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00:00Hi, I'm Jamila, and I'm in the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

00:02to have a super-secret conversation about Chris Morocco.

00:05Once again, we're putting Chris's super-taster abilities to the test.

00:09This is Sheldon Simeon's Loco Moco.

00:12I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish in just one day.

00:16He'll be able to taste it, touch it, and smell it,

00:19but at no point will he be able to see this dish.

00:23At the end of the day, we'll come back to see his final creations,

00:26and I'll be the judge.

00:30I'm feeling okay.

00:38The mask has a little bit of a funny smell, you know,

00:40so I'm working through that.

00:44I don't know.

00:45It's like a savory meaty, but like right down the middle.

00:49I'm feeling what seems to be the lacy edge of a fried egg,

00:53trying not to break the yolk such that you then get egg yolk

00:56running around all over everything else,

00:58which I think could really kind of get in the way of deciding

01:02what other elements might be here.

01:04Crispy egg, almost like a mushroomy,

01:08but the shape, like what is that?

01:11Very firm, very savory, very deep, like mushroom jerky.

01:17Soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce in there,

01:19something that's really doubling down on the umami forwardness.

01:23Let's start with like portobello mushroom,

01:25but it feels like it could be the sort of the main kind of stock

01:28of like a trumpet mushroom as well.

01:30Those get kind of big.

01:32Where is like all this sauciness coming from?

01:35Not quite gravy because there's not quite enough of it to be gravy.

01:39So that seems to be like a very sweet little slice of onion.

01:45I'm also getting like little bits.

01:46It feels like there's kind of black pepper all over this.

01:49It seems to be a beef burger.

01:51There's definitely like a good bit of fat to this patty.

01:55Oh God, what is this?

01:57Is this rice?

01:58No, is this grits?

02:00There's like a dairy kind of flavor to it,

02:03like almost like these grits were cooked in milk

02:06or a combination of water and milk,

02:09but also like finished with butter.

02:12Grits are great.

02:14God, the texture.

02:16This kind of slightly wet, moldable, putty-like consistency.

02:22And yet within it, you know,

02:23there are some of these like bigger bits of grain

02:25and smaller bits of grain.

02:28Or is it rice?

02:29Oh God.

02:30Improbable as it might be,

02:31I would say like this is like a rice-based grit.

02:35Flavor-wise, it's giving me like something pretty neutral.

02:38What would you even call this?

02:39Is this like a breakfast burger?

02:41Something about that is sort of like very coastal American South,

02:46where you have a lot of like rice culture,

02:48kind of narrows the aperture a little bit for me psychologically.

02:53All right, I'm done tasting.

02:54Time to make a grocery list.

02:57Mushroom breakfast burger with rice grits, eggs, butter.

03:02There's only a handful of mushrooms that get that big,

03:05but not in a frilly way.

03:07Either large cremini or small portobello mushrooms.

03:14I'd also love some small trumpet mushrooms.

03:18I'm thinking ground beef,

03:20something in the kind of ground chuck, 20% fat or even 25%.

03:25Something like a Carolina gold American long grain white rice milk.

03:34I feel okay.

03:35Trying to remember if I've ever felt such a complete

03:39and utter lack of clarity around what a dish was,

03:43while feeling like I had a reasonable grasp on what was in it.

03:47Jamila Robinson, our editor-in-chief, is my judge today.

03:50It's like always intimidating to be judged by your boss,

03:53so that'll be interesting.

03:57I have a progression like rice, burger mushroom, egg, pasta.

04:03We move the bowls, move bowls.

04:05I think we're going to turn rice into grits.

04:09So we've got just like a standard long grain rice.

04:12So we're going to throw this in here.

04:13I don't want to like turn it into powder,

04:15but I want to break up these grains a little bit.

04:18Why doesn't my starting ratio be like one cup,

04:22the long grain rice with three cups of liquid,

04:2650-50 between milk and water and butter in there,

04:29frankly, as well.

04:30And a good bit of salt there.

04:32I'm going to bring this to a simmer.

04:35Meanwhile, let's talk mushrooms.

04:37What if we did a mix just for fun?

04:39King trumpet, really even thin slices of mushroom here.

04:43And then a few creminis.

04:46I love a mushroom.

04:48Let's take a check in on our liquid.

04:51Just going to get some black pepper.

04:53I'm trying to end up in like a drier place

04:56between a porridge and just fluffy cooked rice.

04:59I want to kind of whisk them in

05:01so that things don't immediately clump together.

05:03Let's just keep that at a slow roll.

05:05This is a sweet onion, very little bite to it,

05:10even in its raw form.

05:12Some kind of chunky slices here.

05:14We're already getting some sticking.

05:16It's like those finer pieces are sort of settling down there.

05:19Okay, so new plan is we're just going to cook rice

05:22and then see what we need to do with it

05:24to get it to the texture that I was experiencing

05:27in the original dish.

05:28Slightly wet, moldable, putty-like consistency.

05:32So I've got rice version one,

05:35sort of doing more of like rice grits approach.

05:38And I have rice version two,

05:41just evenly cooked whole rice grains.

05:44Let's move it to the back burner.

05:46Porridge is coming along nicely.

05:47Burger seemed simple.

05:49Beef chuck, seasoned with salt and pepper.

05:51Sear off the patty.

05:53Just want to make sure I'm getting some good contact there,

05:56get some good flavor development.

05:57If you're going to start joining up

05:59any of these cooking processes,

06:01for me, it's like burger plus mushroom

06:04because the mushroom are almost acting as the sauce.

06:07So that's looking pretty good.

06:10So rice grits, let's see how they're coming along.

06:14Not bad, honestly.

06:15For the burger, I just want to get a nice sear,

06:18probably more closer to like medium.

06:20Frankly, that moment where those juices

06:22start percolating through,

06:24usually a pretty good sign like you're at about medium rare.

06:27How long you go past that is usually the question

06:30I'm sort of playing around with.

06:31The main mistake people make is like,

06:33they're not usually cooking one burger,

06:35they're cooking four.

06:36And the pan doesn't stay hot enough.

06:40That's looking pretty good to me.

06:41We've got good color on that second side.

06:43I'm gonna let the burger rest over here.

06:45I want to pour out a little bit of this.

06:48All right, so I'm now cooking the mushrooms

06:50in that leftover beef fat.

06:52Like a lot of like this fat,

06:53like it's gotten sort of like the extra crispy bits

06:55of black pepper.

06:56Sometimes like it can make a dish

06:58a little bit overwhelming.

06:59In the initial phase of cooking,

07:01they'll pretty much absorb whatever fat you throw at them,

07:04but you have to resist the temptation to totally soak them.

07:09Once they start to break down and soften,

07:12they basically start to exude that fat back

07:15into the cooking environment.

07:17And we're getting really nice golden brown color there.

07:19Mushrooms lose a lot of their volume as they cook.

07:21So it's always good to start with a little more than less.

07:25Once we have like a little initial kind of browning,

07:28I'll start to season a little bit.

07:31I don't know, rice won.

07:33Don't count it out.

07:35It's like Jon Hamm in Baby Driver, you know?

07:38He's not dead.

07:40So now I'm gonna throw some onion right in

07:43with the mushroom.

07:44Butter in too.

07:46That's gonna help kind of soften

07:47and start to break down those onions to an extent.

07:50All right, so this is rice version two.

07:52I'm just gonna flip this, turn it off,

07:54let that steam out for 10 minutes.

07:56Let's get crazy.

07:57Let's throw a little chicken broth in there.

07:59Adding the broth is gonna deglaze

08:01and pick up some of the crispy bits

08:02in the bottom of the skillet.

08:04It's gonna add a little bit of body.

08:06That's gonna cook down and reduce

08:07into just sort of like a clingy dressing.

08:10A little bit of Worcestershire,

08:11just amping up that savory quality to the mushrooms.

08:14A similar thing used in a small quantity

08:17might be like a soy sauce.

08:18If I'm situating this dish

08:21as coming from coastal American South,

08:24does it really make sense for me

08:25to put soy sauce in it though?

08:27Not necessarily.

08:28Whereas Worcestershire sauce,

08:30maybe we've picked up all those brown bits

08:33that were in the center where we cooked our burger.

08:36I wanna cook this out though

08:37until it's like it's clinging, you know?

08:40Like stage six clanger.

08:42So we're making a sunny side up egg,

08:46lightly crispy.

08:48I like to baste with like a little bit of oil

08:50just to kind of cook that little ring of white

08:52that always stubbornly insists on not cooking through.

08:58These are our elements.

09:00If you take like a hot, freshly steamed rice

09:03and you mash some butter into it

09:05and you throw some salt in it as well,

09:07like where does that net you out, you know?

09:09What are you doing?

09:10Try this.

09:13There's this like rice element

09:15in the bottom of this dish.

09:16Yeah.

09:17Like that like doesn't really wanna break down

09:19and I don't know why you do it anyway.

09:21You're gonna combine all these things

09:22with like a mushy grit?

09:23No, I have to pick a lane here.

09:25Yeah.

09:25What seems more plausible?

09:26I can't imagine all this stuff going on top of that.

09:29It's gonna sink in there and be like a mush.

09:31Sink in there?

09:32Yeah.

09:33Reeling it back.

09:34Really?

09:35Okay.

09:36That's my opinion.

09:37Am I misleading him?

09:38Maybe just make some rice, come back to that.

09:40Okay.

09:41Just my opinion.

09:42I'm like getting a vibe like rice grits

09:46were not the right path

09:48but maybe some buttery rice

09:50that's a little bit clingy and clumpy could be.

09:52So let's kind of like go for that.

09:54This is the rice that I simply steamed

09:57and then put some butter and salt in.

09:59So we've now got burger element, onions.

10:03We have mushrooms and then we're gonna do egg.

10:07So this is my first attempt at the dish.

10:10This is a breakfast burger with mushrooms,

10:14rice and a sunny side up egg.

10:16This doesn't look like anything I've ever had.

10:19That's for sure.

10:20Maybe my egg is a tad too crispy.

10:23Is that possible?

10:25Nice medium cooked burger.

10:26These pieces of mushroom feel a little too small.

10:29And then about our rice,

10:32it's buttery but it doesn't hold together.

10:34And I got so much guff about the rice grits.

10:37Maybe we can safely assume it's not that

10:39in the original dish.

10:40Let's talk scores.

10:41Ingredients, not feeling amazing.

10:44I'm gonna say 60%.

10:46Technique, I feel a little bit more confidence.

10:49I would say 70.

10:50Appearance, maybe that's where I'm closer to like an 80.

10:54Taste, 70%.

10:56There's something weird going on with the starch.

10:58And I think the mushrooms could be better.

11:01Here are my actual current scores.

11:03Okay, this isn't like so bad.

11:05One thing generally speaking is off with my ingredients.

11:08There could be a technique consideration

11:10that is coupled with that.

11:11The next tasting is all about ingredients.

11:14It's all about that starch element

11:16and really dialing in the mushrooms.

11:19Honestly, I don't feel terrible seeing those scores.

11:26Here we go.

11:26Tasting number two.

11:29Smells the same.

11:30Still mushroomy.

11:32You know, like the nonspecific meatiness.

11:34So moving down.

11:36Again, this like crispy side.

11:39Just like a very deep level of browning here.

11:41These are some big pieces.

11:43It got like super crispy.

11:45It's the fact of it not being symmetrical

11:48that makes me think it's not portobello, not cremini.

11:52That to me is like a cross section of a king trumpet.

11:55All king trumpet?

11:56I'm standing by my decision to put Worcestershire in there,

12:00but I almost feel like there could be

12:01some soy sauce in there too.

12:03I don't know how I missed this on the first pass,

12:04but there is actually sauce on here.

12:08Very buttery textural sauce.

12:11And I'm wondering if that's the sort of like

12:12the saucy element that went with the mushrooms.

12:15I'm wondering if in the first tasting

12:18that clumping together of the rice

12:21was because there was this really rich meaty sauce

12:24kind of clumping it together.

12:26It's projecting a lot of fat.

12:28It's been thickened possibly with some sort of starch.

12:32The rice just seems like good old short grain white rice.

12:36So now I'm just looking for, is there anything in the burger?

12:39I am getting like a little tickle of garlic.

12:41Maybe it's like more of that onion

12:43finely chopped and put in there.

12:45I'm actually feeling pretty good.

12:46The sauce and the rice almost tasted like one thing,

12:50whereas it's two distinct elements.

12:52So a lot of our process is gonna be the same

12:55other than mushrooms are gonna come

12:57out of the skillet entirely.

12:58We're gonna build the sauce in there.

13:00Sauce is gonna come into the dish

13:02just for the final plating.

13:04This is medium grain rice.

13:06I don't even know what to say regionally

13:07for this dish, to be honest.

13:09If there's soy sauce in it, I understand it even less.

13:12Same technique on the rice,

13:14but I'm using the shorter grain rice,

13:16which is gonna have more of a tendency

13:18to wanna clump together.

13:19I just threw a pinch of salt in there.

13:21Meanwhile, let's cut some vegetables.

13:23This is going to be fine diced onion

13:26for the burger itself.

13:28Super fine dice of garlic as well.

13:31Putting aromatic elements in my burgers

13:33is something I don't do.

13:34I'd rather keep the burger plain as is

13:37and add other flavors and elements around it.

13:40Let's do our sliced onion

13:43for part of the aromatic base for the gravy.

13:46Mushrooms.

13:48King trumpet mushrooms have such great flavor,

13:52but also very grillable, very searable.

13:55They're so big.

13:56Checking on the rice.

13:57Just wanna bring it to a simmer.

13:59So we'll do low and we'll time 20 minutes.

14:02Salt, pepper.

14:04We gotta cook these burgers.

14:05So I'm looking for that little bit of smoke there.

14:09Oh, I hate putting raw onion burger.

14:12It's just so annoying.

14:13Like the additional sugars in the onion

14:16make those bits that are now getting like so dark.

14:18You can see how much fat the meat is giving off.

14:21I mean, it's really, it's quite wild.

14:23You wanna make sure you have enough heat going for you

14:25so that as the juices start to release,

14:28coats flip, you can kind of get out ahead of that.

14:30Still be putting on a good sear with that second side.

14:33One and two.

14:34I poured out a good bit of the fat.

14:36So I'm just laying in these mushrooms.

14:38Salt.

14:39Get a really good sear on them.

14:41Might as well just get the butter in here.

14:43Melt it.

14:44Get a little zhuzh on these mushrooms.

14:47Getting started on our onions here.

14:49I wanna calm the heat down.

14:51Get them a little bit like melting, tender.

14:54I'm gonna do two cups of broth.

14:56Let that cook out.

14:58Gravy is just a really ultra flavorful liquid.

15:02Often a meat based broth that is thickened

15:07to a consistency that's gonna coat a spoon.

15:10Basically, you just have to figure out

15:12how do you wanna thicken it?

15:13Do you wanna start with a roux?

15:14Usually a flour based roux

15:16that's gonna be sort of the beginning

15:18of the cooking process or a slurry,

15:21which is typically how you would use cornstarch,

15:23which comes in at the end of the cooking process

15:26when flavors are where they need to be,

15:28but you just want something to be thicker.

15:31Let's put a little bit of soy and Worcestershire in.

15:33The teaspoon of each.

15:35Worcestershire definitely lifts the flavor up a bit.

15:39So I'm just mixing equal parts cornstarch and water.

15:42If you just put raw powdered cornstarch into this,

15:46it'll start activating and binding

15:48in all kinds of unpredictable ways.

15:50That was about half of it

15:52and that seems like it's probably enough.

15:54I need to bring it to a simmer to fully activate it.

15:58So presto chango, we've got gravy.

16:01So it was like running right off our spoon before

16:05and now it's clanging.

16:06Nice and concentrated.

16:08I'm gonna turn that off.

16:09All right, so we've got egg coming up.

16:12When you're making sunny-side up eggs,

16:15basting with oil is a great way

16:16to kind of cook through the top

16:18without making your yolk cloudy and flipping it.

16:21Great.

16:22So we can assemble.

16:24We wanna just get a good scoop

16:25of our Rice Grits burger patty

16:29and then we've got our mushrooms.

16:32All right, so now we do our sauce.

16:35Just wanna make sure I kind of go

16:36until we're getting some sort of pooling down on the side

16:40and then last, certainly not least, our egg.

16:44There it is, final dish.

16:47What an interesting journey.

16:48Just based on my scores for my initial pass at the dish,

16:52I'm not wildly far off.

16:54Hopefully I got a little bit closer

16:56and yet I have no idea what this dish is

16:58or where it comes from.

17:00Let's talk scores.

17:01Ingredients, let's say that we got up to a 75.

17:05Technique, with the gravy enhancement,

17:08let's say we're at 85.

17:10For appearance, again, the enhancement of the sauce,

17:14let's call it 95.

17:15Taste, we'll see.

17:16There's whatever this is called,

17:18but it's where it comes from

17:20that I'm most curious about.

17:22Having Jamila, who is my boss,

17:24judge me is gonna be certainly an interesting experience

17:27in and of itself.

17:28I'm very curious to see how that goes.

17:30Hey, Chris.

17:31Hey, Jamila.

17:32How are you?

17:33Did they already tell you about the Rice Grits thing?

17:35All the things, but I want to present to you

17:39Loco Moco.

17:40What?

17:41Loco Moco.

17:42This is a dish that is traditional to Hawaii.

17:45It's a comfort dish.

17:47This one is from Sheldon Simeon.

17:49It's what you'll find at a diner on all parts of Hawaii.

17:53Essence of Loco Moco is rice, ground beef, gravy, mushrooms,

17:59and the egg on top as a stack.

18:00Besides the grits, what was your biggest challenge?

18:04It was really just not having perceived

18:06that there was a sauce

18:07that was independent of everything else.

18:09Oh God, what is this?

18:10Well, what I've learned about this dish

18:12is that all of these elements are separate.

18:15The gravy is cooked separately from the beef patty,

18:19cooked separately from getting that caramelization

18:21on the onions and mushrooms.

18:23And then of course the fried egg on top.

18:25Is it a trumpet mushroom?

18:26It probably could be a trumpet mushroom

18:28or whatever you might encounter.

18:30This is Chef Simeon's very specific take on this dish.

18:34Trumpet adds a little bit of that chef's flavor

18:36and that chef's character.

18:38You add it worst to sure.

18:39Have you ever seen this before?

18:44Kitchen bouquet.

18:45You know what's so funny?

18:46The only time I've ever used that

18:48was it is a food stylist's hack ingredient

18:52for getting phenomenally deep color on a turkey.

18:56Is there soy sauce in addition to that?

18:59Or is it just that?

19:00There's soy as well.

19:01So let's talk about the patty.

19:04Some of the key things that weren't in the patty

19:06were things like garlic salt.

19:08It had panko crumbs in there.

19:11There was a little mayo.

19:13I know you're making a face,

19:15but I like a patty with some chopped onion.

19:18Oh, I hate putting raw onion burger.

19:21And another ingredient,

19:22you use cornstarch to thicken the gravy.

19:25Sheldon Simeon's recipe calls for just making a roux

19:29with flour, very, very traditional.

19:31I had a 50-50 shot with that one.

19:33You really nailed so much of the flavor

19:36and even getting the rice,

19:38even after having some issues with the rice.

19:41Also on technique that I think is so important

19:43is that you've got this nice hard sear on the mushrooms

19:47and that's something that Sheldon Simeon's recipe

19:49really calls for.

19:50And the other thing I think is really important

19:52is the gravy.

19:53Even though the thickening agent was different,

19:56the texture of the gravy is so beautiful

19:59that it feels like you nailed it there.

20:00Nice, okay.

20:01And let's taste it.

20:02Okay.

20:02Oh, look at that color.

20:06That's delicious.

20:06Try his and then, you know, we can kind of see here.

20:11I think the biggest difference that I get

20:13is really just in the quality of the patty.

20:15It's not meatloaf,

20:16but it's heading a little bit more in that direction

20:18in terms of like a little bit finer texture.

20:20The meat's been worked a little bit more.

20:22The garlic salt.

20:23Yeah, you taste a lot more garlic in this one.

20:26Should we talk about the scores?

20:28Sure.

20:28So for ingredients, you gave yourself a 75,

20:31but I'm going to give you a 78.

20:32You actually got more of those ingredients.

20:35Okay.

20:36Technique, you gave yourself an 85,

20:38but I'm giving you a 90.

20:40Appearance, I mean, look at this.

20:41You've nailed it.

20:42I love the edginess on your fried egg.

20:46You gave yourself a 95,

20:47but I'm going to give you the 98.

20:48For taste, what do you give yourself?

20:50I think this is one of the closer ones that I've gotten.

20:52I'd push like maybe like 90.

20:54I'm going to give you the edge here

20:56and give you a 92.

20:57I'll certainly take that.

20:58So overall, you gave yourself an 86,

21:00but I'm going to give you an 89.

21:01Very good.

21:02Flirting with an A.

21:04That was really close.

21:05Wow.

21:05That's probably the best I've done in a while.

21:07So good.

21:08So cool.

21:08Thank you for doing this.

21:10Loco moco, everybody.

21:11Loco moco.

21:12I honestly felt pretty great today.

21:15We worked through the rice situation,

21:18getting that much closer on the gravy.

21:21Really gratifying.

21:22I really liked the dish.

21:24Totally new to me.

21:26Mayonnaise.

21:27Didn't see that one coming.

21:28He's got very perky looking mushrooms.

21:32Very perky.

21:33Done.

Recreating Sheldon Simeon's Loco Moco From Taste

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