Dining Delights with Chef Chris

“Dining Delights” is a delectable culinary adventure hosted by the charismatic Chef Chris Holbrook . In each episode, viewers are whisked away on a journey through the world of gourmet cuisine, where Chef Chris transforms ordinary ingredients into extraordinary dining experiences.

In the premiere episode, Chef Chris tantalizes taste buds with a three-course feast fit for royalty. First up on the menu is his signature Trumpet Mushroom Scallops, a plant-based twist on the classic seafood favorite, featuring succulent king trumpet mushrooms seared to perfection and served with a zesty citrus reduction.

Next, Chef Chris demonstrates his mastery of meat with a mouthwatering Pan-Seared Duck Breast. Tender duck breast is expertly seasoned, seared to crispy perfection, and paired with a luscious cherry compote, creating a harmony of flavors that dance on the palate.

And for the grand finale, Chef Chris indulges sweet cravings with his irresistible Chocolate Lava Cake. Decadent dark chocolate cake encases a molten center of rich, gooey chocolate, creating a heavenly dessert experience that will leave viewers swooning.

Join Chef Chris Holbrook on “Dining Delights” for an unforgettable culinary journey that celebrates the artistry of food and the joy of sharing delicious meals with loved ones. Get ready to elevate your dining experience and savor the magic of “Dining Delights” with Chef Chris at the helm.

welcome to dining Delights I’m Chef
Chris I a culinary instructor my wife
and I own Salt Lake culinary education
in Salt Lake City Utah and today for our
cooking show we are going to make some
specialized items these are fancy dishes
and I think you’re going to love cooking
these for your friends and family and
they’re just absolutely stunning crowd
Pleasers and the first one is a trumpet
mushroom scallop with a blood orange
vinegret we’re going to do a pans seared
duck breast with with the pork reduction
and some sauteed asparagus and we are
going to finish up with one of my
favorite desserts and that’s a chocolate
lava cake ooey gooey delicious it’s sure
to please everyone in your family all
your friends um let’s get
[Music]
cooking okay for our first dish which is
going to be our appetizer I’m going to
create with you a trumpet mushroom
scallop as well as a blood orange
vinegret and the first thing we need to
do is we’re going to talk about this
mushroom here this is a trumpet mushroom
this is a king trumpet also known as a
king oyster mushroom um they’re
available readily at most Asian stores
uh Asian markets this is a very good
sized one and what we’re going to do is
we’re going to utilize this to make a
scallop just like you would a regular
sea scallop the texture is very very
similar and this is actually going to be
delicious and yet it is a little bit
less expensive but very elegant so first
thing we’re going to do is we need to
shape our scull up so we’re going to cut
a nice even straight cut we need to make
sure we’re going to save the tops cuz
we’re going to use those in our next
dish but we want to make sure that these
cuts are nice and straight so that
scallet looks like essentially like a
scallop in your hand that would be a
scallop in the pan now I’m also going to
try and judge evenly so I can get the
same thickness because you do want them
to cook the same um they will not cook
the same if they’re different
thicknesses so please make sure when you
cut them that you do them make sure they
are the same thickness and we’re going
to cut just like that we can save the
top there and we’ll do the same thing
for one more really fast
here and we have our scallops ready to
actually go into the pan so what we need
to do is to turn our pan on and get our
pan warm we’re using cast iron today as
it’s going to add a nice sear to the
outsides of these um while that Pan’s
getting warm I also want to share
something else about this mushroom you
can grind these mushrooms up into small
pieces and actually Patty them up like
ground beef and they will cook exactly
the same as a ground beef patty does so
very interesting and very very good for
you as well much healthier now to get to
our vinegret steps this is a very very
basic vinegret so we vinegret
traditionally has oil and an acid today
we are using white balsamic vinegar as
one of the acids we are also going to
add some honey and some dejon mustard to
that we want to get a little bit of
sweetness going in here um we want to
add a little bit extra flavor to enhance
our blood orange that we’re going to
talk about in just one second but we’re
going to get that honey and the mustard
in the and get it mixed very beginning
it’s important as you’re building a
vinegret that you do get everything
mixed together as you continually add
ingredients that will hold the Emulsion
better so it stays stays together and
doesn’t break now the blood orange this
is a blood orange it is also known as a
raspberry Orange um you can see some of
them even grow where the color will
change on the outside to a reddish color
very very pretty they actually get their
color from a cold temperatures as the
orange comes through harvest in the
springtime that cold temperature in the
spring creates a blood orange that’s why
they are very SE
and we’ll cut this open and you can see
inside look at that pretty color that’s
absolutely beautiful that’s what we’re
going to put into our dressing so we’re
going to juice some of that right in
whoops just like this and look at that
color oh
no and we’ll do one
more just like that
I’m going to toss those to the side now
we’re going to mix in this vinegret this
juice right into the
vinegret then we will start adding our
oil very slowly and whisking very
quickly to get that Emulsion to come
together like
this and you can see this pretty color
is starting to form going to add add big
pinch of salt and a big pinch of
pepper and now our vinegret is ready to
go and we can move on over to the stove
and get our truff our mushroom scallops
in right here and we’ll start with nice
canola oil a high temperature oil we
want that smoke point to be really high
on this because it needs to really sear
off and we are going to put these
mushrooms pieces in just like
this and what we’re trying to do is get
them to become as brown as possible
before we turn them over and we want to
make sure that we’re getting a nice
crust on the top just like you would a
traditional scallop and it just takes a
minute and we’ll
add some salt right on the top to help
draw some moisture out of those and help
them cook faster
[Music]
okay we’re going to add some fresh time
and we’re going to put some butter in
here and this is where that butter might
start to turn a little brown but that’s
okay I’m going to turn the heat off on
these and I’m going to grab this butter
and I’m going to base the tops of these
sculls
like
this you want to add just a little bit
of extra color to them and this is going
to add a nice rich flavor as
[Music]
well this also helps cook them all the
way through so that butter base really
helps really adds that delicious flavor
you’ll see our butter starting to foam a
little bit it’s almost become brown
butter um brown butter is delicious
it’ll add a nice nutty flavor so we’re
actually going to keep those there
and we’re just going to give these one
more minute okay we scallops are
mushroom scallops are done cooked all
the way through we are going to Plate
them now um I’m going to really kind of
whip this vinegret up one more time just
to make sure that it stays together and
that emulsification stays we’re going to
take some of this pretty red color and
go right down the middle of of our
plate then we’ll grab our tongs and
we’re going to take our scallops and go
one
two three I’m also going to grab just a
touch of that butter right out of the
bottom of the pan to go on the
tops Touch of salt just to finish
them and then micro greens micro greens
are some of my favorite things to
decorate dishes with they also add a
different type of a flavor today we’re
using radish so this radish is going to
add kind of a a little radish bite to to
it it takes away some of the richness
from the mushrooms we’ll get some on
each one and sprinkle a little
across and there we have it we have
trumpet mushroom scallops with a blood
orange vinegrette and we’re ready ready
to eat okay for our entree we are going
to make a pans seared duck breast along
with a port reduction in the duck fat
and we’re also going to put some blood
orange in that kind of tie the first the
appetizer dish to the entree we want
them to actually really kind of be
cohesive um and we’re going to talk a
little bit about this duck we’re also
going to sauté some asparagus in duck
fat so I think this is going to be just
absolutely delicious um in terms of duck
the these are about 8 oz duck breasts
they’re actually beautiful you can see
they’re clean they’re nice perfectly
colored um and they one thing that’s
important is when you’re looking for
duck breast at the store to make sure
you have a good layer of fat right here
the skin is what has this big layer of
fat underneath it that’s what actually
renders out and adds a nice crispy
texture to your duck breast so what
we’re going to do with these ducks is we
are going to cross-hatch the the skin
over here on the top and cut into into
the fat so we’re going to just take our
knife and we’re going to cut lines like
this right in we’re trying not to go all
the way down into the into the meat just
we want to just cut through the skin and
make these nice little cross-hatch marks
it’s really important that these
cross-hatch marks are in here like this
that will help that fat render out when
you lay it face down it’ll have little
marks so the fat can actually Escape
instead of just cooking right in the pan
so we’re going right here like this and
we’ll knock this other one out really
quick and you can see how thick each of
these little crosshatches are and how
much fat will actually render
out just like this okay now what we’re
going to do is I’m going to take a
little bit of salt and just season the
tops just like that that’s going to
start to draw moisture out of this fat
and help it render out quicker and also
help it more more fully render out and
then we’re just going to take them and
put them face down in a cold pan and
turn the heat on for a couple of minutes
to raise the temperature up and it takes
about 6 or 7 minutes and that fat will
render
[Music]
down for our sauce we’re going to use
the mushroom tops from our appetizer um
we’re going to make make these nice and
thin like slices like this we want to
get some pretty mushroom pieces kind of
add little bit of texture a little bit
of delicious flavor to our
sauce
and that should be probably just about
enough then we also need a shallot um
shallot is very interesting shallot is a
cousin of onions and garlic in fact they
are now close say they’re closer cousins
than ever before in 20 in 2010 they
actually decided they were the onion
family originally people thought they
were a separate family completely so
kind of interesting and you’ll see
shallot has very pretty color pretty
purple I do like to take the outer layer
off as well just to take off and make
sure there’s no bruising to it um I
think a lot of times stuff can get built
up underneath as well underneath that
skin especially when it’s in the ground
so we want to make sure that it is just
perfect like this and and then to cut
our shallot I’m just going to go right
with the lines in terms of following
those lines right on the shallot there
and this will help us mince it nice and
fine and you can see just go the
opposite direction like this and get
that nice fine mince right there so we
will cut the other
one and
get this one minced up as well and we
have plenty of Shallot to go into our
sauce we have port wine this is a
traditional Porto from Portugal it is a
little bit sweeter so that little sweet
note will also add and kind of pair very
well with the richness of our duck
breast and as we check our duck breast
you can see that the fat is starting to
render out we’re ending up with a lot of
fat and the is starting to get nice and
crispy we’re just going to let that go a
couple more minutes and while we’re
doing that we’re going to add a little
bit of blood orange juice to our port to
put in with our sauce as well we want to
continually add this one’s a little bit
more orangey than the other one was but
we’re still going to add that sweet
juice there it did it does have a nice
pink color kind of like grapefruit
okay so the components for the sauce are
all ready right here the next item we
need to do is we need to prepare our
asparagus we are going to chop or excuse
me sauté asparagus in some duck fat so
what we’re going to do is trim these
asparagus down and a lot of people have
questions where do you choose where to
cut the asparagus piece you can see that
there is some strands that go through
right here and we want to make sure that
you don’t get any of those weird strands
those are kind of like chewing dental
floss we don’t want that then we’re just
going to kind of
cut at a nice angle
here so they’re all going to be the same
and we’ll throw away those tough end
pieces and we’ll get those ready to go
right into that duck fat in the
pan and we’ll check our duck one more
time
looks like it is ready to go into the
oven so we will take this and we’re
going to put it on a baking
sheet and we’re going to toss it right
into the
oven right
here
like right on that top shelf and we’re
going to finish this up to
130° so we’re just going to let that go
and during that time we can actually we
start on our sauce we’re going to go in
with our mushrooms first right into that
fat turn up the pan Just a Touch we’re
going to add our
shallots and we’re going to add a big
pinch of
salt and that will start to reduce and
cook down just a
touch and then we’ll be ready to add our
liquid in just a second okay we’re going
to add the pork and the blood orange
juice to our pan now and we’re going to
let this
reduce and we want this to reduce to
just a couple of tablespoons and you can
see that pretty color that beautiful red
that’s going to go along with our duck I
also went ahead and took some of that
duck fat and put it in a pan in the back
that we’re going to use for our
asparagus so we’ll have duck fat
asparagus and duck fat in our sauce as
well as duck on the dish so it’s going
to be absolutely delicious while this is
rendering down we are going to talk
about the blood orange again and we’re
going to Supreme the blood orange now
supreming is we are going to take all of
the peel off so we’re going to start to
take the peel off and this one has got a
very pretty color uh looks like it’s got
some splotches of red in it so this is
going to be very attractive and what we
do is take all of this skin off down to
the pith all the way off the outside
edges of the orange what we want is
these pretty segments inside so we are
going to cut those segments out
individually to put on our plate this
will add a nice fresh flavor and a nice
sweet note um blood oranges do have kind
of a sweet and tangy flavor so they are
going to add a sweet and tangy note and
it’s going to be a little bit texturally
different than the duck too just based
on the on how orange texture is compared
to that so we’re going to enjoy multiple
textures on our plate going to find one
of those little pieces of of segment
skin and go right next to it and we’re
just going to cut out our segments just
like this and we’re going to do the next
one so we don’t want any of the that
bitter pieces of connective tissue where
it’s between the segments we want just
that
beautiful orange pulp right from the
center so we just cut right into them
just like that we’ll get one or two more
here and go in the back and check our
sauce looks like it’s going our duck fat
is ready for our asparagus while this is
finishing reducing we can add add our
asparagus to the other
pan just like that you’ll see a little
popping we’re actually only frying these
literally sautéing them in that duck fat
just to add a little bit of extra
flavor add a little bit of salt we’re
going to put some more salt into our
Dish as well into our sauce
okay we are going to bring our sauce
over it is almost the pan is almost dry
there’s a couple tablespoons in French
that is o means almost dry so we want
that o texture we’re going to add a
little bit of butter and just to Rich up
this sauce like there wasn’t enough fat
in it already the little butter gives it
another Rich note and really will pair
well with the fruit give it kind of a
sweet and Rich bite we’re going to
grab our
asparagus and set it here and then
lastly our duck is
ready and it is even rendered a little
bit more as well let’s
see set this back for a
second take our duck
breast and we’ll start with one of them
and you can see that skin is nice and
crispy that fat is mostly rendered off
we’re going to slice our
[Music]
duck and look at that beautiful medium
rare color it is important when you
slice it that you slice it nice and thin
and keep the slices in the same order
all the time because when you plate you
want them to all be exactly the same in
their exact same position so that look
really nice on the plate so what we’re
going to do get our Duck Right There
ready to go down we’ll take some
[Music]
sauce and you can see how pretty this is
on this beautiful plate
[Music]
get our sauce
down then we will take our
duck we’ll start with part of it go on
this side lay it
across again in the order with which
they were
cut put that one right in the
middle beautiful We’ll add our asparagus
to this
then put on some of
our orange to go with
it and top with some more micro greens
and there you have it panser duck breast
with a port reduction and blood orange
and blood oranges with saute asparagus
[Music]
all right and we’re back to finish our
wonderful meal today with dessert and
this is one of my absolute favorite
desserts this is chocolate lava cake
that ooey gooey richness my family loves
it your family will love it too what
we’re going to start with to do this is
we have our little ramkin here and I’m
going to coat the inside of them kind of
like you would with for a cake but
instead of butter and flour we’re
actually going to use use cocoa powder
on the inside so I’m going to butter
them all get them nice so they’re paper
towel works wonders to get that butter
coating on
there keeps your hands nice and
clean and we’re going to get all of them
buttered
nicely just like that now cocoa powder I
like to put it right in a heavy amount
and put it in and then turn kind of like
this to get a really really good
coverage and coated and then dump it
into the next
one and we’ll do the same thing and
we’ll go through all four of these um it
is really important that they’re covered
well because you want this lava cake to
come out and you don’t want any any of
the chocolate stuck in there you want it
to come out so it’s one big beautiful
lava cake at the end and we’ll hurry and
get this last one
done touch more
chocolate and you can see how well those
are coated that’s exactly what we want
right there get it rid of any
excess you don’t want it to be too dry
but you don’t want it to stick and then
for our lava cake we have some butter
and chocolate chips and what I’m going
to do is use a metal Bowl put the butter
and the chocolate chips in this metal
bowl for a second
and I’m going to go right to a double
boiler now it’s really important when
you put it on the double boiler that the
bottom does not touch the water you want
to make sure that just the steam is all
that’s touching that
bowl and also make sure you have a hot
pad handy because this bowl will get hot
um you can use some tempered glasses or
design for this but I don’t recommend
using glass in a double boiler ever cuz
sometimes they do actually break now
we’re going to use some other components
as well we’re going to use eggs we’re
going to do two whole eggs and then
we’re also going to do two just egg
yolks and we want to get them separate
into another Bowl to start with here and
this is really important because what
we’re going to do is get these yolk get
these eggs themselves broken down and
into a nice texture that will go into
the batter um they need to be nice and
smooth and I’ll show you exactly what
that is and ribbony and I’ll also show
you a trick to get that way by
doing okay we got our yolks now the salt
that goes in the dish I’m going to put
in with the
eggs and now I’m going to start to mix
the eggs and what we want is a nice
ribbon that flows that’s not a ribbon so
it’s not mixed yet you want to make sure
that it becomes a nice flowy ribbon of
of eggs see how much different it’s
getting that ribbon will make everything
bind better together and it also helps
the texture T of the batter itself you
don’t want to have any albumin and yolk
that aren’t mixed together they all have
to be beautiful and mixed together
so it’s hard to believe that something
as easy as scrambling eggs can actually
have such an impact on your overall dish
so we’re going to get that going we’re
going to check on our chocolate and
butter they’re starting to melt
and we’ll give that just one second okay
we’ll pull our chocolate off it is all
mixed together now very ni very smooth
the butter and the chocolate have come
together which is good now before we add
our eggs we want to add our dry
ingredients the first one being some
flour and this is a very minimal amount
of flour it’s about a/ qu of a cup in
this
batch and we’re going to mix it in part
of the reason why we’re adding in our
dry ingredients first is because we want
this batter to start to cool down before
we put our eggs in it so we got the
flour now we’re going to use
confectioner sugar standard powdered
sugar is what we’re going to use as the
sweetening agent um every type of cake
uses some kind of sugar this one
actually holds everything together a
little better and it’s very very smooth
um it I think it really helps the way
the texture of this cake is by using
powdered sugar versus granulated sugar
and now this bowl is starting to cool
off just a touch we can go ahead add our
eggs really
fast just like that and then we’re going
to whisk them in and this will have kind
of a strange texture at first um but
just keep working through it and it will
smooth right out um it just seems like
it starts looking kind of funny in the
beginning so don’t let that scare you
and once it comes together you can see
how smooth that is that’s exactly what
we’re looking for
I can smell this Rich delicious
chocolate it’s making me hungry
already and we’ll take this out now what
we’re going to do is fill our ramkin and
we’re going to fill them just
about half
full um if you SOS a little on the side
don’t worry about it that’s not going to
be part of it um what they’re going to
come right out of these dishes so
nobody’s going to see that nobody none
of your family’s going to notice now
what we’re going to do is fill our
ramkin and we’re going to fill them just
about half
full um if you Sosh a little on the side
don’t worry about it that’s not going to
be part of it um what they’re going to
come right out of these dishes so
nobody’s going to see that nobody none
of your family’s going to
notice and we’re almost
there and this will make four good
size lava cakes so enough for a family
you can actually double the recipe too
it does double just fine if you need to
and this one we can just pour right
in just like that and these are going to
go on a baking sheet and we’re going to
put them in at a
425° oven and we’re going to check them
in 8 minutes and what we’re looking for
is the outside to be starting to sit and
the inside to still be nice and soft so
we’re going to get these into the oven
right now and we’ll 8 minutes we’ll have
lava cakes okay our lava cakes have been
in there 8 minutes you can see just on
the inside they’re set on the outsides
and completely soft in the middle still
so we should be able to get them right
out now this is the hardest part you
have to let it sit for just a second
before you take them out and that will
help it start to solidify the edges a
little bit and dry them so what we’re
going to do is work a knife around them
to make sure that the sides will come
right
off and these look amazing you it’s too
bad you can’t smell these at home yet
cuz these smell
wonderful making me very very
hungry okay I think this one is just
about ready to go here we’re going to go
around
it okay now here’s a little
trick I like to get the ramkin on a hot
pad like that put the plate over and
then
flip little bit of knocking and look at
that we have a beautiful lava cake we’re
going to put a few berries on on
there everything’s better with berries
right
and hit it with some powdered
sugar and look at that chocolate lava
cake we can cut this right open
here and you can see that delicious lava
oozing out of that
cake so I hope you try this recipe at
home enjoy and looking forward to
cooking with you
[Music]
again well thank you for watching we
completed our dishes three dishes today
we have our trumpet mushroom scallops
with a blood orange vinegret we made a
chocolate lava cake for dessert and the
star of our day our pansier duck breast
with Port reduction and this fine blood
orange sauce as well um if you’d like to
get these recipes and you could follow
me at Chef
Christopher SLC on Instagram or look us
up at/ utah.com we have lots of great
cooking tips you can see other cooking
classes and I look forward to cooking
with you soon
[Music]