Meet the chef cooking for Hollywood stars at the Oscars

National World - LocalTV

We headed down to the iconic CUT at 45 Park Lane, London restaurant by Wolfgang Puck and spoke to Executive Chef Elliot Grover about cooking for the stars.

Transcript

00:00 Imagine cooking for all of Hollywood's finest at the Oscars.

00:06 Well today I'm meeting Elliot Grover, executive chef of 45 Park Lane,

00:11 who works closely with world renowned chef Wolfgang Puck.

00:15 Today he invited me down to the kitchen to show us what he'll be cooking

00:19 and talk us through how it feels serving up these special dishes to the A-listers.

00:25 To be honest it was all a bit of a shock to the system and it all happened quite quickly.

00:29 I mean it just started out with a question with Wolfgang, I said, "Do you reckon I can come?"

00:33 And he literally said, "Yeah, yeah, of course you can."

00:35 And it was all very blasé, it was about six months before, because I think I've been around two years now.

00:42 And then all of a sudden I got a phone call around three months before, he said,

00:45 "Oh, have you got your British dishes ready for the Oscars?" And I said, "What do you mean?"

00:49 And then he said, "Well, you need to be ready, I said you're coming."

00:52 And then before I know it, sort of landing in LA.

00:56 Obviously a lot of preparation went into it before, but yeah, sort of found myself at the Oscars.

01:00 I was so, so excited and I don't think I quite realised how big it was until I actually got there.

01:07 But it was amazing.

01:09 Did you get starstruck? Was there anyone that you were kind of starstruck by?

01:12 I mean, I've cooked for so many wonderful people, so many amazing people,

01:16 but I think seeing Brendan Fraser was a massive, massive highlight for me.

01:21 And to be honest with you, obviously Lady Gaga was wonderful, Lisa Vanderpump.

01:25 The great thing is they were all so wonderful. They were all really lovely.

01:28 They loved the fact that we brought the British food there as well, so it was really special.

01:32 ...planted prawn rolls.

01:36 I mean, I was joking with Wolfgang last week, we were saying...

01:39 I have such an expectation of myself and how I want to deliver the food

01:43 and represent 45 Park Lane and cut London in the right way.

01:47 So the pressure won't go until the night, if that makes sense.

01:50 And there's an amazing team there as well, so yeah, no pressure.

01:55 Talk to me about the menu that you're cooking this year.

01:59 So I always wanted to do one better than last year, fingers crossed it all goes well.

02:03 This year we're going to do native lobster fish and chips.

02:07 It's going to be like a spicy style, so it will give a little nod to California.

02:12 We're going to be doing roast beef, wagyu, dripping, Yorkshire pudding and creamed horseradish,

02:17 which is amazing, it's really, really good.

02:20 And a prawn cocktail roll.

02:24 But yeah, it's going to be amazing.

02:26 And all of it is small bites, so you can eat it within three bites.

02:29 And you obviously need to be very conscious of them not dropping it onto their dress or suit.

02:35 It needs to be quite easy to eat.

02:37 So for the people that aren't going to the Oscars, can they try those dishes here or where can they try them?

02:42 Yeah, so you can actually try it in 45 Park Lane Hotel in Bar 45.

02:48 We've also paired the three dishes with an amazing cocktail.

02:52 It's a twist on the Americano that's been made by Enrico, our bar manager.

02:56 And it's absolutely amazing, so you can get that all at Bar 45.

03:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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