What's up, guys? Young Hollywood is right now in the presence of culinary greatness, to my right, Chef Todd English.

What do you do? Thank you very much, great to see you.

Of course. Welcome to Todd's here in lovely Palm Beach. This is a beautiful space, we're gonna talk about it.

Yes.

All in one second, but I wanna talk about you right now, because you actually have so many titles. I'll, I'll rattle some of them off.

Sure.

Of course, celebrity chef, restauranteur, TV presenter, author, four-times James Beard award winner, Father.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Any of those resonate.

This means I've this means I've been around a long time.

That's true. But did just, any of those resonate a little bit more than the other or it all just is like, it's you're like it's.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh certainly the last one you mentioned was my kids. You know, those are the best three recipes I've ever made. Yeah, they hate when I say that but yeah, it is the truth. Yes.

Now you got your start in Boston and somehow, not overnight, but somehow became this global culinary icon.

Yeah.

Take me through this time period.

Yeah.

How does that happen? Obviously a lot of work, a lot of dedication.

Yeah.

Opening, closing restaurants, but

Yeah.

Just making great food.

Yeah.

Overnight success?

No, you know what? It's, it's, it's, there's nothing that's easy. And you just gotta stay at it. And you gotta work at it. You gotta keep your nose to the grindstone all the time. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, you're gonna have your ups and downs. And there's certainly I've had my ups and downs in this in my career, but I think, um, you know, that perseverance is something that um, and I'm a little stubborn. So I think a little bit of that mixed in, shake it up and, you know, here I am still 30-some odd years later in the business doing it.

I almost think like you as a restaurateur or chef, you're like a great meal. Tons of ingredients that make a superb plate of goodness, right?

That's true. You know, it's not always about tons of new ingredients. I think simplicity, you know, is is is certainly, you know, Leonardo da Vinci said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." So I like to think of it in that some, in some ways that really is about being able to, um, achieve things that are so delicious. Yeah. By making them, by just Grayson them simply doing what's right to make that perfect. Um, and that is something I think, you know, I never feel like I achieve but I have often feel like I get close to it and I always that keeps driving me to be better. You know, I wanna be better every day.

How do you keep getting better each time? You have a step, a setback and you go forward. How do you keep going?

Yeah. It could be one step backward and two step forward. I mean, it's always, you know, the business is, um, you know, like fashion business or or, you know, music business. It's constantly changing. Um, you know, I call it entertainment, I call it, you know, things that are about, what, you know, look at with with the movement now. I mean, you know, and this is something that my son Oliver is really into as well, very much so, uh, is, is about, uh, about plant-based food, about preserving Earth, about, you know, how do we uh uh uh nurture Mother Earth? This stand point of really being able to, um, stay on stay fresh, stay on top of it. You gotta stay in touch with what's going on in the world.

Speaking of the world, you have restaurants all over the world.

Yeah.

And yet now you've opened one right here in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Yeah.

How did you pick this place? Why did you pick this place? It's gorgeous. I mean good for you.

It's something about this area. I've been infatuated with this this era, which is like a building from the 1920s. Florida is a beautiful place. There's a, you know, obviously great products, great produce. We have a couple great farms that we work with locally. So that makes it exciting for me to be able to, you know, and and and things that aren't in season and are in season here. Oh, all the time. Yeah. Yeah. So it's great.

Now you of course have a French culinary background. You have Italian roots. Right. And a little Mediterranean in there.

I do a lot of Mediterranean stuff. So, what do we have going on here?

Yeah.

Well, it's, it's it's kind of a best of and kind of things that, you know, I feel this this crowd that I know pretty well likes to eat and, you know, and it's not really about it's, this isn't a special occasion restaurant. It's a restaurant that can be for special occasions, but I want people to, you know, come in to the bar, have an appetizer, come in, have a glass of wine. It feels good. I can forget about it. We can just have a good time, have a glass of wine or whatever. And and all the things that we make here and just have a good time and enjoy some food and break some bread. So that's the real

I think everything you just said, I would like to do with you. I want to experience all of that.

Sure. We're ready to cook?

I'm I'm ready to cook next to you. All right, we're doing it. Okay, here we go. Chef, we are in the kitchen of Todd's where the magic happens.

Welcome to the kitchen. Here we go. You ready?

I'm ready. You're gonna help me cook. I know that. Got a little apron for you. Okay, I'm ready. You're nice and clean. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. You're not scared of no splatter, all right?

Now what you do is now we have this Miso glazed sea bass. One of our signature dishes, okay? Yeah. Nice beautiful white filet. It's delicious, has nice fat content. So we do is we marinate this in a Miso and and uh and brown sugar glaze with a little bit of soy sauce, sesame oil. So it has a little bit of a Japanese flair to it. So we put a little bit of this glaze on there, okay? And in we go. Yeah. What we're gonna do now, I need the bok choy. That. Right there. Great. Okay. Yeah. That's the perfect. Yeah. And we're gonna cook some of that as well. All right, I got a couple pieces of that. Red beets, we roasted. Okay. Cut up. Okay. Like that. These are, um, golden beet. Ooh. All right. You know, I need salt and pepper.

That I can do.

Yeah. Once you put a little bit of each on there. Oh, okay. On both of these. Beautiful. A little bit more. There you go. Now we're gonna have a little bit of butter and that Miso glaze goes over the beets as well.

Yeah. I love good butter. Yeah, they should love it. What kind of butter is this? Where is it from?

That's a sweet butter. Um, we get it from Vermont. Of course. So, you know, so it's a rich dairy state. We love that. Okay. Now I need some herbs as well.

Gotcha.

Just a little basil, oregano, chopped parsley, thyme, rosemary. It's all right. Now. It's singing and dancing now. And you see how we got a nice little bit of caramelization on there? See this fish, how it's getting nice and beautiful. Look, I put it under the broiler. I like to get a little bit of a caramelization on that as it cooks, okay? Like music, you know, it's about layers of how it's composed. You know, music can be again, some of the best songs in the world are the simplest songs. It's three notes, three chords, you know, look at the great artists, you know, Neil Young, all these great artists. It's three chords, but it's about the melody. It's about the harmony, it's about the flavors. It's about the individuality you put into all those those that, that food, that those notes, how you make it your own. And that's what cooking is at the end of the day.

So is that what inspires you? Music? If not, what inspires you to make these beautiful dishes?

Yeah. Music is one of my big, big inspirations as well, you know, we're down at Art Basel this week. Art is obviously when something, so, you know, I look at all those idea.

I think I fell in love with you and your cooking. I'm from New York at the Plaza Hotel at your food hall. I hope you enjoy that place. One of my favorite restaurants I own. One of my favorite restaurants I think I've ever been to.

Thank you. Thank you.

How, how did you come up with these inspirations to create these dishes?

Well, you know, I again, traveling around the world, I'm very, uh, very fortunate to be able to try and see different cuisines around the world. So I have restaurants in Japan and I go to some of the great markets there, Takashimaya, all the great markets there. And the inspiration of the great markets of the world are also there. So I just put some sesame seeds on there. Get a little bit of brown. You see the nice caramelization on there.

Gorgeous. Smells gorgeous. Looks gorgeous.

Yeah. It's funny how many people, you know, ask me this, how do you, how do you come up with these dishes, you know? And it's so funny how so many times it's just very much about timing, what you're doing, how you're, what mood you're in. See that beautiful glazed beats, that caramelization.

What was the inspiration for this dish then?

Well, you know, Japan I think probably having been there. One of my favorite cuisines. Okay.

Get that right on there. All right, you think about it. What we're doing is we're layering the textures, okay? This is that beautiful sweetness in the glaze in the fish. The Miso on the, on the uh, on the cod. And then come over with some bok choy. Of course. All right, so there you go. There's your beautiful roasted sea bass, Miso glazed beets and sautéed bok choy.

So here we are in this gorgeous dining room with a gorgeous plate of food. This is the best part. We get to sit down and eat the delicious food that you made back there. Incredible, I must say. I cannot take any credit for this meal. You actually said this was inspired by your travels in Japan. Yes. So you had a show, a little show on PBS, your Food Trip show. So if you could kind of make your own food trip road trip now, what would it be? Where would you go? Where would you eat?

Right. I'd like to go back to some of the places that I've filmed 10 years ago or 15 years ago and see where where they've gone. So I'd go back to Japan in a second. So what we have here? All right, so we have this and actually we paired this with, uh, a a white Burgundy, all right, which is which is Chardonnay grape, but in Burgundy it's not that real buttery. It has a little bit more acid. So we thought the acid with the sweetness of this would work really well because the beets are a little sweet as well. Okay. So, shall we?

We shall. All right. How'd I do? You are incredible. I'm a if there's if this gig doesn't work out for you, we can always put you back there in the kitchen. This is in I have a thing about fish not being too fishy. This is exquisite. Now, Chef, I did already say that I liked bok choy, but I'm gonna give it a whirl because

Right. I did season it.

You did, and perfectly, I must say. It's nice crunch, right?

With the fish. I mean, you know, and I always like to put something green on the plate when I can.

The wine. Mm. So delicious. And then always nice acid, bad to balance it.

Again, to to balance off the sweetness. We need a little bit of acid in the wine.

And I can't even say I drink white wine often, but this is perfect. It's a perfect match.

And if you're gonna do, red would work. You could use a nice red Burgundy or a Pinot Noir or something like that would work absolutely great or or Gamay.

I think you're the OG of celebrity chefs. Right? You're the original celebrity chef. So

Again, you're say are you saying that I'm old, I guess?

No, you you you've done your work. You've put in your work. You've put in your time. I think you've paved the way for everybody. So. Yeah. What do you think about

I I really I really, really love what I do, you know? And I think that is something that has always resonated with me as far as whenever I'm cooking, which I love the most, you know, is just keep me in the kitchen cooking. Go to the market, see what's fresh. Cooking for my friends and my family and my loved ones is really what I love the most. And I think to create beautiful food and, you know, beautiful dynamics, beautiful flavors and combinations. It is like beautiful music. You know, it's a composure of of all those things that we remember so well.

I will eat your food and listen to your music. Yeah. Any any time.

It's a symphony on the plate, as I call it. Cheers.