Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qwh4wCsczI
the jurogan experience so when did you know that you wanted to be a chef like how long have you been like really into cooking because you're a young guy by the way congratulations on the michelin stars thank you that's i think that's giant right in the world of chefs that's that's the [ __ ] thing right yeah um i i mean i dedicated the last probably 15 years of my life just to trying to get a michelin star and uh when i found out this year uh they had me on a on a zoom call they kind of they kind of lied to me they kind of uh what they did is they said uh we wanted they said first of all i said you're not gonna you're not getting a star this year just so you know but we want to have uh send someone to the restaurant in los angeles and um we have some interview questions we want to ask you about uh you know how it was to operate during coven and i said well i'm in austin but i i can fly back and like no no big deal don't fly back just just zoom in so i zoom in and they have my wife uh who's our pastry chef and my business partner um she's at the restaurant and so is my brother who was the chef of sushi bar and montecito uh and our chef at pasta bar and they're all three there uh just in the restaurant and i'm at my house here in austin and i'm on zoom and they start asking us some random questions about uh you know how is it you know what's it like being open and what if the the the you know pitfalls you had to overcome and uh then out of nowhere they just go oh and um i have one extra question um uh congratulations uh two of your restaurants are getting michelin stars oh they snuck it in on it they snuck it in and i'm on and the thing is i'm on a zoom and so i was like wait what what did she say like i couldn't i couldn't hear and and everyone's it and i thought we had just gotten one and it turned out they said no no no i said wait which rest which restaurant they said sushi bar montecito and uh uh and pasta bar and uh i just pasta bars in l.a pasta bars in l.a and um i just started crying wow yeah so i was just reading uh on the history of the michelin star and that it
was really back in the early days of travel they had a book would show you where you can get your car repaired where you could refuel and then where you get something to eat yeah and then people got really obsessed with the where to get something to eat part and then it became a separate entity it was never i don't think they ever set out to become the world's standard on cuisine i don't think that was ever the point the point was we have to give you a reason to buy tires and that reason is to drive and so here's some things to drive to and so that's what the one star two star three star you know delineations have to have to do with is this one is worth you know a stop this one's worth a detour and this one's worth a journey and so that's how you get one star two-star three-star so one star means if it's on your way stop that was over a hundred years ago now one star means you know fly there but three star means like up end your life and go figure like go find that place what's what's that who's got three stars uh here in america not many mcdonald's mcdonald's yeah i think they have i think they have four stars actually is there is there uh anywhere in america that has three uh yeah a couple couple places like what uh the french laundry has three stars okay that's that place where gavin newsom got in trouble right i watched a video on that um not on that but on uh bourdain when bourdain uh i think it was the old show i think it wasn't even i think it was no real reservations yeah and he went to french laundry it was pretty [ __ ] incredible yeah i've only got to eat there once but it's i mean it's a it's an institution it's that good oh yeah oh yeah i mean it's it's it for a long time it was the restaurant in america um the it was the restaurant isn't it kind of a weird spot like you got to travel yeah but that's part of sort of the allure of and not to say they wouldn't be a three-star restaurant without you know having that uh that part of traveling but three stars is when you're worth the journey and um so you could be in like the himalayas or some show yeah i mean a lot of some of the three star restaurants
around the world are not in you know they're not in strip malls they're not in city centers they're you know they've bought ranches they've bought uh you know they have land uh el bully was on the top of a mountain where's el bulli well that's been closed for a long time but that was in spain oh yeah yeah so i mean they're saying that like i know i don't know any this listen you let me into your world i don't know what you're talking about what's elbowing so that was fair and adria they they were named best restaurant in the world several years over it was really the restaurant that uh really brought what became known as molecular gastronomy the all the food that's that you know jamie would probably look at and say this is what what am i looking at this doesn't look like food this looks like interesting abstract art but you know they think you know today you have restaurants where you know you'll get literally a balloon that's brought out to the table and you eat the suck the helium out and eat the balloon and that's you know one of the courses oh wow 12 iconic dishes of el bulli um so this is like fancy dining and this is like it's beyond fancy dining from jamie's lineage would look about this and if you asked him is that like what is this and you didn't tell him it was you wouldn't think that was food yeah jamie's not into this i could tell already it's a sea urchin that that is sea urchin delicious do you like sea urchins no of course i just tried octopus recently and yeah okay i feel bad eating octopus because i found how [ __ ] smart i know that's what i thought i was like i'll try it so i can say i tried it but they're but they're you know they're so [ __ ] good they're very good but there are murderers i mean they murder everything yeah i'd rather have macaroni and cheese and steak oh my god macaroni and cheese i'm just saying i'd rather have something else