Hello, Karakura! I am Ryuijin Kotagawa, a new addition to the News Reporter team. Today I am going to be challenging one of the best chefs in the world, who has the privilege of saying he is a Michelin Star chef. Our challenge is giving him basic ingredients and seeing what complex dishes he can make. If he can make them from such basic ingredients, perhaps you can too?
CHEF GINO
(Thank you to @MiuLols for putting 100% effort RPing Chef Gino when I randomly asked them to be in my news report.)
For those of you who do not know anything about the legendary Italian chef, I will tell you all a bit about him. Gino and I have met before, as we both came up in the same culinary school in Japan. Like the genius he is, he saw promise in learning Japanese cuisine. Unlike myself, Gino went on to own a three Michelin Star restaurant. Which, in the culinary world, is a big deal. It means your restaurant is top-notch. Gino prefers not to use his real name, and in turn, uses an alias that is known as 'Chef Gino'. He doesn't know where he got it from other than that he was told he looked like a dude named Gino. Who knows who that is? He also has a... lovely intern who took photos for us a couple of times during this culinary adventure. She also did some of our recordings. She unfortunately disappeared in the middle of the report, for some odd reason.
Fun fact, he hates pomegranate. He once banned somebody from his restaurant for even speaking about it. He hates it, but nobody knows why. Except for him, but he isn't telling.
GINO'S TRIAL
Now, in this short clip, I introduce the challenge I will be throwing at Gino to him.
RYU - "In just a second, we will put your Michelin Star chef skills to the test in a kitchen with basic ingredients.
CHEF GINO - "Tsk, basic?"
CHEF GINO- "Do you really think that low of me? I will turn the BASIC into AMAZING for the people who can't afford top-notch ingredients!"
RYU - "Yes, that's exactly what your challenge is! Now, let's go!"
DISHES
Chef Gino has access to many lower-priced vegetables, fruits, herbs, meats, and other culinary products that you might find in the store at a low cost. He had access to basic cooking tools and got ready to cook.
DISH #1 - Classic Creamy Italian Pasta with Chicken and Smokey Tomato Sauce
For his main dish, Chef Gino made a delicious Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta. He informed me that the special factor in making it phenomenal was for it to be smokey.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED:
all ingredients will work no matter how much they cost; however, the recipe intends to show you ways to make something that isn't too costly. Hopefully the options here fit your price range!
Chicken Breast
Lemon Juice
Milk
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Tomato
Spinach
Salt
Parmesan Cheese
A Cooking Oil of Your Choice
Spaghetti
Cornstarch
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Defrost a Chicken Breast and put it in a milk-lemon juice mixture. Let the chicken soak in the mixture for a while.
2. Mix together flour, salt, pepper, and any herbs you'd like, this will be used for a chicken crust.
3. Drain the chicken from the lemon milk and coat it in the flour mixture evenly.
4. Put your cooking oil on a hot skillet and cut chicken strips. Then place the chicken strips on the hot skillet. Give three minutes for each side of the chicken and then switch sides. When done, move to a baking sheet.
5. Go to your oven and set it to 350° degrees. Slide the baking sheet with the chicken strips in and let it cook for 18-20 minutes.
6. Prepare your pasta. Heat up a pot with salty water until it boils. Every once in a while, move the pasta around to make sure nothing gets stuck.
7. Make your sauce. Put garlic and crushed tomato into the skillet you used for the chicken earlier. Add salt, pepper, oil, and any other things you want to be present in your sauce. Add cream and spinach as well if you'd like.
8. Mix cornstarch and milk into the broth.
9. Take the chicken out and strain your pasta. Add all of it together and plate it. Voila, your food is done! If you want to make it look nice, just plate everything evenly and add a little garnish of herbs on the top. Make sure to eat it with some parmesan cheese!
REVIEW:
★★★★★
The pasta was phenomenal! It had a creamy texture due to the cornstarch and milk. The chicken had a very good flavor and that was only added to by the crunchy texture of the chicken crust. But the best part, overall, was the sauce. If the herbs weren't enough, there was a pleasant surprise of a smokey aftertaste, as Chef Gino had promised. This smokiness really left an amazing taste in my mouth and made me long for more. It truly elevated the dish, and I suggest you try this recipe the next time you want to make a nice dinner with some basic ingredients.
DISH #2 - Tangy Fruit Salad
For Chef Gino's side dish, he made the well-known fruit salad. However, Gino intends to fix the common mistake of newbies. He intends to make this salad more than just a bunch of sugar.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED:
Oranges
2 CUPS Blueberries
Strawberries
8 G****s
Kiwi
3 Bananas
Lemon
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Cut Strawberries into slices and put them in the bowl.
2. Get two cups of blueberries and some g****s and put them in the bowl.
3. Thinly cut three bananas and put them in the bowl.
4. He peeled the skin off a kiwi and cut it into tiny slices.
5. Peel an orange and cut it into slices. Juice the orange into a bowl. Do the same to a lemon.
6. Put this new mixture on the fruit salad and voila! Your meal is done!
REVIEW:
★★★★★
I especially enjoyed this side dish because it gave an interesting tangy flavor that brought out the sugary flavor of the salad, but at the same time, that sugar wasn't overpowering. Extremely pleasant to eat, I would eat it again!
DISH #3 - Cream Puffs with Crunchy Craquelin
For Chef Gino's dessert, he is going to make cream puffs using an old family recipe! I was very excited to hear this as cream puffs are usually delicious! You can't go wrong with them. (Unless you cook them wrong).
INGREDIENTS:
Egg
Cornstarch
Milk
Granulated Sugar
Flour
Brown Sugar
Butter
Salt
Craquelin*
1. In a medium-sized heat-resistant bowl, whisk egg yolks. In a medium-sized pot, whisk granulated sugar and cornstarch. While whisking, slowly add milk until practically combined.
2. Put the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to low, then slowly pour about 1/2 cup of milk mixture into yolks while whisking.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pot so it warms.
4. Whisk periodically until thickened to a pudding-like consistency, this should take 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and whisk in butter until the butter melts. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto the mixture and refrigerate until chilled, this will take at least 1 hour.
6. In a medium bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium-high speed, beat flour, brown sugar, and butter until combined.
7. Divide the dough between 2 pieces of parchment and roll out to 1/8" thick. Using a round 1 1/4" cookie cutter, cut out 28 circles and let it freeze for a bit in the freezer.
8. Preheat the oven to 425° and line 2 baking sheets with Parchment.
9. In a medium pot over medium heat, combine milk, butter, granulated sugar, and 1/2 cup water. Cook the mixture, stirring, until the butter is melted, and the mixture starts to simmer. Add flour and salt.
10. Now, use a handheld mixer or stand mixer, and beat the mixture on medium speed until the dough is cooled down and no longer warm to the touch. This should take about 5 minutes.
11. While beating, slowly stream in eggs. Continue to beat on medium-high speed until the dough is shiny.
12. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe circles about 1 1/2" wide onto prepared sheets, spacing 2" apart. Placing a frozen circle of craquelin on top of each. Let this bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 375°.
13. Continue to bake until deeply golden brown, which should be 15 to 18 minutes more. When tapped on the bottom, they should sound hollow inside. Let them cool for a bit.
14. Transfer the chilled custard to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Using a small knife, poke a hole in the bottom of each puff about the same size as the small tip. Fill each puff with cream until the puff feels heavy.
* To make craquelin yourself, mix flour, butter, and sugar into a dough, roll it out into a 2mm thickness, and chill. Cut the dough into shapes and place onto the dough when the dough is put into the stove to cook. You have made yourself a tasty craquelin! If you want it crunchy, use larger sugar crystals (like granulated sugar). If you want it to be smooth, use smaller crystal sugars (like caster sugar).
REVIEW:
★★★★★
These were some of the best cream puffs I've ever had! What else should I expect from the Chef Gino? The cream was delicious, and the softness of the dough was complemented by the subtle crunch of the craquelin. I was very pleased that the crunch wasn't extremely hard or noticeable. I usually stray away from a dish when the crunch is too hard for my teeth to endure.
These dishes were all phenomenal! Although they took a lot of steps, we tried to find the most basic ingredients for Chef Gino to turn into dishes. Personally, I think he did an amazing job! I recommend trying these all at least once! I hope to see you all again soon!
Call the news hotline at '020-980-4487' if you have suggestions for any future news reports!
