- Okay.
Hi, it's Selena.
And here we go again.
I've learned so much about cooking the past year.
And I'm having way too much fun to stop now.
So I'm continuing my lessons from my own kitchen
with some of the best chefs all across the country.
Last but not least...
And even if we're miles away,
we can still have fun cooking together, apart.
Oh.
- All right, it's my favorite time of the day.
- Yeah. I wonder why.
- Where's Anna? - I don't know.
- Oh, my... - He's cute.
- Hi. - Hi, how are you guys?
- Good. Are you hot in that leather jacket?
- It's a little warm.
But I ride a motorcycle, so it must be done.
- Wow. - Oh, he rides a motorcycle.
- Have fun. - Thank you.
Thank you.
Enjoy it. Bye, guys.
Bye.
- He's too hot. Like, guys that are that attractive,
it makes me feel-- like, I can't get words out.
- Yeah, but you don't want a guy that's prettier than you.
You know? - Yeah. That's how I--
Are you saying he's prettier than me?
Whoa!
- No, I didn't mean it like that.
- Really great for my self-esteem, you know?
All right.
- Ooh, what are these little-- - Honey.
- This is an interesting combo.
Have you ever seen a vanilla bean? This is what--
- This looks like a spider. I think we got everything.
- Okay. - All right.
Selena and Gabe, take one. - Whoo-hoo!
I want to take you back up on the $40.
- Okay.
- Selena's practicing organization today.
I'm practicing "I left my phone in the family room."
- Oh, you're not gonna--$20,
I'm putting $20 on that right now.
- $40. - Deal.
- $40, okay. Here we go.
- Oh!
- So forget it. I lost the challenge.
Look at this. This is the biggest flop.
Do you really think
you can keep the kitchen clean, is the question.
- I think I did a decent job last time.
- Double or nothing.
I will stay clean.
And you will try not to be on your phone.
- Okay. Deal.
- All right. Let's do the little dial-up.
♪ Oh, I'm trying, I'm trying ♪
♪ I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying ♪
♪ Oh, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying ♪
♪ My feelings on fire ♪
Hi, Gabe!
- Hi, Selena!
- I am so happy you are here.
This is my best friend,
Raquelle.
And oh, Anna. Come on.
- Hi, Gabe!
- Hey, Raquelle. Hi, Anna. - Hi.
- Nice to meet you both.
- Love your kitchen.
- Thank you.
- Today I'm joined by Chef Gabe Kennedy.
He's known as the feel-good chef.
He's an entrepreneur, a great activist,
was named to "Forbes" 30 under 30.
He has shaped menus for some
of the world's best restaurants and publications.
I think this one's gonna be a lot of fun.
So where abouts are you?
- I am in Los Angeles. I'm in Los Feliz.
- So we can hang out, outside of "Selena + Chef"!
- Are you trying to hang out?
- All right. So I want to know
what we're making today.
- Yeah. Selena, today we have
a beautiful date-night meal.
So we're gonna start off
by making a black cod
cooked en papillote, served
with some Padrón peppers,
shallots, potatoes,
and tomatoes.
And we're gonna finish
with a Basque cheesecake.
And it's gonna be topped with some brown butter
rosemary figs.
And I figure that this is
very transformative.
It's celebratory and really interactive.
So it's a little bit of cooking.
It's a little bit of arts and craft.
Oh, gosh. Please help me.
All right. Show me the way. How do we start?
- We're gonna start with dessert first.
- Oh! - And the difference between
this cheesecake and others
is that there's no crust
and we get a little bit of this caramelization on top.
- Yum. - All right, so the first thing
that we're gonna want to do is make sure
our oven is preheating
at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. - Yep.
- And you can throw it on convection as well.
- Okay.
- You're gonna grab a springform pan.
- Got it.
- We're gonna need a stand mixer.
- Yes, I have one of those. - Okay.
This is some heavy machinery.
- Oh.
- Oh, Sel, be careful.
- Help! - Oh!
- Oh, no! Oh, no! - No, it's okay.
- I just hit--so sorry.
We just had a slight injury.
- Okay. Take your time.
- Got it! This is heavy. - Yeah.
We also have some parchment paper.
- Okay.
- Also grab four blocks of cream cheese.
That's 2.2 pounds, 1 kilo. - I'm on it.
- 2 cups of heavy cream, some flour...
- Flour. - Some sugar, some eggs.
- Yeah. - Yep.
- Sounds like we're baking.
- Got it. - We got it all.
- Nice. - Ooh. We're good to go.
- Do you have a little salt? - Yes, we do.
- Salt-ahs.
- And these beautiful aromatic vanilla beans?
- It's so small.
- I thought it would be, like, big.
- You love the smell, right? - Ah!
- All right. Now we're all set.
So we're just gonna stick that cream cheese in our mixer.
And we're just gonna measure out a cup and a half of sugar.
And then we're gonna cream all these ingredients together.
- Okay. Here comes the sugar.
- And then we're gonna slowly
get this cream in.
- Okay. - Perfect.
And now we're gonna one by one add our eggs in.
We're gonna do six eggs plus one yolk.
- Ooh, that's a nice egg.
- So if you ever are, like, cracking eggs
and they keep breaking in the pan
when you want to make a fried egg,
try cracking it on a flat surface.
And your yolks will never break again.
- My whole life I've been figuring out
how to not break the yolk.
- There it is. That's the secret.
- Ah! - Okay. So put that yolk in.
- Whoo-hoo! - Okay.
We're gonna now add our 2 cups of cream.
- Yum!
- The next thing is we're gonna add a whole bunch of zest.
So I've got some Meyer lemons.
I've got some regular lemons.
I've got some oranges.
Do you have those at your disposal?
- Yep. - Oh, my gosh, Raquelle!
Who's texting me? No, I--
- You ought to sit down. - I saw.
I have so many messages. I already know.
Sit down.
- Okay. So what do I do? - All right.
So we're gonna zest through a few of these.
I'm actually going to do it onto my cutting board
because it's hard for me to get in there.
So we are just kind of getting
the pure essence of the citrus here.
- How's that?
- That's great. Then I say throw it in.
- Oh, look how gorgeous.
- So the next thing that we'll tackle is the vanilla bean.
- Okay. - What I'm gonna do
is just hold the end.
And I'm gonna split the vanilla bean right down the middle
and sort of open it up.
So a lot of the flavor here is in the seeds.
And if you've ever had, like, a really great vanilla ice cream?
- Oh, I love that. - Yeah.
- And you see those specks in it?
- Yeah. - Those are the vanilla seeds.
- No way. The black stuff?
- Yeah. - That's so cool.
- Can I sniff?
- The next step here is we're gonna
take the knife and scrape these seeds out.
- I'm never gonna look at vanilla the same
when I see the little specks.
- We're gonna think of you, Gabe.
- That is all I could ever ask for.
You know, I'm just vanilla.
Now scrape all of those little seeds up
and throw it in your mixer.
- Yeah. - Done.
- Amazing.
What's your sign?
- Oh. - Oh, I'm so glad you asked.
- A little detour from the cooking, just curious.
- I'm a Scorpio-Sag-Leo.
- Wow. - That's me.
- That's a fiery combination.
- I just--I felt like he was fiery.
So I just was confirming. And it got confirmed.
- Oh, yeah? Right.
♪ Looks so good ♪
♪ Yeah, looks so sweet ♪
Yeah.
Um, well,
I'm gonna just get this going again.
So, if you want to turn it on,
we're gonna mix everything together.
And then I'm also going to task--
Raquelle, do you mind?
I actually have my tea but it is date night.
And I feel like, you know, we should put on some tunes
and open a bottle of wine. - Yeah.
- So there should be some wine in the fridge.
And you can pour yourself a glass.
- Raquelle. - Okay.
- Or you can join me in some iced tea.
I think she's blushing.
- That's so nice, Gabe.
- So here's what you're gonna do, Selena.
We're gonna take 1/4 cup of flour.
- We got it.
- And we're going to dust it into the batter.
And then tap the side really gently.
All we're trying to do
is make sure that there's no clumps here.
And we're going to stir this very briefly.
Et voilà!
- Oh.
- Now we're gonna bake this in parchment.
- Raquelle, are you good over there?
- Yeah.
- Raquelle, how's that wine coming?
- I'm just taking a little break.
Cheers, Gabe! - Cheers, salud!
It's such a pleasure to meet all of you.
Thank you for cooking with me. - Pleasure to meet you.
- Thanks for having me in your kitchen.
- Oh, wow. - Yeah, thanks, Sel.
- And welcome to mine.
We're happy to be there.
- Are we ready to cut our parchment?
- Yes. - So I'm gonna do a crumple.
Makes it a little easier to work with.
And then press it into the pan.
We want to make sure
that there's at least 2, 3 inches on the outside
'cause you'll see this is gonna kind of souffle up.
It's gonna... - Ah.
- We're gonna do two pieces.
So don't put that parchment away
'cause they're gonna overlap.
So, if you can see mine,
it looks like a beautiful flower.
- Gorgeous.
- Now we're just gonna pour the batter in.
- Okay. I'm so scared.
- Oh. Amazing.
- Kind of luscious, right? - Yeah.
- And into the oven it goes, convection, please.
- Oh, wow. - Okay.
- And that's it.
We're gonna say goodbye to the cheesecake
for about 50 minutes.
- Bye, cheesecake.
- So, Selena and Anna, do you have beverages?
Are we hydrating? - Hmm.
- Now we're getting the invite. - Yeah.
- I'll get you one. Okay. Late for the party.
- Late for a couple glasses of wine.
- I think that was a misunderstanding,
because I was intending to invite all of us,
collectively. - Ohh.
- No, you made Raquelle feel very special.
So don't worry.
Okay, well, I'm glad that I made Raquelle feel special.
But I was hoping we could all--
- Yes. - Drink at the same time.
Don't take it personally, Raquelle, but--
- I'm not.
- Teamwork makes the dream work, right?
- She's heard that a lot.
- So are we ready for the next part of our dessert?
- Yes, I am.
- So now we're gonna make these caramelized figs, all right?
- All right. - So I love figs
because I find them to be a very sensual fruit.
- Oh. - You know, they're soft.
They're actually an inward blooming flower.
- Look.
So we're gonna just take the top of the fig off.
- Okay.
- And then we're going to slice them in half.
And that's it.
So we can do six figs.
I mean, that seems like enough.
- Figs are so beautiful.
I wish I had my phone to take a photo of them.
- All right, so grab a nonstick pan.
And throw that thing over medium-high heat.
- Right there.
- So the first thing, is I'm gonna grab
a little dollop of butter, maybe, like, a tablespoon.
- All right, just a little spoonful of butter?
- Yeah, just a little spoonful,
just to make sure that we're coating
the bottom of the pan, and then we're also gonna add
two things of rosemary in there.
And we are going to let
the rosemary kind of fry up in the butter.
- Okay.
- And once it gets a little bit brown,
we'll remove it from the pan.
Now, let's take these figs
and place them flesh-side down in the pan.
- Okay.
- Gabe, what's your perfect, ideal date?
- You know, my ideal date is-- I love cooking,
but I love cooking together.
I love going on a stroll.
I'm a huge sunset guy, as cliché as that sounds.
Like, I always love watching the sunsets.
- Raquelle. - That's literally Raquelle.
- Raquelle does that, like, every day.
- I'm such a sunset person. I really am.
- That's--Yeah, two peas in a pod over here, Raquelle.
- Yeah. - Honestly.
- Two peas in a pod.
- So, hey, Selena.
I have to ask, what is your dream date?
- I enjoy simplicity.
I think the life that I live can be a bit grandiose.
- Mm-hmm. - So, like, I went on a date,
and it was in someone's home.
And there were candles lit.
And we got, you know, takeout food.
There was no cooking.
Then there was, like, a big projection of Paris,
like, the live feed of Paris.
So I was very, very touched by that.
I was very moved, and it was very sweet.
But it was just takeout and Paris.
It was thoughtful, right?
- It was very thoughtful. - And you love thoughtful.
- And I'll never forget that date, ever.
- Aw. - That's so sweet.
Do you love Paris?
- I do. I love the world. Hey, I love everyone.
- Amen. Well, I'm just gonna call it out right now.
My rosemary is nice and crispy
so I'm gonna remove it from the pan, okay?
- Okay.
- So see the color of this fig?
Do you mind just checking yours?
- Yes. Mine looks like this. - Those are gorgeous.
- Oh, good. - Fantastic.
So let's just give them a little flip, okay?
- Okeydokey.
- If you don't mind grabbing some honey.
- I'll get the honey, honey.
- It didn't land.
- No, it didn't. - It didn't land.
Okay. Some do, some don't.
- All right, cool.
So now we're gonna take that honey,
and we're gonna just add it to the pan.
I'm doing, like, 2 tablespoons maybe.
- Okay.
- We just want to get a nice little glaze.
I'm going to just kind of pour my figs into this bowl.
But do a little sprinkle of salt
and just a crack of pepper.
And now our dessert is pretty much completely done.
- Whoop!
- Dessert down. - Whoo-hoo!
- How old were you when you started cooking?
- Well, I started cooking
when I was four or five.
And I would be in the kitchen with my mom
chopping baby carrots.
I got bit by the bug, and I've been cooking ever since.
- That's very sweet. - Thanks, Selena.
- Look at your smile. He's making me blush now.
Are you seeing anyone? I'm just kidding.
- So we're going to process the vegetables for the fish.
It's four individual servings.
Like, we're not making a family-style thing here.
Each serving is going to get cherry tomatoes,
Padrón peppers, similar to the Shishito.
It's going to get these little fleurettes of Romanesco.
It's also going to get a potato.
So let's prepare the Romanesco.
First thing you're gonna do is peel off all of the leaves.
- Good job, Sel. - Can I call you Sel?
Are we there yet? - Yeah.
- "Are we there yet?" You're there.
- Okay, Sel, do me a favor. - Yeah.
- Take that knife that you have...
and just straight down.
Perfect.
Now you're gonna be able to break off these fleurettes
a little bit easier.
We're not gonna do that many.
Like, each dish is only gonna get, let's say,
four or five fleurettes.
So we're going to want each fleurette
to be about the size of a cherry tomato.
- Size matters on date night, doesn't it?
Size--
- Anna had to go there.
- I had to make the joke. It's a date-night episode.
- It's okay. He's calling her Sel now.
It's fine. We can make jokes like that, you know?
- Those look beautiful, Selena.
- Gabe, thank you.
- Those look really, really great. Nice work.
Take those little small guys. Throw them in the bowl.
Oh, timer!
You want to take a look at the cheesecake?
- Cheesecake!
- It looks a little more-- - Oh, it looks so good!
- It looks delicious. - Does it look burnt?
'Cause we want it to look really kind of burnt on top.
- Not as burnt as yours. - I think it's probably okay.
- Oh. - Okay.
- And I'm just going to set it on my resting rack.
And we'll let it cool a bit faster.
Next, we're gonna cut our peppers.
We need to take the stems off.
And we need to cut them to the appropriate size
so that they cook at the same pace
as our tomatoes and our Romanesco.
Let's do 12. - Got it.
- Raquelle's checking her phone.
- Did you just lose?
- I can explain.
- No, there is no explaining. You're done.
You owe me $80.
- Raquelle, I thought we were, you know, being here now.
I thought that that was the motto.
- I've been trying to be here now.
- No, I'm just kidding. You're doing a great job.
So peppers in the bowl.
- Okay.
- Now we're going to just halve the cherry tomatoes.
Super easy, let the knife do the work.
Otherwise you're going to get splashed
with a little cherry tomato.
It's gonna squirt onto your beautiful shirt.
- On date night.
- Every single episode I think
that you've not stayed clean, right?
- Yeah. - I don't know.
You're looking pretty clean right now, though, right?
- Gabe's just-- - Bringing out the best in me.
Me too.
- You're bringing out the best in me.
We love you, Gabe!
- And I love... Sungold tomatoes.
They're like candy. - Right?
I think so. - Yeah.
- I think that we're good with the tomatoes.
You guys have really rocked through that.
You can put them in the bowl. We're almost there.
Next, we're going to take a shallot.
I'm going to remove the tip.
And I'm gonna remove the root
and slice in half.
So what we're going to do is, we're going to julienne.
That means basically as thin strips as you can.
And I like the strips to be long,
and so I want to cut it longways.
Perfect. And into the bowl it goes.
Nice. So the next thing that we'll do
is we're gonna microplane, like, two cloves of garlic.
- Two cloves of garlic on date night.
- I know. Well, I feel like
if you both have garlic breath, like, it's all good.
- If you like the person.
- Keep the vampires away, you know?
So I'm adding olive oil.
- Got it. - A little bit of lemon zest.
Now, I got you this special pepper.
It's called Piment d'Espelette.
Espelette is a particular pepper
that is grown in the Basque region.
I'm going to just do a light sprinkle on top.
This is gonna bring the heat, okay?
Selena, you're killing it. This is gonna be fantastic.
- Thank you.
- Next we're gonna do the potato.
Do you have a mandoline?
- Yes. - I'm gonna use my knife
'cause I don't have a mandoline.
- Okay.
- I'm going to leave the skin on.
And we're just gonna cut these super thin.
Let's do 5 slices per person, so 20 slices total.
Selena, let's make them a little round.
- Like the butt.
- So... - The butt?
- Exactly. Shave the butt.
- We have to shave the butt before date night.
Perfect.
- Yeah. It's-- That wasn't permission.
- The problem was, it's 'cause I didn't have it.
It was like I missed so much.
- How does that much happen? - I don't know.
- I mean, I think we're good.
- Yeah, I think we're good, too.
Throw those guys into your bowl
and just sprinkle a little bit of salt
and a few cracks of pepper and some olive oil.
- Hey, do you want to help clean up while you're texting?
- Yes. - Okay, here you go.
- Hey, Raquelle, who are you texting?
- Yeah, seriously. She-- - Oh, my God.
- The world.
- I wish I was texting you, Gabe, honestly.
We need to get your number. - No, but who are you texting?
- I was texting a few different people.
Okay. Here we go.
- Now we're just gonna mix all these vegetables together
and make a nice little mélange of vegetables.
- Mmm.
- Okay. This goes to the side. Potato goes to the side.
Now we're going to cut our parchment.
- Okay. - So I am going to
cut the parchment about 20 inches.
We're folding the parchment in half.
And we're gonna cut a heart. - What?
- So this is like we're doing a little arts-and-crafts project.
- I went to art school. Stand aside.
- I'm actually using a knife 'cause I'm a lefty
and scissors were not made for lefties.
You're gonna have to have all your ingredients
fit into one half.
So hold up your hearts.
Oh, my God. That one's perfect.
That's actually perfect.
- Anna, art school served you well.
- Now what we're going to do
is rub the heart down with a little bit of olive oil.
And rub the olive oil all over.
We're gonna take our potatoes,
and we're gonna layer them into a little circle.
- Okay. - Okay.
Now what we're going to do is take a few of our vegetables,
and we're gonna make a little bed for our fish.
Does someone mind going to the refrigerator
and getting the black cod, the sablefish?
I'm gonna grab mine.
Now I'm going to season this with a little bit of olive oil,
a little bit of salt, and a little bit of pepper.
So I'm just simply laying my fish on top.
Now I'm gonna take a pinch of my Espelette.
And then I'm gonna put
like, 2 tablespoons of butter on it.
- Where, on top of the fish?
- Put your thyme on top of your butter.
- Like this? - Yes, chef.
Take your wine,
and pour about 2 tablespoons on top of the fish.
The wine, the natural juices of the vegetables and fish,
and the butter are gonna come together
to make a really beautiful broth.
Great job, guys. Now it's time to fold.
Make a fold and really crease it.
And then we're gonna fold
following the shape of the heart.
And make sure you're doing a really firm crease
because that's what's gonna hold this all together
and make sure that it cooks in its own juices
and none of the flavor escapes.
- This is like ASMR over here. - Yeah. I know, we're so quiet.
We're so in it. - Now they look cute.
- Awesome job, girls. Like, seriously, killer.
Now you're gonna put those onto a sheet tray.
And then we're gonna put it into the oven
for anywhere from 15 to 18 minutes.
Say goodbye
to our little gifts of fish. - Bye!
- We'll see them in a few minutes.
Cheers. We really did it.
- Yay! - Whoo!
- Bravo. I'm so proud. You guys are troupers.
Now we're going to plate the cheesecake.
- Amazing.
- Let's bring this thing to the front.
All right. So now pop that latch, please.
Slide that thing off.
And I'm gonna just cut a slice.
Now grab that slice of cheesecake.
- Wow!
- Hell, yeah. Yours look better than mine.
Throw one of those figs on there, maybe two or three.
And if you're feeling, like, a little sweet-savory combo,
you can throw your crumbled rosemary on top.
- Yum. - And now we have cheesecake.
- Okay, here we go.
- I love it. It's not, like, super thick.
- Mmm. - It's soft.
- Mm-hmm. And I love the sweet-savory combo.
- It's a bit different, right?
It's different than your traditional cheesecake.
- It is delicious. It's so good.
This for sure is a five out of five.
I would make this again.
- Gabe, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit
about the organization we'll be donating to.
- So I chose Wholesome Wave.
So it's an organization focused
on policy and education
to not only combat food insecurity
but also nutrition insecurity.
Not only getting people food,
but getting people the right food.
So I find it to be a really exciting organization
that really breathes the kind of ethos of food as medicine
and is providing people access
to clean, fresh produce with a lot of dignity.
So thank you so much for your support
and your donation and... - Of course.
- Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Oh, timer.
- Oh, fish time.
- Okay. Wow, that looks fantastic.
- We didn't burn it. - Yeah.
- So what you're gonna do
is you're just gonna take this tray,
and you're gonna just slide your fish
into the bowl, okay?
And now, once you are ready, you're gonna take scissors
or a knife, whatever, and then I also think
it's really important to eat the cod with a spoon.
- So we have spoons and scissors.
- All right, ready?
- Yeah. - So I have a knife.
I'm gonna just stab in and cut the parchment open.
And all of a sudden, you're gonna smell the vegetables
and the fish just perfuming.
- Oh, wow!
- It looks beautiful.
- It's amazing! - Oh, my God!
- I would just suggest kind of breaking a little piece
of that fish, grabbing a cherry tomato.
- All right. - Cheers! Whoo! Fish!
- Gabe, this is so fresh!
- Mmm, this is my favorite. This is my favorite fish.
- We're having your favorite. Oh, yeah. No, same.
This is one of the best things we've had.
- It's, like, really cute.
You have your own little package for your date.
- If you're doing this for date night,
you can do this for each other.
Like, I could make you one, and you could make me one.
- I would love to. I feel ready for date night.
- Oh, is it our date? - I think it's your guys' date.
I feel like I'm just here to kind of instruct
and facilitate, so I hope that you enjoy.
This is amazing.
We're gonna have some friends over later.
I'm ready to show off my skills a little bit.
- Yeah, you should. Well deserved.
- This is delicious!
- We did it.
- We did it!
- This has been a total blast.
I really appreciate you learning alongside me.
And I appreciate the opportunity to cook with you.
- For sure. - Thank you so, so much.
- Thank you. - Bye, Gabe.
- Bye, Gabe! - Bye, Selena.
Bye, Anna. Bye, Raquelle.
- Bye!
- Are we paying off our bet? - I lost. I have to pay up.
- How much is this? - You just got $80 richer.
Double or nothing.
- Thank you. Put it right where I want it.
- Maybe one day my beloved phone will...
- Take it to the slots. Thank you very much, everyone.
- Bah-da-don.
- ♪ All this time, and we still got that selfish love ♪
♪ You like makin' me jealous ♪
♪ I like makin' you jealous ♪
♪ Es un juego que queda entre tú y yo ♪
♪ Tú y yo, tú y yo ♪
♪ ♪