Queer Eye's Antoni Porowski Tries to Keep Up with a Professional Chef

I do wanna whisk this in gradually

because we want to avoid lumps, just in general.

Oh, so if I poured the whole thing at once,

that would not have been...

I feel like it might seize up.

[playful, mid-tempo music]

Hey guys, it's Carla, and I'm here today

in the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen with Antoni from Queer Eye.

And we have a mere 20 minutes to make croque-madame,

and we're gonna see if Antoni can follow along

with me through verbal instructions.

Well, you see excited.

I love croque-madame, and it's something my father's

been making for me since I was a kid,

and it's not one of those things

that I actually ever make 'cause he always made it for me.

So I'm very excited to make it.

Perfect, so we're gonna make it for each other.

Yes!

Okay, great. Perfect.

So, on the count of three, we're just gonna turn around

and we're gonna start cooking.

Okay. Okay.

Yep. One, two, three, ta-da!

All right.

In front of you, you've got a pot

and you've got an induction burner.

Our induction is set around 285,

and then also just take note there's a toaster oven

is right over here, and that is hot.

So it's on, and it's hot.

We're gonna use it

in a minute. Got it.

Okay, so let's get these two pieces

of butter into the pan.

Got it.

So the first thing we're making is a bechamel,

and so we're gonna start that off with a blond roux,

and what a treat for me today.

I don't even have to explain anything.

No, you do!

Do not make assumptions. [Carla laughs]

No, we're just gonna go silently

through this whole recipe. [Antoni laughs]

Is your butter foamy?

It's nice and foamy.

It's quite foamy. So now add

that little bowl of flour, and we're gonna whisk that in.

And then we're going a blond roux, toasty--

We're not developing this roux too much.

We're just making a nice, little blondie.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

So then, at this point, let's whisk in all of the milk.

Oh my gosh, is this cold?

[Carla] Yeah, it's cold.

I always get nervous, We are just--

and Ina taught me I know.

to microwave the milk before.

I know, we were debating this yesterday,

and then I talked to my resident expert,

Chris Morocco, and he said cold.

I do wanna whisk this in gradually

because we want to avoid lumps, just in general.

Oh, so if I poured the whole thing at once,

that would not have been--

I feel like it might seize up.

I don't know, what's happening?

I got no curdles. No curdles, okay, good.

[Antoni] Oh, mine's getting nice and rich.

Is it thickening?

All right-- Hey, can I tell you

a thing that I just learned?

[Carla] Tell me.

I didn't know that grainy mustard goes into here.

How did your dad do it?

Not with grainy mustard. [Carla laughs]

I think there's a lot of different ways

to skin a cat, you know what I mean?

Yes, and he also uses an offensive amount of cheese.

Oh really? Which I'm not against.

And I was lactose intolerant as a kid, but I fought it.

Oh, you just have to work through it.

Yeah.

[laughs] Mine is bubbling pretty rapidly.

It's getting thick, but I don't think mine is thick enough.

What is happening for you?

Mine's thickish.

[Carla] Yeah, one of my corners is a little bit brown.

Yum, unseasoned flour, milk, and butter.

Right?

It's kind of bland. Sign me up!

[laughs] Flour paste, it's

delicious. Delicious. [laughs]

I feel like my thickness has been achieved.

I felt like mine's been achieved, too.

Okay, so let's turn the heat off

and whisk in the nutmeg and a little bowl.

I wanna taste it for salt after the mustard is in

because the mustard itself is salty.

[Antoni] Got it.

We're just a couple of people making croque-madame.

Cooking is supposed to be fun!

[laughs] I love the way the mustard looks in there.

It looks like tiny, little caviar.

Yeah!

[Carla] Is your mustard and your nutmeg in?

[Antoni] It's in there, and it's--

[Carla] So let's give it a little taste.

[Antoni] I'm gonna give a little taste.

[Carla] Mmm.

♪ Using my spoon more than once ♪

[Carla] Pretty good.

♪ I don't care ♪

Mmm, that's nice, I'm gonna put the rest of it in.

I love grainy mustard.

Yeah, you need all the mustard.

Sauce is seasoned?

Wait, wait, did you add salt?

[Carla] Oh, yeah.

What are you doing over there,

just whisking mustard this whole time?

Just literally whisking mustard and nutmeg

and [Carla laughs]

not being self conscious I think it's in

at all. If it's not in yet,

it's never going to be.

Right. Okay.

So that's done, seasoned. I'm not afraid of salt.

No, God, no.

What we need next is those two pieces of bread.

We need our ham, just a little Paris ham over here.

We need the cheese, and when there's a little dish

of [speaks in foreign language].

Mmm.

All right, so take your bechamel.

Mine is achieving a lovely skin at this point.

We don't need all of it, but I want you to put two

or three generous spoonfuls onto each piece of bread.

You gotta go wall to wall and a little bit over the sides.

You know what I mean? The edges are so important.

You can't have a bald edge.

You really can't. No.

Ted Allen would make a big deal of that

when I would make him sandwiches for lunch.

Oh, yeah. And he'd always be like,

Antoni, get the edges.

Yep, wall to wall.

Do you have a bechamel blanket?

I have a little blanket.

[Carla] And it's secured,

and you're ready to move forward?

Yes. Okay.

Now one slice of the toast,

the one that's gonna be the top piece.

I thought we were doing open-faced tartines

and I spread it on both!

[laughs] No, you are.

Oh, good. You put bechamel

on both sides, yes, that is correct.

Okay. So one of bread

you're gonna do a nice, little handkerchief folding

down onto itself of these two pieces of ham.

A nice handkerchief?

Oh, the ham on one of the pieces.

Yeah, on one of the pieces.

Understood. But don't just flat,

just don't do a flat-- No, it has to be

beautiful ribbons. No flat ham falling upon.

You're not the wardrobe guy,

Correct. but we're gonna do

more of a handkerchief thing.

So I'm afraid that this amount of cheese

is gonna be disappointing to you,

but this amount of cheese has to go

and divided between both pieces of bread.

So take half of the cheese and sprinkle it over the ham.

You know what?

Today's a lesson in dairy moderation,

maybe. Maybe, maybe.

There's a half a cup of bechamel on this.

And then the other half goes directly

onto the bechamel mountain. Got it.

Bechamel blanket.

You know about those heavy comforters

that people are into now?

Oh, I fall asleep immediately.

I have a 50-pound blanket. Exactly.

I fall into a coma right away.

Oh crap, only half the cheese on the ham.

Well, I'm under a blanket,

a 50-pound blanket, of bechamel right now.

And then the [speaks in foreign language] go

over the slice that just has the bechamel and cheese.

So you've one piece that's got toast,

bechamel, ham, cheese, and then the other side

should just be bread, bechamel, cheese, herbs.

Got it. Oui?

I understood oui, [speaks in foreign language].

Uh-oh, [laughs] I'm not going there.

Oh, I thought we were going into French, my bad.

No way, Jose.

Bread into toaster.

Wait, [speaks in foreign language] go?

Onto the fromage. Duh.

We've been over this.

And then we gotta go into the toaster.

In she goes.

Just make sure you're set to 450,

and we're moving on to egg.

All right, so little pan can go onto the induction.

We're gonna be in the medium-high range.

We really only need one egg.

We have two just in case; things happen with eggs sometimes.

♪ Carla, you're the boss, I'm gonna take your lead ♪

Little bowl with a little strainer.

Yep.

So when eggs get a little bit older,

the first they start to lose their moisture,

and the white also loses its bounciness.

And the way that that happens is towards the edges first.

Shut the front door! True story.

So that's why sometimes, when you fry an egg

and it'll have the nice humpty hump in the middle

with the yolk on top, and then it thins out

and you get that ring of really thin, which isn't bad,

it just has lost its collagen cushiness of the egg white.

So that's what we're doing.

We're putting it over this little strainer.

And I can use the liquidy white for my egg white omelets.

Just kidding.

Or you could use that part as hair gel.

Yeah! Yeah, that works, too.

So just give that little egg a jiggle.

[toaster oven beeps] Jiggle, jiggle.

[Carla] And let some of that thinner part

of the white drip down.

This is my favorite thing I've learned in the past month.

Wow, best thing in a month?

This is also great for poaching eggs.

I don't learn a lot, but this is very impressive.

Vegetable oil in that squeeze bottle,

I want you to add enough to the skillet

to completely coat the bottom with no bald spots.

[Antoni] Oh, that's a lot.

Yeah, it's a good amount. We're making a crispy egg

in the BA kitchen today. Exactamundo.

All right, so then carefully, but swiftly and confidently,

because you're in charge of the egg

and the egg is not the boss of you,

just put that egg right into your hot oil.

This really heats up quickly.

I want-- These are good.

This is the best in the biz.

Okay. All right, yeah,

so we're frying our egg.

This is like

olive oil fried egg. Oh yeah,

mine is definitely sizzling just like yours is, yeah.

[Carla laughs] I hear it.

[Carla] Oh, all right, salt your egg.

Salt the egg with kosh?

Yeah.

And then I'm looking into my toaster oven,

and my cheese is melted, but I'm not bubbling

or browning yet.

What is happening for you?

Same. So let's turn it up

to broil. We're such twins right now,

it's crazy. [Carla laughs]

All right, so now, with your egg that's frying,

do you have a little crispy edge yet?

Almost, but not quite.

Not quite, okay.

But just splash a little bit of that hot oil

on the white only.

Try not to get it onto the yolk.

[Antoni] Got it.

[Carla] And I love the way it instantly bubbles up

when you do that. Oh, 'cause you

don't want the boogers.

[Carla] I don't want any yolk boogers.

Yeah. Yeah.

You really get me.

No, I don't like the white boogers.

My dad likes 'em, and I always scoop them off,

and I always feel like it's a great feat

when I get the white off without damaging the yolk.

Yeah, exactly.

So this is a good trick that I also learned

from one of my comrades,

and then it make this really puffy white.

So maybe we are actually improving

on the croque-madame of your childhood.

This is so good.

Because it might not have-- I literally only make

a French omelet,

It might not have so this awesome.

the nostalgia, but it also doesn't have egg white boogers.

Yeah, but you know what? I'm building memories here.

I'm not exclusive to what my father made.

He also used to boil Brussels sprouts,

so you know? Oh, that's a smell.

[Antoni] Yeah.

Take a look at your little croque-madame,

make sure she's not burning.

Oh, she's starting to get little browning bits

on the edges. Yeah,

I'm a little behind you, and I need to catch up.

I'm gonna keep that oven door closed.

All right, so you didn't break your yolk?

[Antoni] Nope.

[Carla] You have a beautiful egg.

Well...

[Carla] Let's get all this other crap out of the way.

Yours is a lot more beautiful

'cause yours got really crispy.

No, you don't know that. This is just--

I'm pretty sure I could hear that sizzle and crisp.

That little sizzle?

But my egg is done, so I'm gonna take it out of the pan.

So definitely want a runny yolk, but I don't want it raw.

I have a crispy bottom.

[Antoni groans]

What's happening inside the toaster?

The toaster's fine, it's going places.

And, you know what, I thought it was browning,

but that's a lie.

It's just the grains from the mustard seed.

Oh, yeah. I feel like I

was doing so well, and I was overly confident.

Now I'm screwing it up 'cause my egg isn't beautiful.

I don't hear anything.

Do you wanna make another egg?

We have a second egg.

I wanna make a second egg because--

[Carla] Let's make a second egg.

I've seen Jose Andres do his olive oil and where it gets

brown and crispy. We're doing it again.

And I need to do that. We're going again.

We're going again.

Yeah, this is the thing about this egg.

This egg is gonna be the crowning glory

on the croque-madame.

It is the first thing you see.

This egg has to be just presentation perfect.

So listen, this is a thing that chefs do that's good.

We're not serving something that isn't perfect.

But sometimes that means that people have

to wait for their food.

And sometimes life isn't perfect.

And the other thing that's happening now

is the whole timing with the croque-madame being

in the oven longer than I thought it was going to be,

I have nerves.

I do, too, a little bit, 'cause I really wanted

to make you happy. [Carla laughs]

[Carla] Yeah, it's true, I have to eat your sandwich.

[Carla] Oh, you have to eat mine? Yeah!

I didn't know that!

That even makes me more stressed, that doesn't help!

This one really made a funny shape.

My first egg, I have to say,

was a little bit more symmetrically pleasing.

I am with you, and now that I look at my original egg,

I don't hate it as much because it

does have a little browning on the sides.

[Carla] Yeah, but now that egg is cold.

Correct.

I do have amazing bubblage, though.

Bubblage?

Bubblage, just an extreme puffy egg white.

I'm starting to feel a little better about this one.

It's a little phoenix rising situation going on.

[laughs] What's happening with croque-madame?

Oh my God, it's gotta come out.

Talk about bubblage, my God.

Oh, yes.

Oh my God, I'm very pleased.

I love melty Gruyere more than most kinds of dogs,

more than I like most kinds of dogs,

not more than most kinds of dogs like melty Gruyere

'cause, apparently, dogs shouldn't have dairy.

Sometimes I just think about something

and then I start talking about it,

and then three minutes go by and I'm like,

what just happened?

My egg is ready.

Drain it off a little bit, and I'm putting it

on that paper towel-lined sizzle plate

and turning this heat off.

All right, Antoni, is your egg out of the pan?

I gotta take it out. We need a runny yolk.

I cannot have a not runny yolk for Carla Lalli Music,

which we haven't even addressed

how amazing that part of your last name is.

Thank you.

Sandwich is cooling down.

I know that we're in high-risk egg situation,

but it's come now at the expense of my sandwich so

are you ready?

Oh, ready to show me?

Well no, ready to build the rest of the,

ready to build the sandwich.

I totally haven't put my egg on the ham yet.

Okay, great, so this is what we're gonna do.

You're gonna take the ham piece,

put it onto the plate,

and then top it with the cheese and herb piece.

I'm the worst.

[Carla] Right on top of that guy.

[Antoni] Yup.

So we have ham in the middle

[Antoni] Yup.

[Carla] and bechamel deliciousness on top.

[Antoni] Yup.

The more beautiful of your eggs

that pleases you the most is gonna go right on top.

[laughs] This egg is the weirdest shape I've ever seen.

Oh, oh, I have a quick tip!

You know when you burn your fingers?

Yeah? [laughs]

The coldest part of your body is your earlobe

'cause there's the least amount of circulation.

So if you touch your earlobe, it's a good way of cooling it.

Are you trying to tell me you burned yourself?

You know what, we've been lock step this whole time.

I'm putting my egg in the middle.

Is your egg still in the middle?

I'm putting the old egg in the middle.

I'm gonna put the old egg-- It's still runny,

and it's not that old.

It's not like it's been sitting there for a week.

Yeah, it's not like an old lady; it's just an old egg.

And it's gonna get warmed up. And we're not agist,

either, by the way, just to clarify.

But it's warm in there.

It's like bechamel blanket town.

Yeah? Yeah.

And then I'm doing a little black pepper.

If you don't care for it, you can leave it off.

But I like it.

Are we ready to go?

Oui, mademoiselle.

Now, on the count of three,

just like we did at the beginning,

we're gonna turn around for the big reveal.

All right, one, two, three.

Ta-da!

Oh, you already have egg yolk coming out, do you know that?

I do! I was sneaky about it [Carla laughs]

and I put it towards you.

I just wanna impress you, it's all I want out of life.

I just want you to be happy.

It looks amazing.

You have much better browning along your white.

Picture perfect.

Look at that. Yours!

But I wanna get into it. Your bread is a lot bigger

than mine. [Carla laughs]

I get that a lot.

I can't even pay attention 'cause I'm

already seeing how much better yours is.

No, no. 'Cause you already have

the oozy bechamel; I don't have as much of that.

There's an oozy yolk over there,

which I do not have because there was--

Yes, but this is so much more impressive.

Well, here you go, then.

If you like it so much, let's trade.

This looks incredible.

I want some of everything.

Beautiful, the grainy mustard is everything in this.

I know, and also that first cut when you get the--

Yes!

Okay, we're doing it? Yep.

Yep, all right. Are we ready?

Ready?

Mmm!

Mmm, mm-hmm. [Antoni claps quietly]

Oh yeah, you're not afraid of salt.

Mm-mm, no, in a good way.

But it needs it because there's so much fatty stuff

going on Yes, absolutely.

and so much bread to cut through.

And even though the bread is this very important foundation,

it's not seasoned.

Correct.

Mmm!

It's really good.

Mmm. I'm gonna teach my pop this.

I don't want this to come across as being selfish,

but I'd love it if you came back sometime.

We could cook again.

Any day of the week!

I would love that. We'll get the whole gang.

100%.