Elizabeth Olsen Tries to Keep Up with a Professional Chef

Hey, I'm Carla and I'm here in

the Bon Appetit test kitchen with Lizzie Olsen.

And, today we have 20 minutes

to make a mixed veggie tempura.

And, we're gonna see if Lizzie can follow along

with me through verbal instructions only.

I know you cook. Yes.

On a scale of one to 10, how do you rate yourself?

I'm gonna say that I'm a about a six,

for my friends at home.

Okay, starting at a six, but

I think we're gonna be at a nine or 10.

Great, I wanna learn a lot.

Cool because we have customers coming in.

Great.

Okay, great.

All right, so we're gonna turn around

and start cooking on three.

Okay? Okay, yeah.

One, two, three.

(funky music)

So, the first thing we're gonna do

is take this very brain looking, giant mushroom.

Yes.

So, this is a hen of the woods mushroom,

also called a maitake.

I got my squash and my lemons outta the way.

(clattering) Okay, oopsies.

So, the first thing I want you to do

is just turn it over so the stem side is up.

Got it.

And then, just use your hands

to kind of break big clusters off of the bottom.

[Lizzie] 'Kay.

And like, kinda large pieces,

and then we'll go back in and we can make them smaller.

And, I like doing this with my hands

because then you get--

Oh, you're not using your paring knife?

No, I'm only using the paring knife

if it was like dry, or seems spongy at the bottom.

Okay.

We're probably use like a quarter of these.

Okay.

So, then just take the tray with the mushrooms on it,

and move that over to your right hand side.

And, we're gonna make the batter.

So, next thing, you got your board cleared?

Yes, there's mushroom jus on it, but it's fine.

(laughing) I think that's a line from a Woody Allen movie.

So, now you've got two bowls,

one is flour, and one is cornstarch.

So, you put those into the larger bowl together.

Okay.

[Carla] We're gonna make the tempura batter now.

[Lizzie] Okay.

Once you have your flour and your cornstarch.

[Lizzie] Yes.

You have a little dish that has salt and baking soda.

And, those get combined too.

Wait.

[Carla] They should be in the same little bowl.

There's another little bowl that has salt--

Salt and baking powder.

[Carla] Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, it was to my left, is it to your left?

It's in my bowl now, but yeah.

If there's a little bowl with white stuff

that isn't salt, then that's your...

Okay.

And so, let's just whisk the dry ingredients first.

All right, so once the dry ingredients are whisked together,

take your measuring cup that's over to the right.

Yup.

[Carla] And, those two little bottles of seltzer.

Yeah.

[Carla] And, we're gonna measure two cups.

Okay.

Which I wanna add gradually.

So, take your whisk in one hand.

Yeah.

Your measuring cup in the other.

And then, gradually whisk in, you know,

do about four fifths of this.

And, we'll check the texture.

It's like, do you know what oobleck is?

What'd you say?

Oobleck?

Blueblack?

Oobleck, it's like a thing you play with

as a kid, with like baking soda and water.

And, that's what it's reminding me of.

Cool.

And, it should be about the consistency of heavy cream.

Yeah, okay.

I'm gonna try and get a little more bumps out,

but I think I'm almost there.

All right.

So, I'm gonna put my whisk into the garbage bowl,

just to get it outta the way.

And, do you feel like you're in a lump free place?

'Cause we're gonna start frying.

I'm almost at a lump free place.

Now, I'm like a perfectionist, so I'm gonna,

I think I'm just gonna say yes.

Okay, great.

Take one big handful of mushrooms.

[Lizzie] Uh huh.

And, put them right into the batter.

And, there should also be a fork, and a spoon.

Yeah.

And, I'm gonna use my hands and the fork

to really gently, 'cause I don't wanna break

these clusters up, but I wanna coat

all of the mushrooms with batter.

[Lizzie] Yup.

So, we should be at around 350.

So, maybe while we're waiting we can

start prepping our acorn squash.

[Lizzie] Great.

[Carla] So, now you need your cleaver.

Yup, oh God.

[Carla] You got your acorn squash.

[Lizzie] Yes.

So put it on one side so that the stem end

is like closest to your dominant hand.

Yes, got it.

And then, just cut straight down,

kinda close to the stem.

And, just shear off that front part.

How do you use a cleaver?

Do you just like hit it?

You can hit it, you can use it like a slicing knife

and just go straight down.

I make really fun faces when I'm like frustrated,

or like straining, and it's not pleasant

to have a camera in front of me.

All you need to do right now

is just create like a flat edge so that we can stand--

Did it. Okay.

Great.

And then, we're gonna cut it into two lobes.

Straight down.

[Lizzie] Okay.

[Carla] And, if you're off to one side it's fine,

'cause we only need a quarter of the squash.

Just a quarter.

Just a quarter.

So, get--

So, cut the halves into quarters as well.

[Carla] Yeah, so once you have it in half.

[Lizzie] Got it.

Take your spoon, and scoop the seeds

into that little trash bowl that we made.

[Lizzie] Yes.

And then, we're gonna leave the skin on,

and cut this into thin slices.

Okay.

Going crosswise, so they're kind of like,

they look like little clouds to me.

Okay, do you find it easier to use a cleaver

than like a chef's knife?

Not necessarily.

Yeah, I'm not finding it the easiest.

You could switch to your paring knife if you want.

It's okay.

I'm just kind of scared of big silvery things.

Yeah, it's a scary tool for sure.

All right, so by now, do you have a quarter sliced?

A quarter acorn sliced?

[Lizzie] Yup, just about.

All right. So, go back to the mushrooms.

[Lizzie] Yup.

And, then using your hand and the fork again.

Yes.

Lift them out and let that excess batter drip off.

And then, you wanna just go right into the oil.

Okay, I'm using my hands 'cause I--

[Carla] Same.

But, we're not afraid of fry oil.

Well, it's not splattering the way my,

the way I've been frying, 'cause I don't have a thermometer

so clearly I've been--

[Carla] You might be going really high.

I think it was way too hot.

Wonder if I should've added more of my club soda.

If it feels thick, yeah, add more.

'Cause I do, I feel like mine's--

[Carla] A little too thick?

[Lizzie] It's a thick tempura.

We got more, you know, this is what we do.

It's like a heavy cream that's been thickened.

Got it.

All right.

It's starting to look a little crowded in there for me.

Yeah, same. Okay.

And, you should have a pair of chopsticks

also in that little tool container.

Yeah.

Which is the perfect thing for flipping stuff over.

[Lizzie] Okay.

I love a good chopstick.

While those are frying, we gotta

keep going with our acorn squash.

[Lizzie] Okay.

So, did you adjust your batter yet?

I did.

You did?

Awesome.

But, I feel like I could still address it a bit more.

I'm adding more too.

So, then you want your acorn squash to go in as well.

Okay.

And, just same deal.

Just get coated in batter.

And, as soon as the mushrooms come out,

the squash is gonna go in.

Okay, so now I definitely don't have a thick batter.

[Carla] You don't have a thick batter?

You have a very thin batter?

Yeah. (laughing)

Okay, like watery?

Yeah. Really?

How much more club soda did you add?

I don't know, I didn't use the measuring cup,

I just used what was left in the bottle.

Cool.

All right, that might be a little bit of a bit.

Should we add some flour? Dammit.

Yeah, do we have any?

Um hm, um hm.

Thank you.

Like a pinch of flour?

Uh, yeah, start with like a tablespoon-ish.

Here, I have a tablespoon.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna clean up my station.

Wow, my hands are getting dirty,

I really like using them apparently.

[Carla] Did you put your squash in the, oh no,

you're adjusting you batter.

So you have--

[Lizzie] Yeah, but my squash is still in there.

[Carla] Okay, the mushrooms are frying.

So, am I doing something crazy right now?

It's not easy being a fry cook.

It is like literally the worst--

It's really not easy being a fry cook.

So, my bubbles on my mushrooms

are kinda like settling down, which means

a lot of the moisture has been cooked outta of the mushrooms

and there's less of that bubbling going on.

Uh huh.

And, it's light golden brown.

I feel like I wanna start taking them out.

So, can you just tell me what yours look like.

Most of them look more white than golden brown.

Okay.

And, a couple look golden brown.

Is this because I had such thick batter before?

No, I think it's just a very light golden batter,

which is what we're going for.

Great.

Okay, so you have a spider,

a slotted meshy looking guy.

Yes, I do.

So, use that to scoop out your mushrooms.

[Lizzie] Yup.

And, put them on that baking sheet

that has the cooling rack.

[Lizzie] Oh yeah, okay.

[Carla] Right in front.

Reaching over.

And then, as soon as they're all out,

we're gonna give 'em a little sprinkle of salt.

So, are you using your flaky salt or your fine salt?

[Carla] I'm gonna use the fine salt now,

and we're gonna finish with flaky salt

right before we serve 'em.

[Lizzie] And, do you just do one side?

Yeah, I'm not even gonna turn 'em over,

I'm just gonna give them a little salt.

Do you have your acorn squash in your batter now?

There, it's almost in there.

Okay.

I was doing the mushrooms before the acorn.

All good.

So, now, oh, do I have it in my batter?

Yeah.

Yes, I'm putting it in the oil.

Oh, great. Shit.

Okay, let's go.

[Lizzie] Okay.

All right, squash going in.

Okay, squash is going in.

And, these are gonna wanna stick together,

so definitely put them in one at a time.

[Lizzie] One at a time, uh huh.

And kinda try to space 'em out

because they just want, their flat sides wanna stick.

And, they sink until they float right?

Exactly.

Great.

I should get one of these kind, these...

The induction?

I have a love hate relationship with them, I'll be honest.

No, I was talking about the thermometer.

Oh yeah, you need a--

I feel like those are really important.

And, I just go off bubbles,

and I feel like that's not consistent.

I mean, I think it's really nice

to know what the temperature is.

[Lizzie] Yeah.

So now, while those are frying,

and those have a good amount of liquid as well,

let's move on to the lemon.

Lemon.

[Carla] We're gonna fry the lemon, okay?

Ooh! Yeah.

So, cut off enough from one end of your lemon

to expose the flesh.

And, we just need like five or six very thin,

but intact lemon slices.

So, you're making them like little circles.

[Carla] Yeah, exactly.

So, you want it pretty thin.

'Kay.

Like, I'm having a really hard time getting a full.

If you can't get a full round,

just go a little bit thicker.

Yup.

All right, take a look at your squash.

[Lizzie] Yes.

[Carla] Might be time for turning, turnage happening.

They really are sticking.

[Carla] And, I also wanna check our--

[Lizzie] That's annoying.

I know, they wanna be together.

They came into this world together,

and they wanna just be fried together.

Try to use your toothpicks to just,

you might have to shake 'em.

Like if you have a cluster that are stuck,

just pick it up by one piece and give it a little shake,

and they should slide apart.

But also, if you have a few that are stuck,

it's not the end of the world

because you'll have some other ones.

(crunching)

(laughing)

Are you eating?

I wanna, I felt like I needed to try a mushroom.

I would like to do that too. Yeah, delicious by the way.

So now, take your perfect lemon slices.

All the perfect ones.

[Carla] Pop out any seed, or seed shrapnel.

And, put that into the batter too.

Those are next.

Okay.

And then, very important,

get rid of any lemon except for the whole one,

and that one we're just gonna cut a couple wedges.

You could actually make a lemon cheek if you want to.

Have you ever made a lemon cheek?

A lemon cheek?

[Carla] Yeah.

No.

So, just slice, put it on it's side.

And, slice from one, off center,

so that you get like the outside lemon moon.

How to describe.

You're making like bartender slices.

Um.

[Lizzie] No.

No, but you can if you slice off

an outer lobe of the lemon, avoiding the core.

An outer what of the lemon?

The lobe.

L-O-B-E. What is the lobe?

Like the, just the part of the lemon

that sits on the outside edge, and isn't the core.

Okay, and you're doing it the long ways.

Yeah, and then you get like this kind of half moon.

I'm not, I'm getting like a full moon.

So, make any type of lemon wedge that pleases you.

And then, get rid of the rest of the lemon.

So, just set your wedges aside, that's gonna be for later.

[Lizzie] Great.

So, the only thing on your cutting board

should be lemons in the batter.

I'm a messy cook.

I'm just getting garbage on the counter now.

I've got some ones that I think need to leave.

[Carla] Yeah, let's get 'em out.

[Lizzie] 'Kay.

So, as soon as those are all out,

and they get a little salt.

Okay, so before we get the lemons in,

let's get our temperature back up.

And, we're gonna move on to the next thing,

which is, we're gonna make a fry cone out of newspaper.

So, you should have a little pint glass.

[Lizzie] Yes.

With a piece of newspaper on your station.

Yes.

And, you should wipe off your cutting board

so it's really dry, otherwise it's gonna,

the newspaper's gonna get wet, and sludgy, and stick.

Okay, so put down the piece of newspaper.

With a long end, like closest to your belly,

and the short ends to the left and the right.

[Lizzie] Yup.

Okay, so what we're gonna do,

is we're gonna take this rectangle

and turn it into a cone.

So, the first thing that I want you to do is,

you're right handed right?

Yes I am.

Okay, so take from the left short side,

fold that over about, to make about

a two and a half inch wide fold.

And, just fold that over to make a crease.

So then, open it back up.

So, it's flat again with a crease on the left hand side.

[Lizzie] Yes.

Okay, so now take the bottom right hand corner,

and then pull that up and bring it up to the top long edge.

[Lizzie] Yes.

And then, crease down your crease.

So, we're gonna do that three more times.

On the next one, when you fold it over,

you're gonna line up the bottom right edge.

Yes.

Okay, so you want that actually now to

fold that up and over, so that it lines up

with the crease that we made at the beginning.

And then, do it again, and this time

you're gonna be over your fat strip that you made.

[Lizzie] Yup. And then, go one more time.

So, by the time you get to the fourth fold over,

you should have a very cone...

[Lizzie] I do.

Oh great.

Okay, so then take the bottom point,

and just fold it up.

Oh no, okay.

And, so just, so that it's like,

instead of being a pointy bottom cone,

it's gonna be a flat bottom cone.

Okay. Okay.

So, like a Belgian frite fry cone.

All right, and if you have any like

triangle overhanging the flap, just like.

[Lizzie] Yeah, just tuck it? Yeah, just tuck it.

See, do you do crafts?

Who knows if this is at all what you're talking about.

[Carla] It's fine.

I'm gonna stand it up in the pint container,

the pint glass.

Yeah, mine's like really small in the pint glass.

Okay, cool.

As long as it holds food, it's fine.

Great. Great.

Okay, so lemons have to go in the oil now.

[Lizzie] Yup.

[Carla] And, these are gonna spatter a little bit more

than the other stuff because they have so much water.

So, just watch.

Okay. Yourself.

[Lizzie] Thank you for telling me.

Do you even understand how people

are gonna be like, I can't believe

you put things into fry oil with your bare hands.

I know, that's how I feel just generally.

[Carla] It's not safe.

And, it's like, it's not, it's not safe.

It's not safe, but you know what,

some people might call me a risk taker.

[Carla] Yeah.

Most people wouldn't.

But some people might.

[Carla] I like how they curl up.

Are yours curling at all?

Curling?

They look like they're shriveling.

My thinnest one is curling.

So, now what we can do while those are frying, Lizzie.

[Lizzie] Yeah.

Pull your nice fried vegetables over in front of you.

Um hm.

Oh, the squash is really good.

But, mm, mm.

I got some guys that are getting a little brown in here.

Oh, you do.

Oh yeah, same.

I have a really brown thin lemon, I'm taking 'em out.

Great.

Are we eating them?

[Carla] Oh yeah.

Oh wow.

Salty, bitter, they still have their lemony flavor.

I like love them.

All right, I'm salting.

And, you have your lemon wedges?

Yes, I have my lemon wedges nearby,

and the flaky salt, and this version of a cone.

[Carla] All right, we're in business.

Okay.

All right, now, the fun part.

Oh, eat it.

Take your cone.

[Lizzie] Yeah.

Of silence.

The goal at the end is that we will present

like fried flowers to each other.

Wow.

In a bouquet fashion.

That's interesting, okay.

All right, so I'm just gonna start

by putting some of my smaller,

less gorgeous pieces of squash in the bottom.

[Lizzie] Okay.

And then, I'm going to put

some of my more beautiful mushrooms.

My, I really can't fit too much in mine,

which is sad 'cause I'd like to.

[Carla] All right, so once you have as much

as you're gonna fit, you can do

a little flaky salt on the top guys.

[Lizzie] I'm really excited to eat these,

and I feel really bad that mine

just won't fit in this thing.

[Carla] Well, we can just eat 'em off the tray.

Great.

All right, and then do your little spritz of lemon.

I have a baby bouquet of fried food.

I have a very baby bouquet of fried food.

It's like morphed into my child.

All right, so we're gonna count to three again,

and then we're gonna turn around.

Okay.

Okay, one, two, three.

Ta-dah.

Oh!

Oh, I forgot the lemon.

So nice.

When you said lemon-- What'd you forget?

I thought you meant squirt the lemon.

Oh, yeah I did. Oh cool.

Well now I have lemon also. Yeah, so both.

Tres beautiful.

(laughing)

For you.

For you. Thanks.

Thank you.

Oh wow, thank you.

What are you gonna go for first?

Squash.

I love the lemon.

I'm going, cheers. Cheers.

Welcome to our tempura restaurant.

Mm. Mm.

Yours are saltier than mine.

They are?

Mm hm, and I think, I get nervous with salt.

I love these mushrooms.

And, they feel like, of all the things,

the mushrooms stayed super crispy.

(crunching)

Come on, did you hear the crunch?

Well, I have to hear yours first.

That's your mushroom by the way.

Oh yeah.

So, one to ten.

Yours is thinner than mine.

And I like it.

Yours is crunchy AF.

I'm glad you said AF, 'cause it would be

very inappropriate if you didn't.

On a scale of one to ten, how do you rate yourself.

I'm going to give myself an eight.

Okay. Yeah.

If I was gonna do like an affirmation to you,

I would say you nailed it, it's a ten.

What was wrong, nothing.

Please come back any time.

I would love to come back.

This is far better than talking about a television show.

(laughing)