Recipes included with this episode: Appetizer – Squab Salad with Wild Mushrooms and Quail Eggs
Entrée – Roast Sweetbreads with Belgian Endives and Truffles
Dessert – Raspberry Feuillete.
Restaurant: Le Français
Great Chefs of Chicago: Season 1 | Episode 8
Great Chefs is the oldest cooking & travel series on television in the United States and among the largest. In this series, stroll through Chicago, Illinois, and experience some of the finest cuisines prepared by the best chefs in the city.
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You know I’d love to be wined and dined in a Chicago cafe The chefs are the best and the menus are so gourmet The best cuisine on the scene is in Chicago land USA Great chefs Great chefs of Chicago Great chefs Great chefs of Chicago World class cooking Continental style
The recipe will make you linger a little while Great chefs Great chefs of Chicago – [Voiceover] Welcome to Great Chefs of Chicago, a television master class with chefs in some of the finest restaurants in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, this time from Wheeling, North of the City. Jean Banchet, Chef/Owner of Le Francais. His reputation is such that visitors to Chicago sometimes make reservations at the restaurant before
Making plane or hotel arrangements. In many ways, Chef Banchet put Chicago on the dining map. Born in France, he was brought to the city in 1968 to head up the kitchen of the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, five years later he opened Le Francais. The restaurant has not only become world famous
In its own right, but has spawned a number of fine restaurants via former employees. Le Francais has been called a culinary miracle, and Jean Banchet is the miracle worker. Unpretentious and intense he rules his kitchen like the older French chefs. Chef Banchet works with lightning speed, so watch closely.
Jean Banchet, like a good souffle, waits for no one, including, on several occasions, our cameraman. – We’re going to make a salad de pigeon with quail eggs. This fresh squab, the blood is in, I’m going to bone it. Should be no bones. The meat is very red, because the blood’s still in.
Going to be very juicy. I’m going to put the pan out with clarified butter. Hot stove. Season in the squab. With the bone we make the stock to put around the salad. Each sides. We’ll put this in the pan. Give some color. We have to do this at medium rare.
They have to be a little pink. I’m going to start getting my salad ready. I put another pan for the wild mushrooms. Wild mushrooms are shiitake, oyster, enokitake, chanterelles, and pied de mouton. – [Voiceover] This is a mutton foot mushroom in English. – With some enokitake. Seasoning. Pepper. And I will sautee it. Now I turn my squab breast. Sautee a little more. I’m going to put in the oven at 450. I get my salad ready. – [Voiceover] The salad includes small green beans, Belgian and curly endives,
And mache, a green that is similar to watercress. – I think we’re all set. Now, I will need a pan for the quail eggs. Watch my, few more minutes. I’m going to get the quail eggs for the salad. I’m going to fry the eggs. I put about three eggs for one salad. That should be OK, cook it slowly now. A little more sautee, breast of squab. One more minute. Eggs, two minutes. Squab will be ready. Seasoning the salad with the vinaigrette dressing. This is salad. – [Voiceover] You can use any good vinaigrette dressing. – Mix together. Leave our lettuce here, look nice, (mumbles), some red one. Put on the top of the lettuce. Put the squab on the top of the mushrooms.
The juice go in the mushroom. Take our deglaze. Drop of vinegar. – [Voiceover] Chef Banchet deglazes the pan with vinegar. – Ready, just one minute. Now we’ll have squab stock ready. – [Voiceover] Enriched chicken stock may be substituted for squab stock. – Leave this for a few minutes.
And the last minute, add the chives. Don’t cook it. And it’s ready to serve with the salad. I’m going to slice the squab on the top of the salad, with an electric knife, I like it. Another one here. We’re going to put the mushrooms around. The plate have to be warm, and not too hot. If the plate is too hot, it will cook the salad. Now we need a little more squab breast. See, the breast is pink, that’s the way to eat it. Very tender and juicy. Another one over there. Now I’m going to put the quail eggs. One on the top, one on the sides here. And I will put the juice on. You can put a (mumbles) to look better, the color is nice. A little watercress. And it’s ready. Salad de Pigeon. All right we’re going to do Lobster with caviar, fresh noodles and basil. I’m going to steam the lobster for eight minutes, two and a half pounds lobster. Tails. We’ll give this… to make a decoration. Cut this in half, remove the stomach, it’s bitter. Tails, we cut it here. – [Voiceover] The lobster tail and claw meat
Will be reserved and the shells used for stock to make the sauce. – Give this warm air. Now, I’m going to chop the bones. All right, now. I’m going to put clarified butter, I’m going to mak the sauce. The most important. The pan is hot, I’m going to add the lobster shells. All the shells. Sautee it. For five minutes you sautee it, good. When you sautee for five minutes we add the shallots. A little bit of shallots. Fresh tarragons.
I’m going to put in the fresh tomatoes, to make the sauce. This will all be going to be strained, and put the color into it. All this, on the pot. Sautee, five minutes. Now, I’m going to add cognac, sherry, the white wine. I’m going to let this reduce all the way.
– [Voiceover] Meanwhile, peeled, seeded tomatoes are diced for garnish. – I’m going to sautee these tomatoes in olive oil with salt and pepper. I’m going to take a pan, put some olive oil, (mumbles), do salt and pepper here on the tomatoes. Add the pan with the olive oil,
And just put the tomatoes inside. Sautee for a few minutes. Tomatoes have to be browned, they don’t have to be cooked, it’s for color, it’s nice. I’m going to add the cream. – [Voiceover] Chef Banchet adds heavy cream and some gelatinous fish stock. This then is also reduced for five minutes.
– With little fish stocks. One cups. Put little seasoning. And little cooking. Tomatoes are ready, you see, no cook too much. (mumbles) they brown the grease and the water. You keep this for garnish. All right, we’ll make the noodles when the sauce is cooking and we’ll make the noodles.
I will put some cream, little butter, I use my finger it’s a professional’s touch. And I’m going to chop some basil, and slice some basil I’m going to put inside. – [Voiceover] Fresh basil will go into heavy cream and butter then pre-cooked pasta is added. – Put in the cream. Salt and pepper.
And we strain the sauce, with a fine strainer. Put this away. The sauce will be ready. Now we make the noodles. Fresh noodles, been cooked. We reduce the noodles in the cream until the cream coat the noodles. – [Voiceover] The reserved claw meat is used for garnish. – [Jean] The noodles start getting ready. – [Voiceover] And the lobster tail is sliced into medallions.
– And put the medallions around the plate, it’s better. So you have to put the noodles in the middle. OK, noodles are ready. Put the noodles in the middle. In the plate. Now, we use the tomatoes… in the center of it, and between the medallions, for color. Now we’ll put the caviar on each medallion. A little basil leaves, to look good. And truffles. And this is OK, we’re going to do… Noisette of Venison (speaks foreign language). The venison, this one is not marinated, fresh venison, from the saddles. And this one has been marinated, I’m going to cut some medallion from this one. – [Voiceover] The marinade for the venison includes red wine, olive oil, thyme,
Rosemary, garlic, bay leaf and juniper berries. – [Jean] Three pieces per person is enough. – [Voiceover] Red rectangles are sauteed in clarified butter, the venison slices will be placed on them. – (mumbles) into a bucket, we’re going to serve the lingonberries inside for garnish the venison. Brown on each sides. Put on the plate. The medallion’s going to go on the top, that they don’t stay on the sauce and cook more, they have to be medium rare. All right, this one is ready. Pepper. Salt. Each sides. – [Voiceover] The medallions are sauteed over high heat in clarified butter. – They have to be very hot. If not, the meat can be tough, you have to cook hot. We’re going to garnish with a chef’s knife, that a (mumbles) is not cook on the duck fat. We call it confit. We’re going to use that for garnish,
I’m going to put on the plate until the venison. I will show you. – [Voiceover] Chestnut confit begins with fresh chestnuts which are parboiled then peeled before very slow cooking in duck fat. – Smell good already. Turn over. It’s been cooked medium rare, we’re going to put on the tray here, with the chef’s (mumbles). Have to look good. OK, each meat… on top of the crouton. The juice from the medallion go on the crouton, and is a good flavor. That’s how we remove the fat, all the way.
Add some of the marinade from the venison, and reduce it. You scrape the bottom of the pan. Take out the flavor, reduce it all the way down until it’s very (mumbles). It’s going to be for the, on the top we can put for garnish, I make some mushroom tuna, we call this
A little beautiful. – [Voiceover] Garnish includes the fluted mushrooms and pastry boats filled with fresh lingonberries. – [Jean] And the sauce is very thin. – [Voiceover] The sauce grand veneur is basically venison stock, burgundy and veal demi-gloss. – I’m going to add just a little bit of red, ground chilli. a little bit.
Bring it to boil, mix it. Don’t cook too much of the red, ground chilli. Now put on the tables here, and I’m going to melt the fresh butter inside. Give it shine to the sauce and a good flavor. You have to move it like that,
If you don’t move the butter will be clarified, and it’s not the same. You see how shiny the sauce coming? See, it’s ready. I’m going to strain the sauce, (mumbles). OK, we’re going to do a souffle grand marnier. Grand marnier souffle with flourless. I’m going to use three eggs, make the egg yolks, with the egg white here. We’re going to beat it. Three egg yolks. – [Voiceover] Egg whites are beaten to soft peaks then sugar will be added. – Grand marnier, or two. Orange zest. Add the sugar, some sugar,
Mix together. Add the sugar in the egg white. The egg white have to be thick, and not too much. All right, the egg whites are ready. We’re going to mix the egg white. Just enough egg white here, for two souffle. Mix together. – [Voiceover] Careful and fast folding is the key
To a good souffle. – And put on the mold, we butter the mold and sugar the molds, they’re ready. We have to fill up the mold like that. You do this. Make sure it’s flat, before you put in the oven. And you do this with a finger, very important, this. They rise much better. We bake in the oven at 400 degree. This ovens here. All right, takes about 15 minutes to 18 minutes to cook it, I think they’re ready.
We can take it out. Souffle grand marnier, little powdered sugar, that look good. Souffle grand marnier. – [Voiceover] For this menu Chef Banchet and wife Doris recommend a Tavel Rose with the squab salad, Puligny-Montrachet with the lobster, Chom Chambertin with the venison and taittinger rose champagne with desert. – [Voiceover] And now dinner is served. Join us next time for more cooking excitement, this menu, compliments of Le Francais,
And Jean Banchet, another great chef of Chicago. You’ll always find them In Chicagoland You’ll learn all their tricks You’ll understand Why eating is kicks In Chicagoland Come wine and dine where love began Mmm Great chefs, great food, great fun In Chicagoland, yeah Yeah, in Chicagoland