Today, Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Juan Dejesus, sous chef at St. Anselm in Brooklyn. Recently reopened after a basement fire forced them to close for almost five months, St. Anselm is rebuilding itself from the ashes as one of the neighborhood’s best steakhouses.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:01St. Anselm is a neighborhood steakhouse here in Williamsburg.
00:05Six months ago, we had a fire in our basement that had us closed for several months after.
00:10Although the fire was a terrible experience, there's definitely been some silver linings and blessings coming from it.
00:19So my role as a sous chef here is to make sure that all the sides are prepared, all the sauces are taken care of.
00:27I also help with butchering, making sure they're ready to go at 5 o'clock when the service starts.
00:32I enjoy the position because it keeps me versatile. It helps me in the process becoming an all-around better cook.
00:43Good morning. Welcome to St. Anselm. I'm the sous chef Juan. It's 8 a.m. We got a lot of work to do. Follow me in.
00:50So I'm the one that comes in and makes 44 quarts of mashed potatoes every day.
01:00We want to get all the jackets off fast, get the process done with.
01:04We probably go through about 20 of these boxes a week. We're pumping out a lot of potatoes.
01:08It's our top seller, so we got to make sure it's like made right every day. We always have our eyes on it.
01:13We're tasting it two, three times a day. Every ticket is going to have a mash and probably a hanger on it.
01:18After we make our mash, we cool it down and then we get it in a frying pan with some bacon lard.
01:23We do about two to three pan flips so it can get a nice crust on the outside.
01:28When you get into these potatoes, there is a light crisp on the outside, nice fluffiness and butteriness on the inside.
01:35We got some herbs, some scallion in there, some rosemary. It's super flavorful. You won't need to add nothing to it.
01:41It's a lot of potatoes to peel, so it can take like 20, 30 minutes sometimes.
01:45I have them in a bucket of water so they don't oxidize. I don't want the potatoes to change color while I'm peeling.
01:53So I'm adding some salt and some bay leaves so that it can sit in there while we boil off the potatoes.
01:59And now I'm going to take these upstairs and get them cooking.
02:04It's like my little gym here. You want the potatoes to cook evenly, so you want to start them with cold water.
02:09So that the water can come up and everything cook evenly together.
02:13This is going to sound terrible.
02:15I just got these potatoes on. I got them on high in about like 10-15 minutes as I'm coming up.
02:24I'm going to bring them back down to a simmer once they get to a boil.
02:27I'm an early riser, so I enjoy coming in and working during the daytime.
02:32And I feel like in the position I do have, I get to have my hands in more things.
02:36Because if you come in and work the line, you're going to be in a specific zone.
02:39So I get to come in and work on different skills throughout the day.
02:43It's almost nine o'clock. Our first delivery is across the street.
02:46So we're going to have to get ready to get that packed away soon, too.
02:52All right, the delivery is here.
02:54I'm the only one here throughout the day, and we got delivery starting at about nine o'clock.
02:57So it is my job. I'm here with the executive chef, Adam.
03:02So they mixed up half our order. We're waiting for the rest of them to come back.
03:06There's a lot of restaurants in this area.
03:08We use a lot of the same vendors, and they'll take things to the other restaurants.
03:12Now our delivery drivers are out there looking to see where they left the order.
03:16I'm not too stressed out. Every once in a while it will happen.
03:19And it's a little bit of a scramble, but it's going to be all right.
03:22So our slide is to get everything that's coming down the ramp quickly.
03:25And there's a lot of heavy things that got to come down here.
03:27So that gives us a lot of assistance.
03:29The first thing we want to do is mark off all the boxes that came in today with the date.
03:33Now we're going to get these all into the walk-in and get them in order.
03:37So these are our strip loins. We just got all of our beefs in.
03:40These are our hangers. All of these will probably go this weekend.
03:44We sell hangers the most, at least 50 to 70 hangers a night.
03:47All right, they found the rest of our order.
03:49They dropped the mustard by mistake.
03:53Yeah, it happens. I mean, I drop stuff sometimes, too.
03:57So they're going to credit it for saying we'll have more mustard by tomorrow.
04:02No big deal.
04:05All right, it's 9.15. The delivery is all put away.
04:08Now we're going to get into some sticky toffee cake.
04:14The sticky toffee cake is almost similar to like a bread pudding.
04:18We use black crack and rum and some dates.
04:21And we make a really nice cake with a caramel topping.
04:24We're going to take two and a half cups of rum and get it into this pot.
04:28We're going to try to cook out all the alcohol so that this cake isn't too boozy.
04:32We just really want the flavor from the rum, not the alcohol content.
04:36But I've been learning pastry at the job as I go.
04:39So I feel like it challenges me a little bit more when I come to work.
04:42While I am up here, I'll also skim my potatoes.
04:45All open flames we handle upstairs.
04:47We actually had a fire about six months ago that took out the whole basement.
04:52My knives were down there.
04:53All the equipment had to be replaced.
04:55Had to refurnish and redo everything downstairs.
04:58We played safe. No fires downstairs.
05:00We were closed for about six months.
05:02We missed all the holidays.
05:03We have a lot better lighting downstairs in the basement.
05:06Way more outlet.
05:07We were able to add seats to our bar counter and we redid our floors.
05:11We just made it a little bit nicer and comfortable for us to work in.
05:15It was almost like a little blessing in disguise.
05:17So the sticky toffee cake is our one dessert that we serve warm actually.
05:22And we make a caramel icing to soak the cake in.
05:25After we bake off, we will pull our cakes out and get our caramel over so it could soak into the cake.
05:30And then we'll usually serve it a la mode.
05:34It's actually very warming.
05:36Like if you stand here, it's very comfortable.
05:39And this will cook off for a few minutes.
05:42It makes it real busy for our line cooks at night.
05:44We got four burners and they're working off of them throughout the whole night.
05:47And they're always on and busy.
05:49That's why I try to do the majority of my prep early so I get out their way so they can get in and do what they got to do when they get here.
05:56This is the base of the cake.
05:58We're going to get this into the cake batter.
06:00Coming down hot.
06:01Rum is cooling.
06:03Split about 24 ounces of dates.
06:06Took the pits out.
06:07I'm going to allow the rump and dates to soak for about an hour now.
06:11Definitely have two timers going on in my head.
06:13Which is also why I'm going to start getting my meats together for my mashed potatoes.
06:18Because those are going to be coming down soon.
06:20I just grabbed my butter.
06:22I don't want the potatoes to be done and them waiting on me.
06:25I want to be waiting on the potatoes.
06:27We also do add olive oils.
06:28I don't want to make them too oily.
06:30If there's too much fat during the frying process, it'll be really hard to build a crisp without burning them.
06:35They're not enough.
06:36The potato will be way too starchy.
06:38Almost like a knish.
06:40We're going to add some rosemary for some flavor.
06:43I'm going to throw some garlic in the RoboCoop.
06:45We're going to chop it with the garlic pretty fine.
06:46Not too chunky because it's not getting cooked or anything.
06:49It's just going to rotate when a mash gets mixed in.
06:54During the rebuild, we wanted to make sure we had a sufficient amount of outlets around the kitchen.
06:59We only had one, two outlets set up.
07:02Now we have one, two, three.
07:06We have one more back here.
07:09One in the ceiling right here.
07:11One in the wall right here.
07:13And another guy in the ceiling right here.
07:15Being able to open up the kitchen and do projects on that side that require electricity is huge.
07:20Because now you're not waiting for somebody to finish doing something to start the next project.
07:25You could move on.
07:26So for this recipe, I'm going to grab out about a cup.
07:30Save the rest of that for my mash.
07:32And then I'm going to chop up some scallions.
07:34And that will be the rest of our mash meetings.
07:36All right, it's 10 o'clock.
07:37I have a little bit of time before my potato is finished.
07:40I'm going to grab some pork belly from out the walk-in so I can get some bacon going in between time.
07:50So we have a very thick cut steakhouse style bacon that we render off slightly and then finish off on the grill.
07:57I feel like a lot of places sell breakfast bacon.
08:00We're selling dinner bacon.
08:01You'll see where the majority of the fat is and how it lines up and starts to get more meaty.
08:06You also see from the bottom, you kind of feel where the fat caps really start.
08:12So it's important to get this done early because we need this lard for our potatoes.
08:17As well as one of our salads comes with a piece of bacon on top.
08:21I have a liner so that all the fat could fall to the bottom and then I could pour my lard out after.
08:27Bacon's in at 325.
08:28We're going to render it off for about 15 minutes.
08:31Get some of that fat out and then flash it for probably another 10 minutes.
08:35In that down time, we're going to go finish off the mashup.
08:41All right, we are filled to the top.
08:43Corner hot, coming down hot.
08:45I need some plastic wrap first because if I put these to mix without plastic wrap, there'll be potatoes all over the place.
08:50And the last thing you want is hot potatoes going all over you.
08:53It's one of those lessons you only have to learn once.
08:55I want to get most of the lumps out.
08:57We're just adding some of my olive oil, a little bit more flavor.
09:00I'll start hitting the edges so that I can get the potatoes that are coming off to the side in the bowl and incorporated.
09:08We're going to add some pepper and then about a cup of salt.
09:10After this, we have to cool it down.
09:12All right.
09:13These bad boys are really hot, so I have on about like three to four gloves on one hand.
09:18As you see all the steam coming out, that's water.
09:20So we just want it to steam out so that when we fry it, it gets a better crisp.
09:23As you get more to the bottom, the hotter it gets, the more steam that's going to be in there.
09:27We usually let them cool for about two hours and then we will break them down into portions so that they are ready for the line and they can just flip them into the pan and cook them.
09:35I'm going to get these into the walk-in and we're going to keep rolling with the day.
09:39We're about to pull this bacon out so we can finish it off.
09:49Oh, it smells so good.
09:51Heritage Farm, bacon rendered down.
09:53It's all bubbly.
09:54It's hot.
09:55We're going to save off all that render.
09:57We usually get about anywhere from a pint to a quart a day and we save all that so that we can finish off our mashed potatoes.
10:04If you do not like Park products, we also will finish off the mashed potatoes with our clarified garlic butter.
10:12I'll probably let it cool for about an hour, two hours, then I'll get it into a quart container and get it into the walk-in.
10:16We're all caught up on our projects right now.
10:18I'm going to get into breaking down a salmon for tonight.
10:23We have a Norwegian-caught salmon.
10:25I'm going to get off all the fins, getting the head off, breaking the collar off clean,
10:33and getting as many 12-ounce steak portions as I can.
10:37Not everybody eats steak and steaks isn't ideally just beef.
10:42A steak is a big cut, you know?
10:44So this is a salmon steak.
10:46You're not having a steak when you come here.
10:48We are going to grill this off, then finish it with the garlic butter and gray salt.
10:54I'm going to get this into the walk-in now.
10:56All right, it's about 2 o'clock.
10:58Our line cooks have been coming in.
11:00We're about to go over our list.
11:03Every day, the line cooks will make a list at the end of the night based off what we sold.
11:08I'll come in, check the list, go check on our inventory, and see what we actually need to get done.
11:13We have our main master list, which is my prep list that me and whoever's working prep will come in and get started with.
11:20We have a grill list, a garmo list, and an expo list that's upstairs as well.
11:25About four lists to get through every day before 5 o'clock.
11:27I'm here with Vinny, we're about to go over our list.
11:30He runs the grill.
11:31We're going to get all this stuff out and ready.
11:33So I'm just going to get into hangers, start breaking those down, and then get into flat irons after that.
11:38Hangers are always going to be on the list first.
11:40We sell the most of hangers, probably like at least what, like 50 to 70 hangers a night.
11:45So he's going to be here cleaning up a lot of hangers for a few minutes and then get on to the next project.
11:51All right, sounds good.
11:52My personal favorite happens to be the New York strip.
11:55I feel like it has a good balance between the fat cap and being just nice and lean.
12:00And it comes with the al poff sauce, which is just a pepper cream sauce.
12:04Delicious, always a good go-to.
12:06When I get into a strip, I want to get a nice piece of this fat cap on the back.
12:11I love this piece of fat.
12:12I want to leave as much as possible.
12:14I just want to get rid of anything that I know is not going to cook off on the grill.
12:17Which I feel like I'm at a pretty happy point now already.
12:25They'll be here with salt and pepper right before going on to the grill.
12:29And then finish with some maldon, as well as the al poff sauce.
12:33And we're done breaking down the strip.
12:35We're going to get into making some al poff to finish this off.
12:40Al poff just means a pepper, so it's going to be a peppercorn sauce.
12:44We'll get that going.
12:45I have some shallot scraps from all the pickling and other things we do.
12:48I'm going to get these in the Robocook, get them broken up nice and small.
12:54The al poff is just for the New York strip.
12:57I am happy where this is at, and I'm going to get it upstairs.
13:00Get my butter in.
13:02I'm going to get my shallots in there, start sweating them out.
13:05You know, it should bring a little bit of heat, but not really spice.
13:07Definitely should be creamy.
13:10I will start getting my apple jack ready.
13:13I'm going to set aside about a cup.
13:15I'm going to pull it off of the fire.
13:17Get it in there.
13:19Then let it get back on the fire.
13:21And then just, there we go.
13:26We use majority pink peppercorns, but we got some green ones in there for color.
13:30And we also have black pepper that is minced up in here as well.
13:34And that's from the peppery flavor.
13:39Our flame is out.
13:40Now I can add my peppercorns and give it a good mix so that these can get on the bottom and start getting nice and toasty.
13:47We will keep this hot on the burner during service, and we will pull out the steak, let it rest, temp it, and then put it on the plate and add the steak right on top of that.
13:56Once I could pull it off of a spoon and it leaves the line, I'm pretty happy with the thickness.
14:02So I can smell that my peppercorns are beginning to become fragrant and some of them are starting to open up in there.
14:07So I'm going to add my cream in and then reduce this down and I'm all done with my apple.
14:12All right, we're getting closer to service. Our line cooks are going to get behind the line and start serving guests in a few minutes.
14:25During service, I'm getting stuff ready for the next day.
14:27That'll be when I get my chance to clear the table and start peeling more potatoes, peeling garlic, peeling shallots, getting all my cake pieces together.
14:36All the things that come into getting things just rolling.
14:39So I'm going to need you guys to get out of here. Thanks for coming in with me. I'll see you guys.