Episode 1 MasterChef: The Professionals: Michel's Classics

Only an elite group of chefs holds two Michelin stars.

Michel Roux Jr is one of them.

HE GIVES ORDERS

He has given us a taste of how to create the great classics.

Tonight is the masterclass.

Perfect.

Michel Roux Jr is part of a culinary dynasty.

The Roux family reputation is based on their level of excellence

in executing traditional French cuisine.

Ever since I can remember, I was brought up on the classics.

Be it at home with my father and mother or in my working life.

They are in my blood.

I've been working for Chef Michel for over three years.

I've always respected the classics,

because that's what we base the food on today.

We needed the foundation to work from,

so knowing the classics, then work your way up from there.

All these dishes I'm going to cook today are very personal to me.

They are part of my culinary journey.

The first classic dish that I'm cooking is oeuf poche meurette.

It's a poached egg served on a brioche toast with smoked bacon

and glazed onions and a little bit of mushroom.

The origins of this recipe are from Burgundy in France.

Obviously, Burgundy famous for its wine,

and therefore the egg is poached in red wine

and served with a red wine sauce.

It's a beautiful dish.

I remember first coming across this dish

when I was doing my military service in Paris, cooking for President Mitterrand.

It was one of his favourite dishes.

It was great, but he used to have it as a breakfast!

First job, some good red wine.

A bottle.

It seems fairly generous and almost wasteful,

but we're going to be using that wine to make the sauce,

so it's not going to be wasted.

The wine's come up to the boil, turn it around a bit,

and in goes the egg.

That egg takes on a beautiful colour from the wine.

Of course, it's best to use a really strong wine,

something like a Shiraz or Syrah, something that's got body.

Now for the onions. Straight into a pan, with a little bit of butter.

Salt.

And a pinch of sugar,

to give them that extra sweetness and shine.

There we go.

Being gentle with it all the time, obviously,

because we don't want to break the egg.

That goes in there to cool down.

And now we go onto the sauce, so pass the red wine through a sieve.

There we go.

And now that has to reduce down to a glaze.

Whilst that's happening...

I'm chopping the shallots and getting the duxelles of mushrooms ready.

So the shallots into a pan with a little bit of oil,

and we'll add the mushrooms to that.

I get great pleasure out of this! It's therapeutic. It's lovely.

You're on top of the mushrooms and you get this lovely aroma.

Now we going to add a little bit of cream to it.

And that's going to cook down.

Whilst that's happening, we can get the smoked bacon ready.

I'm going to cook these in the oven.

Here we have the red wine, almost down to nothing,

so now is the time for the veal stock to go in.

Now that is going to be reduced down to a glaze.

Mmm.

Wow, nice!

We are going to sit the egg on a brioche,

but not just a slice of brioche,

I'm going to pan fry it in clarified butter, making it really rich,

crispy golden on the outside, but soft and moist on the inside.

Wee-hee, look at that, lovely.

Let's get the lardons on the other gas.

Fried bread, egg, bacon...

Can't go wrong.

Mmm!

Oh, my word, that is good.

So, now we have to plate up...

We'll go to town with this presentation.

The onions...

Look at that lovely sweet glaze on them.

They look shiny, they look beautiful and appetising.

Now for the lardons.

The final touch,

a little bit of the sauce on top of the egg.

And a slice of our lovely bacon

draped over the top.

And there we have it, oeuf poche meurette,

a beautiful Burgundian speciality.

I think that's looks pretty as a picture and looks...classy.

Beautiful! Mmm.

I am now going to cook a dodine de canard aux pistaches.

That is a whole duck stuffed like a pate, studded with pistachios

and traditionally served at the table.

This is not a dish that you can knock up and just serve,

it takes three days of preparation so you have to think and plan ahead,

but it's well worth the work and worth the wait!

Basically, a dodine de canard is a pate, but it's going to be served whole, as a whole duck,

so we need to bone out the duck.

Straight down the middle...

and we, literally, follow the bones...

and very gently teasing it open.

The first time I saw this dish I was an apprentice in Paris

in a charcuterie shop, famous for its pates,

and this particular dish would always take centre stage of the shop window,

it's something that's really special,

attracts the eye and brings theatre.

I have to go very carefully.

Nice clean carcass...and...

the duck, the only hole is a natural hole.

Season this now with salt, pepper...

..a little splash of brandy

and a little splash of port,

gives it a real sweetness.

We then to put this in the fridge overnight

so as all the lovely seasoning manages to permeate into the flesh.

The next step of this wonderful pate

is to make the forcemeat, or the stuffing.

For this we use pork fat, pork meat and a little bit more duck meat.

The chicken livers that have been diced up and marinated as well,

in the same seasoning,

and the farci au gratin, the liver puree.

So the next step is to mince the pork fat, pork meat and the duck.

This is an old-fashioned hand mincer.

Maybe I am a bit old-fashioned,

but there's so much more pleasure out of doing it by hand.

That's right.

So we have the mincemeat here, we need to add the duck puree to it,

a few pistachios, the marinated liver.

Now we take the duck and in goes the stuffing.

Quick wash of hands before we operate!

So...

In goes the needle, pull...

Chefs very seldom gets the chance to see classic cookery at its best

and when we do dishes like this the staff absolutely love it,

they're all over this dish because it's so unusual, so special,

it is steeped in history and that's what the classics are all about.

That's it.

There you go. Now to cook the dodine de canard.

It needs about an hour and a half, to two hours' cooking,

slow cooking, love and attention.

Then it's got to be refrigerated for at least 12 hours, overnight,

for it to set and settle.

Now...

Our dodine de canard.

Mmm!

Oh, that's perfect, look at that, that's absolutely glorious!

All it needs now are a few home-made pickles.

Three days of hard work for this wonderful, beautiful classic dish,

dodine de canard farci aux pistaches.

It is the pate of all pates.

We are very fond of pasta as a family

and this particular dish I remember seeing my uncle cook as a child.

les nouilles aux fruits de mer, pasta with seafood.

It actually made it to my uncle's menu in his restaurant.

It is a favourite. It is a beautiful dish.

We've got five different kinds of seafood here that need preparation.

The mussels first.

They need to be rinsed and checked for the beards,

check for any barnacles on there.

Then we have the razor clams, they get the same treatment.

A little rinse.

To steam the mussels and the razor clams,

we use a little bit of shallot

and that's going to add sweetness to the sauce.

They're going to steam. I'm going to take them out.

I'm going to keep that lovely liquor

and use that as the basis of the sauce.

A little bit of dry white wine,

lid on.

Now for the winkles.

I'm a Frenchman and I love snails

and these are only just small snails, from the sea!

Unfortunately, we don't use enough winkles, they're delicious.

These have been boiled, but then you just take a toothpick

and dig them out.

This protective cap needs to come off.

If you turn the winkle over, it's intestine just pulls off.

The scallop, I want to use just the best part, which is the white.

So, in they go, to this simmering liquor

and I just want to ever so slightly cook them

because we are going to be cooking them again in the finished sauce.

Next, the langoustine.

Little squeeze here and out it pops.

So, I'm going to keep one of the heads for decoration.

The other heads we're going to put back into the cooking liquor,

along with some fish stock.

Now we need to finish off the mussels and razor clams.

The sweetest and best part is this pure white meat here.

The sauce has now reduced and it's intense.

The double cream goes into this reduction

and we let it reduce again.

Mmm! You can smell the sea in there, you can smell the langoustine,

the mussels, it's all there and the white wine.

Press the shells, the shallots...

in this trusty old sieve that's seen many a sauce!

There we go. Ahh!

Now what we need to do is roll out that pasta out, cook it

and bring the dish together.

And in we go, we start rolling.

Tagliatelle, or thin pasta, I think works best with this sauce

because you can coat the sauce on every strand of pasta.

Now the final moment.

In they go.

Mmm!

Fresh pasta cooks very, very quickly.

It goes straight into another pan...

a little bit of the sauce on the pasta.

Now to reheat the seafood

and it IS only reheating, not cooking.

Finally, the tomato goes into the sauce at the last second.

Right!

And there we have it, les nouilles aux fruits de mer...

..fresh pasta with seafood and cream sauce.

A beautiful dish, fit for a king!

This particular dish is an all-time favourite of mine.

These are a classic accompaniment to pigeon in France.

It's rather like bangers and mash in England.

Pigeon, peas, but they have to be cooked a la Francais,

peas in the style of the French.

And that is with bacon, wilted lettuce, carrot and onion.

The perfect accompaniment for a roast pigeon.

The roast pigeon dish I've never cooked before, myself,

you have to have such a skill because it's roasted on the bone,

but once it all comes together it's such a buttery and scrumptious dish.

This dish is going to be accompanied by a confit grilled potato.

It needs a long, slow cooking, so it's the first job to do.

Cut it about a centimetre and a half and then just shape it.

Beautiful shape.

That's goes straight onto the grill.

So it has the lovely criss-cross and slightly smoky flavour.

Beautifully marked on both sides, it goes into the duck fat.

So now this is going to go in the oven for long and slow cooking.

Next step is to prepare the pigeon.

Just two or three minutes to get colour on there

and then turn it over and colour on the other side as well.

Ooh, that's it! And then into the oven.

The sweetness of the peas is what works with the pigeon.

It's the perfect marriage.

Chicken stock here...

I'm going to infuse some of the pods with the stock,

bringing in more, and more, and more flavour.

Now, I'm going to cook the lardons.

Just as it's starting to render down I'm going to put the onions in,

then the carrots.

At this stage no salt, the bacon is very salty there,

so we have to be very careful.

Now for the peas.

All the flavours mingling there.

Pass the stock through a fine sieve

and that's intense sweet pea flavour.

Lots of butter.

Everything has still got vibrant colours.

Taste.

Take that pigeon out.

I rest the pigeon upside down,

so that all the juices will permeate back into the breast

as opposed to just running out.

Just need to shred a little bit of lettuce now.

I'm using a lovely round lettuce, which is tender,

but has got a slight bitter edge to it.

This lettuce actually comes from my father's garden,

it's a really special lettuce.

The pigeon is now fully rested

and we're going to take the legs off.

Oh, yes! That is a lovely perfect pink.

It's moist, it's hot inside.

Just how we like it!

Last second, the lettuce goes into the peas, just should be wilted,

still have a little bit of crunch to it.

Now we need to flood the plate.

With these lovely, beautiful peas...

and the confit potato, oozing and dripping with duck fat.

Finally, the pigeon breast resting on top...

..and the crispy legs.

It looks divine.

There you have it, pigeon aux petits pois, a beautiful dish.

A great French classic.

I'm now going to cook one of my favourite deserts, all-time favourite deserts,

a St Honore a la creme Chantilly.

Every pastry or bakery shop in France worth its pinch of salt

has their own individual recipe,

but it must have choux buns

that are covered with lovely golden caramel.

St Honore is not for the fainthearted,

it is rich and indulgent, but truly delicious.

First job is to roll out the puff pastry.

St Honore is the patron saint of bakers, boulanger,

and St Michel is the patron saint of patissiere.

I don't know if my parents named me Michel

because they wanted me to be a pastry chef, but I like that.

Now we cut our round.

We use a fork to dot the puff pastry.

This will stop the puff pastry from rising unevenly

and stop it from shrinking as well.

I put this into the fridge to rest

and whilst that is resting I make the choux pastry.

For this recipe I'm using water and milk,

butter with a pinch of salt

and a very generous pinch of sugar.

Now add the sifted flour...

..and mix it in.

So once all the flour has been incorporated,

it then goes back onto the heat.

In French this is called dessecher, to dry out the choux pastry.

Now...

to beat in the eggs, whole eggs, one at a time.

It looks as if it's splitting, but it will come together,

you have to really beat it.

As soon as it's come together, you then put the next one in.

If you haven't built up a sweat doing this,

you're not doing it right!

But just think of the reward.

That's it. A lovely choux pastry.

Into the piping bag.

Now for your choux buns.

Ooh.

They should be of even size and shape,

so they all cook at the same time.

The puff pastry base, we want to put just a little crown,

a little bit of choux pastry on it.

Not too much because if we put too much

it'll halt the cooking process of the puff pastry.

Straight in the oven.

So, whilst the puff pastry and the choux buns are cooking,

Chantilly cream.

The Chantilly cream I'm making for my St Honore

is flavoured with vanilla.

I love Chantilly cream with vanilla,

for me, it's just the perfect accompaniment for ANY desert.

So, bit of icing sugar.

Whisking, and whisking, and whisking.

Look at that, ah!

That's just right, that's beautiful.

Mmm.

Next step, to get the caramel cooking.

Sugar, just drop of water...

to start the process.

Right, let me get those choux buns.

The choux buns are here, you can hear them,

they're lovely crispy and light.

So we've made a little hole,

pushed the nozzle in and...

pushed that cream in.

Mmm.

There we go, they are nice and full.

The caramel...

smells sweet and...

it's got that lovely, rich golden colour.

Now for the tricky part.

Take the choux buns, tip of the fingers,

then...dipped in the caramel.

A good St Honore should have just the right amount of caramel.

Too much and it would be sickly.

It needs just enough to hold it all together and give it that crunch!

There we go.

Just a bit of cocoa powder.

And these lovely little glazed strawberries,

which I think are beautiful.

A beautiful French classic pastry shop desert.

One that you would have to stop and go in and buy!

I take great joy in cooking the classics,

but the best part of it is, they're a joy to eat.

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