I'm going to try again is like Master Chef.
06:11Okay.
06:12So what advice would you have for somebody like me who's, you know, not in the cooking
06:16world, but kind of wants to get into the cooking world?
06:18So I would say, you know, be studious for sure.
06:21Be very prepared when you go on there.
06:23Okay.
06:24Kind of, you know, talk to different chefs and then try and test yourself.
06:26So that's one of the things that I feel like brought me a lot of success while doing
06:31Chao is that like prior to going on there, I watched a bunch of old episodes.
06:34I quizzed myself.
06:35I challenged myself.
06:36You know, what would I do in those situations with those ingredients?
06:39Uh-huh.
06:40Down to even like coming here and having like my sous chef grab a bunch of random stuff and
06:44tying me on making a course.
06:45Okay.
06:46So just doing that homework ahead of time.
06:47When I got there, pretty much I was prepared for any curveball ever going to throw my way,
06:51man.
06:52Yeah.
06:53So I would say definitely just study up and be ready.
06:54Okay.
06:55Gotcha.
06:56Now is the time.
06:57Now is the time.
06:58Let's go, baby.
06:59All right.
07:00So you want to grab that right there.
07:01Okay.
07:02Take that cognac, pour it away from yourself.
07:03Put that away?
07:04Yup.
07:05The whole thing?
07:06The whole thing.
07:07And me.
07:09So what we're doing right now is we're de-blazing the pan.
07:15Okay.
07:16Allowing that alcohol.
07:17So once the alcohol is actually cooked out of it, we'll still have all the good flavor
07:20of that brandy.
07:21Okay.
07:22But you won't taste that sauce and get drunk.
07:23Take about half the heavy cream and pour it in there.
07:25Okay.
07:26And this is the Diane sauce.
07:27So Diane sauce is basically a creamy cognac sauce.
07:31Okay.
07:32Very traditionally made for steak.
07:33And what we're going to do now is just leave it, you know, set it as we're getting,
07:37and just let it reduce.
07:38Okay.
07:39Until it tightens up real good for us while our sink is finishing up.
07:41Wow.
07:42That's it.
07:43Yup.
07:44Wow.
07:45That's easy.
07:46See, I always tell people, right?
07:47They're like, oh, you cook so good and blah, blah, blah.
07:48And I'm like, if you can read, you can cook.
07:49If you cook.
07:50All you have to do is follow directions.
07:51It's easy.
07:52And not be scared of fire and heat.
07:53Yeah.
07:54Yeah.
07:55I'm going to let this steak just rest for a couple seconds here.
07:58So if you look at the sauce, you see how it started out real loose.
08:00Yeah.
08:01Well, now it's like tight.
08:02So it's almost going to glaze.
08:03It's like short rib sauce.
08:04Exactly.
08:05You got to want it to tighten up.
08:06Take some of this frizzed egg, just kind of dress it up.
08:09I already hit it with a little olive oil.
08:10That steak is going to be so heavy with that cream sauce.
08:12Yeah.
08:13So you just want to have a little bit of color on the plate.
08:16So obviously you've done chopped and you've won chopped.
08:19Yeah.
08:20Are you thinking about any other food competitions or was that just like a one and done?
08:24No, for sure.
08:25I'm definitely interested.
08:26I actually just got reached out to my food network again.
08:29Okay.
08:30Barbecue Brawl.
08:31Oh, okay.
08:32So that's a possibility for being on the horizon.
08:34Uh-huh.
08:35And yeah, I mean, I'm down to do any of those shows.
08:36The experience was absolutely amazing.
08:38Yeah.
08:39I mean, I got nothing bad to say other than, you know, they shoot that episode all in one
08:45day.
08:46Uh-huh.
08:47So you're talking about one long, like 16-hour day, but man, it was so worth it.
08:5016 hours?
08:51Oh, yeah.
08:52I guess they have to reset everything.
08:53Reset everything after you cook each round.
08:57Uh, you know, getting us all mic'd up and set up and things like that.
09:03So those things just take quite some time.
09:05So we've got a perfect medium cook on that steak.
09:08You just made that in what?
09:1010 minutes?
09:1110 minutes.
09:12If that.
09:13Made it.
09:14Made it.
09:15It looks amazing.
09:16Salt over the top.
09:17And that's it.
09:18Steak right there.
09:19Look at that.
09:20From a professional, from a chopped champion.
09:22Oh, you're gonna ask, what'd you do with the $10,000?
09:24Investing in the business?
09:25You're gonna keep that in the pocket, man.
09:28You're gonna have my daughter beat down in here, man.
09:31Everybody.
09:32No, into the business for sure.
09:34Yeah.
09:35Just investing in us, you know, some more, just different stuff.
09:37Being a private chef, we have, we put a lot of miles on our cars.
09:40Indeed.
09:41You know, so it's a lot of hustle and bustle.
09:42So.
09:43Yeah.
09:44Just having, you know, take care of the business.
09:45Of course.
09:46You know, our money, they come with and they go with, but it's definitely,
09:48you know, you just put it back into the business and it makes it working.
09:50Gotcha.
09:51So your private chef, you did say that you missed the camaraderie of being in the kitchen.
09:55Mm-hmm.
09:56Is opening a restaurant something that you're ever interested in doing or are you just good?
09:59Yeah.
10:00So I'm actually opening, I'm working on a couple of projects right now.
10:02Okay.
10:03Hopefully looking to be open September of next year downtown.
10:06Um, but we're, we're working on a couple, by the few, by the right now, we're working
10:09on a smokehouse concept that we're going to be debuting during the draft.
10:13Mm-hmm.
10:14We're working on a Southern cuisine concept as well.
10:16Oh, nice.
10:17That's what's up.
10:18So be on the lookout for that.
10:19So you can follow me on Instagram for sure at chef underscore Devante B.
10:23That's D-A-V-A-N-T-E, the letter B, chef underscore Devante B.
10:28From there, you can follow my other pages as well.
10:30Um, the private chef page, which is chef square PCG.
10:33Check out my reels, see some day in the life of, see some, uh, just different, you know,
10:38meal preps and stuff that I've done with the athletes.
10:40We work with the lions, the red wings, the pistons.
10:43So cooking for those athletes.
10:44So you'll get to see, you know, the insights of all that we do for those guys as well.
10:47All right.
10:48Perfect.
10:49Thank you so much for having us.
10:50Appreciate it.
10:51Appreciate you.
10:52And, uh, we got to try this.
10:53I don't think I've ever had steak Diane before.
10:54So I think this is going to be our first.
10:56My brother loves it.
10:57I'm going to take a little bite so that I'm not chewing in your ear the whole time.
11:00You know what I mean?
11:01And that cut I'm even working with is, uh, that's a New York strip right there.
11:04Mm.
11:05Mm-hmm.
11:06I'm not even a big fan of mushrooms.
11:08This is it.
11:09Good deal.
11:10This is it.
11:11Chef Devante, thank you so much for having us.
11:12Thank you, man.
11:13Anytime.
11:14Congratulations, man.